The Role of Faith-Based Organizations in Haiti’s Reconstruction

Posted on 15 February 2011 | 6 responses

By Jesse Wallin

I recently had the chance to witness Haiti’s ongoing recovery efforts first-hand over the course of two weeks this past January. I was working with Haiti Outreach an NGO which builds wells, water-systems and schools throughout the country. During my time with Haiti Outreach, I was exposed to a variety of faith-based organizations (FBOs) and this has me contemplating the role of FBOs in Haiti’s recovery process.

The international community has played an important, and well documented, role in Haiti’s post-quake reconstruction efforts. Foreign governments to date have pledged over $5.3 billion dollars in the form of humanitarian aid and debt forgiveness. UN Security Council resolution 1927 authorized the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and has committed approximately 12,000 uniformed personnel to maintaining peace and security throughout the country.

The role of non-profits in Haiti’s reconstruction efforts has been heavily publicized. The traditional players – Oxfam, Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Save the Children, etc. – have been actively involved in reconstruction efforts. Less publicized, however, has been the significant role of FBOs in Haiti’s ongoing recovery process.

Living Unhappily Ever After: Southern NGOs and Northern NGOs

Posted on 27 January 2011 | 3 responses

By Ramesh Singh

Keystone has just published NGO Partner Survey 2010 a report about the relationship between northern NGOs from high income countries and southern NGOs from mid and low income countries. The report is a presentation of response and ratings of more than 1000 southern NGOs about their bilateral relationships (partnerships) with 25 NGOs from Europe (16) and USA (9) who cooperated with Keystone in this survey. The list of 25 northern NGOs notably does not include some of the bigger, more visible or vociferous advocacy NGOs.

The 80-page public report that does not give out much about the 1000+ southern NGOs in terms of whether they are organizations or movements of poor and excluded people or intermediary NGOs, or whether they are bigger or smaller NGOs and whether they are from countries where civil society space and sectors are well developed or not (and such factors would affect the nature and the quality of relationships).

The report recommends that “every year (northern) NGOs publish systematic feedback from their southern partners that is independently collected on an anonymous basis and is structured and presented in comparison to similar feedback received by other (northern) NGOs.”

The Relevance of Alternatives to Social Entrepreneurship

Posted on 24 January 2011 | 3 responses

By Sujeet Kumar

In the last several years, there have been discussions and attempts to distinguish between social entrepreneurship and ‘plain vanilla’ charitable/NGO work. Semantics notwithstanding, I am myself, oftentimes, confused as to the real differences between the two.

Oftentimes, charitable organizations survive at the mercy of their donors contributions, which can vary. A nonprofit that practices social entrepreneurship, on the other hand, relies less heavily on donor funds because it creates social programs that are meant to be self-sustaining. Social entrepreneurs invest in social ventures and generate their own revenues to sustain themselves.

Thus, in theory at least, social entrepreneurship is the model to embrace and practice, it seems. But is it really relevant and applicable in all settings? Is it always a superior model and approach for meeting development objectives and effecting social transformation?

Unfortunately, there has been a feeling somehow that social entrepreneurship should be the mantra and since it is a financially sustainable, “more business-like” approach, it ought to be the superior way and that all charitable organizations should aspire to be social enterprises. This is unfortunate because we forget that the “more business-like” social entrepreneurship approach is still, at the end of the day, just one approach.

Embracing the “F” Word in Development

Posted on 18 January 2011 | 3 responses

By Sherine Jayawickrama

Fighting poverty (or improving education or health outcomes, or enhancing rural livelihoods) is a complex process. Sometimes, in the process of making these complex issues accessible and compelling, NGOs make them sound easy to address. Sponsor a child! Give a loan! Buy a goat! Websites of NGOs and donor institutions alike are awash with success stories and testimonials to lend a sense of hope and optimism to the complex issues that these organizations confront.

In principle, leaders and staff of these organizations know that advances are made slowly and even the most effective investments involve two steps forward and one step back. However, there is great resistance to calling a spade a spade. There are plenty of “lessons learned” and “setbacks”, but there are rarely “failures.” There is a real fear that donors, supporters or policy makers will associate failures in development projects or initiatives with a lack of competence or accountability on the part of the organization.

Against this backdrop, it is heartening to hear about the Admitting Failure website launched last Friday by Engineers Without Borders Canada. The site is meant to be a place where the international development community can honestly and publicly share their failures. The idea is that innovation and improvement stem from embracing and learning from failure. It’s a pretty intuitive concept!

Empowered Engagement vs. Enforced Engagement

Posted on 19 November 2010 | 3 responses

By Dr. Ramaswami Balasubramaniam

Community participation is no longer a buzzword in development. Decades ago, it was something that you spoke about and wrote in the proposals that one submitted to donor agencies.

Gradually, as many development NGOs began to understand and internalize the power and potential of this paradigm, they made it an integral part of their programs. The Government also did not lag behind. They have been providing legitimate and official space for different forms of community engagement in many of their programs. So much so that today many anti-poverty programs of the State necessarily include a major role for communities to participate and partner.

But are things happening as envisaged? Are communities actually participating to the desirable extent? Can the extent of this participation be measured and, if yes, what would be the metric? Will a mere program output being accomplished mean that communities actually participated in the program?

Is There a Failure of Imagination in International Development?

Posted on 18 November 2010 | 4 responses

By Jennifer Rubenstein

Vision! Imagination! The ability to dream up new and better worlds! Surely such capacities are essential for development practitioners.

Or are they?

“To imagine” is to make present to one’s mind that which is absent to one’s senses. Imagination is in this way the opposite of perception: if I perceive a fire truck (say, by seeing it barrel toward me, or hearing its siren, or feeling the rush of air as it speeds past), then I am not imagining it, and vice versa.

Now, consider these seemingly disparate examples:

Congressman Frank Wolf’s proposal that new members of Congress be taken to visit international development or humanitarian aid programs in poor countries.
The Listening Project’s efforts to elicit feedback directly from people affected by international aid.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s statement, soon after being released from house arrest, that she “want[s] to listen to people. This is one of the first things I have to do…”
Responses to Nicholas Kristof’s article on “The D.I.Y. Foreign Aid Revolution,” by Dave Algoso, Jennifer Lentfer and others, emphasizing that what Kristof calls a “combustible mix of indignation and vision” on the part of well-meaning foreigners is unlikely to significantly improve poor people’s lives.

These diverse statements and initiatives have one thing in common: they implicitly suggest that the human imagination is relatively weak and needs to be supplemented (or perhaps supplanted) by direct experience: Wolf wants Congresspeople to go visit aid programs because even with the help of photos and expert testimony Congresspeople cannot adequately conjure these programs in their minds. Read more

The Frank Wolf Proposal

Posted on 12 November 2010 | 2 responses

By John Coonrod

Congressman Frank R. Wolf, of Virginia’s 10th district, recently made a bold proposal for what we (the ending world hunger and poverty crowd) need to do in this political environment. But first, some background.

Thursday morning after the mid-term elections, the Alliance to End Hunger organized a fascinating presentation on Capitol Hill by Republican and Democratic experts (Jim McLaughlin and Tom Freedman). They presented an analysis of exit polls, including where voters stood on issues of ending world hunger.

The basic analysis was sobering but not surprising: a highly polarized U.S. electorate in which a large number of independents had swung to the right. A vast majority fearful about the economy.

Here are my seven favorite findings from their hunger questions:

Just 1.7% think ending world hunger/poverty should be a top priority for Congress (vs. about 55% saying the economy). Climate change also garnered 1.7%.
A sobering 63% prefer the statement “In our current economy, it’s important that the U.S. looks first to help its own citizens before trying to help others in the world” as compared to only 33% who prefer “Even in this economy, America should look to help those around the world in desperate need even as it tries to help the neediest citizens at home.”
Read more

What’s Missing from the DIY Aid Debate? Overlooking the Capacity of Local NGOs

Posted on 10 November 2010 | 4 responses

By Jennifer Lentfer

Cross-posted on the How Matters blog.

Professional or amateur? Skills and experience or passion and new ideas? These are riveting questions indeed, but I’m concerned that in the development discourse, we continue to miss a key piece.

Well-intentioned do-gooders of any sort must recognize that in the developing world, local people with that same “combustible mix of indignation and vision” that Nicholas Kristof describes, are often already organized and doing something about the issues facing them in their communities, though their initiatives are often ignored and under-resourced. Unfortunately, this is something big aid and those new to international engagement continue to discount and/or overlook.

A deeper understanding of the organizational dynamics of local, indigenous, community-based groups directly serving vulnerable families in the developing world is key to unleashing their potential. In fact I believe that larger-scale support of local initiatives, grassroots leadership and small, often “informal” movements, could be the true revolution in the international development sector. As Dave Algoso writes, “After all, the ultimate DIY efforts are grassroots initiatives by poor people in their own communities.”

For Aid Effectiveness, People Matter

Posted on 9 November 2010 | 7 responses

By Dayna Brown

I have been thinking lately about the importance of the people who are involved with international assistance efforts – and their knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviors and values. There is much discussion about the need for “professionalization” of the field, with some suggesting certification should be required for people who want to do humanitarian or development work. Others are debating the merits of volunteers versus “professionals” (see here for a compilation of views).

While local people in aid recipient communities did not directly talk about these issues, the Listening Project did hear about how staff of international and local organizations shape people’s experiences with aid efforts and their perceptions of aid agencies and their effectiveness. Some noted that even the best designed programs can fail due to bad leadership, weak staff or poor relationships, while other programs succeed largely due to the people involved. Selecting and supporting good leaders and staff is particularly important when programs involve significant capacity strengthening.

I have had the honor of working and listening with many very talented and courageous local and international staff in a number of countries. Those who were most successful certainly had some level of skills or knowledge which could potentially be “certified.” However, just as importantly, they had great attitudes, deep commitment and a desire and willingness to learn – particularly about the local people, contexts and cultures.

Should the Microfinance Industry Be Regulated?

Posted on 8 November 2010 | 4 responses

By Sujeet Kumar

Two weeks ago, at the Economic Editors’ conference, the Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee appealed to the microfinance industry to self-regulate. He was responding to a growing ongoing debate in India on the need to regulate micro-finance lending and to put a cap on the interest rates charged by microfinance institutions (MFIs).

The debate was triggered by a spate of suicides of farmers and borrowers, in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, blamed by some on the strong-arm tactics employed by the MFIs in loan recovery. “The confidence of the people in microfinance model of development has been shaken by the practices of unscrupulous microfinance institutions functioning in the rural areas of the country,” Assocham, a leading Chamber of Commerce, had said in a press release. The Central Bank of India has also constituted a sub-committee to look into the functioning of MFIs.

On the other hand, Vijay Mahajan, president of the Microfinance Institutions Network, which represents 44 of India’s leading microfinance lenders, warns that the microfinance industry would collapse, if regulated. He also has refuted any charges of harassment of poor.

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