Hunger Rumblings
ELCA World Hunger staff and associates write about root causes of hunger, current events, and anything else they find pertinent.
My social media networks are raising questions. You have any answers?
Engaging in social media can be dangerous. Between my Twitter account (you can follow me and my friends @hungerbites), our social networking site (join us on The Table), and various blogs, I find myself conflicted… perhaps a friend from the blogosphere can help.
It started when my friend Mark posed a question on The Table. He wrote:
“Organizations like Amnesty International, Oxfamand so many others are focusing on the same [hunger and poverty] issues, and with the leading of people like Jeffrey Sachs and Esther Duflo, and major think tanks like those atYale, Columbia and MIT and so many others also working on these issues, plus Protestant and Catholic Christians involved, why has so little progress been made?”
The upshot of his question is, why, if we can all agree that hunger and poverty are evils, and if we have put so much intellectual energy into addressing them, have we not made the progress we need? Why are hunger and poverty a perennial problem?
Bill Easterly points to one problem–too often the self interests of a given NGO (or even a division within the same NGO!) take the place of the needs of those they are supposedly in the business of supporting. He offers the example of the health care aid that is given to Ethiopia. Citing Owen Barder,
“According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), in Ethiopia about 65% of the population (52 million people) live in areas at risk of malaria. Malaria is the leading cause of health problems, responsible for about 27% of deaths; and malaria epidemics are increasing. TheHIV/AIDS prevalence rate among adults is 2.1% (2007) – that’s about 1.6 million people living with HIV.
“Of $5.15 per head provided in aid for health to Ethiopia in 2007, about $3.18 per head was earmarked for HIV while about $0.26 cents per head was allocated to malaria control. Given the relatively low burden of HIV, earmarking 60% of health aid for HIV is excessive relative to other needs for health spending.
“Of course it is right that we should try to make sure that everybody with HIV has access to medicines to keep them healthy, and … to prevent spread of the disease. But we should also make sure that people have bednets and drugs to stop malaria, provide childhood vaccination to prevent easily preventable diseases, ensure access to contraception and safe abortions, and, above all, enough funding to provide basic health services that would save thousands of lives and suffering. Yet we are not willing to provide enough money to do all of this. It is in this context that it is damaging to earmark 60% of health aid to HIV.”
This for me raises the important question of how we accompany those who are poor and vulnerable. How do we seek their interests rather than our own? How do we truly work with and on behalf of those who are marginalized? Working for a non-profit agency myself, it means I have to constantly watch my motivations for a given strategy or initiative or program. (I found a blog recently that speaks directly to this issue. They pose as a real aid agency with the tag line “A charitable organization committed to working anywhere where generalized poverty and misery will ensure significant levels of comfort for our staff.” The satire is biting, but the point is well made.)
We have to be honest about who benefits from our decisions. And I think this translates into everyday life as well. Who benefits from the decisions I make regarding consumption? Who benefits from a given policy or politician I support? And so on…
All of this points to a larger problem with human ability to empathize and seek the good of another. But that is a question too big for this post. Until I have the courage to address it, maybe you can provide me with your thoughts on the subject.
-David Creech
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on March 4th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
I have no false illusions that my comment will solve any of these problems, David, but I will toss in my two cents for what its worth.
It was Pablo Freire who introduced the education model of Ver-Pensar-Actuar (See-Think-Act). It is a cycle: SEE what is going on firsthand, THINK/reflect upon what is going on and how it should be, and ACT accordingly. The cycle aspect of this would include the chance to evaluate after each cycle, which is lumped into the next round of “see.”
Sadly, we (as a society) often operate with one or more of these at a diminished or non-existent level. How often do we Ver and Actuar, but forget to Pensar? Or we Ver and Pensar, but lose motivation before we get to Actuar? With those think-tanks you mentioned, I highly doubt if most (or any?) of those the individuals have been to the communities they desire to help in order to see what the need there truly is.
I love that the ELCA World Hunger Appeal has connections to the specific communities we are directly helping; I hope these connections are settled there and frequently report back to Chicago with what they see (and think). I believe it is a good idea to occasionally send people from the Chicago offices into the communities we desire to help; I hope you are able to stay long enough in one location to actually “see” the life there. I don’t mean to sound critical with this honest question, but when people from your office make trips abroad to visit the communities, do they ever live in one community for more than a week? Or even up to three or more weeks? I believe it is only after having truly seen, then the most productive thinking and acting can take place.
It’s my opinion that the ELCA-WHA is strides ahead of many other organizations that have similar goals, but I offer a friendly challenge to you all to look at the organization’s work through the lens of Ver-Pensar-Actuar. Is one or more of these that you could improve upon? My prayers are with you all and the leadership you provide in this important ministry.
on March 5th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Kris,
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. In my own experience, I think I probably see and think, but the acting part is the struggle. I wonder how many people find themselves in a similar situation. As to seeing our work, I think that is one of the great strengths of ELCA World Hunger. While I do not get to see as many projects as I would like, we hear a lot from our companion churches. Our model of accompaniment seeks to hear from those who are actually living in the situation and will benefit from the support we can offer. When we are at our best we are acting on their concerns, not our own.
on March 5th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
That’s great to hear, David; I had figured that was how ELCA World Hunger operated, and that’s why I have been a supporter of your ministry. From the information I’ve gathered, some/many other organizations are not as thorough in doing their homework on the ground.
As for myself, I tend to cut short the Ver. Yet I hope that being aware of that short-coming is the first step in improving it. Thanks for the blog posts and your response!
on March 16th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
[...] couple of weeks back I posed a question that had been raised by one of our hunger leaders on our social network site, The Table (love the [...]