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Sam Worthington is President and CEO of InterAction, the nation’s largest alliance of relief and development nongovernmental organizations working overseas. InterAction members manage over $13 billion to promote development and help vulnerable populations. With over forty working groups, InterAction helps its members coordinate, establish best practices, and develop policy and advocacy positions on the wide range of topics that shape the US international NGO community. Mr. Worthington has served as the Vice Chair of InterAction’s Board of Directors, chaired its PVO Standards and Membership committee, and was co-chair of its Commission on the Advancement of Women. Previously, he served since 1994 as Chief Executive Officer of Plan USA. Plan is a global, 62 country, child-focused development NGO that impacts the lives of 12 million children. Mr. Worthington also sat on Plan’s global executive management team and chaired Plan’s national CEO team.
He currently is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and among various advisory roles for the United Nations and U.S. Government serves on the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) at the UN, Advisory Council for Voluntary Foreign Assistance at USAID, Board of The Alliance to End Hunger and is an International Trustee of Religions for Peace. Mr. Worthington’s numerous leadership roles include the White House Task Force on Global Development and Poverty, Chairing the global NGO Impact Initiative on behalf of the office of the UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery (President Clinton), and as a founder of the Hope for African Children Initiative (HACI). He has also served on the steering committee of the NGO Leadership Forum at Harvard University.
Mr. Worthington has a Masters degree with distinction from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont. As a Fulbright scholar he completed post graduate research at the Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva. He has received various awards (honorary doctorate, etc.) and engaged in a program on nonprofit leadership at the Harvard Business School.
Mr. Worthington has represented U.S. NGOs and their programs before the United States Congress, the administration, and numerous major media outlets, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, NPR, PBS, CNN, AP, Reuters, AFP, and many other major national and international media.
Mr. Worthington and his wife Renée live in Bethesda, Maryland. They have three children: Rachel, Jamie and Lindsay.
April 19, 2011
While the 2011 international affairs budget was cut sharply from President Obama's initial request, humanitarian and development groups are expressing some relief, given the current political climate.
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May 16, 2013
Last fall InterAction pledged that its member NGOs would spend more than $1 billion in private resources on food security, agriculture and nutrition work over the next three years. It may come as a surprise that U.S.-based NGOs have this amount of private resources to commit to ensuring more families worldwide have the food they need. Thanks to support from the individuals, foundations and...
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May 2, 2013
Today, transparency is thought to be as essential for effective development as gender equality or local ownership. Without transparency, real accountability is impossible. Without accountability, it is difficult to achieve meaningful, lasting results. At least rhetorically, both donors and civil society have recognized this, identifying transparency as a key principle in international agreements on aid effectiveness...
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December 10, 2012
Chronic hunger and undernutrition will be on my radar in 2013 as InterAction’s members intensify their efforts to solve a problem that has no place in the 21st century.
Poverty, conflict and general access to good, nutritious food contribute to one in eight people suffering from undernutrition. Climate change and more mouths to feed even as population growth slows have put ever greater pressure on smallholder...
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October 31, 2012
Newly-released figures on world hunger are heartening in their downward trajectory. The rate of undernourished people worldwide has declined over the last two decades. But one in eight people, or 12.5 percent of the world’s population, still suffer from undernutrition, and the rate of progress has slowed in recent years. These hunger figures aren’t just a shock to our global consciousness – they...
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Working Groups are a central part of the way InterAction supports and aids its members. Working Groups are first and foremost a place for member agencies to share information that is important to them in several ways:
- by providing a way for member organizations to share information about field-based issues, concerns, and topics;
- by serving as a place for members to receive training and to share best practices with each other; and
- by offering a space for members to develop new products and materials on a given topic.
Working Groups are member driven and supported by InterAction staff (with the exception of a few non-staffed working groups). Members identify an interest, issue area, or need around which they feel their collective voices will clarify or strengthen responses. Depending on the number of member organizations interested, a meeting or consultation is planned to explore the topic and allow members to share their issues and concerns. Such consultations or exploratory meetings may lead to the formation of an on-going Working Group.
InterAction's current working groups are described below. For more information on a specific working group, contact the group's staff contact.
| Group | Description | Staff Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Transparency |
This group currently only functions as an email list and is for those interested in transparency/open data efforts by NGOs and the U.S. government. |
Laia Grino |
| HPPC--SYRIA |
this is a working for Syria |
Abby Bruell |
| SIT--Transparency |
SIT--ransparency |
Laia Grino |
| Shelter and Settlements Working Group |
InterAction Shelter And Settlements Working Group |
Mohamed Hilmi |
| Allen-test-group |
this is a test group |
Allen Abtahi |
| InterAction Business Council |
Promoting and leveraging corporate and NGO partnerships for sustainable and inclusive international development and economic growth. |
Luisa Cordoba |
| HPPC--Humanitarian Policy and Partnerships Working Group |
HPPC--Humanitarian Policy and Partnerships Working Group |
Abby Bruell |
| SIT--Aid Effectiveness-Members |
SIT--Aid Effectiveness-Members |
Kimberly Darter |
| HPPC--Horn of Africa |
HPPC--Horn of Africa |
Lucy de los Reyes |