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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 non-profit 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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December 9, 2011
Originally posted on the State Department's blog, DipNote, on Dec. 7, 2011.
As the civil society representative included on the U.S. delegation to the 4th High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, I had a unique vantage point of the proceedings. From my perspective as an NGO leader, the summit was possibly the most successful to date for a variety of reasons.
How aid is delivered is evolving...
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November 23, 2011
Co-authored with Daniel Yohannes, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Originally appeared on The Guardian's development blog, Poverty Matters, on Nov. 23, 2011.
Investing in overseas development is sometimes a hard sell when our own country is focused on economic recovery and job creation. Sustainable development creates stronger economies, with more consumers to trade and do business with in our...
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November 22, 2011
Originally published on CNN.com on Nov. 22, 2011.
Washington (CNN) – Foreign aid, a topic often overlooked on the presidential campaign trail, seems to sport a giant bull's-eye among Republicans this election season.
GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry proposed setting foreign aid accounts to zero if elected. One of his opponents, Mitt Romney, suggested last month that China should...
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November 4, 2011
CANNES – The end of the G20 summit in Cannes was a blur of activity as an army of reporters scoured through piles of official documents to make sense of the outcome. It was a scene made all the more surreal by the décor in the media center – fluorescent lime carpeting and rows of puce green tables.
Joining reporters trying to figure out the results were about 100-plus accredited NGOs, including...
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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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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 Córdoba |
| 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 |