Week 9 - International Development

The international relief and development nonprofit sector is one that I want to work in. My parents both work for a relief and development NGO so these organizations are ones that I am familiar with. They work for a great organization called World Relief. Check it out:

http://worldrelief.org/

Nonprofit Nation

            The book stated that in 1998, the total assets from international relief and development nonprofits was just over five billion. I am sure that number has at least doubled as these organizations have grown rapidly and there has been a stronger push for good organizations that can effectively respond to disaster. I thought the whole chapter was interesting, I especially liked the conclusion, which stated that the international nonprofit sector is very new compared to other types of services, but it has had an impact on millions and millions of people since World War I. This sector has definitely opened the gate for international and local businesses, allowing these new organizations to flourish.

Mercy Corps

            Mercy Corps is a great organization; I am actually in the application process with this organization. There are not many international relief and development organizations based in the Northwest, only two large ones like World Vision and Mercy Corps. Exploring their website they seem to be a good organization based on good values. They definitely are making a strong impact across the globe. I know that they are involved in aid to North Korea, which is pretty awesome. They do have a beautiful building right downtown Portland.

William Easterly

∫            This is a great post by Easterly. There is so much money that goes into and foreign aid, yet there is not much change. People and organizations alike think they can bring people out of poverty when they are not very educated on the issues. I know of one organization that is trying to send used shirts to Africa by the truckload. It’s ideas like this that destroy local African businesses and give no thought to what is really needed. I have seen large NGO’s waste so much money on poorly thought out projects. I think that one of the problems is that some of these organizations are not culturally educated or sensitive. People need to be educated on how to get out of poverty, not a short-term solution that will keep them poor.

Millennium Development Goals

            These eight goals were set out by the UN in 2000. The hope was to have all the goals accomplished by 2015. It is looking like some of these goals will not be accomplished because of poor spending and program management by some key organizations, namely the UN. These goals are great. It is definitely a right of every human being to have basic needs met. In the process of meeting these goals, lots of the money has gone through some very dirty hands. It is important that there is a bottom up approach to these goals. Some governments have shown that they are not responsible enough with the money that they have received. I believe it is very important that these goals are met soon.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

            One interesting thing she said in the video is that 61% of all Africans are under the age of 24. This is a crazy statistic. The youth of Africa are truly the people who can change the continent for the better. It is important that institutions and businesses are built up so these youth can help the economy. Many African countries rely on aid, not on their own infrastructure. As she said in order to move the continent forward, Africa needs to get young people employed. This was an interesting video.

Well that’s it.

Cheers.