Blog

Global Development Still Matters

As a member organization for the global development sector in the state of Washington, we urge you to speak out against further cuts to the national budget for diplomacy and foreign assistance.  Every day our members are tirelessly devoting their energy and resources to improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable citizens. We hear their stories about positive changes they have seen—villages accessing clean water, poor women starting their own businesses, children exploring the world through quality education, people receiving simple vaccinations for deadly but preventable diseases. Positive change does not happen by accident. Yet, even simple solutions make a difference. A five dollar mosquito net may be all that is necessary to prevent a child from contracting malaria. It cost $100 million to eradicate smallpox—only a fraction of $1.3 billion that we now save annually thanks to the elimination of the disease.

Our members have experienced firsthand the difference that thoughtful and deliberate investment can make in addressing global problems. That is why most of our members support continued funding for poverty alleviation and global health. Because they are already doing all they can, but more help is still needed. Because these dollars DO make a difference. Because reduced funding means 370,000 people will not be able to get tested and treated for TB. Because continued funding will allow us to virtually eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015. Because investment in global development creates a more stable and prosperous world for everyone.

In the U.S., we have a voice in how we want our tax dollars to be spent. Global Washington’s Board President and Washington State representatives Adam Smith and Jim McDermott have submitted an op-ed to the Seattle Times expressing their support for these programs. Other influential thought leaders have also gone on record in support of continued funding for international development, including  Senator John Kerry ; former Republican Congressman Jim Kolbe;  Richard Stearns, President of the Christian relief and development organization, World Vision; and countless others from the development sector and beyond. Will you do the same? Let your elected representatives know that even in a difficult economic climate, you still support programs that help the most vulnerable in the world.

Sample text to use when contacting your representative:

I am writing to request that you protect the International Affairs Budget, and the investments in programs to help keep our country safe and grow our economy here at home. I recognize the very real budget constraints facing our nation and Washington and the difficult funding decisions you face.  As you grapple with these constraints, however, I urge you to ensure a strong and effective International Affairs Budget and to oppose deep cuts to these programs. 

Now is not the time to diminish or abandon America’s leadership around the world – or to cut programs that save money and lives by preventing conflict and instability from developing in the first place. As you know, a small investment in International Affairs programs builds more stable, democratic societies overseas and keeps us safe in the long run. There is strong bipartisan support for the International Affairs Budget, and broad support here in Washington, including the business, military, and faith communities.

We need your continued support to save these programs from deep cuts. I urge you to ensure a strong and effective International Affairs Budget in FY2011 and FY2012. As you know, these programs are essential to building a more stable, peaceful and prosperous world.

Links:

• Find your Congressional representative
• Read the op-ed
• An in-depth analysis of how the budget was cut (from U.S. Global Leadership Coalition).

Member Guest Blog: Strengthening Our Global Donors Network in the Pacific Northwest

The popularity of microfinance programs has increased dramatically in recent years, with international funders investing hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet, many question the extent to which microfinance programs help alleviate poverty? One of Friday’s workshops at the Pacific Northwest Global Donors Conference will take a critical look at microfinance programs as a tool for addressing poverty. What do we know about the effectiveness of these programs from a poverty alleviation perspective, and how can funders find projects that are effective in reaching this goal?

The April 1-2 gathering is the second annual Global Donors Conference, designed to bring together Northwest grantmakers and philanthropists active and/or curious about global philanthropy. The conference program includes two days of informative and engaging sessions on how climate change affects donor strategies, what’s new in technology for development, corporate-NGO collaboration, food solutions for people and the planet, approaches to igniting the power of young people, pathways for strategic giving, getting real on evaluation, and much more. 

Greg Carr—Idaho native, high-tech pioneer of voicemail, co-founder of Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights, and global philanthropist whose $40 million commitment to Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique has been profiled in The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and Outside—will deliver the keynote address on Friday.  And Margaret Larson—host of New Day Northwest on KING-5, former NBC foreign correspondent, and communications consultant for international nonprofit organizations including World Vision, Mercy Corps, PATH and Global Partnerships—will close the conference on Saturday.

If you haven’t already, check out the agenda at www.globaldonorsconference.org and register today. The conference will be an excellent opportunity to learn more about international issues and effective grantmaking practices as well as network with others engaged in global giving.

-submitted by the Henry M. Jackson Foundation

Member guest blog: Landlessness is not forever

By Robert Mitchell, Landesa

After more than a decade meeting with government officials and families in rural areas of the developing world, I have yet to encounter anyone who would discount the importance of land, or who would challenge the fact that landlessness is a severely disempowering condition for the rural poor.

It’s easy enough to grasp the concept that land is important, and that it’s especially important to rural families in the developing world. After all, most poor rural families that lack land of their own earn their living by working as day laborers on other people’s land, and land is a primary source of power for their employers. Landlessness and land insecurity, the lot of hundreds of millions of rural people worldwide, is a defining personal and social characteristic, greatly limiting their current options and future prospects.

So much seems clear. What is much less expected—but encountered all too often—is the attitude that landlessness is an immutable “given,” a static social arrangement that cannot be changed. The sky is blue, the town is a ten-hour walk from the village, and a third of the village is and will forever remain landless. Their children and their children’s children will know only landlessness and agricultural wage labor.

This is the assumption of most people I’ve met in the developing world, including government officials, rural development professionals, landowners and even (or especially) landless families themselves. Such attitudes prevail even among progressive thinkers who would like to see landlessness eradicated. But what good is there in hoping for change that shows no sign of coming? Isn’t it better to work on change that can happen, even if such change doesn’t address the root problem of landlessness?

I’ve learned the key to countering this assumption is to imagine—and then test and demonstrate—practical, politically and financially feasible programs through which governments can help landless families gain access and secure rights to land, even modest plots of land. Once a program begins to succeed—and families walk for the first time on land that is theirs, and begin planning what they will produce on the land—there is very often a change not only among these families, but among government land officials. It is truly moving to see seasoned officials marvel at the fact that landlessness can actually be tackled and eradicated.

As crucial as this change in thinking is, shifting the cultural and policy mindset is only the beginning. For a program to reach large numbers of families, it must be well designed, scalable and well monitored, and must receive sufficient staff and other resources. The process cannot be scaled so quickly as to sacrifice quality and attention to detail. Special attention must be paid to ensuring that the process empowers women within the family. Attention must also be given to providing channels through which families can receive information, for example, on which local vegetables and fruits are most easily grown and most nutritious, as well as access to inexpensive improvements, such as drip irrigation, that can greatly enhance the land’s productivity during dry seasons.

As we forge ahead, our shared opportunity is to continually challenge stubborn assumptions that land ownership is limited to only the privileged few. At Landesa, we believe land rights are an asset that can be expanded for all, and that this expansion will unlock potential for generations to come.