The second Grand Challenges Explorations initiative brings together organizations and non-profits in a competition to find creative development solutions. The initiative was founded as a joint effort between the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This year’s challenge topic was “Aid is Working. Tell the World.” Participants were to come up with creative development solutions using communication to inform the world of the impact of investment in foreign aid. The goal is to change the conversation around foreign aid and foreign investment.
Nine projects were chosen from those submitted and the creators of those projects will be awarded up to $100,000 USD to work on their communications idea. The project creators will also receive guidance from a Cannes Chimera panel made up of of representatives of each of the 2012 Cannes Lions Grand Prix winners. The nine projects came from various organizations around the world. They are detailed below.
1. BeHere-BeThere Project by Serviceplan, Hamburg, Germany. This project works with local retail establishments to connect consumers with charitable causes and hopefully solicit a donation. The app will help to raise awareness surrounding development issues in the developing world.
2. Cause Generation: a Platform to Define a Generation’s Cause by OgilvyEarth, San Francisco, USA. University students will have the opportuity to use OgilvEarth’s online platform to create a campaign around a single global cause. The goal will be to convince peers to support the cause and raise awareness around the specific cause.
3. Hactivating Development Aid by Coxswain Social Investment Plus, Tunis, Tunisia. Crowdsourcing has become a popular online tool and this idea uses just that to engage young people in development causes. The site will use first person narrative to get students interested in development issues and allow them to offer real-life solutions to problems.
4. HMKD by Leo Burnett, Chicago, USA. One of the most innovative ideas, Leo Burnett will work to create a working ticker symbol for the New York Stock Exchange. This symbol will report the daily return on investment from development aid to raise awareness that investment in foreign aid really does work.
5. House Parties: Experiential Marketing for Global Aid by Plan International, Washington, USA.
Various organizations have proven the value of house parties. Mary Kay is perhaps one of the most well known examples and Plan International plans to build off of the success of the house party. The goal is to use it as an engagement tool to raise awareness and support for public development programs.
6. Global 360 by Media Trust, London, UK. Global 360 will be a television, online, and mobile channel produced by young people and containing stories about global development.
7. Mobile-izing the United Voices of Aid Recipients by Environics Trust, Ghaziabad, India. Interactive Voice Response will be used to collect 10,000 stories about the impact of aid in rural India. The stories will be spread online through social media and responses to them will be tracked to see if a change in behavior results.
8. RADIO8 by Digital Kitchen, Seattle, USA. Radio8 will be a radio station containing the views of 8 year-olds. They will record their ideas, insights, and perspectives on the impact of global aid.
9. Smart Cities: An Interactive Multi-Media and Mapping Platform by Spatial Collective, Nairobi, Kenya. Smart Cities will be an interactive community platform allowing individuals to report local development challenges and present possible solutions. The goal will be to improve communcation between governments, citizens, and aid organzations.
– Amanda Kloeppel
Source: B&T
Meet One Doctor Healing the Blind
As a young child, Dr. Aisha Simjee contracted Trachoma, an eye disease that can lead to blindness if not treated. Dr. Simjee grew up in Burma and as a 7 year-old was being prepared for a life as a housewife when she contracted the disease. She was cured by a folk remedy that consisted of having a local women squirt breast milk into her eye. The experience led Dr. Simjee to a life mission-healing the blind. Her fascination with eye health led her to immigrate to the US and study to be an ophthalmologist in Orange Country, CA.
Now in her sixties with two grown children, Dr. Simjee has written a book reflecting on her life experience. The experiences of a youth growing up in Burma impacted her and motivated her to do more than simply be a good doctor. She wanted to prevent blindness and eye disease in the world’s poor. Her book, “Hope in Sight: One Doctor’s Quest to Restore Eyesight and Dignity to the World’s Poor” tells of her journey and includes decades of personal journals and accounts from friends, families, and colleagues. She wrote the book to motivate others to give back and encourage other young ophthalmologists to help others.
The World Health Organization reports that over three-quarters of all blindness worldwide can be prevented or treated. Around 285 million people are visually impaired due to various treatable causes and about 90% of the world’s visually impaired people live in developing nations where there are little or no welfare services. Dr. Simjee has seen firsthand how eyesight can be a matter of survival. She has served on more than 25 medical missions, often putting her private practice on hold and paying her own expenses. Her trips have spanned Asia, South America, Eastern Europe, and Africa. The 69-year-old persists in taking the trips and she often serves in rural areas. Her mission is not to travel to well-equipped capital cities, but to the villages miles and miles away from modern civilization.
She has worked with children suffering from wounds from knives, people who have walked miles to see her, prison inmates, and indigenous Indians. Her goal is eyesight and helping people regardless of status. Her book focuses on hard facts and short anecdotes about her travels and the experiences she has had. Dr. Simjee wants to motivate others to give their time and money to help others. Dr. Simjee is a wonderful example of someone using their talents to serve the world’s under-resourced. Check out her book from White Spruce Press.
– Amanda Kloeppel
Source: Ophthalmology Times
Photo: Twitter
6 Ways To Help Disaster Victims
The massive tornado in Oklahoma devastated thousands, and many people around the country wanted to do what they could to help disaster victims. But, unfortunately, the days after a major disaster or crisis are when the scam organizations arise, trying to lure innocent do-gooders into donating to their fake charity. Here are six ways to make sure you are doing the best for those you are trying to help.
1. Look up the charity on one of these sites (Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Navigator, Guidestar or Charity Watch) and see what experts think about it. This way you can be certain that the organization you choose is reputable and honest about the donations they receive.
2. Find a charity that has done this a few times. Small, local charities may mean well, but they may not have the best resources to get your donation to the people who need it as efficiently as a larger organization that has faced major disasters before.
3. Designate where you want your donation to go. If you want your money to help rebuild homes, provide food, or buy clothing, specify when you send it to the organization.
4. Send money, not supplies. Although it may seem more helpful to send food, clothes, or toys to disaster victims, it just makes it harder for the charity to sort out and distribute the items. If you have items that you need to get rid of anyway, try selling them and donating the money instead.
5. Avoid donating to people who send mail or emails claiming to be disaster victims. Unless you know them personally, don’t trust them. It’s much safer to simply donate to a reputable charity.
6. If you choose to donate online, do it through the charity’s website, not social media. After Hurricane Katrina, the FBI reported more than 2,400 fake websites that tried to scam money from well-meaning donors. Your best bet is to donate directly through the organization’s website, which is much more trustworthy.
– Katie Brockman
Source: Forbes
Cannes and Gates Foundation Fund Creative Development Solutions
The second Grand Challenges Explorations initiative brings together organizations and non-profits in a competition to find creative development solutions. The initiative was founded as a joint effort between the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This year’s challenge topic was “Aid is Working. Tell the World.” Participants were to come up with creative development solutions using communication to inform the world of the impact of investment in foreign aid. The goal is to change the conversation around foreign aid and foreign investment.
Nine projects were chosen from those submitted and the creators of those projects will be awarded up to $100,000 USD to work on their communications idea. The project creators will also receive guidance from a Cannes Chimera panel made up of of representatives of each of the 2012 Cannes Lions Grand Prix winners. The nine projects came from various organizations around the world. They are detailed below.
1. BeHere-BeThere Project by Serviceplan, Hamburg, Germany. This project works with local retail establishments to connect consumers with charitable causes and hopefully solicit a donation. The app will help to raise awareness surrounding development issues in the developing world.
2. Cause Generation: a Platform to Define a Generation’s Cause by OgilvyEarth, San Francisco, USA. University students will have the opportuity to use OgilvEarth’s online platform to create a campaign around a single global cause. The goal will be to convince peers to support the cause and raise awareness around the specific cause.
3. Hactivating Development Aid by Coxswain Social Investment Plus, Tunis, Tunisia. Crowdsourcing has become a popular online tool and this idea uses just that to engage young people in development causes. The site will use first person narrative to get students interested in development issues and allow them to offer real-life solutions to problems.
4. HMKD by Leo Burnett, Chicago, USA. One of the most innovative ideas, Leo Burnett will work to create a working ticker symbol for the New York Stock Exchange. This symbol will report the daily return on investment from development aid to raise awareness that investment in foreign aid really does work.
5. House Parties: Experiential Marketing for Global Aid by Plan International, Washington, USA.
Various organizations have proven the value of house parties. Mary Kay is perhaps one of the most well known examples and Plan International plans to build off of the success of the house party. The goal is to use it as an engagement tool to raise awareness and support for public development programs.
6. Global 360 by Media Trust, London, UK. Global 360 will be a television, online, and mobile channel produced by young people and containing stories about global development.
7. Mobile-izing the United Voices of Aid Recipients by Environics Trust, Ghaziabad, India. Interactive Voice Response will be used to collect 10,000 stories about the impact of aid in rural India. The stories will be spread online through social media and responses to them will be tracked to see if a change in behavior results.
8. RADIO8 by Digital Kitchen, Seattle, USA. Radio8 will be a radio station containing the views of 8 year-olds. They will record their ideas, insights, and perspectives on the impact of global aid.
9. Smart Cities: An Interactive Multi-Media and Mapping Platform by Spatial Collective, Nairobi, Kenya. Smart Cities will be an interactive community platform allowing individuals to report local development challenges and present possible solutions. The goal will be to improve communcation between governments, citizens, and aid organzations.
– Amanda Kloeppel
Source: B&T
Middle School Students Fight Global Hunger
Middle school can be an unforgiving time for young people, but one group of students at St. Francis Episcopal Day School in Texas are using their middle school years to fight global hunger. Under the direction of faculty Debbie Harris, the St. Francis Wolves Against Hunger are making a global difference. The group consists of 7 eighth grade students. They participated in the World Hunger Leadership Challenge, an initiative founded by Lead2Feed with the purpose of promoting leadership among middle school students in the fight against world hunger. It is important to develop future leaders and foster a spirit of giving back to the community especially during the tough middle school years.
The St. Francis Episcopal Day School was awarded a $25,000 check from the Yum! Brand Foundation for the work the Wolves Against Hunger did in the World Hunger Leadership Challenge. More than 300,000 students participated from over 1,500 schools and the Yum! Foundation provided close to $250,000 in prize money grants to 140 schools. The grants will support US public charities engaged in hunger relief. The recognition ceremony was shared with another student group located in Utaar Pradesh, India. The students from St. Francis have been in close contact with the students from K.L. International (KLI) in Utaar Pradesh over the last two semesters. The St. Francis students packed 5,100 sack lunches, collected more than 6,500 cans of food, and packed boxes at a local food back. The KLI students volunteered time at a local orphanage run by Mother Teresa Missionaries of Charity as well as created Project 365 in which at least one hungry person is fed every day of the year.
Harris had heard about the World Hunger Leadership Challenge and entered her students in the hopes of gaining them some recognition for all their hard work. She noted the students participated in events on the weekends in addition to school activities. The program began when Harris organized a campaign for World Water Day in 2012 and came in contact with Jasdeep Lamba, whose father-in-law runs KLI School. They worked together to get a Skype discussion scheduled between the students and faculty of the two schools. The next school year, they arranged for six Skype forums to be held. The forums gave the US students a greater appreciation for hunger and poverty as well as motivated both groups of students to get more involved in their respective communities.
The award money won by St. Francis will be donated to Kids’ Meals Houston, a charity working to feed children under 5. The work done by the KLI students will benefit The Earth Saviours Foundation, a local charity in New Delhi, India.
– Amanda Kloeppel
Source: Indo American News
Mobile Technology for Women is a Global Development Must
Closing the gender gap is high on the priorities of those working in global development and one way to accomplish this is through increasing the availability of mobile technology to women according to Patricia Mechael, Executive Director of mHealthAlliance. In her years working in global health and development, she saw first hand the realities of poverty and gender inequality. The social status of women has a negative effect on their health and ability to care for their families. Problems such as maternal mortality and unintended pregnancies are often the result of poor maternal health care and poor gender representation in countries.
Mobile technology is working to reduce the gender gap and provide women around the globe a chance at a healthy life. Women who would force abortions to save themselves from another mouth to feed now have access to vital family planning information and commodities through the increase of mobile technology. While less than a decade ago, the mobile penetration rate was in the single digits among low-income nations, today reports indicate it stands at 89%. The digital divide is shrinking between low and high-income nations, but women are still 21% less likely to own a mobile device compared to men. Millennium Development Goal #3 is to promote gender equality and empower women and providing them with mobile technology is a way to get closer to accomplishing that goal.
Beyond meeting MDG3, mobile technology is key in accomplishing MDG5, improving maternal health. The mHealth Alliance and the World Health Organization have worked to bring about mobile technology to improve maternal health. These projects use a variety of mobile technologies to provide everything from information about vaccines to improving access to essential medicine through reducing depletion of stock.
The advances in mobile technology have come a long way and will continue to be essential to promoting global development and accomplishing the MDGs. In addition, Mechael is working with her company to come up with ways to further include women in the development and discussion of mobile technology and applications to serve and assist them.
– Amanda Kloeppel
Source: Forbes
Photo: WAHA
How to Help the World’s Poor
Global poverty is an international issue, and because of its scope helping the poor can often seem like an insurmountable problem. However, if everyone one person devoted to the cause could take 5 or 10 minutes to make an effort and get involved, the solution to poverty wouldn’t seem so out of reach. Here are some simple ways to make a difference:
1. Call or Write Congress
The power of free speech is often underestimated; when in reality congressional leaders often support poverty-reduction legislation when as few as 7 to 10 people in their district contact them in support of it. Calling your leaders each week only takes up to a minute out of your schedule – all you need to say is that you are calling to support funding for USAID or poverty-focused aid. Simple as that!
2. Donate to the Cause
There are many ways to donate either time or money – instead of birthday or graduation presents, ask for donations. Set up a fundraiser with your local bakery. Volunteer and donate your time to aid organizations. The options are endless.
3. Spread the Word
In order to solve a global problem, it is important to have a global presence. Whether through flier posting, blogging, or word of mouth, make sure to educate those around you to the trials of those in poverty and the simplicity of the solution. Encourage others to call their congressional leaders in order to have the most impact on foreign aid legislation. It’s as easy as posting a link with the information to your social media accounts.
Being an active member of the movement to eradicate poverty is incredibly important; and the more people that get interested and involved, the faster the government will take note and put more poverty-focused aid into legislation. It’s quick and simple, so why not take a minute to call right now?
-Sarah Rybak
Source: The Borgen Project
Photo: The Ambrose School
New Philanthropy Is Providing A Job
When most people think of philanthropy, they think of giving money to charity or building schools or homes for poor, underprivileged people in developing countries. While giving money, food, and other forms of aid may still be relevant in today’s world, the new philanthropy involves providing jobs, rather than tangible items to help people.
Jobs are more efficient in the fight against global poverty because they create self-sufficiency. People with jobs do not have to depend on others for what they need to survive day to day because they can provide it themselves. Another benefit of providing jobs is not as obvious, but it could be the most important. Giving someone a job also gives that person hope for their future. Most people do not like feeling dependent on others, and having a job so that they can care for themselves and their families without assistance gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment, and also makes them feel valuable and important.
So even though it may seem easier or more beneficial to just send money or food to communities that need it, it could actually create more good by providing a job. Not only will it create longer-lasting results, it will create hope as well.
– Katie Brockman
Source: Huffington Post
Photo: Careerealism
Positive Attitudes About Emerging Economies
Most major news venues are preaching about the crash of the global economy, however, there are certain attitudes that have been left untold. In a study done by the Pew Research Center from March 2 to May 1 of this year, attitudes reflect that things are not as bad as they seem, especially from the viewpoints of citizens of emerging economies worldwide.
Citizens of both advanced and developing economies declared that their personal finances were in a positive state despite the unequal and jobless market the recession brought. Citizens of emerging economies were particularly optimistic, 48% expecting their national economies to improve in the next 12 months. 53% of people surveyed in emerging economies said that they thought their economy was doing well. Furthermore, these positive attitudes have changed very little and have even improved from 2007 to 2013.
In contrast, 25% of people living in advanced economies said they thought their economy was failing and as many as 32% said their economy would get worse. The survey revealed that negative attitudes about national economies are more typical of European Countries and advanced economies such as France, Spain, Italy and Greece.
The survey proved that even in the face of a negative reality, emerging economies come out on top. 80% of Chinese citizens and 85% of Malayasian citizens that took part in the survey agreed that their emerging economy was doing well, while 24% of those surveyed in advanced economies thought the opposite about their own national economy. One factor that all participants surveyed could agree on was that the gap between the rich and the poor was definitely increasing, most distressfully in developing countries.
– Kira Maixner
Source: Hindustan Times
Photo: The Guardian
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs was founded in 1922. It is an independent, non-partisan organization charged with influencing discourse on global issues. The organization employs opinion and policy formation, leadership dialogue, and public learning to influence discourse. The organization hosts public programs and private events featuring world leaders and experts. They implement task forces, conferences, and other methods to broadcast their ideas and opinions on a global scale. Individual and corporate members who pay a yearly fee support the council.
The council’s history showcases their importance and focus. The founders believed that World War I had changed foreign affairs, and thus, our policies and methods ought to be reevaluated. In the late twenties and thirties, the council was one of the premier sources for international news and analysis drawing speakers such as John Maynard Keynes and President Herbert Hoover. During the forties and fifties, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs made an effort to attract younger participants as well as to expand programs to the suburbs. Speakers in this period included Eleanor Roosevelt, and then U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy.
During the sixties and seventies the council’s focus changed slightly as they began to focus on world hunger and relations of countries in the Atlantic. They launched biennial conferences with foreign policy experts from around the world. They also began publishing results for its Public Opinion Survey on Foreign Policy Issues. Speakers included President Gerald Ford, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and UN Secretaries General U Thant and Kurt Waldheim among others.
In the eighties and nineties, the council shifted towards European development, economics and integration as well as human rights. Speakers included Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and others.
Today, the council has shifted its focus towards globalism. They are eager to help in the fields of public education, the global economy, democratization, sovereignty, intervention, global institutions and a changing America. Additionally, they have begun focusing on Asia, Africa and Latin America- regions that were previously less discussed. Recent speakers have included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The Council holds Chicago and World forums where experts present their perspectives on various themes. The council also sponsors corporate programs and emerging leadership programs among others. Their publications and studies include food security as well as a public opinion study of illegal immigration flows among others.
The Council has defined a list of several topics of interest. These include agriculture and development, economics and business, energy, environment and climate, international politics and policy, foreign policy and national security, and values, diversity and pluralism. These topics guide the council’s discourse. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs has an important and rich history. They exist as an important non-partisan organization to provide valuable information and opinions on global affairs. For more information about their programs, studies and events visit them here.
– Caitlin Zusy
Source: The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Photo: Opportunity.org
UK to Protect 360 Million Children from Polio
The British Aid office has announced that it will step up their current efforts to vaccinate more children against polio in developing countries. The office has promised to vaccinate up to 360 million children against polio in the next six years.
The British Aid office will work to eradicate polio in the three countries where it still remains prevalent: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. International Development Secretary Justine Greening was adamant that the UK would not stand on the sidelines while easily prevented diseases, including polio, still exist. She believes that our generation has the ability and responsibility to make polio a thing of the past.
The UK announcement came in the weeks leading up to the Global Vaccine Summit in Abu Dhabi. The Summit was attended by the UK’s International Development Minister Alan Duncan, who pledged the UK’s support of 300 million pounds over six years. The conference highlighted the importance of routine immunization in achieving global child health and development goals. British Aid is attempting to make a final push in this opportunity to eliminate the disease. They would like to see additional donors join them in their fight to form a healthier population to lead to increased economic development.
The British announcement was followed by another from Bill Gates, the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who committed six years of support from his organization to the implementation of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s plan to achieve a polio-free world by 2018. The U.K has already helped over 200 million children receive vaccinations since 2009. They believe, however, that there is more work to be done and that polio vaccinations must be included in health programs and routine immunizations in order to improve the general health of developing nations.
-Caitlin Zusy
Source: Gov.uk
Photo: Guardian