President's Report to the Global Board of Directors

Leadership is critical — to the end of hunger in Africa as a whole, and to our ability to carry out strategic work on the ground. For this reason, the Africa Prize for Leadership remains a vitally important initiative.

Last year, we were able to redesign our entire prize initiative, so that our Africa Prize fund-raising efforts could produce proceeds not only for the prize, but also for the expansion of on-the-ground work in partnership with the prize laureates.

The 10th anniversary of the prize is a powerful opportunity to continue moving in this direction. We have designed this year’s initiative to be special in every way, while at the same time minimizing expenses to direct the greatest amount of our resources into Africa.

Given the enormity of the challenge of hunger in Africa, and the limited financial and human resources available to The Hunger Project, it is crucial that the first steps of our expansion in Africa be strategic and effective.

During the Africa Prize announcement ceremony last August, President Rawlings invited us to begin this expansion in Ghana. We believe this to be an excellent opportunity: we have long been impressed by the commitment of the people and government of Ghana to achieve a new future free from hunger.

Recent milestones in our progress include:

November: a series of high-level meetings with key sectors of Ghanaian society, to decode the appropriate role for The Hunger Project. As is the case in India and Bangladesh, we will pursue a two-prong approach: empowering grassroots action for self-reliant development, and shaping the national policy dialogue to ensure that there is an enabling environment for that grassroots action to succeed. We also identified the first leaders who can serve on The Hunger Project’s Ghana Council.

December: Hiring a skilled and energetic country director — Prof. Samuel Sefa-Dedeh, a distinguished food scientist and chair (on leave) of the nutrition and food science department of Ghana University — and creation of an initial plan of action.

January: Prof. Sefa-Dedeh began work, establishing the infrastructure that will be necessary to work in Ghana; identifying additional members for the council, and conducting field visits to identify districts where the on-the-ground initiatives can begin.

February: The first meeting of the National Council was held, and the members became much clearer on the distinct approach and principles of The Hunger Project.

These initial steps have been very illuminating, both as to the challenges and opportunities of our expansion in Africa. This experience, and several other factors now point to a new strategy for our further expansion in Africa:

One critical factor for our planning is that it will require more financial resources to achieve results in Africa than it has in South Asia, in that Africa lacks the institutional infrastructure and traditions of voluntary services that have so empowered our work in India and Bangladesh.

It will also require constant and focused effort to ensure that the work that we establish truly reflects the principles and methodology of The Hunger Project.

We just held our first series of high-level meetings in South Africa, the country where we earlier felt we might next begin operations. South Africa’s situation right now, however, is so complex, the challenges so distinct from those in other African countries, that this has led us to conclude that there is not currently a fit between what we could contribute with our methodology and the needs of South Africa.

Father Nzamujo of Benin is eager for us to work in Benin, and recent progress in Senegal call upon us to further empower the work there.

These and other factors point the way to a new near-term objective — the creation of a regional strategy — to establish a critical mass of Hunger Project activity in West Africa before expanding into other regions. Such a strategy makes sense for many reasons:

Regional economic integration is the future for Africa. It makes sense for us as it makes sense for Africa — it makes the best use of limited human and financial resources.

The countries are geographically close to each other and to New York.

Our laureates President Diouf and President Rawlings are strong regional leaders.

We have a concentration of non-presidential laureates in the region, whose work could be networked together. We could hold a first meeting of these laureates, who could begin exchanging their perceptions of both the challenges and opportunities for overcoming hunger and poverty in the region.

We have decided, therefore, to focus on achieving a major regional presence in West Africa for the remainder of this year: to accomplish as much on the ground as we possibly can in Senegal and Ghana, and consider beginning operations in both Benin and Burkina Faso.

Our Strategic Planning-in-Action (SPIA) methodology was pioneered and launched in India in 1990, and continues to expand in scope and effectiveness. It truly expresses our principles in action, in 10 of the largest states of India:

Our work is led by the voluntary service of the most experienced and committed leaders for grassroots development in India (the biographical information on our state chairs is included in the India newsletter in this notebook);

These leaders are able to catalyze action at the grassroots level, and at the same time have access to the highest levels of government to influence policies at the state and national levels;

We utilize the infrastructure and talents of major development institutions, rather than spending money on infrastructure;

We do not provide doles or handouts, but rather strengthen local self-reliance, starting with the vision, commitment and skills of the people themselves;

In many areas, we are reinvigorating hundreds of small, dedicated local voluntary organizations run by Gandhian social workers, bringing them into a larger and more strategic movement for self-reliance; and

Our initiatives focus on mobilizing and better using existing local and government resources, thus achieving very high leverage.

Last year, our work crossed an important threshold with the official launching with the Planning Commission of Agenda 1997 — a strategy to create large-scale “hunger-free zones” in each of the states where we work by the time of the 50th anniversary of India’s independence in August 1997.

During January, I had the privilege of visiting one of the first of these hunger-free zone initiatives, in the remote and arid Bikaner district of Rajasthan. This visit was an excellent opportunity to see the principles of The Hunger Project expressed in action. A report on that visit is attached.

Last April, the Planning Commission committed to include the hunger-free zone strategy in India’s next 5-year plan, and the chairs of all our state councils formed themselves as a National Council - Hunger Project India in order to interact effectively at the national policy level. The National Council met again with the Planning Commission this January, in a meeting I was privileged to attend. Seven specific recommendations were made to the Planning Commission, and all of these recommendations were accepted.

While our strategic approach was pioneered in India, our profound commitment to self-reliant development was forged in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is a country where, unlike India, development has been dominated by outside forces and foreign aid. This has led to an almost paralyzing mindset of dependency. We have confronted this mindset in a two-prong strategy, mobilizing a large-scale grassroots movement for self-reliant development in the countryside, while at the same time mobilizing those members of the elite who can create an enabling policy environment for the success of that development.

As you undoubtedly know from news reports, Bangladesh is in the midst of a political crisis characterized by frequent general strikes and protests.

Despite this difficulty, The Hunger Project’s work to empower self-reliant development at the grassroots level continues to expand. Our cadre of volunteer leaders have become clearer than ever on the principles of The Hunger Project, and are now catalyzing major local initiatives, such as the construction of schools, health centers and irrigation schemes.

The Hunger Project is blessed with a deeply loyal and committed donor constituency. Our contributors are truly “investors” — individuals who invest in a new future for all humanity.

During the past four years, as we have established our new direction and new programs, we have successfully re-educated and renewed this constituency. This has produced a modest but steady growth in our income, and a steady flow of new donors, as our supporters reach out to their friends. Our current income level is now both reliable and sustainable.

Last year was an unqualified success, and a validation of that strategy. We not only increased our income for the third straight year — in a climate in which many international non-profits saw significant declines — we also were able to make serious progress in rebuilding our reserve fund.

The demands of our expansion into Africa and the continued growth of our initiatives in India and Bangladesh require funds beyond this level, and this can only be achieved by making a major effort — and a major investment — in expanding our donor constituency. Important steps were taken during the past year to lay the groundwork for that expansion:

We re-established a successful direct mail program within our constituency. We determined which segments of our lapsed donors were the most likely to renew, and now conduct a regular program of mailings which are renewing and upgrading donors efficiently;

Working with Bob Brown, a consultant whom many of you met at the October meeting, we established a new corporate initiative, and established a Corporate Leadership Council for The Hunger Project.

We launched an outreach initiative in our Global Investment Group ($5000+ donors) that resulted in a near doubling of that group during 1995;

We conducted a series of planning interviews with our highest-level donors for a “capital-style” campaign to increase funding at the highest levels;

We have hired an outside consultant for an initial 6-month contract to lead this campaign;

We hired an outside writer to write a case statement for funding The Hunger Project, in language that will be compelling to donors outside our traditional constituency.

We are now ready to launch a series of initiatives to significantly expand our donor constituency, working through our existing constituency into the general public.

During the two days preceding the April Board meeting, representatives of the Funding Committee of the Board and the Global Investment Group will meet to launch this new outreach campaign.

Our April meeting takes place at a time when institutions ranging from the World Bank and the UN system to grassroots NGOs are re-examining their ways of working. This morning, for example, I was pleased to attend the launching of a new initiative for all the UN agencies to work together in a coordinated way for Africa.

These UN agencies are confronting the daunting challenge of development in Africa at the same time they are under serious financial pressure. They have recognized that, to make far more efficient use of existing resources, they must work together with a shared vision and in a concerted effort, thus achieving advantages of convergence and synergy.

In The Hunger Project, we recognized the importance of this approach in 1990, and made it the heart of our Strategic Planning-in-Action (SPIA) methodology. We are committed to continue pioneering principles, strategies and action that we see as vital to achieving the new human agenda. Our work is being led around the world by individuals of great stature, experience and influence who have direct access to policy makers at the highest levels.

As a global board of directors, we have the opportunity to take the experience we are gaining on the ground in The Hunger Project, and find ways to make it more widely available in the international community. It is in this light, and with this sense of responsibility, that I look forward to our discussions in New York.