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The Latest Issues ad Treds i Iteratial Develpmetad Humaitaria Assistace

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MonDAy DLoMnT MAAzIn

The FoodPrice CrisisWhats Fuelig It?

LookingToward Busan

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ad the newphere Hadbk

CareerStrategiesfr the noMarketplace

MicrofnanceExplained

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23 LkigTwards usaLooking ahead to the upcoming aideffectiveness forum and efforts tobring transparency to aid spending.By Alexandra Beech

25 rtecti tadardsad the phereHadbkWithout protection, humanitarianresponse becomes just servicedelivery.By Juan Michel

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15

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May2011M

ONDAY DEVELOPMENTS

15 areer trategiesfr the 2011 noMarketplaceTen common sense tips to help youfind the position thats right for you.By Nina Segal

17 Let Them at ake!The life of NGO interns living onleftovers from the conference room.By Jeanne Paradis

19 Micrace

fused: A Failure tmmuicateAn insider sets the record straight.By Christopher Dunford

22 Whats Fuelig theFd rice risis?New reports analyze causes andrecommend ways forward.By Eric Walcott22

FeAtureS

8 tartig Frm yes,ettig t HwMaking inclusion of peoplewith disabilities a reality in yourorganizations work.By Susan Sygall and Susan Dunn

11 mmuit-asedehabilitatiAn effective strategy for rightsbased, inclusive development.By Karen Heinicke-Motsch

13 tregtheig yurWrkfrceIncluding people with disabilitiesas staff in your organization hasits benefits.By Cathy Herholdt

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4/32MONDAY DEVELOPMENTSMay20114

Managing Edio/Ceaive DiChad Brobst

Adveising/Subscipion

Katherine Delaney

Copy Edio

Kathy Ward

Execuive EdioSue Pleming

News Edio

Tawana Jacobs

PoofeadeMargaret Christoph

Monday Developments Magais published by:

InterAction

1400 16th Street, NW, Suite

Washington, DC 20036

Tel: 202.667.8227

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ISSN 1043-8157

Monday Developments Magazinelished 11 times a year by Intethe largest alliance of U.S.-based tional development and humanitargovernmental organizations. Wit

than 190 members operating indeveloping country, InterAction wovercome poverty, exclusion anding by advancing social justice andignity for all.

InterAction welcomes submissinews articles, opinions and anments. Article submission does nantee inclusion in Monday DevelopWe reserve the right to reject sions for any reason. It is at the diof our editorial team as to which are published in individual issues.

All statements in articles are topinion and responsibility of the a

Articles may be reprinted with prmission and attribution. Letters editor are encouraged.

A limited number of subscriptiomade available to InterAction magencies as part of their dues. Insubscriptions cost $40 a year (afor airmail delivery outside thSamples are $5, including pAdditional discounts are availabulk orders. Please allow 4-6 wedelivery. Advertising rates are aon request.

MonDAy DLoMnT MAAz

Ref ect ionsf romthePresient

The international humanitarianand development NGO communityis often at the forefront ofinnovation and inclusion. We prideourselves on hiring local staff andintegrating cultural and gender issues into diverseprograms. Our communitys spearheading of inclusivepractices, nicely captured in InterActions PVO Standards, has led to broad efforts to shape donor practicesand U.S. government policies, including the recentQuadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review.Even with these successes, we must reflect on gaps

within our own community: What about disability?According to the United Nations Enable program,

over 500 million people live with disabilities globally.The World Bank estimates that 20 percent of theworlds poorest people have some form of disability.Clearly disability impacts huge numbers of peopleacross the world; and yet many people with disabilities are hidden from view. In many societies aroundthe world, having a disability is frequently seen as astigma, often resulting in discrimination that makesit even harder for those living with disabilities tofind jobs, complete school and be socially accepted.The discrimination is compounded for individualscoming from other minority or stigmatized socialgroups, namely women and girls with disabilities.

Women and girls are more likely to become disabled than men, often as a result of violence, armedconflict, aging and genderbased cultural discrimination. Being disabled frequently limits their accessto food, shelter, health care and work, as well astheir ability to live in a safe environment. Disabledwomen are usually worse off than nondisabledwomen or disabled men on a range of financial,educational and vocational indicators. Literacy ratescan be as low as 1 percent. Maternal healthcare isoften denied to disabled women since societies mayfear the consequences of disabled women bearing

children. With 20 percent of the worlds poor (especially women and girls) living under such marginaland demoralizing conditions, it is encouraging thatthe international community, with collective actionthrough the United Nations, is beginning to act.

The United States formally signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in July2009. The convention reaffirms the human rights andfundamental freedoms of persons with disabilitiesand ensures that those rights are protected, especiallywithin a social development framework. While yet tobe ratified by the U.S. Senate, the convention repre

sents a major commitmentby the Obama administration to promote disabilityinclusion internationallyand at the highest levels ofthe U.S. government. TheInterAction community isalready a leader in inclusive development practices.However, as the U.S. gov

ernment formalizes its support for people with disabilities, much more works needs to be done in bothofficial aid circles and the U.S. NGO community.

A number of InterAction members focus on dis

ability rights and issues. And just as our communityhas made great strides with gender, we must startto integrate and mainstream disability issues intoall of our programs and internal standards. Thiswill be quite a challenge for many organizations. Itinvolves expanding the context in which they operate: developing new strategies, capacities andenhanced staff training on the complexities of

disabil ityfocusedprograms. International NGOs shouldalso work to identifyand consult with disabled leaders in hostcommunities, empowering them to advocate and serve asdevelopment actorsthemselves. Disabilityfocused InterAction members are now

developing resources to facilitate this mainstreaming process, and more information on thoseresources can be found in this issue ofMondayDevelopments. As we continue to press the U.S. government to advance more inclusive policies, we musttap the resources already found within the InterAc

tion community and widely publicize best practicesconcerning our disability assistance and disabilityrights work. Only with continuous public dialogueon disability rights and a shift in developmentapproaches will there be systemic change for over500 million disabled people around the world. MD

Sam WorthingtonPresientnCEO

Interaction

What About Disability?

The World ankestimates that20 percent of

the worldspoorest peoplehave some formof disability.

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InfoBtes

Two NewWomens BlogsTrustLaw, a global hub for free

legal assistance founded by hom-son euters, has launched twonew blogs on women and womensrights.

The Word on Womenis aglobal hub on women and womensrights. Blogs already contributeddiscuss the subjects of womensland and inheritance rights, therights of women factory workers,reproductive rights, legal discrimi-nation against women and more.

he second is a blog launched

in honor of the centennial of Inter-national Womens Day. 100 yearsof International Womens Dais a series of posts that explorethe links between gender equalityand poverty alleviation, economicgrowth, innovation, agriculturalprogress and education.

Both blogs are available atwww.trust.org/trustlaw/blogs/blog-directory.

New Transparencyand Innovation BlogsAid transparency: What does itreally mean for you? Join donorofcials, aid workers, I experts andadvocates in discussing how aidtransparency could change yourwork.Full Disclosure: The aidtransparenc blogis a Devexblog co-created by ublish Whatyu Fud and written by membersof the international development

community.What about innovation? As partof its survey to nd the top 40innovators in developmenthon-orees announced April 18Devexhas launched DevelopmentInnovators, a weekly blog forguest aid and development lead-

ers to highlight innovations.Both blogs are viewable at

www.devex.com.

UN Study:How EcologicalFarming Can BoostFood ProductionOn March 8, the N releasedAgroecolog and the right to

food, a report advocating a shiftto more ecological agriculturalpractices as a method to allevi-ate poverty and potentially doublethe amount of food produced bysmall-scale farmers. he reports

author, olivier de chutter, states,odays scientic evidence demon-strates that agroecological methodsoutperform the use of chemical fertil-izers in boosting food productionwhere the hungry liveespecially inunfavorable environments.

Agroecology uses the natural

environment to design agriculturalsystems that rely on natural envi-ronments to increase soil produc-tivity and protect it against pests.By not relying on chemical fertil-izers or other costly tools, theseagricultural systems are also moreresistant to climatic shocks.

According to the report, agro-ecology has increased crop yieldsby an average of 80 percent in57 developing countries acrossthe globe; in the African countriesinvolved in the study, the increaseaveraged 116 percent. Over aperiod of several years, some proj-ects crop yields doubled.

he full report is available onlinethrough www.ohchr.org.

Flood-ResistantRice DevelopedOne of the risks for rice farmershas always been monsoon season:

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he rains can wash away up to 90percent of their crop, leaving thefarmers with massive lost income

and potentially rendering largeareas food insecure for a signicantperiod of time.

A groundbreaking project by theIteratial ice esearch

Istitute has developed a graincalled scuba rice that can surviveunderwater for up to two weeksor more. his means that after themonsoon rains have come andgone, farmers can recover up to 95percent of their rice crops. Not onlywould this help individual farmers,it would also save many nations

money that would otherwise haveto be spent on importing rice tocover the gap between what theyare able to produce and what theyneed to feed their citizens.

In addition to pilot projects inBangladesh, Cambodia, India,Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal,hilippines, hailand and Vietnam,scuba rice is also being tested inAfrica and for both drought and salttolerance.

On March 21, scuba rice wasnamed the most effective eco-initiative by a government or statu-tory body at the limate WeekAwards. For more information onhow this grain was developed visithttp://irri.org/.

TaggingMobile ContentMbileActive, a grassroots orga-nization whose aim is to help otherorganizations make use of mobilephones in their work, has postedinstructions on how to add location

information to mobile content andhow to remove it.

Adding location information(tagging) is useful in several ways.It adds both context and transpar-ency to your work. It helps journal-ists covering your stories. It allowsyour content to be more easilyaggregated into maps and otherinformation sharing platforms. ag-ging opens several different doors

to increase the impact of yourorganizations work.

However, in many areas, tagging

locations is a security concern,both for aid workers and the com-munities they serve. If that is thecase for content you are producingon your mobile phone, MobileAc-tive gives step-by-step instructionson how to check if your phone iscapturing that data and how todisable those features.

Location tagging and untagginginstructions are available at www.mobileactive.org/issue-categories/citizen-media.

Careers That Make aDifferenceIncreasingly, new graduates andother job searchers want theircareers to make a positive differ-ence in the world. Whether thisinvolves working at a nonprot, ata corporations social responsibil-ity branch, joining the Freigervice or other elds for socialchange, the job search processcan be difcult to navigate.

chig ree is launching aplatform of tools to help the socially-

conscious job searcher. he book,Work on urpose, is availablebeginning April 17, and showcasestrue stories of ve people who havecreated careers that meet this need.he book will also be accompaniedby an online platform and interactivetools to help the job searcher.

More information about Work onurposeis available at www.echo-inggreen.org/work-on-purpose.

Human rights, poverty reduction and humanitarian organizations areinvited to join a global effort to collect and disseminate digital informa-tion to advance the global disability rights movement. Organizationsthat do not specialize in disability are encouraged to respond to thisopportunity, as are disability-focused groups and individual advocates.

he lbal Disabilit ights Librar (GDL) project is strength-ening its resource collection and identifying 60 locations in developingcountries with limited Web access to receive a free, ofine copy of thedigital library. he GDL is a joint initiative of the nited States Iter-atial ucil Disabilities (SICD) and the Widernet r-ect at niversity of Iowa, with funding support from the U.. Agecfr Iteratial Develpmet.

Again and again, in country after country, people with disabilitiesare among the poorest of the poor, are left behind in humanitarianemergencies, and experience pervasive human rights violations, saysGDL rogram Manager Andrea Shettle. Advocates need moreknowledge to address these inequities, and thats where the GDLcomes in. We need the involvement of all interested organizations and

individuals to make this project succeed.he GDL project uses an innovative, ofine digital storage technol-

ogy called eGranary units to deliver the library to locations in develop-ing countries with limited Internet access. It is like having a slice of theInternet inside a box. In addition to the ofine version of the library, anon-line version will also be available.

Briey, here are three ways organizations or individuals can contribute: Suggest or contribute digital content. he GDL needs all lan-

guages and digital formats, especially accessible formats. hisincludes both disability-focused and mainstream content onhuman rights, poverty and humanitarian issues, capacity buildingfor grassroots organizations and accessibility software.

Help identify potential deployment sites in developing countries.Share information about the GDL with contacts and assist them

with the application process as needed. he application deadlineis September 1, 2011.

Consider offering, coordinating or hosting volunteer support inbuilding the digital library. A network of volunteers and internsaround the world are working every day to help identify importantcontent for the library.

For more information about this project, please visit the GDL Fre-quently Asked Questions (FAQ) page: http://www.usicd.org/index.cfm/gdrl-faq. You can also contact the GDL team via email at [email protected].

Opportunity for International Cooperationto Advance Disability Rights
http://irri.org/http://www.mobileactive.org/issue-categories/citizen-mediahttp://www.mobileactive.org/issue-categories/citizen-mediahttp://www.mobileactive.org/issue-categories/citizen-mediahttp://www.echoinggreen.org/work-on-purposehttp://www.echoinggreen.org/work-on-purposehttp://www.usicd.org/index.cfm/gdrl-faqhttp://www.usicd.org/index.cfm/gdrl-faqmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.usicd.org/index.cfm/gdrl-faqhttp://www.usicd.org/index.cfm/gdrl-faqhttp://www.echoinggreen.org/work-on-purposehttp://www.echoinggreen.org/work-on-purposehttp://www.mobileactive.org/issue-categories/citizen-mediahttp://www.mobileactive.org/issue-categories/citizen-mediahttp://www.mobileactive.org/issue-categories/citizen-mediahttp://irri.org/

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Countdown to Deauville:InterActions Advocacy Around the 2011French G8 Summit

The rup f ight ad IterActiepresenting only 15 percent of the global population but 65 percentof its GD (gross domestic product) and two-thirds of internationaltrade, the Group of ight (G8) countries form a small yet powerfulcollective. Lacking a legal framework or a secretariat to directly imple-ment its recommendations, the G8 countries heads of state andgovernment have nevertheless met once each year for the past threedecades to informally identify and address major political issues thatare international in scope and demand a common approach from theworlds advanced economies.

Although the concept for what is now the G8 emerged in the wakeof the 1973 oil crisis, the group has since evolved from its earlier, if notexclusive, focus on macroeconomic matters and international trade toalso include global peace and security as well as environmental anddevelopment issues on its agenda.

As the G8 began to earnestly address issues such as debt relief,civil society inclusion, global health and food security, among otherdevelopment-related concerns, the InterAction community graduallybuilt an advocacy campaign to inuence the G8, particularly after the2004 G8 Summit in the.S. in Sea Island, Georgia.

oday, as the Frenchpresidency prepares tohost this years G8 Summitin Deauville, France, May26-27 and also the Group of20 (G20) Summit in Novem-ber, the InterAction com-munity is as active as ever inengaging both domestic andglobal actors and groups inan overall effort to ensure

that G8 leaders follow through on their ambitious commitments on awhole host of poverty-focused and humanitarian issues.

IterActis dmestic ad iteratial reachInterActions G8/G20 ask Force has been busy. Consisting of over30 InterAction members and allies, the G8/G20 ask Force workedthrough the 2010 holiday season to produce its G8 Summit olicyaper entitled .S. Leadership at the May G8 Summit. he paperdetails recommendations on accountability, food security, agricultureand nutrition, and maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) forthe Obama administration as it prepares for the upcoming summit.Once the paper was publicly released in late January, the G8/G20ask Force set about sharing its recommendations with ofcials at theDepartments of State, reasury and Agriculture and at SAID who aremembers of the .S. G8/G20 interagency task force. he interagencytask force is ultimately responsible for crafting the policy positions thatthe .S. G8/G20 Sherpa Michael Froman will advance leading up toboth summits.

On the international front, representatives from InterAction and sev-eral of its member organizations attended the Global G8/G20 Work-ing Group meeting in aris, France, on January 27-28. With over 130participants hailing from every G8 country, the meetings purpose wasto forge an NGO joint action plan for the G8 and G20 Summits. henal plan focuses on the policy areas of development, nancial regula-tion, governance/rights and agriculture/climate, as well as commonadvocacy, communication, media and mobilization activities. Since thatmeeting, the InterAction community has remained actively involved in

implementing this ambitious joint action plan: InterAction was unani-mously chosen to co-chair the Global G8/G20 Working Group for2011 and played a pivotal role in the creation of the Working GroupsG8/G20 Media Sub-Group.

As the G8 countries ready themselves for their May summit, theInterAction community has positioned itself well domestically andinternationally to advocate for the fulllment of previous G8 commit-ments and for keeping development-related issues near the forefrontof the summits agenda.

his is the rst in a series that will follow the G8 until the comple-

tion of the summit in Deauville. Stay tuned.

Another short-termCR passesCongress passed another short

term continuing resolution (CR):this one for three weeks, lastinguntil April 8. Like the last CR,this one contained about $2 billion in cuts for every week itcovered. The only internationalprogram cut is the U.S. contribution to the International Fund forIreland. This fund, financed bycontributions from the U.S., theEuropean Union, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, encour

ages dialogue and reconciliationbetween nationalists and unionists throughout Ireland, aiming

to tackle the underlying causes ofsectarianism and violence. Overall, the cuts include $2.5 billionin eliminated earmarks and $3.5billion in program reductions orterminations, most of which arealso proposed in the administrations FY2012 budget request orin the Senates proposed longterm CR.

Public sparring continuedon a compromise to cover the

remainder of the fiscal year, withincreasing opposition to passingany additional shortterm CRs.

Lawmakers have been in talkswith the adm inistration, but atpress time, no final compromisehad been reached and the threatof a government shutdown wasapproaching.

New Sudan/LRAlegislationIn March, Rep. Ed Royce (RCA)and Rep. Jim McGovern (DMA)introduced the Sudan Cessation

of Support for the Lords Resistance Army Certification Act of2011(HR 895). According to a

press release from the cosponsors, The legislation requires theObama administration to certifyto Congress that the Sudanesegovernment is no longer engagedin training, harboring, supplying,financing, or supporting in anyway the Lords Resistance Army,its leader Joseph Kony, or his topcommanders before Sudan couldbe removed from the state sponsor of terrorism list. MD

WshintonUpte

7May2011M

ONDAY DEVELOPMENTS

If you would like to be added to InterActions weekly public policy email update

please contact Margaret Christoph at [email protected]

8/20
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DIAILITy AMnT

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Yes

Mercy Corps makes

their commitmentto inclusion visible

with a poster of their

inclusive education

project in Jordan.

BSusan Sygall,CEO,nSusan Dunn,ProjectSpeciist,Mobiit

InterntionUSa(MIUSa)

Making inclusion of people with disabilities a reality inyour organizations work.

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Disabled women

activists who are

leaders of NGOs in

their countries.

EOPlEWITHdISaBIlITIESCOMPRISEaPPROxIMaTEly10PERCENT

oftheworpopution,ntheirsuccessfuinvovementinspects

ofinterntioneveopmentiscruci.WhtifCEOsnstff,t

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wouiketoshresimperpissessmenttomoveInteractionmembersfromes

tohow.afteroucompetethessessment,weinviteoutovisitMIUSasInterntion

deveopmentndisbiitOnineResourceCenterforcomprehensiveistoftookits

ntrininmteris,incuinMIUSasBuilding an Inclusive Development Community: A

Manual on How to Include People with Disabilities in International Development Programs

(vibetwww.mius.or/i/resourcecenter/).

9May2011M

ONDAY DEVELOPMENTS

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DIAILITy AMnT

The assessmet

Part I: Policy framework

My organization:

Utilizes a human rights framework whenstrategizing on disability inclusion issues,as opposed to a medical model. Complies with the USAID Disability Policy and Acquisition and Assistance Policydirectives (AAPD0417 and AAPD0507). www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/dis-ability/ Complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). www.ada.gov/ Recognizes the Convention on the Rights

of Persons with Disabilities and how itcan be used to further inclusive development. www.un.org/disabilities/ Recognizes inclusion of people withdisabilities in mainstream developmentactivities as essential for achieving theMillennium Development Goals. www.includeeverybody.org/Has its own organizational mandate/policy on disability inclusion.

Case examples:In Mongolia, Mercy Corps provided train

ing for all their staff on the Convention on theRights of Persons with Disabilities and thehuman rights model of disability.

In Ethiopia, the USAID mission is workingclosely with local disabled peoples organizations to create a comprehensive disabilityinclusion plan to implement USAIDs Disability Policy.

Part II: Organizational structure and governance

My organization:

Recruits people with disabilities as

interns, staff and/or board members.Hires staff with disabilities to work notonly in areas related to disability projects,but also on a broad range of other issues. Employs people with disabilities, andparticularly women with disabilities, insenior decisionmaking positions. Trains staff on disability inclusion as acrosscutting issue.

Case examples:World Vision International employs a dis

ability advisor at its U.S. headquarters.In Mongolia, Mercy Corps made changes

to its recruitment policy to promote disability

inclusion, hired new staff with disabilities,and made its offices accessible with rampsand signage.

Part III: Programs

My organization:

Utilizes national and internationalorganizations that work with disabledpeople around the world to recruit staff,consultants, board members, advisors,volunteers and interns. Search MIUSAsdatabase of organizations of people with

disabilities (DPOs): www.miusa.org/orgsearch Invites people with disabilities and theirorganizations to our conferences orevents. Builds relationships with local disabledpeoples organizations.Makes our comm itment to disabilityinclusion visible (i.e. images of peoplewith disabilities are on our website, posters and brochures; language in writtenmaterials encourages people with disabilities to participate in our programs). Supports or partners with organizationsled by people with disabilities.Makes disability inclusion part of solicitations in project proposal and evaluationcriteria and assigns a score for inclusion.

Collects and disaggregates data by disability and gender. Sets a minimum target for the percentageof beneficiaries who will be people withdisabilities. Includes people with disabilities in allsectors of our work, not only disabilityspecific programs (i.e. m icrofinance,HIV/AIDS prevention and education,

gender initiatives, youth programs, education and business training, emergencypreparedness and response, health, civilsociety strengthening and leadershiptraining, democracy, governance andelections, conflict and refugee programs,water and sanitation, food security andagriculture).

Includes people with disabilities in allstages of the development process fromplanning and implementation to monitoring and evaluation.

Allocates a percentage of our budget(typically 3 to 8 percent) for reasonableaccommodations to make our programs

accessible to people with disabilities (e.g.,sign language interpreters, accessibletransportation and alternate formats). Ensures our offices, meeting spaces andtraining sites are accessible (e.g., rampsand bathrooms). Provides information in alternate formatsand uses accessible communications (e.g.,Braille, large print, electronic format, captioned videos technologies to facilitatewebsite use).

Case examples:Trickle Up achieved its original target that

at least 10 percent of the beneficiaries in theirentrepreneurship programs worldwide mustbe people with disabilities.

Hesperian develops free community healthresources in collaboration with disabled peoples organizations such asA Health Handbook

for Women with Disabilities and Disabled Vil-lage Children.

American Jewish World Service providescapacity building support to grassroots organizations. In Peru, it supports a grassrootsorganization led by women with disabilities.As a result, the voices of women with disabilities are included in public debates in Peru forthe first time in history. The organization iscurrently providing significant input on newdisability rights legislation in the PeruvianCongress.

In WaterAids project in Mali, in consultation with people with disabilities, water wellswere made accessible to people in wheelchairsand to people who are blind.

In Colombia, the International Office ofMigration is conducting training for theirstaff with local disabled leaders.

When leaders of development organizations

embrace inclusive development as good development, then we can begin w ith yes andmove to how. One way to counter preconceived notions about the potential of peoplewith disabilities is to start from the premisethat people with disabilities will be includedin your programs. From there, when yourorganization receives a grant to implementa youth program, you would routinely beginwith strategies to ensure that your outreach,programming and staffing will include youth

continuedonpage29
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HERE ARE SOME AREAS OF DEVEL-opment where the small scale and

the marginalized are innovating andaccumulating important lessons for the largerdevelopment community. Disability in development is one of these areas. Disability, likegender, is a crosscutting development issuethat needs to be taken into account throughout project cycle management and across thesectors of development. Communitybasedrehabilitation (CBR) is a useful strategy forimplementing a crosssectoral, human rightsbased approach to inclusive development. Theexperience of CBR can provide practical lessons learned and methods to the wider development community.

Experiential evidence shows that the benefitsof development initiatives often do not spreadwidely, instead remaining either with a section of the population or in large cities. People

who live in far off places or in city slums oftendo not benefit. Employing communitybasedapproaches to development can be more equitable, more realistic, more relevant to the peopleinvolved and more sustainable. CBR has beenin existence for over 20 years. Originally articulated as a predominately health sector approachusing primary health care methodologies, it hassince evolved into a multisectoral, rightsbasedapproach for community development targeting and involving people with disabilities, theirfamilies and their organizations as primary

stakeholders. As a strategy, CBR seeks to further the inclusion and meaningful participation

of people with disabilities in society by: Removing the barriers to development

that people with disabilities face;

Delivering quality services and programs; Addressing the causes of disability; and Bringing persons with and without dis

abilities together on an equal basis.In achieving these aims, CBR helps reduce

poverty and improve the lives of everyone inthe community.

Today CBR is practiced in over 90 countriesand is increasingly seen as an effective strategyfor inclusive development and, more recently,as a means of implementing the Conventionon the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In2010 the International Labour Organization,UNESCO, the World Health Organization andthe International Disability and DevelopmentConsortium launched the CBR Guidelines(downloadable at www.who.int/disabilities/

cbr/guidelines/en/). These guidelines provideguidance on how to: develop and strengthenCBR programs; promote CBR as a strategy for

An effective strategy for rights-based,inclusive development.

BKrenHeinicke-Motsch,directorofInterntionProrms,CBM-US

(ChristinBinMission)

mmuit-asedehabilitati

Community-Based Inclusive DevelopmentNotesfromcsestuintheanesbFrnciscoCuevs,

CBMltinamericReionOffice

For 26 years, Arariwa, a rural development organization based in Cuzco, Peru, hasbeen committed to reducing poverty and seeking justice for the poorest of the poorin the Peruvian Andes. In 2003, with technical support from CBM, Arariwa cameto understand the link between disability, human rights and development. As withother human rights organizations, Arariwa only had to be made aware of the fact

that persons with disabilities form part of a group whose access to their rights aresystematically denied. So it was not a big step to include persons with disability inArariwas poverty reduction projects and in its fight to seek justice for minority groups.

By including people with disabilities in its projects, by consulting with and workingto strengthen local disabled peoples organizations (DPOs) and by establishing aCBR program that facilitates comprehensive access to both mainline and disabilityspecific programs and opportunities, Arariwa has strengthened its commitment tomarginalized indigenous populations in the Andes.

DPOs are integral voices in the planning process of the CBR project and areconsulted about initiatives and future plans. Arariwas expertise in strengthening localand regional organizations and institutions has been an excellent resource to assistyoung DPOs in rights work, participation and democratic processes. This support hasenabled the DPOs to strengthen their regional federation.

The CBR team ensures that children with disabilities have access to birth

certificates, health services, assistive devices, social protection measures andeducation in local schools. It also ensures municipal buildings are accessible topeople with disabilities. With the help of the CBR team, DPOs also take part in annuallocal participatory budget processes (part of Perus ongoing decentralization strategy).By doing so, DPOs can level the playing field: evening the chances that projects theysubmit will receive public funds. CBR-led efforts also make it possible for people withdisabilities and parents of children with disabilities to participate in income generatingprojects and poverty reduction schemes. The CBR-Arariwa team also leads a newlyformed national CBR-Peru consortium. Through the coalition, CBR teams from acrossthe country develop strategies to defend and promote the rights of persons withdisability at all levels from local to national.

mploying community-based approaches todevelopment can be moreequitable, more realisticand more relevant.

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communitybased development involving people with disabilities; support stakeholders inmeeting basic needs and enhancing the quality of life of people with disabilities and theirfamilies; and encourage the empowermentof people with disabilities and their families.

The guidelines outline a multisectoral,crossdisability, r ightsbased approach sup

porting stakeholders to access the full rangeof mainstream and disabilityspecific servicesand opportunities. Each chapter provides anoverview of key concepts, identifies goals andoutcomes, and suggests activities for reachingthese goals. The framework focuses on thekey domains of wellbeing and development:health, education, livelihood and social wel

fare. It also identifies the empowerment ofpeople with disabilities and their families asthe foundation for CBR programs and key to

accessing benefits in those domains.As reflected in the CBR Guidelines, the

foundation of CBR includes the eight coreprinciples of the Convention on the Rights ofPersons with Disabilities (CRPD):

Respect for inherent dignity, individualautonomyincluding the freedom tomake ones own choicesand independence of persons;

Nondiscrimination; Full and effective participation and inclu

sion in society; Respect for difference and acceptance of

persons with disabilities as part of human

diversity and humanity; Equality of opportunity; Accessibility; Equality between men and women; and Respect for the evolving capacities of

children with disabilities and respect forthe right of children with disabilities topreserve their identities.

Two additional principles are central toCBR work: empowerment (including selfadvocacy) and sustainability.

There have been significant changes overthe past two decades in the field of disabilitywith improved legislation, instruments andnew approaches. But people with disabilitiesthemselves continue to face significant barriers to equal participation in their communities. The CRPD is a call to action that providesclear standards for human rights, inclusionand equality. Capacity building of people withdisabilities, their organizations and communities is essential if the rights and freedoms ofpersons with disabilities are to be achieved.

The concept of inclusive development hasgained momentum over the last few years, with

more donor governmentsand developmentorganizations committing to implementingprograms that include people with disabilities.The CBR strategy provides an importantmechanism for ensuring that inclusive development policies have a positive impact at thelocal level and on the poorest and most marginalized people with disabilities. MD

The D is a call toaction that provides clear

standards for humanrights, inclusion andequality.

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ONDAY DEVELOPMENTS

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SRI LANKAS 26-YEAR-LONG CIVILwar left tens of thousands of people disabled. Add to this the discrimination that

exists against people with disabilities, and finding work and earning income is very difficultfor those who are newly disabled from the war.

But 19yearold Puvaneeswaran had something unusual for a double amputee. Despitebeing only 17 when he lost both legs on the lastday of the war, Puvaneeswaran was determinedto support himself and his widowed mother.

It was this determination combined withnoticeable potential that led World ConcernSri Lanka Country Director Selina PremKumar to hire the young man as an intern.After helping him earn a diploma in computerstudies, she offered him a stipend to work five

hours a day in the office.Aside from making some minor accommodations in the office, We dont treat him anydifferently, Kumar explains. Puvaneeswaransworkload includes administrative work, documentation and maintaining the beneficiarydatabase. The expectations [for him] are thesame [as for the rest of the staff].

Many NGOs target people with disabilitiesin their programs. NGOs typically serve themarginalized and underserved of a population, and the disabled certainly fall into this

category in most developing countries. Butthere are benefits to hiring people with disabilities to implement those programs.

NGOs do an excellent job of includingpeople with disabilities in their staff, saysAndrew Houghton, a wellknown advocatefor the disabled and chair of the Committeefor Purchase From People Who Are Blind orSeverely Disabled.

Thats the good news, but there is alwaysroom for improvement.

According to the U.S. Office of PersonnelManagement, people with disabilities represent a potentially underutilized source ofoutstanding workers. NGOs can also betterunderstand beneficiaries and their needs byhiring staff members with disabilities.

If you hire people with disabilities, they cangive more effective insight on inclusion andaccessibility as they are the experts on theirissues, says Susan Dunn, project specialist withMobility International USA (MIUSA). Thisultimately leads to more effective programs.

MIUSA offers a Human Resources Toolboxthat provides tips on recruiting people with disabilities, as well as strategies to provide workplace accommodations. According to MIUSA,people with disabilities are an untappedresource in international development. Manyinternational NGOs are making changes to

work environments so people with disabilitiescan perform essential tasks in various projects and services. Accommodating individuals with disabilities in the workplace does notnecessarily require a great amount of time orexpense, says Dunn. The most effective wayto identify an accommodation need is to havethe individual with a disability identify his orher needs and provide a culture of inclusivity.

Some examples of accommodations includemodifying work schedules, acquiring equipment, modifying work stations, making existing

facilities accessible, providing interpreters andreaders, and providing special transportation.

Kumar says they made some minor adjust

ments to their office for Puvaneeswaran,including making the restroom accessible forhis wheelchair and moving some furniture tocreate wider spaces.

She is seeing benefits to the staff and programs, and plans to invest in the training and

Including people with disabilities as staff in yourorganization has its benefits.

tregtheigyur Wrkfrce

BCathy Herholdt,StffWriter,WorConcern

Puvaneeswaran lost both his legs on thelast day of Sri Lankas civil war. He had been

sleeping under a tree when he was hit by a shell.

His computer and administrative skills have been

an asset to the World Concern Sri Lanka ofcewhere he works as an intern. Resources for Hiring People

with Disabilities

MIUSAs tip sheet on recruitingand hiring people with disabilitiesas well as tips for reasonableaccommodation: www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/toolboxrecruit.pdf

Checklist for Inclusion, aself-assessment guide fororganizations on the inclusion ofpeople with disabilities:www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/checklistforinclusion.pdf

Americans with DisabilitiesAct overview of hiring peoplewith disabilities: www.onlinehumanresources.net/hr-

ada-overview.html

Job Accommodation Network,a resource for nding solutionsto accommodations in theworkplace: http://askjan.org/

Listservs for posting jobannouncements:

GPDD: www.gpdd-online.org/NCD: www.ncd.gov/
http://www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/toolboxrecruit.pdfhttp://www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/toolboxrecruit.pdfhttp://www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/toolboxrecruit.pdfhttp://www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/checklistforinclusion.pdfhttp://www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/checklistforinclusion.pdfhttp://www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/checklistforinclusion.pdfhttp://www.onlinehumanresources.net/hr-ada-overview.htmlhttp://www.onlinehumanresources.net/hr-ada-overview.htmlhttp://www.onlinehumanresources.net/hr-ada-overview.htmlhttp://askjan.org/http://www.gpdd-online.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=73http://www.ncd.gov/http://www.ncd.gov/http://www.gpdd-online.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=73http://askjan.org/http://www.onlinehumanresources.net/hr-ada-overview.htmlhttp://www.onlinehumanresources.net/hr-ada-overview.htmlhttp://www.onlinehumanresources.net/hr-ada-overview.htmlhttp://www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/checklistforinclusion.pdfhttp://www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/checklistforinclusion.pdfhttp://www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/checklistforinclusion.pdfhttp://www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/toolboxrecruit.pdfhttp://www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/toolboxrecruit.pdfhttp://www.miusa.org/idd/resourcecenter/hrtoolbox/toolboxrecruit.pdf

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DIALD TAFF

hiring of more individuals with disabilities.Although the staff had immediate familymembers that were affected by the war, Get

ting to know Puvaneeswaran and seeing himwork so hard, they are no longer complaining, explains Kumar. He has even inspiredtwo other staff members to go back to school.Awareness and understanding for beneficiaries with disabilities has increased as well.

Mercy Corps Mongolia program receivedInterActions Disability Inclusion Award in2010. Knowing that people with disabilities areamong the most marginalized groups wheretheir programs are implemented, Mercy Corpsrecognized that modeling inclusion was thebest way to advocate for it. The Mongolia program changed its recruitment policy to pro

mote inclusion and hired two new staff withdisabilities in 2008 and 2009. The team alsotrained 115 staff members on the Conventionon the Rights of People with Disabilities andthe Social Model of Disability. Suboffices alsobuilt accessible ramps and walkways.

In places like Mongolia that have madedisability programming a central part of their

portfolio, Mercy Corps has found it equallyimportant to promote hiring and retainingstaff with disabilities on both program andadministrative teams, says Ruth Allen, Director of Community Mobilization, Governanceand Partnerships for Mercy Corps.

World Concern Vietnam is piloting aprogram that utilizes teachers with hearingimpairment to teach deaf preschool students.There are approximately 16,000 children age sixand under who are deaf or hard of hearing inVietnam and many of them are excluded fromschool. Preschool is important as it providesan introduction into the educational system

and teaches sign language to young children.Establishing meaningful rapport with a

child with hearing loss is a major challenge

for most parents, says Le Thi Kim Cuc, Project Coordinator for the hearing impairmentprogram. As a result, children often fail tolearn language in the home. Teachers becomefamily mentors, equipping families to communicate with their child and integrate theminto everyday activities in the home.

In Vietnam, deaf adults are often unemployed, yet possess the ability to use visual language and have potential to help, explainsProgram Manager Nguyen Thi Thanh Hien.Their empathy, location in rural areas andcommunicative skills make them usefulresources, if professionally trained. Doing train

ing through teachers colleges also helps openthe door to higher education for deaf people.

Nguyen believes this could aid in reducingthe stigma associated with disabilities in Vietnam. This will change the way people thinkand behave toward people with disabilities,taking their needs and abilities into accountwith respect and understanding. MD

If you hire people withdisabilities, they can give

more effective insight oninclusion and accessibilityas they are the experts ontheir issues.

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AS THE JOB M ARKET STARTS TOrebound, the NGO community is seeing more opportunities and individuals

are feeling braver about making a move. Thatsaid, human resources professionals are overwhelmed with unsolicited resumes that pourin, often in the hundreds, and occasionally the

thousands. How can you position yourself asa qualified professional if you are interestedin pursuing opportunities withinor outsideyour own organization? Here are 10common sense tips that we often neglect dueto the hectic pace of our lives.

Polish your resume. Often, developmentpractitioners are so busy doing that theytend to overlook presentation. How dated isyour resume? Have you taken time not justto describe what you do, but also the impactyou have had? Are accomplishments clear and

quantifiable? Making your CV clear, strategic,focused and impactoriented with the help ofa career coach or mentor is an important firststep. As Patrick Shields, Executive Director ofGlobalResume.net (an applicant resume writing and job search training service) and GlobalRecruitment Specialists (an NGO search firm

that serves to fill mid to seniorlevel positionsin the international development and foundation community) advises, You need to write acompelling resume/CV that an employer willwant to read from top to bottom, offering thescope depth and breadth of your responsibilities, tasks and accomplishments.

Polish your presentation. If you are fortunate enough to make it past the first cut,take time to prepare for your interview. ManyNGOs, international organizations, government and private agencies are now using com

petencybased interviews. Do you understandthis technique and have you practiced it? Alittle preparation goes a long way.

Make strategic use of your network.Chances are, if you have spent time in a numberof countries, you have a broad, global network.Keeping it fresh and active is one way to bevisible and also learn about key trends in yourfield, as well as hiring opportunities in otherorganizations. As you travel, take time to meetpeople, ask for career advice and seek feedbackabout a professional issue you are grapplingwith. Doing so will keep your network dynamicand fresh when you need it most.

Judson Flanagan, Director of HumanResources at Catholic Relief Services, agrees.In an environment where so many CVs are

submitted for each position, networks andreferrals can make all the difference. International NGOs often spend $50,000 to $200,000a year in relocation and allowancesmorethan most salariesfor an international staffposted overseas with their families. Therefore,we cannot afford to make poor hiring decisions. A personal reference to get you inthe door helps a lot. Shields adds, A goodnetworker is someone who can see relationships and can make the connection of howexperience and skills meet the needs and mission of an organization.

Take time to visit headquarters. As one jobseeker I was working with was recently toldas he networked with NGOs and UN agencies in the country in Africa he is living in,Most hiring happens at headquarters. Hisdisadvantage is that he has been in the fieldfor several years, and his U.S.based networkis relatively slim. I advised him to plan a trip tothe States where he could meet and get advicefrom human resources and program managers; and he is coming this spring to make therounds in New York and Washington, as wellas a few West Coast organizations.

Take stock of your achievements. As

noted above, in the discussion about resumes,individuals tend to be very descriptive aboutwhat they do without succinctly describingthe outcome, or impact, or their work. Taking time to practice this skill will strengthenyour competitive advantage. That said, be sureto give credit where credit is due. Flanaganadvises, CRS puts a high premium on humility. Nothing is accomplished without extensiveteamwork. While we want to hear about youraccomplishments, be sure to share the full picture of the teams work and your role in that.

Ten common sense tips to help you find the positionthats right for you.

areer trategiesfr the 2011 no Marketplace

BNina Segal,InterntionCreerdeveopmentConsutnt

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A TATI

Reconnect with mentors. Think about thepeople whom you really admire as leaders inyour field who have taken the time to mentor

you and reconnect with them. Mentors areneeded at all levels and for all kinds of issues:not simply to help you get a new job, but alsoto think strategically about where new opportunities may exist, to help you think througha work/life balance issue and to open doorsto out of the box ideas. Invest some timehere and you will be consistently surprisedat the results.

Consider your reputation. The development community is a small world. Howcognizant are you of how you are perceivedas a worker? If you cannot answer this question, invest a bit of time exploring what your

professional reputation is, both positive andnegative, with some trusted colleagues andformer supervisors.

Become visible in your organization/field.You may be the type of person who thinksyour work can speak for itself. Sometimes thisis the case, but often career progression happens more quickly for those who volunteer

for a visible, tough assignment or take time tobuild valuable relationships with key peoplein the organization. Generals are made intimes of war, as one professor at C olumbiaUniversitys School of International and PublicAffairs used to advise his graduate students.Taking a tough assignment (either in the fieldor at headquarters) may provide the visibilityyou need to give your career a boost. Flanaganagrees. Employees who are willing to take on

hardship posts or emergencies are the mostvaluable. They generally learn faster and arefar more useful to an international organization seeking an agile workforce that can bedeployed equally to Sudan, Afghanistan orHaiti.

Be cognizant of organizational fit. As Flanagan notes, Skills and experience are critical

to get you in the door, but showing that youare a good fit for the organization is key. Wehire for the long term, so learn as much as

you can about the organization and the typeof people they like to hire.

Invest in learning. Being agile, fresh anduptodate on cutting edge issues in your particular subsector shows an employer you areintelligent, motivated and dynamic. Shieldsadvises that you consider tangible, measurableand marketable skills that include: a new foreign language, evaluation and impact measuring abilities, including proposal writing, project/program evaluation, rapid assessmenttechniques, costbenefit analysis and international resource development. He also mentions that for more senior positions, manage

ment training (from performance managementto building strong teams) and showing familiarity with issues like workforce planning andconflict management are appreciated by potential employers. MD

Questions and comments can be sent to theauthor at [email protected].

CtCt u w t lr hw w gt t rght!

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I

N MAY 2009, KYLE FARMER* GRADU-ated from Washington University with goodgrades and previous internship experience.

Now, in the spring of 2011, he is still interningin Washington D.C.for free.

Kyle Farmers story illustrates a growingtrend in the U.S.: With job openings scarceand competition fierce, recent graduateshave turned to unpaid internships as a wayof breaking into Americas workforce. Internships have become the steppingstone betweencollege and real employment.

It is almost impossible to get a foreign policy, NGO or congressional job without interning in D.C. at some point, Farmer explained.

Internships have become the gateway intothe whitecollar work force, said Ross Perlin,

author ofIntern Nation, in an interview withThe New York Times. Employers increasingly want experience for entrylevel jobs, andmany students see the only way to get that isthrough unpaid internships.

In the last two decades, the prevalence ofinternships has rocketed from 17 percent of1992 graduates holding internships up to50 percent by 2008, according to studies by

Northwestern University and the NationalAssociation of Colleges and Employers. TheGuardian estimates 1 to 2 million Americans

will intern this year.Although many of these interns are college

students, organizations are seeing an increasein the number of recent graduates applyingfor positions, according to The WashingtonTimes. The Fund for American Studies, aprogram that places students in internshipsaround D.C., experienced an 11 percent risein applications.

Hoping for more permanentnot to mention paidpositions, graduates with bachelors, masters and even law degrees are takingunpaid internships that often require them tocopy, stuff envelopes, brew coffee, fix printers

and answer phones.Ive had to do some very how should I

say it mundane tasks, said Deirdre Malory,who graduated in May 2010 and interned foran NGO where she has since becomea staff member. Ive had to sprintfrom one building to the next towait on my supervisor. Ive hadto get their lunch from the caf

eteria. Ive been yelled at for not answeringthe phone correctly. Ive had to clean up afterlunch meetings Really, people, you cant

throw away your own halfeaten apple?Yet interns not only do tasks no one else

want, but they also often do them with verylittle appreciation.

The staff members were very tightknitand exclusive and I dreaded going into theoffice each morning, confided Lauraine More,who will graduate from University of California, Los Angeles, in May and has internedboth in D.C. and abroad. They would haveparties and not invite the interns, and walkpast the intern area without even a smile ora greetingas if we were unimportant to theorganization.

Yet despite being sometimes poorly treated,

The life of NGO internsliving on leftovers from theconference room.

BJeanne Paradis,CommunictionsIntern,

Interaction

Let Themat ake!

17May2011M

ONDAY DEVELOPMENTS

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InTn LIF

interns often provide vital support to the organizations.

There was definitely more than one

persons worth of work and I basically dideverything my boss did, said Farmer abouthis past internship. I was treated very well bythe staff, but I was frustrated at how blatantly[the NGO] used interns instead of hiring themanpower they actually needed.

Such comments open up a problematicquestion: Should organizations be allowedto take advantage of young people so desperate for a job that they are willing to work forno pay?

The Labor Department has set six federallegal criteria for an unpaid internship. Oneof the six stipulates that: The employer that

provides the training derives no immediateadvantage from the activities of the traineesand on occasion the employers operation mayactually be impeded.

Yet the rules governing nonprofit and government internships become blurred, as people are allowed to volunteer for such groups.

So how do unpaid interns cover the exor

bitant price of living in D.C.?Work all the time so you dont spend any

money, Farmer suggested, halfseriously.Many interns also hold parttime jobs as

waitresses, babysitters or bartenders. Yet, evenso, most interns interviewed for this articlereported they needed the continued financialsupport of their families.

Even if the internship covers travel, as More

revealed, The travel stipend does not evencover half of my travel expenses.

Interns also develop tricks, such as attending think tank and policy events for the freelunch and going to museums and the KennedyCenter for free events and concerts. However,this far from covers the cost of food, housingor utilities.

Asked how he manages, Tom Ryan saiddryly, Ramen noodles come in a variety offlavors.

For the most part, however, interns are willing to fetch coffee with a smile and live on abudget, in hopes of one day working for theorganization.

I interned for a year after graduating fromcollege, said Demetri Alexander, who wantsto work in the field of U.S. national security.Doing internships landed me a job and possibly a Fulbright Fellowship.

In fact, many NGOs increasingly rely oninternships as a means of assessing potential hires. The Wall Street Journals survey ofcollege recruiters reported that 50 percentor more of newgraduate hires came from

an organizations interns, while the NationalAssociation of Colleges and Employers 2010Internship & Coop Survey found that nearly57 percent of students from the class of 2009were converted from interns to fulltime hires,up from 50 percent the previous year.

Unfortunately this process, as Alexanderobserved, can take more than a year.

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MIoFInAn

MICROFINANCE IS CAUGHT INa swirl of negative news and fearscoming from Indiadisappointing

impact research results, reports of abuse ofborrowers, profiteering and overindebtedness, and a fabulously lucrative IPO (initialpublic offering of stock), culminating in

recklessly punitive regulation by the State ofAndhra Pradesh. Having watched and participated in the emergence and evolution ofmicrofinance for more than 20 years, I canshare some insights into what underlies theongoing public relations nightmare.

Microfinance emerged as microcreditin the 1980s in response to a centurieslongfailure of banks to serve the poor. Pioneeringorganizationsmost famously, but not solely,Grameen Bankdeveloped innovative loancontracts for poor borrowers, in particular

joint liability of borrowers gathered in groups.These allowed lending institutions to maketiny loans costeffectively. It was discoveredthat the poor were so accustomed to paying a premium to borrow money that theywould repay the new lending institutions withenough interest and fees to cover their costs

and would still get a better deal than theywould from traditional moneylenders.The prospect of making money through

doing business with the poor emerged inthe early 1990s and fostered a movement todevelop commercially viable microfinanceinstitutions (MFIs) that could do well bydoing good. The rationale was that a profitable MFI could fuel its own growth and, moreimportantly, it could attract lenders and investors to fuel even more growth. (Some startedto dream of a new asset class for profitmax

An insider sets the record straight.

BChristopher Dunford,Presient,FreeomfromHuner

While Farmers first internship providedvaluable insight, the organization did not havean opening and his supervisor did not havethe contacts to reach outside the organization.The internship added a few lines to Farmersresume, but it did not produce a paying job.

Thus, landing the right internship is tremendously important. A bad internshipmeans dreading going to work, picking uptrash when at work, listening politely as peopleyell at you, and typing endless data entry. By

contrast, a good internship brings with itexcitement and motivation from new information and experiences: where stuffing envelopsfor hours is fine, because tomorrow holds thepromise of meetingif only to check off theirnamesexperts in your field of interest.

An internship should offer you a certain level of responsibility so you are able todevelop your professional skills and meaningfully contribute to the organization, advisedMarry Smith, who interned last summer inWashington, D.C. Having an internship ina prominent Hill office may seem like a greatopportunity, but you may end up only takingconstituent calls.

I provided slave labor, wrote MarkSchmidt jokingly. Schmidt interned for ninemonths after graduation. Seriously though,not at all. I felt like a valued member whowas expected to contribute just like fulltime,paid staff.

Yet, how do potential internswho may beon the other side of the countryfigure out ifa particular internship would be good or bad?

At [NGOs] with vague, unstructured internprograms, the experience is likely to consist ofspreadsheets and coffee, More warned. The

potential intern should also be interviewingthe organization.While every intern had his or her share of

horror stories, everyone recommended takingan internship. Whether the internship is pleasant or painful, interns were willing to endureall tasksno matter how menialin pursuitof the ultimate goal: a paid job in the field oftheir choosing. MD

*All the names of the interns in this articlehave been changed.

Throughout Bolivia, CRECER brings

micronance and other services to groupsof women. They benet from loans, savings,

education, health services and from the supportthey receive from each other.

A Failure t mmuicate:

Micrace

fused

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MIoFInAn

imizing investors.) Soon it was argued thatonly commercial microfinance could growsufficiently to meet the global demand. This

argument still dominates the microfinanceworld today.

There have been two types of miscommunication by microfinance leaders that have setthe stage for current events.

The first miscmmuicatiEnthusiasts oversold microfinance. Stories

of poor women coming together in groups totake loans to start or grow microbusinesseswere wonderfully counterintuitive in theirjuxtaposition of hardnosed discipline andhumanitarian intent to support the resourcefulness and resilience of poor families. Both

philanthropic and business communities sawthe prospect of a business solution to povertythat would break the treadmill of dependenceon charity or tax revenues. All of this led tothe equivalent of Alan Greenspans irrationalexuberance. Microfinance was offered andaccepted as a solution to poverty long beforethere was enough solid evidence of positive(or negative) impacts.

As good evidence has been gathered by careful impact research in recent years, it is becoming clear what observant practitioners havelong understood: Microfinance by itself is notenough to raise people from poverty, at leastnot in the great majority of cases. Research todate, while still insufficient, does indicate thatmicrofinance alleviates poverty for those whoparticipate. They generally get more reliableand rulebound service for much less monetary and social cost than by borrowing frommoneylenders or friends and relatives. Moreover, it is rare that microfinance clients sufferabuse from microfinance agents or each other.Most MFIs strive to build caring relationshipswith their clients and among their clients.

When all of these participants are averagedtogether, the overall impact of microfinance

appears to be quite modest, but this averageobscures the great variation of microfinanceclient experiences. For example, Paul Mosleys1996 study of Banco Sol clients found thatroughly onequarter of microfinance clientsdid well enough to expand and diversify theirbusinesses and significantly increase theirincomes and assets. The majority (60 to 65percent) did not achieve sp ectacular gainsfrom their investment of loans in microenterprise. Most likely, they used their accessto loans like a lineofcredit to help manage

cash flow and smooth consumption through

the year, warding off hunger and taking careof both unexpected and expected lumpsumexpenses, such as health emergencies or schoolfees. Just a small minority (10 to 15 percent)ran into trouble with their businesses. Perhapsthey took on too much credit or could notsuccessfully navigate major health shocks orother troubles for the family, so they may havefallen backward into deeper poverty. Otherstudies show a similar distribution of clientexperience. It is no surprise that people varygreatly in their ability to use a selfhelp support tool, whether microfinance or any other.

This emerging evidence paints an encouraging picture of true social value generated forthe poor and the notsopoor by microfinance.However, this picture differs considerablyfrom the public expectations spawned by years

of sincere but overenthusiastic advocacy.

The secd miscmmuicatiIn stark contrast, the proponents of com-

mercialized microfinance have bent over

backward to avoid communicating the social

value of their work. They more or less took

the benefits of microfinance as a given and

turned their attention to the building of profit-

able institutions to offer microfinance to the

unbanked. They saw themselves, correctly,

as transforming microcredit as a sophisticated

form of charity into microfinance as a socially

motivated business. But they were so deter-mined to distance themselves from the men-

tality of donor-dependent organizations that

they adopted the language, attitude and busi-

ness practices of commercial banking (rather

ironic given that bankers failure to serve the

poor created the need for microfinance).

In public pronouncements, many propo-

nents of commercialization continued to wear

the anti-poverty mantle that plays so well with

the public and politicians. But in their profes-

sional meetings and private conversations,

they shied away from terminology and topics

(e.g., reaching the poor and having positive

impact) that bespoke a charity mentality.This was also tacit acknowledgment that seek-

ing to satisfy profit-seeking investors pushes

the MFI to move up-market to the more

profitable not-so-poor.

I have encountered very few microfinance

leaders who were not drawn to microfinance

by its potential to generate social benefits. Yet

I have encountered many who feel constrained

from using the language that reflects the value

they place on social objectives. Language has apowerful influence over how we think and man-

age institutions. If we have social objectives but

do not talk about them in the course of dailymanagement, are they really our objectives?

Note in the accompanying bar chart (from MIX

Report on Status of Practice in Social Perfor-

mance Management and Reporting MIX data

collection 2008-2009) the small percentages

of microfinanciers who measure their progress

toward their professed social objectives. We

tend to manage toward what we measure.

Our daily language also strongly influences

with whom we associate. As talk about profit

replaced rather than complemented talk about

Micronance by itself isnot enough to raisepeople from poverty, atleast not in the greatmajority of cases.

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ONDAY DEVELOPMENTS

MIoFInAn

the social value of the work, the microfinanceindustry opened its arms to investors, staff and

competitors who all too often do not share our

unspoken social objectives and values. Someof these associates have created opportunities

at all levels of the microfinance industry for

abuses. While too much has been made of

the few outrages we have seen in India and

elsewhere, we should not be surprised that

some microfinanciers have crossed unmarked

ethical boundaries.

A new generation of microfinance leaders

has grown up without a clear understanding

of, much less ability to talk about, the true

value of their work. When the first majorinitial public offering (IPO) in 2007 was so

lucrative for Compartamos (a Mexican MFI)

and its investors, the sometimes unfair criti-cisms were met with the techno-speak used to

justify decisions to business school graduates

rather than to citizens bent on improving the

lives of the poor. Failing to dispel the dis-sonance between the anti-poverty origins of

microfinance and the new wave of businesspractices indistinguishable from corporate

exploitation of the poor, the microfinanceindustry suffered a black eye. While Com-

partamos weathered the storm in the context

of very strong Latin American enthusiasm

for commercialization, it also sensitized jour-

nalists and politicians to bad microfinancebehavior, which they found aplenty among a

few microfinanciers in India three years later.

At this point, as microfinanciers try to defend

themselves with the language of business,

they increasingly incense the populist critics

of microfinance. With a tin ear for how they

sound to others outside the industry, Indian

microfinanciers failed to anticipate that an

IPO for what the Indian public believed to be

anti-poverty work would be like dropping a

lit cigarette into gasoline.

The irony is that these wounds to micro-

finance are self-inflicted and unnecessary.

Eagerness to impress each other with theirbusiness savvy has caused most microfinan-

ciers to forget how to talk to the public who

want to support microfinancelike a sports

team that snubs its fans. Not good business!

nt t late t recverMicrofinance is no different from other

overheated new industries. The dotcom hysteria in the late 1990s ended rather badly, but

the dotcom industry did not. Look at it now!A harsh, humbling learning experience is oftenpart of the maturation of an industry. Now it

is the turn of microfinance. We will not see acrash, because microfinance practice andfinancial support are too vibrant, diverse anddecentralized to suffer a global collapse, despitewhat is happening in one Indian state. Whatwe already are seeing is a healthy introspectionwithin microfinance circles, which has beendeveloping for the past decade, regardingweaknesses that need to be fixed and how bestto fix them (via consumer protection, pricetransparency, management for social performance, tools for measuring poverty andimpact, and so on). Part of the solution is towatch our language and learn to celebrateout

loud and without awkwardnessthe socialvalue of microfinance and the values of thepeople who make microfinance what it is. Weneed to use words that constantly remind usand others of who we really are. If we fall shortof our own vision, we must change to be trueto our own words.MD

Questions and comments can be sent to theauthor [email protected].

ENtEr NlNE: www.ineacion.og/phooPhotos:

David Snyder, (top)

and Percy Ramirez

InterActions9tH ANNUAlPHt CNtESt

Each year, InterActions photographycontest focuses on the innovative,

effective and inspiring work done in theeld. The amazing images we receivehelp us to raise awareness of ourmembers efforts and to introduce theAmerican public to the lives we help totransform throughout the world.

All images should be of work in the eld, outside the U.S.

Entries are limited to 3 photos per person.

ne Gand Pize Winne will receive round-trip airfare toWashington, D.C. (ights originating in the U.S. only), wherethey will receive their award at InterActions 2011 Forum(August 10-12). The winner will also receive a complimentary

one-year subscription to Monday Developments Magazineand one free half-page advertisement. The Grand PrizeWinners photograph will also run as the cover of the specialForum recap issue of Monday Developments.

Five usanding Winnes will receive a complimentaryone-year subscription to Monday Developments Magazine, aswell as a quarter-page advertisement.

Ene By May 1
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

8/6/2019 MD May 2011 Small


WHEN FOOD PRICES SPIKED BETWEEN 2006 AND2008, m any called it a perfect storm for a food crisis.Now food prices have surpassed the highs of 2008. The

culprits of 2008oil prices, severe weather, trade policies and financial

speculationare being blamed again, as the current crisis has drivenan estimated 44 million additional people into poverty. University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, Professor Dr. Brian Wright stated in a recent WorldBank presentation that, 2008 was not a perfect storm. If we see badproduction next yearsay 2 to 3 percent below trend for grainswecould see things weve never seen before.

While there is much debate surrounding this crisis, a few factorsstand out. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Dr.Wright, the World Bank and UNICEF have independently producedreports studying the causes of both the 20062008 and 20102011crises and have offered policy solutions. Dr. Wright believes one keyfactor in a price boom is decreased supply of agricultural commodities.

American ethanol polices divert 40 percent of American corn to usein ethanol, thereby decreasing the available supply of corn for food. Asecond factor, export bans, also cause price increases. Data from the20062008 crisis show that food prices increased rapidly as countriesinitiated commodity export bans to compensate for decreased production and increased prices. The current crisis is displaying similartraits, with India maintaining its wheat and rice export ban and Russiabanning grain exports. While these policies may help stabilize foodsupply and prices locally, they drive global prices higher.

Another factor is financial investment and speculation. An IFPRIreport on commodity speculation found that speculative activitiesinfluenced the 2008 bo om and that excess price surges caused byspeculation could damage the markets response to supply and demandin the future, as they did in the 2008 crisis. The DoddFrank Wall StreetReform and Consumer Protection Act (DoddFrank) begins to addressthe need for regulation in the U.S. and may help curb speculative activity by requiring all commodity swaps to be reported and regulated.

While DoddFrank is a step in the right direction, further work isneeded to prevent future crises. The reports mentioned above highlightsome options. For example, Dr. Wright advocates unified global foodpolicies and recommends two measures to lessen the impact of pricespikes. First, maintain strategic stocks of agricultural commodities to

protect the poor. (Its easier to make sure the poorest fifth get fed thanto control prices for everybody.) Second, divert grain meant for ethanol production to food use in emergency cases. The UNICEF reportadvocates a threepronged policy response: (1) support consumers byincreasing food access and affordability; (2) support producers throughinvestment in agriculture to enhance food supply; and (3) manage andregulate food markets through policies such as the DoddFrank Act.

Current policy responses focus on the short term. However, management and regulation policies need to be addressed through a mixture of shortterm mitigation measures and longterm efforts to prevent future crises by reducing poverty, securing sustainable foodproduction and adequately regulating food markets.MD

New reports analyze causes andrecommend ways forward.

BEric Walcott,Poicnavoccassistnt,Interaction

FooD I

Whats Fuelig the

Fd rice

risis?

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ONDAY DEVELOPMENTS

AID FFTIn

AS THE AID WORLD GEARS UP FOR NOVEM BERS HIGHLevel Forum (HLF) on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, donors willbe under pressure to demonstrate progress against the com

mitments they made at the last HLF in Accra in 2008.

In the Accra Agenda for Action donors promised, We will makeaid more transparent, and they signed up to a number of specificcommitments in this area including:

To publicly disclose regular, detailed and timely information onvolume, allocation and, when available, results of developmentexpenditure to enable more accurate budget, accounting and auditby developing countries; and

To provide information on annual allocations and actual disbursements, and on future aid allocations, as well as publishing detailsof conditions.

Now here we are, three years down the line. At the HLF4 in Busan,donors will need to show what actions they have taken to meet thesespecific commitments on transparency.

Since these pledges were made, there has been growing acknowledgement of the central importance of transparency to the aid effectivenessagenda and we have seen significant interest in aid transparency fromgovernments worldwide. In many cases, this coincides with the greaterpolitical drive for transparency and the publication of government

data that many governments arecurrently implementing, such asthose in the U.S. and the U.K.

It is vital to realize, though, thatwhile improving the availabilityof data is important, it is notenough; making it widely accessible and meaningful requires

another step.Once governments have gotten past the initial hurdle of openingup their data, there are still problems related to ensuring that it isaccessible to all users and can be used, repurposed and combined withother information sources in a meaningful way.

For example, seeking out detailed aid information from many different donors could find you searching dozens of different websites.And lets be honest; this is not realistic. Users cannot find all the information they need and then combine it in a comparable form, usingthe same dates, currencies, definitions and so on. There is no way toensure consistency in your data, or that you are not double counting;money can be moved from one organization to another without this

transfer being highlighted anywhere.Open aid data has enormous and positive consequences for the

wider transparency movement. We know that we need to concentrateless on transparency of organizations and more on what this meansforusers. People want information from many different sources, notjust one organization. The data most useful to users is not related to aspecific organization or even a particular sector, but is contained in acombination of activities that reveal an overarching picture of aid. Butusers also need this information in a way that enables them to searchfor it themselves. No one agency can provide all this information; itmust come from an agreed, collective approach.

whats the aswer?Many are advocating an open, common, international standard for

reporting aid activities. Such a standard has been developed by theInternational Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). IATI provides a datastandard that all donors could use for the publication and electronicsharing of their aid information.

IATI is an independent, multistakeholder initiative that was set upto enable its members to meet the transparency commitments they

Anticipating the upcoming aideffectiveness forum and efforts tobring transparency to aid spending.

Lkig Twards usaBAlexandra Beech,CommunictionsOfcer,iinfo

Tolearnmore,gotowww.InsideNGO.orgFormembershipinquiries,[email protected]

2011AnnualMeetingforMembers

Finance,Grants&ContractsJune67

Human

ResourcesJune

6

7

InformationTechnologyJune78

CrossOperationsDaywithaLegaltrackJune8

Learn from theexperts in theNGOcommunity, shareyour experience with peers, connect with colleaguesfrom InsideNGOs member base of more than 250organizations.The fullagendawill includeover70 sessionsaimedataddressing the core operational challenges faced byinternationaldevelopmentandreliefstaff.JoinusinWashington,DC!

Goodmixofpeoplewithdifferentperspectivesandexperiencescomingtogethertodiscussrelevantandimportantissuesthat

impacttheeffectivenessofourwork.

The data mostuseful to users is notrelated to a specicorganization or evena particular sector.
http://www.aidtransparency.net/http://www.aidtransparency.net/

8/6/2019 MD May 2011 Small


AID FFTIn

made at Accra in a coherent and consistentway. Partner countries and civil society organizations have been heavily involved in the

process; and by publishing their data to theIATI standard, donors will be able to meetmany of the priority needs identified duringthe consultation process.

All tgether wIATI seeks to promote greater aid trans

parency in order to increase the impact ofaid in reducing poverty. It was launched inSeptember 2008 at the HLF in Accra.

To date, 18 donors are signatories of theinitiative and 19 developing countries haveendorsed it. And late in 2010, the U.S. confirmed that as it further developed its Foreign

Assistance

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