MONDAY

DEVELOPMENTS
Chec
Out O k
JS obsur
ectio
Page 3
4
n !

The Latest Issues and Trends in International Development and Humanitarian Assistance

Consequences
in Sudan

The 2009
Tech Awards

Neglected
Hotspots:
CAR and
North Waziristan

Beyond
Fair Trade

New
Technology
for
Development
May
2009
Vol. 27, No. 5
InterAction
 MONDAY
DEVELOPMENTS

Managing Editor/Art Director

Chad Brobst

Copy Editor
Kathy Ward

Advertising & Sales

Michael Haslett

30
Communications Department
Nasserie Carew, Public Relations
Tawana Jacobs, Public Relations
Tony Fleming, New Media

Contents
Chad Brobst, Publications
Michael Haslett, Publications
Margaret Christoph, Admin Associate
Andrea Alves, Intern

Editorial Committee
21
InterAction Communications Team May 2009 • Vol. 27 • No. 5

InterAction
1400 16th Street, NW Features The Road to Recovery | 21 Consequences
Suite 210 Early lessons learned from the in Sudan | 29
Washington, DC 20036 Cover Story: 2008 earthquake in China. Expulsion of NGOs in
Tel: 202.667.8227
publications@interaction.org
The Tech Awards | 10 Sudan sparks serious
Acknowledging technology Beyond Fair Trade | 23 risk of humanitarian crisis.
ISSN 1043-8157 that benefits humanity. From sustainable coffees to
sustainable livelihoods. Liberia: Making Women
Monday Developments is published 11 Community Contribution and Girls Central to
times a year by InterAction, the larg- of Geospatial Data | 15 North Waziristan: National Recovery | 30
est alliance of U.S.-based international
New ways to use available Strike While Hot | 25 Making the difficult transition
development and humanitarian non-
governmental organizations. With more technology and mapping to Tribal and religious from relief to development.
than 170 members operating in every improve data collection and leaders’ comments reveal
developing country, InterAction works to empower local communities. troubled area would Women with
overcome poverty, exclusion and suffer- welcome development. Disabilities | 32
ing by advancing social justice and basic
dignity for all. Bringing Rural Voices Into Disabled women leaders from
the National Debate | 17 The Forgotten Crisis around the world collaborate
InterAction welcomes submissions of Mobile cinema brings in the Central with InterAction members.
news articles, opinions and announce- African Republic | 28
ments. Article submission does not guar-
constructive dialogue
antee inclusion in Monday Developments. to Bangladesh’s “media Millions suffer as the nation is
We reserve the right to reject submis- dark space”. overlooked amidst attention to
sions for any reason. It is at the discretion crises in surrounding countries.
of our editorial team as to which articles
The U.S. Is Back | 19 Departments
are published in individual issues.
A report from the 2009 United Inside InterAction | 3
All statements in articles are the sole Nations Commission on the
opinion and responsibility of the authors. Status of Women. Inside Our Community | 6
Articles may be reprinted with prior per- Countdown to Forum | 7
mission and attribution. Letters to the
editor are encouraged.

A limited number of subscriptions are

19 Step-by-Step Advocacy | 8
Washington Update | 9
made available to InterAction member Events | 33
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23
 INSIDE InterAction
InterAction Members
Call for Swift
Appointment of
USAID Administrator
I
n early April, InterAction sent the following letter on behalf
of more than 90 InterAction member organizations, asking
President Obama to quickly name a qualified nominee to
head the lead U.S. humanitarian and development agency:
Dear President Obama:
In your inaugural address, you pledged that the United
States will work alongside the world’s poor to make “farms
flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies
and feed hungry minds.” We applaud your ambitious and ex-
traordinary agenda, and look forward to partnering with you
to achieve that goal. Your FY 2010 budget request for inter-
national affairs spending, and Secretary Clinton’s recent re-
marks at The Hague about the need to reform the way the
U.S. delivers foreign assistance, are certainly demonstrative of
your strong commitment to meeting the worthy objective that
you laid out in your inaugural address. We are concerned,
however, that a nominee for Administrator of the U.S. Agency
for International Development has yet to be named.
USAID, as the lead U.S. humanitarian and development
agency, will be largely responsible for carrying out your pledge
on behalf of the U.S. Government. Therefore, it is critically im-
portant that a qualified USAID Administrator be nominated to
guide the agency through the FY 2010 appropriations cycle
and begin the process of rebuilding the agency’s human and
technical capacity. Moreover, not having a USAID Administra-
tor in place during the Afghanistan- Pakistan policy review or
the planning for the aftermath of the Gaza crisis was a missed
opportunity for the administration’s foreign policy that illus-
trates the importance of filling this position very soon. USAID’s
effectiveness and independence, and its ability to contribute to
key interagency debates that will shape U.S. engagement with
the world for years to come, require that strong leadership at
the agency be in place as soon as possible.
Photo: Karen Roach - Fotolia.com
The USAID Administrator should also be a member of the
National Security Council. We were concerned to read in your
first Presidential Policy Directive, (PPD-1, dated February
13, 2009), that the USAID Administrator will not be included
among the individuals comprising the NSC. U.S. relief and de-
velopment programs address the root causes of violence and
extremism around the world, and are critical to achieving U.S.
objectives in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa. Fur-
thermore, American assistance programs will be essential to
our response to the global financial crisis, which Director of
National Intelligence Dennis Blair calls the “primary near-term
security concern of the United States.” For these reasons and
others, the USAID Administrator should be a member of the
NSC along with the other departments and agencies that play
a role, as PPD-1 describes, “in integrating all aspects of na-
tional security policy as it affects the United States—domestic,
foreign, military, intelligence, and economic.” As the NSC will
be your “principal means for coordinating executive depart-
ments and agencies in the development and implementation of
national security policy,” we believe that it is vital that USAID
be represented in those discussions given the agency’s crucial
role in making the world safer and more stable.
We commend you for your commitment to significantly in-
creasing the resources for international relief and develop-
ment, for your pledge to make the Millennium Development
Goals America’s goals, and for selecting a strong foreign af-
fairs and national security leadership team. In order to fully
leverage those commitments and actions, however, it is impor-
tant that you appoint a visionary USAID Administrator who
has the stature and experience to be a strong voice for devel-
opment within the government and an effective ally to Sec-
retary Clinton and Defense Secretary Gates as they work to
elevate and integrate development in the Smart Power toolkit.
We recognize that in Secretary Clinton we have a Secretary of
State with a long-standing and unwavering commitment to in-
ternational relief and development programs, and we applaud
her embrace of these issues. At the same time, USAID needs
its own fulltime leader to reinforce the Secretary’s efforts, rep-
resent the agency before Congress, OMB, and the NSC, and
represent the U.S. in international discussions on effective de-
velopment policy and the coordination of aid.
Again, we respectfully ask that you nominate a qualified indi-
vidual for the post of USAID Administrator as soon as possible,
and that you make that person a member of the National Securi-
ty Council. American humanitarian and development programs
are vital to U.S. national interests and this appointment can no
longer be delayed. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
We look forward to partnering with your administration as you
redefine the way America engages with the world’s poor. MD
MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 3
 INSIDE InterAction
InterAction Welcomes New
Member Organizations
In their March meeting, the InterAction Board of Direc-
tors unanimously voted for four new member organizations
to join InterAction:
Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP). AfP aims to build sus-
tainable peace and security worldwide. They initiate, develop
and support collaborative action among governmental, non-
governmental, and intergovernmental organizations to pre-
vent and resolve destructive conflicts. They build under-
standing of and support for peace building policies and
programs among leaders in government, business, media,
philanthropy, religion, and other sectors of civil society. AfP’s
aim is to increase the effectiveness of the peace building field
by developing networks, disseminating best practices, and
enhancing organizational capacities and professional skills.
They organize meetings and seminars among civil society and
government agencies to coordinate initiatives in conflict envi-
ronments. They provide help to civilian and military actors to
determine appropriate actions to foster peace and stability in
pre-conflict, conflict, or transitional environments.
International Center for Religion and Diplomacy
(ICRD). ICRD’s mission is to address identity-based conflicts
that exceed the reach of traditional diplomacy by incorporat-
ing religion as part of the solution. Regardless of one’s spiri-
tual persuasion, there are two compelling reasons why the
Center’s work is important: (1) the need for more effective pre-
ventive measures to minimize the occasions in which we are
forced to send our sons and daughters in harm’s way and (2)
the need for a stable global environment to support the kind
of economic growth that can benefit an expanding percentage
of the world’s population. By linking religious reconciliation
with official or unofficial diplomacy, ICRD has created a new
synergy for peacemaking that serves both of these needs. 
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). From
stopping the elephant ivory trade, to ending the Canadian seal
hunt and saving the whales from extinction, IFAW works to
create solutions that benefit both animals and people. IFAW
works to improve animal welfare, prevent animal cruelty and
abuse, protect wildlife and provide animal rescue around the
world. All over the world, IFAW works in the field and in part-
nership with local communities, nonprofit organizations, and
regulatory authorities to meet urgent challenges facing ani-
mals and people. Through these collaborative efforts, IFAW is
not just protecting animals from threat, they are preserving
essential habitats, increasing employment opportunities, and
joining forces with local people and communities to protect
their natural heritage and prevent unnecessary suffering.
Keystone Human Services International (KHSI). KHSI
promotes strong community-based human service systems
throughout Moldova, Russia and beyond, bridging the cul-
tural boundaries that have allowed the children and families
of this region to endure immense hardship largely in silence.
By transcending these borders, KHSI is contributing to a
great network of committed global organizations, construct-
ing a bridge to a safer world. Inspired by the lessons learned
4 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009
and the accomplishments of their early efforts to expand the
scope of human services, the work of KHSI draws on the tradi-
tion of providing business-oriented skills, accountability and
leadership development in their community-based programs.
Empowering communities in need as well as people who want
to help, KHSI reflects an enduring commitment to work as
international partners in creating a better and safer world.
InterAction Staff in England:
A Global Take on Grassroots Advocacy
On March 28, a crowd of 35,000 people marched
through the streets of London calling on G20 leaders
to devise a fair, sustainable route out of the global eco-
nomic crisis. The Put People First rally took place five
days ahead of the G20 Summit and was sponsored by
150+ organizations, including InterAction’s UK counter-
part BOND (British Overseas NGOs for Development).
The peaceful crowd was a diverse and colorful mix of
charities, trade unions, students, faith-based groups,
environmentalists, and feminists. InterAction Senior Ad-
vocacy Associate Filmona Hailemichael joined the Global
Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) delegation as
InterAction is an active member of GCAP’s G20 and G8
Working Groups. GCAP advocated for increased aid to de-
veloping countries affected by the global financial crisis.
GCAP representatives from the UK, Ethiopia, and Switzerland at
Put People First Rally (Filmona Hailemichael, far-right).
While in England, Hailemichael also traveled to Oxford
to attend the eCampaigning Forum and to learn how ad-
vocacy campaigns are run around the world. The Fo-
rum was a two-day conference for online advocacy prac-
titioners. Participants included staff from InterAction
members’ European counterparts (ie. CARE UK, Oxfam
Netherlands, Save the Children UK) as well as some in-
credibly inspiring advocates from the Global South. The
informative discussions ranged from how to use Twit-
ter to gain media attention, to harnessing the power of
video for storytelling. More details about innovative e-
campaigns based in Iraq and Kenya will be available in
an upcoming issue of Monday Developments.
 INSIDE Our Community
AMP Tackles Malaria in Africa
Global health leaders have come together under The
Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP) workstream in
a united effort to combat malaria through achieving the
goal of universal net coverage by December 2010.
Studies show that widespread distribution of long
lasting insecticide-treated nets contributes greatly to
preventing malaria deaths. Major international donors
and implementing partners working with AMP piggy-
back net distribution on mass delivery platforms—such
as child survival campaigns—to increase coverage to one
or two bednets per household. Using campaigns allows
the Partnership to reach vast numbers of the population
in a targeted country, for example, this year in Nigeria,
over 10 million bednets will be distributed during a cam-
paign managed by AMP.
AMP is a workstream within the Harmonization Work-
ing Group of Roll Back Malaria, representing more than
40 partners, including government, business, faith-
based and humanitarian organizations. Its goal is to
expand ownership and use of LLINs.
IMC and Earth Council Geneva Launch Partnership
In an effort to find sustainable solutions to global environ-
mental health problems International Medical Corps and
Earth Council Geneva have launched a strategic partner-
ship that will benefit communities impacted by the severe
scarcity of vital
resources. The new
alliance, which will
take place on both
the global and coun-
try levels, will focus on strengthening the quality, account-
ability, and efficiency of water, sanitation, hygiene, and other
environmental health interventions.
“We are pleased to join forces with Earth Council Geneva.
Their trust and support will enable us to build upon our
25 years of delivering life-saving health interventions, spe-
cifically providing clean water and hygiene education to the
world’s most vulnerable pop-
ulations,” says Rabih Torbay,
Vice President of International
Operations of IMC.
“I greatly admire the accom-
plishments of International
Medical Corps,” said Reto Braun, Chairman of the Earth
Council Geneva. “This partnership is precisely in line with
our aim to support specific projects worldwide, possibly with
the ECG expertise of e-learning programs, particularly in the
area of water, sanitation and other related services.”
The partnership’s priorities will include:
• Providing access to clean water through the rehabilita-
tion and/or construction of new, locally sustainable
facilities
6 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009
• Delivering hygiene promotion, water and sanitation edu-
cation, and behavioral change-oriented messages
• Increasing access to locally sustainable sanitation facili-
ties through construction or rehabilitation, as well as
providing hygiene products
• Providing education on the importance of proper hygiene
and its relation to improving health and well-being
• Promoting education and understanding of one’s role in
positively impacting and protecting the environment as it
relates to climate change
Oxfam GB Submits Formal Appeal Against
Sudan Expulsion
Oxfam GB said that it has formally submitted its appeal
against the Sudanese government’s decision to expel it from
northern Sudan, and expressed serious concern at the false
allegations that continue to be made against it and other
expelled agencies. The agency warned the humanitarian sit-
uation in Darfur is worsening following the expulsion, with
people facing shortages of water and other aid.
Penny Lawrence, Oxfam GB’s International Programmes
Director, said: “We have already been told that water pumps
in some Darfur camps have stopped pumping, and there are
growing fears about the potential for outbreaks of disease in
the coming rainy season. The expulsion is already affecting
the lives of hundreds of thousands of the very poorest and
most vulnerable Sudanese people.”
Lawrence added: “We strongly refute the government’s
accusations that we have acted outside our humanitarian
mandate. We are an independent, impartial organization, and
we have not provided any information to the International
Criminal Court’s investigation. For the past 25 years, our
predominantly Sudanese staff have worked tirelessly to help
improve the lives of the poorest people in Sudan. We have
provided emergency aid during conflicts, floods and droughts,
and long term development support in some of the most
remote and marginalized areas of the country. We remain
committed to ensuring people get the support they need.”
The agency said it has still not been given an official rea-
son why its registration has been revoked, or been given evi-
dence of any of the allegations against it. Its appeal has been
submitted in the timeframe given under Sudanese law, after
lengthy legal consultations.
InterAction Members Attend Civil G8
An NGO Civil G8 meeting was held in Rome on May
4-5 as part of the lead up to the July Italian G8 summit.
Two InterAction staff attended in addition to InterAc-
tion members’ Results, Global Health Council, Family
Care International, Oxfam and Action Aid. The two
day meeting culminated in a meeting with the G8 coun-
try Sherpas, which are the lead staff for each country. A
detailed wrap up of the Civil G8 meeting will appear in
the June issue of Monday Developments. MD
 COUNTDOWN to Forum
Why Should
YOU Attend the
InterAction Forum?
Your voice is more important than ever
in setting the community agenda.
By Barbara Wallace, Vice President
Membership & Standards, InterAction
T
he InterAction Forum has become a premier
gathering for InterAction members and others commit-
ted to saving lives and improving the human condi-
tion around the world. Each year it brings together a large
and unique mix of NGO, corporate and government leaders
and staffers in international development and humanitarian
assistance to network and explore emerging global issues in
an engaging and interactive setting.
When you participate in the Forum, you:
• CONNECT with Members of Congress and the Admin-
istration; with experts in critical issues such as climate
change, the economic and food crises; with others who
share your interests and commitment; and with more
than 60 exhibitors showcasing innovative, crosscutting
products and services.
• INFLUENCE key decision-makers in Congress and the
Administration; shape the direction of the NGO sector; work
together to protect the space in which NGOs work with local
communities around the world; and influence the debate
on foreign assistance and the role of the NGO community.
• DEVELOP enhanced skills that have a lasting impact
on your day-to-day work, increasing effectiveness and
impact by sharing best practices, and learning more
about emerging issues and challenges.
Who should attend?
If you are program or field staff working on international
programs development and/or humanitarian relief the Fo-
rum is for you. It will give you an opportunity to engage and
network with your peers about innovative solutions and best
practices, and to share your insights from the field with de-
cision-makers. It can also help increase your understanding
of and influence on global issues that affect your work, and
strengthen your skills for implementing multi-sectoral field
programs.
If you are an executive of an internationally focused NGO
(CEO, CFO, COO) the Forum is for you. It offers high-level
policy discussions with representatives of the U.S. govern-
ment, private funders and leaders of peer organizations from
the North and South. If you are concerned about the chal-
lenges created by the economic crisis and want to participate
in strategic level discussions about how to respond, the CEO
track and other management focused workshops will give you
an opportunity to candidly interact with other sector leaders
as you position your organization for the next 25 years.
If you work in human resources, fundraising, security,
or procurement, the Forum is for you. It can help broaden
your knowledge in key issues related to organization man-
agement through carefully tailored, expert-led workshops.
If you work with the media, educate the public, or inter-
act with policymakers, the Forum is for you. The Forum
makes a point of including sessions on the latest and most
helpful techniques for communications: how to effectively tell
stories and maximize Twitter, Facebook and other forms of
traditional and social media.
If you work with the NGO community as a donor, sponsor,
corporate partner, or if you work on international develop-
ment or humanitarian relief for a governmental entity, the
Forum is for you. It provides a valuable opportunity to inter-
act with NGO leaders, garner field-based, practical insights,
share your own expertise, and influence the community’s
dialogue on key issues.
If you care about making U.S. foreign assistance more
effective and you want to advocate for increased funding for
international development and relief programs, the Forum is
for you. It will give you an opportunity to interact with policy
experts, congressional staff, and experienced practitioners.
At the Forum you can delve into the role of celebrities in ad-
vocacy, better understand opportunities for joint campaigns
by northern and southern civil society, and learn the latest
developments in aid effectiveness and foreign aid reform.
If you are interested in international development poli-
cy and practice, the Forum is for you. The Forum is a great
way to learn more about the field from experts, field practi-
tioners and analysts. It is a great opportunity to interact with
more than 800 attendees with a wide variety of experience to
broaden your knowledge and your engagement.
New Opportunity This Year!
Directly following the InterAction Forum, International
Aid & Trade will hold its annual event for the first time in
Washington, DC on July 9-10. It is a great opportunity for
Forum participants and there is no charge to attend. In-
ternational Aid & Trade is directed at the international hu-
manitarian community and draws key speakers from UN
organizations, aid agencies, governmental organizations and
development banks. This year, the meeting will focus on in-
creasing the effectiveness of procurement and logistics pro-
cesses for disaster relief (getting the right equipment to the
right place at the right time) and will feature practical dis-
cussions and solutions. The event includes an international
exhibition of goods and services as well as a broad agenda of
workshop panel discussions. For more information, please
visit www.aidandtrade.org.  MD
For more information and to register for the Forum, see
www.interaction.org/forum, or email forum@interaction.org.
MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 7
 Step By Step Advocacy
Power Analysis:
Identifying and
Understanding Key
Decision-Makers
By John Ruthrauff
Senior Manager of Member Advocacy, InterAction
Note: This is the third installment in a series of articles on
developing an effective advocacy strategy. Parts one and two,
which covered selecting an issue and defining your goal and
“asks,” appeared in the March and April 2009 editions of
Monday Developments.
A
dvocacy consists of a series of planned
activities that organizations undertake to press for
policy changes related to a specific issue (based on an
assessment of which actors have the power to bring about
those changes). An advocacy campaign can focus on change
in an organization, a government, or a multinational institu-
tion such as the World Bank. Advocacy increases the power
available to organizations and alliances by winning measur-
able victories. Campaigning organizations find they get only
as much change as they have the power to compel.
A key step in the process is identifying and understanding
who has the power to bring about the changes you want. You
may find that a single person or group can make the changes,
or you may find that you need to target several individuals or
entities. For each target, you need to develop an understand-
ing of how it makes decisions: both the formal process and
the factors that influence how that process will operate in your
particular situation. You may discover that a target’s decision-
making process may be clear and simple, or it may be complex
and opaque. However, either way you can usually figure out
how it works through research and friendly contacts within
the organization and others familiar with its operations. This
step, which is sometimes called a power analysis, is critical.
Understanding the methods, timing and individuals involved
in relevant decision-making by your target(s) is fundamental
to developing a strategy that can achieve your goal. If you can-
not do this type of analysis, you may need to modify your goal.
This type of power analysis focuses on networks, relation-
ships, and influence between key individuals and institu-
tions. It is important to understand who wants to change the
targeted policy or behavior in the ways you want, who wants
to keep things as they are, and who wants to make changes
but in ways at odds with your goals. Within these relation-
ships, you need to identify the specific individuals who have
influence over the decisions you want to see made and also
the specific individuals who provide significant advice to
8 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009
those key decision-makers. It is important to be realistic and
not over-estimate your power or under-estimate the strength
of those who do not share your goal.
In any political situation there are a variety of forces at
play. Individuals and groups jockey for position and vie for
control over people who make and influence the decision
making and prevailing perceptions of various aspects of your
issue. To increase your changes of success, you need to iden-
tify and analyze these forces.
After identifying the key actors, it is useful to list the people
who influence each of these decision-makers. As shown in
the chart below, use three columns to list the individuals and
forces that can influence your targeted decision-maker and
each one’s relationship to him or her and to each other. Also
make a note of how you can contact each person. The list
should include allies, undecided individuals, and opponents.
Look for patterns in relationships and for connections and
capabilities that members of your alliance have to influence
each of these people and targets. Be aware of the gender, reli-
gious, class, racial, and ethnic dimensions of the situation.
List of influences on key decision-maker
Key Actor________________
Individuals who support Individuals with influence Individuals who oppose
your goal and how they over a key actor but are your goal and how they
can influence a key actor undecided about your goal can influence a key actor
After you complete this process, you and your alliance
partners should revisit your goal keeping in mind what you
have learned. Make sure you are realistic when considering
what you can do:
• Is your goal achievable in light of the power analysis, or
does it need to be changed or narrowed?
• Does your alliance have sufficient influence to win victo-
ries in the campaign?
• What are the personal and professional risks that alliance
members might face? Can targeted individuals and insti-
tutions threaten or harm the participants?
The power analysis may show that it will be very difficult or
impossible to achieve your goal. If so, you and your alliance
partners must decide whether to:
• Continue working on the campaign but select a more
realistic goal;
• Work for a different immediate purpose other than change
through advocacy; for example switch efforts to an edu-
cational process to better inform concerned individuals
about the situation; or
• End the effort before significant resources have been
expended.
Members of an alliance need to come to a common under-
standing of the potential for success. If some members do
not understand the realistic likelihood of success, they may
continued on page 33
 WASHINGTON Update
FY2009 Omnibus passes and is signed into law
After roll call votes on March 9-10 rejecting ten more
amendments to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 Omnibus Appro-
priations Bill, the Senate voted 62-35 to invoke cloture and
end debate on March 10, and then passed the bill by voice
vote. As the House had passed the bill the previous week
and the Senate made no changes, the bill was sent on its
way to the White House. President Obama signed the bill the
next day, calling it “imperfect” but necessary and pledging
to work with Congress going forward to reform the earmark
process and to prevent the need for massive omnibus bills in
the future. The bill contained the nine remaining individual
spending bills from the current fiscal year, FY2009 (which
covers the year from October 1, 2008 through September 30,
2009). $410 billion in discretionary funds were appropriated
altogether, about $36.6 billion of which was in the State, For-
eign Operations piece.
The President’s FY2010 budget request
The Obama Administration released an “outline” of its
budget plans on February 26, providing the first view of how
it plans to put meat on the bones of the President’s campaign
promises. The President’s $1.098 trillion request includes
$53.8 billion for the International Affairs account (the outline
showed $51.7 billion, however that excluded food aid, funded
through the Department of Agriculture but counted as part
of the International Affairs account).
Congressional budget resolutions move forward
The House and Senate both passed their respective bud-
get resolutions the first week in April, with both documents
hewing relatively close to the President’s budget as outlined.
One place they differed from the President’s request, unfor-
tunately, was in their proposed International Affairs levels,
at least as they were reported out of the Budget Committees.
For the whole budget the Senate proposed $15 billion less
than the President, and $4 billion of that cut was in the Inter-
national Affairs account (Senate resolution from the Com-
mittee proposed $49.8 billion for that account). The House
proposed $7 billion less than the President overall, with $5.3
billion of that coming from International Affairs (House reso-
lution provided $48.5 billion in that account). The Interna-
tional Affairs account was one of just a few to be cut.
After Committee approval, the resolutions were consid-
ered by their entire chambers “on the floor.” As is custom-
ary in the House, with only whole substitute amendments
(i.e., substitute budgets, not line-item changes) allowed,
the House budget passed as it had come from Committee,
proposing $5.3 billion less than the President requested for
International Affairs.
In the Senate, on the other hand, things were more excit-
ing, thanks to the more open Senate rules on amendments.
Senators Kerry and Lugar, with support from Senators
Durbin, Feinstein, Bingaman, Boxer, Brown, Casey, Corker,
Dodd, Kaufman, Kennedy, Leahy, Lieberman, Menendez,
Despite last-minute efforts to
head it off, [the budget] was approved
by voice vote. The Senate budget
thus heads to conference discussions
proposing $53.8 billion for
International Affairs, while the House
budget proposes $48.5 billion.
Sanders and Voinovich, offered an amendment increasing
the proposed International Affairs level by $4 billion, to the
level requested by the President. After considerable feverish
activity by a broad coalition of groups and their supporters
across the country, sufficient support for the amendment
was demonstrated to make it clear it would be approved, and
it was accepted by unanimous consent.
One other amendment, from Senator Brownback of Kan-
sas, pared back the proposed International Affairs level by
an additional $3 million (a rounding error in a budget of bil-
lions). The amendment designated funds to create a “Com-
mission on Budgetary Accountability and Review of Federal
Agencies,” an independent commission to review all Federal
spending and make recommendations on programs that
should be shut down. Despite last-minute efforts to head it
off, it was approved by voice vote. The Senate budget thus
heads to conference discussions proposing $53.8 billion
for International Affairs, while the House budget proposes
$48.5 billion. There were reports of strong disapproval in the
House for the low number in their resolution, from mem-
bers of the Democratic caucus and from the House Foreign
Affairs Committee. At the same time, budget amendments
are often jettisoned in conference, so the Senate increase
may or may not carry the day. The conference agreement is
expected to be presented in late April, after Congress’s two-
week spring recess.
Technical note: the only discretionary funding level that
counts in the congressional budget resolution is the overall
total discretionary spending level, which is binding on the
appropriations committees. All the specific budget function
levels, such as the International Affairs level, are merely advi-
sory. It is the Chairmen of the Appropriations Committees
who decide how much each appropriations subcommittee
gets to work with. Those subcommittee allocations, called the
“302(b) allocations,” will be handed down soon after the final
budget agreement is passed. They will be announced by the
appropriations committee and reported on in this space.  MD
For our statements on and analysis of the FY2009 bill and
the FY2010 budgets, go to http://interaction.org/budget/index.
html. If you have any questions, or would like to be added to the
e-mail list for InterAction’s weekly public policy update, please
contact Margaret Christoph at mchristoph@interaction.org.
MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 9
 Tech Awards

Acknowledging technology that

benefits humanity

The

Tech Awards
I
n medieval times, knights wore protective gloves called
gauntlets because their hands and forearms were especially vulnerable in
combat. A knight would challenge a fellow knight by throwing down one
of his gauntlets; his worthy opponent would then pick it up to accept the
challenge.
In modern times, gauntlets are more often made of Kevlar than chainmaille
and few newborns are named Galahad, Lamorak, or Lancelot anymore. Yet
21st-century knights exist: committed men and women around the world who
through innovative technology are metaphorically picking up the gauntlets of
global challenges to help improve the human condition, while also issuing a
few challenges of their own.
These contemporary knights are the focus of The Tech Awards: Technology
Benefiting Humanity, a remarkable program of The Tech Museum in Silicon
Valley that counts Nobel Laureates among its annual Global Humanitarian
Award recipients. The international program was created in 2000 by The Tech
Museum in collaboration with Applied Materials and Santa Clara University’s
Photo: Robert Mizerek—Fotolia.com

Center for Science, Technology, and Society. Along with the Global Humanitar-
ian, it annually honors fifteen innovators as Tech Awards Laureates. These men
and women are honored for their work deploying creative high- or low-tech
solutions in five broad categories distilled from global challenges presented a
decade ago in the State of the Future report by the UN Millennium Project. The
categories and their 2009 sponsors are Economic Development (BD Biosci-
ences), Education (Microsoft), Environment (Intel), Equality (Swanson Founda-
tion), and Health (Nokia).

By Peter Friess, Ph.D., President, The Tech Museum, and

David Whitman, Program Director, The Tech Awards, The Tech Museum

10 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009

 Tech Awards

• Star Syringe. This non-reusable syringe technology is

How are The Tech Awards Laure-
ates selected? From around the world,
hundreds of nominations are received
throughout the year. If accepted in the
preliminary screening process, nominees
are invited to submit detailed applica-
tions for competitive evaluation. Panels
of experts then have the daunting task
of choosing just three Laureates in each
of the five categories. The top project in
each group receives a cash prize. The in-
dependent judging process is coordinat-
ed by the Center for Science, Technology,
and Society at Santa Clara University.
In 2008, Laureates from Canada,
Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Laos, Peru,
and Senegal were honored along with
the following cash prize recipients:
• Build Change (equality/United
States), for designing and training
builders and homeowners to con-
struct earthquake-resistant houses
in developing countries using locally
available skills and materials. (build
change.org)
• Cheetah  Conservation  Fund (envi-
ronment/Namibia), for its biomass
energy project that uses technology
to convert an invasive bush species
into clean fuel while restoring habi-
tats. (cheetah.org)
• DESI Power: Decentralised Energy
Systems India (economic develop-
ment/India), for helping poor vil-
lages build power plants and launch
micro-enterprises to alleviate pov-
erty. (desipower.com)
• Digital StudyHall (education/Ban-
gladesh and India), for deploying DVD
technology to extend the reach of
skilled teachers into underprivileged
classrooms in rural areas and urban
slums. (dsh.cs.washington.edu)
• Marc Koska, Star Syringe (health/
more than 40 countries), for its sin-
gle-use, “auto-disable” syringe, cred-
ited with saving an estimated 3 mil-
lion lives. (starsyringe.com)
used to stop the medical transmission of blood-borne
diseases. In developing countries, syringes are re-used an
average of 7 times, often because hospitals unknowingly
buy used products. The technology, which won the Fog-
arty Institute for Innovation Health Award, was invented
by the UK’s Mark Koska. (Here doctors administer a shot
to an infant using the Star Syringe)
• DESI Power (Decentralised Energy Sys-
tems India). DESI power helps poor vil-
lages in India build local power plants and
launch micro-enterprises to alleviate pov-
erty. DESI won the Accenture Economic
Development Award (The gentleman pic-
tured here is about to charge a battery at
a biomass plant).
•  Professor and Nobel Laureate Muhammad
Yunus visits a borrower’s house at Dhalia
Branch. Yunus received the 2008 James C.
Morgan Global Humanitarian Award for
his work to alleviate poverty by using small
bank loans to transform the lives of the poor-
est people in Bangladesh.
•  Digital Study Hall uses digital video
technology to extend the reach of
skilled teachers into underprivileged
classrooms in India and Bangladesh.
(Here students watch while interacting
with their own teachers for questions
and activities)
•  The Tech Museum President Peter Friess and
Professor Muhammad Yunus share a laugh dur-
ing The Tech Awards gala in November 2008 at
the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.

Since its first gala in 2001, The Tech

Awards has inducted 200 Laureates
from 34 countries and awarded $2 mil-
lion. The museum and its many spon-
sors and partners are committed to
expanding the program’s reach even fur-
ther; we envision a community of Tech
Awards Laureates from every nation, a
network of technological visionaries ded-
icated to noble causes worldwide.
Beyond the prestige of becoming a
Tech Awards Laureate, participants
benefit by coming for a week to Silicon
Valley, where they are connected to in-
formation, venture funding, resources,
and diverse networking opportuni-
ties throughout the region to scale and
replicate the impact of their innovative
technology. On the day of the gala, The
Tech Awards Showcase gives Laureates
a platform to display and discuss their
projects with other social entrepreneurs,
prospective investors, students, commu-
nity activists and the media. Soon, Lau-
reates will also benefit from a network
platform for social entrepreneurs being
developed at Santa Clara University.
The annual Tech Awards gala is also

12 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009

 Tech Awards
a major fundraiser for the museum. We
are proud that the success of The Tech
Awards is allowing other museum activi-
ties to flourish, too. More than 500,000
people visit The Tech Museum annu-
ally; many are children who come to the
museum for science-based experiences
that intrigue, engage and inspire them.
A beautiful new addition to the museum,
The Tech Awards Gallery, is set to open
in June. Through the compelling stories
of people using technology to improve
the human condition, the interactive
new gallery will offer museum visitors
a window to The Tech Awards. We hope
that it will help inspire as-yet-unimag-
ined technological innovations.
As part of The Tech Awards, the mu-
seum annually presents the prestigious
James C. Morgan Global Humanitar-
ian Award sponsored by Applied Mate-
rials. Last year’s recipient was Muham-
mad Yunus, the legendary microcredit
pioneer from Bangladesh who sparked
a global movement by lending small
sums of money to impoverished women
without requiring collateral.
14 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009
Yunus had traveled 7,000 miles from
São Paulo, Brazil to The Tech Awards
gala. When we met him after his journey,
he was immaculately attired in silk and
smiling in the sun-dappled hotel lobby,
surrounded by associates. We crossed
the plaza to the convention center, where
the gala was taking place, stopping to
admire Leonardo da Vinci’s monumen-
tal, windswept Sforza horse towering
outside The Tech Museum. “I would like
to take him with me to Dhaka!” Yunus
exclaimed. For a wondrous moment, we
all imagined Leonardo’s Renaissance
pony sailing into the Bay of Bengal.
Observing Yunus in conversation
with countless people during his Bay
Area visit, we were impressed by his
warmth, grace and sense of humor.
His smile is contagious. He appeared
genuinely excited to talk with Laure-
ates about their diverse projects that
ranged from traditional weaving that
harvests solar energy (The Portable
Light Project) to hypodermic needles
designed to break after a single injec-
tion to prevent infection (Star Syringe).
When he took the stage to accept his
award later that evening, the applause
was thunderous. The 1,400 guests then
fell silent as the recipient of the Nobel
Peace Prize (and now also the James C.
Morgan Global Humanitarian Award)
spoke, unscripted and with his trade-
mark quiet passion. He covered revo-
lutionary ideas: micro-lending to the
homeless, nutrient-enhanced yogurt in
edible containers (!) for children’s health,
and the genesis of the Grameen Bank he
founded, whose Sanskrit-derived name
means “of the village.” “Grameen Bank,”
Yunus noted with obvious pride, “does
not have a subprime lending crisis.”
After the gala, Yunus and The Tech
Awards Laureates gathered on stage
together for a group photo. Their ener-
gy was radiant, their smiles beautiful.
Observing them at that moment, one
could imagine Galahad, Lamorak and
Lancelot among them, smiling too.  MD
More information, including details on
this year’s awards ceremony on Novem-
ber 19, is available at techawards.org.

Community Contribution of
Geospatial Data
New ways to use available technology
and mapping to improve data collection and
empower local communities.
By Anueja Gopalakrishnam, Public Health Analyst, World Vision; Mikel Maron,
Board Member, OpenStreetMap Foundation; and Neil Penman, IT Architect, IBM
D
ecision - makers need
good information, whether
they are governments, aid
agencies, businesses or indi-
viduals. Advances in technology such
as the Internet, GPS, satellite pictures
and databases have rapidly increased
the volume and quality of information
available. However, it is still often frag-
mented and difficult to access. This
article considers a technical and social
trend that can address these issues
and significantly improve the ability to
use information for effective aid deliv-
Photo: Neil Penman
ery: increased community sharing of
location-based information supported
by low-cost mapping tools.
Lack of access to accurate data keeps
many communities from achieving
their full development potential. Provid-
ing the capacity to collect, understand,
represent and share information helps
communities become more indepen-
dent in achieving and sustaining their
development. It also helps outside indi-
viduals and organizations understand
the community’s needs and where they
can make useful contributions.
Mapping
Cost is also a limiting factor. While
the cost of buying hardware is a small
component of this, the cost of licenses,
applications, program upgrades and ser-
vice support are far more significant. In
addition, effective user access is limited
by issues such as data ownership, data
management, timely access to the data,
and the ability to interpret that data.
Maps are an important source of
information for development. Accord-
ing to a November 2006 report in
Data Science Journal, the World Bank
commits $2.6 billion per year to road
transportation projects; however only a
small percentage of roads in developing
countries appear on readily available
and accurate maps. The report goes
on to describe areas in which accurate,
publicly available maps in developing
regions would provide notable benefits:
• Network analysis for resource allo-
cation;
• Vehicle routing and tracking;
• Emergency planning and impact
assessment;
• Medium and long term planning;
• Poverty and inequality issues;
• Rural transportation;
• Land use modeling; and
• Bio-diversity management.
Any single organization, govern-
ment, commercial or community will
only ever collect one element of the
data puzzle. Google Earth is a good ex-
ample of how valuable having a com-
prehensive high quality set of data
for the whole planet can be. However,
once you descend from the satellites
and start gathering more detailed data,
the task on a global basis is beyond the
capabilities of any single organization.
Already, in many developing coun-
tries the best available maps are ones
developed by communities using low
cost mapping tools rather than by cor-
Gaza in “JOSM”, the open source OSM editor.
MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 15
 Mapping
porations or governments. (See, e.g.,
the mapping case study below.) Be-
cause the underlying data is available
under an open source license, it can
also be accessed directly, analyzed and
linked to other information, thereby
making it much more useful than frag-
mented data sets.
This approach is not limited to tra-
ditional map making. For example, the
health case study below describes a pi-
lot project to collect and use a broad
range of data.
The availability of open source, Web-
based mapping applications, free to
the public, has provided a platform to
make data more accessible to commu-
nities that could previously not afford
it. As data collection techniques and
tools become more affordable, people
in developing countries become better
able to collect, understand and share
information about their communities
in real time. This in turn, increases
the accuracy of data collected, and im-
proves the dissemination and availabil-
ity of that data.
Case Study: Mapping in Gaza
As the Gaza crisis escalated in Janu-
ary 2009, it became clear that very little
geographic data for Gaza existed any-
where. Though blocked from entering
Gaza, the UN and aid organizations were
preparing potential operations to serve
the growing humanitarian crisis; while
media articles relied on very basic and
often inaccurate maps, bringing just a
little context to a chaotic situation.
OpenStreetMap was far from com-
plete in Gaza when the crisis began.
OpenStreetMap is a project to cre-
ate a free and open map of the entire
world, through volunteers surveying
with GPS, digitizing aerial imagery,
and working to make existing govern-
ment data sources publicly available.
These sources are processed with open
source software, and contributed to a
freely available Web-based database. In
short, OSM is like Wikipedia for maps.
When the crisis broke out, the call for
maps in Gaza quickly spread through-
out the OSM community, echoed by
prominent humanitarian bloggers, Re-
uters AlertNet, and the humanitarian
NGO and UN communities.
GPS surveying was out of the ques-
tion during the height of the crisis,
16 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009
since outside volunteers could not en-
ter Gaza and the danger to locals was
too high. Fortunately, Yahoo! Maps
aerial imagery had sufficient detail
over southern Gaza to trace and derive
map features. (OSM has an agreement
with Yahoo! to freely digitize data from
their imagery.) With shocking speed,
geographic features of southern Gaza
were completely extracted and put into
OSM mapping. However, this left un-
mapped northern Gaza, where the ma-
jority of the conflict was playing out.
OSM turned to Digital Globe, commer-
cial suppliers of satellite imagery. Once
purchased, the imagery was made
available to the core of Gaza mappers,
and the digitized data of all of Gaza was
then available to all.
Lack of access to accurate data keeps many
communities from achieving their full
development potential.
Coordination for the effort large-
ly took place through the OSM wiki
[http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/
WikiProject_Palestine_Gaza]. Volun-
teers registered their intention to help,
divided up regions to map, reported
completeness measurements, cata-
logued existing data sources, and col-
lected news reports. Many existing data
sources, particularly media sources,
disagreed about names and locations,
but through rapid, internet-based, col-
laborative research (also called crowd-
sourcing), the OSM team compiled a
comprehensive, consistent catalog of
Gaza data sources.
Now that the crisis has subsided,
volunteers are in Gaza working with
locals to complete the map. In the
West Bank, JumpStart International
has been sponsoring OSM mapping, in
partnership with organizations includ-
ing the Palestinian Central Bureau of
Statistics, and Applied Research In-
stitute of Jerusalem, and they have
brought the JumpStart network to
focus on Gaza. Inside Gaza, students
from University College of Applied Sci-
ences in Gaza City have been adding
street names and points of interest.
These combined efforts have produced
extensive placenaming and points of
interest in the nearly complete map. As
the data is open, it is useful during the
crisis, during recovery, and in the fu-
ture (a hopefully peaceful future).
Case Study: Health Surveillance
Many NGOs that work in developing
countries conduct their field survey-
ing activities on paper. Paper is cheap,
but relevant technologies are becoming
more accessible and affordable. To ex-
plore the emerging possibilities, World
Vision is embarking on a pilot study,
to be conducted during a baseline field
survey for a child nutrition project in
Cambodia scheduled for May. The pi-
lot study will test the viability of using
mobile phones as to collect the data.
The data will be collected by the local
community.
Surveyors will collect child nutrition
data from households randomly se-
lected in the community. Two survey-
ors will approach each household with
identical surveys; one will collect data
using paper and the other using a mo-
bile phone. The mobile phone will have
GPS capacity, and the data collected
during the survey will be uploaded onto
a copy of the OpenStreetMap database.
Data collection tools such as mobile
phones with GPS technology are be-
coming more affordable and accessible
to communities in developing coun-
tries. As this happens, in collaboration
with free access open source mapping
technology, these tools provide a way
for communities to collect, update, re-
cord and map social, economic, demo-
graphic and health data across their
community.
In the case of the Cambodian nutri-
tion survey, we hope to use this tech-
nology to exemplify the advantages
associated with its use, such as com-
munity empowerment, community
ownership of data, reductions in data
handling time, and data security. In
particular, mapping a community’s
nutrition status lets us construct a
more accurate understanding of where
child under-nutrition is more prevalent
within a community.  MD
 Mobile Cinema

J Bringing Rural Voices

ust after evening prayers
on a cool spring night in Febru-
ary, thousands of Bangladeshis

Into a National Debate

young and old tumbled into a vil-
lage schoolyard, chattering excitedly.
Sitakunda, a community of 5,000 peo-
ple in the country’s poorest province,
has no electricity, and the arrival of a
cinema truck promising an evening’s
Mobile cinema brings constructive dialogue to
entertainment generated a great deal Bangladesh’s “media dark space”.
of local buzz.
The story was the same in scores By Drusilla Menaker, Associate Director, IREX Europe; and
of villages across the country, where Keith Mellnick, Communications Manager, IREX
IREX Europe’s Mobile Cinema Project
drew capacity crowds to watch a docu-
mentary featuring young Bangladeshis
speaking in their own words about
issues that matter the most to them.
Each showing of the 45-minute film
was followed by a lively moderated dis-
cussion on democracy, Islam, educa-
tion, justice and related topics.
With limited opportunities in edu-
cation and employment, and a lack of
practical access to democratic processes
and media, many Bangladeshi youth
lack the means to participate in the
kinds of public debates that shape their
country’s future. IREX and its partner
IREX Europe looked for an effective way
to connect stories and facilitate mean-
ingful national dialogue about common
concerns among Bangladeshis—many
of whom seldom receive any information
from outside their own village.
The result was the Mobile Cinema Setting up the mobile cinema in a Bangladeshi village.
Project, supported by the British High
Commission in Dhaka through the create a documentary showcasing sity to study engineering. A 20-year-
Global Opportunities Fund of the For- diverse voices of young Bangladeshis. old mother of three girls in Rajshahi
eign & Commonwealth Office. As part A UK-based director joined with Ban- wanted nothing more than for her
of its work in education, media and gladeshi filmmakers and community daughters to attend school. A young
civil society development, IREX has organizations to produce the film. Trav- student in Rangpur was adamant that
been implementing projects that use eling thousands of miles and conduct- the dowry system be abolished.
information technology (IT) for devel- ing hundreds of interviews, the team The interviewers met with a diverse
opment for over 15 years and worked heard Bangladeshis talk with pride range of people, including students
with IREX Europe to design a project about their hard-fought independence, in schools, young shopkeepers in the
to use simple IT methods to create a cultural diversity and rich history. bazaar, farmers in their fields, shep-
significant impact. However, many of those inter- herds tending their flocks, women in
The goal was to get firsthand per- viewed in the 11-25 year-old age group textile factories, and squatters living two
spectives from rural Bangladeshis expressed some frustration with the meters from railroad track. Their travels
about what drives young people toward direction the country is taking. Access took them to the regions of Sylhet, Chit-
extremism and alienates them from to education and to justice topped the tagong, Rangpur and Rajshahi.
democracy, and fundamental human list of their concerns, but worries about Once the film, In Search of Freedom,
Photo: Benton Wisehart

rights such as women’s equality and
the right to education for women, and
to use their comments to launch a
larger discussion about how to address
those issues.
The first step of the project was to
other subjects such as the dowry sys-
tem, terrorism, underage marriage, the
gender gap, and unemployment also
emerged. For example, a young motor-
cycle mechanic in Sylhet lamented
that he was unable to attend univer-
was completed, IREX Europe coordi-
nated 60 viewing locations throughout
the country and arranged for moder-
ated discussions after each showing.
Many villages in these regions exist in
“media dark spaces,” with no electric-

MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 17

 Mobile Cinema
ity and largely out of the reach of radio
and television. It can be extremely diffi-
cult for citizens in such areas to partic-
ipate in the national dialogue. Yet with
just a van, large collapsible screen,
sound system, an LCD projector, a lap-
top, and a generator to power it all, In
Search of Freedom would reach out to
almost 100,000 Bangladeshis.
Local partner Interspeed would arrive
in a screening area early in the morn-
ing, before the villagers left for their
fields to begin their day’s work. They
would pass out handbills advertising
the coming evening’s program and drive
around making announcements on a
mobile public address system attached
to their transport van, or in some cases
just a bicycle-powered rickshaw. They
would not only advertise the evening’s
program in the village where the actual
screening would take place, but in sur-
rounding villages as well.
The first screening would begin just
after evening prayers at sundown, often
in the village schoolyard and drawing
as many as 3,000 people. After each
18 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009
The goal was to get firsthand perspectives
from rural Bangladeshis about what drives young
people toward extremism and alienates them
from democracy.
screening, IREX Europe-trained Ban-
gladeshi facilitators gathered people
in classrooms for group discussions
about the themes presented in the film
and the role of ordinary citizens.
During these discussions, many top-
ics were debated, but the biggest frus-
trations for men were poverty, high
unemployment, and access to justice.
For women, the main frustrations were
gender gap issues and the dowry sys-
tem, as well as access to education for
their children and themselves.
Following one showing, a 22-year-old
man from the Sylhet division village of
Gowainghat told IREX, “The film did a
wonderful job of addressing the issues
that most people are frustrated about,
but no one is talking about. We need
to begin to talk about these problems if
we are ever going to organize ourselves
to fix them.”
At the end of the mobile cinema tour,
with the assistance of the British High
Commission in Dhaka, the film was
broadcast in its entirety on Bangla-
desh’s RTV Channel. IREX Europe also
engaged the British Bangladeshi com-
munity through showings and discus-
sions in the United Kingdom. The film
is now available in its entirety on IREX’s
YouTube  page,  www.youtube.com/
irexdc and continues to spark dialogue.
By giving young people opportuni-
ties to speak candidly, engaging entire
communities and putting these sub-
jects on the tips of everyone’s tongues,
IREX hopes that the dialogue contin-
ues in rural Bangladesh long after the
mobile cinema has left the village.  MD

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
addresses the 2009 observance of the
International Women’s Day under
the theme: “Women and Men United
to End Violence against Women and
Children.”
“The U.S. Is Back”
A report from the 2009 United Nations Commission on
the Status of Women.
By Jeannie Harvey, Senior Manager, Gender Integration, InterAction
C
onfession time:  I am a
newbie. My first UN Commission
on the Status of Women (CSW)
was from March 1-14. But it was
actually the fifty-third. Since 1946, the
CSW has met annually to advance wom-
en’s rights across the globe. Navigating
this new world took some patience and
persistence, although maneuvering the
UN building seemed easier than learn-
ing the special language of the CSW and
the UN: priority themes, review themes,
Photos: UN Photo/Evan Schneider
emerging themes, draft documents,
agreed conclusions, delegates, ECO-
SOC, resolutions, and on and on. Then
there was learning where to sit, where
not to sit, who could ask questions or
make comments, which groups would
be recognized, when to approach del-
egates and the like. Alongside me were
more than 2,000 NGO representatives
attending more than 50 UN events and
240 parallel sessions put on by the NGO
community.
“The U.S. is back” was a major buzz
this year, and the title of one panel
session. The phrase echoed an earlier
statement by UN Ambassador, Susan
Rice who said that, “America is back”
and “wants to set a different tone…to
lead in a way that can be trusted and
respected.” Ambassador Rice said,
“ratification of the treaty [Convention
on the Elimination of all forms of Dis-
crimination Against Women (CEDAW)]
will be a priority of the Obama adminis-
tration.” One parallel event titled, “The
U.S. is Back!” explored the “historic
and ‘ground shifting inauguration’ and
what it meant for women and the UN.”
CSW
Also buzzing through the UN was
a highly anticipated meeting with the
U.S. delegation where several topics
were discussed, including CEDAW rati-
fication, violence against women, and
reforming the UN gender architecture.
Meryl Frank, mayor of Highland Park,
New Jersey and the newly-appointed
U.S. Representative to the CSW, led the
U.S. delegation. She pledged renewed
U.S. energy to women’s issues, includ-
ing a promise to “review the bind-
ing global pacts that help empower
women…The United States urges mem-
ber states to fully implement Security
Council Resolution 1325 on women,
peace and security, and Security Coun-
cil Resolution 1820 on sexual violence
against women in conflict situations.”
The priority theme for this year was
“the equal sharing of responsibilities
between women and men, includ-
ing caregiving in the context of HIV/
AIDS.” Called a hidden subsidy to the
economy, and a “reproduction tax” on
women, the unpaid work of women
and girls goes largely unrecognized,
yet constitutes values equivalent to as
much as half a county’s GDP, and in
some countries or regions, women and
MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 19
 CSW

girls provide up to 90 percent of the HIV/AIDS related care.

Panels and expert presentations over the two weeks focused
on the theme and during the second week, delegates debated
specific language for the “agreed conclusions,” which contain
key issues and suggested actions.
InterAction members attended the CSW and some hosted
parallel sessions. This year, members who hosted paral-
lel sessions included the Adventist Relief and Development
Agency, CHANGE, Oxfam America, PLAN and Population
Action International.
PLAN hosted a panel highlighting the Because I Am a Girl
report which urges more investment in girls’ skills and resil- Delegates attending the 53rd session of the Commission on the
ience before, during and after conflicts. McGill University Status of Women.
Associate Professor Myriam Denov said girls are invisible but
fundamental parts of the war machine. She explained that iors. Serra Sipple, Executive Director of CHANGE, moderated
girls are not simply silent victims; they are participants, active the panel that also included Edinah Masiyiwa of Women’s
resisters and defenders. They make decisions about resisting Action Group, Zimbabwe. For more on this session go to
conflict, subverting violence, even about marrying combat- http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/03/09/female-
ants, especially commanders, during conflicts. The report is and-male-condoms-whose-responsibility.
available at http://www.plan-uk.org/becauseiamagirl/theis- Although I am still a newbie, after a week at the UN, I
sues/reportdownload/. now appreciate the amazing extent of information that del-
In a session organized by CHANGE entitled Female and egates consider and balance with their governments’ wishes,
Male Condoms: Whose Responsibility?, panelist Mitchell War- before debating with partners from around the world to reach
ren urged participants to become “ending-AIDS advocates.” agreed conclusions about the work ahead. And, even for me
He said that it doesn’t really matter what product or treat- as a newcomer, it was evident that many participants were
ment we promote; it’s about getting people to take responsi- indeed glad that the U.S. was back, working alongside inter-
bility for ending AIDS, reducing risks, and negotiating behav- national colleagues to advance women’s issues.  MD

20 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009

 Earthquake

The Road to Recovery

Early lessons learned
from the 2008
earthquake in China.
By Eric Porterfield, Communications
Officer, American Red Cross

On May 12, 2008 an 8.0 magnitude

earthquake  struck  the  mountainous
region of western China. According to Chi-
nese government statistics, it killed more
than 69,000 people (with another 18,000
still listed as missing), injured nearly
375,000 people, and destroyed more than
five million homes. The leadership of the
Red Cross Society of China recently vis-
ited Washington, DC to provide an update
on recovery efforts and the lessons they
have learned from this disaster.

M
ay 12, 2008 had started
like any normal day for
Madame Jiang Yiman, the
Executive Vice President of
the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC).
She was attending a lecture in Beijing
for International Nurses Day when she
felt a tremor and watched the pendant
and hat on a nurse’s head shake for
more than a minute.
Jiang immediately reached for her
phone to call her sister at the Seismo-
logical Bureau, and learned that an
8.0 magnitude earthquake had struck
western China—near her hometown of
Hanzhong City in Shaanxi Province.
As the leader of the foremost disaster
response organization in China, Jiang
alerted the RSCS staff to put their di-
saster teams on standby. One of the
worst disasters in the history of the
Photo: Francis Markus/International Federation
The American Red
Cross raised more
than $50 million
to support the
Red Cross Society
of China in their
relief and recovery
work and will help
more than 22,000
families rebuild
their homes.
the rubble, treating injuries, and dis- Lessons learned
tributing emergency supplies. With In 2009, now that the initial disaster
assistance pouring in from nearly 30 relief phase is complete and rebuilding
other Red Cross and Red Crescent is underway, the RCSC leaders who co-
Societies, tens of thousands of RCSC ordinated the response are taking a mo-
staff and volunteers handed out food, ment to reflect on those early days and
coats, blankets and tents, and provided weeks to reconsider what aspects went
health and emotional care. well and what could have gone better.
“Some volunteers were doing danger- On a recent six-day visit to the Amer-

RCSC was just beginning. More than
900 miles away in western China, as
the afternoon session of school start-
ed, buildings crumbled, trapping and
killing many children, houses caved
in, bridges collapsed and tens of thou-
sands of people were buried under the
debris in the worst earthquake to hit
China since 1976.
Over the next few days and weeks,
the RCSC mounted a swift rescue and
relief operation: pulling people from
ous work amidst aftershocks and un-
stable debris,” Jiang says. “A roundtrip
from Chengdu to the affected area of
Aba took volunteers six days of climb-
ing snow-covered mountains, which
are over 13,000 above sea level, to
reach families with relief items.”
By the end of June, RCSC volunteers
had delivered relief supplies to more
than one million people and provided
medical and psychological support to
more than 20,000 people.
ican Red Cross in Washington, DC,
New York, San Francisco and Silicon
Valley, Jiang met with business lead-
ers, media and her American counter-
parts to express gratitude for the tre-
mendous outpouring of support, and
to brief them on what the RCSC ac-
complished in the immediate response
to the earthquake. In her meetings she
also highlighted the following lessons
learned about responding to a disaster
of this magnitude.

MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 21

 Earthquake

1. Strengthening efficient delivery says Jiang. “We need to strengthen than 100,000 volunteers were lining
The enormous amount of aid, both our own emergency rescue and medi- up to help distribute relief items and
cash and in-kind, that poured into the cal treatment capacity that can be de- provide medical care to survivors of the
affected provinces following the earth- ployed at anytime.” earthquake.
quake was an immense help, but also a Today, the RCSC is finding it a chal-
hindrance. Jiang pointed out that deliv- 2. Managing volunteers lenge to keep these spontaneous volun-
ering the relief items efficiently while also Managing volunteers effectively on a teers engaged and active. “We need to
being accountable was a big challenge. normal day is no small feat for any or- streamline our registration, recruitment,
“The first lesson that we have learned ganization. Imagine having hundreds and management systems to turn these
is that the overall capacity of the Chi- of thousands of volunteers wanting to volunteers into permanent regular ser-
nese Red Cross in response to such a help after a major disaster. The RCSC vice providers,” Jiang added.
mega-catastrophe is still insufficient,” was faced with just this problem. More
3. Monitoring the use of funds
Following the earthquake, donations
The Road Ahead: Building Back poured into China to help get lifesaving
aid to the families in the affected area.
If you were traveling in the affected area today, you would see fewer tents and a lot more Nearly 25 percent of all the funds raised
construction sites with cement trucks and cranes. The focus has shifted from putting up pre- within China went to the RCSC—$2.78
fabricated transitional shelters to constructing more permanent, earthquake-resistant homes. billion of the total $11.14 billion.
The Chinese government has established an owner-driven housing program, that “The third area that has room for im-
empowers families to rebuild homes that meet their needs. The government of Sri Lanka provement is how to monitor the use
implemented a similar model with support from the Red Cross, following the 2004 Tsunami. of funds because we need to do our
In the Sri Lanka program, homeowners received cash payments upon completing each of work well but we also need to do it in a
four construction phases. Technical staff regularly visited the beneficiaries to ensure that transparent and accountable way. We
the construction met the standards and to provide additional support to the most vulner- have put this as a very top priority,”
able people. says Jiang.
Similarly, in China, the RCSC is providing three separate payments at progressive stages As of late March, the RCSC had dis-
in the construction process that will add up to $3,000. These payments will supplement bursed more than $586 million to re-
government payments issued at the same stages. Most homeowners will probably use the build homes, rural schools and medi-
payments to hire local contractors to construct their houses. cal clinics. The Chinese government’s
“It [the RCSC payment] only covers about 30 percent of the home so it’s really to supple- National Audit Office recently issued a
ment their own resources and the resources that they’re getting from the government, which statement describing the RCSC’s han-
includes cash resources as well as a low interest bank loan,” says Sheila Thornton, head of dling of relief funds and materials as
programs in Chengdu, China for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent generally well managed.
Societies (International Federation) who is on secondment from the American Red Cross. “These are the issues that many hu-
The other component of the Red Cross shelter program is homeowner education. Each manitarian organizations contend with
homeowner has to go through a training session to learn what makes a home earthquake- after large-scale disasters such as Hur-
resistant, what the Government guidelines are, and how to meet these guidelines to ensure ricane Katrina or the 2004 Tsunami,”
the houses achieve certain standards. says David Meltzer, Senior Vice Presi-
The International Federation—the coordination and support body for all Red Cross and dent of International Services for the
Red Crescent Societies—is working with Build Change, an international NGO that special- American Red Cross. “All too often we
izes in building earthquake-resistant homes in China. Together they are developing training don’t discuss our challenges openly. As
materials for the homeowners, including user-friendly posters, that cover the main princi- first responders to disasters, we must
ples of what they have to do and what they need to look for to make sure the construction work together and learn from each oth-
on their homes is earthquake-resistant. er to develop the best ways of effectively
Even the best laid recovery plans can run into unexpected hurdles. The recent global eco- delivering services in these situations.”
nomic downturn is having a not-so-surprising negative effect on recovery. More than 20
million migrant workers have lost their jobs and been forced to return home. This is having Your turn to share
a direct impact on families recovering from the earthquake. InterAction’s upcoming, newly re-de-
Non-agricultural income accounts for 40 percent of rural household’s revenue. Migrant signed website will provide a place for
workers, many of whom provided an important source of income to help their families back NGOs to exchange best practices and
home rebuild their houses, are now struggling to find work. With less income, families will ideas on this and other key issues. If
need more outside support to rebuild their homes and communities. your organization has discovered effec-
One potential bright spot is the economic impact of producing and delivering the addi- tive ways to distribute large quantities
tional building supplies still needed: at least 137 million tons of steel, 370 million tons of of relief supplies, manage and cultivate
concrete and 150 billion bricks. It is hoped that spending on these materials and the hiring volunteers, or be transparent stewards
of local workers will help stimulate the manufacturing and construction sectors, thus allevi- for generous donors, we encourage you
ating some of the strains from the economic downturn. to visit the site in July and join us in
the exchange.  MD

22 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009


Beyond Fair Trade
From sustainable coffees to sustainable livelihoods.
By Michael Sheridan, Regional Technical Advisor, Livelihoods,
Latin America and the Caribbean, Catholic Relief Services
F
air Trade has been one of
the most celebrated concepts in
social entrepreneurship over the
past decade. Its explosive growth
has been fueled in part by the Fair Trade
campaigns of InterAction members.
At Catholic Relief Services (CRS),
we have increasingly invested in Fair
Trade and other “sustainable” coffees.
Photo: Michelle Frankfurter
We supported farmer organizations
overseas in their efforts to access Fair
Trade and organic coffee markets while
also promoting the Fair Trade label
at home. I was personally involved in
these efforts, directing the CRS Fair
Trade Program in the U.S. for nearly
four years before relocating to Gua-
temala. Here, I supervise our CAFE
Livelihoods, an $8.2 million project to
strengthen farmers’ engagement with
high-value coffee markets. We believe
Fair Trade and organic certifications
represent the best hope for the larg-
est number of farmers to maximize
their coffee income, create sustainable
grassroots enterprises, and farm in
ecologically sustainable ways.
In recent years, however, Fair Trade
has been criticized for failing to foster
sustainable rural development. The pur-
pose of this piece is not to adjudicate
the claims of Fair Trade’s advocates and
FairXXX
Trade
Las Nubes Cooperative: Aroma del Cafe
Matagalpa, Nicaragua
critics. Instead, I want to focus on three
points concerning the ongoing conversa-
tion about sustainability in coffee.
First, the debates over the relative
merits of Fair Trade and other certi-
fications miss the larger point. None
of the competing coffee certifications,
either individually or in combination,
can ensure truly sustainable small-
holder livelihoods. Second, future dis-
cussions of coffee sustainability within
the industry, development field and
donor community should apply the
concept of sustainability to the liveli-
hoods of the smallholder farmers who
grow the majority of the world’s cof-
fee. These discussions should center
on a holistic vision of sustainability
generated on the ground, in coffee-
growing countries, and not around
the narrower standards of certifica-
tion systems developed in the U.S. and
Europe. Finally, the industry, donors
and development agencies must invest
more in critical issues that lie beyond
the coffee chain but threaten the live-
lihoods of coffee farmers and put the
chain itself at risk.
Fair trade and rural livelihoods
under pressure
Fair Trade is concerned primarily with
improving the terms of trade for small-
holder farmers. Over the past decade,
it has mitigated price risk and volatility
for these farmers by fostering longer-
term trading relationships with guaran-
teed minimum prices above prevailing
market rates. It is a worthy accomplish-
ment. But the primary issue that Fair
Trade Certification addresses—unfavor-
able terms of trade—is only one of the
increasing threats to fragile smallholder
livelihoods, and not necessarily the
most urgent.
Perhaps the most significant limita-
tion of coffee certification schemes in
improving smallholder livelihoods con-
cerns the volume of coffee that small-
holders produce. While coffee repre-
sents the most significant agricultural
activity for most smallholder farm-
ers, it is not the only one. Most also
MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 23
 Fair Trade
devote a significant portion of their land to other crops. So
even if farmers can sell all their coffee at premium prices—
and few are so lucky—the low volume of coffee traded may
limit coffee’s contribution to their overall well-being. And the
decreasing size of many small farms due to inheritance and
subdivision is only intensifying the pressure on the land and
livelihoods.
These vulnerabilities are exacerbated by global shocks like
the food price crisis, long-term trends like climate change,
and the constant threat of natural disaster. Collectively,
these challenges make smallholder coffee farmers highly sus-
ceptible to even the mildest ecological or economic pressure.
In this context, it seems almost unreasonable to expect
coffee certification to make much headway. In fact, evidence
suggests that even small-scale coffee farmers who sell shade-
grown, Fair Trade and organic coffee may be going hungry for
as many as four to six months per year.
To cope with economic stress, smallholder farmers turn to
short-term strategies that undermine their long-term well-
being. They buy and eat less food, withdraw children from
school, spend less on health care, sell coffee at a fraction of
its value, clear-cut forests to sell timber and grow higher-
yield crops, take out loans they will struggle to repay, sell
household and productive assets, and leave for longer peri-
ods to work elsewhere.
These strategies compromise their future ability to produce
large volumes of high-quality coffee. A hungry farmer works
less effectively than a well-fed one. A farmer who is away
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24 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009
from his fields for months earning money cannot tend to the
farm with the care necessary to meet the high quality stan-
dards of specialty coffee markets. When capital that should
be reinvested in the farm is instead needed to pay interest
on a never-ending cycle of debt, productivity declines. Farm-
ers who clear-cut their forests remove the shade that is the
foundation of any concept of environmentally friendly coffee.
And when desperation finally forces a farmer to sell off land,
the availability of coffee is jeopardized. Without investment to
address these issues, the gains farmers make through their
participation in sustainable coffee markets can be, quite lit-
erally, swept away overnight.
Sustainable for whom?
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and a sus-
tainable coffee trade must work for all stakeholders in the
chain. But today, the entire “sustainable coffee” enterprise
is at risk because many smallholder farmers simply do not
have livelihoods that are sustainable by any standard. Indi-
cators for “sustainability” in the specialty coffee market are
certifications whose standards are set and enforced at the
market end of the coffee chain by organizations in the U.S.
and Europe. Meanwhile, at the production end, we see a gap
between the reality and the rhetoric of sustainable coffees.
Even some smallholder farmers selling double and triple-cer-
tified coffees struggle mightily. The sustainable coffee conver-
sation needs to refocus on coffee origins to address the acute
needs of smallholder farmers.
Sustainability 2.0
It is time to expand the concept of sustainability and build
on the foundation laid by two generations of sustainability
pioneers all along the coffee chain. “Sustainability 2.0” will
require new perspectives and non-traditional collaboration
among diverse stakeholders.
Development agencies and the donors that fund them will
need to couple traditional “development” issues with new dis-
ciplines in the field. Too often in the development community
we have divorced our work on core issues like food security
from narrower, newer pursuits, including the highly special-
ized technical assistance farmer organizations need to meet
the stringent demands of dynamic coffee markets.
For coffee industry actors, this may mean building non-tra-
ditional competencies and new investments into their busi-
ness models to secure supplies of high-quality coffee in com-
petitive markets. Donors and development agencies will need
to support the industry in this process and provide expertise
in livelihoods issues. We will all need a better understanding
of one another’s opportunities and constraints.
The first step, however, is broadening the conversation on
sustainable coffees. Leading academics have begun to incorpo-
rate livelihoods issues into their analysis of sustainable coffees,
but few in the mainstream of the coffee industry, development
field or donor community have followed suit. Comprehensive
analysis of smallholder farmer livelihoods will reveal potential
sources of unsustainability in coffee chains and identify oppor-
tunities for new investments beyond them. Sharing examples
of successful community-driven interventions that are cost-
effective and replicable can help show the way forward.  MD

North Waziristan:
Strike While Hot
Tribal and religious leaders’ comments reveal
troubled area would welcome development.
By Melissa Payson
Children’s education is most impor-
tant. Our children are intelligent but
have no means to learn. If you’re will-
ing to admit a Waziri child into school,
we’ll offer one right now.
— Malik Qadir Khan
If there is no education for our chil-
dren, there will always be fighting…
— Maulvi Gul Ramazan
T
hese are the voices of
leaders in North Waziristan, a
notorious, remote, and poorly
understood part of Pakistan’s
Federally Administered Tribal Areas
(FATA), on the border with southeast
Afghanistan. They raised their views
during a recent field study on indige-
nous leadership perspectives on devel-
opment. A respected family from North
Waziristan was the driving force behind
the initiative, motivated by deep con-
cern about the dearth of development
assistance in the area, despite its dire
poverty and chronic needs.
Over a dozen influential religious
scholars and tribal leaders known as
maliks took part in the interviews, rep-
resenting the two main tribes (Utmanzai
Wazir and Dawar) and nine sub-tribes
or qaums. (Under the FATA governance
structure, maliks serve as officially des-
ignated intermediaries between govern-
ment and their tribes.) The sample is
small, but significant. The mandates of
the maliks cover 90 percent of the pop-
ulation (239,713 residents in total ac-
cording to the 1981 census) and most
of its geographical territory. Moreover,
several participants reported that they
discussed their participation with Hafiz
Gul Bahadur, the “Ameer” or chief of
the North Waziristan Taliban. The in-
terviews explored questions at the heart
of development, probing participation,
power, accountability: How did the
tribesmen think decisions were made,
resources controlled, projects man-
aged? Who held authority, who was
involved? Why? What changes would
they bring, given an opportunity? Why?
North Waziristan snapshot
North Waziristan’s inhabitants pri-
marily reside in isolated settlements
scattered among its rugged mountains,
plains and several valleys, most notably
the fertile Tochi River valley. Many have
severely limited access to basic necessi-
ties, including water, education, health
care, and productive livelihoods. North
Waziristan, like FATA in general, suffers
from abysmal socio-economic condi-
tions due to decades of state neglect. Ac-
cording to the government of Pakistan,
literacy in FATA is only 17.42 percent
(and only three percent for females over
10), there is only one doctor for 7,670
people, just over 12 percent of house-
holds have access to an indoor water
supply, and few have electricity.
FATA lies at the heart of the Obama
administration’s new Afghanistan-
Pakistan policy. It provokes profound
concern among political and military
leaders in the U.S. and other nations.
Within FATA, North Waziristan is per-
ceived as an essential source of sup-
port for the spiraling militancy that
threatens to destabilize Afghanistan
and Pakistan, and as a safe haven for
senior al Qaeda operatives as they plot
attacks on the West. Global leaders
NEGLECTED HOTSPOT
fear that left unchecked, non-state ac-
tors in North Waziristan could danger-
ously imperil Afghanistan and create
havoc in nuclear-armed Pakistan.
The tribes are often labeled “ungov-
erned” and “ungovernable.” Famous for
the strength of their warriors, they have
successfully crushed every foreign in-
vader who attempted a conquest. They
are fiercely independent and live, fight,
and die by the tenets of Pashtunwali,
an ancient, unwritten tribal code. Hos-
pitality, revenge, and preservation of
honor drive their actions, with brutal
consequences for violators. They claim
to honor all commitments, including the
Waziristan Accord, signed with the Paki-
stani government in 2008, in which they
pledged to recognize the state’s writ,
deny sanctuary to terrorists, and pre-
vent the flow of militants across the bor-
der. However, NATO officials and troops
battling insurgent forces in Afghanistan
along the Waziristan border strongly
dispute this, pointing to wildly escalat-
ing cross-border attacks as evidence of
tribal treachery.
High-profile, but neglected
Despite its humanitarian plight and
perceived threat to global security,
North Waziristan remains disconcert-
ingly neglected. Local leaders have
seen little evidence of development
assistance and worry that funds may
have been misdirected. As a religious
scholar reported, “If any funding has
come until now, know that we have not
received it.” A senior malik declared
in frustration, “The government has
taken money in our name, but we have
been given nothing!”
Participants also felt a deepening
distrust of the international commu-
nity. Especially worrying, perhaps, is
the perception of U.S. indifference, de-
spite commitment of over $750 million
in development funds for FATA through
MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 25

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26 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009
2011. “The U.S. abandoned us after helping to defeat the So-
viets, then, no help, nothing. And still nothing,” said one re-
ligious scholar. “The UN and U.S. are pressuring Pakistan to
do several things—why don’t they pressure government to do
some constructive work?!”
An enabling environment for development?
The maliks and religious scholars made an immediate and
powerful appeal for foreign aid. “We invite foreign assistance,
we need it!” said one malik. “It’s a rich area. We ask the U.S.
to invest in economic projects,” stated a religious scholar. A
senior teacher at a madrassah in Miran Shah invited visitors
to assess needs first-hand. “We give permission to anyone to
come and see. You can trust us.” Their terms? Their culture
and Islam must be respected, expected of both Muslims and
non-Muslims alike.
Despite its humanitarian plight
and perceived threat to global
security, North Waziristan remains
disconcertingly neglected.
Local leaders have seen little
evidence of development assistance
and worry that funds may have
been misdirected.
Though highly skeptical of the Pakistan government to ef-
fectively address needs—and particularly vocal about wide-
spread official corruption—the participants insisted the local
administration must be involved in delivering assistance. They
called for checks and balances to moderate the near-absolute
power retained by the Political Agent under FATA’s colonial-era
system of governance and suggested measures to enhance par-
ticipation and accountability. “There should be divided respon-
sibility, with donors, leaders and maliks of the village, people,
Political Agent.” “Involve a representative of the Political Agent
and ourselves during projects.” “There should be need-based
development…no interference by political authorities.” “Don’t
give funds to any individual, even a tribal leader. More people
are better—fewer people lead to corruption.” “Monitoring is the
solution to prevent poor quality.” “We are strictly saying you
people should monitor, see, supervise!”
Common were themes that any development activist would
recognize: concern about corruption in use of aid, distrust
between government and citizens as well as within leader-
ship groups, dissatisfaction with restricted participation in
decision-making, and poor availability of public information
on development. There were also familiar challenges inher-
ent in their positions. Both groups envisioned a fairly nar-
row scope of participation (involvement of women and youth
was considered of doubtful value, though not forbidden); the
maliks, in particular, voiced strong desire for local control of
contracting, and they had limited expectations about volun-
teer contributions.

Operationalizing the opportunity
These senior leaders spoke in startling contrast to common
perceptions of North Waziristan as an impossible challenge
for the international community. Their opinions represent
a significant and demand-driven opening for development.
While this does not guarantee success, it is a prerequisite to
moving forward. Both maliks and religious scholars extended
explicit invitations to engage, which is culturally essential
and also invaluable in a place where, historically, no outsider
has succeeded uninvited.
So what now?
Seize the moment and shift North Waziristan to the fast-
track. Fortunately, funds are available and already pro-
grammed, with organizations on the ground, ready to deliver.
Several concrete steps must be taken, with emphasis on rap-
id and responsive action:
1. Invite the local government to answer the same ques-
tions about development as the maliks and religious
scholars. The authorities are also likely to have robust
opinions and suggestions based on their responsibili-
ties and experience. Collectively, these stakeholder views
must be the basis for moving forward.
2. Accept the extended invitation to conduct a needs
assessment. The Pakistani government can and should
lead this, in coordination with local leaders and with par-
ticipation from donors and organizations.
3. Promote—and stand ready to facilitate—creation of a
Kjaer Group (US Liaison Office) Inc. | 1601 North Kent Street, Suite 100 | Arlington, Virginia 22209
Tel: (703) 778.9400 | Fax: (703) 778-9405 | USA@KjaerGroup.com | www.kjaergroup.com
NEGLECTED HOTSPOT
Waziristan Development Accord. Simple, clear, and
culturally familiar to stakeholders, this should include
agreed development aims, principles, ground rules, and
consequences for violation. It should be linked to the
FATA Sustainable Development Plan, a ten-year strategy
that underpins all development efforts in the region but
remains largely unknown. Such an accord would enable
leaders to rally their constituents around a locally
crafted, credible development approach.
4. Launch a pilot project based on the development agree-
ment. This will meet leadership requests to “test” the
arrangements and help implementers assess govern-
ment commitment, leadership reliability, and commu-
nity participation with limited risk.
The leaders have appealed for assistance. The develop-
ment community must respond with programming that of-
fers self-transformation from a bitter and troubling sanc-
tuary into a principled and constructive partnership. As
a North Waziristan religious scholar put it, “Everyone has
needs. No one can exist on his own, without cooperation or
support.”  MD
Melissa Payson led the design and implementation of the
survey, building on experience directing a large program on
the Afghan side of the border in this area between 2003 and
2006. Questions and comments can be sent to Mpayson1@
yahoo.com
MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 27
 NEGLECTED HOTSPOT
The Forgotten Crisis in the
Central African Republic
Millions suffer as CAR
is overlooked amidst
attention to crises in
surrounding countries.
By Dr. Guy Yogo, International
Medical Corps Country Director
for Central African Republic
T
he Central African Repub-
lic (CAR) has experienced almost
50 years of fighting that have
created a serious, ongoing and
overlooked humanitarian emergency.
To add to the troubles, recent fighting
in the country between rebel and gov-
ernment forces has forced more than
13,500 people to flee their homes. This
displacement adds to the more than
300,000 people already of concern to
the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. Some
of the newly displaced have resettled
in Daha, a town in Chad one kilome-
ter from the CAR border, while another
7,500 are internally displaced.
Following the violence in February,
International Medical Corps (IMC) sent
an assessment team to Bamingui-Ban-
goran, the most-affected province. IMC
found the displaced people were living
in the bush without adequate shelter,
food or safe drinking water, leaving
them (and particularly the children)
at high risk of disease and malnutri-
tion. IMC also found 120 children who
were either orphaned or abandoned as
a result of the conflict.
Overshadowed by its high-profile
neighbors, Sudan, Chad, and the
Democratic Republic of Congo, CAR
is often lost in this tumultuous region.
Embroiled in and between these regional
conflicts, CAR receives very little inter-
national attention from the media or
donors, despite the fact that the vio-
lence is likely to continue and that CAR’s
social, health, and economic conditions
are far higher than the regional averages.
According to the World Health Orga-
28 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009
nization, average life expectancy in
CAR is just 41 years—seven years less
than the regional average. This is par-
tially a result of HIV/AIDS, which has
hit CAR particularly hard. Six percent
of the population is estimated to be liv-
ing with HIV/AIDS—two times more
than the regional average. Despite the
high prevalence, only three percent of
infected individuals receive antiretrovi-
ral therapy, far lower than the regional
average of 17 percent. Because so few
receive treatment, an estimated 12 per-
cent of child deaths in CAR are attrib-
uted to AIDS. Rates for non-communi-
cable diseases, maternal mortality, and
infant mortality are all higher than the
rest of the region as well. But CAR still
receives very little attention compared to
its neighbors.
Because CAR is frequently over-
looked, millions of people suffer. Of
the few international NGOs working in
CAR, many have been forced to leave or
scale down their programs due to a lack
of support. The government in Bangui
has very little capacity to fill the gap left
by international support. Exacerbating
the humanitarian situation, insecurity
often makes it difficult for aid organiza-
tions to reach the areas with the great-
est need. As a result, most do not have
access to basic social services including
health care and potable water.
CAR also faces a devastating lack of
infrastructure due to nearly 50 years
of violence and instability since gain-
ing independence from France in 1960.
In the past decade alone, the perva-
sive violence has been interspersed
with 11 coups attempts. Outside the
capital Bangui, rebels raid villages,
stealing food and livestock, and often
rape and kill inhabitants. This insta-
bility has displaced thousands inter-
nally and forced others to flee across
the border into Cameroon or Chad.
According to the most recent statistics
from UNHCR, CAR has almost 200,000
people internally displaced and nearly
100,000 refugees in a total population
of approximately 4.2 million.
Moreover, after a half century of
unrest, the situation in CAR is wors-
ening. In March, International Medical
Corps visited 14 displacement camps
where more than 4,000 people reset-
tled following the most recent surge of
violence. As fighting between govern-
ment and rebel forces continues, fear-
ing for their lives thousands more will
flee their homes, moving into the same
hazardous living conditions.
IMC is one of the few international
organizations working in rural CAR with
the internally displaced. Following the
recent violence, IMC deployed mobile
medical units to the displacement areas.
These units provide primary health care,
which includes preventative and cura-
Photo: 2009 International Medical Corps/Photographer: Dr. Guy Yogo
tive services such as immunizations,
maternal and child care, and nutritional
assistance. In addition, the mobile units
provide education on the importance of
safe water and hygiene.
While these services make a life-sav-
ing difference for many, the crisis in CAR
requires much more attention. With
one million people in need of emergency
assistance, CAR cannot remain a forgot-
ten crisis for much longer. CAR needs a
strong response from the international
community to provide immediate relief
and promote stability. Without this
push, thousands of Central Africans will
continue to be in jeopardy, their suffer-
ing neglected and futures uncertain. MD

Consequences
in Sudan
Expulsion of NGOs sparks the serious risk of
a humanitarian crisis.
By Jim Bishop, Vice President, Humanitarian Policy & Practice, InterAction
O
n March 4, the Sudanese
government notified 12 inter-
national NGOs and one for-
eign commercial firm that had
been delivering humanitarian services
in the country’s western Darfur region,
that their registrations had been
revoked. They were obliged to close out
their Darfur operations quickly. Suda-
nese authorities required the agencies
to transfer their assets to its control
and also froze their bank accounts.
The letters notifying the NGOs of these
decisions did not describe the govern-
ment’s motive. The local press gave
a variety of reasons for the de facto
expulsions. At the same time, the gov-
ernment also closed down three Suda-
nese NGOs that had been engaged in
protecting human rights and/or sup-
plying humanitarian assistance.
The expelled agencies were collec-
tively responsible for providing roughly
Photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
half of the basic services needed to
feed, house, cloth, and provide fresh
water, sanitation and medical services
for 2.7 million Sudanese displaced by
the ongoing conflict in Darfur. In addi-
tion, many of the international NGOs
had outreach programs supplying some
of these same services to two million
farmers and herders and their fami-
lies spread across Darfur. The United
Nations initially estimated that the con-
sequences of the government’s action
would include an end to health care for
1.5 million internally displaced people
(IDPs), while a total of 1.1 million IDPs
would be without food, and one million
soon would loose their access to fresh
water. The high numbers indicated that
a grave humanitarian crisis was likely
within months, if not weeks.
UN technical experts and Sudanese
government officials promptly refined
the initial gap analysis with a quick
one-week assessment of the impact in
selected locations in Darfur. Its conclu-
sions were equally grim. After looking
at measures that could be taken to fill
the gaps, the report’s UN and Suda-
nese co-authors allowed it to be pub-
lished with statements indicating that
the Sudanese government would take
full responsibility for providing fresh
water and medical services through
the end of the year. In speaking to the
press, Sudanese officials predicted
all key gaps would be covered by the
Sudanese government, UN agencies,
international NGOs remaining in Dar-
fur who would expand their operations,
Sudan
A Sudanese woman displaced from Muha-
jiriya stands near her shelter at Zam Zam
IDP’s camp in Al Fasher, northern Darfur.
international NGOs new to Sudan that
would arrive from the Middle East, and
indigenous NGOs that would step up
the scope of their programs. However,
elsewhere in the joint assessment gap
report the Sudanese government offi-
cials and UN technicians made clear
that they saw the stopgap measures
undertaken soon after the crisis first
appeared as unlikely to be adequate
beyond the next two months.
Relief activities being conducted by
expelled agencies, which included five
InterAction members, were also closed
by the government elsewhere in the ter-
ritory it controls, worsening humanitar-
ian conditions in the eastern part of the
country as well as around Khartoum,
where an estimated two million IDPs still
live. Southern Sudanese government
authorities indicated they had no part
in the expulsion and that international
NGOs, including those forced to close
down operations in the northern con-
trolled parts of the country, were wel-
come to continue their relief activities in
the south. However, the future of inter-
national NGO programs run by expelled
agencies in the three transitional regions,
where control is shared between the gov-
ernments of southern Sudan and that in
Khartoum, has not yet been determined.
The three regions are important for rea-
sons beyond nutrition. They are flash
points where renewed violence could
threaten the viability of the Comprehen-
sive Peace Accord, which four years ago
brought to an end the decades-long civil
war between the north and the south.
Khartoum’s actions, which a unani-
mous UN Security Council statement
called on it to reverse, threaten to
cause a very serious humanitarian cri-
sis as Sudan enters both its rainy and
hunger seasons in late spring without
the full international NGO infrastruc-
ture that has provided life-saving ser-
vices since 2005.  MD
For a list of InterAction member agen-
cies providing humanitarian assistance
in Sudan see InterAction’s web site
(www.interaction.org). Other questions
and comments can be directed to jbish-
op@interaction.org.
MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 29
 National Recovery

Liberia:
Making Women and Girls
Central to National Recovery
S
am Worthington, InterAction President and CEO, Suzanne Kindervatter, Vice Presi-
dent, Strategic Impact, and Thu Cao, Coordinator, Commission on the Advancement
of Women, recently visited Liberia to attend the global Colloquium on Women’s
Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security held on
March 7-8 and to meet with InterAction members and aid officials. The Colloquium was the
first international conference convened by heads of state on these issues.
Liberia is a country making the difficult transition from relief to development, facing for-
midable challenges with a spirit of determination. These photos capture some of the reali-
ties in Liberia today and how InterAction members and their Liberian staff are contributing
to national recovery.

3. Liberia’s democratically elected govern-

ment has been in place since November
2005, following 14 years of civil war. The
Colloquium also was an opportunity to
celebrate the “new Liberia” and women’s
leadership in the country.

1. President of Liberia Ellen Sirleaf

Johnson and President of Finland Tarja
Halonen co-hosted the Colloquium,
during which World Bank Manag-
ing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealea
captured its spirit, calling for “a new
paradigm of sustainable development
with women at the center.”

2. Youth leaders at the Colloquium

rubbed elbows with the Presidents of
Rwanda and Senegal and other high- 2
level leaders from around the world.

30 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009

 National Recovery

4 6

6. I n remote Lofa County along the Guinean border,

4. During the Colloquium, InterAction
passed the torch for the Women,
Faith, and Development Alliance/
International to the newly formed
Women, Faith, and Development
Alliance Liberia. Left to right: Sam
Worthington, InterAction; Jackie Oge-
ga, Religions for Peace; Rev. William
Tolbert III, Religions for Peace, Liberia;
Esther Newberry, CHF International.
10
7. Gender-based violence,
especially rape, is the number
one crime nationally, and
young girls particularly are
targeted. IMC clinics provide
maternal and child health
services, including gender-
based violence counseling.
Here, a counselor explains
the visual aids she uses when
giving talks in local villages
on gender-based violence
and how she works with
men in these communities to
influence other men.
international NGOs support the health clinics and
schools. In a clinic in the ZorZor District, well-
trained local staff at an International Medical
Corps-supported clinic provide a range of services
and monitor the incidence of five major diseases,
including malaria. Left to right: Sam Worthington
and an IMC Clinic Manager.
8
8. The International Rescue Committee supports
students at this vocational training center run by
the Lutheran Church. Students learn marketable
skills such as auto repair, construction, plumbing
and wood-working.
9. A
 teacher at this IRC-supported school in Lofa
County recounts how he is using new participa-
tory teaching methods after a recent in-service
teacher-training program, funded under a pro-
gram managed by the Academy for Educational
Development.

5. Liberia still has about 14,000 UN

peacekeeping troops deployed
throughout the country. The only
all-women battalion of peacekeepers,
a group from India, is part of the force
in Liberia and provided security for
the Colloquium.
10. Elwa Hospital provides
HIV-positive clients with
assistance for cassava
production and milling. The
initiative is supported by
Concern Worldwide.
9

MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 31

 Disabilities

Women with Disabilities

Move into Mainstream Development
Disabled women leaders from delegation of women from 25 developing countries for three
around the world collaborate with weeks of leadership training in Eugene, Oregon. With a grant
from the Wal-Mart Foundation, the WILD program gives
InterAction members. women with disabilities from around the world a space of
their own to share strategies, create new visions and build
By Susan Dunn, International Development and Disability international networks of support to increase employment
Project Coordinator, Mobility International USA opportunities for people with disabilities.
Among the highlights of the WILD program is the Gen-

W
omen with disabilities from around
the world are coming together to solve their own
problems and claim their human rights: access
to education, decent work and participating in all
aspects of community life. Yet lack of legal structures, nega-
tive social attitudes and poverty are still pervasive barriers
that prevent women with disabilities from being included in
mainstream development efforts.
To address this need, Mobility International USA (MIUSA)
hosts the International Women’s Institute on Leadership and
Disability (WILD), which brings together a cross-disability
The Next Years Start Today
INTERACTION
FORUM 2009
JULY 6-9, 2009
Arlington, VA
Marriott Crystal Gateway
For registration and exhibitor information,
contact Taina Alexander at
+1 202-667-8227 or e-mail talexander@interaction.org
der, Disability and Development Institute (GDDI), a four-day
retreat to focus specifically on inclusive development. Dur-
ing the most recent GDDI in August of 2008, “WILD women”
engaged with more than 20 international development pro-
fessionals, including staff from InterAction member agencies
American Friends Service Committee, Handicap Interna-
tional, Interplast, Mercy Corps, Trickle Up and Pact Inter-
national. These NGO representatives, who brought diverse
expertise in disaster relief, education, employment, micro-
credit and health, had an opportunity to develop face-to-face
relationships with disabled women in countries where they
have ongoing projects.
While development professionals learned about the issues
and capabilities of disabled women, disabled women learned
how to effectively approach development organizations. Del-
egates met with each representative to gain a better sense of
how different organizations operate and to receive coaching
on presenting their project ideas. Development profession-
als also discussed with one another ideas future collabora-
tion and helpful sources for improving the inclusion of peo-
ple with disabilities (and particularly women) in mainstream
development policy and programming.
“I was delighted to discover that so many InterAction mem-
ber organizations are now trying to increase the inclusion
of people with disabilities in their programs,” stated Janet
Heisey of Trickle Up.  “The presence of so many development
organizations made it a very rewarding experience for the
WILD women.”
Well after the GDDI, development agency representatives
continue to stay in contact with WILD women and each other.
They all recognize gender and disability as cross-cutting
issues and are extending opportunities to include women
with disabilities as staff, volunteers, advisors and beneficia-
ries in their policies and programs. With these new contacts,
opportunities and resources, the 2008 delegation of WILD
women are challenging old stereotypes; they are assum-
ing new leadership roles, creating their own organizations,
expanding their education, taking positions in government
and serving as advisors on disability inclusion.  MD

If you have questions or comments, please email the author

at sdunn@miusa.org.

32 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009

Step by Step Advocacy
continued from page 8
become discouraged and withdraw
from the process and/or refuse to join
Events
future advocacy efforts. So keep in
mind that the decision about whether May 25 June
to proceed with a particular campaign OFDA/PRM/InterAction
(and if so, how) is important not only 07 May Monthly Meeting
to that campaign, but also to future Refugee’s International 30th National Press Club 7th Floor
efforts you may want to undertake. Anniversary Dinner Washington, DC
So, to review, make sure your power The Embassy of Italy Contact: ebellardo@interaction.org
analysis identifies: Washington, DC
1. The key actors who support, Call Ellie at (202) 828-0110 ext. 227 for 26 June
oppose and are undecided about information on sponsorships and indi- OCHA/InterAction Monthly Meeting
your goal and how they support or vidual tickets, or visit www.refugees UN Secretariat Building
New York, NY
oppose your goal; international.org/anniversary-dinner
Contact: lpoteat@interaction.org
2. The individuals who have influence
over these key actors; 18 May
Congress’s Role in Foreign Policymaking 28-30 June
3. The relationships between the key
World Bank: Fifth Urban
actors; and 5th Floor Conference Room, Woodrow
Wilson Center, at the Research Symposium
4. The decision-making methods and
Ronald Reagan Building Marseille, France
timing for each key decision.
Contact: info@promosciences.com
And when you are done, make sure Washington, DC
you draw a realistic conclusion as to www.wilsoncenter.org
whether or not your goal is achievable. July
26-30 May
Power analysis in practice International Conference on 6-9 July
In 2005-2006, InterAction led a Global Health 2009 InterAction Annual Forum:
campaign to get world leaders at the Omni Shoreham Hotel 25th Anniversary
World Bank and the G8 Summit to Washington, DC Crystal Gateway Marriott,
take necessary steps to realize inter- www.globalhealth.org/conference_2009 Crystal City, VA
national debt cancellation for poor Contact: sramachandran@interaction.org
countries—with a particular emphasis 28 May
on the actions of U.S. governmental OFDA/PRM/InterAction Monthly Meeting 13-14 July
National Press Club 7th Floor International Conference on
actors in those forums. We identified
Washington, DC Diaspora for Development
two key agencies within the adminis-
Contact: ebellardo@interaction.org Washington, DC
tration: the Treasury Department and
Contact: splaza@worldbank.org
the National Security Council (NSC)
at the White House. At Treasury the 29 May
OCHA/InterAction Monthly Meeting 15-17 July
key actor was Deputy Assistant Sec-
UN Secretariat Building Pandemic Preparedness
retary Bobby Pittman, who was also
New York, NY Regional Meeting
the U.S. representative to the replen-
Contact: lpoteat@interaction.org Pretoria, South Africa
ishment process (additional funding)
Contact: ebellardo@interaction.org
for the World Bank. At the NSC at the
key staff member was the G8 Sum- June 30 July
mit Sherpa Faryar Shirzad. (A Sherpa OFDA/PRM/InterAction Monthly Meeting
is the staff person in each participat- 12 June National Press Club 7th Floor
ing country who leads the team pre- World Day against Child Labor Washington, DC
paring for the G8 Summit.) A second Contact: ebellardo@interaction.org
key staffer at the NSC was the Direc- 8-12 June
tor of Development, John Simon. After World Leadership Conference: 31 July
research and discussions with other Environment and Economics: OCHA/InterAction Monthly Meeting
NGOs and government representatives Towards a Low Carbon Economy UN Secretariat Building
we decided that debt cancellation for Singapore New York, NY
heavily indebted poor countries was Contact: inquiry@worldleadership Contact: lpoteat@interaction.org
an achievable goal.  MD conference.org
Promote your
Part four of this series will address 23-25 June upcoming events!
strategic alliances and objectives and 45th UNHCR Standing Send event details to:
will appear in the June edition of Mon- Committee Meeting
publications@interaction.org
day Developments. Geneva

MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS May 2009 33

MONDAY Developments

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