SEPTEMBER 1998

President's Report - Celebrating our Momentum of Accomplishment

To: Members of the Global Board of Directors Date: September 2, 1998

From: Joan Holmes

Executive Summary

There is a growing momentum in The Hunger Project today – in our program and in our global constituency. When we come together on October 3^rd and 4^th, we will have the opportunity to celebrate this progress. At these events, we will empower our entire organization to deepen its understanding of our work, and strengthen our commitment to making an even greater impact in the future.

In this report, I will:

• Review the distinct, catalytic approach of The Hunger Project
• Review the progress we are making in our four overarching priorities for this year
• Update you on our plans for the events in October.

The Strategic Process of The Hunger Project

In Asia, Africa and Latin America, The Hunger Project implements a process designed to mobilize the leadership, pioneer the strategies and catalyze the campaign of action to bring hunger to an end.

As Dr. Swaminathan often reminds us, billions of dollars are spent every year by governments and international agencies. The only way an organization with a budget of $5 million per year can make a real difference is by being catalytic. Through our strategic process, we intend to alter the entire landscape for development so that the creativity and productivity of millions of people is unleashed and that existing human and financial resources are used more effectively.

This makes The Hunger Project different from organizations that implement projects. Our responsibility is to foment the process that empowers people to seize the initiative and succeed in the self-reliant action that they take, and to have this process spread, almost spontaneously, from village to village and district to district.

Priorities and Accomplishments

In order to be an effective catalyst, The Hunger Project must focus its energies strategically. For this reason, we began 1998 by focusing on achieving four priorities for 1998:

• Confronting and transforming the subjugation of women as central to the work of ending hunger - an effort we refer to as the Women's Initiative;
• Achieving a breakthrough in our ability to measure and document the qualitative improvement in people’s lives achieved through our work;
• Extending our strategic process to reach more and more people; and
• Expanding income through expanding our global movement of investors.

Details of all these accomplishments will be included in the accompanying reports from our leaders around the world. In this report, I will summarize our major accomplishments in each priority.

Priority #1: Confronting and transforming the subjugation of women

Hunger affects women the most, and hunger persists to a large degree due to the economic, social and political subjugation, marginalization and disempowerment of women. Our highest priority for this year is to further transform ourselves and further restructure the way we’re organized, in order to cause the breakthroughs required to truly ensure that women gain the opportunities required for hunger to be ended.

• In India, we’ve launched new initiatives in the hunger-free zones to empower destitute women. For example, in Bikaner, Rajasthan, The Hunger Project has launched an initiative to empower 2,000 extremely impoverished women in the wool trade to achieve improved incomes, safe child care and access to health care. In November, in Jaipur, we’re convening a strategic forum of all our state chairs with leading women social activists in India to identify what must be done to catalyze the process of women’s emancipation in India.

• In Bangladesh, we’re bringing more women into our cadre of leadership, and are working to strengthen women’s voice (and men’s listening to that voice) within our movement. Recently, for the first time, one of our most senior Bangladeshi women volunteers led the training of new grassroots animators. Forty women animators in The Hunger Project-Bangladesh recently held a Women’s Initiative workshop, and launched a series of initiatives including the creation of a workshop to empower villagers to directly address disparities in women’s health, education and economic opportunity.
• In Africa, where we had previously taken action to ensure participation by equal numbers of women and men on our leadership councils, we’re exploring new ways to empower the leadership and action by women Africa Prize laureates.
• In the developed world, we’re expanding the movement of women who are learning about these issues and taking action for their resolution.

A major milestone in this effort was a 2-day workshop held in New York on June 6-7, 1998. Some 200 women from 20 countries came together to learn what life is truly like for women living in the conditions of hunger, and to mobilize the commitment, leadership and resources for transforming those conditions.

One highlight of the weekend was the opportunity for women from the developed world to hear first-hand from women who are leaders in The Hunger Project's strategic work in Asia, Africa and Latin America. These women leaders, in turn, were enormously empowered by the solidarity and partnership they experienced from their sisters in the developed world.

Our activists around the world are now using written materials and videotapes from that workshop. Fund-raising as a result of the women's initiative has already far surpassed our initial 1998 target of $250,000.

Priority #2: Monitoring/measuring/reporting

In order for our successes on the ground to influence policies and programs throughout society, we must be able to measure, report and communicate the qualitative changes that have been achieved in the lives of people.

At its April meeting in Ghana, the Board and our country directors discussed ways to implement measurement schemes that are consistent with the "empowerment paradigm" of development rather than the conventional "service delivery" paradigm. In other words, we intend to measure our work in ways that increase people’s own power to improve their own lives.

Since that meeting, all the country directors in Africa have aligned on a 10-point measurement protocol appropriate to conditions in Africa, and THP-Bangladesh has begun training its animators to use a 20-point approach. As this is being written, new senior staff members in India have been hired and have finalized an approach suitable to India. All our offices plan to report results from this initiative at the October board meeting.

Priority #3: Extending our strategic process

Our strategy in the first part of this year has been not to extend our strategic process into additional countries, but rather to have the process we’ve begun go deeper in the areas where we already work and extend outwards to the surrounding villages.

This is happening. To give just a few examples:

• In Bangladesh, we’ve trained more grassroots animators in the first half of this year than we did in the preceding four years. There are now more than 1,200 animators, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of people for self-reliance.
• In Bihar, India the 60 women's fishing cooperatives established last year are now reaching out to establish 800 cooperatives.
• In Bolivia, our partnership with Radio ACLO is empowering more than 500,000 villagers in the Andes with literacy instruction and with critical information on health, agriculture, women’s empowerment and participation with local government.

• In Burkina Faso, Hunger Project councils had been set up in two villages, which launched a range of initiatives in women's vocational training and food security programs. In the last two months, 16 new Hunger Project councils have been established in the villages around those first two, and they have launched initiatives completely based on their own resources.

Priority #4: Expanding investment:

This year, building on the strength of four years of solid income growth from our core constituency, we are committed to take a leap forward through a diversity of programs for financial investment. As we continue to expand our team of individual investors, we are reaching out to small businesses and large corporations and are empowering more women to direct their resources to the issue that affects women the most.

Accomplishments in this area include:

• Already this year, we have more Charter ($100,000) investors, more Leadership investors ($25,000) and more GIG investors overall ($5,000 and up) than in any other year this decade.
• Even though last year was a unique opportunity with our 20^th anniversary, we already have as many table hosts and sponsors for our gala dinner as we had last year.
• Our Small Business Investment Group (SBIG) has grown from 15 businesses at the end of last year to more than 50 already this year.
• Among our affiliates, Australia has already raised more money this year than in all of last year, and is committed to raising more than double its last year level. I particularly want to acknowledge Lalita Banavali and the team in Australia for the outstanding success of an unprecedented series of more than 20 fund-raising events and meetings held over a 10-day period in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.

Overall, our pledges for 1998 are well ahead of where they were this time last year, and we are looking forward to completing another year of significant financial progress.

Plans for our October Events

The Africa Prize for Leadership

Our gala dinner on Saturday night, October 3^rd, will include the presentation of the 12^th annual Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger.

The Africa Prize continues to be one of the most vitally important and high-leverage programs of The Hunger Project. It continues to focus attention on a critical missing ingredient for the sustainable end of hunger – committed, effective leadership.

This year, as you know, our international jury chaired by Amb. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar has again selected two outstanding leaders for the end of hunger to receive the Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger: President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Mrs. Celina Cossa of Mozambique.

As you know, President Museveni has led his nation from complete ruin in 1986 to becoming a model for economic and social progress today. Ms. Cossa’s efforts have done a great deal to make food available to the people of her nation during and following the brutal conflicts Mozambique has suffered.

The winners were announced on July 11 at our largest-ever announcement ceremony, attended by more than 3,000 people. The ceremony was held in Malawi, presided over by President Muluzi, and organized by our 1997 laureate, Mrs. Joyce Banda. The Hunger Project was represented at the event by Peter Bourne. The event was broadcast across Africa over the WorldNet television network, including to local ceremonies in seven countries.

Events on Sunday, October 4

In addition to our Global Board of Directors Meeting, there will be three specialized gatherings for members of our global constituency:

• A breakfast meeting for the expansion of our Small Business Investment Group (8am-9:20am)
• An introduction for both men and women to the Women’s Initiative for Ending Hunger (9:30am – 11:30am)
• A "Stakeholders" meeting – in which our investors will have the opportunity to have questions answered by leaders of our work in both the developed and developing world. (2pm – 4:30pm).

Conclusion

The events in October will be a critical milestone for The Hunger Project. They will provide our worldwide constituency with a renewed sense of what is being achieved now and the importance of our work in the years to come. For hundreds of people new to our work, it will be the most powerful and comprehensive introduction they could gain. And for the international community – gathered as they are in New York for the opening of the UN General Assembly – it is an important reminder that the sustainable end of hunger is vital to achieving a sustainable future for all humanity.

I look forward to being with you in October, and to the energy and momentum we will generate for our work.