APRIL 3, 2001

Report to the Global Board of Directors

Joan Holmes, President of The Hunger Project

Executive Summary

In this first year of the new millennium, The Hunger Project is implementing on the ground the initiatives designed to make a strategic, catalytic difference in the era of the "Final Milestone" for the end of hunger.

• Our new South Asia Initiative was formally and internationally launched in New York on September 23rd, and is making progress in empowering grassroots women leaders as key change agents within local democratic structures.
• Our new African Woman Food Farmer Initiative has reached more than 15,000 women in West Africa, and has now been expanded into Eastern and Southern Africa.
• Our Strategic Planning-in-Action campaigns that mobilize people for self-reliance in 11 countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America are continuing to expand, and are beginning to be reshaped to be more synergistic with our new initiatives.
• The nomination process has begun for the 2001 Africa Prize for Leadership which will pay tribute to the leaders on the African continent who are confronting the epidemic of AIDS. It will be awarded on October 13.
• We completed a very successful year financially and are in a stronger financial position than ever before. For 2001, we have created a new structure for the further expansion of our investor movement based on the leadership of volunteers.

Confronting the challenge of the Final Milestone in Ending Hunger

As the Board first identified in October of 1999, the experience of the 1990s has shown us that the crux of the matter of ending hunger comprises two critical issues. As we have pressed into these issues, we have found them to be even more daunting than we had imagined:

Democracy at the local level – Rural people must have the opportunity to gain the authority and resources they need to meet their basic needs, and to gain control over their destinies. Millions of people are being denied the authority and resources they need to end their own hunger, because too often the power structures of their countries perceive rural people achieving self-reliance to be a threat to their power, and a challenge to their domination of society.

A fundamental transformation in gender relations. Women need to be able to participate as full and equal partners in the process of development, and gain voice in the decisions that affect their lives. The remaining hunger in our world is largely a consequence of a deeply entrenched patriarchal system that systematically denies people, particularly women, the voice and resources to end their own hunger.

During the past two years, based on this recognition, we have researched, formulated and launched initiatives designed to make a strategic and catalytic impact in the regions of the world where most of the world’s remaining hunger persists – South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

As I shared with our constituency in January – these initiatives place us at the heart of the matter of the persistence of hunger. The language we use – the "final milestone" – means we’re facing the final challenges for the end of hunger. This does not mean we’re in the downhill stretch.

This journey is more analogous to mountain climbing. We are in the final assault, which is often up the face of the mountain which is the steepest and most treacherous. We recognize that the forces that hold hunger in place are pernicious, insidious, persistent and deeply entrenched.

This recognition is sobering, but not overwhelming. The Hunger Project is as committed as ever to the end of hunger. We are not backing off.

Women and Local Democracy in South Asia

From one perspective, our pioneering programs in India and Bangladesh to mobilize people for self-reliant action to end hunger have been tremendously successful, empowering millions of people to improve the quality of their lives.

Standing, however, in the commitment to the sustainable end of hunger, we must recognize that no matter how great these programs become, they will not carry the day. Unless there are local structures throughout all society that are responsive and accountable to the people – the structures through which the end of hunger will be achieved and sustained – then we won’t have the end of hunger.

As Amartya Sen has pointed out: democracy is not only the goal of development, it is the primary means of development. Only when individuals experience greater freedom, voice and opportunity will they fully bring their creative powers to bear on solving the problems of the community. Democracy is more than just elections - it is a set of individual and social attitudes, beliefs, expectations, behaviors, habits and commitments. Democratic practices have not fully taken hold in rural South Asia. Habits of domination, patriarchy, feudalism, exploitation and corruption are deeply entrenched.

The recent laws in India and Bangladesh, which strengthen local democracy and reserve 1/3 of the seats for women are a strategic opportunity. Our South Asia Initiative, launched on September 23rd, is applying a four-prong strategy towards making local democracy effective and empowering women as key change agents within these structures.

Details of these strategies will appear in the country reports and in your interactions with our country directors at the coming meeting. However I would like to highlight some of the steps we’ve taken in each of the four thrusts of the strategy.

• Building Alliances for Advocacy and Action. In Bangladesh, we brought together major players in development – BRAC, ADAB, the National Children’s Academy and others – to establish September 30th as National Girl Child Day. The Day was enormously successful, and has produced an on-going alliance addressing issues of the status of the girl child while preparing for next year’s celebration.
• Hunger Project animators in Barogram, Bangladesh have organized and held the country's biggest-ever environmental rally on March 11th. Indiscriminate dumping of human and industrial wastes had destroyed the water supply for the area, and the campaign of the people of this area has resulted in promises of immediate action by government.

• Our exhibition on the life of women in South Asia was viewed by 3,000 women activists in New Delhi on International Women's Day - March 8th. The showing became the centerpiece of the gathering organized by a new coalition of organizations, including The Hunger Project and the Delhi Women’s Commission.

• Training. In India, we have revised our Women’s Leadership Workshop for elected panchayat representatives, to provide participants with a far more powerful grounding in the political and social guarantees of India’s constitution. The workshop also now provides greater training in planning skills, and in forming women’s collectives in the villages for mutual empowerment.
• In Bangladesh, our team has increased its target for training women animators from 800 last year to 9,500 this year. To accomplish this, over the past year we have trained a strong team of our best women animators as "trainers of trainers."
• Media Coverage. In India, the Sarojini Naidu Prize was launched nationally on October 2nd at an event with the former Prime Minister, Mr. I.K. Gujral. In the early part of this year, state-level press conferences are being held in all the states where we work. The launching of the Prize has already had a discernible impact on the coverage of this issue and many queries from journalists. As Rita Sarin has said – "The Sarojini Naidu Prize has put one million women panchayat leaders on the map in India." Similarly, National Girl Child Day in Bangladesh generated tremendous press coverage across the country.
• International Support. Two teams of Hunger Project investors travelled to India and Bangladesh respectively immediately after our launching events. The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh – widely regarded as the strongest supporter of panchayati raj in India – hosted our investors at a dinner in Bhopal.

The African Woman Food Farmer Initiative

I recently had the privilege of traveling to Uganda to participate in the events and meetings to launch the African Woman Food Farmer Initiative in Eastern and Southern Africa. Despite her pressing obligations during the presidential elections, we were honored by the full support and active participation of Vice President Kazibwe, whose leadership at these events was truly memorable.

As you know, in Africa, the critical, strategic intervention required in the era of the final milestone is the economic empowerment of Africa’s most important – and least supported – producers, the women who grow, process and market Africa’s food.

Our African Woman Food Farmer Initiative has two major thrusts. One thrust is to pioneer a methodology for economic empowerment that is so demonstrably effective that greater official and international funding are directed to women food farmers. In its first year, more than 15,000 women gained access to credit and training. Already, President Wade of Senegal and President Museveni of Uganda have each pledged $100,000 to strengthen this initiative.

The second thrust is advocacy. Now is the time for women farmers to break through the wall of unconsciousness and subjugation. It is time to assert their worth and demand their rightful recognition and support. Over the past 18 months, our "torch events" have mobilized hundreds of thousands of people in six countries, and have galvanized media attention to this issue. As the economic empowerment thrust takes hold, we intend to train local women as spokespeople, create focused messages, and carrying out sustained advocacy campaigns at both the local and national level in every African country where we work.

Strategic Planning-in-Action

As these new initiatives have taken hold, the momentum of our campaigns to mobilize people for self-reliance has continued to grow. In many ways, we’re also beginning to see opportunities for synergy between our Strategic Planning-in-Action (SPIA) work and our new initiatives.

• In Africa: more epicenters and "sub-epicenters" have been completed, and are now serving as the central training facilities for our mobilization efforts. I had the opportunity to officially inaugurate the epicenter in the Mpigi district of Uganda in February – it is a stunning demonstration of local leadership and resource mobilization. The traditional local leader had donated a beautiful piece of land. People donated labor and local materials. The epicenter includes a large training room, a food processing room, a market, a health clinic and the headquarters for the people’s own rural bank. One area of synergy between SPIA and the AWFFI is that women involved in AWFFI activities are also gaining training in health, literacy and other skills from the teams that provide this training in our epicenters.

• In Bangladesh: we’ve shifted the focus of our entire mobilization to be a "woman-centered, union parishad-based" strategy. Union Parishad’s are the most grassroots level of elected leadership in Bangladesh, much like the panchayats. During the past six months, in partnership with government, The Hunger Project has trained hundreds of Union Parishad members and local government officials. Our strategy this year will be to concentrate in 100 unions (clusters of villages) to demonstrate the difference this strategy can make, while working with government to strengthen local democracy throughout the country.
  
• In India: the chairs of our state councils have recently met and committed to reviewing their hunger-free zone strategies in 36 districts and to redesign them, where necessary, to ensure that they strengthen – rather than bypass – local democratic structures. As George Mathew points out, panchayats are equally important in emergencies as in long-term development. In November, I had the opportunity to meet with the Chief Minister of Rajasthan on the importance of channeling drought-relief efforts through panchayats. Gujarat – which has recently been struck by earthquakes – had previously postponed panchayat elections, leaving no structure in place to mobilize people’s decision-making and participation in the reconstruction process. The Hunger Project is working with other major groups in the state to align on guidelines by which all relief and reconstruction efforts can establish and work with "interim panchayats" so that there is a smooth transition when elections are held.

• In Latin America: we are sharpening the focus on women in democracy in Bolivia while expanding our programs in Peru and Mexico. In Peru, the German Agro-Action Foundation is more than matching Hunger Project funds to expand the process of empowering people in the central Amazon to rebuild their farms and communities in the aftermath of guerilla warfare. In Mexico, we have 71 catalysts-in-training working in 7 states: school teachers, housewives, government employees, peasants, grassroots leaders. 80% are women. 33,000 families have been reached with projects like latrines, reforestation, family orchards and community greenhouses, vaccination and literacy campaigns.

The Africa Prize – 2001

This year, at the Hilton Hotel on October 13, we will again award the Africa Prize. Unlike the past two years during which we launched new initiatives, this year we return to the purpose of the Prize, which is to honor and call forth bold, courageous leadership committed to the well-being of Africa’s people.

Given our enduring stand for Africa, this year we will pay tribute to those leaders who are addressing the crisis of AIDS on the African continent.

Those of us who’ve taken on the persistence of hunger know how difficult it is to take on complex issues. It is therefore particularly appropriate that we acknowledge the leaders – from key sectors of African society – who have taken on the extraordinary challenge of the AIDS epidemic. We have requested nominations in three categories:

• Individual women who are infected with HIV, and who have demonstrated the courage to speak out publicly on the issue.
• Leaders from the religious community who have used their position to break the silence on AIDS and to educate the public how to prevent it.
• Institutions of public health and/or public policy which have taken bold and effective actions to halt the spread of the AIDS epidemic.

To reiterate and clarify – The Hunger Project is not launching a new initiative on AIDS – we are continuing our important work of encouraging leadership. It is true that AIDS awareness and prevention are already included in our holistic strategies for the end of hunger. At the same time, and at a more fundamental level, in addressing what is missing for the end of hunger – leadership, power by women over their bodies and their lives, and greater attention to public health and public education – we are addressing many of the same underlying issues which must be addressed for Africa to stem the AIDS epidemic.

Financial Strength

The year 2000 was an outstanding success. We have seen our seventh straight year of significant growth in our income, thanks in large measure to our strategy of empowering volunteer investor activists to be successful in reaching out to their friends and colleagues. We have carefully managed our expenses, and we have had our most efficient and successful audit ever.

Based on these successes, we are bringing into existence a new structure of activist leadership, which will allow for far greater expansion of the investment program in the future.

Some of the recent breakthroughs in our investor movement include:

• Legacy Investment: We now have our third legacy-level ($1 million) investor – an anonymous investor from Australia.
• Charter Investment: During the year 2000, we had more Charter-level ($100,000+) investors than ever before – 36 – most of whom joined as members of the "Women’s Leadership Fund." This success is due to the creative and rigorous efforts by a global "high-level team" including both staff and volunteer activists.
• Global Investment Groups: A central strategy in the year 2000 was to have all our Global Investors experience being at the "heart" of The Hunger Project, through more rigorous communications, and through the creation of a new 3-hour workshop that grounds Global Investors in our principles and programs, and introduces them to activism. Leaders of this workshop must, themselves, have participated in investor trips to see our work first hand.
• The Global Development Team (GDT) has been the backbone of our investor movement for the past two years and holds the accountability for meeting the budget of The Hunger Project. Whereas the GDT has traditionally been predominantly staff, it has been reconstructed this year into a larger GDT that is predominantly volunteer activists.
• Activist-led localities and countries. Where before, staff held accountabilities for certain geographic localities, we are now establishing "design-management teams" of volunteer activists in each locality. Several THP countries – the UK, Netherlands, New Zealand – are completely managed by volunteers, and others, such as Germany and Japan, include a significant number of volunteers in senior management.

Heading towards 2002

Next year will mark our 25th anniversary. We have begun now to think how best to celebrate this occasion in ways which looks forward rather than backwards. At our 20th anniversary, we had a great opportunity to celebrate our past accomplishments in ways that brought people current. For our 25th, we will recognize and celebrate our leadership and strength in ways that propel us powerfully into the future – powerfully towards achieving the final milestone for the end of hunger.