News

During a March 2013 trip to Africa, THP President and CEO Mary Ellen McNish, Vice President for Africa Dr. Idrissa Dicko and other staff leaders met with two African heads of state: His Excellency Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso and His Excellency Macky Sall of Senegal.
Both leaders were knowledgeable about The Hunger Project’s programs in their countries and looked forward to learning more. H.E. Macky Sall’s Chief of Staff was from a village where THP’s Ndereppe Epicenter is located and was very aware of the progress made in the villages there as a result of The Hunger Project’s work.

THP-Burkina is moving forward with epicenter tours to build relationships with Council Members and newly elected officials.

At a time when The Hunger Project has empowered more than 80,000 elected women representatives in India to be effective change agents in their villages, ambitious women’s voices are being silenced by a Two-Child Norm policy that prohibits the participation of any representative with more than two living children. The policy restricts women’s political participation, hampers the growth of female political leadership, and further marginalizes the most effective community of leaders.

During the last half of 2012, THP-Mexico had its first Inter-regional meeting and worked with 21,380 grassroots partners across 22 communities of nine municipalities in three states: Oaxaca, Chiapas and Zacatecas. In Chiapas, community partners received training from the National Institute for Cooperatives Development to begin to commercialize products in New York. In Zacatecas, THP Mexico helped revise current plans for the poultry farm. Additionally, THP Mexico joined advocacy campaigns and participated in advocacy meetings

Critics of microfinance express concern that financial service providers are more interested in maximizing profits than meeting the needs of their poor clients and a new global effort, known as the Smart Campaign, aims to right this wrong. By identifying a set of common standards to guide all microfinance operations, the Smart Campaign provides a useful framework around which those who value putting clients first can rally. The Hunger Project recently signed on as an endorser of the Smart Campaign to demonstrate that it agrees with the idea that all microfinance clients deserve transparent, respectful and prudent services.

In May 2013, The Hunger Project-Bangladesh launched a two-year project, supported by the United Nations Democracy Fund, to build the capacity of both the elected local government bodies known as Union Parishads and grassroots civil society to work together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

We are proud to announce that The Hunger Project-México has been awarded the 25th annual Premio Compartir (Share Prize) in the Category of Community Development Institutions. Awards are given based on the social impact the programs have achieved, highlighting sustainability as a key factor in alleviating social challenges.