U.S. policies have a huge impact on global development, and more successful development is crucial to U.S. goals. But global development has often been missing in the U.S. political debate. On Monday, January 28, President Bush will deliver his final State of the Union address to Congress, the American people, and to a global audience seeking to understand America’s priorities in the world.

The Center for Global Development’s State of the Union Bingo will be helping people from Washington, D.C. to Dhaka track global issues in President Bush’s last State of the Union address as his thoughts turn to the legacy he hopes to leave behind. Will he mention malaria, trade, poverty, climate change? Several of the 2008 presidential candidates have discussed the need to restore America’s image in the world and ensure our own national security, and point to our global development policies as one way we can work to make a better, safer world. Will President Bush make similar overtures? Will there be more or less attention to global development than in his past remarks? To help you keep track we prepared these handy printable State of the Union Bingo cards (pdf, 116k).

Some global development issues have sometimes been prominent in President Bush’s State of the Union addresses–HIV/AIDS and trade, for example. But a quick analysis of past speeches suggests that none has been a recurrent theme. This year, we encourage you to use the New York Times’ State of the Union Word Tracker, that counts and graphs the number of times the president has uttered “poverty” (6), “Africa” (15), “economy” (88), or “global warming” (0) among the 34,000 words used in his State of the Union addresses.

Global Development Matters’ founding organization, the Center for Global Development, will be hosting a State of Union Bingo party in Washington, DC. In past years, friends of the Center have hosted their own Bingo parties as far away as Dhaka, Bangladesh; Lexington, KY; and Napa, CA. Organize your own State of the Union Bingo party, perk up your ears and get your ink dabber ready to mark off mentions of malaria, trade, poverty, and maybe even global warming in President Bush’s final State of the Union address.

Post your plans or a report on your festivities as a comment on this blog, or tell us about it here; include a photo and we will be happy to post it.

If State of the Union Bingo sparks a heated discussion about why global development matters for the U.S., check out CGD’s Rich World, Poor World: A Guide to Global Development to help inform your debate!

The process of selecting the U.S. presidential nominees will begin tonight. If you want to follow the Iowa Caucus results, the Iowa Republican and Democratic parties are posting the results online in real time.

Where do the candidates stand on global development issues? Learn more here on our blog.

What is a caucus? Why is it important? This article in the LA Times can help.

Curious to find out what the results could mean for each candidate? Take a look at this handy guide by Chuck Todd, the Political Director of NBC News.

Today, students from Swarthmore College participated in a Hunger Banquet, an interactive event hosted by Amnesty International. Tim Burke, associate professor of history, moderated a discussion about world hunger and global inequality. Students also gave short presentations encouraging others to take action. They spoke about efforts–such as microcredit–that have made strides in advancing global development. The main goal of the Hunger Banquet was to offer students an interactive lesson and encourage the students to experience an emotional connection with the global poor, without the usual roster of starving children imagery. Representatives from Oxfam, an international relief group that works towards solving hunger, poverty and injustice, also attended the event.

Amnesty campus chapter president Linda Wang said, “I got involved with Oxfam in high school…and organized a successful hunger banquet at my high school, and have wanted to see it done on campus.”

Sound like a great idea for your community? Visit Oxfam’s website to find out how you can host your own Hunger Banquet.

Read more about Swarthmore’s event in their online newspaper.