2008: The Year in Review
In 2006 InterAction’s Board and member CEOs embarked on an extensive process to shape key strategic goals for the international NGO community. Thanks to the focus of those goals, the ongoing hard effort of working groups and our willingness to partner, we have significantly increased our capacity to influence the U.S. government and the UN and other multilaterals and shape the broader international development and humanitarian debate. If the U.S. NGO community, through InterAction, is to truly influence the forces that shape our field, we need to tap additional resources and continue to forge new partnerships.
During the past year the organization was faced with a wide range of new and ongoing challenges and opportunities. Challenges included foreign policy concerns surrounding our members’ humanitarian efforts in Burma, China and Georgia; extensive negotiations on USAID’s Partner Vetting System; our response to the global food crisis in collaboration with the leadership of theWorld Bank, IMF and U.S. government, at both the National Security Council and State Department; and our continued effort to establish appropriate civil-military boundaries, through meetings with Adm. Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations, and with USAID, regarding President Bush’s decision to have the U.S. military lead the American humanitarian response in Georgia.
InterAction’s ability to position itself to take advantage of new opportunities led to a number of new partnerships and joint efforts to shape the U.S. government and NGO space. As leaders in the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), InterAction helped bring an NGO voice to think tandled foreign assistance reform efforts. By anchoring the concept of a cabinet-level development agency, producing a detailed paper and testifying before Congress, InterAction helped expand the political space for the foreign assistance reform dialogue. Recently, InterAction President Samuel Worthington served on the steering committee of the Connect U.S. Fund’s Project on Foreign Policy Priorities for the Next President.
Opportunities to engage globally have also significantly increased. With CONCORD, Europe’s largest association of NGOs, InterAction helped launch civil society’s first global attempt to create aid effectiveness norms for NGOs. The UN reached out to have InterAction play several lead civil society roles—at the Doha conference on Development Financing for Development and at the General Assembly at the High-Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals. The UN now recognizes InterAction as the key representative of efforts to advance the MDGs in the United States.
Protecting NGO Space
USAID’s Partner Vetting System
July 17, 2008, marked the one-year anniversary of USAID’s notification of its intent to implement an onerous new Partner Vetting System (PVS), which could require NGOs to submit the names and personal information of their staff and boards of directors to USAID for screening against the U.S. government’s classified list of terrorists and supporters of terrorism. The fact that the implementation of the PVS has been delayed by more than a year is at least a temporary victory for the NGO community. InterAction is working closely with members, allies in Congress and strategic partners like the National Democratic Inistute, the International Republican Institute and Freedom House to create a system that ensures that no U.S. taxpayer dollars are diverted to terrorism but one that is still workable for operational NGOs.
Civil-Military Relations
InterAction is increasingly engaged in resisting the administration’s use of the armed forces to perform humanitarian and development roles historically the responsibility of civilian agencies of government and NGOs. This was one of the messages delivered in staff consultations at the headquarters of the European, African, Southern and Central Commands. George Rupp, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, spoke on behalf of InterAction at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the militarization issue, and Jim Bishop, InterAction’s Vice President for Humanitarian Policy and Practice, appeared before the House Government Oversight Committee to talk about AFRICOM’s mandate.
InterAction was asked by the Combined Joint Task Force–Horn of Africa (CJTF-HoA) to organize a conference with NGOs, State Department and USAID representatives and military personnel in Nairobi to help clarify the Task Force’s mandate and plans for civil affairs activities, which have been of strong concern to InterAction members working in the field. After the conference, InterAction staff briefed several congressional offices on the conference outcomes and met with numerous AFRICOM offices involved in planning, strategy and outreach in Stuttgart.
The president’s assignment of the military to lead the administration’s humanitarian relief program in Georgia politicized and militarized activities that are supposed to be apolitical and impartial, feeding suspicions that humanitarians were implementing Western political and strategic objectives. The Taliban’s assassination of four IRC staff members in Afghanistan was a tragic reminder of the price our colleagues sometimes pay when the line between military and humanitarian roles is blurred.
International Advocacy
G8 Summit: NGO Coordination Group and Platform Network
InterAction’s 30-member G8 NGO Coordination Group had a series of meetings with the National Security Council at the White House on issues including climate change, health, education, agriculture and the global food crisis. InterAction and member organization staff participated in a Civil G8 Summit meeting in Kyoto in April, as well as the summit itself in Hokkaido in July. While in Japan, the G8 NGO Platform Network, created by InterAction and its NGO platform counterparts from the other G8 countries, prepared a final communiqué focused on the global food crisis, the accountability of G8 governments for their commitments and reaching the targets of the Millennium Development Goals.
In mid-June, within the framework of the G8 NGO Platform Network, InterAction sent staff to Japan to work with JANIC (Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation) in support of the network’s joint activities pertaining to the G8 Summit. In partnership with JANIC, InterAction organized a workshop on partnerships, held at the People’s Alternative Summit in Sapporo, and a press briefing at the International Media Centre in Rusutsu with NGO platform representatives from five of the eight network member countries. It also facilitated the drafting and issuing, on behalf of the network, a joint communiqué in response to the summit’s conclusions.
Aid Effectiveness: Ghana Third High-Level Forum
In late June, InterAction participated in a two-day exploratory meeting on civil society organization (CSO) effectiveness in Paris with its Canadian and European partners and about 80 NGO networks from around world. The outcome was the launching of a CSO-led global process to identify the key principles essential for CSO development effectiveness, along with a number of guidelines and good practices.
InterAction played a lead role in this initiative and was invited to take the lead in facilitating in 2009. InterAction led a delegation of five U.S. NGOs—CARE, Center for International Private Enterprise, Heifer International, Population Action International and Oxfam—to the Third High-Level Forum (HLF3) on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, participating in the government-organized roundtables, CSO International Steering Group workshops as well as media outreach and briefings
International Coordination
InterAction, with former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, led a small delegation to the UN’s Doha Review Conference on Financing for Development (FfD). The purpose was to review the implementation of the consensus statement written at the 2002 Monterey FfD Conference. InterAction was very active in the Monterey Conference and is currently working with 12 other international NGOs as a member of the UN’s Doha NGO Group.
U.S. Foreign Aid Reform
In early June, InterAction helped launch the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network’s (MFAN) “New Day, New Way: U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century” paper on Capitol Hill. Samuel Worthington is one of 16 original co-signers of the document, along with InterAction member representatives Charles F. MacCormack (Save the Children), Ray Offenheiser (Oxfam), David Beckmann (Bread for the World) and George Ingram (AED). As a member of the network, InterAction has supported the work of the MFAN with significant staff time, and has led the network’s advocacy efforts in Congress in close partnership with Bread for theWorld, Oxfam and Save the Children.
InterAction released two papers describing the rationale for, and proposed structure of, a cabinet-level Department for Global and Human Development. Because of these papers and Sam Worthington’s participation in the MFAN, InterAction is seen as a key thought leader on the foreign assistance modernization issue and was invited to testify at two relevant hearings. Worthington testified before a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee hearing, and George Rupp of the International Rescue Committee testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on foreign assistance and the military.
In November, InterAction presented its Foreign Assistance Briefing Book to the Obama administration transition team and members of Congress. Our goal was to present our community’s best thinking and wealth of experience on the issues we expected the administration to face during its first six months and those of the 111th Congress. The briefing book identifies key areas and sectors in need of immediate attention and lays out suggested actions, capturing the lessons learned from our members’ decades of on-the-ground experience. Each issue is outlined in a succinct one-pager and several sections have additional in-depth background papers.
Humanitarian Efforts
Crises to which members responded in strength included the Israeli incursion in Gaza; the bloody conclusion of the civil war in Sri Lanka; continuing chaos and displacement in Somalia; expulsion of 13 international NGOs working in northern Sudan; suspension of humanitarian operations in Zimbabwe by the government as cholera struck; the flight of over 2 million Pakistanis from areas where the military tried to crush the Taliban; and persistent conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. With the new administration stepping up efforts to address instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan, members engaged incoming senior officials in a policy dialogue focused on the need to keep development and military activities distinct.
Strategic Partnerships
Global Partnerships
In early May, NGO platform leaders from Ghana, Mali, Kenya, France, the EU, Canada, the UK, India and Australia attended InterAction’s 2008 Forum and participated in a series of joint meetings. Among these was a meeting of the G8 NGO Platform Network, chaired by InterAction, which drafted and finalized a programmatic document outlining the purpose, goals and working structure of the network. Platform leaders also participated in a meeting with senior managers and staff of the World Bank to discuss collaboration between the Bank and NGO platforms at the national and global levels.
Women, Faith, and Development Alliance
The Women, Faith, and Development Alliance (WFDA) of which InterAction is a co-founder, continues to convene an unprecedented group of influential leaders from these three communities—as well as policymakers and the public—to highlight the importance of investing in women and girls as a means of creating global gender equity and ending poverty.
Recent activities of the WFDA include: continuing to leverage the $1.4 billion dollars in commitments made by reaching out to more organizations for new commitments, developing a Breakthrough Summit video to be used by countries and organizations interested in replicating the WFDA, outreach to the press, exploring with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D.-Nev) office a WFDA Caucus within Congress, and working with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to create regional WFDA structures around the world. In addition, InterAction and Religions for Peace took the lead in developing a WFDA in Liberia, which played a role in the country’s March 2009 global conference on women’s leadership and development.
Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network
InterAction is a leading partner in the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), a broad coalition of international development and foreign policy practitioners, policy advocates and experts, concerned citizens and private sector organizations.
New Working Groups
Commission on the Advancement of Women
The Commission on the Advancement of Women continues to serve as the focal point for members on gender issues and for integrating gender in development and humanitarian assistance. In June, the CAW reconvened the Gender and Aid Working Group, which is now called the Gendering of Foreign Assistance Reform (GOFAR) Task Force, reflecting the urgency to get back to work on how to integrate gender more broadly into U.S. foreign assistance within the context of InterAction’s ongoing advocacy. The Task Force is developing a policy brief on gender and development for the new administration.
Climate Change
The Climate Change Working Group organized a successful session at InterAction’s Forum 2008 that focused on the intersections of climate change impacts and development work. The session brought together panel representatives from Mercy Corps, Oxfam America, World Wildlife Fund and DFID. Policy activity on the Lieberman-Warner bill was a focus of many working group members during the late spring and early summer. The working group also decided to move forward on a learning series that will focus on a range of topics of interest to the group’s diverse members. The first of these sessions, on reducing the carbon footprints of our own organizations, was held in late July.
Health in Relief and Development
In order to better engage and serve members, the overall Health in Relief & Development Working Group is redefining its focus and goals for the remainder of 2009. In September, the group kicked off the first of four meetings in a new fall series, “The Future of Health in Development: Current Issues, Future Priorities and the New Administration,” with a goal of facilitating discussion that informs a set of draft principles on global health issues in the development context that embody areas of broad agreement within our community.
Agriculture
Responding to significant member feedback regarding a new working group on sustainable agriculture, in June InterAction held an initial meeting of its Agriculture Working Group. The meeting brought together a wide range of our member organizations, as well as external players in agricultural development, and generated great ideas to move forward. Based on the emerging themes of agriculture policy, best and innovative practices and food production, the larger group divided into three subgroups in preparation for the second working group meeting in August. The subgroups have drafted work plans, and are continuing to explore the structural and thematic foci that will best ensure effective and coherent operations.
Food Crisis
InterAction continues to respond to the increasingly challenging global environment, in particular the “perfect storm” that caused massive increases in the price of basic foodstuffs worldwide and the resulting food shortages in some of the world’s poorest countries. Our humanitarian and public policy teams created a Food Crisis Working Group to assess and respond to the impact of these increased costs on vulnerable populations. Briefings have been held with USAID/Food for Peace, theWorld Food Program and the Famine Early Warning Network; the Climate Change Working Group is also integral to our efforts in this area.
Communications
Public Relations
A prolonged media run followed the spring disasters in China and Burma, with key media clips including The Washington Post, National Public Radio, Associated Press, CNN Money and many other media outlets. InterAction further established its position as an expert source for media on all issues related to humanitarian assistance around natural disasters, with proof of that reputation cemented during the Georgia situation and overtures made to gauge the opinions of InterAction members on U.S. government humanitarian activities. AFRICOM and other related civil-military issues became a popular topic, and demonstrated that InterAction is quickly becoming one of the select “go to” NGO sources for the media working to understand recent measures to militarize humanitarian assistance. InterAction participated in a number of interviews on AFRICOM, most notably with The Washington Post.
To further promote the comprehensive work of InterAction’s Policy team, the PR team also began an intensive effort to build stronger relationships with journalists covering Capitol Hill. Through our work with the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, journalists are hearing from us more regularly through new e-media alerts and follow-ups. The year also saw an increase in InterAction’s presence on the international media stage. Work at the G8 Summit led to coverage on BBC and Voice of America, and work with OECD-DAC media partners at the 2008 aid-effectiveness conference in Accra, Ghana, helped build relationships with local journalists in Africa and foreign correspondents. InterAction has an interest in reaching beyond its established audiences to promote the humanitarian work carried out by our members every day. In addition to our own website, we have created profiles on a number of social networks, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
Monday Developments
Over its 25-year history, Monday Developments has evolved from a weekly one-page, black and white newsletter to, in 2008, a monthly, 44–52 page, full-color format with featured new sections, such as Washington Update, Southern Voices and Letters to the Editor. Themed issues have provided a forum for us to amplify our voices on “hot button” issues such as NGO accountability, NGO space, the future of international relief and development and development financing. Our career section within Monday Developments has expanded into an online job board to give members and advertisers even greater benefits than before.
(Photo: Shehzad Noorani)
