News

Gw/oB news updates and highlights

May 5, 2008

Clinton Foundation Should Disclose Donors
Transparency is a popular word in this presidential election, with all three candidates finally having released their tax returns. Yet the public still hasn't seen the records of an institution with some of the biggest potential for special-interest mischief: The William J. Clinton Foundation. Bill Clinton established that body in 1997 while still President. It has since raised half-a-billion dollars, which has been spent on Mr. Clinton's presidential library in Arkansas and global philanthropic initiatives. The mystery remains its donors, and whether these contributors might one day seek to call in their chits with a President Hillary Clinton. If Mr. Clinton were merely a former President building a library for history's sake, we might not worry. But he is a potential first husband whose spouse could influence countless decisions, foreign and domestic. How many favors has Mr. Clinton done for foreign donors? There's no way of knowing. The former President insists he's aware of no conflicts. Notably, however, donations to the Clinton Foundation soared as Mrs. Clinton neared a presidential run - to $135 million in 2006, 70% more than the year before. Somebody seems to think there is value in being generous to the Clintons. More at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120908058761543293.html

Family Foundation Giving Up Sharply
The Foundation Center recently released its Key Facts on Family Foundations, a report that found giving by U.S. family foundations to have jumped by 21 percent in one year, reaching $17 billion in 2006. Because family foundations are not legally distinct from independent foundations, the Foundation Center identified them with criteria including those with "family" or "families" in their name, a living donor with a surname that matches the foundation's name, or a foundation with at least two trustee surnames that match a living or deceased donor's name. This qualifies some of the largest institutions in the country, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, the Annenberg Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. In total, 34,687 foundations with measurable donor or donor-family involvement were identified, accounting for 59% of total giving by independent foundations overall. At the same time, 49% of family foundations reported less than $50,000 in giving, demonstrating the diverse granting capabilities of this field of funders. More at http://www.onphilanthropy.com/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7465&JServSessionIdr007=k4jgqhnj44.app14a

New Global Alliance Announces $13 Billion in Commitments to Empower Women, Fight Poverty
The newly established Women, Faith, and Development Alliance (WFDA), a global effort to empower women and girls and fight poverty, has announced $1.3 billion in commitments from more than seventy organizations. Together, the commitments will support initiatives designed to improve the lives of more than a billion women in dozens of countries. The alliance will work to change the policies of governments, multilateral institutions, and private groups. To that end the United Nations Population Fund has pledged $500 million to address maternal mortality, gender violence, female genital mutilation, and empowering adolescent girls in a broad campaign covering fifty countries, while the International Rescue Committee has pledged $500 million to support efforts to curtail gender violence and improve women's education. In addition, the Sister Fund and the Women's Funding Network have pledged a total of $150 million to expand the Women Moving Millions campaign, an effort to increase the collective assets of foundations and NGOs serving women around the world. Since its first meeting in June 2006, nearly eighty organizations have actively participated in shaping WFDA's strategy and advocacy agenda. More at http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=211400024

Marginalized Groups Must not be Forgotten in Response to Food Crisis
Solutions to the current food crisis spurred by soaring global food prices must include marginalized groups, the top United Nations human rights official said today, joining the call issued by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the international community to respond to the problem. While acknowledging that addressing the crisis is fundamentally humanitarian in nature, High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour stressed in a statement issued in Geneva that it is also an obligation, thus requiring non-discriminatory food distributions and analysis of communities' needs. "More fundamentally, and for the more medium and longer term, the underlying inequalities and inabilities to access food must be addressed by a comprehensive solution," she noted. "When we focus on those most in need, we must include not only the poorest but also those that are particularly vulnerable to discrimination on any other grounds, including gender, ethnicity, or disability." Ms. Arbour underscored that all voices must be heard — directly or through representative organizations — in tackling the food crisis. She also pointed out that food-related social unrest could potentially threaten other human rights, such as freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. More at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=26527&Cr=food&Cr1=crisis

April 28, 2008

Charities Struggle to Respond to Rising Food and Fuel Costs
Charities that work overseas have been battered by a spate of recent economic troubles, including rising food and oil prices and the weakening dollar. Nonprofit leaders say they are being pressed to meet growing needs, even as the costs of doing work are ballooning. Some have even been forced to scale back services. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, in New York, dropped 25,000 people from a food and medical-assistance program in the former Soviet Union after expenses jumped by 20 percent. "We've lost $4-million in buying power," said Steve Schwager, the group's chief executive officer. High fuel prices and the weak dollar are also making it more expensive for groups to deliver assistance abroad. Emily Sollie, a spokeswoman with Lutheran World Relief, in Baltimore, said the local charities her group works with are facing a pinch. A construction project in Mali, for example, had to be rebid for nearly $11,000 more because the charity couldn't find any builders to work with it at the original price. And a grantee in India ran out of money sooner than expected because of the dollar's fall against the rupee. Officials with Direct Relief International, in Santa Barbara, Calif., said that the costs of shipping goods oversees have risen by as much as 25 percent over the past year. More at http://philanthropy.com/news/updates/index.php?id=4470

Global Food Crisis 'Silent Tsunami' Threatening Over 100 Million People
The head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has called for urgent action to tackle the "silent tsunami" of rising food prices, which threatens to push more than 100 million people worldwide into hunger. "This is the new face of hunger - the millions of people who were not in the urgent hunger category six months ago but now are," said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran, after addressing a British parliamentary hearing in London. She said that like the 2004 tsunami, which hit the Indian Ocean leaving quarter of a million dead and about 10 million more destitute, the food price crisis - the biggest challenge WFP has faced in its 45-year history - requires a global response. "The response calls for large-scale, high-level action by the global community, focused on emergency and longer-term solutions," she added. Recalling the record $12 billion provided by the donor community for the tsunami recovery effort, Ms. Sheeran said, "We need that same kind of action and generosity." The impact of the crisis is already being felt in different parts of the world. Unless new funding can be found on time, WFP will have to suspend school feeding to 450,000 children beginning in May in Cambodia. In addition, protests and riots have broken out in some countries over the rising cost of many basic foods, such as rice, wheat and corn. More at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=26412&Cr=food&Cr1=price

EU Set to Scrap Biofuels Target Amid Fears of Food Crisis
The European commission is backing away from its insistence on imposing a compulsory 10% quota of biofuels in all petrol and diesel by 2020, a central plank of its programme to lead the world in combating climate change. Amid a worsening global food crisis exacerbated, say experts and critics, by the race to divert food or feed crops into biomass for the manufacture of vehicle fuel, and inundated by a flood of expert advice criticising the shift to renewable fuel, the commission appears to be getting cold feet about its biofuels target. Under the proposals, to be turned into law within a year, biofuels are to supply a tenth of all road vehicle fuel by 2020 as part of the drive to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by the same deadline. The 10% target is "binding" under the proposed legislation. But pressed by its scientific advisers, UN authorities, leaders in Europe, non-government organisations and environmental lobbies, the commission is engaged in a rethink. "The target is now secondary," said a commission official, adding that high standards of "sustainability" being drafted for biofuels sourcing and manufacture would make it impossible for the target to be met. A commission source indicated that the EU executive would not object if European governments ordered a U-turn. "This is all very sensitive and fast-moving," said a third commission official. "There is now a lot of new evidence on biofuels and the commission has become a prisoner of this process." More at http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/159982/1/7263

Satellite Images Reveal Shrinking Amazon
Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon may be on the rise, according to high-resolution images released by an agency of the Brazilian government. The images suggest an end to a widely hailed three-year decline in the rate of deforestation and have spurred a public controversy among high-level Brazilian officials, writes Tim Hirsch, author of "The Incredible Shrinking Amazon Rainforest" in the May/June 2008 issue of World Watch magazine. Deforestation accounts for approximately one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions and is responsible for significant species loss worldwide. Recent anti-deforestation measures under the administration of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have led to a marked drop in the rate of forest loss over the past three years. "What matters most to people is whether deforestation is coming under control, or whether this magnificent ecosystem is doomed to relentless decline, with all the implications for the millions of unique species it harbors, for the survival of precarious indigenous cultures, and for the global climate," writes Hirsch. More at http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/159982/1/7263

April 22, 2008

Philanthropy: Whose Vision?
The April edition of Alliance Magazine focuses on this question and approaches the issue from multiple perspectives. One voice interviewed for the journal includes Steve Gunderson, President and CEO of the Council on Foundations, and his vision for COF's upcoming philanthropy summit. Alliance also interviewed various people planning on attending the summit – from private foundations, family foundations, community foundations and funds from outside the US – to understand what they are hoping to gain from their participation, and what if any concerns they have about the meeting. Gunderson explains that the summit is intended, "…To bring all of philanthropy together in a way that allows us – when we depart – to understand the we are part of a movement greater than ourselves, and greater than our own philanthropic giving. It is my hope that we see ourselves as both a domestic and international movement to enhance the common good around the world." Peter Laugharn with the Bernard van Leer Foundation told Alliance that, "My hope is that international issues, and philanthropy's role within the international arena, get attention within the 'Summit' and that that attention gets some wider media coverage in this presidential election year. My concern would be that the summit may be 'international' in the same way that the World Series is global simply because it includes baseball teams from Toronto or Montreal – that the US focus may be overwhelming, especially because it's an election year." More at http://www.alliancemagazine.org/free/html/apr08d.html

Aid Organizations Focus on Global Food Crisis
A deepening global food crisis requires not only greater funding for food aid going to hungry nations, but long-term investments according to officials. Aid organizations meeting recently in Kansas City, MO, at the US government's annual conference on global food aid said that while increased money for food aid to hungry nations is desperately needed to tamp down the swelling global food crisis, long-term investments to improve agricultural productivity in the developing world are equally important. Crop producers, shipping companies and aid groups warned that the rise in global food prices is hampering donations and US aid officials have said they might be forced to slash donations this year after their commodity costs jumped by more than 40 percent in the first half of fiscal 2008, adding approximately $200 million to the program's costs. Experts predict higher prices to linger through 2009 before farmers worldwide can adjust supplies and major financiers of development efforts, such as the World Bank, can put more funds into agricultural projects. More at http://philanthropy.com

Global Food Systems Must Change
After six years of work, the United Nations-sponsored International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) has concluded that "modern" agriculture is not sustainable. According to the UN News Service, "Modern agricultural practices have exhausted land and water resources, squelched diversity and left poor people vulnerable to high food prices." The IAASTD, after a week-long meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, pronounced the verdict of 400 scientists, government agencies and civil society participants: "Business as usual is no longer an option." At the meeting, 55 world governments agreed on the IAASTD final report; Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States requested more time to consider whether or not to approve it. The IAASTD calls for replacing dependence on petrochemical fuels and pesticides with "resilient, sustainable agricultural systems, grounded in agroecological science and drawing on local, indigenous and community knowledge." The IAASTD was bitterly attacked by Syngenta and other powerful multinational corporations but, as UN Environment Programme Executive Director Achim Steiner observes, "If our modern agricultural systems continue to focus only on maximizing production at the lowest cost, agriculture will face a major crisis in 20 to 30 years time." More at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7347239.stm

Peeling the Kenyan Conflict Onion
In this article by Alice Nderitu, Senior Human Rights Officer with Kenya's National Commission on Human Rights, the author argues that development, security and human rights should be the priorities in Kenya's post conflict reconstruction, not creating a bloated cabinet under the guise of power sharing. Nderitu writes, "It's official. We have a grossly overpaid cabinet of 40, the largest ever in Africa. The 34-44-40 cabinet debate in Kenya is an ominous pointed to what our politicians consider priorities: positions and not needs. Yet our needs are the embers which opportunely stoked ignite into the conflict. Kofi Annan argued as UN Secretary General in 2005 that we cannot enjoy development without security, security without development, and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights and that unless all these causes are advanced, none will succeed. These are needs, not positions. In Kenya, the needs are the core of our onion. We urgently need roads in good condition; markets for our produce; a hospital with medicine; schools with teachers and books. We need security and we need leaders we can speak to who will listen just as we do as they address political rallies and religious gatherings." More at http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category//47407

Food and Energy Situation in Gaza Still Grim
Food, energy and other basics of life in the Gaza Strip, where severe restrictions by Israel on the movement of people and goods have been in effect since Hamas' takeover in June 2007, continue to be in short supply, the United Nations reported today. According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East only 2,400 trucks entered the coastal enclave last month, down from more than 10,000 trucks that entered in March 2007. The agency added that a scarcity of animal feed is causing meat prices to skyrocket and it has had to expand its school feeding program to meet the needs of some 110,000 Gazan children in around 110 schools everyday. In addition, UNRWA said that it has been providing more than 110,000 liters of diesel fuel to municipalities each month for solid waste management but that a lack of electricity often forces coastal municipalities to dump their sewage into the sea. UN officials, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, have repeatedly expressed concern in recent months about the humanitarian impact of the restrictions on daily life for Palestinians in Gaza, coming on top of years of difficulty and economic decline. Describing the consequences as increasingly severe, the officials have said that the closures have brought most industry and agriculture to collapse, raised unemployment and poverty to new heights and led to the deterioration of basic infrastructure. More at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=26300&Cr=gaza&Cr1=&Kw1=Food+and+Energy&Kw2=Gaza&Kw3=

April 15, 2008

Microfinance's Success Sets off Debate in Mexico
Carlos Danel and Carlos Labarthe turned a nonprofit that lent money to Mexico's poor into one of the country's most profitable banks. But not all of their colleagues in the world of microlending — so named for the tiny loans it grants — are heaping praise on the co-executives of Compartamos. Some are vilifying them as "pawnbrokers" and "money lenders." They are the center of a fractious debate: how far should microfinance go toward becoming big business? At one end stand traditional microlenders, like the economist Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. At the other are the "Two Carloses", as they are widely known in this tight-knit world that gave them their start as starry-eyed idealists. Microlenders, the original and still the most common type of microfinance organization, help the poor start or expand businesses in places most banks shun, like the slums of Calcutta or these impoverished hills in Mexico's sugar cane country, three hours south of Mexico City. Their efforts are widely considered successful in transforming the lives of developing-world entrepreneurs, particularly women, and their families. Many microlending advocates, including Mr. Yunus, say that success is threatened by Mr. Danel and Mr. Labarthe's market-oriented model, with its emphasis on investor returns. "Microfinance started in the 1970s with a focus on using this breakthrough to help end poverty," said Sam Daley-Harris, director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, a nonprofit endeavor that promotes microfinance for families earning less than $1 a day. "Now it is in great danger of being how well the investors and the microfinance institutions are doing and not about ending poverty." More at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/business/worldbusiness/05micro.html?ex=1208059200&en=bf7e56cd419958f0&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Amazon's 'Forest Peoples' Seek a Role in Striking Global Climate Agreements
A recent conference in Brazil drew leaders of hundreds of indigenous groups in 11 Latin American countries and observers from Indonesia and Congo, the largest gathering of its kind, organizers said. They came to build a consensus for a plan in which wealthier countries would compensate developing countries for conserving tropical forests like the Amazon. Such an international carbon-trading plan has been gaining momentum and was a central topic last December at a climate conference in Bali, Indonesia. Scientists generally agree that tropical deforestation accounts for 20 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. "There is a real sense that this potentially represents a huge opportunity for forest peoples to influence climate change negotiations and create larger-scale incentives to stop deforestation and improve their living conditions," said Stephan Schwartzman of the Environmental Defense Fund in New York, who attended the discussions. Representatives from the 11 Latin American countries signed a declaration establishing the International Alliance of Forest Peoples and vowed to continue to push for a place at the table of climate change talks. The Indonesian government has been promoting the idea of carbon trading at climate talks. But environmentalists see South America, where native populations have stronger legal claims to the land, as a major staging ground for building support for the concept. More at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/world/americas/06brazil.html?ex=1208059200&en=f5ead50cb519c7eb&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Can Capitalism Survive Climate Change?
There is now a solid consensus in the scientific community that if the change in global mean temperature in the 21st century exceeds 2.4 degrees Celsius, changes in the planet's climate will be large-scale, irreversible, and disastrous. Moreover, the window of opportunity for action that will make a difference is narrow – that is, the next 10 to 15 years. Throughout the North, however, there is strong resistance to changing the systems of consumption and production that have created the problem in the first place. Alongside this resistance is a preference for ''techno-fixes,'' such as ''clean'' coal, carbon sequestration and storage, industrial-scale biofuels, and nuclear energy. Globally, transnational corporations and other private actors resist government-imposed measures such as mandatory caps. They have preferred to use market mechanisms like the buying and selling of ''carbon credits,'' which largely amount to a license for corporate polluters to keep on polluting. In the global South, elites have shown little willingness to depart from the high-growth, high-consumption model inherited from the North. They maintain a self-interested conviction that the North must first adjust and bear the brunt of adjustment before the South takes any serious step toward limiting its greenhouse gas emissions. More at http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5114

UN Chief Calls for Review of Biofuels Policy
The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, has called for a comprehensive review of the policy on biofuels as a crisis in global food prices - partly caused by the increasing use of crops for energy generation - threatens to trigger global instability. "We need to be concerned about the possibility of taking land or replacing arable land because of these biofuels," Ban told the Guardian in Bucharest while attending this week's Nato summit. But he added: "While I am very much conscious and aware of these problems, at the same time you need to constantly look at having creative sources of energy, including biofuels. Therefore, at this time, just criticising biofuel may not be a good solution. I would urge we need to address these issues in a comprehensive manner." Climate change has been a priority for Ban since he took over from Kofi Annan, and he has embraced the potential of biofuels, derived from plants, as a long-term substitute for fossil fuels. But as food prices have soared - driven by rising demand, high fuel costs, and climate change - the cultivation of biofuels has come under fire for diverting fertile land from food production. Some of the loudest criticism has come from within UN food agencies, which are struggling to keep up with commodity prices. Last month the World Food Programme issued an emergency $500m appeal to donors to help it meet its existing commitments to the world's hungry. There are also mounting concerns over the benefits of biofuels to the environment. They generally burn cleaner than fossil fuels, but fuels such as grain-based ethanol are energy-intensive to produce, and tropical rainforests have been cleared to produce palm oil for use as a fuel. More at http://us.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fenvironment%2F2008%2Fapr%2F05%2Fbiofuels.food

Groundbreaking Treaty on Disability Rights Hailed by UN Officials
The top United Nations human rights and development officials today warmly welcomed the news that yesterday the first international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities got its twentieth ratification, meaning that the landmark treaty will now come into force on 3 May. "I am extremely happy," Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in Geneva, noting that people with disabilities and their supporters struggled for a very long time to achieve this result. "I cannot stress enough the importance of this ground-breaking Convention, which fills an important gap in international human rights legislation affecting millions of people around the world."

The 50-article Convention asserts the rights to education, health, work, adequate living conditions, freedom of movement, freedom from exploitation and equal recognition before the law for persons with disabilities. It also addresses the need for persons with disabilities to have access to public transport, buildings and other facilities and recognizes their capacity to make decisions for themselves. The convention's Optional Protocol, which will also be binding starting 3 May, allows individuals to petition an international expert body with grievances. More at http://us.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.un.org%2Fapps%2Fnews%2Fstory.asp%3FNewsID%3D26213%26Cr%3Ddisab%26Cr1%3D

April 10, 2008

New Rules of Attraction
As traditional fundraising methods falter, charities look for new ways to appeal to online donors. The Nature Conservancy will kick off a campaign to ask online donors to give $1 apiece to help the charity plant a billion trees in Brazil's rain forest. But conservancy officials have no idea if the electronic drive will meet its goal of raising $1-million. The Plant a Billion campaign is designed to attract people who have never previously given to the environmental organization. But it could "go gangbusters or be a flop," says Sue Citro, the charity's senior manager for digital membership. Traditional approaches to seeking new donors by mail or telephone are growing less effective and more expensive every year, yet online appeals are not raising enough to replace them. "Direct mail is on life support," says Michael Hoffman, chief executive of See3, a Chicago consulting firm that specializes in nonprofit fundraising and communications. "Charities that have relied on direct mail to get new donors have to start thinking about what's next, or they will wake up one day and find that an aggressive start-up has taken their place." More at http://philanthropy.com/free/articles/v20/i12/12003301.htm

Use Your Heart and Head When Giving
There's a trend in philanthropy to treat the act of giving as an "investment decision". This is partly because non-profit management is taught increasingly in business schools, and partly because more wealthy donors with a business background are are becoming involved. Donors are younger, more active and may have made their money in finance. They believe that there is a holy grail of metrics, and if we just worked harder to find it, we could measure all non-profits, lay them side by side and figure out which ones were more effective in doing good in the world. What gets lost in all of this focus on evaluation and numbers is the grace and joy of philanthropy. Philanthropy inspires. It tells stories. It reconnects us with others and reminds us of our shared humanity. The work of Deborah Small, a professor of marketing at Wharton business school, shows that presenting potential donors with metrics suppresses donations because it lowers empathy. It is empathy, her research says, that triggers giving. More at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7e0c5f52-f225-11dc-9b45-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

2008: The Year of Global Food Crisis
It is the new face of hunger. A perfect storm of food scarcity, global warming, rocketing oil prices and the world population explosion is plunging humanity into the biggest crisis of the 21st century by pushing up food prices and spreading hunger and poverty from rural areas into cities. Millions more of the world's most vulnerable people are facing starvation as food shortages loom and crop prices spiral ever upwards. And for the first time in history, say experts, the impact is spreading from the developing to the developed world. More than 73 million people in 78 countries that depend on food handouts from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are facing reduced rations this year. At the same time, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that rising prices have triggered a food crisis in 36 countries, all of which will need extra help. The threat of malnutrition is the world's forgotten problem'', says the World Bank as it demands urgent action. The bank points out that global food prices have risen by 75% since 2000, while wheat prices have increased by 200%. The cost of other staples such as rice and soybeans have also hit record highs, while corn is at its most expensive in 12 years. More at http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2104849.0.2008_the_year_of_global_food_crisis.php

Arctic Melting May Lead to Expanded Oil Drilling
More than half of the Arctic Ocean was covered in year-round ice in the mid-1980s. Today, the ice cap is much smaller. Alarming evidence of this warming trend was released last week when the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released satellite evidence that the perennial Arctic ice cover, as of February, rests on less than 30 percent of the ocean. "The rate of sea-ice loss we're observing is much worse than even the most pessimistic projections led us to believe," says Carroll Muffett, deputy campaigns director with Greenpeace USA. For the first time in recorded history, this past summer the entire Northwest Passage between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans was ice-free, according to scientists. In the eyes of oil and gas companies, like U.S.-based Artic Oil & Gas Corp., these open waters are potential treasure chests. As the Arctic Ocean resembles less like a gigantic ice sheet and more an ocean of frigid water, energy companies are racing to profit from the melting sea. "It simply doesn't get any bigger than this in the oil patch," CEO Peter Sterling said in a statement. More at http://us.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.worldwatch.org%2Fnode%2F5664

March 31, 2008

Women philanthropists in the UK get less recognition than men
Women philanthropists in the UK are under-represented in giving statistics, according to a new report by Philanthropy UK. The report, "Women and Philanthropy: inspiring women, inspired giving", says that women have a major impact on philanthropy, with many heading charitable foundations, but that their involvement is largely unreported in comparison with that of male philanthropists and that many women lack the recognition or profile enjoyed by men. Compared with men, though, the report finds that women prefer to form stronger relationships with beneficiaries and are often in control of their families' giving. "Philanthropy can be time, energy and commitment as well as hard cash, and the women featured throughout the report demonstrate the diversity and breadth of women's giving," said Maggie Baxter, guest editor of the study. More at www.philanthropyuk.org/Newsletter/SPECIALREPORTWomenPhilanthropy.

Giving, the Asian way
In Asian cultures, money is not something spoken about or dealt with in the open. It's no surprise then that Asian-American philanthropy is somewhat hidden in the community, and Asian-American philanthropists are virtually invisible. But that's not to say they don't exist. They do — in family associations in Chinatown alleys, in community center rec rooms, and in kitchens and living rooms in Asian-American households across the US. Asian-American philanthropic groups based on traditional Asian forms of giving are now hoping to bridge the gap between Western-style philanthropy (large endowments or donations to institutions like universities, museums and libraries) and Asian concepts of philanthropy (small-scale giving between families or relatives, often newly arrived immigrants). Groups like the Asian Women Giving Circle, modeled after the Korean geh, or shared savings circles where contributors regularly pool their money and then rotate its distribution amongst members, are giving support to those in their community who need it most. Reported by AsianWeek at www.asianweek.com/2008/03/23/charity-philanthropy-giving-the-asian-way/.

Muslims are generous givers, but their philanthropy is not well known
Muslims around the globe contribute billions of dollars to humanitarian causes each year, but their efforts are often poorly organized and not well known to the world, said participants at the inaugural meeting of a group of Islamic charities and philanthropists. The new organization, the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, was formed to help Islamic donors and nonprofit groups to overcome these obstacles. Reported by the Chronicle of Philanthropy at http://philanthropy.com/news/?id=4209&pth&utm_source=pt&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=leftbottom.

Study finds that ethical standards at non-profits are eroding
Nonprofit organizations have long held a reputation for having significantly higher ethical standards than businesses and government. But a report released by the Ethics Resource Center shows that that gap is closing quickly, as standards at charities are declining at what the study's authors say is a disturbing rate. Rates of observed misconduct at nonprofit organizations are at the highest level since the Ethics Resource Center began measuring in 2000. In 2007, more than half of nonprofit employees observed one or more acts of misconduct in the previous year. Twenty-four percent of nonprofit employees observed their co-workers putting their own interests above those of the organization. Twenty-one percent observed managers or executives lying to employees. Nearly one in five employees reported that they had seen abusive behavior or that they had seen co-workers misreporting the number of hours they had worked. The frequency of these behaviors mirrors the frequency reported in the for-profit and government arenas, the study found. Available at https://www.ethics.org/research/nnes-order-form.asp.

Liberia sets up a special court for sexual violence
The Liberian government has created a special court to deal with rape and other forms of violence against women. During Liberia's 14-year civil conflict, the rape of girls and women was widespread. Since peace was sealed in 2003, sex crimes and impunity for them have persisted throughout the country. Although a rape law was enacted in December 2005 which made rape a crime with a maximum of a life sentence for those found guilty, rape cases have continued to rise. Half of reported rape cases are attacks against girls between the ages of 10 to 15 years old. More at http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/86ab3b0e58d5a3df3c10ccef9565c62a.htm.

March 24, 2008

Donors are happier than stingy people, new research finds
People who give away money are happier than those who do not, according to new research published recently in the journal Science. Elizabeth W. Dunn of the University of British Columbia started her experiment by trying to prove the ways in which accumulating money led to more happiness. She and two colleagues surveyed 632 Americans, asking about their level of happiness, personal spending habits, and how much they donate to charity. Ms. Dunn found that while people tend to think that spending money on themselves rather than giving it away will make them happier, the opposite turns out to be true. The researchers used a variety of settings and tactics to test the hypothesis that giving away money leads to more happiness, and the results held, whether on a college campus and in a corporate setting. Reported by Forbes at http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2008/03/20/money-buys-love-tech-science-cx_ec_0320love.html.

Ecuador grants amnesty for anti-mining environmentalists
Last November, the Ecuadorian government closed down Ascendant's copper mine operations in Intag, Ecuador after years of public protests. More broadly, the government rejected large-scale open-pit mining as a viable development model for Ecuador. Ascendant Copper Company and other multinational companies fought hard to silence and intimidate protesters. Now Ecuador's National Constitutional Assembly has voted to annul all charges brought by multinational corporations against environmental activists throughout the country. More at http://www.decoin.org/.

Global growth fails to increase prosperity
Despite the continuing worldwide economic growth of the past few years, mass poverty remains the central problem in most developing countries, and the majority of people have no lasting share in this prosperity. Although the number of official democracies is growing, many people are still excluded from political decision-making. This is the conclusion reached by the third Bertelsmann Transformation Index, an international comparative study of 125 transformation countries recently published by the German Bertelsmann Foundation. Among the transformation countries with the most successful governance in the past few years are Chile, Estonia and Botswana. The countries with the worst governance are Somalia, Myanmar and Zimbabwe. More at http://www.indiainfoline.com/news/innernews.asp?storyId=59303&lmn=1.

Business partnerships can be perilous for charities
Nonprofit groups and businesses have different goals and cultures, so it's crucial for charities to carefully think through any partnerships with businesses and clearly establish ownership rights before taking any action, reports The Financial Times. The article gives a few examples of partnerships turned ugly, including the One Laptop Per Child program, which aimed to supply cheap computers to children in poor countries. Intel, the company helping to produce the laptops, pulled out and started its own venture, which angered the founder of the One Laptop effort. Other partnerships have been mutually beneficial, though, including a program to spread cellphones in Africa. More at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/136d4a4e-e032-11dc-8073-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1.

March 17, 2008

Clinton Foundation pushes college students to tackle global problems
The inaugural meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University, a project of the William J. Clinton Foundation, has taken place in New Orleans as college students and administrators and nonprofit groups gathered to encourage college students to take on global issues such as energy and climate change, human rights and peace, global health, and poverty. The project is similar to the original Clinton Global Initiative, which has worked with leaders in government and business since 2005. CGI U has already received concrete project commitments from about 700 students including a Swarthmore College student working on water quality in Venezuela and a University of Arkansas student creating soccer teams for teenagers in Cameroon. Reported by the LA Times at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-clinton-college,1,4193687.story.

Gates' goal to eliminate malaria may not be feasible, experts warn
Health experts are doubtful about the lofty goal set by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to eradicate malaria. Experts believe that a vaccine to protect people from the disease is still a very distant reality. Arata Kochi, chief of malaria for the World Health Organization, criticized the Gates foundation for pressuring scientists to follow its approach to fighting malaria. Dr. Kochi thinks money donated by the foundation and others would be better spent on mosquito nets, medicines, and pesticides—which, he says, could cut the number of cases by 90 percent instead of finding a vaccine. One leader of an organization supported by the Gates Foundation joked in front of a group of scientists that it was wise to support the goal of quick eradication "if you want to get funded." Regina Rabinovich, head of infectious diseases for the Gates Foundation, said that decisions on whether to support research were not based "on whether or not people agree with public statements made by Bill and Melinda." Reported by the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/04mala.html?_r=2&ref=science&oref=slogin&oref=slogin.

Wal-Mart overhauls charity spending
Wal-Mart, one of the biggest corporate donors in the US, is overhauling how it donates money to ensure that its philanthropic efforts are more closely linked to its brand positioning. The company will make larger, more focused US grants and will consider enhancing its international giving. Internationally, Wal-Mart will launch a partnership with UNICEF to honor its pledge to support the UN's Millennium Development Goals. The changes reflect a trend in corporate giving in which "arms length" foundation giving is increasingly aimed at supporting a company's brand and its goals. More at http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10011788/story.

India to pay families cash to protect girls
India is offering to pay poor families nearly $3,000 to bring up their girl children and discourage the widespread practice of aborting the female fetus, which has led to a skewed gender balance in parts of the country. Many families prefer boys, as future breadwinners, to girls, on whom dowries have to be spent to find husbands. About 10 million female fetuses may have been aborted in India over the last 20 years following illegal sex determination tests. The government hopes a cash incentive will change that. The government will pay 15,500 rupees ($385) to poor families in phases, with a lump sum of 100,000 rupees when the girl reaches the age of 18, provided she meets criteria including education, immunization and nutrition, and she is not married. More at http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP215468.htm.

Report criticizes microfinance groups' management
A new report urges microfinance groups to improve their management and corporate governance. The report, written by the Center for the Study of Financial Innovation, a think tank, said, "Microfinance institutions tend to be dominated by 'visionaries' who are strong on charisma but less so on management skills and strategic flexibility." The report was based on a survey of microfinance analysts, investors, and practitioners. Analysts who contributed to the report were concerned about the growing number of for-profit groups offering such loans, as well as about rising costs incurred by the microfinance programs, and about the potential for them to make irresponsible loans and take on too much debt. The number of microfinance lenders has increased by 25 percent each year from 2004 to 2006, the report says. Report by Financial Times at http://search.ft.com/nonFtArticle?id=080303000128&ct=0.

Stock donations occur just before price dips, study finds
A new study has found that many corporate leaders who donate their company's stock to their personal or family foundations often do so just before the company's stock price drops, enabling them to claim big deductions on their taxes. The study looked at 151 gifts of more than $1-million made from mid-2003 through the end of 2005. The donations represent $728-million, a quarter of all gifts of stock made by chief executives or chairmen during that time period. The study also found that in many cases, gifts of stock were made following positive earnings announcements but before negative earnings were reported. Donating shares of stock while the stock price is high helps lessen an executive's tax bill because the IRS allows a charitable deduction equal to the value of the shares on the date of the gift. More at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/us/05foundation.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin.

Young nonprofit leaders are concerned about pay and work-life balance
A new report from the Meyer Foundation has found that, though a diverse pool of committed young people would like to be nonprofit executives in the future, many of them say there are significant barriers to realizing that ambition. The report found that young nonprofit staff are concerned that challenges such as work-life balance, insufficient lifelong earning potential, a lack of mentorship and overwhelming fundraising responsibilities may prevent them from becoming nonprofit executives. The study found that 64 percent of respondents have financial concerns about committing to a career in the sector, while only one-third aspire to become executive directors. The survey found that only 4 percent of non- profit staff are being groomed to become their organization's leader and that women are less likely to be developed as leaders than are men. More at http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10011692/story.

Philanthropy among the super-rich
If the excessive lifestyles of the rich have been partly to blame for destroying the environment, then it seems equitable that they use their money to preserve it. According to last year's Merrill Lynch survey of the world's wealth, there are 9.5 million US dollar millionaires in the world today, who have pocketed $37.2 trillion between them. By 2011, Merrill Lynch says, this tiny (but growing) group of people will have more than $50 trillion in their bank accounts. That money could go a long way to aid the fight against climate change and other global concerns. But just a modest proportion of this exclusive group have realized this. Around 11 percent of the world's richest gave 7 percent of their wealth to philanthropic causes in 2006; and 17 percent of the world's "ultra rich" (those with more than $30 million to their names) gave 10 percent. Reported by CNN at http://www.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/03/02/eco.philanthropy/.

"Gender mainstreaming" carries both potentials and pitfalls
"Gender mainstreaming" is a phrase often used in development work and civil society organizations. International agencies such as the UN and the World Bank all have gender mainstreaming policies. Despite efforts by both large and small organizations, however, observers argue that the concept is not always fully understood nor properly implemented. It has become fashionable to speak about "gender mainstreaming an organization" without undertaking the necessary steps to ensure it is sustainable and has real practical effects. Gender mainstreaming is a strategy and a tool, emphasize practitioners, not an end in itself. More at http://www.civicus.org/new/content/CIVICUSGenderMainstreaming.html.

UK aid groups say conditions in Gaza are at a 40-year low
Gaza's humanitarian situation is at its worst since 1967, according to several UK-based human rights and development groups, including Amnesty International, Save the Children, and Christian Aid. The groups have criticized Israel's blockade on Gaza as illegal collective punishment which fails to deliver security. Israel's Defense Ministry has rejected the criticism, blaming the Hamas militant group which controls Gaza. "The main responsibility for events in Gaza is the Hamas organization, to which all complaints should be addressed," a statement read. A new report by these aid agencies, "Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion", says the blockade has dramatically worsened levels of poverty and unemployment and has led to deterioration in education and health services. More than 1.1 million Gazans are dependent on food aid, and of 110,000 workers previously employed in the private sector, 75,000 have now lost their jobs, the report says. The UK-based groups agree that Israel has the right and obligation to protect its citizens, urging both sides to cease unlawful attacks on civilians. But they call upon Israel to comply with its obligations, as the occupying power in Gaza, to ensure its inhabitants have access to food, clean water, electricity and medical care. Reported by the BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7280026.stm.

March 3, 2008

Foundation giving to international affairs continues an upward rise, new study finds
A new study by the Foundation Center has found that grantmaking in international affairs, development, and peace has increased more rapidly than giving to any other cause. Contributions to international groups by foundations jumped to US$4.2 billion in 2006, representing 22 percent of all foundation giving. Not surprisingly, the single biggest factor in this jump was the Gates Foundation, especially in light of the mammoth grant given the Gates Foundation by Warren Buffett. More at http://foundationcenter.org/gainknowledge/research/pdf/fgt08highlights.pdf.

Foundations inch their way towards mission-related investing
A small but growing number of foundations are shifting strategies to address climate change, on two fronts. First, more foundations are supporting work to address climate change as part of their charitable giving. Second, more foundations are seeing the importance of managing their investment portfolios and proxy votes to support clean energy and address climate change. Still, for most foundations there remains a large disconnect between what their missions support and what their invested endowments actually support. More at http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/2470.html.

"Oprah's Big Give" sparks charity and controversy
A new reality television show produced by mega-celebrity Oprah Winfrey will pit contestants against each other to demonstrate just how charitable they are. Participants must locate a stranger of Winfrey's choosing and complete an act of kindness with limited resources and time. The givers are then judged and eliminated by a panel of celebrities. The prize: $1 million. Many are skeptical about Ms. Winfrey's latest venture. Robert Bianco of USA Today says that the show's reality format "turns charity into a competitive sport" and lends little attention to the underlying issues that may be affecting those in need. "Give is a throwback to a time when the poor were expected to be grateful for whatever they were given," he writes. "Seldom has the drive to do good works been as alarmingly, offensively presumptuous." More at http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2008-02-28-oprahs-big-give_N.htm.

New party in Afghanistan to focus on women's rights
"National Need" is the title of a new political party, the first of its kind, dedicated to women's rights and issues in Afghanistan. Fatima Nazari, an Afghan parliamentarian who is the driving force behind National Need, hopes the party will help put women's rights at the forefront of the national political debate. The party intends to run in the next parliamentary elections, likely in three years' time. "I believe women understand their own problems better than men would," she says, adding that National Need will seek to increase women's participation in politics and business. "We want to campaign for democracy, not only talk about democracy. In this way, we want to work with our brothers and the rest of Afghan society." More at http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/02/b39afc45-c260-4a00-81da-04fbb584049f.html.

February 25, 2008

New study explores foundation administrative expenses
A new report, issued by the Foundation Center and others, provides some insight into administrative expenses at US foundations. Among the findings, some not particularly surprising: Foundations with higher assets tend to pay out more in administrative costs than smaller foundations, as they often have more and higher-paid staff and carry out more-complicated activities. Economic dips and the stock-market had some bearing on the percentage of administrative expenses claimed in the annual 5-percent payout rate. Roughly 30 percent of the foundations in the study employed staff, while roughly 25 percent compensated board members. According to the study's authors, large US foundations are a diverse bunch: "even among foundations of the same type, differences in assets, giving levels, work styles, geographic reach, and program type vary dramatically and produce very different expense and compensation patterns." More at http://foundationcenter.org/gainknowledge/research/nationaltrends.html.

WHO official is critical of Gates Foundation's influence
The chief of malaria for the World Health Organization (WHO) has complained that the growing dominance of malaria research by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation risks stifling a diversity of views among scientists and wiping out WHO's policy-making function, the New York Times recently reported. The malaria chief, Dr. Arata Kochi, believes that the foundation's money, while crucial, could have "far-reaching, largely unintended consequences. Many of the world's leading malaria scientists are now "locked up in a 'cartel' with their own research funding being linked to those of others within the group," Dr. Kochi wrote. Because "each has a vested interest to safeguard the work of the others," he wrote, getting independent reviews of research proposals "is becoming increasingly difficult." Also, he argued, the foundation's determination to have its favored research used to guide the health organization's recommendations "could have implicitly dangerous consequences on the policy-making process in world health." Dr. Tadataka Yamada, executive director of global health at the Gates Foundation, disagreed with Dr. Kochi's conclusions, saying the foundation did not second-guess or "hold captive" scientists or research partnerships that it backed. "We encourage a lot of external review," he said. More at www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/science/16malaria.html?ex=1203829200&en=20601be8f6ad6770&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Just 4% of the world's oceans remain pristine, according to new study
Human activities have affected approximately 40 percent of the world's oceans, leaving only about 4 percent relatively pristine, a new study has found. The study documents how human activities and by-products such as fishing, fertilizer runoff, commercial shipping, and pollution have affected marine ecosystems, continental shelves, and the deep ocean. Damage includes reductions in fish and sea animals as well as problems for coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, rocky reefs and shelves, and seamounts. The areas least affected by human activities are concentrated near the poles, although those areas increasingly are being affected by climate change. More at http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OCEAN_THREATS?SITE=INEVA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT.

Biotech crops are on the rise in the global South
A study released last week has found that genetically engineered crops are spreading their reach throughout the world, with the biggest growth in the developing world. Biotech crops were planted by farmers in 2007 in 12 developing countries; these countries outnumber industrialized countries where such crops are grown. In 2007, 282.3 million acres of the world's cropland were planted with soybeans, corn, cotton and other crops genetically altered to resist pests and herbicides, an increase of about 12 percent from the previous year, according to the report. Among global South countries, Argentina topped the list, with 47 million acres in biotech corn, soy and cotton. Brazil came next, with 37 million acres of biotech cotton and soy. Globally, the US leads in production of biotech agriculture, with 142 million acres planted with engineered crops. The planting of biotech corn rose 40 percent in 2007 from 2006, to nearly 20 million acres, driven mainly by the demand for ethanol. The report drew criticism from advocates of traditional agriculture, who warned that adopting genetically engineered crops could trap poor farmers in a cycle of debt to the multinational companies that own patents on the seeds. More at www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/business/worldbusiness/14biotech.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

February 18, 2008

Fidelity's Charity Funds Top $1 Billion in Donations
Surpassing the billion-dollar mark in annual charitable donations, the philanthropic arm of Fidelity Investments gave away $1.17 billion last year, the largest amount in its history and a 24 percent increase over 2006. The spike in donations marked the third consecutive year of record giving at the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, which enables individual donors to set up accounts that function as their own personal foundations. Fidelity attributed the growth in donations largely to a reduction in the minimum contribution required to set up a giving account. Donors can now create an account with a minimum investment of $5,000 and decide which nonprofits should receive a gift. In another change to the fund's giving process, fidelity also lowered the minimum size of individual grants to $100 from $250, enabling account holders to support higher numbers of nonprofits by spreading their money more widely. Last year, Fidelity donors made about 287,000 individual grants. More at www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/02/07/fidelitys_charity_funds_tops_1b_in_donations

Gates Foundation Forms Advisory Panel for Global Health Program
Like the panels created in September for the Global Development and US programs, the Global Health panel will provide counsel and feedback to the foundation. It will function for an initial period of three years, at which time the foundation and panel members will evaluate next steps. Panels meet twice a year, and members provide advice to the program presidents on strategic issues. The panels are part of the foundation's ongoing effort to seek out the counsel of outside voices who can help increase the impact of its work. Members of the Global Health panel will not be involved in the foundation's funding decisions but will work directly with the program's leader. "These panels are an important part of our ongoing effort to seek input and guidance from experts to deepen our impact," said Patty Stonesifer, CEO of the foundation. "The members of the Global Health advisory panel will serve as critical partners in our effort to address some of the world's most serious health inequities. We are honored that these distinguished experts have agreed to serve as advisors." More at fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10011256/story

Post-Crisis Community Recovery and Renewal
In the spring of 2007, Global Fund for Children brought together 22 grantee partners from its Recovery & Renewal program for a five day Knowledge Exchange. Participants from tsunami affected Thailand, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka were joined by Hurricane Katrina affected partners from Mississippi and Louisiana, along with partners affected by the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. Specific session topics included: engaging governments after a disaster; organizational impacts of disaster (funding, community outreach, mission); engaging youth and addressing the different needs of boys and girls; and thematic focuses following a disaster: psychosocial needs, prioritizing education and children without support. Victoria Dunning, Vice President of Grantmaking Programs at Global Fund for Children wrote an article for the December 2007 edition of Monday Developments, InterAction's monthly publication on the issues and lessons that emerged during the Knowledge Exchange. Dunning wrote, "Perhaps, most importantly, the lessons from the workshop and the manifesto remind us that particularly in times of disaster and distress, accountability is in itself a goal that must be integrated in disaster prevention and preparedness. It is the mutually accountable relationships and partnerships established long before the chaos ensues that will carry those involved through relief and rebuilding." More at www.globalfundforchildren.org/pdfs/2007_KnowledgeCrisisArticle_VictoriaDunning.pdf

Bush Slashes Funding for Women and Families Around the World
President Bush's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2009 would dramatically cut funding for international family planning and sexual and reproductive health programs. The proposed funding level represents a $134 million (or 29%) cut from current levels. This budget proposal continues a disturbing downward trend in funding for these vital health programs for women and families. Since 1995, US funding for family planning programs has fallen nearly $100 million – a 39 percent reduction when adjusted for inflation and the FY 2009 budget request would equal a nearly 60% reduction below the amount provided for these programs in FY 1995. These cuts have occurred despite a growing need and demand for reproductive health care in the developing world. For example, the number of women of reproductive age in the developing world alone has increased by approximately 275 million women since 1995. The funding reduction also coincides with President Bush continuing to withhold money from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which might otherwise be able to help compensate for the funding shortfall. President Bush has withheld nearly $200 million from UNFPA since 2002, despite funding appropriated by the United States Congress. More at www.populationaction.org/Press_Room/Press_Releases/02_04_Bush_Slashes_Funding.shtml

February 11, 2008

Consumed: extra helping
Over the last few months, some visitors to the website of Kiva, a nonprofit that lets users make interest-free "microloans" to entrepreneurs in developing countries, were greeted with a surprising message. "Thanks Kiva Lenders!" it began. "You've funded EVERY business on the site!!" The note encouraged the visitor to check back soon, as a new batch of loan-seeking entrepreneurs will often appear mere minutes later. But still, Kiva is a philanthropic organization facing an extremely unusual challenge: maintaining adequate supply (people who need help) to meet demand (people who want to give it). Kiva has attracted more than $19.5 million worth of loans, from more than 220,000 individuals. The site presents a photo of each loan seeker and a short summary of who and where they are and what they want the money for. With a few clicks you can help someone on the other side of the world and play a part in solving the problems of global inequality that so often seem insurmountable. The venture started in 2005, a time when skepticism about, for example, whether the huge sums donated to tsunami relief efforts were doing any good. It also dovetailed with an increased interest in a more capitalistic version of philanthropy that felt more like investing than simply giving.
More at www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/magazine/27wwln-consumed-t.html?_r=1&ex=1202446800&en=84001c3d3d120a1e&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

New study sheds light on foundations' charitable expenses
Nearly one-quarter of the nation's 10,000 largest private, community, and corporate foundations did not report any administrative expenses as part of their annual minimum-payout requirement, a new study has found. The report was issued today by the Urban Institute, the Foundation Center, and GuideStar. The study pinpointed only those administrative expenses directly related to charitable and program activities, which count toward the federal government's 5-percent minimum-payout requirement for private foundations. The study did not take into account, for instance, expenses related to investment activities. Says Elizabeth Boris, the study's coauthor and director of the Urban Institute's Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy: "It was surprising to a lot of folks, the extent to which there are large foundations that are being run by volunteers or that are absorbing the costs themselves." The report flags the need for improvements to the IRS Form 990, the public document filed by community foundations, and IRS Form 990-PF, the document filed by private and corporate foundations, particularly with regard to salaries and compensation. Ms. Boris adds that the current IRS forms have a "catch-all" category that doesn't allow for proper reporting of the types of expenses many foundations incur.
More at philanthropy.com/news/updates/index.php?id=3922

Kenyan women respond to the post-electoral crisis
Kaari Murungi, a leading Kenyan lawyer and woman activist, is the director of Urgent Action Fund – Africa. The situation in Kenya remains very grim and Murungi and her colleagues in Kenya are mobilizing and responding, recently presenting a declaration to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's mediation team when they arrived in Kenya. An excerpt from the declaration reads, "Kenyan women assert their rights as citizens of this country to participate in all political processes and initiatives that seek to find solutions to the crisis that currently engulfs our motherland. We are mindful of our special responsibilities in all the spheres of nation building including truth & justice seeking, peacebuilding and reconciliation. We embrace all our diversities as we collectively seek solutions. We acknowledge that in the resolution of the current conflict, there has to be 'give and take' from both sides of the political divide. We assert that as citizens we must take responsibility for resolving and transforming the conflict and the inclusion and participation of civic groups, including women's groups at the community level is critical to the success of efforts to resolve the conflict."
More at www.urgentactionfund.org/new_site/assets/files/uaf-africa-pubs/Kenya%20Women's%20Mediation%20UAF.pdf

300,000 children worldwide recruited to fight wars
While precise estimates are difficult to come by, some 250,000 to 300,000 children globally are being recruited to fight in armed conflicts in violation of international law, a United Nations official said today, reporting mixed progress in efforts to tackle the problem. Briefing reporters in New York on the UN's most recent report on children and armed conflict, UN representatives voiced hope that the Security Council would take decisive action in response to its findings. Children are being recruited by groups in Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, the Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Uganda, according to the report. The report draws attention to disturbing trends exacerbating the problem of child conscription, including a close link between camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the recruitment of children.
More at www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2008/080130_Coomaraswamy.doc.htm

February 4, 2008

Donor tyranny a growing trend?
For about the last decade, charity experts say, donors have increasingly earmarked their charitable gifts, requiring recipients to spend the money exactly as prescribed. The trend intensified after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th, experts say, in large part because of the Red Cross. Donors and regulators protested loudly when the organization announced that it would spend part of the roughly $1 billion it had raised after the attacks on much-needed equipment and other upgrades that would allow it to cope with future disasters. The Red Cross quickly canceled its upgrade plans, and when the dust settled, announced a new policy, Donor Direct, that bound it to spend every last penny of an earmarked donation for the donor-specified purpose and no other. Charities with similar donor controls are also struggling. Relief organizations receive plenty of donations for a specific crisis, but can't find the money to build wells to supply clean drinking water; hospitals have more than enough support for breast cancer research but have to beg on behalf of kidney research. "Nonprofits need to do a better job of educating the donor about the costs of running their operations and of saying no, which is, of course, very, very hard," said Diana Aviv, president of the Independent Sector, a nonprofit trade group. "But it's also hard to run an organization when you have a million donors insisting on running it, too." More at www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/weekinreview/20strom.html?oref=login

Cultivating loyalty after a disaster
Holding onto donors who are inspired to give after disasters, has typically been difficult for charities. But American Jewish World Service and a few other charities have achieved some success in securing additional gifts from people who supported tsunami relief efforts – and using that money to expand their organizations. The year before the disaster, the organization had received money from about 4,890 people. Today, the New York charity, which gives money to grassroots groups overseas, has a budget of about $31-million, compared with $7.1-million in 2003. The organization was just beginning to expand its fund-raising efforts when the tsunamis hit. Suddenly, a three-year plan that the charity had developed to expand the number of its supporters was "put on hyper-speed," says Riva Silverman, director of development. Within ten weeks, the group had raised nearly $12-million in response to the tsunamis, more than it had received in any single year to that date. In its direct-mail appeals, e-mail messages, and conversations with donors, and through its website, the group drove home the idea that the scale of suffering after the tsunamis was not unique to India, Indonesia, or Sri Lanka. Appeals reminded supporters that the charity's grantees fight "silent tsunamis," such as malnutrition, disease, and poverty, all over the world every day. The group developed a five-year plan to spend the money it raised, with the aim of providing not only immediate relief but also long-term assistance to help communities cope with the psychological and financial toll of the disaster. More at www.ajws.org/assets/uploaded_documents/cop_1_7_08.pdf

Gates Foundation's agriculture aid a hard sell
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is dramatically expanding its efforts to help the world's poorest farmers, with goals every bit as ambitious as its better-known global-health work fighting diseases such as AIDS and malaria. But the foundation's nascent agricultural program is encountering more resistance than much of its other work, with critics concerned that its market-oriented, technology-centric approach will open the door to big agribusiness interests and genetically engineered food. The Gates Foundation began making grants a year and a half ago, spending $350 million so far. Its aim is to radically boost farm productivity in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia in a short time by introducing new seed varieties, irrigation, fertilizer, training for farmers and access to local and international markets. The foundation explored how it could address poverty for about two years before settling on agriculture, seeing it as a natural extension of its work in health. It's uncertain whether even the wealthiest private foundation can spur change where decades of aid and development work have failed and people have learned to distrust the rosy promises of outsiders. The wrong steps could end up exacerbating their problems, critics say. "What is at stake here is the very future of the continent's agricultural practices — what is grown, how it is grown, who gets to grow it, who processes it, who sells it and ... how much the African consumer will pay," Kenyan political columnist Mukoma Wa Ngugi wrote in December in a critique of the foundation's work. More at seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004135235_gatesagriculture200

What America must do?
America's relationship with the world is in disrepair. Anger, resentment, and fear have replaced the respect the US once enjoyed. In its recent edition, Foreign Policy magazine asked a group of the world's leading thinkers to answer one question: What single policy or gesture can the next president of the US make to improve America's standing in the world? Respondents to this question ranged from Desmond Tutu to Newt Gingrich and the Global Fund for Women's Kavita Ramdas who wrote, "At such a moment, what is needed is a sudden and unmistakable break from the past. It should be a policy that clearly demonstrates that the world's most powerful country is willing to harness its resources to benefit those who, so far, have been denied power. The next president should make a public commitment to use his or her office to promote global gender equality for the next four years." More at www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4096

January 28, 2008

Google.org announces initiatives to combat climate change, poverty, emerging threats
Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Internet search giant Google, has announced five core initiatives that will be the focus of its philanthropic efforts over the next five to ten years. The organization also announced $25 million in new grants and investments to partners working in each area. Three of the five initiatives had not been previously announced. The Predict and Prevent initiative will work to identify emerging threats, from infectious diseases to environmental disasters, before they become local, regional, or global crises. The Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services initiative will work to improve the delivery of basic services to the poor in India and East Africa. And the Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises initiative will support efforts to lower investment transaction costs associated with small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries, create opportunities for SMEs to access larger financial markets, and make investments in the SME sector. More at foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=201100024

Interview with Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South
In this interview, Bello responds to questions regarding the future of the World Social Forum and its role in influencing progressive, political changes. An excerpt from the interview reads, "Taking stands on key issues like US aggression in the Middle East, Zionist oppression of the Palestinian people, and the poverty-creating neoliberal paradigm is vital to making the WSF vibrant and relevant. Refusing to take stands on the grounds that these will drive away some people is a sure way of ultimately making a movement irrelevant. The movements that advance and grow are those that are not afraid to take stands on the vital issues of our times. I am not talking about staking stands on 1001 issues but on the core issues of our times, maybe about six or seven of them. The WSF as an 'open space' idea can either be implemented in a liberal direction or in a committed, progressive direction. Being partisan on issues that advance justice, equality, and democracy should be seen as a virtue, not as a stance to be shunned." More at www.focusweb.org/alejandro-kirk-interviews-walden-bello.html?Itemid=150

Congo's contract review and mineral wealth
Watchdog groups such as Global Witness estimate that 70 percent of Congo's copper wealth may already by sold-off to foreign mining companies without little discernible benefit to the Congolese people. Billions of dollars have been raised in the financial markets of London, New York and Toronto while the Congolese people suffer from crushing poverty and debilitating and incessant conflict. According to the Canadian Journal Corporate Knights, some companies stand to gain spectacular wealth at the expense of the Congolese people. Tenke Mining from Canada, who recently merged with the Lundin Group, acquired the Tenke Fungurume concession for just $15 million. The mine is reputed to be valued at $60-billion and contains the largest and highest grade of undeveloped copper cobalt deposits in the world. American mining giant Phelps-Dodge, recently bought out by Freeport McMoRan, also has ownership in the Tenke Fungurume deposits. In spite of reports by human rights groups that the contracts around Tenke Fungurume represent one of the most odious in the Congo, the United States government Overseas Private Investment Corporation recently provided risk insurance for Freeport McMoRan's billion dollar Congolese venture. More at www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/45463

China development fund signs first deal in Africa
China Africa Development Fund has signed its debut investment deal in Africa, as the government tries to increase strategic cooperation there. The fund will invest more than $90 million in four Chinese companies with projects in Africa, China Development Bank (CDB), the fund's main backer, said. The fund signed deals with the companies CGC Overseas Construction Co, Sinosteel Corp, Shenzhen Energy Investment Co and China National Building Material Co Ltd. The investment will mainly support housing, urban infrastructure, water conservation and industrial park projects and the development of Africa's power, construction material, infrastructure and mining industries. According to CDB, the fund's first phase, launched with $1 billion from the country's largest policy bank, will not only finance Chinese firms that have set up operations in Africa but will provide advice for those planning to invest there. The fund will be expanded to $3 billion in the second phase and eventually to $5 billion when it gets more investors on board. More at www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-01/16/content_6398502.htm

January 18, 2008

As anonymous gifts increase, pressure to reveal donors grows
Even as nonprofits find themselves under increasing pressure to disclose their benefactors' names, anonymous giving to US charities by major donors is growing. According to an analysis by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, thirty-seven gifts of at least $5 million were made in 2007 by donors who refused to have their names publicly announced, up from twenty-seven such gifts in 2006 and thirteen in 2004. Publicity-shy donors say they choose to donate anonymously to give back to their communities while avoiding the headaches - including overeager fundraisers, jealous relatives, and risks to their personal safety - that come with a high public profile. Others give without fanfare for religious reasons. A growing discomfort with publicity on the part of some donors has been a boon for donor-advised funds, said Melissa Berman, CEO of New York City-based Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Such funds enable donors to give to a charity in the name of the entity that runs the fund, while providing donors with tax breaks of up to 50 percent (compared to the maximum 30 percent deduction a donor receives when giving through a private foundation). At the same time, proponents of greater disclosure by charities argue that keeping donors' identities secret can mask efforts by wealthy individuals and corporations to use philanthropy as a tool to influence policy. More at online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB119983974264576399.html

Charity vs. capitalism in Africa
All across Africa, there's new hope in the long-running battle against malaria. In the last decade, funding to control the preventable, treatable disease has increased tenfold. And now, millions of insecticide-laced nets that keep mosquitoes away from sleeping men, women, and children are making their way into a growing number of homes, helping to defeat the spread of a disease that still kills up to 3 million people a year and 3,000 children a day. Experts say Africa could need upwards of 90 million bed nets to fight back against a disease that costs the continent an estimated $12 billion per year in lost economic potential. But while the distribution of treated bed nets is a welcome development, many health-care advocates are troubled by how slowly it's happening. Indeed, the pace of progress raises profound ideological questions over the best way to disseminate the life-saving nets, and, indeed, all sorts of assistance. On one side are believers in the traditional aid model, who say that bed nets should be given away for free by governments and nonprofits to reach the maximum number of people as quickly as possible. On the other side are backers of so-called social marketing, who argue that bringing businesses into the mix improves efficiency and adds incentives and economic benefits to doing good. Harnessing the private sector, they say, creates self-reliance, not dependence. More at www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jan2008/gb2008012_674324.htm

Iraq prisoner amnesty to exclude gays
Equating homosexuals with terrorists, the Iraq government has announced it is considering the release of some 5,000 prisoners but said it would not include terrorists or gays. The Iraqi government has about 20,000 people in custody, while the U.S. military holds about 25,000. Homosexuality itself is not illegal in Iraq, but police regularly arrest gays on other charges often trumped up. The amnesty bill drafted by the Shiite-dominated government falls far short of Sunni demands. About the only thing on which the two sides agree is that imprisoned gays not be freed. The amnesty would cover less than a quarter of the total number of people held in Iraqi prisons, and none of those held by the American military. Sunni parliamentarians have criticized the bill for its limited scope. They have argued that most prisoners are charged with terrorist crimes, rendering it ineffective. Some also fear referring the bill to Iraq's gridlocked parliament will actually delay prisoner releases. The total number of gays being held is not known. And, they may be the lucky ones, according to some LGBT activists. Death squads imposing strict Islamic law are reportedly responsible for the murders of hundreds of gay men across Iraq. More at www.365gay.com/Newscon08/01/010208iraq.htm

International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC) announces top ten gains in women's health rights in 2007
Women's health was a priority concern in 2007, as global donors, international agencies, and influential private foundations realized that investing in women's health is investing in the world. From new commitments to sex education programs to progress on securing a women's right to abortion, these ten developments show that women's health was a priority concern in 2007, but will continue to require attention and dedication in 2008. IWHC's list of notable events include a move by Mexico City's legislature to legalize abortion, making it the largest Latin American city to allow abortion. In the first 100 days following legalization, doctors performed some 1,500 legal abortions with no fatalities, compared to an estimated 3,500 deaths from unsafe abortion in the year before legalization. Also making the list was the decision by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria to develop gender policy to encourage and support national AIDS control programs to invest in girls and women. More at www.iwhc.org/resources/toptenindex2007.cfm

Gw/oB is hiring! Please help us spread the word!
Grantmakers Without Borders has launched a search for a new Membership Coordinator. This staff person, to be based in San Francisco, will be responsible for selected member services, including the Weekly Planet and the Membership Directory. S/he will be responsible for recruiting a strong membership and keeping them engaged. S/he will also take on some fundraising activities. Gw/oB is looking for a strategic-thinking, hard-working individual who will really sink their teeth into the wonderful opportunities this position has to offer and run with it. S/he must be a true "people person," and at the same time, be able to thrive in a very independent work setting. S/he must have fundraising experience, strong writing and editing skills, mastery of basic software programs including eTapestry, and great organizational skills. Experience in a membership association is a real plus. Please help us spread the word about this exciting employment opportunity. Thanks!

Gw/oB staff participate in major conferences in Maastricht and Mexico
Two of Gw/oB's staff are traveling this month to participate in important philanthropy and civil society conferences. Vanessa has just returned from Maastricht, the Netherlands, where the Dutch development organization CORDAID brought together roughly 100 NGO and foundation leaders to discuss counter terrorism measures, security and development. Vanessa was invited to participate in this primarily European conference to bring her deep understanding of the US context of these issues. This week, John leaves for Queretaro, Mexico to participate in International Funders for Indigenous Peoples' conference on grantmaking in Indigenous communities. John will lead a workshop entitled "Redefining Wealth and Progress: Evaluation in Indigenous Communities" and later participate in a funder delegation to Oaxaca.

January 11, 2008

Foundation testing the potential of philanthropy via the Internet
The Case Foundation recently embarked on an effort to test the potential of citizen-led philanthropy via the Internet. Readers of Parade magazine and members of the Causes section of the website Facebook entered a contest to win $500,000 for their favorite charities, provided by Case. The prizes will go to the charities and causes that attract the greatest numbers of donors, rather than the one that raises the most money. Jean Case, who founded the Case Foundation with her husband, Steve, founder of America Online, explained the motivation behind the initiative by saying, "Small amounts of money given by large numbers of individuals can be combined to do great things." Randy Siegel, publisher of Parade, said he saw the program as "a wonderful way to give our 70 million readers a firsthand look at how the Internet and technology have revolutionized charitable giving." The contest is one of a string of efforts by Case to determine what role online technologies can have in the charity field. More at www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/us/13foundation.html?

New grants program encourages college students to become philanthropists
In an effort to nurture a future generation of philanthropists, the charitable arm of Fidelity Investments is giving five colleges each a $15,000 fund that students will decide how to distribute as grants. The program, sponsored by Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, the country's fourth-largest public charity, will put the students in the role of real-life philanthropists. Just as trustees at private foundations and other grantmaking organizations do, they will have a chance to form boards of directors, create donor guidelines, research prospective grant recipients, choose which nonprofits should get money and how much they should receive. "They get to do the whole thing," said Kristen McCormack, faculty director of the public and nonprofit management program at Boston University's School of Management, which offers a course that will dovetail with Fidelity's program. BU was chosen from 35 schools in 16 states that competed for one of Fidelity's donor-advised funds, which allow private individuals to recommend grant recipients. Competing schools were asked to submit proposals that outlined a "holistic charitable giving program" that would integrate the fund into a winter/spring 2008 course on nonprofits and philanthropy. More at www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/12/14/fidelity_program_encourages_good_will

New foundation established: Arab Women's Fund
Women activists from across the Arab world celebrated the creation of the Arab Women's Fund in Amman, Jordan on 28 November. It is the first foundation in the region dedicated exclusively to supporting initiatives by women and prioritizing women's rights. Advocates of women's rights in the Arab world have received relatively little support compared to their global counterparts, and little of the region's oil wealth goes toward advancing women's rights. The Arab Women's Fund aims to reverse this trend by fostering a local culture of giving that supports women's leadership and prioritizes women's needs. By bringing donations from local investors directly to women across the region, the fund will support women to define their own priorities for action and to access positions of influence. The fund also aims to combat the pervasive stereotype that all women in the Arab world are victims of oppression by helping dynamic women leaders bring their assets, experience and vision to bear on the most pressing issues of the day. More at www.awid.org/go.php?list=announcements&prefix=announcements&item=00427

Britain's Gordon Brown enlists global corporations' support to make millennium development goals a reality
Gordon Brown plans to harness at least 20 of the world's biggest multinational companies, including Google and Vodafone, to tackle a "development emergency" in the world's poorest countries and put the international community back on course to achieve seven UN development goals by 2015. The Prime Minister has been holding talks with the Internet and telecom giants as well as other international companies including Goldman Sachs and Wal-Mart in an attempt to find ways of increasing growth in poor countries. Brown will use three set-piece events next year to reinvigorate the drive to hit the UN's millennium development goals, set in 2000. Brown told the Guardian: "We are half way to the target date of 2015, but a long way off track to our goals and face a development emergency." More at www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/dec/10/internationalaidanddevelopment.google/print

December 13, 2007

Respected academic questions new strategy at Public Welfare Foundation
In a recent edition of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Pablo Eisenberg issued a critique of the newly announced directions of the Public Welfare Foundation (PWF). Eisenberg wrote that for many years PWF has enjoyed a distinguished, well-deserved reputation as an innovative and risk-taking foundation that supported new ideas and helped grassroots organizations finance advocacy efforts that few grantmakers were willing to support. However, with its recent changes in staff leadership and priorities, Eisenberg warns that this distinction may be in jeopardy. PWF has made changes that reflect a bigger transformation in much of the grant-making world: the desire to focus on one or two things in the hopes of making a difference, rather than realizing that plenty of foundations make a huge impact by supporting a lot of innovative, scrappy organizations. At PWF, what has been lost is the very approach that enabled it to make a major difference and to exert probably more influence than any other American foundation of its size. (For a copy of the complete article, please contact susan@gwob.net)

Barron's article on wise giving features Gw/oB member: Firelight Foundation
Barron's asked Geneva Global, a top consulting firm in philanthropy, to identify 10 donors who epitomize thoughtful and effective giving. "There are lists everywhere of who the biggest philanthropists are, but that doesn't answer the real question: the biggest givers may not be the most effective," says Steve Beck, chief executive officer of Geneva Global. After all, he points out, no one measures the caliber of an investor by the size of the portfolio, but by the returns. Being effective means finding the right way to give. "We saw that we could have a significant impact with small dollars, if they were given to the smaller rural organizations that also worked most closely with the people who needed help," says Kerry Olson, who along with husband David Katz launched the Firelight Foundation to help children infected with or orphaned by AIDS. "Most donors don't want to give small gifts, but that money hits the ground running." More at http://online.barrons.com/article/SB119586338932402578-search.html?KEYWORDS=philanthropy&COLLECTION=barrons/6month

Looking to Bali and beyond, Ban Ki-Moon advocates green economics
As the curtain was raised on the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged leaders to create a global framework to promote green economics and development. "Handled correctly, our fight against global warming could set the stage for an eco-friendly transformation of the global economy, one that spurs growth and development rather than crimps it, as many nations fear." Like the Industrial Revolution, the technology revolution and the modern era of globalization, the Secretary-General observed that the world is on the cusp of a new age of green economics. Scientists report that human activities are driving climate change, but "largely lost in the debate is the good news," he noted, citing examples including Brazil, which derives some 44 per cent of its energy from renewable fuels - compared to the 13 per cent global average. Mr. Ban said that rather than suffer from a transition to a green economy, growth may in fact gain momentum through the creation of new jobs as investment in zero-greenhouse gas energy surges. More at www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24896&Cr=climate&Cr1=change

Goldman Sachs starts drive to build philanthropy fund
On the back of record profit so far this year, Goldman Sachs, the global investment bank, is starting a donor-driven philanthropy fund that aims to reach $1 billion over the next few years. The fund, GS Gives, is initially focused on the firm's roughly 350 partners who will be strongly encouraged to donate a fixed amount of their compensation. If each partner gives $250,000, the fund will begin with $87.5 million. Eventually the fund will be open to a larger group of Goldman employees. Goldman's asset management group will manage the fund for free. The program comes at a time of tremendous wealth creation for Goldman employees. The firm is one of a few that has been largely untouched by the meltdown in the subprime mortgage market and it stands out among its peers in the amount of money it has been able to make so far this year. In 2006 Goldman made $9.4 billion in profit; for the first nine months of 2007, it earned $8.2 billion. More at www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/business/21donate.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

Gates gives $50 million to avert China HIV epidemic
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced that it will commit $50 million to work in partnership with the Chinese government and non-governmental organizations to expand HIV prevention efforts in China. The funding will increase access to HIV prevention programs targeting those most vulnerable to infection, including injection drug users, sex workers, and men who have sex with men. "By rapidly expanding access to effective HIV prevention, China has an opportunity to prevent a widespread HIV/AIDS epidemic," said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation's Global Health Program. Although China's national HIV prevalence is low, less than 0.1% of the total population, infection rates are high among key risk groups. For example, HIV prevalence among injection drug users exceeds 50% in some provinces, and in the past two years there have been substantial increases in HIV infection rates among men who have sex with men. Stigma and discrimination against people with HIV remain major problems in China. For example, a 2005 study by researchers in Yunnan province found that nearly a third of doctors said they would refuse to treat an HIV-positive person. More at http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/155201/1/

Latin America's shock resistance
In less than two years, the lease on the largest and most important US military base in Latin America will run out. The base is in Manta, Ecuador, and Rafael Correa, the country's leftist president, has pronounced that he will renew the lease, "on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami, an Ecuadorean base. If there is no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorean base in the United States." Since an Ecuadorean military outpost in South Beach is a long shot, it is very likely that the Manta base, which serves as a staging area for the "war on drugs," will soon shut down. Correa's defiant stand is not, as some have claimed, about anti-Americanism. Rather, it is part of a broad range of measures being taken by Latin American governments to make the continent less vulnerable to externally provoked crises and shocks. This is a crucial development because for the past thirty-five years in Latin America, such shocks from outside have served to create the political conditions required to justify the imposition of "shock therapy", the constellation of corporate-friendly "emergency" economic measures like large-scale privatizations and deep cuts to social spending that debilitate the state in the name of free markets. More at www.thenation.com/doc/20071126/klein

Facing a threat to farming and food supply
Climate change may be global in its sweep, but not all of the globe's citizens will share equally in its woes. And nowhere is that truth more evident, or more worrisome, than in its projected effects on agriculture. India, on track to be the world's most populous country, could see a 40 percent decline in agricultural productivity by the 2080s as record heat waves bake its wheat-growing region, placing hundreds of millions of people at the brink of chronic hunger. Africa, where four out of five people make their living directly from the land, could see agricultural downturns of 30 percent, forcing farmers to abandon traditional crops in favor of more heat-resistant and flood-tolerant ones such as rice. Worse, some African countries are on track to suffer what amounts to complete agricultural collapse, with productivity declines of more than 50 percent. Even the emerging agricultural powerhouse of Latin America is poised to suffer reductions of 20 percent or more, which could return thriving exporters to the subsistence-oriented nations they were a few decades ago. More at www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800501.html?sub=new

Payout: How long should assets grow?
The accumulation of tax-exempt wealth has caught the eye of Congress, which held hearings earlier this year to explore why, when so many institutions are sitting on billions in assets, college tuition is increasing faster than the rate of inflation. The challenge many of the largest foundations face is that their assets continue to grow. By the end of 2005, for example, the philanthropy created by billionaire Charles Feeney, Atlantic Philanthropies, had awarded approximately $4 billion of Feeney's fortune to charitable causes around the world. But Atlantic, which has committed to spending its assets down by 2015, still has roughly $4 billion to dispose of over the next eight years. Similarly, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which already gives away some $1.5 billion a year, will soon have to award twice that much a year, thanks to Warren Buffett's decision to leave the majority of his fortune - some $31 billion - to the foundation. To date, the foundation has been able to meet its payout requirement without a huge increase in staff in part because it has partnered with - and in some cases helped create - NGOs capable of re-granting large amounts of money. More at www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/giving/12money.html?_r=2&ref=giving&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Alliance Magazine interview with Uday Khemka, The Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation
The Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation's mission has historically had nothing to do with climate change, but rather, has focused on poverty and development issues, microfinance and so on. In this interview with Alliance Magazine's Caroline Hartnell, Uday Khemka explains why the foundation became involved in climate change issues and its strategies for funding climate-related work. "It happened about three years ago," Khemka explains. "We started to realize that everything we were doing was fundamentally affected by this issue and could be literally washed over by it." For example, Khemka said, "India depends on the monsoon, and there is a serious danger that monsoon patterns will change. What happens if the Punjab starts to look like the desert country of Rajasthan? Well, the answer's very simple: a billion people starve. So what am I doing talking about microfinance?" Khemka is also haunted by the thought of what will happen to India's river systems if deglaciation in the Tibetan plateau continues at the present rate. "There will be a few years of flooding," he says, "and then the Ganges and other big rivers will become rivulets and a billion people will be without water." Given these scenarios, Khemka said, "We had no option but to dedicate an enormous amount of our resources to climate change." More at www.ega.org/news/docs/VOL_12_NO_3.pdf (scroll down to page 35).

UNEP brews up green energy revolution in tea and sugar industries
Cups of tea are becoming more environmentally friendly according to a new UNEP-led initiative, announced today to deliver small-scale hydroelectric power to plantations across East Africa. Those who enjoy a spoonful of sugar in their favorite daytime drink have double-cause to celebrate. In a separate but related initiative, sugar farmers will take part in a cogeneration project funded by the Global Environment Facility. Farmers will use waste from the sugar industry to generate electricity, in turn fuelling economic and rural growth in an environmentally safer way. These GEF-funded projects build on the successes with cogeneration in the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, where up to 40 per cent of the country's electricity needs are met by waste by-products from the sugar industry. Monique Barbut, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility, said this latest partnership between GEF and UNEP is a concrete example of how under the right government policy framework, sustainable development can work, and does work. "These two new UNEP-led projects showcase the multiple benefits sustainable development can have for rural areas, offering social, economic and environmental benefits that help locally and globally," she said. More at www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=521&ArticleID=5697&l=en

Human rights organizations urge the Bush Administration to cut military aid to Pakistan
US human rights groups have urged President Bush to cut off military aid to Pakistan if President Pervez Musharraf refuses to end emergency rule and release politicians, jurists and rights activists. In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the groups said Musharraf's imposition of emergency flew in the face of the Bush administration's policy of supporting freedom and democracy as an antidote to extremism. "We are writing to urge a significant increase in US pressure on the government of Pakistan to end martial law and to release those who have been detained or are under house arrest," they said. "This increased pressure should include a strong, unequivocal statement from President Bush explicitly condemning martial law and the subsequent arrests, and a cutoff of all security assistance until these repressive steps are reversed," according to the letter delivered Tuesday to Rice's office. The groups included Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, Freedom Home, The Carter Center, Global Rights, International Justice Mission, International League for Human Rights and Physicians for Human Rights. More at afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hy_9r6tk-bX8aGkjWs3J2PJUzsQA

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