By Jenni Ahern, Program Director, Future of Fish Peru Republished with permission from Future of Fish
You may hear the terms “participatory development”, “co-design” or “co-create” a lot these days as Community and International Development theory continues to evolve. This theory evolves and adapts to human beings and community identified needs, where the most crucial piece of participatory community development is trust building. Trust in process and in people, are the two necessary ingredients for success.
Republished with permission from Global Communities
Toribia – a 54-year-old mother of eight from the Western Highlands of Guatemala – has long been a leader in her family, who strives to make a consistent income with their land and livestock. Because families in the Western Highlands are typically producers and consumers of their own food, they are reliant on agricultural activities to survive and can be heavily impacted by cyclical climatic shocks and natural disasters. They also face high levels of food insecurity, child malnutrition, low literacy rates and health crises.
By Maureen Simpson, Senior Manager, Global Communications, Global Communities, with reporting from George Kapataies
Gaza Response, WEFAQ hygiene and protection kits and toys for children. January 2, 2024. Photo: Global Communities
Since 1994, Global Communities has fostered deep ties with Palestinian communities, focusing on needs-based, equitable and sustainable initiatives. For three decades, our diverse programs have included youth engagement, governance and capacity building, infrastructure rebuilding, economic development, WASH and protection.
Telemedicine in remote areas during COVID-19. Photo: Spreeha Foundation
“During those uncertain times; when all doctor chambers were closed, the doctor was there to prescribe me medicines over the telephone which was a great relief for both me and my family” – said Anwar Hossain, while talking about Spreeha’s telehealth service that has been initiated more pro-actively in the wake of Coronavirus in 2020-21.
Bangladesh, situated in South Asia, confronts a multitude of challenges regarding disasters. Natural calamities impact approximately 6% of its population annually, with the country serving as a hotspot for tropical cyclones that wreak havoc in coastal regions, causing significant loss of life and property. Floods, droughts, salinity issues, extreme cold and heat waves, riverbank erosion, and powerful thunderstorms are recurrent occurrences, with Bangladesh enduring over 200 climate-related disasters in the last three decades alone. These calamities have resulted in millions of fatalities and inflicted approximately $16 billion in damage.
Natural disasters across the world are increasing in frequency and intensity, which can be linked to climate change. Scientific modeling predicts that these trends will increase in the future. Thus, the work our Global Washington members engage in to respond and mitigate natural disasters is more important than ever. Our Global Washington members are leveraging advanced technology alongside localized community engagement, which proves to be a powerful approach for building resilience against climate-related disasters in low- and middle-income countries. Here are some key elements used by GlobalWA members, and read more in the articles following.
Digital Infrastructure and Software Resilience: Companies like Amazon and Microsoft leverage digital infrastructure, cloud services, disaster mapping, and AI to enhance disaster response, coordination, and prediction.
Community Engagement: Organizations like Give2Asia, UNHCR, UNICEF USA, and World Vision emphasize community engagement, education, and empowerment to build resilience from the ground up.
Humanitarian Aid and Partnerships: Various organizations collaborate with partners, governments, and local communities to provide humanitarian aid, including cash assistance, food security, healthcare, and infrastructure support.
Long-term Resilience Building: Efforts extend beyond immediate relief to include sustainable livelihoods, infrastructure development, and disaster risk reduction to ensure long-term resilience.
You can also view the recording of the Goalmaker conference session about this topic here and read the full conference report online. The conference was just the beginning of the conversations and connections taking place in the GlobalWA community. Stay tuned for more opportunities in 2024!
Impactful Approaches to Long-Term Climate Resilience
By Aneesh Chatterjee
Flooding in Kolkata, India. Photo: Dibakar Roy/Unsplash
Up to 12,000 casualties were reported from worldwide climate disasters in 2023, according to Save the Children, across roughly 240 climate events including floods, storms and wildfires. Amid a reported tenfold increase in worldwide climate incidents between 1960 and 2019, predictions estimate a rise of 1.5C in global temperatures within coming decades, leading to greater and more destructive incidences of hurricanes, droughts, wildfires, and heat waves.
In the face of such destructive events, GlobalWA members are working to not only deliver life-saving aid in the wake of climate disasters but take innovative steps to build preparedness for future events. Kezia Fernandes, the project Lead for Amazon’s Disaster Relief & New Initiatives, emphasized the effectiveness of data collection to identify potential hazard hotspots in a plenary conversation at the 2023 Goalmakers Conference hosted by Global Washington, while Sheena Agarwal, Vice President of Operations at Give2Asia, highlighted the importance of grounded community engagement when building climate resilience. The combined approaches of technology and localized engagement are best exemplified in the efforts of GlobalWA members to combat the most devastating impacts of climate change.
Digital Infrastructure and Software Resilience
Amazon’s work in disaster relief is broad in scope and impact, ranging from donations to leveraging global supply networks for effective deliveries of vital supplies. To maximize the efficiency of communication and relief deployment, Amazon works to improve networks, simplify logistics, and streamline access to relief services during times of crisis. Novel software solutions bolster preparedness and fortitude among communities. Amazon Web Services (AWS) enables communities burdened by natural disasters to regain access to cloud connectivity by sending volunteers into target regions and rebuilding vital network infrastructure – one of the many varied and scenario-specific solutions delivered by Amazon’s volunteer teams. The streamlined cloud services enable quick coordination, efficient data collection, and responsive deliveries of critical aid.
AWS Disaster Response innovates resilient methods of bolstering disaster preparedness through digital infrastructure support. Beyond efforts by AWS volunteers to restore telecommunications in disaster-struck regions, AWS utilizes cloud technology to provide responders with quick and organized access to disaster mapping data. By allowing local support personnel to submit data to a centralized cloud platform, data collection and reporting in disaster management is heavily streamlined, reducing weeks of time in ascertaining the extent of damage and the relief supplies required. Disaster mapping is one of many software solutions AWS produces, prioritizing open access and sharing of data to bolster preparedness among governments and non-profit actors.
In the wake of Hurricane Dorian in 2019, for instance, Amazon volunteers worked with partner agencies like Red Cross, Mercy Corps, and Save the Children to coordinate the large-scale deliveries of specifically-requested relief items, managing the logistical processes of aid delivery such as packaging and storage on planes, working with local institutions to plan for flights into critical areas with damaged infrastructure, and managing the distribution of aid supplies from delivery planes to at-risk communities.
As the Honduras example shows, aid distribution is another cornerstone of Amazon’s disaster relief programs, alongside logistical support and planning. In 2021, Amazon supported communities in Mississippi and Texas during severe water shortages brought on by snowstorms. By coordinating with the American Red Cross, ChildFund International, World Central Kitchen, Feeding America, Good360, and other organizations, Amazon donated over 1.2 million water bottles to be delivered through distribution centers across the region, in addition to blankets, warmers, and hygiene supplies. In 2022, Amazon’s humanitarian aid hubs in Poland and Slovakia were essential in distributing over 30,000 medical aid supplies to hospitals in Ukraine, flown from Atlanta, Georgia and distributed with the help of the International Medical Corps. More recently, in February of 2023, Amazon’s “Away Team” coordinated the delivery and distribution of aid supplies to regions devastated by the Turkey-Syria earthquakes. Further resilience-building efforts by Amazon in the same region included the Smiling Dreams Community House project in Turkey, an institution to house and support victims of the earthquake by providing education, therapy, and trauma recovery.
Leveraging the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence, Microsoft provides a wide range of software solutions to build resilience and disaster preparedness among nonprofits in the field. In partnership with Team Rubicon, ITDRC, Mercy Corps, and the American Red Cross, Microsoft developed a data model for disaster response that streamlines the efficiency of recording disaster data, sharing between active parties, organizing responses, and creating informative case assessments through the Asset Management branch of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator. Frontline Humanitarian Logistics, another branch of focus for the Accelerator, manages the on-the-ground logistics behind aid delivery, storage, shipment and tracking, utilizing the Frontline Humanitarian Logistics Data Standard – an initiative by NetHope and partners – to build a sector-wide, dynamic data model that efficiently connects donated resources to corresponding program services.
Microsoft also works to use AI in accurate predictions for incoming natural hazards, greatly increasing community preparedness in targeted regions. Working with SEEDS, Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab developed Sunny Lives, an AI model that uses satellite imagery to determine which households are most likely to be most affected by a cyclone – greatly mitigating the time required to collect data about individual homes. In 2020, the insight collected from Sunny Lives predicted the communities most at risk from flooding induced by cyclones Nivar and Burevi, allowing SEEDS personnel to engage directly with thousands of people and distribute vital survival guidelines days before the storm. The same AI model was used in New Delhi, India to determine which regions within communities were most likely to be impacted by oncoming heat waves in 2022, helping civilians, local authorities and aid workers prepare in advance for resource distribution and preliminary warnings. Beyond Sunny Lives, other sectors of focus – such as hunger – also benefit from Microsoft’s work in AI: a data model built with machine learning algorithms was deployed to predict the onset of food shortages with 83% accuracy, based on surveys collected from communities in Malawi.
Strength in Community Engagement
Beyond digital innovation, other members encourage disaster preparedness through on-the-ground interventions, advocacy, and collaboration. Give2Asia brings a multi-tiered approach to disaster preparedness. Through consistent risk assessment practices, organizing community groups to educate people on preparedness, developing contingencies, and organizing grants, Give2Asia’s NGO Disaster Preparedness Program (NGDPP) ran in 8 countries from 2014-2021. Using online forums, the program connects local community groups across Asian countries to discuss mitigation and risk reduction practices, strengthening resilience against environmental hazards. Scalable grants provided organizations with the funding they need to implement their case-specific solutions, encouraging autonomy and the development of ideas tailored to the circumstances of specific regions. Another key component of the program is knowledge generation for donors. Although risk reduction and resilience are a safer choice than reactionary intervention following an event, private donors may be more likely to fund interventions following a disaster. Give2Asia prioritizes educational messaging for philanthropic parties to keep them aware of the importance of responsible giving, beyond providing relief following an event. With the NGDPP having been rebranded in 2022 as the DisasterLink Network, Give2Asia continues their work across the continent to bolster resilience at household and community levels.
Community interventions are a key component of Give2Asia’s resilience development. DisasterLink partners, working from predictions made by the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, successfully assisted locals during the approach of Cyclone Mocha in 2023, facilitating timely alerts to the most at-risk communities in the region, evacuations, and redirection to shelters, moving roughly 750,000 people out of severe risk. Beyond immediate interventions to prevent disasters, Give2Asia works extensively to strengthen communities through consistent education. Through awareness campaigns that introduce people to the kinds of possible natural disasters to practice drills for emergency situations, disaster preparedness is even interwoven in school curricula, including first aid, environmental sustainability, and preparedness basics.
The DisasterLink Network expanded in September, 2023, introducing new partner NGOs across 15 countries. With 51 total partners, the Network connects participants with risk mitigation resources, emergency relief aid and supplies, WASH infrastructure, and economic development for building livelihoods.
By 2030, the UNHCR aims to ensure the safety of climate refugees across borders, provide sustainable, eco-friendly resources to displaced persons and host countries, build resilience among displaced persons, teach governments on preparedness for future crises, while incorporating a climate-friendly approach to the implementation of their plans such that the organization’s carbon footprint is managed responsibly. To grow resilience and preparedness in managing displaced persons, the UNHCR emphasizes the tenets of the Refugee Convention to promote awareness of how to best keep asylum seekers safe until they are re-settled. During transition, displaced persons are provided with access to clean water, sanitation supplies, health centers, schools, and environmentally-friendly public services – for which the UNHCR advocates with local host governments.
The development of sustainable livelihoods for displaced persons is also a priority of the UNHCR. In South Sudan, climate resilience is bolstered by converting flooded areas into farmland, providing versatile economic opportunities and restrengthening communities. The UNHCR also provides renewable energy to over 250,000 climate refugees in Pakistan, clean water access for refugee communities in Uganda, and pre-planned cash assistance for targeted communities in Malawi, when predicted climate disasters present themselves.
Disaster preparedness is directly addressed by the UNHCR’s assistance coordination efforts. Their Refugee Coordination Guidance Note lays the groundwork for a collaborative aid effort among partner organizations, providing active participants with risk monitoring reports, tailored contingency plans, and efficient aid delivery processes for any particular crisis – all in coordination with the host government of the targeted region. Intervening organizations are provided with strategies and specific solutions for both refugees and host governments, ensuring that all participants are up to date, can collaborate successfully, and divert aid accordingly.
UNICEF USA brings similar approaches to community engagement, with a specialized focus on helping children cope with the impact of climate disasters. Through investments in projects designed for localized regions, UNICEF USA prioritizes data collection, the provision of adequate healthcare facilities, and access to basic education for children in at-risk communities, funding resilience in partnership with other organizations, local governments, and donors. Encouraging advocacy in children is another way UNICEF raises awareness about the potential opportunities and access to resources they may have, building connectivity within communities.
Direct interventions with affected communities are a key component of interventions by World Vision, building climate resilience at multiple levels of scale, from the individual household to coordinated infrastructure support.
Cash assistance is one of the ways communities are supported and made more resilient in the wake of climate disasters. Allowing individuals and families to afford options, mobility and access to resources not only improves immediate living conditions, but works to support the economy in a time of crisis. Using cash and voucher transfers, World Vision has assisted over 7.8 million people across 46 countries in 2022.
Addressing food insecurity is another key component rebuilding communities. Through their General Food Distributions program, World Vision delivers meals to at-risk groups and communities during emergencies, ensuring that malnutrition is kept in check – especially for children under five and pregnant women. The provision of guaranteed school meals not only increased the likelihood of attendance, but provides access to clean water, sanitation, and protection, alongside continued education. By partnering with the World Food Programme, World Vision addressed hunger for up to 11.5 million people across the globe. In 2021, up to $8 million was allotted for emergency healthcare services across 14 countries, combating malnutrition, providing mental health support, assisting high-risk vulnerable groups to prevent diseases, emphasizing infant and child nourishment during emergency situations, and bringing community organization and therapy groups. In the same year, $120 million was directed to fund WASH initiatives, with 786,000 beneficiaries of emergency drinking water, 195,000 recipients of sanitation facilities, and 345,000 people granted access to hygiene supplies.
Settlement fortitude is a priority for Global Communities. To strengthen communities against the worst impacts of climate disasters, informal urban settlements are bolstered with infrastructure planning and organization, including effective sewage systems and proper roads, enabling both a greater resilience to natural hazards like flooding and more readily accessible evacuation routes. This strategy was exemplified by Global Communities’ 2010 intervention in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, bringing an $8.6 million investment into the reconstruction of the Ravine Pintade neighborhood in the wake of an earthquake. The 18-month project removed debris, built adequate housing and public infrastructure, and enabled the community to rebuild efficiently.
In addition to direct rebuilding efforts, Global Communities also strengthens communities by way of partnerships and funding preparedness. In a joint venture with Willis Towers Watson, Hannover Re, and the Insurance Development Fund, the InsuResilience Solutions Fund (ISF) was founded to build climate resilience in Colombia in 2023. Built with financial defense in mind, the ISF delivers payouts based on preset parameters of climate destruction, determined both by historical climate data and the live data of any given dangerous climate event.
A comprehensive disaster response is exemplified by the efforts of the Spreeha Foundation and their projects in Bangladesh under the Aalo Program. With the region being highly prone to cyclones, flooding, storms, and other crises, Aalo sought to address disaster preparedness with grounded and systemic response plans that provide emergency relief and fortify communities for future disasters. Multiple response projects between 2017-2022 chart Spreeha’s work to support refugee communities in Bangladesh, provide vital relief during the COVID-19 pandemic, strengthen local healthcare and digital access infrastructure, and bring relief supplies and cash assistance to impacted communities. From preschools and community engagement for Rohingya refugees to PPE for frontline workers during the pandemic, food, healthcare, and cash assistance during floods and storms, long-term nutritional assistance, safe and easy access to medicine and doctor consultations and comprehensive screening for medical conditions, Spreeha’s broad-spectrum approach addressed disaster resilience at multiple levels of engagement.
These projects were implemented in partnership with Give2Asia, BIN, the University of Washington, Confidence Group, United Commercial Bank, Uber Bangladesh, Shakib Al Hasan Foundation, and other private donors to benefit over 200,000 people over the course of the program.
Disaster preparedness is undeniably the best line of defense against future calamities, predicted to be an inevitability according to the current pace of climate change. By leveraging the modern benefits of advanced software, data collection, machine learning and artificial intelligence, alongside grounded, localized community engagements that decentralize the engagement process for the most effective results, prove to be a strong combined approach to build resilience against environmental hazards for the world’s most at-risk communities.
In addition to the above organizations, the following GlobalWA members work on disaster relief and emergency response, as well as building disaster resilience through their programs in communities where they work.
Amazon’s disaster relief and response efforts utilize our global logistics capabilities to provide the fastest, most effective aid. These strengths enable us to ship Amazon-donated items, and items donated by partners, to communities as soon as possible after a natural disaster. Since 2017, Amazon has donated more than 23 million relief items to support people impacted by over 108 disasters around the world.
Natural disasters, poverty, disease, and war impact millions around the world. Americares provides disaster preparedness, medical aid, disaster relief and recovery.
The past year and more have highlighted the increasing frequency and severity of overlapping crises – driven by extreme weather events, the worst earthquake in nearly a century in Türkiye and Syria and the War in Ukraine. This trend has had a devastating impact on health, particularly among groups vulnerable to disasters, as communities have struggled to rebuild from concurrent and consecutive events.
When disaster strikes, we commit right away because lives are at stake. Our Emergency Response Partners provide a foundation for our response capability. And you, as members of our donor community, give us the resources to respond and remain whenever, wherever we are needed.
CARE has 75 years of experience in delivering life-saving humanitarian assistance while supporting communities with sustainable development programs. Today, together with partners, our humanitarian projects reach 20 million people across 67 countries. CARE works to transform the humanitarian sector by putting gender at the center of our responses, ensuring gender-sensitive community-led interventions, that protect people’s dignity while building resilience and social cohesion.
CARE takes a comprehensive approach to emergency responses: first by working with communities to prepare for and mitigate the impact of disasters; then by partnering with local groups to provide immediate assistance when an emergency hits across various sectors including, water hygiene and sanitation, shelter, food and nutrition, and sexual and reproductive health; and finally, by working with affected communities to help them recover after the crisis has passed. CARE’s emergency response is part of a long-term commitment that places great importance on building local capacity and lasting resilience.
CARE’s 2030 Goal is to provide quality, gender-focused and localized humanitarian assistance to 10% of those affected in major crises, reaching at least 50 million people by 2030.
In any emergency – violent conflicts, pandemics, droughts and other natural disasters – children are the most vulnerable. Beyond the short-term risks they face from being separated from their families, getting hurt or even dying, children often miss school and are at increased risk of violence, neglect and exploitation. Unfortunately, in the intense chaos and demand for resources during and after a crisis, children are often the last to receive the support they need.
That’s where we come in. During emergencies, the focus of ChildFund is always on the children – on providing the things they most urgently need to survive and thrive after a disaster, including not just physical relief items but also psychological and emotional support. See just a few of the emergencies we’re currently responding to below and learn how your donations support children in crisis.
Global Communities works at the intersection of humanitarian assistance, sustainable development and financial inclusion to save lives, advance equity and secure strong futures. We support communities at the forefront of their own development in more than 30 countries to achieve a shared vision of a more just, prosperous and equitable global community. At a time when natural disasters and conflicts are becoming more common and devastating, we offer emergency response and share knowledge and resources that communities need to recover from crises and foster lasting resilience in the face of constant change. In Ethiopia, for example, our Resilience in Pastoral Areas South (RIPA South) program works with communities affected by drought and conflict to strengthen disaster risk management and planning, improve crop and livestock production, and increase access to livelihood opportunities for individuals transitioning out of pastoralism, especially women and youth. In Ukraine, we have adapted our Decentralization Offering Better Results and Efficiency (DOBRE) program to provide rapid emergency response, strengthen crisis governance and promote social cohesion. We also implement the Community-Led Emergency Action and Response (CLEAR) and the Piloting Early Recovery and Livelihoods Assistance (PEARL) programs to support war-affected people and businesses. Learn more at globalcommunities.org and explore our visual Crisis to Resilience series.
JHR has been active since August 2021, providing relief, rescue, and resettlement to vulnerable Afghans facing inhumane living conditions and threats under the Taliban.
An Afghanistan Rescue Campaign
JHR was spearheaded by the Aleph Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. JHR leverages an extensive international network to respond with high-level diplomacy, expert NGO partnerships, and ground coordination with experience in rescue and evacuation work. JHR also raises the funds necessary to execute the response mandate.
A Human Catastrophe
Vulnerable Afghans are facing increasing risk levels as the international community loses focus and the Taliban expands their stifling control. Hunger, unemployment, and human rights abuses are preventing Afghans from shopping, working and going to school, making them targets for beatings and interrogations.
Our technology empowers humanitarian organizations to better prepare, respond and rebuild communities affected by crisis. With free and discounted software and services, data and AI, Microsoft helps nonprofits build resiliency and accelerate their missions.
AI for Humanitarian Action
A grant program to help nonprofit and humanitarian organizations supporting disaster response, refugees and displaced people, human rights, and the needs of women and children.
Outright International’s role in disaster relief and preparedness primarily focuses on advocacy aimed at the humanitarian sector to be more inclusive of LGBTIQ+ needs and priorities before, during, and following humanitarian crises. Why? Because we know that during humanitarian crises, LGBTIQ+ people may face even higher levels of stigma, discrimination, and exclusion, especially where pre-existing social norms already marginalize our communities. In Ukraine, for example, we are currently working in Ukraine to ensure that LGBTIQ+ people are fully included in the country’s humanitarian response. In addition, we have disbursed nearly $3.6m to national LGBTIQ+ organizations through our Ukraine Emergency Fund to address the humanitarian needs of their communities.
Oxfam has a long and well-recognized record of humanitarian relief in times of crisis. When disaster strikes, we respond – delivering high quality lifesaving assistance and essential protection to the most affected. We make sure people can get clean water to drink and decent sanitation. We provide help for them to get food and the essentials they need to survive, and we work with people on the journey to self-sufficiency.
Through our long-term development programs, we stay well after the dust has settled to help rebuild communities to come back stronger from disaster and support them in being better prepared to cope with shocks and uncertainties.
Building resilience and local capacity
The scale and nature of these humanitarian crises have led us to put more emphasis on building the resilience of affected populations and increasing national and local response capacity and ownership. We recognize that local responders are often the best placed to help in emergencies, and we work with governments, local organizations and communities so that they are ready to respond in emergencies, and able to cope when crisis hits.
Supporting women’s rights and gender justice
In all our responses, we prioritize the needs of women and girls, who are often discriminated against or have fewer resources to face and recover from emergencies. We promote the safe and accessible use of our humanitarian programs by women and girls, and support women’s organizations to lead in emergency preparedness, risk reduction and response.
Campaigning and influencing others
The goal of our campaigning is not just to speak for people in need, but to open the way for them to speak for themselves. A key part of our humanitarian work is campaigning and using our influence to make sure women, men and children are provided the assistance they need and have their rights respected. We also seek to address and ultimately remedy the political and structural root causes of their vulnerability.
Spreeha is on a mission to transform lives by empowering people with empathetic and sustainable solutions to the toughest problems in Bangladesh. Addressing the country’s vulnerability to natural disasters, increased health risks due to environmental degradation and climate change, Spreeha designed its emergency disaster response program Aalo, “the light” in English. The program aims to help rebuild the lives of people and communities affected by disasters and public health hazards and increase community resilience.
The program works around four components – disaster preparedness through heightened awareness, emergency healthcare during the time of distress, essential relief materials, and cash grants to restore livelihood like before. Leveraging 7 years of experience in disaster response, Spreeha’s Aalo program has impacted more than 200,000 lives. The program has worked in three critical areas – Refugee Response starting in 2017, Natural disaster response which includes annual cyclone and flood occurrence, and public health hazard response which includes COVID-19, Dengue, and Cholera outbreaks.
Spreeha is committed to continuing rebuilding communities and fostering community resilience in the face of adversity with the help of its trained community workers, pool of physicians and public health experts, stakeholders, and partners.
The Starbucks Foundation’s mission is to strengthen humanity by transforming lives across the world, with a focus on enabling community resiliency and prosperity and uplifting communities affected by disaster.
Our grants invest in preparedness, response and resilience programs around the world. We do this through partnerships such as the American Red Cross and World Central Kitchen, which allows for quick response to provide relief and comfort to people affected by disasters big and small, as well as support to help our grantees serve and meet the unexpected needs of local communities. The Starbucks Foundation also invites Starbucks partners (employees) and customers to join in supporting relief efforts, such as donating coffee to first responders or making a donation via the Starbucks mobile app in support of our nonprofit partners.
Armed conflicts, extreme weather, public health crises and other shocks are threatening more of the world’s children than ever before.
Children who live in a conflict or disaster zone are more likely to be living in poverty. They are more vulnerable to malnutrition and disease. And they are more likely to be out of school.
UNICEF, a global leader in humanitarian relief, responds to hundreds of emergencies every year — delivering lifesaving relief, safeguarding children’s rights and protecting them from harm. To ensure every child survives and thrives, UNICEF promotes targeted action, backed by strategic investment in disaster risk reduction. We aim to reduce risk and strengthen preparedness and recovery for communities and services critical to children, like education, health care and nutrition.
When a humanitarian emergency strikes, people are often forced to flee their homes and leave everything behind to make the dangerous journey to safety. During an emergency response, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency prioritizes saving lives and minimizing serious harm by meeting the most urgent humanitarian needs. Within the first 72 hours of an emergency, UNHCR can mobilize supplies for 1 million people and deploy expert staff to protect them.
UNHCR assists millions of people in emergency situations every year, including 16.7 million people who received emergency supplies in 2023. UNHCR continually analyzes the risk of emergencies globally so that teams are prepared to respond quickly and effectively. When an emergency breaks:
UNHCR delivers lifesaving relief items and other critical goods from its global stockpiles, ready in warehouses in strategic locations around the world.
UNHCR deploys emergency response experts who are trained in crisis management and specialize in key areas like legal protection, cash assistance, shelter and tackling sexual exploitation.
UNHCR transfers funds from emergency reserves directly to local UNHCR teams on the ground to set up shelters, buy food and register people who need help.
In 2023, UNHCR issued 43 emergency declarations in 29 countries – the highest number in decades – and deployed 339 emergency staff. Thanks to the generous support from public and private donors in 2023, UNHCR could timely provide lifesaving assistance and protection services to those most affected by crises.
Assisting families after a disaster gets a community back on its feet and is often the entry point for our work in a new area. We meet immediate needs in a disaster and help rebuild lives, helping families to recover from floods, hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, drought or war. Part of recovery is building resilience to future disasters, which is done by training and empowering communities to plan and prepare.
The context in each village is unique. We start with the most critical, urgent needs: water, food, and safety. Long-term, families are equipped to earn income and support themselves. They become healthier, and begin to save and plan for the future. And through it all, they experience the transformative power of God’s love.
Starting in 1950 with the Korean War, World Vision has a “first in” and “last out” approach to emergency relief. Our goal is to help families and communities for the long term so they can be resilient and able to help others. More than 90 percent of disaster-related deaths occur in developing countries. World Vision already works in these hard places, responding with life-saving speed when disaster strikes.
Help can have unintended consequences. These best practices are the result of decades of experience, learning, and collaboration among top disaster relief organizations:
Raise funds ahead of time and pre-position relief supplies around the world.
Send a seasoned team of experts to assess, plan, and respond.
Coordinate with other organizations and governments. (Prevent people from falling through the cracks or gaming the system.)
Carefully plan out distributions of food and relief supplies. Avoid riots and violence, and ensure help for those who need it most.
Meet urgent, short-term needs, while working toward sustainable, long-term solutions.
Since March 2015, Yemen has been experiencing a brutal war and a siege that has severely restricted the commercial import of food and medicine. Most food factories and businesses were bombed — creating the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. Today, 24 of the 29 million people in Yemen require aid, 19 million are food insecure, and almost half of the population of Yemen – 14 million — are at risk of famine, 5 million of which are children. Finally, Many Yemenis in the areas affected by the escalation of war have fled to safer places in other Governorates — resulting in over 3 million internally displaced people. YRRF was established to provide relief to those in need in Yemen. We reach the most inaccessible areas due to geography or security risk.
Strategic Aims
To prevent humanitarian disaster by promoting broad awareness of grave health and security issues faced by Yemeni families, raising funds to support critical needs and supporting material relief efforts.
To facilitate a just peace that considers all segments of the Yemeni population.
To advocate and facilitate support for Yemen during the reconstruction period.
Mercy Corps is Helping Ukrainians Feed, Clothe, and Earn for Themselves
By Ray Mwareya
September 2023 – Tetiana wakes her daughter Eva, 2, from a nap. They stayed in their hometown near the frontline through the difficult first year of the war, constant shelling, Russian control of their village, and a flood. Only recently they relocated to a safer location. Mercy Corps provided them with cash assistance, which they were able to use to pay for an apartment.
Mercy Corps has been providing international humanitarian aid for over 40 years, much of it in the form of emergency and disaster relief. Of their nearly 6,000 employees, 95% come from within the countries where they work, which is crucial for providing the right aid to the right populations at the right time. Their primary programs help build resiliency by connecting people across the globe to clean water, nutritious food, better economic opportunities, and more peaceful tomorrows—all critical to unlocking the power of human potential and strengthening communities to better cope during crises, adapt to evolving challenges, and thrive into the future.
For this Organization Spotlight, we were fortunate to have caught up with one of their program leaders working in Ukraine – not a natural disaster, yet a humanitarian disaster caused by human conflict where many of the same emergency response principles still apply.
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Mercy Corps – with the support of Trisha Bury, a Strategic Response Manager – is helping Ukrainians feed, clothe, and earn for themselves rather than being passive recipients of aid.
Trisha’s passion personifies Mercy Corps’ global vision “to create a future of possibility, where everyone can prosper.” Hailing from Port Angeles, Washington, she studied international relations and international development in college and grad school.
“I wanted an international career that would challenge me and eventually I ended up in humanitarian aid which I’ve now been doing for over a decade,” she says.
Her work mainly revolves around providing support to Mercy Corps teams around the world; essentially, starting up new programs, plugging in for temporary vacant leadership gaps, or guiding country teams in times of high-impact change. “I deployed to support our teams in Haiti, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. And now Ukraine,” she adds.
Mercy Corps has a solid humanitarian legacy. It has worked globally in some of the world’s most volatile places for over 40 years – channeling disaster management and recovery work. “We are currently present in about 40 countries. We have over 6,000 staff globally,” she reveals.
From Ukraine to Gaza to Sudan, fresh humanitarian disasters are rolling out every year. It must be hard for Mercy Corps to quickly prioritize who needs help, how much, and for how long.
“Yeah, there really is,” she says of the competing, demanding situations.
One way of making that choice is to work where Mercy Corps can have the biggest impact, leveraging its global and local expertise, and the resources that are available in terms of both funding and human resources.
“Globally, we’re specialized in food security, water security, economic opportunity, and peace and good governance, and humanitarian aid is sort of a cross-cutting area of work that we do,” she says.
Ukraine is among the most challenging humanitarian regions of recent times. As per UN figures – Russia’s invasion has killed 10,000 civilians to date and damaged $138 billion in hard infrastructure as of January 2023.
Between water, food, and medical support for vulnerable Ukrainians, it’s tricky to know what gets priority.
“Needs differ widely across the country. We have people in the east and the south of the country close to the front lines who are affected directly by the conflict. So often we have people whose homes are damaged by shelling; maybe water and electricity services might be cut off. Medical services might also be compromised. Here in Kyiv or over in the west, you have a lot more people who are displaced from those areas; they may have problems re-establishing their livelihoods. Finding houses to rent for the medium- or long-term, until the situation stabilizes in their home region, is key,” she says.
Even different people in the same place can have different needs based on their circumstances, and Mercy Corps’ local partners offer tailored support for marginalized groups : the Roma community or members of the LGBTQI community.
Globally, one of Mercy Corps’ priorities is that our response is increasingly, locally led. “95% of our team members globally are from the countries we work in,” she says, including in Ukraine. It also means partnering with more local organizations that have longer-term experience on the ground. They tend to know the situation the best, what the needs are, and what types of assistance are the most effective.
“We also always coordinate our activities with local and national government authorities and with other actors who are working in the same areas to make sure that we’re giving the right kind of assistance, and that we’re not duplicating assistance from other agencies.”
From big global organizations like the UN or Oxfam, giving people cash directly has proved to be a win-win policy for both civilians and local market traders. This is an approach Mercy Corps likes a lot.
“For about the past decade, one of the things Mercy Corps does is to program more and more through cash, so that it’s something flexible. The people in need can decide for themselves what are the most urgent needs and how they can use cash to meet those needs,” she says.
October 2023 – Yurii, owner of a grain processing factory in a small village in the north of Ukraine, standing in the doorway of his factory building that was severely damaged during the first months of the war. With the grant received from Mercy Corps, Yurii was able to purchase materials needed to rebuild the fire-damaged building, as well as purchase equipment to begin processing grain once again.
Is Mercy Corps covering every part of the country, or is it keeping itself to the so-called safe zones in Ukraine?
“It’s also important to remember there are not any safe zones in Ukraine because even capital cities are being hit with missile attacks,” Trisha says.
Mercy Corps is “sort of everywhere” in Ukraine wherever the neediest people are, she says. Where markets are working, Mercy Corps provides cash. Where markets are not working or where people are not able to leave their homes to access markets they provide in-kind support. Items like food, hygiene supplies, and materials to repair shelters are standard.
Because in Ukraine some populations may be living in intense conflict zones whilst others have a breather from periods of conflict, aid disbursements vary depending on the security situation.
However, the key is to build resilience. “So, we help people re-establish farms or re-establish other types of livelihoods that may have either been disrupted or displaced by the conflict,” she says.
September 2023 – Volodymyr with his daughter, Sasha, 7, in front of his furniture workshop. A husband and father of two, he owned a successful furniture business in his hometown in the Donetsk region. When the danger was too great, the family moved to Dnipro, where Volodymyr had to start his business from scratch. With the help of Mercy Corps’ grant, Volodymyr and his team were able to purchase equipment needed to provide quick, high quality work that helps them to establish their presence as a small business.
Now to the big issue lingering in readers’ minds. The security situation across Ukraine is terrifying. Transport links have been bombed out or mined and crop fields spoiled by bombs. It must be risky for Mercy Corps to get the aid in Ukraine in suitable quantities that the population needs.
“It varies quite a lot,” she says. “Sometimes, we’ll plan an activity a few days, or even weeks in advance, and then an attack happens, and we have to pivot very quickly or cancel something.”
The key is that Mercy Corps has a dedicated security team that helps develop procedures to minimize risk as much as possible.
But, she insists, “there isn’t a safe place in the country at the moment.”
Currently, many Ukrainians are displaced, sometimes out of the country or to other parts of the country. The International Organization for Migration report, as of July 2023, a staggering 5.1 million Ukrainians are internally displaced.
September 2023 – Eduard, his wife Rima, and 2-year-old daughter Lora standing in the yard of their house. They had just started their family when the war escalated. Eduard lost his job and Lora would cry during explosions. Once a bomb fell on their neighbor’s property; while no one was injured, the impact shattered the windows of their home. Mercy Corps multipurpose cash assistance, possible with support of local partner organization “Voice of Romni” helped the family purchase an oven, repair their home, and purchase enough food to store for the winter.
It must be challenging to keep track of who has received aid and to audit the impact of the aid. “Yeah, just like many countries in conflict or climate disasters,” says Trisha. Key measures include coordinating with the government and targeting areas that aren’t already being assisted by someone else.
“We also occasionally, have data-sharing agreements with these other agencies so we can compare lists of people that we’re helping to make sure there’s no overlap or duplication, and we also have an internal monitoring, evaluation and learning team,” she says.
They do in-depth surveys and in-person monitoring when possible, to check the effectiveness of their programs. “We make changes where we find we can be doing something better,” she adds.
September 2023 – Alisa, 6, picks cucumbers with her grandfather Valerii. Alisa’s mother, Maryna, is a farmer and prior to the war, she owned a successful business with more than 60 acres of crops, and two stores in the area. When the war escalated, the family had to leave nearly everything behind. When they found out Maryna’s home and the home of her parents were destroyed, Maryna, insisted that they rebuild, and make a home again. With cash assistance from Mercy Corps, Maryna and her family were able to purchase the metal needed to build a frame, wood for bracing, and an irrigation system.
Mercy Corps plans on staying in Ukraine when the war ends. They already have programs in Ukraine with a focus on the agricultural sector, which will become a priority area for rebuilding.
Emergency water supplied by GREDO Somalia. Photo: GREDO
‘Iskaashato ma kufto,’ goes a Somalian proverb: “If people support each other they do not fall.” It’s a sentiment that Cabdinasir Adan, the Food Security and Livelihoods Manager at Gargaar Relief and Development Organization (GREDO), can get behind.
According to Cabdinasir, Somalia faces urgent situations once or twice every year due to frequent droughts, armed conflict and flooding. These natural disasters, compounded by climate change and environmental degradation, continue to strain the capacity of humanitarian aid and underscore the urgent need for resilience-building efforts in Somalia.
One of the most pressing issues facing Somalia today is recurrent droughts, which devastate livelihoods, exacerbate food insecurity, and contribute to displacement and conflict. Last year Somalia faced the worst drought in decades and impoverished millions of people.
Climate change-related shocks, such as flooding and long dry periods (drought) are frequent and common in Somalia. Other climate effects felt include hotter weather conditions and delayed, earlier, and quicker cessation rains compared to historic months of rainy seasons. Climate change consequences lead to failed or severely reduced local food production causing chronic food insecurity, loss of livestock and key other assets for rural households, severe water shortages, high malnutrition levels, degraded land, and severe disruptions of livelihood and economic sources. Climate change impact is also compounded by armed conflict and worsening the situation through increased displacements, heightened protection risks, and constrained livelihood and economic activities.
Emergency food distribution supplied by GREDO Somalia. Photo: GREDO
More than 70% of Somali people depend on livestock and agriculture. The majority live in rural areas depending on the food and incomes they get from this ecosystem of resources (i.e. farmlands, water, and rangeland products). Climate effects on this livelihood base have contributed to sharp declines in food production and mass rural-to-urban migration, increasing the number of internally displaced households in urban areas. Climate and conflict induced humanitarian crises affects millions of the most vulnerable Somali people, particularly women and children, people living with disability, elderly, marginalized, and other minority groups.
In recent years, Somalia has also grappled with severe flooding, particularly along the Shabelle and Juba rivers, leading to displacement, destruction of infrastructure, and increased risk of waterborne diseases. The country is also vulnerable to tropical cyclones and tropical storms which threaten coastal communities.
In 2024, 6.9 million people in Somalia will need humanitarian assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
With a background in Dryland Agriculture and a decade-long commitment to serving vulnerable communities, Cabdinasir embodies the values that drive GREDO.
Over email, Cabdinasir says his path into humanitarian work was spurred by a deep-seated desire to alleviate the suffering of vulnerable people and communities grappling with extreme poverty, climate shocks, and conflict-induced crises.
“More specifically,” he writes, “I’m interested working with [the] most vulnerable groups such as children and their families, people living with disability and unemployed youth.”
Over the past decade, he has been actively engaged in responding to humanitarian emergencies and facilitating community development initiatives.
Photo showing community mobilization during 2023 drought emergency. Photo: GREDO
Established in 1992, GREDO provides essential services to communities affected by conflict, droughts, and other emergencies. With its mission to foster a prosperous and dignified society, GREDO has been instrumental in delivering vital assistance to millions of individuals across South and Central Somalia.
GREDO’s holistic approach to humanitarian relief and development encompasses a wide array of services, including food security, livelihoods support, nutrition, healthcare, and WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene). By working closely with local communities and stakeholders, GREDO strives to address the unique needs of each community while promoting inclusion, gender equality, and human rights.
Treatment of malnutrition at emergency health and nutrition site, 2023. Photo: GREDO
In his role as the Food Security and Livelihoods Manager at GREDO, Cabdinasir shoulders a multitude of responsibilities–from overseeing activities to proposing innovative approaches tailored to the fragile context of Somalia, his role encompasses strategic planning, project coordination, and stakeholder engagement.
At the core of GREDO’s philosophy lies a profound belief in the collective action of stakeholders and the resilience of local communities. Through food assistance, cash transfers, emergency water, sanitation facilities, and healthcare services, GREDO’s emergency relief efforts play a crucial role in saving lives and alleviating suffering.
Monitoring and evaluation of these relief efforts is paramount for GREDO, including frequent site visits, encouraging third-party collaborations, and checking feedback channels, GREDO strives to continuously assess and improve its interventions to better serve these communities in need.
And their efforts are having an impact. Since their founding, GREDO has been able to provide 1.3 million people in south and central Somalia with live-saving food assistance, drinking water, life-saving treatments for malnourished children and their mothers.
Amidst the backdrop of ongoing global challenges, including climate change, natural disasters, and conflict, Cabdinasir remains deeply concerned about the plight of vulnerable populations in Somalia. But he remains “hopeful to see significant reduction of people suffering from humanitarian crises and who can cope through their own capacities.”
GREDO Somalia is committed to working with communities to support their capacity to withstand climate vulnerabilities through locally lead or community lead practices. Vulnerabilities associated with climate change are addressed by working with the community to use practices that are not harmful to the environment, that strengthen community preparedness to reduce loss and damage, and that promote approaches or innovative solutions that build community and individual resilience while supporting sustainable development. Learn more at gredosom.org.
Please welcome our newest Global Washington members. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with their work and consider opportunities for support and collaboration!
Global Communities
Global Communities brings together local ingenuity and global insights to save lives, advance equity and secure strong futures. We achieve this mission in collaboration with a wide range of public and private sector partners, including communities directly affected by poverty, disasters and conflict. Globalcommunities.org
Gargaar Relief and Development Organization (GREDO)
GREDO’s mission is to improve the living standards of the served communities by delivering effective Emergency Response, Resilience interventions, promoting local capacities and resources, and sustainable development interventions in partnership with stakeholders. gredosom.org
LEAD Cameroon
LEAD Cameroon is an association doing in leadership for environment and development by creating and sustaining a new breed of global leaders who are committed to promote sustainable development in Cameroon in particular and Central Africa in general.
Perrenial
Perennial’s work sits at the intersection of leadership, social justice, and human development. Its mission is to support global social leaders in rejuvenating and sustaining themselves within the frameworks of their communities, leadership roles, causes, and personal lives. A leader’s skill lies in their capacity to resonate internally with their purpose and externally with the individuals and communities they serve. perennial.org
Purpose and Distinction
Anne Wiliams’ consulting firm that uses rigorous brand management framework and learning from behavioral science to help mission-driven companies and organizations unlock the power of brands to carry out their purpose and execute with distinction. Purposeanddistinction.com
When a humanitarian emergency strikes, people are often forced to flee their homes and leave everything behind to make the dangerous journey to safety. During an emergency response, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency prioritizes saving lives and minimizing serious harm by meeting the most urgent humanitarian needs.
In 2023 we saw many of our members travelling again, reinvigorated by the chance to visit their in-country programs. The energy was high, and though there were still disasters, conflicts, and climate change affecting the globe, our members and their constituents showed enduring signs of hope and resilience. You can read about our members’ accomplishments, strategies, and future-thinking in the articles linked below. We also encourage you to explore our very active Blog section with more than 30 member Guest Blogs published. The year culminated in the publication of our new 2024 Global Philanthropy Guide, and a very highly praised Goalmakers 2023 Annual Conference.
We also encourage you to take a look at our 2024 Editorial Calendar to see what is coming up – and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to ensure you get these Issue Campaigns in your inbox as soon as they are published!
After school program in middle school in Oudomxay province, Lao P.D.R.. Photo: A Child’s Notebook
In the pursuit of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) – Quality Education, A Child’s Notebook, an organization dedicated to empowering rural villages in Laos, stands as a shining example of commitment and innovation. Their multifaceted approach, centered on partnerships, infrastructure development, and complementary programs, is not only transforming the lives of thousands of children but also addressing some of the most pressing challenges in the field of education.
(Seattle, WA – November 16, 2023) Global Washington (GlobalWA), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to support the global development community in Washington State, announced today that Pat Garcia-Gonzalez, Chief Executive Officer of The Max Foundation, will be recognized as the 2023 Global Hero.
Global Washington’s Board of Directors bestows a Global Hero award each year to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the global development community in Washington state. This is considered a life-time achievement award. This award is given to one person in our GlobalWA community who has shown years of dedication to improving lives in low- and middle-income countries.
Since 2011, GlobalWA has annually recognized Global Heroes for their dedication and achievement. Past Heroes have included Bill Gates Sr., Chris Elias, Jerilyn Brusseau, and Bill Neukom, amongst others.
“Your extraordinary dedication to cancer survivors and overall health equity is a shining light and inspiration to others. The Max Foundation has thrived under your leadership and determination to reach those in need with practical approaches and cutting-edge innovation,” stated Kristen Dailey, Executive Director of GlobalWA.
Under her leadership, The Max Foundation has provided life-extending medication, treatment, and care to more than 100,000 patients for more than 20 years. Pat is known for her passionate advocacy and dedication to providing access to treatment and diagnostics for people, especially the most vulnerable, living with cancer worldwide. Since its establishment in 1997, the foundation has grown from a website offering resources into a global model for providing access to diagnostics, treatment, medication, care, and social support. The Max Foundation today channels over 10 million doses of life-saving cancer treatment to patients each in 77 LMICs, partnering with a worldwide network of more than 500 physicians and 200 hospitals and medical institutions, as well as several local NGOs and patient associations.
For questions about this announcement, please email Joel Meyers, Director of Communications of GlobalWA at comms@globalwa.org.
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ABOUT GLOBAL WASHINGTON
Global Washington supports non-profit organizations, businesses, foundations, and academic institutions in Washington state working to improve lives in low- and middle-income countries. We connect, promote, and strengthen our members, increasing their impact and advancing a vibrant, innovative, multi-stakeholder network. Our work is driven by the desire to create a more equitable, healthy, and prosperous world. Learn more at globalwa.org.
ABOUT THE MAX FOUNDATION
The Max Foundation is a leading global health nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating health equity. For 26 years, Max has pioneered practical, scalable, high-quality solutions to bring life-extending treatments and patient-centered health care to more than 100,000 people living with cancer and critical illness in low- and middle-income countries. Max believes in a world where all people can access high-impact medicines, where geography is not destiny, and where everyone can strive for health with dignity and with hope. Learn more at themaxfoundation.org.
The World Food Programme estimates that 345 million people are facing acute food insecurity in 2023, and that the proliferation of armed conflict and civil unrest are the main drivers. Tragically, this will only increase in the coming months with recent wars and long-standing political instability in countries around the world. Critical emergency food relief will be needed as the first step to get communities on a path to food security defined in Sustainable Development Goal 2 of Zero Hunger.
Several Global Washington members work in conflict regions on immediate humanitarian issues and longer-term programs to create sustainable systems for health and nutrition. Other members are addressing food security through programs that leverage local systems and indigenous knowledge. Please read more about these interventions and others below in this month’s issue brief and featured articles. This month’s Organization Spotlight on the S M Sehgal Foundation was written by our Communications Director, Joel Meyers, and features pictures and videos he took – we hope this also helps convey the incredible type of work our members do.
I also hope you can also join us at our Annual Goalmakers Conference. Our virtual day will be on November 30 and our in-person day will be December 7 in Seattle. This is a wonderful opportunity to come together with peers to learn and re-charge for 2024. Our theme is “Advancing Transformative Philanthropy” as we build on last year’s conference about co-creation for better and more equitable programs in global development. More information can be found here.
One Step at a Time: Targeted Community Engagements to Combat Food Insecurity
By Aneesh Chatterjee
Children eating a meal at their school; Ghana. Photo: Bill Wegener/Unsplash
For Mebrhit Hailay, a 28-year-old resident of Shire, Tigray, providing at least one meal a day for her three children had proved to be the exception, not the norm. A BBC investigation into the region’s hunger crisis published in August 2023 shed light on the catastrophic effects of rampant starvation on Mebrhit and others like her – people affected directly by prolonged drought, civil conflict and the increasing scarcity of aid deliveries to the region. In its sixth consecutive year without adequate rains, Ethiopia sits at number two on the International Rescue Committee’s 2023 Emergency Watchlist; an estimated 28.6 million people in the country are in need of humanitarian aid, with 20 million of them suffering from food insecurity. The 2022 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) categorized over 400,000 Ethiopians under Phase 5 of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), designated as “Catastrophe/Famine” – the most dire of the IPC’s classifications for measuring food insecurity in a region, and the highest number of people to be placed under Phase 5 in the history of the GRFC.
Although one of the most extreme, food scarcity in Ethiopia is just one example of a widespread global crisis. In 2021, the GRFC estimated that up to 193 million people across 53 countries and territories were in IPC Phase 3 or higher (ranging from meeting bare minimum food requirements to extreme starvation). As of 2023, the World Food Programme estimates that up to 345 million people across the world are grappling with prolonged hunger crises, with military conflict being the largest catalyst for exacerbated food scarcity, followed closely by climate change impact and skyrocketing agricultural costs. The Global Hunger Index predicts that, even with efforts undertaken to meet Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger), the SDG’s 2030 target for eliminating global hunger is, at the moment, far from feasible.
Even so, institutions working to address hunger are targeting the issue at every level of engagement – from innovating systematic resilience to providing on-the-ground aid relief. The following GlobalWA members are bringing high-impact changes through grassroots interventions in affected communities.
Relief in Crisis
While the growth of communities is dependent on sustainable self-reliance, some members conduct interventions to stabilize victims of war and communal violence, displaced and without access to basic necessities. UNICEF conducts interventions across a range of sectors to address child nutrition. In Sudan, UNICEF has delivered 2,300 megatons of health and nutrition supplies to displaced populations as a result of war and kept 80% of malnutrition centers in Sudan operational. Beyond providing medical supplies, WASH assistance, building safe spaces for children, and keeping child protection as a priority, UNICEF’s interventions for food security ensured the safe delivery of 1,440 cartons of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food to over 300 children at an orphanage in Khartoum.
Mercy Corps is also a leader in critical relief programs through emergency responses. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the SAFER project brought vital food assistance to over 9,500 families cut off from access to their farms after escaping communal violence in the towns of Nyankunde, Komanda, and Makayanga. The SAFER project, in accompaniment with a transitional assistance program called PHASE, helped families stabilize and meet their nutritional needs while regaining access to their fields, learning alternative farming methods, and accessing markets with provisioned vouchers at organized food fairs.
Communities Building Self-Reliance
Launched in 2014, the Urban Slum Health Action Programme (USHA) by Sukarya USA works to identify and treat malnutrition and anemia, with a focus on mothers and children up to five years of age. Targeting 22 slums across Delhi and Gurugram, Sukaraya collaborates with Wipro Cares, Fidelity International, and OYO Cares to address infant mortality and maternal health, and build community awareness regarding nutrition. The USHA program holds cooking demonstrations with nutritionists to encourage sustainable eating habits and teach frugal meal-planning.
Alongside nutrition, the program focuses on immunizations, holds sanitation workshops to promote personal hygiene and WASH best practices, and conducts regular in-house visits to ensure that communities are benefiting from the program’s activities. Prioritizing the health of mothers and children, the 2021 Rural Health Action Program (RCHA) continues to address anemia and malnutrition in Haryana and Rajasthan, with support from Bird Group. Across their programs, Sukarya teaches low-cost, nutritional recipes, distributes necessary supplements (e.g. iron, folic acid, calcium, and vitamin A), sets up medical camps for blood tests, counseling and maternal support, promotes health and nutrition awareness in schools, organizes Self Help Groups (SHGs) with women for processing cereal, and conducts regular nutrition demonstrations in targeted communities.
In Sri Lanka, UNICEF provides cash to eligible families to fortify their buying power and build resilience against hunger; this provision accompanies information on breastfeeding, infant nutrition practices, and advice on how to best ensure the child’s dietary needs. UNICEF also facilitates the provision of meals to over 18,000 students across 652 preschools in Sri Lanka with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In Uganda, UNICEF conducted information sessions and cooking demonstrations for mothers, using infographic charts to teach the proper and timely identification of signs that their children may be malnourished. The outreach program acknowledged that mothers play a critical role in ensuring child nutrition and encouraged the involvement of local mothers themselves in ensuring the program’s reach and impact.
Landesa works to legitimize land ownership in rural communities as a way to combat food insecurity. With their Land Rights for Sustainable Development II Project in Liberia, Landesa is facilitating the formalization of land, consulting on legal and policy-making matters, and building awareness of land ownership laws and rights within communities through radio broadcasts following the passing of a land rights law in 2018 that sought to recognize and protect the rights of up to 3 million Liberians. Landesa also conducts advocacy and consulting projects in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, prioritizing legitimate land ownership as a vital defense against food scarcity.
Another organization focusing on land ownership is Argos International. Prioritizing the effective utilization of land as a core defense against the hunger crisis, Argos also teaches communities sustainable practices to build independent resilience. In San Jose City in the Philippines, Argos has assisted families by teaching them drip irrigation, demonstrated the efficacy of greenhouses and other sustainable farming technologies, and enabled them to earn their land ownership rights, securing long-term income and food security. With families acquiring land rights in as little as three years, the intervention in San Jose is one of Argos International’s most successful projects.
The Hunger Project (THP) conducts widespread interventions in communities across Africa, South Asia, and Latin America to address hunger. In Benin, for example, THP has promoted their Epicenter Strategy to mobilize rural communities, enabling them to better pool their resources, and allow greater representation for the local government. Beyond systemic changes, THP implements Soil Protection and Rehabilitation (ProSOL) in Benin, teaching farmers sustainable agricultural practices to prevent reductions in crop yield. Their Early Childhood Nutrition and Development Project (PNDPE) provides emergency food relief for children, reliable meals for school students to encourage greater nutrition and more consistent attendance, and advocating for policies with greater attention to childhood malnutrition. The Epicenter Strategy is also used in Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda, Ghana, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, and Zambia.
In Mexico, THP has partnered with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to bring multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) and essential nutrition action (ENA) interventions to the states of Puebla, Estado de México, Yucatán, Chiapas, Oaxaca, and San Luis Potosí. Alongside an initiative to promote and preserve traditional cuisine practices in partnership with Starbucks, THP uses these interventions to provide nutritional needs for mothers and children under five.
Innovation for Food Security
Aside from direct interventions to engage with communities, other members have brought critical innovations in technology, machine learning and data utilization to strengthen targeted communities against food insecurity.
Developing specialized technological solutions for idiosyncratic issues is a strategy adopted by Mercy Corps. To relieve residents in rural Uganda of the arduous acquisition of firewood for cooking meals, the Technology Development (T4D) team at Mercy Corps designed a solar-powered cookstove in collaboration with Pesitho, called ECOCA, bringing the product to the Bidi Bidi settlement in Uganda, housing over 270,000 Sudanese refugees. With enough battery power for three meals a day, and equipped with portable lights and USB charging ports, the ECOCA eliminates the long hours required for firewood gathering and allows locals to focus their efforts on community engagement, socialization, or work.
Another Mercy Corps initiative in Uganda is the digital needs wallet, developed in association with Sempo, enabling residents to make purchases with digital currency using their phones and facilitating greater access to food markets through participating vendors. Furthermore, the digital wallet enables faster and more secure transfer of funds for financial assistance programs, reducing the risks associated with using tangible cash. The wallet takes advantage of widespread mobile phone usage and broadband network coverage in Uganda; 65.7% of Ugandans use mobile phones, and 80% of the country receives coverage. Due to low usage of smartphones in the region, the digital needs wallet is built to be operable on older device types as well.
Leveraging the importance of understanding systems when addressing food insecurity, DE Design + Environment delivered workshops on agricultural risk mapping for the Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), targeting Trinidad, Tobago, and Guyana. From the identification of risk factors and hazards to their specific implementations in the targeted regions, the four-module workshop provided the IICA with impactful, applicable insight on the challenges facing the agricultural sector. Risk maps developed for each region emphasized the importance of building resilience against hazards to fortify agricultural success and long-term food security. For Guyana, DE analyzed the country’s main agricultural sectors (i.e. fisheries, livestock, produce, sugar, and rice), identified specific risk factors faced by these sectors (e.g. flooding and heavy rains leading to overflow as a result of poor drainage and irrigation systems), and provided data-backed risk maps for each hazard listed for every agricultural sector in all three targeted countries.
Grow Further also brings technological innovation in building resilient food security. Targeting the agriculture sector of Tanzania, the program seeks to address significant losses in the country’s maize and bean yields due to crop diseases and pests, two of the region’s staple ingredients. By using machine learning and building an accompanying mobile app, Grow Further aims to develop a system that can identify at a much earlier stage the probability of crop disease, allowing farmers to identify potential hazards early and enjoy more stable yields, greater income, and bolstered food security. The project aims to provide data-driven identification assistance to 400,000 farmers within two years, and up to 5 million farmers in 20 years.
Members display sharp focus and cultural sensitivity in their grassroots engagements, developing solutions that are best suited for the specific needs of their given target regions. Direct interventions, whether they be critical aid delivery in crisis, raising awareness about best nutritional practices, or the development of technologies to strengthen a community, are the first and most important move in changing the grander state of food security across the world.
In addition to the above organizations, the following GlobalWA members are working on SDG 1 No Poverty and SDG 2 Zero Hunger to establish Food Security through their programs in communities where they work.
Threats to food security come from a variety of social, economic, and environmental factors that must be consistently monitored to create evidence-based policies to support sustainability. The SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and various MEAs (Multilateral Environmental Agreements) are in place to demarcate collectively agreed upon targets and indicators to support sustainable development and food provision. DE is an internationally recognized company that specializes in environmental data acquisition, analysis, processing, and reporting for sustainable development, whether it be for national progress on MEAs and SDGs or corporate sustainability performance (ESG). The DE team works extensively in the Caribbean and Latin America with SIDS (Small Island Developing States) to support their national sustainability governance and alignment with global targets.
DE was founded in 2005 and has steadily built a reputation for innovative and creative solutions to environmental challenges with information analysis and design as well as software design. Clients include the United Nations, World Bank, Global Environmental Facility, CARICOM, the IISD (International Institute for Sustainable Development), and several national governments and NGOs. The goal with all DE work is to pursue the company mission to “Solve problems using design and environmental science”.
Future of Fish believes new models and approaches are desperately needed in order to deliver coordinated fishery transformation at scale. That’s why they work to generate systemic change in fisheries through a progression of coordinated activities developed in collaboration with stakeholders whereby stocks are managed more sustainably, fishery communities maintain resilient economies, and fishers and seafood workers benefit from improved social equity and livelihoods.
The mission of Grow Further is to empower farmers, scientists, and individuals to create a food-secure future. We put out open-ended calls for agricultural R&D grant proposals, seeking the best ideas from around the world to help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change and improve nutrition and farm income. We select proposals with the best strategies to reach a large number of farmers per dollar invested. We listen to farmer needs, and engage our individual and corporate donor members, who come from different professions and parts of the world, in the value judgments around choosing among the finalists. For scientists, we support projects that other funders have overlooked in areas like neglected and underutilized crops and IT in agriculture. For donors, we provide an answer to the simple question, ‘I want to support the future of food security. How do I get involved?’ We’re currently supporting CSIR-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute in Ghana in farmer engagement, breeding, agronomy, and strategic partnerships to develop the first ever commercial variety of Bambara groundnut, a nutritious and climate-resilient bean with great potential. We’re also supporting NM-AIST in Tanzania in developing a machine learning-based app for smallholder farmers to identify maize and bean diseases early.
Heifer International is ending hunger and poverty in a sustainable way by working 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.
Landesa champions and works to strengthen land rights for millions of those living in poverty worldwide, primarily rural women and men, to promote social justice and provide opportunity. Secure rights to land encourage smallholder farmers to invest in sustainable practices—like irrigation technologies, terracing, fallowing, and agroforestry—that conserve soil and boost crop yields to feed the world, growing the path toward zero hunger.
Formal land rights increased agricultural productivity by an average of 40% in a meta-analysis conducted across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In Kenya and Rwanda, Landesa is laying the foundation for millions of smallholder farmers—women and men—to break free from the cycle of poverty and hunger. Through the Agricultural Systems Change Initiative, a partnership with One Acre Fund and Co-Impact, we seek to strengthen land rights for 6 million rural households and transform the agricultural sector so smallholder farmers can increase their productivity and income. The initiative simultaneously works to shift gender norms and ensure equitable access to agricultural markets for women, who produce a significant portion of the world’s food yet often lack the same resources as men.
Oxfam’s mission is to fight inequality to end poverty and injustice. That’s why they work with women small-scale farmers, local food entrepreneurs, and Indigenous Peoples to strengthen local food systems and to steward precious natural resources that agriculture relies upon. Oxfam advocates for stronger governmental policies that protect the land and rights of smallholder farmers, small business owners and workers, and women who are often responsible for food in the home. And they tackle the tremendous power and influence held by large food and beverage companies that play an enormous role in the health and equity of our food systems—with massive implications for food security.
Spreeha’s work ending hunger and ensuring healthy lives
In alignment with Bangladesh’s priority areas around SDG 2: Zero Hunger, Spreeha aims at ending all forms of malnutrition, especially in under-5-years old children, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women, and elderly people from underserved communities both in urban and rural Bangladesh.
As an empathy-led high-impact organization, we are committed to chart a path toward empowering communities to transform and live a healthy and secure life.
Growth monitoring of U-5 children quarterly, providing nutrition education, connecting severely malnourished patients with doctors and nutritionists are regular activities conducted by Spreeha in all its project areas in Dhaka. Spreeha works on ensuring healthy and nutritious life for adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating mothers through community clubs where we emphasize nutrition education, healthy lifestyle choices, and treatment. We also focus on breaking gender stereotypes and busting myths about women’s health, food, and nutrition.
Spreeha’s high-scale food security project started during COVID-19 response supported ultra-poor families dealing with the surge in malnutrition and meal cuts due to income loss and disrupted supply chain during prolonged lockdown. The project served 50,000 people through monthly food support, nutrition screening, nutrition education, and treatment.
The Hunger Project is committed to creating a world without hunger. We facilitate individual and collective action to transform the systems of inequity that keep hunger in place. Through holistic and integrated programs, Hunger Project participants lead change in their communities and our world.
Investments in the resiliency of communities are key to addressing food security. Climate change, conflict, economic shocks and growing inequalities are putting pressure on our food system’s capacity to produce and distribute nutritious and affordable food. We work with smallholder farmers to strengthen their production capacity, decreasing reliance on external inputs, and diversifying livelihoods. We are working with farmers to reintroduce indigenous crop varieties and foods into their businesses. The inputs for these crops are often more accessible and they tend to be resistant to local diseases and pests.
We are also working with local leaders to educate communities about nutrition, particularly for maternal and childhood health. Through advocacy through our Right2Grow program and a partnership with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Humanitarian Efforts, we facilitate training workshops about nutrition for both children and mothers and the importance of pre- and postnatal care, as well as facilitate opportunities for on-going child health and weight monitoring.
S M Sehgal Foundation: Food Security, Women’s Empowerment, and Rural Sustainability
By Joel Meyers
Shashank Devra (left) with his implementation colleagues and farmer (second from right) in Nuh, India for the agriculture intervention demonstration. Photo: Joel Meyers
I was blanketed by the humid, 92° F day as I stepped out of the air-conditioned white SUV onto the rutted and sun-dried path. Shashank Devra, program lead for the Implementation Team at S M Sehgal Foundation (Sehgal Foundation), guided me toward his colleagues, who arrived in another SUV and a couple on motorbikes, and the local farmer we were scheduled to meet with for my visit.
We were in the rural sub-district of Nuh in the state of Haryana, India, about an hour and a half drive south from Sehgal Foundation headquarters in Gurugram (Gurgaon). Gurugram is a planned city, 30 kilometers SW of Delhi, a modern complex of glass, chrome, and brushed metals that houses some of the most influential tech companies in India, including offices for the likes of Google and WeWork. However, Nuh was mile after mile of smallholder farms, small brick-and-mud storage huts, massive piles of organic debris, and a peppering of small trees with the occasional shrub, all accessed by paved and rutted dirt roads.
According to Shashank, the Sehgal Foundation team chose Nuh for this particular farming project because it is the most “underdeveloped district in the State of Haryana” based on government criteria of income, health, and other factors. The region is considered an “aspirational district,” which the Sehgal Foundation team considered an ideal place to implement the agricultural interventions and economic empowerment programs they had arranged for me to see, based on my question, “Are there projects local to Delhi that will demonstrate how Sehgal Foundation is addressing the challenge of food insecurity?”
I only had one day, and I am glad they brought me here.
Shashank Devra, program lead for the Implementation Team at Sehgal Foundation talks about farmer school interventions with a smallholder farmer and Sehgal Foundation colleagues. Video by Joel Meyers
Rooted in social impact for 24 years
S M Sehgal Foundation was founded in 1999 by visionary entrepreneurs and philanthropists, Dr. Suri Sehgal and his wife Edda Sehgal. The foundation promotes sustainable rural development that respects human dignity, protects the environment, and promotes social justice by working with rural communities in India to help them achieve self-reliance and build their capacities.
Sehgal Foundation has 300 employees and partners with hundreds of corporate, government, and academic institutions and individuals. Their work has impacted over four million people in 12 states, in more than 2,000 villages. They have expanded their reach by 40% in the last five years and have the goal to keep expanding.
I spoke with Anjali Makhija, Trustee and CEO of Sehgal Foundation, earlier that morning at their energy-efficient headquarters in Gurugram. Anjali has been working in rural development for the past 23 years, since she joined the Sehgal Foundation.
“Local participation and partnership with these local communities is critical for the sustainability of any program,” she said.
Anjali Makhija (center), Trustee and CEO of S M Sehgal Foundation, Pooja Oberoi Murada (left), Principal Lead for Outreach for Development, and Joel Meyers, Director of Communications for GlobalWA.
She continued, emphasizing the goal of Sehgal Foundation to “empower communities and farmers who are confident citizens who make smart decisions” about farming techniques, farm mechanization and technology (ICT), and soil nutrition.
“We work to help people help themselves. We work with the people, not for.”
Sehgal Foundation’s Agriculture Development Program, a key and crucial component for ensuring food security and sustainability in India, has “interventions” to build capacities of farmers, including women farmers, and improve agricultural practices. Additionally, the agriculture program trains farmers and helps them implement new technologies that increase crop yields, conserve water, and improve soil fertility.
India is becoming a model for sustainable food production driven mainly by the National Food Security Act of 2013, which starts with the premise: “The basic concept of food security globally is to ensure that all people, at all times, should get access to the basic food for their active and healthy life and is characterized by availability, access, utilization, and stability of food.”
In fact, Anjali pointed out that India has become self-sufficient for food production, seeing a six-fold increase for food production from 1950–2020, and has become a net food exporter.
But, according to Anjali, the challenge is how to sustain this trajectory, especially with climate change. “Climate change is a real challenge—how do we keep up food production and enumeration, as well as keep the farmers interested?”
Their local farming and empowerment programs strive to address this, and, from what I was witnessing this day, they are succeeding.
Through the agriculture interventions, Sehgal has helped farmers understand water conservation, efficient drip irrigation and micro-sprinkler techniques, proper soil nutrition with locally available fertilizers, thus increasing yields 40-50% which also allows increased economic savings. These model demonstrations spread naturally through word-of-mouth through the community of local smallholder farmers. Photo: Joel Meyers
Creating strong women leaders
Empowerment of women is a key aspect to all their programs. “We have programs to empower women to be leaders for water in farming and farming techniques, in governance, in schools, and in leadership positions,” Anjali said.
I was able to visit one of these communities of empowered women in Nuh later that day. Nine women from Nuh and neighboring villages gathered to meet with me and talk about their experience.
Shashank and local women farmers; Shashank talks about the women empowerment program and how the program trains women about leadership, public speaking, supporting the local farmers, including animal husbandry. Video by Joel Meyers.
Shashank informed me that “these women are selected based upon their willingness to work with the [male] farmers and be active participants, then we provide them with leadership training. We start the training with confidence building and communication so they can communicate with other farmers, other villages. We then train them in agriculture techniques such as laser leveling, crop demonstrations, soil micronutrients, animal nutrition and benefits, based upon the season and needs. They then assimilate this information to fellow farmers and farmers in other villages.”
With this new confidence and knowledge, they are empowered leaders who can provide ongoing support, in essence becoming leaders in their communities.
I was invited to sit with the local community women farmers. Photo: Shashank Devra
Expanding knowledge to smallholder farmers
At the farm in Nuh, Shashank introduced me to his team, and the farmer, who smiled in shy pride. Shashank led me along a pathway bordering a trellis of lush zucchini vines with row upon row of black PVC tubing along the plants’ stems, interconnected and culminating at a junction at one end of the field. He spoke to me, with translated comments from his colleagues and answers from the local farmer, of these rural smallholder farmers’ need for more efficient watering methods—exactly what Sehgal Foundation had introduced here.
Micro sprinkler systems provide more efficient and consistent irrigation for the smallholder farm. Photo: Joel Meyers
With Sehgal Foundation’s help, and a small investment by the farmer, the farmer selected and purchased the piping and valves to provide concentrated, specific plant-stem watering to take the place of traditional flood irrigation. Flood irrigation is a method of watering, allowing the monsoon and/or piped water to flood the planted fields—a rough and imprecise method that often washes the away the seeds; and after the rain ends, the soil dries out too quickly. Using the drip irrigation of cistern-caught rainwater instead, this farmer had experienced a 40% greater yield and cost savings. (He used his new savings to purchase, plant, and water new fields in this new way.) At the field of zucchini, they showed me how having the vines elevated, and by putting down long rows of plastic sheeting the stems grow through, that the shade and plastic drastically inhibits water evaporation through the soil.
Shashank explains the new farming techniques, pointedly the drip irrigation, the savings gained, and increased production. Video by Joel Meyers
Along with this new low-cost and efficient watering technique, the Sehgal Foundation team teaches farmers how to locally source the materials as well as new macro- and micronutrients for their fields. This keeps the economies local; empowers farmers to take care of their land, using knowledge backed by science and data; creates greater yields; increases farmer family savings, and influences other farmers to learn based on these local successes.
A path guided by data and analysis
India and the world are fraught with changes in the climate and the ensuing challenges for farming and food production; these factors threatens food security that ensures their communities are fed with sustainable and nutritious crops. Sehgal Foundation is a model organization that is not only guided by governmental and UN principles, but also, and primarily, their foundational mandate of social impact. Their programs empower women, farmers, and local communities to be self-sustaining, and the work is backed by community dialogue, impact assessments, data gathering, and data analysis—all especially important as conditions continue to evolve with climate change. Rural India has a true partner with Sehgal Foundation.
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S M Sehgal Foundation has been a GlobalWA member since 2022. Sehgal has been working since 1999 to improve the quality of life of the rural communities in India. As a rural development NGO, established as a public, charitable trust, Sehgal Foundation has a skilled and dedicated team that creates sustainable programs to address rural India’s most pressing needs: Sehgal Foundation has five main program areas: Water Management, Agriculture Development, Local Participation and Sustainability, Transform Lives one school at a time, and Outreach for Development. These programs are supported by a skilled research team that engages in participatory research, impact assessment, and interactive dialogues to determine informed actions to achieve sustainable results. Read more about Sehgal Foundation
Gilbert Kamanga, National Director for World Vision Kenya, has a lot to be grateful for. Born in a small village in Malawi, Kamanga grew up in a family of six. As he puts it, poverty was not a stranger in his community.
“But I thank God that through education, I was able to get some employment.”
With faith as his motivator, Kamanga pushed himself to achieve more. He studied at the University of Malawi and went on to earn his masters in Rural Social Development at the University of Reading.
Kamanga started his nearly 30 year journey at World Vision, a Christian humanitarian relief and development organization, by “growing within the ranks from a field officer to the executive level where I am now.”
Before becoming the National Director for Kenya, Kamanga was the National Director for Tanzania, Malawi, and Uganda. As the National Director, Kamanga ensures that the strategy for World Vision in Kenya is developed, financed and implemented effectively.
“But the key to the role is to ensure that as World Vision will remain true to the cause,” says Kamanga. “When I see children from very humble families living a better life, this, to me, gives me hope.”
“And,” Kamanga adds, “the fact that World Vision does not just come and go in a community also gives me hope. Because we believe that development requires going alongside the people and takes long time. And to me, that’s what motivates me to keep going.”
For Kamanga, the issues closest to his heart are the empowerment and uplifting of women and children in communities.
“I started thinking a long time ago, if you want to change society today, in Africa or anywhere, it sounds like a cliché, but it’s not a cliché, it’s a reality: focus on women and children.”
Drawing from his own experience, Kamanga remembers how his mother worked hard to ensure the family had enough to eat.
“To achieve a critical mass, work with women and youth, because if you have a critical mass, you cannot ignore what is in front of you.”
Throughout his long career at World Vision, one program stands out to Kamanga as a point of pride, and a goalpost for the future: THRIVE.
Developed by World Vision in 2013, the THRIVE program is aimed at building both improved and resilient livelihoods for smallholder farmers in different countries around the world.
Kamanga was there for the first large scale test model that launched in Tanzania and then expanded to Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda and Honduras. The program served about 375,000 people in about 75,000 smallholder farming families in those five countries.
THRIVE is World Vision’s livelihoods model that uses a multifaceted approach, with a focus on shareholder farmer communities, to help families lift themselves out of poverty.
One area is the business aspect of farming, which includes for example, understanding markets, utilizing sustainable conservation methods, but even some ideas not directly related to farming, like organizing communities into savings groups.
The program also uses education to teach the natural resource management systems of farming, and develop situational awareness to prepare for environmental shocks like plant disease and climate change.
But the foundation of the program, according to Kamanga is the ‘empowered worldview’ pillar, a biblically-based approach that addresses the problem of disempowerment and fatalism by tackling the issue of personal “agency”: helping people understand that they do have the capacity to control their own lives. The curriculum also addresses stewarding natural resources, providing compassion to people within your own family and community, and envisioning a powerful future for yourself and your family.
“So unlocking the positive aspects of various components of their faith, was, for a lack of better term, the ‘secret sauce’ of THRIVE,” says Kamanga.
“Because we have seen that in Africa, where faith is a central part of daily life, when you start discussing with people issues of their faith, and how that relates to them, it gives them hope, because then they see who they are in the bigger scheme of things.”
A recent evaluation conducted by TANGO International on THRIVE showed that over the course of the seven year study, THRIVE household annual incomes rose from $138 a year to $1,370 a year, and that “families used the money to improve their children’s education, housing improvements, medical care, and investments in their businesses.”
40% of families participating in THRIVE reported more food security, reporting that they could provide for the basic needs of all children in their families.
Now, World Vision is seeking to expand the THRIVE model to reach 10 million people in 11 countries by 2030. The focus is on helping the extreme poor—those who earn less than a dollar a day—rise up out of poverty and build improved and resilient livelihoods.
Kamanga and World Vision believe it is completely possible to end extreme poverty within our lifetime. In 1982, over 36% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty, now, it’s 9% and falling.
For Kamanga, the path to ending extreme poverty is shorter than we think. With 2 of every three people living in extreme poverty in the world today being smallholder farmers, the best question to ask is, “How do we help smallholder farmers make a lot more money in agriculture?” And it begins with faith, commitment, and collaboration.
“So what am I saying is that if we commit today, at an individual level, to contribute to ending extreme poverty, we will end it. Because we have the tools. We have the knowledge. We have the expertise to do it.”
Please welcome our newest Global Washington members. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with their work and consider opportunities for support and collaboration!
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, one of the world’s oldest airlines in operation, operates over 5,400 flights daily and serves 325 destinations in 52 countries on six continents. Delta’s charitable giving program – marking $50.5 million in 2022 – adjusts to meet ongoing societal needs, from dedicated programs to protect the environment, pursue equity and expand education to relief support in natural disasters, humanitarian crises and health emergencies. esghub.delta.com/charitable-giving
Perennial
Perennial’s work sits at the intersection of leadership, social justice, and human development. Our mission is to support global social leaders in rejuvenating and sustaining themselves within the frameworks of their communities, leadership roles, causes, and personal lives. With close to two decades of engagement spanning Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East, and having impacted thousands of individuals, Perennial has discerned that in these intricate and demanding times, a leader’s paramount skill lies in their capacity to resonate internally with their purpose and externally with the individuals and communities they are dedicated to serving. perennial.org
Worldwide Fistula Fund
Worldwide Fistula Fund is a global health nonprofit that provides free, surgery, treatment, prevention and rehabilitation programs and services to women and girls suffering from obstetric fistulas in sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwidefistulafund.org
Natural disasters across the world are increasing in frequency and intensity, which can be linked to climate change. Scientific modeling predicts that these trends will increase in the future. Thus, the work our Global Washington members engage in to respond and mitigate natural disasters is more important than ever. Our Global Washington members are leveraging advanced technology alongside localized community engagement, which proves to be a powerful approach for building resilience against climate-related disasters in low- and middle-income countries. Here are some key elements used by GlobalWA members, and read more in the articles following.
(Seattle, WA – November 16, 2023) 
