MARCH 2007

Scaling Up What Works

What shapes our world’s response to 852 million members of our human family living in abject poverty?

What affects our personal response to 20,000 of us dying needlessly, each and every day, as a consequence of chronic hunger around the world?

Our understanding — whether accurate or not — shapes our response.

·         What if we really recognized the potential of hungry people to be authors of their own development?

·         What if we understood the deeply entrenched social conditions — most importantly, the unimaginably severe and often hidden discrimination against women and girls — that are the primary constraint in all efforts toward sustainable development?

·         What if we actually knew about proven, affordable, replicable and sustainable strategies, currently empowering more than 22 million people in 13 developing nations, to break through these societal constraints and enable women and men to build lives of self-reliance and dignity?

How might our response change?

The Hunger Project is scaling up what works.

Please use this brief overview to facilitate your discovery of the role you can play in accelerating this historic process.

Photo: Mike Skelton

Epicenters in Africa: Affordable, Replicable, Sustainable

	Epicenter strategy: In eight countries across Africa, we mobilize rural communities at 82 epicenters to create their own schools, health centers, food security, literacy training and banking for more than three million people. Our highest organizational priority is to demonstrate that this proven, affordable methodology can be taken to full national scale, beginning in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
	The African Woman Food Farmer Initiative (AWFFI) at each epicenter economically empowers the women who grow 80 percent of Africa’s food through a program of credit, savings and training. Within five years, the women at the epicenter establish and run their own government-recognized rural bank. AWFFI has issued more than 83,000 loans, totaling more than US$4.7 million, and has established 15 recognized rural banks.
	HIV/AIDS and Gender Inequality Workshop: This workshop — which has reached 400,000 people to date — provides the first grassroots-level, local-language training with clear, accurate information and a campaign of action to transform the harmful gender roles and practices that fuel the AIDS epidemic.
	Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger: Known as the “Nobel Prize for Africa,” the prize is designed to call forth effective leadership committed to the well-being of Africa’s people. Since 1987, laureates have included both women and men; heads of state such as Nelson Mandela, as well as scientists, educators and grassroots organizers.

South Asia: Women’s Leadership and Local Democracy

	Women’s leadership in India’s villages: A constitutional amendment in India guarantees that one-third of seats in local government are reserved for women. The Hunger Project has seized this opportunity — more than 50,000 grassroots women leaders have taken our Women’s Leadership Workshop and have been supported through a comprehensive strategy of training, networking and advocacy.
	Sarojini Naidu Prize for Best Reporting on Women and Panchayati Raj: This annual prize mobilizes India’s media to transform public attitudes in support of women’s leadership in panchayati raj (local self-government) in rural India. Each year, the number of nominations has increased: from 166 in 2001 to 1,500 in 2006.
	Strengthening local democracy in Bangladesh: To end hunger, local people need strong, effective local government that is accountable and ensures that women have a voice. This is missing in Bangladesh. Working with a national alliance for good governance, we are demonstrating — with more than 80,000 volunteer animators in 500 clusters of villages — how people can meet their basic needs on a sustainable basis.
	National Girl Child Day: More than 1,200 events across Bangladesh are organized each September 30 by an alliance of organizations catalyzed by The Hunger Project. The events are a milestone in yearlong campaigns by the alliance to focus attention on ending all forms of discrimination against girls.

Latin American and Global Strategies

	Empowering indigenous communities in Latin America: While Latin America is wealthier than Africa and South Asia, the poverty of its marginalized, indigenous rural population is just as severe. In Mexico, Bolivia and Peru, The Hunger Project provides leadership development (particularly to women), education, training, and mobilization to improve lives and strengthen political participation.
	Vision, Commitment and Action Workshop (VCAW): In each region, mobilization begins when villagers (3.5 million to date) participate in a one-day workshop. The VCAW transforms people’s resignation and has them recognize that they are the key change agents for a better future. People create a vision for their village free from hunger, set priorities, and launch actions to make that vision a reality.
	Animator training: More than 90,000 village-level volunteers known as animators — in equal numbers of women and men — have been trained and empowered to lead the VCAW and facilitate communities to achieve their own self-reliant development. Animators lead campaigns to build health centers, latrines and schools, and to form co-operatives for better incomes.
	Leadership to achieve the MDGs: The world community has committed to achieve specific results in ending hunger and poverty, known as the Millennium Development Goals, by 2015. The next challenge — and one that The Hunger Project is taking on — is to demonstrate that its successful strategies can be scaled up to full national coverage.

Investing in a New Future

Essential to our strategy is that it is funded by a worldwide constituency of highly committed stakeholders, who have educated themselves on the issues and express their partnership and solidarity through their financial investment. Thousands invest a fixed amount every month as members of our Financial Family.

More than three-quarters of our funding comes from the Global Investment Group (GIG). GIG members invest US$5,000, US$10,000, US$25,000, US$100,000 or more each year. GIG members often travel (at their own expense) on organized investor trips to see our work firsthand.

Hundreds of volunteer investor activists support The Hunger Project’s fund-raising by reaching out to their colleagues and friends to expand our investor movement.

Highest Standards of Integrity

In every country in which we work, we are committed to meeting the highest standards for nonprofit organizations, including tax-deductibility where applicable. The Global Hunger Project is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization in the U.S., # 94-2443282.

In every year of our operations, The Hunger Project has received an unqualified independent audit. Annual reports with audited financial statements are available on request and are publicly posted on our Web site: www.thp.org.

The Hunger Project is on the roster of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and is a member of InterAction: the American Council for Voluntary International Action.

Each year, more than 75 percent of our funds are used for programs.