Annual Report of The Hunger Project - 1996
Principles in Action
A Message from Joan Holmes, President of The Hunger Project
In recent years, at world summit after world summit, the international community has committed itself to the goal of a sustainable future, free from hunger and poverty. Yet these commitments stand in contrast to the frustration with and even cynicism about the conventional modes of development - approaches seen as patronizing, inefficient, environmentally and economically unsustainable, and leading to a syndrome of dependency that undermines self-reliance and human dignity.
During the past decade, The Hunger Project has dedicated itself to pioneering a new approach. In this quest, we have been guided by our stand to end, not merely reduce, the needless persistence of chronic hunger on our planet. In addition, we've been guided by the recognition that the persistence of hunger is not primarily a scientific, technical or financial problem - it is a human problem. Thirty-five thousand of our fellow human beings die each day, not for lack of food or expertise, but because we as human beings have failed to live and work together in ways that ensure all people the chance to lead healthy and productive lives.
In India, Bangladesh and West Africa, The Hunger Project has learned to play a highly catalytic role. We've developed an approach that has mobilized the energies of hundreds of committed local leaders and organizations, and hundreds of thousands of grassroots people. This approach has transformed policies and programs, and is enabling people to achieve lasting, self-reliant improvements in health, education, nutrition, family income and the empowerment of women.
Our freedom to pioneer unconventional strategies comes from our freedom from conventional funding. We are funded not from charitable impulses or from the imperatives of government programs, but by a worldwide constituency of highly committed, well-informed individuals who choose to invest in bold, innovative approaches.
During 1996 we reached an important milestone. From our experience of working with hundreds of the world's most experienced and dedicated leaders in empowering people to build lives free from hunger and poverty, we were able to create and publish a new articulation of our principles and methodology.
The power and clarity of these principles has enabled more and more people to take a leadership role in the work of The Hunger Project. In countries where hunger persists, expansion in leadership means expansion in our strategic action on the ground. Among our investors, increased leadership has resulted in the income growth we need to augment our strategic work.
I invite you to read the specific results for 1996 set forth in these pages. And if you have not already done so, I invite you to engage with the new statement of our principles and methodology. Most of all, I invite you to join us in this historic global movement for a future of self-reliance and dignity for all humankind.
A New Landscape before Us
As President Mandela stated in accepting the 1994 Africa Prize from The Hunger Project, the work of ending hunger requires nothing short of a total society-wide transformation.
The Hunger Project completed 1996 as a year of great progress in our strategic action on the ground and in the expansion of our investor constituency. The Hunger Project is increasingly able to extend its process of decentralized, human-centered development in ways that involve government and other decision makers at the highest level. We are well positioned to catalyze the kinds of large-scale transformations in policy, in government programs and in civil society that will be required to end hunger on a sustainable basis. For the foreseeable future, our challenge will be to continually reinvent The Hunger Project to ensure that we are able to effectively play this larger and larger catalytic role.
Links: Overview, Programs, Fundraising, Board, Audit report.