By Carlie Stowe, Project Manager, PeaceTrees Vietnam
PeaceTrees Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Technician, Phan Thị Ngọc, working to clear land of explosive ordnance in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the indiscriminate use of deadly weapons of war, including cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war (ERW), is showcasing, in real-time, the devastation that war brings to a country and the terrible reality of the use of explosive ordnance. Across the globe, ERW threaten people’s lives and livelihoods every day. In 2020, 7,073 casualties due to landmines and other ERW were recorded across 56 states (and other non-state territories). In addition to the physical threat they pose to people’s lives, the presence of explosive ordnance blocks access to critical resources like clean water and farmland, and hinders social and economic development opportunities, further perpetuating poverty rooted in the impact of war. Continue Reading
By Heidi Breeze-Harris, Executive Director, PRONTO International
PRONTO International works to optimize the birthing experience for mothers, babies and their providers in limited resource settings. We do this by training simulation and team training educators that are able to provide low-cost, high-fidelity simulation education to even the most remote health facilities in LMICs. Continue Reading
A person’s mental health is fundamental to all aspects of their life. When mental health is good, a person can thrive in work and family. When it is not, there are direct health, economic, and societal detriments. Covid, climate change, conflict, racism, economic insecurity, and natural disasters are just a few of the contributors to poor mental health, especially in low- and middle-income countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 75 percent of people with mental health conditions living in the Global South receive no treatment. According to World Vision, more than 1 in 5 people living in conflict-affected areas have a mental health disorder.
Mental health studies and treatment have historically been underfunded and have not been a priority – in fact, less than 1 percent of health-related global development assistance has ever gone to mental health.
This month’s issue campaign highlights how these trends are changing, mainly due to the necessity of including mental health as a priority for many international aid organizations working in affected areas. Their efforts are pushing the need for good mental health into the spotlight. Last year, a coalition of NGO’s helped Congress introduce the Mental Health in International Development and Humanitarian Settings Act (or MINDS Act) – the first-ever U.S. legislation that addresses mental health and psychosocial support in foreign assistance.
The stigma associated with mental health disorders often prevents diagnosis and treatment. However, Global Washington member organizations such as PATH, Americares, World Vision, and Pronto are integrating mental health screening and awareness into their established programs. Read more about the progress being made to promote mental health in the feature stories below.
Also, this month we released all of our 2021 Goalmaker Conference session videos. Please share, and we hope you enjoy listening to these amazing speakers as much as we did!
Lastly, we are very excited and honored to welcome to our Board of Directors: Kathryn Compton of World Vision, and Leslie Tsai of the Chandler Foundation.
Recent Crises have Forced a Greater Awareness of the Need for Mental Health Programs
By Joanne Lu
World mental disorders by type 2019. Screenshot of Our World in Data website.
We all feel the stress of the times in which we live in. But for people living in situations of economic insecurity, conflict, natural disasters, food insecurity, political instability, or daily human rights abuses – conditions that take an immense toll on a person and community – mental health often goes unaddressed.
Even before COVID-19 entered the world stage, mental and addictive disorders affected more than 1 billion people globally. But, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), in low- and middle-income countries, 75 percent of people with mental health conditions receive no treatment.
There are many reasons for this, says the global health organization PATH – one being stigma, which discourages people from seeking diagnoses and care. To bypass stigma, PATH is integrating mental health screening and services into already established routine medical visits. For example, in Mozambique, PATH collaborated with the Maternal and Mental Health Departments at the Ministry of Health to develop a protocol within routine postnatal care to screen and care for women with postpartum depression. They’ve also incorporated mental health care into existing HIV services in Vietnam and Kenya. By integrating mental health questions and conversations into routine visits, PATH says it becomes less about specific mental health issues and more about holistic care.
Low- and middle-income countries often also face a shortage of health-care workers. Even where there are enough health workers, lack of access to mental health care training is often an obstacle, according to PATH. This leads to low detection rates and a low prioritization of mental conditions. That’s why Americares not only deploys mental health experts to provide psychological first aid to survivors of disasters and emergencies, but they also train health workers to recognize and refer patients who need mental health support.
With low prioritization of mental health also comes lack of funding to sustainably scale proven interventions and service delivery models. In fact, less than 1 percent of health-related global development assistance has ever gone to mental health, according to several studies.
Last year, World Vision helped Congress introduce the Mental Health in International Development and Humanitarian Settings Act (or MINDS Act). It is the “first-ever U.S. legislation that addresses mental health and psychosocial support in foreign assistance,” said Margaret Schuler, World Vision U.S.’s Senior Vice President of International Programs.
The bill aims to codify the position of USAID Coordinator for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support. It will also require the integration of mental health and psychosocial support into U.S. foreign aid as well as USAID and State Department regional bureaus and missions. And the Executive Branch will be required to brief Congress on how implementation of the bill is going, the barriers to mental health and psychosocial support programming, and overall spending on mental health programming in U.S. foreign assistance. All these efforts will help maintain focus on the mental health needs of vulnerable populations, promote best practices, and lay the groundwork for a global mental health strategy.
In addition to advocating for more U.S. support on this issue, World Vision implements a range of mental health and psychosocial support programs in nearly 70 countries. World Vision is particularly concerned about the mental wellbeing of the world’s 426 million children who are living in conflict-affected areas as traumatic events can have lasting negative effects on children, even changing their genetic makeup and passing those changes onto the next generation. Hormones released during times of heightened stress can lead to other negative health consequences as well. According to World Vision, more than 1 in 5 people living in conflict-affected areas have a mental health disorder.
Afghani child. Photo: ArmyAmber, Pixabay
Similarly, mental health and psychosocial support is a core program priority for Save the Children. In Ukraine, for example, Save the Children has been working with a local partner, Slavic Heart since 2015 to deliver essential items to families and ensure children are protected and have access to mental health support. Right now, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Save the Children is providing online mental health sessions for children through Slavic Heart.
Over the last two years, the pandemic has also exacerbated global mental health needs due to COVID-related grief, stress, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. But according to a recent WHO survey, it has also interrupted or halted existing mental health care services in 93 percent of countries around the world. Health care workers and community health workers have been hit especially hard with depression, anxiety, insomnia, distress, and burnout, which in turn affects the quality of care they provide.
Healthcare professional, Angola. Photo: Francisco Venancio, Unsplash.
To help clinical educators who are training nurses and midwives become more conscientious teachers and clinical providers, PRONTO International built a virtual superhero comic that teaches clinical educators how to practice empathy, conduct self-checks for stress, and use other self-wellness tools that can be used throughout a busy day. This idea that checking in on one’s own mental health is a critical part of providing quality care is a “significant leap in global health,” says PRONTO. “More than just clinical skills are required for care to be respectful and high quality.”
Severe gaps continue to exist in mental health care, particularly in the communities that need it most. But organizations like these are working hard to help health-care providers and policymakers see how caring for mental health is a crucial part of caring for the whole person. Physical health problems can harm mental health, and vice-versa. Similarly, unaddressed mental health conditions can hold back progress on other SDGs, just as lack of progress on issues like poverty, hunger, and gender equality can cause mental distress.
“World Mental Health Day Observance” by United Nations Photo is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Especially amid protracted conflicts, climate disasters and the many lingering impacts of COVID-19, mental health support couldn’t come sooner for most of the world.
The following GlobalWA members are providing mental health services and programs in low- and middle-income countries.
Americares: Mental health is an important focus for Americares global health work, in our ongoing programs and responses to disasters and emergencies. Americares long-term goal is that everyone affected by poverty or disaster has equitable access to quality mental health services and programs. As part of our Emergency Programs, Americares deploys mental health experts to provide psychological first aid and other immediate support for survivors as well as help build local capacity for mental health services. To strengthen local health systems, Americares provides our health partners with training so health workers can recognize and refer patients who need mental health support. This includes programs to decrease stigma and discrimination, particularly in countries with the largest treatment gaps. Americares also provides behavioral medication to partners through our Medicine Security program. Many of Americares projects and programs incorporate mental health and psychosocial care – from programs focused on reproductive health to those that address chronic disease and disaster preparedness. In this way, Americares achieves its mission to save lives and improve health for people affected by poverty and disaster, so they reach their full potential.
Amplio: Strengthening Mental Health Education in Ghana’s Rural Districts: After the Mental Health Act 846 passed in 2012, Ghana Health Service (GHS) shifted its mental health programming from facility-based to a more community-based approach. GHS set up new structures, with regional, district, and facility-level mental health coordinators. But in the Upper West Region’s rural districts, the coordinators lack access to reliable training and support.
Too often, mental health education is left to community health workers who have no formal mental health training. Although GHS established self-help groups, only about 30 groups are active in the region, which has a population of over 900,000 people.
Amplio is working with GHS and UNICEF to improve access to mental health education as part of an ongoing public health initiative. Community health nurses and volunteers use Amplio Talking Book to share consistent health messages. Mental health topics include awareness, prevention, and treatment of maternal depression, domestic violence, and drug and substance abuse.
People can use the Talking Book to record questions and experiences that they might not share in a group setting. Talking Book user feedback is anonymous — unless someone chooses to identify themself. However, the data for each device is linked to a specific group or community, allowing us to address local issues and concerns.
Days for Girls: At Days for Girls, we work to eliminate the stigma and limitations associated with menstruation so that women and girls have improved health, education, and livelihoods. Lack of supportive menstrual health impacts a range of SDG outcomes including Goals 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, and 3 – including stigmatization and isolation that contributes to anxiety, depression, and in some cases even suicide. DfG recognizes the connection between dignified, supportive menstrual health environments and mental wellbeing. Our programs work to cultivate those safe spaces at the level of individual menstruators, families, and communities. At the grassroots level, DfG Social Entrepreneurs are also advocates and certified educators, leading conversations within their communities to break down stigma. At the international level, our Advocacy Program has worked to demonstrate the linkages between menstrual health and mental wellbeing, including our event for Self-Care Trailblazer Group’s 2021 Learning and Discovery series, The Role of Supportive Self-Care Environments in Advancing Menstrual Equity.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, interdisciplinary teams of scientists seek new and innovative ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases.
Financial hardship after cancer diagnosis is unfortunately a common occurrence for people with cancer and their families. Financial hardship can be material, such as going into debt to pay for healthcare or having bills go to collections because of reduced employment during treatment. Financial hardship can also be psychological and emotional in the form of worry and anxiety about paying for healthcare and basic needs like housing and food.
Research from Dr. Salene Jones at Fred Hutch and others has shown that financial hardship leads to worse mental health and quality of life after cancer diagnosis. Dr. Jones is currently leading a study that will develop new tools to screen for financial hardship associated with worse mental health in people with breast cancer. These tools will include assessments for both material and psychological financial hardship and will help clinics address economic burden that leads to poor mental health outcomes such as depression and anxiety. This study will also examine potential employment policies that could reduce financial hardship after cancer diagnosis.
PATH: With programs in over 70 countries, PATH has witnessed the unmet mental health needs in the communities where we work. We also know that reduced access to mental health care services impacts health-seeking behavior or adherence to care regimens for other health conditions (e.g., diabetes, tuberculosis, HIV), leading to poorer health outcomes. As such, PATH has prioritized integrating elements of mental health care into existing programs at the primary health care (PHC) level.
Project examples include:
HIV services(Vietnam): We incorporated mental health care into existing HIV services. In partnership with peer outreach workers and trained service providers, individuals are screened for depression, anxiety, addiction, and suicide risk and provided individualized care plans.
Services for youth (India): We are co-creating an appropriate, accessible, and safe digital approach to support youth mental health care in partnership with young people.
Postpartum depression/maternal health (Mozambique): We developed a novel protocol for the screening and management of women with postpartum depression within routine postnatal care alongside the Maternal and Mental Health Departments at the Ministry of Health.
Through these projects, as well as others underway, PATH sees the value of integrating mental health care services in the PHC setting and aims to expand this important work as a way to close the treatment gap for mental health disorders.
PRONTO International: We have built a virtual superhero comic with modules that help clinical educators (who are training nurses and midwives) to practice empathy, self-checks for stress and other self wellness tools that we believe will help them be more conscientious teachers and clinical providers. This targets the mental health of the clinical provider with simple tools that can be used throughout a busy day. This particular project is extremely innovative due to the virtual self-paced aspect, using a dynamic super hero comic to provide learning modules, and the focus on making it not only ok, but critical to check oneself and one’s mental space as part of providing quality care. This thinking represents a significant leap in global health – the emphasis that more than just clinical skills are required for care to be respectful and high quality. (PRONTO is the intervention with support from UCSF, University of Utah, and funding from BMGF)
Save the Children: Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) is a core technical programming priority for Save the Children. Within our Health, Education, and Child Protection work, MHPSS ensures that the mental health and psychosocial well-being of children and families is supported through multiple spaces including clinic, school, or center-based services, as well as through community and home support mechanisms.
One of Save the Children’s signature programs for providing structured psychosocial support to children, youth, parents, and caregivers is HEART (Healing and Education through the Arts), which is currently celebrating its 10 year anniversary. HEART uses expressive arts activities (art making and group discussion) to help children and adults to understand and express feelings, ideas, and experiences in an emotionally supportive environment. It supports stress processing and recovery and helps children and adults to develop skills to support themselves and each other in times of stress. To date, HEART has supported more than 1 million children in 30 countries around the world. To learn more, visit our website.
World Vision: World Vision implements a range of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) programmes in all parts of the world, during emergency responses and also in development contexts. One of World Vision’s earliest programs in MHPSS was to develop a tool for measuring depression within the post-conflict Rwanda context. Using this tool, a series of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Groups (IPTG) programmes were developed and later implemented in Uganda, particularly amongst people impacted by HIV/AIDS, with impressive results for sustained symptom reduction. As part of World Vision’s global strategy Our Promise we focus on a community-based MHPSS approach that:
Ensures emergency responses are safe, dignified, participatory, community-owned and socially and culturally acceptable
Maintains the protection and well-being of people in distress by strengthening community and family support
Ensures that people distressed by mental health and psychosocial problems have access to appropriate care
Ensures that people suffering from moderate or severe mental disorders have access to essential mental health services and to social care
Ensure MHPSS activities are integrated into wider systems to advance the reach and sustainability of interventions and reduce stigma of stand-alone interventions, and
Strives to be integrated whilst building on existing capacities and upholding cultural norms.
Organizational Profile: PATH – Exemplifying Integrated Care and Prevention
By Joanne Lu
Nearly 10 percent of young people in India experience mental disorders, yet barriers to access mental health care remain. Photo: A. S. Padmanabhan/iStock.
From its inception, PATH has always aimed to be a different kind of global health organization.
Founded in 1977 by three researchers, PATH works to advance health equity, not only through innovation but also collaboration with local and global experts from various industries. PATH and its partners, together with local governments, have developed sustainable solutions for nearly five decades.
Their work started with reproductive health, but quickly expanded to include a vast swath of other health areas – including malaria, non-communicable diseases, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, cancer, primary health care and more – now in 70 countries. In the last few years, they’ve added mental health to their roster as well.
Mental health was a natural addition for an organization focused on equity. According to published studies, mental and addictive disorders affect more than 1 billion people globally, yet 70 percent of those who need mental health care lack access. Molly Guy, a senior program officer in PATH’s Noncommunicable Diseases group, says that lack of access exists for many reasons, including stigma, trained mental health-care worker shortages, lack of access to training, lack of screening services, and low prioritization. And, through PATH’s work in various communities, Guy says they’ve seen how a person’s mental health can strongly affect their ability to stay on treatment regimens or seek care for other health issues.
Despite these needs, mental health care is severely underfunded at the global and local levels. According to WHO, global funding for mental health has never exceeded more than 1 percent of all development assistance for health and governments, on average, spend only 2 percent of their health budgets on mental health.
Given their footprint in so many communities around the world, their strength in integration and increasing access to non-communicable disease services, PATH is well-positioned to fill some of those gaps and to improve primary care for the whole person.
“We really saw an opportunity to integrate mental health care into the work we were already doing,” says Guy.
Planning began in 2018, and by 2019 PATH had begun to incorporate mental health screenings and counseling into their HIV program in Vietnam and government maternal and child health services in Mozambique. In Vietnam for example, PATH partners with trusted peer outreach workers to begin conversations around mental health and refer clients to community-led and -based clinics for further evaluation. These outreach workers then link people to primary health care clinics for further screening for mental health conditions. There, a care or treatment plan is put together, with providers offering services and counseling to clients per the treatment plan at these clinics and referrals made for additional psychiatric care, if needed.
Dr. Ali Kitoko shares information on an HIV self-test at Pharmacie Binamet, one of 28 pharmacies in Haut-Katanga province, DRC to introduce pharmacist-assisted HIV self-testing services during COVID-19. Photo: PATH/Raphael Mwamba.
In Mozambique, PATH worked with the Ministry of Health to incorporate maternal mental health interventions into routine postnatal consultations. Nurses were mentored by mental health providers to provide initial mental health screening, basic counselling, and to refer women who needed further support. This work is now informing the design of PATH’s maternal mental health interventions as a part of post-conflict response in Ethiopia. In Kenya, PATH is involved in in the “Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe” (DREAMS) public-private partnership, which is designed to reduce the rate of HIV among adolescent girls and young women. The partnership created “safe spaces” that provided these girls with opportunities to access needed HIV prevention supplies, while creating spaces to play and interact with peers while ensuring protection through COVID-19 prevention protocols.
And despite the stigma around mental health conditions, these programs and services have been well-received.
“When you incorporate these sorts of opportunities for conversations, screening, and care into routine visits where [the patients] are already there, then it becomes less about a specific mental health visit. It just becomes part of their holistic care,” says Guy.
In Vietnam, Mozambique, and Kenya, PATH has integrated mental health care into existing health services. But in India, they’re taking a different approach. Because up to 75% of all mental health disorders have their origins in adolescence and young adulthood, their program, Stakeholder-led Advancement of Mental Health of Young People (SAMYP), launched together with Fondation Botnar, is focused on developing mental health interventions for young people in India. They are collaborating with Indian youth to create context-appropriate digital mental health interventions for youth.
Aida and Mame Fama Male work as community health educators in Pikine, Senegal, educating women about their family planning options. Photo: PATH/Gabe Bienczycki.
Especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated mental health needs in the communities where PATH works and among health-care workers, PATH is eager to expand their mental health work.
“We see the impact that our current integrated programs have had, and we’re excited about the opportunity to grow this area,” says Guy.
Increasing their mental health footprint fits right into PATH’s new primary health care strategy, which aims to take a holistic approach to a communities’ health. That includes increasing the access that PATH’s government partners have to health data and financing. And, as always, they’re going to make sure that all of their services are designed by and for the communities in which they work.
This integrated care and prevention approach is critical as PATH continues to find new ways to help local experts build resilient health systems and respond to emerging health threats. For PATH, their work is always evolving – which should be no surprise. After all, their manifesto begins with: “A path is a way forward.”
“If you want to reduce maternal mortality, you’ve got to think about perinatal depression. If you want to increase child survival, you’ve got to think about maternal mental health. If you want to make sure people with HIV have undetectable levels of virus in their blood, you’ve got to support their mental health. These things can’t be separated. Our health cannot be dichotomized into mental and physical health,” reflected Dr. Collins.
“When you look at SDGs and issues they address, many have a relationship to mental health. We know that quality education at an early age leads to better mental health outcomes. We know that violence and conflict, gender equality and racial equality, and elimination of discrimination – all of which are mentioned in the SDGs – affect mental health outcomes. I am delighted that SDG 3 explicitly mentions the need to promote mental health and wellbeing, that it explicitly mentions reducing mortality from noncommunicable diseases, including mental disorders.”
Professor Dr. Collins, a trained psychiatrist and public health researcher, has always had a passion for mental health and a real interest in culture and cultural context. She takes a holistic view about mental health and its connection to everything.
Early in her career she thought it would be fascinating to understand how people think about their mental health from different cultural perspectives. Dr. Collins was interested in a broader worldview, beyond the psychological theories generated in the U.S. and European context, which were part of traditional clinical training. Her first experience in global mental health began when she was invited to work with a colleague in the Argentine Patagonia and learn about how the program there was managing the mental health of people in their community. The team focused on social inclusion and reducing isolation of people with severe mental illnesses in powerful but simple ways. They located their program in the middle of town, where people could sit with others in a café in the town’s center. They used their community’s resources – its vibrant arts community – and invited artists and dancers to participate in the program. When Dr. Collins and her colleagues visited, in addition to visiting medical health professionals, they talked to people in the schools, courts, and broader community. She learned a more holistic view of mental health by recognizing who in the community needs to be involved in caring for people with mental health problems, and why social inclusion is important for mental health.
One of the themes throughout Dr. Collins’s career has been understanding how our relationships to our immediate social environment and larger social environment affect our mental health and wellbeing as well as our risk for health problems more generally. She began her research career with a focus on social stigma and discrimination, which is important to people living with a mental health condition and for people at risk for or people living with HIV. In these early studies she interviewed women of color in New York City with serious mental health conditions, i.e. women with multiple identities that other people are likely to discriminate against, like gender, race, ethnicity, immigrant status, or having a psychiatric diagnosis. They discussed how women managed their mental health and their relationships, as well as how disclosing a mental illness affected their relationship with a partner. Through these interviews, her team learned that distinct kinds of discrimination or experiences of stigma were linked to specific risks for HIV.
“Questions about social stigma and discrimination have to move beyond how individuals manage these experiences to how societies and institutions perpetuate the behaviors, policies, and actions that curtail people’s rights, limit their life chances, harm their health and increase their mortality. Institutional racism is a great example of this—policies and practices that disadvantage people from stigmatized racial groups. These are contextual drivers of mental health.”
In her quest to understand social context and health, understanding how inequities affect health care access, delivery and outcomes has been a central theme. Before coming to Seattle, Dr. Collins was the Director of the Office for Research on Disparities and Global Mental Health and the Office of Rural Mental Health Research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NMIH). She worked with colleagues to develop initiatives to reduce mental health disparities within the United States, and she launched a set of initiatives to address the scarcity of mental health care services in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. By gaining an understanding of what different stakeholders needed to access to mental health in their countries, she and her colleagues worked to expand the evidence showing whether different kinds of community and healthcare workers could effectively deliver mental health interventions. In other words, if there’s not a psychiatrist or psychologist available, who can be trained to deliver quality, culturally-congruent care? It’s called task sharing. That’s one achievement that Dr. Collins is proud of.
Something that motivates Dr. Collins especially right now, is the frustration that there are so many people that actually want and need access to mental health care and yet aren’t able to get it. A lot of her work is about understanding what the barriers are to getting people what they need and how to ensure that people can get culturally congruent, quality care.
These days, Dr. Collins leads two centers at the University of Washington (UW). One is the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) and the other is UW’s Global Mental Health Center. I-TECH is a global network that works with local partners to develop skilled health care workers and strong national health systems in resource-limited countries. I-TECH promotes local ownership to sustain effective health systems. One of the things they help with is providing prevention, care, and treatment for HIV. In that context, several of their sites support the mental health of people living with HIV. Like many organizations, I-TECH had to pivot during the pandemic and figure out how to use telehealth, digital training and other creative ways to safely support the people they work with. “Our team used innovative approached they had developed and tested before the pandemic—like 2-way texting as a way for patients to communicate with a health center. Or we used our skills in health information systems to develop new COVID-19 testing resources. As a network, Zoom meetings actually provided a way to stay connected more than prior to the epidemic.”
UW’s Consortium for Global Mental Health develops, tests, and builds the capacity to deliver contextually-appropriate and sustainable models for mental health intervention with local and global partners. Last year, Dr. Collins and her team were getting ready to go to Kenya for a training of community health volunteers to manage trauma for young people. They couldn’t do the visit, but they were able to stay informed on how the pandemic was unfolding there and the changing needs of young people during the pandemic. The Kenyan partners identified a low-bandwidth platform to do the training, and they successfully trained the community health volunteers to deliver psychosocial support to adolescents via cell phone. “That taught us there are ways to use low tech that can be equally important as high-tech solutions. It also made us wonder whether adolescents might feel safer and less intimidated meeting by phone. We need to better understand how to respond to the needs of youth, particularly in the midst of adversity, like the pandemic. We need to have a variety of options for them to engage in support.”
Most of us have experienced some degree of isolation because of this pandemic and can appreciate how important connection and community are for mental health. As we emerge from the pandemic, Dr. Collins shared her holistic vision for improving mental health.
“Beyond health systems and services that give people access to care, I have a vision for communities that create a powerful experience of belonging. What does it take to do this on a large scale? I feel motivated, lately, by our collective need for connection and what it means to foster communities that generate connectedness and emotional wellbeing.”
In celebration of International Women’s Day, March 8th, Pangea’s Board of Directors is proud to honor you as outstanding women leaders. We are inspired by your commitment to address critical women’s issues. Your work provides access to quality education, sexual and reproductive rights, a life free from violence, economic inclusion, protection of land and natural resources, and recognition of indigenous rights.
We recognize your achievements in making a real difference in the lives of women in your communities through your leadership, determination, and innovative approaches. Thank you for all that you do for others. You inspire us to continue our mission here at Pangea.
In solidarity,
Janet Pearson, President
Pangea Board of Directors
“Success isn’t about how much money you make; it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.”
-Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States
UNICEF demonstrating the Talking Book. Photo: UNICEF/Joseph Mills
After the Mental Health Act 846 passed in 2012, Ghana Health Service (GHS) shifted its mental health programming from facility-based to a more integrated community-based approach. GHS set up new structures, with regional, district, and facility-level mental health coordinators. But in the Upper West Region’s under resourced rural districts, the mental health coordinators lack access to reliable training and support. Continue Reading
“My disability doesn’t define my future.”
Ms. Sum Sakon, WWLC Participant
Through Weaving Women’s Leadership for Change (WWLC), a Women Peace Makers’ program, Ms. Sum Sakon joined other women in a safe space to learn, inspire, celebrate, support, and share about themselves, and their leadership challenges. She joined the program in 2020 and became part of the second cohort.
Ms. Sum Sakon came from a humble background. Growing up in a large family in Prey Veng province, she was struck by polio as a child which impacted her ability to walk properly. Despite her disability, she was motivated to complete her high school education, even when family members did not support her going to school. She is now 36 years old, married, and has three children.
Before joining the WWLC program, Ms. Sum Sakon was skeptical and concerned about traveling alone for safety reasons. This concern was heightened by her limited mobility. She also worried about her limited educational background. Nevertheless, her experience in the program changed her mind. Her confidence grew,
“Personally, this program is very transformational. Everyone was given a safe space to talk, to express our concern and needs. I felt so relieved and close with others. I can see that everyone is very open-minded, open sharing, and very respectful to each other.”
The lessons learned on “gender and feminism” made a significant impact on Ms. Sum Sakon’s perception of society’s expectations of women.
“I started to value myself and love myself more. I used to be the kind of woman who likes to please others and care about others only. Now, I’ve changed my perspective that men and women are equal. There is no limitation on what we as women can accomplish.
I know how to help and pause myself through self-care like meditation and yoga . . . Gradually, I have noticed myself to be an open-minded person who understands other people’s feelings and builds good relationships with others. I have gained new knowledge and experience, and through WWLC, I want to become a mentor and advisor to support other women and my community. I want to show the world that my disability doesn’t define my future.”
Women Peace Makers, a Pangea partner since 2014, addresses issues of gender and peacebuilding with women and youth in Cambodia. Their holistic approach includes training women to prevent gender-based violence, engaging young people in dialogue on the roles of gender and ethnicity in Cambodian society, and producing creative, thought-provoking art projects to expose those issues in the country.
When the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established in 2015, the global development community acknowledged the fundamental need to have highly functioning government institutions that support the well-being of people and communities. In fact, experts now believe that SDG 16, which focuses on peace, justice, and strong institutions, is the very backbone of all other goals, and without it, the other goals will not be achieved.
Good governance is often overlooked because it is more evident when a government is not working. Recent events in Myanmar, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan are examples when an internal political crisis resulted in a humanitarian crisis for its citizens. In Afghanistan, nearly 68% of the population is experiencing food insecurity, and in Ethiopia, over 5.2 million people are in need of emergency food aid.
This month, we feature Global Washington members who are working to support SDG 16 within low and middle income countries to ensure peace, stability, and a civil society that supports the most vulnerable. This topic was referenced numerous times at our annual conference last December in light of President Biden’s Summit for Democracy. A summary of sessions addressing SDG 16, the role of governments to support gender equality, as well as all other sessions are included in our Goalmakers Conference Report.
We’ve also been tracking humanitarian crises unfolding over the past few years and encourage you to read our updated action alerts to learn more and support the organizations listed.
Global Washington hopes to host in-person events in the near future to bring our community together around critical topics such as SDG16. Check our event page on our website soon for future listings.
If We Do Not Invest in SDG 16 We Risk Conflict and Sliding Back on All of the Other Goals
By Joanne Lu
In December, the Biden Administration closed out 2021 by sounding an alarm: Democracy is under threat around the world. If the world does not work to defend it, the president warned at his first Summit for Democracy, we will not be able to rise to the unprecedented challenges of our time.
Joe Biden is not the only one who feels that way. There is growing consensus among global leaders who are working toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that if we, as a global community, do not invest in SDG 16 – peace, justice and strong institutions – we risk conflict and sliding back on all of the other goals.
On the first day of Global Washington’s Goalmakers 2021 conference, on December 8, leaders from our community gathered online to discuss this very issue.
“When the system itself is unjust or unequal, you cannot maintain your precious development gains – you almost always plant the seeds for greater conflict [or] renewed violence,” Nancy Lindborg, President and CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, said in a panel discussion.
Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica’s first woman president, agreed: “The purpose is not to build institutions for the sake of them. On the contrary, we are guided by higher principles and goals to which those institutions are meant to serve. This is why I consider SDG 16 the moral backbone of the 2030 agenda.”
SDG 16 is summed up as “peace, justice and strong institutions,” but the panelists warned about the pitfalls of this “bumper sticker” abbreviation.
“[Strong institutions] is a phrase that is open to misunderstanding and misuse,” said Betsy Anderson, executive director of the World Justice Project. “Institutions that are powerful, even authoritarian…, could be characterized as strong, and, of course, that’s not what we contemplate in SDG 16.”
Instead, Anderson says, we should look at the full text of the goal that UN member states signed onto: “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.”
Anti-corruption – one of the three focuses of the first Summit for Democracy, along with human rights and the rise in authoritarianism – is a key part of building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions. This is something the Chandler Foundation has been working hard to promote through its investments. For example, they support organizations like Open Government Partnership, which provides government officials and their partners with practical tools and resources – including more than 200 crowdsourced examples of policies and practices – that help keep governments transparent and honest. Similarly, Open Contracting Partnership helps governments adopt protocols for buying emergency equipment quickly and fairly, without favoritism, allowing government funds to stretch further.
Renewing Democracy – A Decade of OGP | Video: Open Government Partnership
Of course, data is also critical for governments and advocates to assess how well they’re doing. That’s why the World Justice Project publishes its Rule of Law Index every year. Through household surveys and interviews with experts, the index measures how rule of law is experienced and perceived throughout the world, and it’s shared across sectors with the intention to “encourage policy reforms, guide program development and inform research to strengthen the rule of law.”
Here again is a term that has been misused to justify authoritarian regimes and brutal crackdowns – what WJP executive director Betsy Anderson says is more like “rule by law.” Instead, she says, under the rule of law, “a strong institution does enforce laws and holds people accountable, but it also is accountable itself under the law. The law has to be clear, publicized, stable, and uphold human rights. And the processes by which that law is adopted and administered should be open and accessible.”
Such a system not only facilitates the achievement of all the other SDGs, but it also ensures that progress is inclusive and leaves no one behind. As Nancy Lindborg of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation mentioned above, effective, inclusive, and accountable institutions are also critical for maintaining peace.
We’ve seen, for example, how quickly Afghanistan fell to the Taliban as soon as the U.S. withdrew, in large part because corruption had undermined Afghanistan’s ability to develop effective institutions. The government of Afghanistan wasn’t able to create credibility, says Lindborg, and the people lacked confidence in it.
But as we also see in Ethiopia, when conflict breaks out, decades of progress can be reversed seemingly overnight. The World Bank estimates that by 2030, two-thirds of the world’s poorest people will live in conflict zones. That’s why humanitarian and development organizations like Mercy Corps not only respond to crises after they break out, but also facilitate peacebuilding. For example, in Nigeria, where climate change is driving conflict between farmers and pastoralists, Mercy Corps is helping these groups build trust in each through dialogue, mediation, and working together to address common problems.
Similarly, in 2019, the U.S. signed into law the Global Fragility Act, which aims to take a more proactive, long-term, whole-of-government approach “to help countries move from fragility to stability and from conflict to peace.” The bill includes for the first five years $200 million a year for a Prevention and Stabilization Fund and $30 million a year for a Complex Crisis Fund. It also requires 10-year strategies for five priority countries or regions.
Crowded market in Ethiopia. Photo: Lesly Derksen, Unsplash
Amid a rise in global conflicts after decades of decline and other unprecedented challenges – like the pandemic and climate change – that are only exacerbating violence, efforts to promote peace, justice, and effective, inclusive, and accountable institutions are more important than ever. It may be the last Sustainable Development Goal, but it is foundational to maintaining – and accelerating – all of the progress we’ve worked so hard for as a global community.
The following GlobalWA members are working to build strong institutions and reduce inequalities in low and middle income countries.
The Chandler Foundation’s mission is to help build strong and healthy nations that provide all people the opportunity to unleash their creative and entrepreneurial potential. We believe that governments, when operating in service of their citizens, are the most effective accelerators of change. So, the Chandler Foundation invests in organizations working to reduce corruption and bolster public service capacities of governments in the Global South. We partner with organizations like Open Government Partnership, Open Contracting Partnership, and Chandler Institute of Governance. We also launched the Chandler Sessions on Integrity and Corruption at Oxford University to promote peer exchange among anti-corruption leaders from governments around the world.
We believe that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. Rather than adopting a traditional model of “alleviating poverty,” the Chandler Foundation seeks to build the enabling conditions for upwards social mobility. We are currently developing this new area of work and are exploring the intersection between social mobility and inequality.
Landesa champions and works to secure land rights for millions of those living in poverty worldwide to promote social justice and provide opportunity. Deeply entrenched inequalities around gender, age, and Indigeneity reinforce the poverty cycle, but land provides firm ground to stand on. Secure rights to land lay the foundation for people to access other basic rights.
Landesa partners directly with governments to strengthen the institutions that develop and implement land laws. When land ownership is unclear, the potential for violence and conflict escalates in cases of migration and natural resource use. Secure and transparent land rights act as pillars of peace at the household, community, and national levels.
Landesa provides ongoing technical assistance to the Liberian government as it implements the national Land Rights Law passed in 2018. This includes supporting the Liberia Land Authority to develop legal and institutional frameworks that promote inclusion of women and youth, along with gender-responsive policies and regulations to enhance implementation. A focus on national and county government capacity building offers training opportunities for young Liberians and ensures gender-responsive land reform can continue successfully into the future. Beyond government partnership, Landesa also builds capacity of civil society groups to raise legal awareness and foster implementation of the Land Rights Law that is responsive to climate change, gender, and youth. Learn more about Landesa’s work in Liberia.
Oxfam America 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 seek to reduce inequalities and promote peaceful and inclusive societies throughout our work. Our Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index ranks 158 governments according to their social spending, tax and labor policies to fight economic inequality. In many of these countries we work with partners to hold government accountable for progress in these areas. In doing so we defend the ability of people to organize and speak out without fear by strengthening partners’ resilience and effectiveness, building political support for freedoms of speech and association, and advocating for protections of partners under threat. Globally, we advocate for resource transfers from rich to poor countries. We tell truth to power in our annual reports around the global elite’s Davos meetings, including by challenging corporate power. We also work collaboratively with governments committed to just and inclusive societies, notably through Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to accelerate action at the intersection of SDG16 and SDG10 through research and dialogue.
Pangea Giving works to be a catalyst for peace, social, and economic justice. As a giving circle, we share our time and resources to form trusting relationships that impact change around the world. Three key steps we take are:
Listening deeply to our partners in order to strengthen our understanding of their experiences and the injustices they face
Taking responsibility for educating ourselves about critical topics such as global climate change, indigenous peoples’ rights or gender-based violence
Taking action to support our partners to reach their goals through funding, networking and technical assistance
Central to Pangea’s mission is the commitment that our grants fund the self-defined needs of communities. We work with grassroots organizations that are embedded in communities and engaged in work that addresses their needs. We do not limit our support to any particular issue; however, most of our work is focused on four pillars: climate and environmental justice, gender equity, children’s rights and education, and indigenous rights.
We believe that establishing transparent and supportive relationships with our partners, and continuously learning from our interactions, are essential to making lasting impact.
Seattle International Foundation (SIF) is guided by a vision of just, peaceful, and prosperous societies in Central America. From our 14-plus years working in the region, we recognize that the foundational pillars of strong societies are championing good governance and strong rule of law, supporting a vibrant civil society, fostering equity and inclusion, and addressing the root causes of migration and displacement. We support and strengthen local civil society actors who understand their communities and countries best, and are the frontline in the fight against corruption, impunity, inequality, and human rights violations.
SIF makes financial grants and provides technical support to civil society actors, including independent media outlets, youth social movements, activists, and other organized civil society members. To complement our grantmaking, we intentionally create spaces for actors across the region to convene securely and build supportive peer networks; advocate and amplify issues in Central America to US policymakers and in broader public stages; and engage philanthropic donors interested in Central America to encourage investment. We believe that these approaches, combined with the sustained efforts of civil society in Central America, are the best way forward, especially in this politically and economically challenging era.
Spreeha transforms lives by empowering people in communities to thrive through healthcare, education, skills training, and economic opportunities. Spreeha envisions people empowered to permanently break the cycle of poverty. We deeply engage with communities to build trust and understand the problems they face. Spreeha’s work as an institution builds on its core values of empathy, innovation, agility, continuous learning, partnership and integrity.
In Bangladesh, through a holistic approach of healthcare, education, sills training and economic opportunities, Spreeha empowers children, women and men in the underserved communities. Spreeha’s healthcare and telehealth services offer access to healthcare for communities in urban slums and remote areas. This especially provides access to healthcare for pregnant women. Preschools program introduces learning at an early age, and provides a level playing field for children living in urban slums. After-school program helps students to succeed and prevents school dropouts, a common concern for slum area students. The adolescent girls’ club and leadership programs for teenage girls and boys empower adolescent students with leadership skills, social justice, civic responsibilities and individual rights. The work of providing access and opportunities empowers communities, creates a lasting impact, breaks the cycle of poverty, and reduces inequalities.
Sukarya is a woman led, women centric and women focused organization, and has been strongly advocating for women empowerment and place them at the center of the development curve, equipping them with education, life-skills, training and career opportunities since last two decades.
Be it Education on Wheels, skilling of women, leadership training of adolescent girls or providing maternal and child health services are designed keeping in mind their intergenerational challenges. It works with women at individual/group level to build their self-esteem and self-worth. By providing education, life skills, awareness about their body, surroundings and rights, countless women have learnt to tackle complex emergency situations. We stand by our communities and this came into play most impactfully during COVID-19 pandemic.
Through the two years of COVID-19, handholding support, reassurance and guidance have been provided to families ravaged by the pandemic. By creating awareness, providing timely relief, addressing daily needs with COVID-19 hygiene kits and food packets with dry rations, Sukarya has also been consistent in its advocacy for vaccines, ensuring families are fully vaccinated. From printing advocacy materials to organizing trainings (online and offline), making household visits and WhatsApp groups, and encouraging and shaping community leaders, not a single day passes when Sukarya team is not there for its communities.
At the core of Sukarya’s work is to help build resilient communities that can weather all storms and upheavals, boost PPP initiatives and NGO sector at grassroots to help existing government programs scale-up ensuring voices of minorities, especially women and adolescent girls, find a place in the larger public dialogue and policy framework.
Women’s Link Worldwide is a transnational feminist organization that uses the power of the law to advance the human rights of women and girls. We use the law creatively to help judges understand the problems women are facing and issue decisions that contribute to reducing the inequality women experience. Our focus in on advancing access to sexual and reproductive health services and protection when women are victims of gender-based violence.
In another legal action with allies in Guatemala, we called on judicial authorities to guarantee rights in the midst of the pandemic. The authorities adopted our recommendations to extend operating hours of courts that deal with violence again women, extend protection measures for women who are victims of violence, and called for a protocol for the functioning of the judiciary in the current crisis.
Our work strengthens institutions by providing the judiciary with opportunities to issue rulings with a gender perspective that in turn help authorities and governments guarantee women and girls their rights to live free from violence and discrimination and to have full autonomy over their bodies and their decisions.
The World Justice Project is an independent, multidisciplinary organization working to advance the rule of law around the world. Effective rule of law reduces corruption, combats poverty and disease, and protects people from injustices large and small.
The World Justice Project’s research and analysis includes the annual World Justice Project Rule of Law Index®, the world’s leading source for original data on the rule of law. The 2021 Index draws on more than 140,000 in-depth household and expert surveys to measure rule of law in 139 countries and jurisdictions around the world.
In its role as convener of the international, multi-stakeholder rule of law movement, the World Justice Project and its partners will host World Justice Forum 2022: Building More Just Communities in the Hague and online, May 30 – June 2, 2022.
Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation Yemen has been at war since 2015. The Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation (YRRF) has been involved in life saving relief efforts throughout the country. Disastrous blockades of lifeline ports coupled with indiscriminate continuous bombing campaigns have produced an historically unprecedented humanitarian crisis with extreme food insecurity and a destruction of many of the services, including health and education. The Foundation has been critical in providing food, medicines, and other aid. YRRF supported activities related to COVID19 response to health facilities and the major public health laboratories. Moreover, YRRF continues to provide much needed medicine, equipment, and supplies to public health facilities, supports schools and students, focusing on the vulnerable and underserved populations, and supports families with income generation projects to facilitate their independence. We reduce inequalities by delivering our services to remote, hard to reach villages across the rugged geography. We emphasize the disenfranchised including the internally displaced persons sheltering in camps. We also partner with other organizations to advocate for peace and to end US support to the war. Our vision is Peace for the people of Yemen and the preservation of their institutions to allow them to enjoy the security and well-being currently beyond their reach
OutRight International: Strengthening Institutions and Reducing Inequalities by Advocating for LGBTIQ Rights Around the World
By Joanne Lu
OutSummit 2018 | Photo: OutRight Action International
The Sustainable Development Goals are on a mission to “leave no one behind.” But that will not be possible without the inclusion of one of the most historically marginalized and abused communities – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people.
That’s why since 1990, OutRight Action International has been advocating for the rights and protection of LGBTIQ people around the world, from grassroots civil society to the United Nations.
“Everywhere in the world, LGBTIQ people continue to be denied human rights. OutRight wants to change that,” says Neela Ghoshal, OutRight’s Senior Director of Law, Policy and Research. And over the last 30 years, they have facilitated many victories – huge and incremental – for LGBTIQ people.
Founded in 1990 by Julie Dorf, OutRight – which was then called the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) – was initially focused primarily on Russia. They advocated for ending the psychiatric hospitalization of LGBTIQ people, access to HIV prevention and treatment and the decriminalization of same-sex relations, which was achieved three years later.
But the geographic focus on Russia didn’t last long. In 1993, they won the first sexual orientation asylum case in the U.S. for a Brazilian man, after presenting documentation showing that more than 1,200 LGBT people had been murdered in Brazil over a decade. And they persuaded the U.S. State Department to include the persecution of LGBT people in its annual country reports on human rights.
Two years later, they were a “very active participant,” says Ghoshal, in the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, where they ensured that sexual rights were included in official discussions. Ghoshal says it was a “definitive moment in the defining of a global LGBT movement.”
2019 UN LGBTI Core Group High-Level Meeting. Photo: Brad Hamilton
With some other victories along the way, IGLHRC became the only U.S.-based LGBTIQ organization to earn a year-round, permanent consultative status from the UN Economic and Social Council in 2010. This continues to be a massive platform for the organization to advocate for LGBTIQ equality at the UN, participate in proceedings, and bring together activists and policymakers from around the world.
Since then, the organization, which changed its name to OutRight Action International in 2015, has been supporting LGBTIQ movements all around the world, conducting research and advocacy and working to change the legal, political and social status of LGBTIQ people everywhere.
According to Ghoshal, who joined OutRight four months ago after 14 years at Human Rights Watch, what stands out about OutRight is its reputation for being a “dynamic and impactful organization.” This comes from not only the breadth of its work – spanning advocacy, research, training, grants, legal strategy and more – but also the depth of it, from partnering closely with grassroots civil society organizations to advocacy in the highest spaces of the UN.
“Right now, our work focuses in four regions: the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia,” says Ghoshal. “Everything that we do in those regions is in deep consultation with civil society organizations.”
OutRight COVID-19 Global Emergency fund grantees 2021 | Photo credit: Queer Youth Uganda
Their reach, says Ghoshal, helps to amplify the voices of people who typically aren’t represented in higher-level decision-making spaces. And, it can help make sure that decisions being made in global institutions actually reflect the needs of LGBTIQ people everywhere.
Those needs are still immense, as LGBTIQ people are persecuted, excluded and not protected as equal citizens under the law. For instance in at least 68 countries, consensual same-sex relations are still criminalized and in a handful of others, gender expression is criminalized as well. Ghana, for example, is considering a law that will not only enhance criminalization of same-sex relations, but also criminalize advocacy for LGBTIQ equality.
But even in such hostile environments, there’s a lot that OutRight can do, starting with supporting grassroots and national-level organizations, dialoguing with governments about changing the laws and documenting the consequences of them. Like in Ghana, OutRight is documenting how violence has increased measurably since the discriminatory law was proposed – and it hasn’t even passed yet. Some politicians in the Ghanaian government find that evidence compelling, and they are using that information to resist the law.
Documentation is also critical for building international pressure and raising awareness of emergencies, like in conflict situations, where LGBTIQ people are disproportionately denied assistance, targeted with physical and sexual violence and enforced disappearances, and often lack the protection of their families and communities. In Afghanistan, for example, the Taliban has taken a hard stance against the rights of LGBTIQ people. Officials abusing their power are taking it out on women and LGBTIQ people. And LGBTIQ people are being turned into the Taliban by family members and neighbors who are trying to protect themselves.
But it’s not just conflict zones that are dangerous for LGBTIQ people.
“For LGBTIQ people even who are not living in situations of conflict, we are also typically not living in situations of peace,” says Ghoshal. “There’s the daily risk of violence [against LGBTIQ people] in many parts of the world on the basis of their identity.”
That’s why throughout Asia, OutRight is working with organizations that are seeking to make laws on gender-based violence more inclusive, so that LGBTIQ people have access to justice if they are abused by their intimate partners, their families or their neighbors.
Workshop in the Philippines on Enhancing Domestic Violence Protections for LGBT – 2018 | Photo: OutRight Action International
“Essentially what we’re doing in all these countries is figuring out where the space is for incremental change – knowing that major change doesn’t always happen overnight,” says Ghoshal, “and working in partnership with civil society to get that incremental change done so that little by little, people’s lives get concretely better.”
Improving the lives of LGBTIQ people should be a top priority for the international community, because sustainable development is impossible when a portion of society is excluded, says Ghoshal. She would argue that nowhere in the world are institutions fully inclusive of LGBTIQ people yet. Even the Sustainable Development Goals themselves do not explicitly mention sexual orientation or gender identity.
But a society isn’t truly living freely, she says, if people are constantly afraid that the rights of one group or another are being trampled. Plus, Ghoshal adds, it’s often the case that when governments begin violating the rights of people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or sex characteristics, attacks on the rights of other groups follow. This means that everybody should be concerned when they see an increase in attacks on LGBTIQ people.
OutRight COVID-19 Global Emergency fund grantees 2021| Photo: LGBT Collective of Bolivia
On the other hand, if a government upholds even the basic human rights of LGBTIQ people, Ghoshal says it’s often a good indicator of that government’s willingness to accept and celebrate everybody living freely as who they are – regardless of their religion, disabilities or other characteristics.
“And that’s something that benefits everyone,” says Ghoshal.
Goalmaker: Adriana Beltrán, Executive Director, Seattle International Foundation (SIF)
By Joanne Lu
Bogotá, Colombia in the 1980s and ‘90s was not an easy place to grow up. But for Adriana Beltrán, the conflict, violence and disappearances that peppered her formative years set her on a path to where she is today, as the new executive director of Seattle International Foundation (SIF), where she continues a career dedicated to supporting anti-corruption, democracy and human rights in Latin America.
The political conflict between the government of Colombia, far-right paramilitary groups, and leftist guerilla groups began in the 1960s. But Beltrán vividly remembers when Colombia also became the epicenter of the War on Drugs. She remembers daily news of killings and disappearances, bomb drills at her school, and a period of time when a number of politicians, journalists, even comedians, were killed to silence their work.
Then, the violence and corruption hit too close to home.
Beltrán was in her early teens when her own father was disappeared. Shortly after, the people believed to be responsible for his disappearance began to threaten her family and go after their property and belongings. The suspects used their influence and money to pay off judges, police and bribe or coerce public officials to falsify and change land registry records.
“For me, it was a wake up call to the impact of impunity and corruption,” says Beltrán. “Watching my mom have to face that situation and confront a corrupt system that denied her access to justice probably had the most profound impact on my life and my decision to pursue a career in human rights.”
All this tension and conflict was a lot for a young teenager to take on, so Beltrán looked for a way out. It turns out that Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa granted two scholarships a year to students from Beltrán’s school in Colombia. So, she applied.
Beltrán was only supposed to be at Loras College for one year. But it was the first time in her life she was able to finally breathe and reflect on what she had gone through at home. Having that space to process and speak about her experiences ignited in her the desire to dedicate her professional career to advancing the rule of law and human rights.
After college, Beltrán moved to D.C., where she soon began a long career at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), eventually becoming the Director for Citizen Security. At WOLA, she got to work with civil society organizations on a broad range of issues, including security and justice reform, democracy building, and gender-based violence.
One of the projects she’s most proud of from her time at WOLA was the creation of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a UN-led anti-corruption body charged with helping local authorities investigate and prosecute illicit groups and their ties to the State. It was a proposal spearheaded by Guatemalan civil society organizations, who saw the need for international support in advancing rule of law because their own state institutions were being controlled by illegal armed groups that had emerged from the Guatemalan Civil War. The civil society groups approached WOLA to help them advocate with international donors for the creation of the commission, and after several years of tremendous coordination across continents, research and analysis, navigating security threats against those involved and major setbacks, the commission was finally founded in 2006.
According to Beltrán, the commission not only strengthened the capacity of local investigators, but it also shed light on how deeply entrenched systemic corruption is in Guatemala.
“More than anything, it gave hope to Guatemalans that the system could work,” says Beltrán.
But as Newton’s Third Law warns, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In Guatemala, those whose power and impunity were being threatened by the commission were not going to stand by idly. In 2019, the Guatemalan government shut down the commission, and according to Beltrán, at least 13 independent judges and prosecutors have been forced into exile. Others who are pushing for justice and greater accountability, including civil society actors and journalists, are also facing increasing attacks, malicious lawsuits, and defamation campaigns.
This powerful backlash against successful anti-corruption efforts and better governance is not just in Guatemala, says Beltrán – it’s happening across Central America. On top of that, the region has been devastated recently by several natural disasters, including two back-to-back hurricanes. And its institutions, including health and education systems, are still reeling from the impacts of COVID-19. These are some of the factors forcing Central Americans to make the tough decision to abandon their homes and migrate in search of security and a better life, says Beltrán.
While the Biden administration has refocused attention on the drivers of migration from the region and committed billions of dollars to it, Beltrán says that until the root issues of systemic corruption and impunity are addressed, we’re not going to see advances in other areas.
“Impunity is one the main threats to democracy in the region,” says Beltrán. “It is the ultimate expression of inequality enabling economic and political elites to undermine public institutions, distort justice, and violate people’s basic human rights.”
Photo credit: Seattle International Foundation
But there is a vibrant, courageous, and resilient civil society in Central America that continues to press for reforms, says Beltrán. And that’s what she is working to support in her new role at SIF, since September 2021.
Her relationship with the foundation actually goes back many years. While at WOLA, she worked with SIF, its co-founders Bill and Paula Clapp and many of its current and former staff on several initiatives. As a long-time admirer of SIF’s work in Central America, Beltrán says she “just knew” she wanted to lead the foundation as executive director when the position was announced.
“It felt like a natural, perfect fit, given our shared values and commitment to the region,” says Beltrán.
She’s excited to guide the foundation in its next chapter of growth and to strengthen SIF in its role as a leading partner in supporting civil society efforts to advance rule of law, good governance, and equity in Central America. In addition to grantmaking, the foundation is amplifying the voices of civil society leaders; helping them gain access to US policymakers; strengthening their skills, capacity, and networks; advocating for more philanthropic support and investment in the region; making sure they have flexible, multi-year funding to respond to emergencies; and much more.
The region is facing a very difficult period at the moment, says Beltrán, but “SIF is no stranger to tough times.” And neither is she.
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Operation Snow Leopard
Operation Snow Leopard has established an optimized network of Strategic Partners to support Proven Enablers to bring home from Afghanistan every US Citizen and Legal Permanent Resident (LPR), the immediate and extended family members of US citizen and LPRs, and our Afghan allies and partners who served the United States Armed Services faithfully as Afghan special operations, interpreters, security specialists, and intelligence analysts. The situation in Afghanistan is dire and their lives are in our hands, thus we will honor the promise our nation made to protect them. operationsnowleopard.org
Just over one year ago, a coup threw Myanmar into further chaos and violence, as the world watched. The military unleashed violence through excessive use of force, including indiscriminate killing, arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances, curtailment of CSOs’ operations, nightly raids and arrests. With the socio-economic and political upheaval, combined with the Covid-19 pandemic which hit the country hard last year, we are in the midst of a set of complex emergencies. Continue Reading
By Tyler Roush, Director of Communications, Landesa, a global land rights organization.
Liberia in the 1990s was a place of turmoil, host to a brutal civil war that would kill at least 250,000 people and leave many thousands more displaced.
The war uprooted Martha* from her farm in Lofa County. Her husband, Joseph, was a rebel fighter aligned with one of the factions vying for control, and had taken her and the couple’s four children away from the family’s land, to a city closer to the rebels’ base.
On the day in 1996 that he was killed, Martha felt her own life slipping away.
“I wanted to die that day,” Martha says. “Nobody was there to help me take care of the children – it was me alone.” Continue Reading
Our creative use of the law in Colombia protected the sexual and reproductive health of women in the department of Norte de Santander, one of Colombia’s regions that borders Venezuela.
By: Valeria Pedraza| Staff Attorney at Women’s Link Worldwide
Reposted with permission from Women’s Link Worldwide, with adjustments by the author.
“Borders are in the mind” – Photo: Laura Martínez, Women’s Link Worldwide
At Women’s Link, we have been using the law creatively to achieve justice for women and girls for more than 20 years. We are convinced that it is a valuable tool to bring them closer to justice, to a life free of violence and discrimination, and to full autonomy over their bodies and decisions. Continue Reading
“If you want to reduce maternal mortality, you’ve got to think about perinatal depression. If you want to increase child survival, you’ve got to think about maternal mental health. If you want to make sure people with HIV have undetectable levels of virus in their blood, you’ve got to support their mental health. These things can’t be separated. Our health cannot be dichotomized into mental and physical health,” reflected Dr. Collins.
Bogotá, Colombia in the 1980s and ‘90s was not an easy place to grow up. But for Adriana Beltrán, the conflict, violence and disappearances that peppered her formative years set her on a path to where she is today, as the new executive director of Seattle International Foundation (SIF), where she continues a career dedicated to supporting anti-corruption, democracy and human rights in Latin America.
