Improving Lives and Measuring Impact

Giving the World’s Poor an Influential Ally

The Borgen Project averages over 100 high-level meetings per year with U.S. Congressional offices and has quickly become an influential voice for those struggling to survive. Beyond The Borgen Project’s direct access to U.S. leaders and staff, the organization has built a national network of Regional Directors who advocate for the world’s poor and for poverty-reduction legislation in over 80 U.S. cities.
[View Congressional Meeting List]

Building a New Base

The Borgen Project has created a new poverty-reduction base. Thousands of people have played a role in The Borgen Project’s success and the majority have never been involved with a poverty-reduction organization before. The Borgen Project has sparked mainstream interest in the issue and brought people to the cause who otherwise would not be advocating for the world’s poor.

Protecting Poverty-Focused Aid

The Borgen Project has played a pivotal role in educating members of Congress about the importance of poverty-focused aid. The Borgen Project’s messaging focuses on communicating to members of Congress the return on investment poverty-focused, aid funding has for the United States.

U.S. Development Assistance
2010: $30.0 Billion
2009: $28.8 Billion
2008: $26.4 Billion
2007: $21.7 Billion

Holding Power Accountable

For years, individual members of Congress have escaped public scrutiny while blocking legislation that if not for their actions, would have improved millions of lives. The Borgen Project is shining a spotlight on leaders who obstruct progress in downsizing poverty. For example, in 2010 The Borgen Project contributed to the passing of the Water for the World Act in the U.S. Senate. The bi-partisan legislation would have provided 100 million people with access to clean, drinkable water. However, in the House of Representatives, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee utilized her position to prevent the Water for the World Act from moving forward in the House. Her actions received zero media coverage and few voters in her district were aware of it until The Borgen Project published an Op Ed in The Huffington Post spotlighting her actions.

U.N. Millennium Development Goals

The Borgen Project has elevated the profile of global poverty and the U.N. Millennium Development Goals on Capitol Hill. In 2006, when The Borgen Project began meeting congressional leaders and staffers, few were aware that the U.S. and 190 other countries had committed to the Millennium Development Goals a time frame for cutting global poverty in half. Through high-level meetings and targeted online buzz campaigns, The Borgen Project has drastically increased awareness of the Millennium Development Goals.

The Borgen Project first began global poverty and Millennium Development Goals meetings with Barack Obama’s staff when he served in the U.S. Senate. Prior to announcing his run for President, The Borgen Project urged Obama to make addressing global poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals part of his campaign platform and foreign policy agenda. As both a candidate and as a President, Obama has incorporated the Millennium Developments Goals and cutting global poverty in half into his foreign policy strategy.

2009 White House Foreign Policy Statement:

“Fight Global Poverty: Obama and Biden will embrace the Millennium Development Goal of cutting extreme poverty around the world in half by 2015, and they will double our foreign policy assistance to achieve that goal. This will help the world’s weakest states build healthy and educated communities, reduce poverty, develop markets, and generate wealth.”

Global Health

In January of 2007, The Borgen Project joined several U.S. leaders and organizations to help save $1 billion that Congress planned to cut from global health funding. The amount might seem minuscule compared to the $120 billion that was allocated to the Iraq War that year, but $1 billion in global health funding accomplished the following:

• Provided treatment for 1.5 million people with malaria.
• Provided 6.3 million people with bed nets to prevent malaria.
• Provided 3.7 million people HIV tests.
• Provided 110,000 people with AIDS treatment.
• Provided 800,000 people with treatment for TB.

Legislation that The Borgen Project Secured Co-sponsors for (2006 – 2012

• Water for the World Act
• Newborn, Child and Mother Survival Act
• Global Food Security Act
• Stop TB Now Act
• Global Poverty Act
• Commission on the Abolition of Modern-Day Slavery Act

* Note: Not all legislation has passed in Congress. Legislation not passing in Congress is often re-introduced and/or components of it are adopted by the White House.

Global Food Security

The Problem:

• Between 2007 and 2008, global food prices increased 43%, pushing 100 million people into severe poverty. This came after years of world hunger reduction.
• Approximately 1 billion people live on less than $1.00 per day. Over 162 million survive on less than $0.50 per day. Increasing food prices has the greatest effect on poor countries, where people spend 60 percent or more of their income on food.
• In recent years, only 4% of foreign assistance from the world’s rich nations has been given to poor nations for agricultural development. Most of the food aid goes towards food donations, but this does not develop the host country’s capacity to produce its own food to feed its citizens. In the late 1970′s, it was nearly 18% when the West helped create the Green Revolution that assisted Asian farmers in improving the food supply. The resulting increase in food production raised the incomes for millions of poor farmers and decreased food prices. In China alone, hunger was cut in half between 1970 and 1990.

Impact: In 2009, The Borgen Project met with over 100 congressional offices while building support for Global Food Security initiatives on Capitol Hill. The Borgen Project also reached over 100,000 people through public awareness campaigns and helped mobilize thousands of people to contact their congressional leaders in support of legislation addressing global food security.

Outcome: In 2010, with momentum for Global Food Security on Capitol Hill, the Obama Administration established the Feed the Future program and allocated $3.5 billion in the budget proposal to help poor nations feed themselves. This program would provide the resources for 60 priority countries to develop the strategies to become self-sufficient and prevent future food crises. The Obama Administration also utilized the United States role as the world’s agenda-setter to mobilize G20 nations to pledge a total of $22 billion.

Projected impact of the $22 billion in Food Security funding:

• Increased income for at least 40 million people on less than $2.00 per day.
• Research on agricultural strategies to increase food production and famine prevention
• 25 million children will receive nutrition interventions that prevent child mortality. These investments are projected to reduce the number of stunted children by 10 million and the number of underweight children by 4 million.
• Millions of poor families will benefit from lowered food prices.

Supporting Documentation

• U.S. Global Development Policy Fact Sheet (White House)
• President’s Global Development Policy (USAID)
• White House 2009 Foreign Policy Strategy
• Barack Obama 2008 Campaign Foreign Policy Statement
• Feed the Future: Progress
• White House: G20 Summit
• WSJ: Obama Seeks $3.5 Billion to Feed Poor Nations
• OECD