Information and stories about aid effectiveness and reform

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UC Riverside to Launch Blum Initiative

blum initiative
On Feb. 10, the UC Riverside School of Public Policy announced that it will launch the Blum Initiative on Global and Regional Poverty in the fall of 2015. The initiative is made possible by a gift from Richard Blum—former chairman of the UC Board of Regents—and matching donations from the UC Office of the President and UC Riverside Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox.

Part of the initiative’s mission is to focus its research on local poverty-related issues in the Inland Empire—the metropolitan area directly to the east of Los Angeles in which UC Riverside is situated.

“The Inland Empire has some of the highest poverty rates among the nation’s largest metropolitan areas,” Chancellor Wilcox explained.

Location is not UC Riverside’s only vested interest in poverty-reduction. According to Wilcox, 58 percent of the school’s undergraduate students receive need-based Pell grants. Over half of UC Riverside’s students are the first in their families to attend college.

“This initiative will help us conduct research, teaching and outreach that focuses attention on poverty in the region and will help policymakers and community-based organizations improve the lives of the poor in the Inland Empire,” Wilcox said.

While much of its research will be locally focused, the initiative also hopes to bridge the intellectual gap between global lessons and local applications.

“A program that builds on Riverside’s strengths and seeks to address local and regional poverty issues in the context of global lessons is an important endeavor that will benefit California and provide intellectual challenges and opportunities for UCR faculty and students,” said Janet Napolitano, UC President, speaking of the initiative.

Anil Deolalikar, developmental economist and founding dean of the UC Riverside School of Public Policy, stressed the importance of such a broad-based approach.

“Every place in the world has poverty and there are many places in the world that have tackled the problem of poverty with good results. We will be trying to glean lessons from around the world so that we can use some of those lessons to solve poverty problems here in the Inland Empire,” Deolalikar said.

According to Deolalikar, the initiative will also provide competitive seed grants to faculty with the best ideas for poverty-based action research.

“We will solicit ideas for poverty-related research in Inland Southern California that draw upon policy lessons from around the world. In this way, we hope to cross-fertilize the field of domestic U.S. poverty policy, which has evolved independently of the rich literature on—and innovative experiences of—global poverty.”

– Parker Carroll

Sources: The Press Enterprise UCR Today
Photo: Berkeley

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Top Five Projects for GlobalGiving

GlobalGiving is a charity fundraising website that has helped nonprofits and social entrepreneurs organize donors and raise money to improve their communities.

Since 2002, GlobalGiving has raised over $164 million to support around 11,000 projects, fulfilling their mission to catalyze a global market for ideas, information and money that democratizes aid and philanthropy.

GlobalGiving allows people to choose where they want their money to go, enabling funds to support any creative idea that might never have been funded through traditional approaches.

Here are the most popular projects:

1. “Send 8 Children to High School – Kibera, Kenya”

This project will provide one year of scholarship support for eight children (three girls, five boys) from Kibera to attend secondary school. Scholarships will cover school fees and supplies. In a country where only half of school-age children are enrolled in secondary school – and rates are even lower in Kibera where the population lives on less than $2 per day and few secondary schools exist in the community – support will give children an opportunity to achieve a unique goal.

2. “Help Baltimore Youth Achieve Their Business Dreams”

Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s students come alive when they have the chance to develop the mindset of an entrepreneur. NFTE Baltimore will use these funds to launch its program in a new classroom next year, bringing entrepreneurship education to 30 additional local youth in underserved communities.

3. “Christmas Gift – Donate For An Animal”

Even though the holidays are over, you can still make a donation to an orphaned wild animal on behalf of a loved one. With DAKTARI, you can choose the animal you want to spoil. This cherished animal will send you a personalized thank you photo, a certificate, and for more than $500 donated, a video.

4. “Provide New Clothes For Unfortunate Children”

This micro-project provides new dresses to underprivileged children. 40 abandoned orphan children between 5 to 15 years old can benefit from just two pairs of new dresses donated to them, helping them feel confident and more independent.

5. “Fund Vania’s Journey From A Shelter To Success”

Vania is extremely vulnerable to the pressures of trying to help raise her little sister who lives with her in a shelter. Vania also feels the pressures of knowing that her mother and brothers are living in Santa Cruz under difficult circumstances. There is no room or money to be part of her mother’s home. Next year, Vania will be homeless when she turns 18 because the shelter cannot house adults. Vania has a dream to live a better life for her and her family, but needs your help. This micro-project will help supply her living expenses.

In addition, each project states the issue at hand and how the project will help solve that issue with a potential long-term impact. Funding information is also included.

– Chelsee Yee

Sources: Global Giving, Fundraising UK
Photo: 3BL Media

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Improving Overseas Aid in 11 Ways

overseas_aid
ONE reports that international aid and foreign aid is confusing, and one of the key things to improving it is to make it clear and understandable. A suggested way to do this is that all donor countries need to work in unison to make sure that the definition and the measurement of official development assistance is communicated more effectively. ONE recently published a data report that showed this suggestion is actually not the best way to explain and improve aid, so the organization suggested 11 ways in which overseas aid can be improved.

  1. Redefine what aid is. According to ONE, 17 percent of total aid never left the donor countries between 2000 and 2012. There are a lot of things that can count as aid, including student costs and debt relief. These are important but shouldn’t necessarily count as official development assistance (ODA).
  2. Bring rules around loans up to date. An update to the criteria of what can count as loans is needed, because, currently, it is possible for donor countries to make money from ODA loans.
  3. Make sure countries only receive aid loans if they can afford repayments. Countries can become overwhelmed with repayment if they are at risk for further debt, and this can lead to increased poverty, which defeats the purpose of aid.
  4. All donor governments should step up and meet their aid commitments. Last year, aid increased by a small amount, but according to ONE, only 0.29 percent of gross national income is spent on aid.
  5. Donor countries should give 50 percent of their aid to the poorest countries. If this would have been done, in 2012 alone this aid would have given an additional $22 billion to the poorest countries.
  6. African governments need to improve their tax collection. People need to be responsible for their dues and prevent money from being lost to corruption. Governments need to crack down on how much tax is owed and how much is being paid.
  7. Donor countries should support public financial management. Government funding is often lost across Africa because of limited tax collection. ONE suggests that investing in public financial management systems will help build a better tax collection.
  8. Tax havens need to be opened. The role that donor countries play in keeping up tax havens is important and it entices illegal financial flows.
  9. African governments need to spend more on tackling poverty. The allocation of money for poverty reduction isn’t being met by a lot of African governments. Over the last few years, only six countries have given their promise of 15 percent being spent on health.
  10. Donors need to step up on aid transparency as they promised. Not all of the donors have signed up to publish the details of aid spending online, which was a requirement with The International Aid Transparency Initiative.
  11. African governments need to publish better budget data. The data that is currently posted is lacking a lot of information, which makes it hard to know what these governments are spending money on, how much they have to spend, and the results of what they are doing.

With these easy and attainable tweaks in the system, aid will be understandable and better utilized. If it is organized, we can see where the money is going and why, and if it can be better used somewhere else, it will be easy to see that and reallocate that aid. These steps will be essential moving into 2015 as our fight to end poverty continues.

– Brooke Smith

Sources: ONE, OECD
Photo: Huffington Post

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Ebola Outbreak Sparks Debate on Aid

debate_on_aid
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa made apparent the brewing issues on healthcare aid in the region. Over the last ten years, aid traditionally allocated to West African governments transitioned toward the private sector. This has left Africa helpless in independently addressing these wide-scale problems at an institutional level, many experts say.

Private vs. Public Healthcare

The billions in aid dollars directed toward philanthropy programs and global campaigns steadily decreased disease in Africa over the last ten years. These programs typically work more on a case-by-case basis, leaving the countries battling widespread Ebola weak in their capability to respond.

This private vs. public sector debate on aid is an age-old one. Politics professor from Georgetown University, Carol Lancaster, discussed addressing global health problems in an interview with The Economist in 2009.

“Does anybody believe that the many millions of HIV/AIDS-afflicted Africans now receiving aid-funded antiretrovirals would be alive today in the absence of public aid funding the delivery of those drugs?” she asked. “Neither charities nor entrepreneurs could or would undertake such ambitious efforts to help those both poor and sick.”

On the other hand, some argue operating aid through governments results in wasted resources. Philanthropic initiatives pegged with the term “philanthrocapitalism,” has been argued to be more efficient and encourage innovation.

Philanthrocapitalism and Aid

“Coming from the business and financial world they, rather than bureaucrats, understand what it takes to build strong businesses,” said co-author of the book “Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World,” Michael Green.

President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, acknowledged the benefits of specific disease-based aid: “It was like the sweet spot, easy to sell and the results are there,” he said.

However, he argued that ultimately this strategy neglected to establish district and community hospitals or help educate local health officials, and it left countries more dependent on outside help. Aid dollars working directly through government programs will better enable these countries to coordinate an effective response, Kaberuka added.

“In a situation like this there are so many little things happening but somebody has to tie it together and that can only be a government,” he said.

Aid for the Long Term

President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, agrees that there are problematic gaps in aid work. “If the outbreak had happened in Rwanda my own sense is that because they built district hospitals and community hospitals and have community health workers connected to the whole system, that we would have gotten this thing under control very quickly,” said Kim.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon encouraged a 20-fold increase in international aid toward countries facing Ebola outbreaks, which he refers to as an “unforgiving” disease.

Kaberuka encourages this increased aid but warns of reverting to old strategies that funnel it away from long term solutions. It is clear, according to him, that the countries don’t just need additional funds, they need aid reform.

– Ellie Sennett

Sources: Reuters 1, Reuters 2, Al Jazeera U.S. News The Economist
Photo: Flickr

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Caterpillar Foundation Donations

Caterpillar_foundation-donations
Founded in 1952, Caterpillar Foundation dedicates itself to transforming lives within the international communities where Caterpillar works.  It has been the champion for programs that support education, environment and emergency relief.

The program has donated over 550 million dollars to organizations that put poverty onto the path of prosperity “by investing in those proven to yield the best results – women and girls.”  Last year the foundation committed itself to a three year 29.2 million dollar commitment. Partnering with Opportunity International the joint venture looks to service 16.7 million people across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The Caterpillar Foundation’s commitments will be leveraged through Opportunity International via microfinance loans, savings and financial training.  Due to Caterpillar’s strong commitment to women and girls, most of the money will be financed to women, or groups of women, looking to form working relationships.

As of August 2014, Caterpillar Foundation announced the allocation of an additional 11 million dollars to help with Africa’s water and energy needs. Five million dollars have been distributed to help programs that address public policy needs and lack of access to energy. Five million dollars will be used to extend an already existing water line in Tanzania and Ethiopia. The last million will help teach women and girls about the dangers of traditional cookstoves and the benefits of adopting clean cooking solutions.

Most recently Caterpillar has committed itself to another generous contribution of 2.5 million dollars to The Poverty Project.  This nonprofit organization has received wide acclaim since the implementation of its new strategy unveiled in 2012. Global Citizen is an online platform that serves as the basis for all the work performed by the registered Global Citizens. There are more than 250,000 global citizens that have partaken in 1.75 million actions that have contributed to more than 35 campaign victories and announcements.

The Poverty Project has since released a new strategy as of January 1 of this year. The strategy focuses on ending extreme poverty by 2030.  With its announcement of a new vision, The Poverty Project has also put forth a new theory of change and an updated framework. These proposals are all designed to create a movement of unstoppable Global Citizens.

This dynamic and effective strategy is what caught the eye of the Caterpillar Foundation.  Since the three main goals of this foundation are education, environment and emergency relief, the money given to The Global Poverty Project has all been earmarked for specific projects.

The Global Poverty Project has determined that universal sanitation brought into impoverished areas will increase the chances for women to receive an education, get a job or run a small business.  This is where the bulk of the money will go.  It will also be used to put restrooms inside homes and provide them with running water. The remainder of the money will be used to help educate the 31 million girls who currently do not attend school around the world.

– Frederick Wood II

Sources: Peoria Public Radio, Caterpillar, Global Poverty, Peoria Public Radio 2
Photo: Urban Times

Canada Sends $5M in Aid to Iraq

As the U.S. carries out air strikes against Islamic militants in northern Iraq, Canada is delivering $5 million of humanitarian aid to the country. The money will fund new assistance projects, and half of the aid money will immediately go to three of the Canadian government’s on-ground humanitarian partners – the International Red Cross, Mercy Corps and Save the Children Canada.

International Development Minister Christian Paradis said that the contribution will be allocated to food distribution, cooking materials, blankets, tents, hygiene kits and other needed supplies, and will also be used to improve the citizens’ information access and repair essential water and sanitation facilities. Canada’s assistance will reach approximately 850,000 displaced Iraqis.

The prime minister’s office condemned the anti-Christian attacks, made by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, previously known in Iraq as Al Qaeda. Ottawa declared ISIS a terrorist organization in 2012. Thousands of Iraq’s minorities have fled from their homes in fear of the extremist Sunni militants, who have violently and forcefully seized large sections of northern Iraq. ISIS fighters have expelled significant numbers of Iraq’s Christian and Shiite Muslim population, viewing these other religious assemblies as heretical groups to be executed or brutally ruled.

“Canada continues to stand by the people of Iraq in these difficult times and condemns the terrorist actions of ISIS and the killing of innocent civilians in northern Iraq in the strongest possible terms,” said Paradis.

The three trusted on-ground organizations will receive an immediate $2.25 million, with the International Red Cross getting $1 million, Save the Children receiving $750,000 and Mercy Corps attaining $500,000. The remaining $2.75 million will be distributed to other units after Canada confers with its partners in Iraq.

“Canada will continue working closely with our allies to determine how we can best continue to support the needs of Iraqi civilians, particularly religious minorities,” said Paradis.

Since the beginning of the year, Canada has delivered $16 million of aid to Iraq, as the country is a recent addition to Canada’s development country partners. $9.5 million was dedicated to helping refugees of the Syrian crisis, while $6.8 million was allocated to victims of civil unrest.

According to Lois Brown, the parliamentary secretary for the Minister of International Cooperation, Canada is particularly attentive to Iraq’s affairs because almost 20,000 Iraqi refugees have flocked to Canada since last year.

“We have seen a vibrant Iraqi community here, and those people are very concerned about their family back home,” said Brown. “The Canadian government condemns in the strongest terms the violent acts of this terrorist group that is killing innocent civilians.”

– Annie Jung

Sources: Huffington Post, Global News, CTV News
Photo: CTV News

Ukraine to Block Aid Envoy by Russia

Hundreds of trucks covered in white tarpaulin began rolling towards the Ukraine-Russia border recently, delivering aid from Russia to rebel-held portions of Eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials believe that the aid convoy is simply a “trojan horse,” designed to give rebels necessary arms and supplies to continue their fight against the Ukrainian army. Some reports have indicated that the convoy would stop at the border, and that the aid supplies would be unloaded and distributed to areas of need by the Red Cross.

According to the Russian foreign ministry, the aid delivery consists of 262 to 287 trucks and contains over 1,800 tons of “humanitarian supplies.” They specifically mentioned sleeping bags, medical equipment, electric generators and baby food. However, many in the west have been skeptical about the content and goals of the aid delivery.

The aid mission has caused many to fear an escalation in the already drawn out conflict. Western powers have repeatedly called the aid envoy a farce designed for Russian officials to sneak troops and/or weapons to the rebels, who have been losing ground to the Ukrainian military. Russia has denied these allegations, and has released statements declaring accusations by the West “absurd.” An official statement from Moscow said, “They continue to voice the absurd claim that the humanitarian convoy to help the civilian population of southeast Ukraine could be used as a pretext for Russian ‘military intervention.'”

The legitimacy of the aid envoy hinges on the Red Cross. Russian officials have claimed that the Red Cross has been coordinating with them on this mission, and that no military personnel or weapons are included. While the Red Cross has been working to help increase the amount of humanitarian aid being delivered into the region, they have denied involvement with this specific mission and have told news agencies that they have not been able to investigate the aid delivery.

Andre Loersch, the Red Cross spokesman in Kiev, told the media that “discussions are still ongoing” between them and Russia. He elaborated by saying, “The ICRC needs more details of what is in the convoy. The convoy is on the road and the ICRC has not had the opportunity to check what is inside.”

As of now, the aid convey still remains in limbo, with the full scope of its contents left unknown until the Red Cross investigates.

– Andre Gobbo

Sources: Al Jazeera, NY Times, ITV
Photo: Presstv

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Girl Child Network Changes Attitudes in Zimbabwe

Girl Child Network
In Zimbabwe, it’s hard to be a girl. With a population of mostly youth, the country and its economy have been decimated by the AIDS epidemic. Up to 80 percent of the population in rural villages is unemployed and women are subordinated with gender violence and rape.

The Girl Child Network (GCN) is trying to change things. Founded by Betty Makoni, the network is designed to help change the policy and acceptability of rape. The program has grown to assist girls with education and housing.

Featured in the documentary Tapestries of Hope, Girl Child Network is trailblazing the way rape survivors are treated: with dignity and with agency. One of the easiest ways to explain GCN is through its use of the color blue. In Zimbabwe, blue is a color mainly for boys; GCN uses it everywhere.

While health and support are provided, Makoni emphasizes that access to education is among her priorities. A donation as little as $50 could provide a girl with tuition for a year.

Expanding upon the original goal of getting justice for survivors, GCN allows girls to envision futures for themselves. Many of these girls are orphans and some are even mothers themselves, but GCN empowers them. Girls are encouraged to dream and pursue education and careers.

While GCN’s staff advocates for the girls, the girls themselves have emerged as advocates. Some have publicly spoken out against violence against women at the United Nations. Others courageously shared their stories on the documentary.

The solution to the poverty they face isn’t simple. Will achieving a degree make a difference? Will they be able to get a job with the extraordinary high unemployment rate? The answers are unclear. The philosophy of GCN, however, is to maximize the potential and resources for these girls.

– Kristin Ronzi

Sources: Tapestries of Hope
Photo: TeachAids

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How Direct Cash Transfers Can Help End Poverty

People who make it their life’s work to end poverty have honorable intentions. But just because someone is honorable and attempts to do “the right thing,” doesn’t necessarily mean they know the best way to accomplish these goals.

The debate over what policies and initiatives work best for ending poverty often becomes heated, as thousands of aid organizations and nonprofits have conflicting ideas of what is best.

A common debate is over whether giving impoverished people direct cash transfers is better than working on top down development policies.

The basic arguments against direct cash transfer are that recipients will squander the money, spend it on “unnecessary” items, continue to expect more in the future or become lazy and not work.

It is also believed that impoverished people do not know how to lift themselves out of poverty and simply giving them money won’t teach them how to take care of themselves in the long term.

Over the past decade, proponents for cash transfers have begun to come forward with evidence that it might be a viable option in the fight to end global poverty.

The trend started in 2000 when a few Latin American countries started giving out conditional cash transfers (CCTs). Governments would give poor families a small amount of money with the “condition” that their children stay in school.

GiveDirectly is one organization arguing for the benefits of direct cash transfers. It works exclusively in Kenya and Uganda using mobile electronic transfers to distribute money.

The organization was established in 2008 and bases its operations on the idea that direct transfers will “empower the poor to set their own priorities” instead of experts deciding what is best for the poor based on their personal ideology.

On its official website, GiveDirectly cites a study by Innovations for Poverty Actions that shows the benefits of direct cash transfers.

Evidence from this study shows that, with direct cash transfers, assets increased by 58 percent. Assets include things like livestock and home improvements. There was a 42 percent decrease in the number of days children lived without food.

GiveDirectly also cites a 2011 review by the UK Department for International Development of studies on direct cash transfers. The review found that direct cash transfers can increase future income, with recipients earning 41 percent more than those who did not receive money.

Direct transfers helped children stay in school. Children experienced less psychological stress and were generally healthier.

Recipients did not spend the money on alcohol or gambling.

The review concluded that “the proposed programme [direct cash transfers] is “good.” It effectively achieves intended goals of reducing poverty, helping families to improve their livelihoods, or facilitating essential economic reforms. Transfers that benefit children and the elderly are generally seen as worthwhile by the general population.”

Another study by Johannes Haushofer and Jeremy Shapiro from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found similar results.

In a recent article funded by the nonprofit charity evaluator Give Well, Jacob Kushner interviewed people in Kenya who were recipients of direct cash from GiveDirectly.

One of the recipients, Victor Ochieng, used $1,000 to buy a new irrigation system for his corn farm. This allowed him to triple his corn production, which gave him the idea to buy chickens. He can feed the chickens the extra corn and in turn have chickens and eggs to feed his family for many years.

Ochieng prefers the direct cash to traditional aid models because he feels it gives him control. “It is more respectful for someone to give me the cash and let me use it the way I wish,” said Ochieng. This is opposed to aid organizations coming in and directing how aid money is used.

Many recipients used the money to fix their roofs, something that doesn’t necessarily help increase their future income, but does save them money in the future by buying a stronger, longer-lasting roof once instead of having to replace the roof every year.

Recipeint Caroline Alouch Ogutu fixed her roof, paid for her children to go to school and bought some pigs.

GiveDirectly uses 90 percent of its budget for direct cash transfers. Charity rating websites like Give Well and The Life You Can Save claim the organization is legitimate and “top rated.”

There are of course critics who question the real effects of direct cash transfers. The Stanford Social Innovation Review argues that it is too soon to tell if they will have long lasting affects. It is possible that one or maybe five years from now those who received money will still be impoverished and show minimal improvement in their situation.

Stanford believes that “excitement about unconditional cash transfers is perhaps more a reflection of the sorry state of development aid overall than of the real impact of the cash itself.”

Other critics claim that direct cash transfers still don’t address the root causes of poverty. They don’t change the political and social situations most impoverished people find themselves in.

Direct cash transfers are not necessarily the absolute solution to ending poverty.

Direct cash transfers can, however, be supplemented with other types of aid. Traditional aid organizations can continue to build schools and medical facilities, promote good saving practices and teach farmers the value of water conservation.

Regardless of which type of aid makes a bigger impact or is “right,” how the cash transfer allowed Ochieng to feed and take care of his family is evidence that cash transfers can be beneficial and contribute to the reduction of poverty.

– Eleni Marino 

Sources: GiveDirectly, UK Department for International Development, Take Part, The Life You Can Save, Give Well, The Economist, Stanford Social Innovation Review

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Silicon Valley Community Foundation

Launched in 2007 through a merger between the Peninsula Community Foundation and the Community Foundation Silicon Valley, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation has developed a new approach for giving. The organization’s overall aim is to maximize the impact each donation will have for any given cause.

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation,  led by CEO Emmett D. Carson, operates by working to “simplify giving so donors can focus on their charitable passions, partner with the most effective organizations to create change, and advance innovative philanthropic solutions to challenging problems.” Moreover, its five basic strategies (economic security, education, immigrant integration, regional planning and a community opportunity fund) help ensure the foundation’s success.

In order to achieve maximum outreach, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation collaborates with other foundations and initiatives. Many of these foundations target early childhood education and community leadership projects focused on “strengthening organizations serving low-income and communities of color.”

Initiatives that have recently been completed include the Fostering the Future initiative, which took place over a six year period (2005-2011). Its objective was to provide a better life for youth that are subjected to abuse from either their biological families or foster families, as well as for children who have become too old for foster care. The Envision Bay Area initiative, that took place from 2010-2012, aimed to build a community of both leaders and constituents that made daily decisions based on what would be best for the environment. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation made use of YouChoose Bay Area in order to make this initiative successful. The work from this initiative ultimately “convinced the local planning agencies to set higher greenhouse gas emissions than their staff had initially recommended.”

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation is currently responsible for $2.9 million in assets and has over 1,600 philanthropic funds.

– Jordyn Horowitz

Sources: The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Photo: Future Partners