2009 Annual Report: Year in Review

2009: Year in Review

Foreign Assistance Briefing Book
In November 2008, InterAction developed its first Foreign Assistance Briefing Book, which was distributed to the Obama administration, newly elected members of Congress, congressional committee staff who focus on foreign assistance issues, InterAction member CEOs, foundations, think tanks and the media. The book reflects a robust collaboration involving over 100 InterAction member organizations and nearly all of InterAction’s working groups.

The compilation of 36 policy briefs exemplifies InterAction’s capacity to help members come together as an effective and unified voice in high-level policy making. Aside from the 435 Congressional offices and over 300 administration officials who received hard copies, more than 7,352 copies were downloaded from the website within the first eight months after its release, making it our site’s most visited page.

In November 2009, InterAction added a series of progress reports to the webpage gauging whether the administration and Congress were adopting the outlined recommendations, and shared the updates with newspaper editorial boards and foreign policy journalists across the country. The Los Angeles Times used the information to craft its editorial “Fix Foreign Aid,” published just after Rajiv Shah was nominated to serve as USAID Administrator.

Civil-Military Relations
InterAction staff, members and partners travelled to the headquarters of the U.S. military’s African Command and European Command and to a workshop on Humanitarian Action in Geneva, in addition to participating in meetings with Joint Forces Command, the U.S. Institute of Peace-facilitated Civil Military Task Force, the Department of Defense, USAID and ACBAR (InterAction’s Afghan equivalent).

InterAction also continued its campaign to promote compliance with the Guidelines for Relations Between U.S. Armed Forces and Non-Governmental Humanitarian Organizations in Hostile or Potentially Hostile Environments, which were negotiated and approved by InterAction and the Department of Defense in 2007, urging the military to return to civilian agencies stabilization responsibilities assigned by Secretary Rumsfeld to the military.

Foreign Assistance Reform
In the fall, InterAction staff collected and synthesized member comments for submission to House Foreign Affairs Committee staff—who had laid out a proposed structure for a new Foreign Assistance Act to replace the aging 625-page Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, under which the U.S. government presently provides humanitarian and development assistance—and later met with them to discuss the proposed new structure. InterAction also convened a series of meetings for members to develop recommendations to the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and Presidential Study Directive on foreign assistance. The meetings drew a large and diverse set of participants, with work continuing into 2010.

Food Security and Agriculture
InterAction’s Food Security and Agriculture Working Group collaborated with a group of both members and nonmembers called the Roadmap coalition to advocate on behalf of current food security legislative opportunities such as the Lugar-Casey, the McCollum and the McGovern-Emerson bills. Representative McCollum’s Global Food Security Act contains language suggested by the InterAction’s working group and the press release that accompanied the bill’s introduction included a statement by Sam Worthington.

With the Obama administration trying to double U.S. government funding for agriculture in poor countries and launching its $1 billion global Food Security Initiative, InterAction submitted technical recommendations and feedback on the draft Food Security/Agriculture strategy to the administration’s Inter-Agency Task Force on Food Security and Agriculture, which includes staff from USAID, the State Department, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Department of Agriculture, among other agencies.

InterAction staff and members also engaged on food security through the G8 and G20, meeting with National Security Council staff responsible for these issues.

Climate Work
The UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen and major legislative initiatives in Congress meant a busy year for the InterAction Climate Change Working Group, with ongoing advocacy for strong U.S. steps to limit climate change and provide adequate resources to help vulnerable countries adapt to its effects (“adaptation”). Working group representatives, along with other coalitions (including the U.S. Climate Action Network, the Climate Change and Development Working Group and the Climate Equity Campaign), met with congressional staff and the administration’s negotiating team to advocate for strong steps to reduce U.S. emissions, and robust U.S. participation in climate negotiations and a strong focus on effective adaptation funding.

In the lead-up to the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, InterAction staff and members and the U.S. Climate Action Network produced an action-oriented policy paper, met with involved representatives of the Treasury Department about the financial architecture for climate adaptation, and then took those messages to the summit itself.

InterAction made adaptation funding a particular focus of its work on the Copenhagen negotiations, with additional attention to clean technology cooperation and deforestation. In preparation for Copenhagen, InterAction co-led an NGO delegation organized by Connect U.S. Fund to meet with the lead U.S. negotiator, Todd Sterns, to press for stronger U.S. leadership toward an international climate agreement.

Gender
The Women, Faith, and Development Alliance (WFDA), in which InterAction plays a leading role, held meetings in Monrovia to further develop a Liberian national WFDA and present the program at Liberia’s global conference on women’s leadership. WFDA also secured funding from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to replicate WFDA approaches in other countries, building on the work already done in Australia and Liberia.

InterAction also launched the Gender Integration Working Group, offering a special topics series, beginning with a June meeting on InterAction’s Gender Equity Amendments. Two day-long gender audit workshops were offered, with a waiting list for additional audit trainings in the fall.

InterAction and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Sub-working Group for Gender in Humanitarian Action made major progress on their collaboration to develop a practical, E-learning course on ensuring gender equality in humanitarian programming. Different Needs - Equal Opportunities: Increasing Effectiveness of Humanitarian Action for Women, Girls, Boys and Men, which will be available in 2010, is a three-hour, self-paced course based on the IASC Gender Handbook for Humanitarian Action and related guidelines. Developed through an inclusive process involving over 30 agencies and donors, the course was also field-tested in over 19 countries to ensure its practicality for field staff.

InterAction’s Gender-Based Violence Sub-Working Group continued its advocacy efforts, using meetings with congressional staff, the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer, the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration and USAID’s Task Force on Gender-Based Violence to address key issues. It also developed a list of innovative practices (which was shared with Ambassador’s Verveer’s staff) and submitted recommendations to the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Refugees on that body’s strategy of sexual and gender-based violence.

G8/G20
Leading up to the G8 Summit in July, the InterAction G8 Coordination Group prepared policy briefs on six core issues: education; food, hunger and agriculture; health; climate change; water and sanitation; and transparency. The group shared the briefs with National Security Council staff and at meetings with the U.S. G8 Sherpa and key members of his team. InterAction was actively involved with the Global Call to Action against Poverty coalition at the G8 Summit and in its G20 Summit events in London as well.

InterAction also had a strong presence at the September G20 Summit in Pittsburgh. Partnering with Pittsburgh-based member Brother’s Brother Foundation (BBF), InterAction set up an NGO hub inside BBF’s warehouse, featuring 50 work stations, internet connectivity, printing and photocopying capability, and food and shuttle van service 14 hours each day. Due to InterAction’s advocacy with the U.S. Sherpa and his staff, most NGOs received credentials to attend the summit, giving them access to the media covering the summit. InterAction received significant positive feedback from members and allies about its role organizing logistics and media.

PVO Standards
Member organizations completed the second round of PVO Standards compliance certification (Self-Certification Plus—SCP). InterAction staff provided technical assistance to members where needed to deepen their capacity to do so, and held a stakeholder meeting to review and improve the SCP process and develop a peer review pilot program. The InterAction Membership and Standards Team hosted a workshop at the 2009 Forum to provide members with an opportunity to discuss InterAction’s PVO Standards and the SCP evaluation and compliance reporting process.

Mapping
To help better convey to decision-makers, the media and the public at large the tremendous scope and impact of the InterAction community, InterAction is undertaking a significant effort to map its members’ work at the project level all over the world. Building on two existing maps on pandemic preparedness and food security, in 2009 InterAction began consulting with members in preparation for launching the expanded mapping effort in 2010. The initiative will also include information on best practices and feature social networking tools.

Partner Vetting System (PVS)
Between March and May, InterAction pressed senior officials at the State Department and USAID, including Secretary Clinton, to continue extending the effective date of the PVS rule until a confirmed USAID Administrator could renew the dialogue between the agency and the NGO community to explore alternatives that do not undermine humanitarian and development programs or put NGO staff at an increased risk of violence. Based in part on InterAction advocacy on Capitol Hill and with Secretary Clinton, the effective date was extended into 2010. InterAction also led a successful effort to prevent an amendment to the State Department reauthorization bill that would have legislatively imposed a global Partner Vetting System. With the latest extension, implementation of the PVS regulations has now been staved off for more than two years.

Branding
After 25 years with the same brand, in 2009 InterAction undertook a wide-ranging process to develop a new brand that reflects the evolution of the InterAction community. The final “look” includes a new logo and tagline. The tagline, “A united voice for global change” captures our collective efforts to have a broad community voice that is united.

Media Summit
InterAction hosted a very well attended International Reporting Media Summit in New York in May. Participants discussed new approaches to expanding international news coverage in a rapidly changing media environment, the new generation of reporting, and how development and humanitarian practitioners can play a greater role in facilitating comprehensive coverage.

Sudan expulsion
Following the expulsion of 13 international NGOs by the Sudanese government after its president was indicted by the International Criminal Court, InterAction was involved in extensive discussions with U.S. government officials (including representatives from the National Security Council, the State Department and USAID) and other Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) members on re-entry of the NGOs, coverage of the gap in services for one million internally displaced persons, and future relations between NGOs and the government in Khartoum. InterAction convened a series of conference calls with communications directors from member organizations to coordinate messaging and share up-to-date information about the Sudan humanitarian crisis. Humanitarian staff participated in the discussions and provided insights that contributed to highly focused member organization media relations activities.

(Photo: Karl Grobl)