Week 9: International Nonprofits

O'Neill Ch. 9
I know that the book is short, and that the international nonprofit sector is relatively small in the scope of American nonprofits, but this is an area that is really profoundly important in helping us all realize that we now live in a GLOBAL society. From a remote village in India, with internet access I can get the exact news and information that a person in Oregon is getting. This is huge. Communication and coordination are the most important resources that we have as people to live in a unified society, and the internet is the single most powerful tool that people have to leverage themselves out of obscurity. Look at the power that social media has played in helping support revolutionary change, and look at the fear that places like China, Uzbekistan, North Korea have that their people might connect with others and share, god forbid, INFORMATION. So much of how the world will work in the future depends on how well we understand the people that we can now reach in ways that we never have before. A person in Africa can now be the same as a person in Europe an can have the same relevancy if only they have the tools they need to get there; the distance is narrowed. International nonprofits, particularly microlenders, have all the potential to move the 'third world' into the 'first world.'

Mercy Corps:
THIS is what a website looks like. Colorful, well designed, delivers the message. THIS is what every nonprofit needs. A good site is the most important face of an organization. If this would have been some HTML nightmare, I would have not gotten so interested in looking at their work, because honestly it would have shown that they didn't realize what their image needed to be like. And the gifts section is a BRILLIANT way to get donations to over specific small things, meaning that they can use general donations for their operating costs and projects. Even looking at the site I was thinking "Wow, just $65 for a hive of bees?," when normally I have trouble giving such sums to charities. Just great overall.

Why does foreign aid fail?
First of all, I think it's important to point out that we don't actually give a lot of foreign aid as a % of our GDP, and even so, a LOT of this money can't really be tracked or kept from passing into the wrong hands. Our country does not have a magic compass that keeps us from giving to the wrong people to actually help. Furthermore, I don't even know why it would be a question as to why it doesn't work. Who could possibly not see that throwing money at something is less effective than actually targeting work? Say we give $10mil to help feed Kenya. Even if all of it reaches the people, you still only have $10mil in purchased food. But what if we paid an international team of developers to help Kenya identify and solve their food-sourcing issues? This also costs $10mil/year to maintain, but within 10 years Kenya has turned its food economy around, made good sustainable decisions, and become able to self-support. Now the value of this service is much MORE than $10mil/year. The problem has been cured at the root. It is illogical to try to plug a hole when you can just work to make sure that the hole doesn't exist, right?

Aid vs. Trade:
I feel like I'm repeating myself, but there are a lot of themes in this TED talk that are reflected in all of these articles. As far as TED goes, this is not the MOST well organized or clear for me. Infrastructure, YES, jobs for people, YES, empowering women, YES. Are these things any different from the things that we are or should be looking at in our own country though? No. Progress supports more progress, and we have seen this time after time after time. Africa is a continent made up of PEOPLE and just because they are in many ways distant from us, they are our brothers and sisters, and they have the same needs and desires that we do. Progress works over there, and innovation, and change, and so on and so forth. Africa has had a poor hand dealt to it in recent history, they were the scene for disgusting slave trade, the losers in a pangaeac colonialism, and one of the last havens for the sort of despotism and brutal classism that Europeans last faced exiting the middle ages. The situation has always been distance, but now that we can hop planes, use the internet, send packages, use phones, etc, we are right next door. I can buy a ticket and go to Africa on a whim. I can buy a ticket, pack a few things, and be there by Monday. Done. And then I can go to Hong Kong and be home by Friday. And nearly the entire time, I'd still be able to actually speak to my mother. The world is as big as the size of your community, and now it is all one via the advances in communications that have made that possible. Africa is changing faster than any other place could. We're looking at cultural revolutions that take decades, not centuries. Economies that take years, not millennia. This is REALLY HAPPENNING. And though we're miles from the end, we still can use the same strategies there that we do here and do away with the antequated and debunked myth of money solving problems on its own. It just simply needs the hands to guide it.

Millenium Goals:
Step 1: ID the problem
Step 2: Brainstom solutions
Step 3: Set goals
Step 4: Make targeted objectives
Step 5: Carry out tasks aimed at completing objectives
Step 6: Oversight
Step >6: ....

You get the idea here right? I admire the UN for working on ID'ing these good goals and for making it to step 4. But this is where the plan dies. It's not practically possible for these goals to be met unless there is someone to hold accountable. Until that point, it's as good as a wish list. Somewhat like the Oregon Business Plan that I've studied for another class this quarter. Great in theory, but not-gonna-happen in reality unless something drastically changes.