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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.

Water for Life

Water, though paramount to the survival of all living organisms on Earth, is often taken for granted in the developed world. Being so readily available and safe to drink through the tap or out of the bottle, many westerners overlook the absolute necessity of clean, accessible water. Water is responsible for the growth our crops and the health of our livestock. Water can power our cities and potentially fuel our cars. With too many people relying on the same source, water can cause tension and conflict. Without water all together, this planet simply cannot survive.

In essence, water is life.

But nowhere is this notion more apparent than in the developing world, where access to water is legitimately a matter of life and death. Today, 894 million people live without access to reliable and clean water sources. This number, when compounded by the 2.5 billion people who live without basic sanitation, results in 1.5 million deaths per year. 2,000 to 5,000 liters of water is required to produce only one person’s food per day, a requirement that certainly contributes to the figure of 1 billion people currently suffering from chronic hunger. Without this resource to hydrate our bodies, keep our hands and homes clean, or produce our food, survival is impossible.

This is why we celebrate World Water Day every March 22. Since 1992 the world has observed the absolute necessity of the most essential resource on Earth; water. From “Walks for Water” fundraisers to online discussions raising awareness about water issues, this day is made for events that celebrate water around the world. This year’s theme is “Water for Cities, Responding to the Urban Challenge.” As such, the city of Seattle is fully committed to this year’s World Water Day with an all day forum and exposition located in Seattle City Hall. And in case you missed Global Washington’s email, Seattle’s Chief Sealth International High School is devoting this entire week to a festival consisting of events focused on water.

Although water is often over looked, it is still a prerequisite for happiness and prosperity, and deserves to be celebrated as such. I was lucky enough to experience the comfort and joy attained through the access of clean water in my time in Damaraland, Namibia. While volunteering on an elephant conservation project aimed at reducing conflict between those loveable giants and the people with whom they share the desert, my fellow volunteers and I constructed an elephant-proof wall around a man-made well.

Water being a scarce commodity in the deserts of Namibia, elephants are known to demolish plumbing and cave in wells in their attempt to consume what water they can. Such destruction can very easily lead to lethal human retaliation for the disruption of vital access to water. I watched as the inhabitants of the nearby farms and villages, bringing their herds of goats and sheep for a much needed water break as they grazed the hot and arid landscape. With appreciation etched on their faces as they realized this well was now a reliable source of water for themselves and their herds, I came to realize just how important this water was for the survival of these herders and for the survival of all natural beings.

Happy World Water Day everyone!