We warmly welcome SEF as one of our newest partners in East Africa. SEF is a registered youth-led organization based in Kampala, Uganda that primarily serves refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and South Sudan. The co-founders, Jules Meyele and Jeremiah Lukeka, are themselves refugees.

Through our discussions with Jules and Jeremiah (via Zoom), we learned of the great challenges these refugees experience when they arrive in Uganda. After traumatic experiences in their home country, adjusting to a completely new and different culture can be very difficult. These refugees must deal with language barriers, unemployment, difficult access to formal school, and discrimination from the local communities.

SEF’s programs and services are tailored to promote youth development and leadership. They provide education, community building, and integration activities to support refugee youth to strengthen the skills they need, not only to survive in the face of trauma, stress, displacement, and deprivation, but to become self-reliant and potential leaders in their community.

Pangea’s grant, SEF’s first outside funding in their 6-year history, will be used to expand “Women at the Wheels.” This project is a successful vocational training program that focuses on tailoring and craft skills, along with basic business and entrepreneurship curricula. Women completing the program can use their newly acquired skills to make a living and become more self-sustaining.

We are excited to begin this new partnership and look forward to learning more about SEF and the communities that they serve.

2021 was a year of continued evolution of COVID, which exposed and exacerbated many weaknesses in our global society including gender inequality, supply chains, and vaccine inequities. Additionally, there have been many crises including the Haiti earthquake, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, refugees fleeing violence in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, and the famine in Yemen, to name but a few.

Our global community has been responding, some with much success, to these and many ongoing issues. Below is a summary of our 2021 Issue Campaigns, events, spotlights, and features we have been reporting on culminating with an amazing Goalmakers Annual Conference. We hope you find these informative and useful for your ongoing mission work.

2021 ISSUE CAMPAIGNS

• February: Climate Justice (SDG 13): Climate change has a greater impact on people living in low- and middle-income countries with few monetary resources, poor health conditions, insecure land rights, and fragile infrastructure. The climate impacts we are already seeing include severe droughts, growing food insecurity, wider disease transmission, and rising seas that threaten the very existence of many coastal cities and island nations. As is often the case, those who are most affected by a crisis have a great deal of insight and knowledge to create effective solutions. While Indigenous communities are often at greater risk from environmental degradation and climate effects, their long history of living from and caring for the land provides a unique perspective and an integrated set of solutions that can make sustainability a reality and help turn the tide on the climate crisis. Our February Issue Brief, Organization Profile on Landesa, Goalmaker Spotlight on James Mulbah from the Earthworm Foundation, and guest blog from Agros talks to the above points and issues. Additionally, we co-hosted an event with the Posner Center for International Development on “Climate Justice and Indigenous Rights”.

Image credit: Nia Tero.

Continue Reading

By Sattva Consulting’s Research Advisory team: Anisha Lalvani, Research Consultant, Geetika Dang, Sr Research Consultant and Sansidha Pani, Sr. Research Consultant

The world has conducted its most extensive vaccination program in history with the COVID-19 vaccination drive. As of 2nd December 2021, more than 8.05 billion doses have been administered across 184 countries, amid worries that existing vaccines might prove ineffective to tackle the newest variant —Omicron.

However, despite significant progress, the world is still experiencing high vaccine hesitancy.

India recently celebrated the administration of more than 1 billion vaccination doses as of 2nd December 2021, although only ~50.5%^[1] of the eligible population (18+) has received both doses.

This article explores the ground realities behind these feats and shares insights and solutions to address vaccine hesitancy with stakeholders tackling similar issues globally. Continue Reading

The Max Foundation CEO recognized for unwavering dedication to global, widespread health equity

The Max Foundation, a global non-profit organization that aims to make lifesaving cancer treatment universal, is thrilled to announce its CEO and co-founder Pat Garcia-Gonzalez won the Union for International Cancer Control’s (UICC) Outstanding Contribution to Cancer Control Award in the Civil Society category. Given to leaders who drive innovation to advance cancer control in an equitable manner, this award celebrates a significant achievement in Pat’s relentless effort to expand access to cancer treatment for thousands of people worldwide. Continue Reading

Welcome to the October 2021 issue of the Global Washington newsletter.

IN THIS ISSUE

• Letter from our Executive Director
• Issue Brief: Food Security and Food Systems are Fractured, Yet with Lessons From Local and Indigenous Farmers We can Perhaps Achieve 2030 Goals
• Organization Profile: In Many Ways, Heifer’s Principle of “passing on the Gift” Has Taken on New Forms, Just Like Their Work
• Goalmaker: Chege Ngugi, Africa Regional Director, ChildFund International
• Welcome New Members
• GlobalWA Member Events
• Career Center
• GlobalWA Events

Letter from our Executive Director

There are certain things that unite people across the globe and food is one of them. Food can provide a deeper understanding of a person’s culture, it can strengthen relationships, and it can provide livelihoods. It is also a basic human right that not everyone has. 2.37 billion people are without food or unable to eat a healthy diet on a regular basis.

The challenges of food distribution and agriculture are complex, but not insurmountable. As we celebrate UN World Food Day this month, I am amazed at the work of Global Washington members who are making progress to eradicate hunger, even amidst a global pandemic. And, how their work has evolved and adapted to current realities. Read more in the articles below.

Current trends and the future of global development practices is also the theme of the virtual 2021 Goalmaker Conference on December 8 and 9. Speakers will challenge and inspire participants to improve the field of global development and create more equitable systems. The conference will be virtual on an interactive platform which includes: 1 to 1 speed networking, discussion boards, mini-workshops, and a virtual exhibit hall. I hope you can join us. Register here.

Kristen Dailey
Executive Director

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Issue Brief

Food Security and Food Systems are Fractured, Yet with Lessons From Local and Indigenous Farmers We can Perhaps Achieve 2030 Goals

By Joanne Lu

Banana farmers in Uganda.

We’re now less than 10 years away from 2030, the year by which the international community hoped to eradicate global hunger. It was always a tall order, and climate change plus the pandemic have made it even more challenging. The international community is being forced to consider how global food systems must be transformed.

Since 2014, the year before the international community adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the number of undernourished people in the world has actually increased, from 607 million to 650 million in 2019, according to the UN. Then, the pandemic happened, and it’s estimated that 70 million to 161 million more people experienced hunger in 2020. This equates to as many as 811 million people who are hungry and nearly 40 percent of the world population (or more than 3 billion people) who cannot afford a healthy diet.

Global awareness of the problem and urgency to solve it is increasing—although, some might argue, not fast enough. This month, the UN once again celebrated World Food Day, with a focus on promoting sustainable agri-food systems, defined as food systems in which affordable, nutritious food is available to everyone, less food is wasted, the supply chain is resilient against shocks, and production does not exacerbate climate change or harm the environment. Not only is this critical to achieving a UN goal of nourishing 10 billion people by 2050, but it is also critical to addressing profound inequalities and severe environmental degradation caused by the way we currently produce, consume, and waste food. Additionally, agri-food systems make up the largest global economic sector, employing 1 billion people around the world.

This global event follows closely on the heels of the first ever Food Systems Summit in September, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. There, the UN secretary-general, UN agencies, governments, business leaders, farmers, and Indigenous people made the case for food systems reform with only “nine harvests left” until the SDGs deadline of 2030. The U.S. announced $10 billion in funding to “end hunger and invest in the food system,” half of which would be spent in the U.S., while the other half would be invested in “fighting global food insecurity.”

Food transportation and sale in Vietnam.

At the summit, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made a commitment of $922 million over the next five years to address global nutrition, particularly for women and children. The commitment will support evidence-based, data-driven nutritious food systems, as well as fortifying staple foods with vitamins and minerals; maternal, infant, and young child nutrition; and innovative new approaches and interventions. It is the foundation’s largest nutrition commitment to date.

Yet, many groups criticized the summit, saying it gave corporations too much say and “promote[d] industrial monocultures over agro-ecological food.” Instead, some of the critics chose to host their own alternative summit, called the Global People’s Summit, alongside the official UN one.

“We believe that an equitable food system can only be built on the people’s right to land and livelihoods, and to decent working and living conditions for all,” the organizers of the People’s Summit said in a declaration published after the event. “This means that food production must be decided by the sovereign will of the people, based on their particular circumstances, priorities, and needs. Profit motives of corporations — euphemistically called market forces — should not determine what food to produce, how to produce it, and for whom.”

Regardless of the controversy, Indigenous people have been a key part of the discussion about sustainable food systems because their regenerative practices have sustained their communities and the earth for tens of thousands of years. Even now, Indigenous people protect 80 percent of the planet’s biodiversity. Their ability to continue doing so is critical to the entire world’s survival, including global food production. This is something that Nia Tero recognizes, which is why they work to “ensure that Indigenous peoples have the economic power and cultural independence to steward, support, and protect their livelihoods and territories they call home.” They do so through storytelling, policy advocacy, and initiatives that range from building solar-powered infrastructure to promoting Indigenous creatives.

Indigenous Oaxacan women selling food at market.

Heifer International also advocates for sustainable, context-appropriate, decentralized food systems because locally based systems are more resilient against major shocks. Heifer works with smallholder farmers around the world to implement regenerative agricultural practices that produce more food, result in less waste, and reduce their carbon footprint. For example, no-till farming techniques can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by not releasing carbon dioxide through traditional tilling.

Local farmers supported by Heifer Ecuador built a farm-to-table food delivery system when the pandemic hit, delivering healthy food to households across the country. Credit: Isadora Romero/Heifer International

Many others have also recognized the importance of working with farmers – particularly smallholder farmers – to implement innovative techniques toward sustainable food systems. This month, Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, native of Trinidad and Tobago and a Danish citizen, will be awarded the 2021 World Food Prize for her research and development of more productive and sustainable aquaculture practices for smallholder farmers. These new systems were nutrition-sensitive and transformed entire aquatic food systems. Her work, the World Food Prize Foundation says, has improved the diets of millions of the most vulnerable people in Asia and Africa.

The challenge set before us to achieve zero hunger by 2030 is ambitious, and made even more difficult by the pandemic. Yet, it appears there is growing urgency to reform our fractured global food system. Through investment, innovation, and collaboration with those who have sustained our planet for centuries, perhaps we can get several steps closer to that goal.

The following Global Washington members are helping with food systems and food security in low and middle income countries.

Earthworm Foundation

Earthworm Foundation is a global non-profit organization that works to make value chains an engine of prosperity for communities and ecosystems.  Active in key agriculture commodity producing regions around the world, Earthworm collaborates with diverse stakeholders, including companies, communities and workers to ensure that commodity sourcing and production does not negatively impact community rights and livelihoods, environmental values, or workers.  Our efforts to protect and enhance food security include initiatives focused on farmer livelihoods, healthy soils, capacity building in companies, and responsible plantation development.  Our Rurality program promotes better smallholder farming practices and crop diversification with the goals of ensuring that farmer households have resilient livelihoods and access to a variety of food crops for their own consumption. At the corporate boardroom-level, we engage with company leaders to establish values-driven responsible sourcing policies, map their supply chains, and support farmers on issues such as food security for their regions.

Forest Stewardship Council

FSC Investments & Partnerships ensures forests help bring food to the table.

As part of the global Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) family, FSC Investments & Partnerships helps to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests. Forests play an important role in complementing the production of food from other sectors to help eliminate global hunger. For example, forests and trees can be managed to provide better and more nutritionally balanced diets and greater control over food inputs. This is particularly important for marginalized groups and during periods of vulnerability such as lean seasons.

Millions of households in the developing world depend on food and fodder from forests to supplement their diets and those of their livestock. Besides the direct supply of food, forests often provide important ecosystem services, which support the water cycle and help sustain healthy agricultural sectors. Deforestation and degradation can negatively impact on this, whereas responsible forest management as set out by the requirements of FSC, plays a key role in mitigating global hunger.

You can read more about how FSC Investments & Partnerships contributes to SDG 2 here.

Future of Fish

Fish as Food: The precarious nature of wild fish stocks has major implications for the world’s ability to achieve SDG2-Zero Hunger, focused on nutrition and global food security. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 1 in 10 people faced malnutrition due to declining fish catches. The FAO’s 2021 Report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition estimates that the prevalence of undernourishment worldwide climbed to 9.9 percent in 2020, after virtually holding steady at 8.4 percent for the last 5 years. Globally, more than 3 billion people rely on fish as their primary source of protein. In many of the world’s least developed countries, where fish is often the cheapest source of protein, it accounts for more than 50 percent of protein consumption. Besides seafood being an optimal food choice for maintaining a nutritious diet, researchers have recently been investigating the antiviral properties of fish protein as part of the ongoing fight against COVID-19. For these reasons, catalyzing sustainable fisheries is as much an effort to address food security and human health as it is about environmental protection. This is why Future of Fish believes that the future of fish is not about fish, it’s about people. It’s about protecting the oceans that provide a vital source of food and livelihoods, for years to come. Future of Fish works to transform at-risk communities into thriving centers of coastal sustainability that can serve as replicable models for a just and blue economy. Knowing that one organization cannot shift the system alone, FoF partners with organizations addressing some of the ocean’s toughest challenges to protect a critical source of protein for billions of people.

Heifer International

Heifer International works with farmers to improve productivity, diversify their businesses and increase incomes. With a living income they can provide quality food for themselves and their families. Heifer International advocates for sustainable, context-appropriate, decentralized food systems because locally based systems are more resilient against major shocks. They work with smallholder farmers around the world to implement regenerative agricultural practices that produce more food, result in less waste and reduce their carbon footprint. For example, no-till farming techniques can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by not releasing carbon dioxide through traditional tilling.

Landesa

Landesa champions and works to secure land rights for millions of those living in poverty worldwide, primarily rural women and men, to promote social justice and provide opportunity. Many of these women and men rely on their harvests to survive, and face the increasing pressures of land degradation, droughts, and crop pests that threaten their ability to produce adequate food. With strong rights to the land on which they depend, farmers find incentive to invest in long-term sustainable conservation measures that ultimately help yield sufficient nutritious food for their families.

In Laos, with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and working with local civil society groups, Landesa is strengthening national and local application of globally endorsed approaches, instruments, and knowledge around food security and nutrition, poverty eradication, and sustainable agriculture to accelerate progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger. This work focuses on building government and other stakeholder capacity in addition to enhancing governance and accountability mechanisms in these areas. Landesa also acts as Secretariat to Stand For Her Land, a campaign aimed at empowering women with land rights to drive lasting change. Studies show that strengthening women’s land rights results in deep benefits, including improved household nutrition. Women comprise a large share of the agricultural work force in many regions and produce a significant portion of the world’s food.

Oxfam America

Oxfam is a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice. We offer lifesaving support in times of crisis and advocate for economic justice, gender equality, and climate action. We demand equal rights and equal treatment so that everyone can thrive, not just survive. The future is equal.

Urban Food Hives: Covid-19 exposed the fragilities and inequities of global food systems. Food insecurity, poverty, and hunger are no longer only rural phenomena, as broken supply chains and restrictions in movements affected families living in urban and peri-urban areas. Our challenge is to build a future food system that is capable of nourishing people in an era of increased risks; from climate shocks to conflict to growing inequality.  Oxfam, in partnership with SecondMuse, is working with partners across six countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America – India, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Colombia and the Philippines – to design, develop and implement the creation of Urban Food Hives to support regenerative, nourishing, equitable, and localized food systems. These Urban Food Hives will address inequality and advance climate and gender justice, recentering the food system to provide nutritious foods and give more voice and power to women, girls, and other marginalized communities.

To learn more about the Urban Food Hives Initiative, please contact Dr. Laté Lawson-Lartego at Late.Lawson@Oxfam.org

World Concern

World Concern has a strong emphasis on improving nutrition and food security in nearly every program area. Having enough to eat moves families beyond the struggle to survive and allows them to focus on the future for their children. Providing food for today and offering sustainable ways for families to produce nutritious food long-term opens the way for transformation.

We help families feed themselves and their communities in both emergency and community development contexts. We do this through nutrition training and breastfeeding education and support for mothers, nutrition supplements for children under 5, agricultural training and improved farming methods and tools, farmer groups, livestock distributions and training, vegetable gardening, and providing fishing equipment and training. To ensure the families have food throughout the year in drought-prone areas, World Concern trains them to cultivate drought-resistant crops, and to harvest and store rainwater to irrigate their farms during the dry season.

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Organization Profile

In Many Ways, Heifer’s Principle of “passing on the Gift” Has Taken on New Forms, Just Like Their Work

By Joanne Lu

Local farmers supported by Heifer Ecuador built a farm-to-table food delivery system when the pandemic hit, delivering healthy food to households across the country. Credit: Isadora Romero/Heifer International

Heifer International has been on a 77-year journey to end hunger and poverty, not just in response to the greatest challenges of the times, but also with the goal of empowering families to create sustainable change for themselves.

Their story began in 1944, when Midwest farmer Dan West returned from volunteer service in the Spanish Civil War, where he helped feed refugees. But as a farmer, he became keenly aware that providing meals was a short-term solution. Instead, livestock could provide families a steady supply of nutritious food and even income.

Thus, Heifer International was born, and in the wake of World War II, groups of farmers began to accompany cows to devastated communities in Europe. They called themselves the “Seagoing Cowboys,” making about 360 trips on 73 ships, and also trained farmers on how to properly care for the cows to ensure optimal dairy production and breeding.

Over the decades, the geographic footprint of Heifer expanded across the globe to 21 countries, as did the variety of animals – chickens, goats, sheep, and alpaca – the organization placed with families, depending on what made the most sense in their contexts. And, according to one of the organization’s founding principles, the first offspring of an animal was always passed onto another family to spread the wealth – a practice that continues to this day.

Local farmers supported by Heifer Ecuador built a farm-to-table food delivery system when the pandemic hit, delivering healthy food to households across the country. Credit: Isadora Romero/Heifer International

Helping families achieve self-sustainable pathways out of hunger and poverty remains a central focus of Heifer. And they still do animal placement. But just over a decade ago, Heifer decided to make its goal even more ambitious: to help families reach a sustainable living income, in which all members of the household can afford a dignified standard of living, with nutritious food, safe shelter, clothing, health care, and quality education. This is a significantly higher standard than the World Bank’s extreme poverty line of $1.90 a day.

To help families reach sustainable living incomes, Heifer transitioned from hundreds of small projects in many countries around the world to investing in bigger projects that help farmers become part of a larger value chain and reach their goals. For example, in East Africa, Heifer has not only trained 230,000 dairy farmers on how to improve the health and yields of their cows, but they have also helped set up a network of milk hubs, managed by farmer cooperatives. Farmers deliver milk daily to these hubs, where the milk is tested, chilled, then stored in bulk units before being sold directly to one of the biggest milk distributors in the region.

Heifer International has a long history working with dairy cooperatives across East Africa, supporting farmers to improve production and sell in bulk to new markets. Credit: Fabio Erdos/Heifer International

Not only does this hub system allow farmers to negotiate higher prices for a guaranteed bulk supply of milk that’s quality-tested, but farmers can also borrow money against the milk they’ve already delivered if they need cash sooner than the 30 days that it typically takes to get paid. Additionally, the hubs provide products that keep the cows healthy, as well as access to local veterinarians, and they can help farmers get loans from local banks and credit agencies if they want to invest in their farms.

But the benefits of the milk hubs extend to the wider community as well. Many community members have started businesses providing transportation options to farmers who need to get their milk to the hubs daily or purchasing milk to make other products like yogurt and cheese. In many ways, Heifer’s principle of “Passing on the Gift” has taken on new forms, just like their work.

Today, Heifer’s projects range from dairy production and spice farming, to egg production, with economic development, technical assistance, and women’s empowerment key focus areas. But across all their work, farmers remain at the center. That’s because Heifer believes in farmers. Farmers, they say, are the guardians of the planet. They work the soil, produce the food that is on our tables, and drive rural development. As such, Heifer also believes that smallholder farmers have a big role to play in solving the climate crisis. Through regenerative agricultural practices, which Heifer promotes through training and support, farmers can help the world reduce emissions and get carbon back into soil. Supporting decentralized local food systems can also make us all more resilient against big shocks.

Heifer-trained community agri-vet entrepreneurs provide important services to farmers, keeping their animals healthy. Credit: Pranab K. Aich/Heifer International

Furthermore, the world is still reeling from the most recent shock of COVID-19. For the farmers that Heifer supports, their access to markets and transportation were immediately hit by government-mandated lockdowns, while other community members struggled to get access to fresh food. Heifer responded by investing in “agri-ambulances,” refrigerated trucks that delivered milk, crops, and even meat to consumers and hubs. Cooperatives also supported farmers through savings and loans functions, while Heifer also deployed funds to meet some of their farmers’ immediate needs.

Despite the challenges of the past year and a half, and the increasing challenges of climate change, Heifer is excited about the trajectory they’re on. So far they’ve helped more than 34 million families out of poverty. By listening to farmers, identifying the best intervention points in value chains, and investing in the infrastructure that farmers need to thrive, Heifer believes they can reach their next goal: supporting 10 million more families to reach a sustainable living income by 2030. Doing so, they believe, will not only help farmers lead the lives they deserve, but will put the whole world on a healthier and safer path.

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Goalmaker

Chege Ngugi, Africa Regional Director, ChildFund International

Growing Up in a Rural Diverse Community Led to Dedicating His Life to Helping Underprivileged People

By Tyler LePard

Chege Ngugi has been the Africa Regional Director for ChildFund International since 2020, following nearly a decade serving as ChildFund’s country director for three of the organization’s program countries, including his native Kenya.

Chege grew up in rural Kenya, in a settlement area that had a mix of different tribes and ethnic groups with a variety of languages and levels of education. This environment taught Chege to work with a wide range of people from different cultures and backgrounds. He was close to his primary and secondary teachers. He said, “I attribute who I am to my teachers.”

Some of the people Chege grew up with lived on big farms with hundreds of acres. But others were experiencing extreme poverty. He saw what support means to those who don’t have much, and this shaped his life. Chege has spent his entire career working for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to help underprivileged people—those “at the bottom of the pyramid.” And the most vulnerable of those are children.

ChildFund International is a nonprofit organization working in 24 countries toward a world where every child is free to live at their fullest potential, no matter where they’re from or what challenges they face. They help children living in poverty to have the capacity to improve their lives and the opportunity to bring lasting change to their communities. ChildFund promotes societies that value, protect and advance the well-being and rights of children. They also enrich supporters’ lives through their support of ChildFund’s cause.

A holistic approach to hunger

A key issue to help children living in poverty is nutrition. “Nutrition is critical and is a challenging topic because of cultures and traditions,” said Chege. His team takes a holistic approach to ending hunger (Sustainable Development Goal #2) by addressing food security and food systems. For the former, they look at people’s livelihoods and help enhance their resilience. ChildFund helps people improve food production and productivity at the household level by making sure they have high-yielding seeds (and drought-resistant seeds in some areas), knowledge, technology, access to agricultural extension services, etc. They also make sure families know how to process and cook the food they have. They focus on nutrition for young children and the elderly, who especially need nutritious food.

In Kenya, 2.5 million people are facing food insecurity. Some have surplus food, but it’s spoiling. Farmers may lose more than 30 percent of their crops post-harvest, often due to poor storage and handling at the household level.

ChildFund addresses this by looking at four components of farming: production, processing, distribution, and consumption. They help farmers build structures so that they don’t lose food after harvest. For example, ChildFund helps farmers with the market production of moringa, a medicinal herb. You can use moringa’s leaves, oil, and bark—nothing is lost. Chege’s team helps farmers improve their enterprise skills, understand financial services, develop alternative sources of livelihood, and adapt to climate change. The people ChildFund works with, said Chege, are “the most vulnerable communities who are most impacted in hunger and climate.”

Chege is motivated by seeing results. If the results are positive, he builds on that and does more. If they are negative, then that is an opportunity to figure out how to do better—an incentive to do more. His team takes a MAGIC approach, a mindset of meaning, autonomy, growth, impact, and connection. “Human beings are social animals,” he said. “Working virtually is hard, but I enjoy seeing my team embracing new ideas and building on them.”

Working in different countries and cultures

Chege started his over-20-year career in international development in Kenya, with CARE International. His work with CARE took him to various countries where he first learned about the similarities and differences in cultural practices and anti-poverty work in different places. He moved on to work in Mozambique, Namibia and Uganda with international NGOs such as CARE and Food for the Hungry. Then he started with ChildFund, first as the country director for Mozambique, then Ethiopia, followed by Kenya, which remains his base as ChildFund’s Africa regional director.

“It was a privilege to work in different countries, in different positions with bigger responsibilities. I now sit in global strategic task forces and am able to contribute and learn more,” Chege said. “Countries have different ways of looking at poverty and traditions. We want to see children being responsible and growing up to contribute to the well-being of their societies and countries. Poverty remains the same, but the ways of addressing it are different.” Some countries have a cultural practice of child marriage while others do not. Chege’s team works to turn around harmful traditional practices like female genital mutilation (FGM). They work with practitioners to help them change and transition into work educating girls instead of performing FGM and supporting opportunities for alternative sources of livelihood. 

A life-stage approach to helping children

ChildFund takes a life stage approach. Chege’s team ensures that the youngest children, ages 0-5, are provided for and have good nutrition, health and quality support for their early development. For the 6- to 14-year-old age group, the focus is on education and health. ChildFund addresses learning capacity, prevention of violence in school, and governance at the school level. For young adults ages 15-24, the focus is on skills to earn a living, their inclusion in decision-making in their community, and sexual and reproductive health.

“Another area we’re going into is advocacy,” Chege said. “There are so many policies that affect children and women, for example. We are working with different stakeholders and governments to make sure policies are there to protect girls.”

One ChildFund program called Responsive and Protective Parenting aims to improve protection and developmental outcomes for infants and young children through working with parents and caregivers, government and community stakeholders to strengthen their capacities to support children’s development.

COVID-19 brings challenges and silver linings

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has been very hard on the vulnerable communities ChildFund works with. Because of lockdowns, businesses and schools closed, many people lost employment and children were at home. This obviously affected how everyone interacted, including ChildFund. The pandemic impacted program delivery and increased the cost of programs. “Some donors diverted money to health systems and infrastructure. That affected other services,” said Chege.

There have been some silver linings in Chege’s work during the pandemic. Not being able to travel saved the team money. Many people became more digitally savvy, learning how to use Zoom for meetings and online platforms for education. Hardship inspired innovation, like psycho-social first aid programs and solar-powered radios (details below). People can rise to meet challenges.

“There’s a silver lining in everything. People have become better managers. A challenged employee is a good employee. In some ways, the pandemic improved teamwork and team spirit,” said Chege.

During the pandemic, ChildFund prioritized four areas of their work:

1. Stop COVID-19 from infecting children and families: They set up hand-washing stations, educated communities about how to prevent COVID-19, trained frontline workers, and provided materials for kids at home.
2. Ensure that children get nutritious food: ChildFund provided cash transfers to families so they could buy and have food on the table, provide medicine, and pay for rent. “That was very helpful. Electronic Vouchers that households can use for water, washing and other things give them independence and dignity. It’s empowering,” said Chege.
3. Keep children safe physically and emotionally: With people at home, there has been an increase in sexual and gender-based violence. ChildFund helped community-based child protection systems find and respond to cases of neglect and exploitation. One innovative program was online psychosocial first aid, which refers people to services like counseling sessions, links peer groups so they can talk with each other about similar challenges they’re experiencing, etc.
4. Help children continue learning while schools were closed: Most governments provided platforms for online learning, but children from the poorest families were not able to join (only 20 percent of children in Kenya were able to join). “We had to improvise,” said Chege. “We provided solar-powered radios for people who couldn’t afford a radio, and, in some areas, they didn’t have electricity. Those same radios have solar lighting so children can do homework and the families can also use them.”

In urban areas, ChildFund provided smartphones for families that couldn’t afford electricity so that their children could get online and study. They also supported community charging stations and solar charging stations. Some areas provide solar panels to charge phones and study. ChildFund also distributed a lot of home-learning materials.

Still, even now that schools are mostly open, some children had to work to support their families during the pandemic and now it’s difficult to get them back into school. Chege is also concerned about online sexual exploitation now that so many children are online to study. This is something ChildFund is working on as well.

“As we focus on post-COVID-19 socio-economic recovery efforts, there are a number of critical priorities that we will address in order to support vulnerable families, especially children, across Africa. These include rebuilding livelihoods, boosting child protection efforts, strengthening health, nutrition and education systems, water, hygiene and sanitation,” said Chege. “I look forward to working with more stakeholders and partners so that we can support more families and possibly expand our operations across the continent.”

And beyond. “ChildFund’s new 2030 global strategic plan has an ambitious goal of reaching about 100 million children and family members annually to ensure that children grow up healthy, educated, skilled and safe,” Chege said. “The strategy emphasizes growing connections, which includes working with different kinds of partners to reach the goal—with corporates including tech companies and others.” He cited the example of Google, with which ChildFund has launched an exciting new project in Kenya designed to protect children and youth against the rampant threat online sexual exploitation and abuse.

“Innovative partnerships like this,” added Chege, “have incredible power to help children far beyond our existing program reach.”

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Welcome New Members

Please welcome our newest Global Washington members. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with their work and consider opportunities for support and collaboration!

RainmakersTV

RainmakersTV is a documentary series established to communicate stories of leadership, innovation and social responsibility that inspire global transformation. rainmakers.tv

Sattva

Sattva is an organization driven by the mission to end global poverty in our lifetime. Since 2009, its work has spanned 27 countries across SE Asia, Africa and LATAM, with teams in India, Denmark and USA. Sattva works with corporations, impact investors, foundations, and social organizations to achieve social impact goals effectively and maximize social return on their investments. sattva.co.in

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Member Events

October 25: PeaceTrees’ 26th Anniversary Virtual Celebration

November 3: Posner Center Symposium (Nov.3 – Nov. 19)

November 4: Water1st: GiveWater 2021 Virtual Benefit

November 4: Seattle’s In Person Event benefitting buildOn

December 9-10: Global Health Landscape Symposium

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Career Center

Event Coordinator // Global Washington

Vice President – Credit (Senior Credit Officer), Social Investment Team // Global Partnerships

Data Manager // Schools for Salone

Associate, Communications // VillageReach

Agriculture Program Manager US & Canada – Seattle, USA (TBC) // Earthworm

Technology & Data Manager, Global // Splash

Consultant – International Business (Remote) // Sattva Consulting

Check out the GlobalWA Job Board for the latest openings.

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GlobalWA Events

Dec 8 & 9: 2021 Goalmakers Conference

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By Beth Roberts, Director, Center for Women’s Land Rights, Landesa

Photo credit Landesa. Zainabu, from Kisarawe district, Tanzania, holds cassava that she dug up on her hillside farm.

Around the world, women are the backbone of agriculture.

From the rice paddies of Asia to the maize fields of sub-Saharan Africa, women are so often responsible for shouldering the labor of farming – they till, plant, water, and harvest crops that feed households and whole communities. Continue Reading

Pat joins Paul Farmer, President Joe Biden, and other world leaders in “Driving innovation to advance cancer control equitably” 

We are pleased to announce The Max Foundation CEO and co-founder, Pat Garcia-Gonzalez, has been nominated as one of three finalists for the Outstanding Contribution to Cancer Control Award, by UICC. We are honored to see The Max Foundation’s efforts recognized by the UICC.

Pat Garcia-Gonzalez shared her gratitude, saying, “This nomination means the world to me and to all whose voices we represent. At The Max Foundation we believe that all people should be able to access the treatment they need, geography should not be destiny, and everyone should be able to strive for health with dignity and hope. Continue Reading

By Cathy Herholdt, Senior Communications Director, World Concern

Photo credit World Concern. Abuk Lino at her shop.

When COVID-19 forced businesses to close and people to stay home in Kuajok, South Sudan, families had to spend their savings to survive. When things reopened, many were unable to restart their businesses.

But for widow and mother of four, Abuk Lino, her savings group enabled her to not only feed her family during the pandemic shutdowns, but to keep her small shop going after the village market reopened. Continue Reading

Welcome to the September 2021 issue of the Global Washington newsletter.

IN THIS ISSUE

• Letter from our Executive Director
• Issue Brief: Jobs Have Been Hit Hard By the Pandemic, Yet Some Orgs Are Learning How to Rebound Even Stronger
• Organization Profile: Spreeha – Organization Spotlight
• Goalmaker: New Mercy Corps CEO Takes the Helm as Covid-19 Makes the Organization’s Mission “More Urgent Than Ever”
• GlobalWA Member Events
• Career Center
• GlobalWA Events

Letter from our Executive Director

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly 19 months since many of us, who were fortunate enough to do so, started working from home due to Covid. Unfortunately, many people lost their source of income entirely as lockdowns shut down several service sector jobs. In low and middle income countries, those in the informal economy were hit the hardest and lacked access to government assistance. It’s estimated that in 2020, the global economic impact of Covid led to 97 million additional people in extreme poverty.

However, I am inspired by those in the Global Washington network who have adapted out of necessity and created profitable, resilient sources of income. It also reflects a process of rebuilding for equity that could be a model to replicate around the world. Below are articles focused on inclusive growth for the future. The organizations and people mentioned are great examples of this through the ways they are evolving and innovating, forging pathways to be even stronger and more adaptable.

The past 19 months will be remembered as a time of massive global disruption and upheaval. Yet, 2022 promises to be the year of rebuilding and reimagining new systems for a more equitable future. On December 8 and 9, Global Washington will convene our virtual 2021 Goalmakers Conference to chart a new course in the years to come. We have some amazing speakers lined up with many interactive sessions and breakouts. I hope you can join the conversation. More information can be found here.

Kristen Dailey
Executive Director

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Issue Brief

Jobs Have Been Hit Hard By the Pandemic, Yet Some Orgs Are Learning How to Rebound Even Stronger

By Joanne Lu

A year and a half on from the World Health Organization’s official declaration of a global pandemic, the world is still learning how to adjust to our new reality. On many fronts, the pandemic has made it clear that the world we lived in before is not one we want to return to – without a robust response to health emergencies, without sufficient safety nets for marginalized communities, and without justice and equity.

Few understand the need for change more than the world’s most vulnerable and the organizations working to help them. Although the pandemic has been devastating for many organizations, there are many that have also taken the opportunity to evolve, become more resilient and build the resilience of the communities they work with.

Still, it has been far from an easy task. The pandemic created in 2020 the deepest global recession since World War II, according to the International Monetary Fund. Unsurprisingly, the impact was greatest in the poorest areas of the world. By World Bank estimates, the pandemic led to 97 million more people being pushed into extreme poverty (measured as living on less than $1.90 a day) in 2020. It’s a devastating number, and it represents enormous shifts in livelihoods and pathways out of poverty for millions of families living in under-resourced areas.

Screenshot of World Bank blog.

The pandemic hit informal workers, who make up about 70 percent of the global workforce – particularly hard. These include household workers, street vendors, waste pickers and other daily wage earners. Lockdown measures not only put most of them out of work, but they were also mostly excluded from relief packages, like stimulus payments and unemployment insurance.

For organizations to adapt appropriately to the needs of the communities they serve, they must listen to their constituents and monitor the situation carefully. That’s why Global Partnerships (GP), an impact-first investment fund manager, has been diligent about staying in close communication with their social enterprise partners and the clients they serve. Through mobile-based surveying, end-clients have expressed reliance on savings as a coping strategy, but also a deterioration in their financial position and heightened food insecurity.  This feedback reaffirmed GP’s commitment to supporting high-impact social enterprises that provide basic goods and services that foster economic resilience and enable people to earn a living and improve their lives.

In August, GP launched its ninth fund, the Global Partnerships Impact-First Growth Fund, LLC, which is designed to support high-impact social enterprises that are well-positioned to not only survive the pandemic but also grow and scale impact. As of its first close, the fund had $45.5 million committed, and it has the ability to scale to $100 million.

The decline in nutrition has prompted many other organizations to launch new relief initiatives. Spreeha Foundation and Spreeha Bangladesh, for example, works to help people break out of the cycle of poverty through health care, education, skills training and employment opportunities (note: Spreeha is not an investee of Global Partnerships). In the early days of their operations, Spreeha also provided one meal a day through their education program, but due to a dissipating need in the community, they ended that service. However, the pandemic reignited that need in an alarming way, prompting Spreeha to provide food and nutritional supplements.

Photo credit Spreeha. Pregnancy time counselling.

Another GlobalWA member, Awamaki, which provides opportunities for artisan weavers in Peru through sustainable tourism, had to make a sudden shift to food relief as well. This was a big change for Awamaki, which has always been focused on providing opportunities and training. But their model was upended overnight. With the help of small and large donors, Awamaki has been able to provide their partner artisans with monthly food baskets during this trying time.

Like many organizations, technology has also been critical to Awamaki’s adaptation during the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, they never designed goods for online sales. They didn’t have to, as their store in Ollantaytambo, near Cuzco, made about $80,000 a year from tourists. Without that store, they had to start selling online. They received a grant to specifically design products, particularly home goods, for online sales, and they also partnered with Amazon to host virtual shopping tours. Through a beta platform called Amazon Explore, shoppers can book virtual visits to their store.

Screenshot of Amamaki’s virtual store on Amazon.

Spreeha Foundation has also noticed local resilience. For example, even though Spreeha had to pause most of their vocational training programs because of lockdown measures, several women from their sewing training groups took the opportunity to launch their own sewing businesses during the pandemic. Others, particularly young people, have used the skills they gained through Spreeha’s training programs to move away from daily wage jobs to higher-skilled work, like cell-phone repair.

For organizations like these, the pandemic has been an opportunity to lean into the challenges and changes of these unprecedented times. The pandemic exposed many of the injustices that marginalized communities face. But it has also revealed what true resilience, sustainability and equity should look like. And perhaps, it’s given us a clearer roadmap for how to build back better.

The following Global Washington members are helping with job creation and economic development in low and middle income countries.

Act for Congo

ACT for Congo supports humanitarian work without creating dependence. We work with organizations that are locally conceived, owned, and operated to help them build their capacity so that we become unnecessary for their success. Our role as outsiders is primarily to support locally-driven initiatives led by competent and wise leaders.

Over the past eight years we partnered with a Congolese start-up that built a vocational school now recognized as a Center of Excellence (HOLD-DRC). Our partnerships include Congo Nouveau, who provided civic education in 19 cities, and POLE Institute, who conducts vital socio-economic research in DR Congo. Our newest partnership is with AGIR-DRC who supports refugees in pathways out of internally displaced camps, provides clean water for children in schools, whose partners provide training and advocacy for domestic workers, and fuel urban gardeners and reforestation in Goma and eastern Congo.

Over 1400 women graduated from HOLD with state-issued certificates in vocations. More than 900 are employed or have their own business.

Awamaki

Awamaki teaches women’s artisan cooperatives in the rural Andes how to start and run their own businesses in sustainable tourism and fair trade crafts. Awamaki connects artisans to global markets and provides training in product development and business management. Their highly-skilled artisan partners create alpaca accessories, woven bags, and home goods, blending contemporary design with traditional techniques and motifs. Awamaki supports 180 artisans who are lifting their families towards prosperity.

Capria

Capria is a global venture capital firm with expertise investing in fintech, edtech, jobtech, logistics/mobility, agtech/food, and healthcare in the Global South. Capria invests in regional soonicorns — startups with enough revenues and growth rates to be unicorns soon — and also backs local and regional fund managers with capital and strategic support. Capria and its global network deliver profits with scaled impact aligned with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Capria has offices in Seattle, Bangalore, Nairobi, Santiago and Washington D.C.

Chandler Foundation

Chandler Foundation helps to build strong nations, vibrant and fair marketplaces, and flourishing communities. We imagine a world in which nations are well governed, principled businesses drive economic growth, and all people have the opportunity to flourish. Through patient, long-term, system-changing investments in trusted partners, we can help build thriving economies that work for everyone.

Because in a world where talent and creativity are unleashed, the impossible is possible.

Concern Worldwide

More than 800 million people around the world live on less than $1.90 a day. Concern Worldwide believes that number can and should be zero. That’s why our mission is ending extreme poverty, whatever it takes. Our approach to ending extreme poverty is rooted in the understanding that the cycle of poverty is fueled by a combination of inequality, vulnerability, and risk. Our livelihoods programs address some of the underlying problems experienced by people trying to earn a living while also dealing with the challenges and setbacks of extreme poverty.

In 2020, we reached 4.4 million people through our livelihood programs. These programs aim to provide participants with the tools needed to ensure they are able to earn a sustainable living, learn new skills, improve the productivity and nutritional value of their crops and set up small businesses to generate more income. However, even with a job, 8% of the world’s workforce still live in extreme poverty, which is why we take a “targeted, time-bound, holistic, and sustainable” approach to breaking the cycle of poverty. For example, our Graduation Program uses a multi-pronged approach to giving families the education, training and funding they need to achieve financial independence. In other words, the program helps participants to “graduate” out of extreme poverty – once and for all.

Earthworm Foundation

Respect for the legal and customary rights of communities to land and natural resources is a principal objective of Earthworm Foundation’s work in global supply chains. We partner with companies making strong commitments to these rights, and then provide tools and practical training needed to see them realized.  A central focus is helping ensure that land development for commodity production only occurs with the requisite Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of local people.

Supporting the economy and resilience of smallholder farmers is at the heart of our work.  We began our efforts to strengthen farmer resilience in 2011, and today we work with farmers in 15 countries. We promote crop and income diversification so that farmer households have more secure livelihoods.  With strategies tailored to their needs, approximately 3,000 farmers have diversified activities and their average household income increased by 20%.

We also focus on promoting safe work environments and labor rights.  In 2017, Earthworm launched a labor rights and workers’ welfare program, training thousands of workers in over 60 companies.  Our projects promote the welfare of children in oil palm plantation regions, ethical recruitment of migrant workers, the rights of casual and temporary workforces, and improved wages for agricultural workers.

Heifer International

Heifer International believes ending global hunger and poverty begins with agriculture. Operating in 21 countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas, Heifer provides farmers with technical assistance and opportunities to strengthen essential skills, including finance and business management. Farmers receive expert support to improve the quality and quantity of the goods they produce, as well as connections to markets to increase sales. As Heifer works to build sustainable food systems, it engages women and youth across value chains, ensuring they have the knowledge and tools needed to increase their incomes and support their families. Recently, Heifer published “The Future of Africa’s Agriculture: An Assessment of the Role of Youth and Technology,” a report based on a survey of 11 African countries, that identified challenges preventing youth from fully engaging in farming as a source of future jobs. In response these issues, Heifer launched the AYuTe Challenge which awards up to US$1.5 million annually to the most promising young entrepreneurs who are using technology to reimagine farming and food production across Africa. For the 2021 competition, the AYuTe Challenge selected Cold Hubs and Hello Tractor as winners, supporting them as they scale their businesses to help more farmers to overcome long-standing challenges.

Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps works in over 40 countries helping communities forge new paths to prosperity in the face of disaster, poverty, and the impacts of climate change. Mercy Corps’ approach to protecting and strengthening economic opportunity ensures crisis-affected households can maintain their businesses and wage incomes in the midst of crisis, while laying the foundation for greater market participation and inclusive economic growth in the future. Throughout the pandemic, Mercy Corps has worked closely with people living in vulnerable areas to meet their most urgent needs by providing cash while also implementing long-term solutions to ensure businesses can recover and continue to provide employment opportunities.

In Jordan, Mercy Corps channeled 13,000 JD ($19K) in emergency cash to three gig platforms to help them continue to provide essential services to gig-workers and also provided 90 workers with a cash transfer of 150 JD ($210) each to meet immediate basic needs and selected three start-ups for further technical and funding support as they demonstrated high potential to recover and grow beyond COVID-19 and continue to employ hundreds of gig workers.

Microsoft – Building Skills for the digital economy

We’re living in a changed world. As economies continue to reopen, more jobs will require digital skills. This is not just about technical jobs, but an increasing number of jobs across industries that will become ‘tech-enabled.’  Now, and in the future, all people will need to learn digital skills to pursue in-demand roles, but access to the resources to learn these skills is inequitable.

Microsoft is focused on supporting those who have been excluded from opportunity because of race, gender, geography, displacement, or other barriers that prevent them from attaining the skills needed to thrive in a changing economy.

Our programs, partnerships, and resources are designed to meet people where they are on their skilling journey. From a young person learning computer science in the classroom, to a job seeker earning technical certifications, to employers focused on building skilled, inclusive workforces, we are committed to helping people gain the foundational, role-based, and technical skills to gain jobs and livelihoods.

To achieve this, we invest in supporting communities in building equity, building nonprofit capacity and scale, and mobilizing collective action, funding, and impact by working with others to advance sustainable, scalable change.

Learn what steps we’re taking and how you can help support: aka.ms/skills

Opportunity International

At Opportunity International, we are proud and honored to be a part of achieving this first Sustainable Development Goal, along with many of the other SDGs that are focused on improving the standard of living for families in poverty. Together with organizations and initiatives around the world, we spend each day helping amazing people break that barrier of living on $1.90/day. And, in the wake of the pandemic, we are more committed to this goal more than ever.

We invest in entrepreneurs, helping them create or sustain jobs for themselves and their neighbors. Also, we have created tailored tools for farmers, addressing many of the challenges faced by the rural, agrarian majority of those living in extreme poverty. We work to connect them to markets, give them access to inputs, and help them move from subsistence to commercial agriculture – radically transforming their farms and their futures. We realize our goal is the same as that of the U.N. as we are actively working to end poverty in all its forms everywhere.

Opportunity International’s core programs continue to enhance and expand upon our continuous work on behalf of women and girls in low- and middle-income countries. We reach out to financially excluded populations, especially less literate and rural women, to deliver knowledge and skills that help them use financial services as fuel for their journey out of poverty. Financial services are key for women to create their own livelihoods, who are often excluded from formal economic opportunities. When women can create their own economic opportunities, they become powerful agents of change and some of our greatest weapons in ending extreme poverty.

Remote Energy

Remote Energy believes that access to reliable sources of sustainable energy is a fundamental requirement for the advancement of education, healthcare and quality of life.  It is also a critical step in promoting sustained, inclusive, economic growth.  As solar energy (PV) grows exponentially, so does the fast growing need for a trained solar workforce.  Remote Energy has responded by developing and implementing regionally appropriate, customized technical capacity building programs and developing hands-on, practical learning opportunities for solar technicians and instructors in marginalized communities worldwide.

Remote Energy’s Native American Programs partner with tribal vocational and technical schools to provide scale able, accessible PV training opportunities for Native Americans in their own communities. Programs focus on the development of hands-on skills specifically designed to give aspiring instructors and technicians the marketable skills required for employment in the fast-growing PV industry and inspire communities to move towards energy independence and sustainable development.

Remote Energy is also committed to gender equality and support the belief that women’s talents and leadership are vital to maintain a diverse, sustainable, PV industry and critical in promoting economic grow. Remote Energy’s Women’s Program is designed to develop women decision-makers, end-users, technicians, and educators and offers customized, women’s-only courses and mentoring opportunities with professional female instructors.  Click Here to learn more about our upcoming, online women-only PV class.

Upaya Social Ventures

Upaya Social Ventures fights extreme poverty from the ground up by building scalable businesses, dignified jobs, and long-term prosperity in the world’s most vulnerable communities. We identify early-stage businesses in India with the greatest potential for job creation in the most vulnerable communities. Through our investments and accelerator program, we partner with early-stage entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and create jobs that lift families out of extreme poverty. Our vision is for everyone to have the opportunity to earn a dignified living and pursue their dreams. We believe in a hand-up, not a hand-out, and that access to sustainable, dignified jobs can be the bridge from poverty to prosperity.

West African Vocational Schools (WAVS)

West African Vocational Schools is a Christian skills development organization that trains and equips youth in one of the least developed regions in the world. Each year, WAVS training centers prepare more than 200 youths for work so that they can earn a livable income and provide for their families for the rest of their lives.

World Concern

World Concern prioritizes economic empowerment of families and economic development in communities we serve through diversified livelihoods, village savings groups, microfinance, vocational training for youth and adults, education, rice banks, and farmer groups.

A respected leader in Savings and Loans for Transformation (SALT) programs, World Concern improves the lives of thousands of women and men who are trained in money management and entrepreneurship through SALT groups. These groups enable members to save and borrow for business or family needs, which are repaid with interest and add to the group’s account balance.

Stable income means parents can give their children the proper nutrition they need to thrive, provide medicine when they are sick, and send them to school. Entire communities thrive when families are financially secure and able to give back.

As COVID-19 continues to ravage poor communities, World Concern has seen that members of savings groups show greater economic resilience and ability to cope with hardships than those who are not members. Instead of selling their assets to survive, SALT members have been using their savings to buy food and pay for medical expenses. Others have borrowed money to start innovative income generating activities.

To learn more, please visit https://worldconcern.org/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/

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Organization Profile

Spreeha – Organization Spotlight

By Joanne Lu

Photo credit Spreeha. Students receive computer training.

Spreeha. It means “zeal” in Bengali – a fitting name for an organization that was born out of a passion to break the cycle of poverty in Bangladesh and beyond. Over the last decade and more, it’s been a long journey for Spreeha, listening and adapting to needs as they arise, and culminating with the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19.

Spreeha’s founder, Tazin Shahid, grew up in Dhaka, witnessing extreme poverty first-hand in the city’s many slums. When he ended up working at Microsoft, he decided he wanted to give back to his hometown. It was in one of the slums that he used to walk by everyday where he opened his first mobile health clinic.

At first, it was just Shahid and his friends who supported the clinic, but Shahid wanted to scale up. In 2012, Spreeha Foundation was officially launched in Seattle, followed shortly by Spreeha Bangladesh to implement a global program in accordance with the Bangladesh government’s rules and regulations, and in partnership with other local organizations.

Today, Spreeha Foundation has three U.S. chapters, in Seattle, Boston, and Dallas that are responsible for raising support for the program in Bangladesh as well as helping local underserved communities. Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, what started out as a health-care program now spans the cycle of poverty, with education interventions, job and life skills training, and support for economic opportunities.

As Spreeha’s CEO Ferdouse Oneza explains it, Spreeha has identified the key points in people’s lives where intervention is most effective. When a mother is pregnant and a child is born, their immediate needs are health care. Then, that child is in need of education – which is why Spreeha offers preschool and after-school programs for children. As children get older and become adults, they’re in need of skills training. These skills include leadership training for women and girls to advocate for their rights, computer skills and other life skills for young people to advance in school and work, as well as vocational skills.

“Our vision has been to empower people to break out of the cycle of poverty,” says Oneza. “We learned while working, but we also took time to deconstruct the problem to identify the root causes of poverty.”

Spreeha still operates one health center in a geographic area with 25,000 households, but their telehealth services reach three additional remote areas. In addition, their multi-use community resource center is home to their preschool and after-school programs and many training programs. There are also 15 schools through which Spreeha runs their leadership programs. Spreeha trains the teachers, and the teachers in turn guide the students.

Photo credit Spreeha. Telehealth.

One aspect of Spreeha’s after-school program is helping kids dream about what they want to become one day. These are kids whose everyday realities are entrenched in poverty and whose parents are daily wage earners. Last year, two students from the Spreeha community graduated from university. And this year, another student was admitted into medical school. This is exactly what Spreeha means when they say they’re empowering people to break out of a cycle of poverty.

Economic opportunities are the newest component of Spreeha’s programming, added just a few years ago. Since their inception, Spreeha has created jobs for local community members by hiring them as community health workers. But they wanted to go beyond that and help place people in jobs. So, based on a list of training sectors identified by the government of Bangladesh and the U.N. Development Programme as sectors with job growth, Spreeha began to support vocational training through scholarships and apprenticeships. Some of these sectors include baking, sewing, mechanical repairs. Spreeha’s computer training center, in particular, has drawn enough people that Spreeha could start charging a small fee to make the operation of the center self-sustaining.

Then, the pandemic hit. According to Oneza, 70 percent of the members of the community where Spreeha works lost their jobs. Most of them were daily wage earners, like household workers, rickshaw pullers and construction workers. Malnutrition among children increased 18 percent. More young girls were suddenly sent into early marriages. The effect was devastating.

Photo credit Spreeha. Bring School to Home program.

But Spreeha listened, watched and adapted – as they always have. They began emergency food distribution and partnered with other organizations to deliver nutrition supplements to children in the community. They also piggy-backed off the door-to-door community health services they already had and expanded that system to create a program called Bring School to Home. Teachers delivered school supplies and materials to the homes of students to keep them engaged. Doing so decreased the chances of parents sending their kids to work and never returning them to school.

Similarly, some of the life skills training for girls and adults were continued through door-to-door services in slum communities, while in more remote areas, Spreeha partnered with local organizations to conduct training outdoors.

Photo credit Spreeha. Outdoor training.

Prior to the pandemic, Spreeha already had a telehealth network, so they have leaned into that even more. And as schools have begun to reopen, Spreeha has also resumed its leadership training programs for teachers online.

In a way, Spreeha’s reliance on technology during the pandemic to deliver some of their essential services has actually helped them scale up during a crisis that forced many organizations to shut down. Thankfully, Oneza says, they’ve also been able to sustain all of their employees, many of whom are community members.

There’s also been a shift in employment opportunities in the community. Some seasonal jobs like pulling rickshaws will never go away, says Oneza. But she’s seen young people turn toward more skilled jobs and apprenticeships, like motorcycle or bicycle repairs or even cell phone repairs. And even though Spreeha had to temporarily close their sewing training center during the pandemic, Oneza says many of the women were able to start their own sewing businesses in the meantime.

The resilience of these community members and Spreeha’s own resilience over the last year and half have inspired the organization to keep growing, even beyond Bangladesh.

“The pandemic has shown us that we don’t have to sit back,” says Oneza. “We can innovate. We have been adaptive, and we have seen what can happen.”

Photo credit Spreeha.

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Goalmaker

New Mercy Corps CEO Takes the Helm as Covid-19 Makes the Organization’s Mission “More Urgent Than Ever”

By Tyler LePard

Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Corps, has worked with farmers in Africa and with world leaders like President Barack Obama and Bill and Melinda Gates. She has grounded her career in the simple belief that, no matter where someone is born, no matter where they live, they should be able to lead a thriving and successful life.

Tjada grew up in Washington, D.C., and Stamford, Connecticut—“very much a mid-Atlantic Northeast gal.” Her parents came of age during the civil rights movement; they surrounded Tjada with Black history and raised her as part of the Black American community. Tjada’s parents taught her that what she did reflected on her community and that Tjada should work for the betterment of her community. Tjada knew from an early age that her ancestors had come to this country as enslaved people and that many people had fought for the progress that has enabled her to be where she is today.

Tjada took those values to heart and expanded her community to encompass the global diaspora and people everywhere who are suffering.

“I think I’m where I was always meant to be, but I didn’t know the contours of how I’d get here or what I’d be doing … I always felt the draw to Africa and felt the desire to give back … I knew I liked leading people. I knew I wanted to have a career that had a positive impact in people’s lives. I knew I liked the ideas behind business and how things worked. I knew I had a deep affinity for giving other people opportunities just as so many other people had paved the way for me to have the life that I have.”

Skills for social good

Her career path is impressive—she went to Harvard for college and graduate school. Tjada earned an MBA with the intention that she could apply those skills to social good at some point in her career. The organizations where Tjada thrived have all had strong shared values and a sense of cultural identity, they gave her room to learn, and allowed her to serve the greater good.

Tjada’s early career was really about learning. As an analyst for McKinsey & Company, she learned problem-solving skills. When she went to work for one of her clients in agribusiness, she learned how to mix business with social good. After business school, Tjada worked for American Express and General Electric, learning general management and how to get things done in large organizations.

Tjada’s work in agribusiness, working in Africa with smallholder farmers, was a dream job, but she didn’t think she had a future there. So when she woke up one morning listening to NPR and heard about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s investment in the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), it was a pivotal moment. She thought: “That’s exactly what I was doing in agribusiness, but Gates actually has the mandate and the funds to go make huge investments there.” She flew to Seattle for interviews two weeks later and was hired before she left the building.

“I took a huge leap of faith, and I loved every minute of it. And I’ve loved every minute since.”

Tjada spent more than a decade working to end world hunger in roles with the Gates Foundation and then with the U.S. Agency for International Development. She set up and ran Feed the Future, President Obama’s signature global hunger and food security initiative. That was a great complement to Tjada’s earlier work in agribusiness and she learned how to work with really diverse groups of people and how to motivate people without authority. “That was the most transformational experience in my career.”

Tjada’s work on food security ties in strongly with SDG 1 (ending poverty) and SDG 8 (sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all). Her entry to that sector was the result of her corporate work—thinking about markets and how to help other people to self-actualize. The freedom to be economically mobile is so important because economic needs underpin so much of people’s lives.

“I have always seen myself as looking for sustainable solutions and environments where people can make a living and thrive—really self-actualize, really pursue what they’re meant to do.”

“The most vulnerable first”

She was the Chief Operating Officer for Habitat for Humanity and then for CARE, and in October of 2020, Tjada became the CEO of Mercy Corps, an iconic international nonprofit organization. Mercy Corps, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, has a global team of 5,600 humanitarians working in more than 40 countries to alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has only heightened Mercy Corps’ beliefs in sustainable economic growth, markets, and systems. It has made their work more urgent than ever. But their focus on resilience—giving people the tools to self-actualize and bounce back from terrible situations—has been helpful in an ever-changing environment. COVID-19 has been the ultimate resilience test for everybody. Mercy Corps staff had to figure out how to keep working in the community while staying safe and making sure the people they work with are safe. They had to shift to digital tools in markets where that wasn’t always easy.

The World Bank is predicting that the number of people who live in extreme poverty is going up because of COVID-19. “A lot of people have lost the gains we’ve spent the last 15-20 years developing. The vulnerable groups who are served by Mercy Corps are especially impacted.” Mercy Corps works in many fragile environments that have been deeply affected by climate change, conflict, and, now, COVID-19. “Any shock makes the competition for resources greater and leads to more people being disaffected. COVID exacerbates everything. Hunger is worse because people can’t buy supplies. The global food chain is disrupted. The global community needs to think about the whole system, not just getting shots in people’s arms.”

“What we’ve seen, in the U.S. too, is that COVID takes every inequity you have in society and makes it worse. We have to structure vaccine outreach, information, and dissemination to be applicable in an inequitable place. You have to reach out for the most vulnerable first. You have to think about the communities that are most remote and hardest to reach … People who are left behind in their communities are even more left behind in emergencies. And with COVID, you can’t afford to leave anyone behind … None of us are safe until all of us are safe.”

Tjada’s team is doubling down on helping people build resilience and come together with their communities in order to thrive. They are focused on how to improve social cohesion, which refers to the strength of relationships and sense of solidarity among members of a community. Mercy Corp is figuring out how to give people access to opportunities digitally and to help keep their communities cohesive and strong.

Mercy Corps has many projects that address digital innovation, unemployment and social cohesion:

• In Ethiopia there was a spike in unemployment for domestic workers so Mercy Corps partnered with a mobile app that matched domestic workers to jobs.
• In Northern Nigeria, Mercy Corp developed a tool to track COVID-19 rumorsand then used volunteer “truth champions” to correct misinformation.
• MicroMentor is an online platform Mercy Corps created to connect promising entrepreneurs with experienced business mentors; they created a COVID-19 Mentor Task Force and recruited mentors with experience dealing with severe economic downturn and post-disaster recovery.
• Youth Impact Labs worked with 29 partners to create more than 8,000 work opportunities for youth in Kenya and Jordan. During the pandemic, Mercy Corps pivoted to provide working capital to participants to help navigate the crisis, technical assistance to grantees, and cash transfers to people to help stimulate local economies.
• Mercy Corps has a digital program called AgriFin that helps smallholder farmers access bundled digital products like market data, financial services and information about pests and where to get quality inputs. They adapted AgriFin to help 16 million farmers adapt to the shock of COVID-19 and even developed a new citizen reporting tool to help warn farmers where the desert locusts were when the largest desert locust invasion in decades threatened farmers in East Africa.

During the pandemic, Mercy Corps has pivoted and tailored many of their existing programs to meet the moment, but there have also been great opportunities to bring new partners or new platforms together to serve people.

A global citizen “trying to do the best I can”

Now that we’ve all been living through a global pandemic that has been hard for everyone, Tjada hopes that more people will feel connected to others around the world.

“The American people have now suffered this big shock. We’ve seen food lines here and we’ve seen unemployment worse than before. If there is a bright spot to come out of COVID, my hope is that we will feel more connected to other countries who are facing the same things we are and who don’t have the resources we have.”

Tjada loves that Mercy Corps is a Global Washington member and part of the Northwest ecosystem of major actors that are having a big impact in the world. She is a humble and conscious global citizen who is proud of who she is and what she’s achieved.

“I’m proud to be the CEO of Mercy Corps. I’m especially proud to be one of the few Black women to be the CEO of an INGO, and as a mother of two young children. I want to expand people’s imagination of what a CEO can look like, where they can come from, and what stage of life they need to be at. I’m hoping to attract more people from diverse backgrounds into this space. I hope people like me in positions like this won’t be rare. I feel really privileged to be able to do the work I do … I’m just focused on helping Mercy Corps have the strongest impact we can for the most people.”

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Member Events

September 24- 26: The Max Foundation: Max-A-Thon

September 25: World Concern’s Transform Gala

September 25-26: Spreeha Journey of Hope 2021

September 27: WAC- Beyond the Border: U.S.-Mexico Relations

September 30: Schools for Salone’s Change a Child’s Story Live Auction Gala

October 1- October 31: Take Heart You Are Not Alone Billboard Fundraising Campaign

October 2: Friend’s of WPC Nepal: 11th Annual Hope for Freedom Gala

October 2: 2021 Virtual Gala: The Rose International Fund for Children

October 7: WFF: 6th Annual Evening to Restore Dignity

October 8: TALK: A Conversation with Congressman Adam Smith on China

October 8: WAVS: Dine & Discover West Africa

October 9: Mission Africa’s 15 Year Fundraiser

October 14: WGHA Global Health Impact Awards

October 25: PeaceTrees’ 26th Anniversary Virtual Celebration

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Career Center

Accounting Officer // Global Partnerships

Individual Giving Manager // Days for Girls

Check out the GlobalWA Job Board for the latest openings.

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GlobalWA Events

October 5: Q3 Final Mile – Impact through Partnerships: Emergency Response to the 2021 Haiti Earthquake

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By Mark Horosowski, MovingWorlds
With Kate Cochran, Upaya Social Ventures

The United Nations General Assembly is this week, and quite frankly, I’m not looking forward to it. It’ll be another circuit of high level meetings and catchy headlines telling the world that we’re falling even further behind in our attempt to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (sadly, we are… and corporations aren’t doing nearly enough).

Governments will point fingers at each other and the private sector. The private sector will blame governments and consumers. Financiers like Blackrock will fund catchy PR campaigns that will distract us from the fact that they are creating the very issues they are claiming to be solving.

Pundits, “thought leaders”, and global executives will write compelling op-eds claiming that if only they were given more resources, they could solve all the problems. Then, as quickly as it came, the debates will pass and we’ll return to a state of normalcy, perhaps with just a little more frustration with our global policy makers and international institutions. Continue Reading