President and CEO of InterAction, Sam Worthington states that NGOs unfairly get the brunt of the blame for slow progress in Haiti, NGOs cannot be the only face of recovery.

InterAction CEO, Samuel Worthington addresses the progress of funding for Haiti aid two years after the quake.

Written by Tawana Jacobs, InterAction's Associate Director of Public Relations.

Country ownership empowers and supports effective states and citizens to take responsibility for their own development, using local systems and resources to build capacity and create change in communities that they are committed to sustaining.

Sam Worthington is president and CEO of InterAction. He served as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Fourth High-Level Meeting on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea.

InterAction News Release:

U.S. NGO alliance InterAction welcomes a new agreement aimed at improving the effectiveness of aid, but said the new rules must be binding for those who endorsed it at a high-level summit in South Korea this week.

Sam Worthington quoted.

A proposal for a financial transaction tax to raise new new funding for poor countries failed to win the backing of the G20 although France President Nicolas Sarkozy said he planned to still pursue the idea.

Sam Worthington quoted in news story published by multiple international outlets including El Mundo (Spain).

Sam Worthington quoted.

Sam Worthington quoted in this news story that was published in multiple French newspapers including L'Express.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have argued Wednesday that the G20 continues to mobilize for development despite the crisis and expressed hope that the summit in Cannes does not block the implementation by some countries in the transaction tax financial.

InterAction News Release: G20 leaders meeting in Cannes tomorrow must not solve the sovereign debt crisis on the backs of the world’s poor and should take the lead on fulfilling previous commitments, particularly on food and agricultural assistance, said the largest alliance of U.S.-based international NGOs.

InterAction President and CEO Sam Worthington is quoted in this Horn of Africa story.

InterAction President and CEO Sam Worthington is quoted.

Three new areas in southern Somalia have deteriorated into a famine situation. These are parts of Middle Shabelle region, the Afgooye Corridor settlements home to roughly 400,000 displaced people since 2007 and parts of Mogadishu which are hosting displaced populations.

InterAction watched with interest this week President Obama’s speech on troop levels in Afghanistan. With much of the attention centered on the aspects of the security transition, the face of long-term development in Afghanistan remains to be seen. In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted that the U.S.

InterAction News Release: Members of Congress and U.S. NGOs announce the need to integrate global development and environmental policies with the launch of InterAction's new policy paper titled "The Nature of Development," which calls for alignment of the two issues in order to improve the effectiveness of U.S. foreign policy investments.

This week, the House of Representatives (the Senate was in recess) held a couple of hearings of interest to development and humanitarian community. On Wednesday, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia heard testimony from administration officials regarding the upcoming U.S.

At the G-8 summit in France, Obama wins support for aid to shore up emerging democracies and movements. Aid groups are skeptical, noting that the G-8 is behind on previous financial pledges.

The G8 is committed to aid effectiveness in the areas of global health and food security. Food security is central in the G8's development concerns as the countries focus on financial aid as well as research. The G8 has also mobilized over 40 percent of the $60 billion that was pledged towards global health in 2007.

ONE's 2011 DATA Report is about how donor funding up to 2010 has not matched the amount agreed to by G8 nations at the 2005 Summit in Gleneagles.

Although Congress is in recess this week, there were several pertinent hearings from last week whose summaries we did not include in the April 15 edition of the Weekly Update. Among these are an April 11 Commission on Wartime Contracting hearing regarding NGOs and Provincial Reconstruction Teams operating in Afghanistan.

The April 2011 issue of Monday Developments Magazine

InterAction's G8/G20 Task Force applauds the work of the G20 leaders to enhance financial inclusion by increasing access to financial services by low-income people. Improving the range and quality of financial services available to previously excluded individuals strengthens their ability to secure and increase their financial assets.

Negotiations over FY2011 spending between Senate Democrats and House Republicans remain at an impasse this afternoon. A government shutdown looms if an agreement is not reached by midnight tonight. Please check out InterAction’s extended coverage of the FY 2011 appropriations process in the Washington Update section below.

Japan continues to reel from the multiple disasters triggered by last Friday’s massive earthquake near its northeast coast. The media attention following this disaster has brought about a compassionate response from Americans. InterAction has developed guidelines on the most appropriate ways to help those affected by overseas disasters.

House of Representatives’ "Continuing Resolution (CR) Extension" bill for the rest of fiscal year 2011ignores the recommendations of military and business leaders and prioritizes relatively miniscule short-term budget savings over long-term security, prosperity and fiscal health.

InterAction's G8/G20 Task Force published a G20 Summit Policy Brief on innovative financing and the elimination of tax havens. The short brief provides information on the potential role a global financial transfer fee (also sometimes called a transfer tax) might play in responding to international crises.

Blog on AlertNet on the media's criticism of the humanitarian response in Haiti, and why it's simultaneously incomplete, appropriate and constructive.

The $20,744,144 Food For The Poor raised for Haiti emergency earthquake relief had been spent entirely on those efforts by the end of October. The funds were used for purchasing food and other critical items that were not donated, as well as for shipping containers of relief to the country.  

Transcript of an interview of InterAction's president and CEO, Sam Worthington, and the State Department's Special Coordinator for Haiti, Thomas Adams, on the way forward in Haiti after the one year anniversary of the earthquake on January 12, 2010.

Agence France Presse (AFP) article in the Montreal Gazette exploring both sides of the debate on NGOs in Haiti.

Background: The scope of the 2011 Work Plan will focus on humanitarian programming leaving out recovery and development activities. The document will contain the following elements:

InterAction member Oxfam's one year progress report on Haiti since the January 12, 2010, earthquake. 

An article in Forbes on the dangers of using entirely foreign contractors to rebuild Haiti.

John Ruthrauff, InterAction’s International Advocacy Director, is quoted in this article about the World Bank’s International Development Association agreeing to boost funding for low-income countries.

The December 2010 issue of Monday Developments Magazine

InterAction members continue to respond to the cholera outbreak in Haiti. Find more information on our crisis response page.

Blog by Katie Gresham on the Development Assistance Task Force of the U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy, November 16-19, 2010.

The November 2010 issue of Monday Developments Magazine

Originally developed as part of InterAction's Africa Liaison Program Inititiative (ALPI) to foster relationships between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and nongovernmental organizations in the U.S.

This policy brief, published by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network in November, 2010, explores the lessons from Orissa and advocates for a greater need for political engagement and leadership; high-level administrative coordination and inter-departmental consultations; broad stakeholder consultation; and integration with regular planning and budgetary processes.

InterAction is very pleased that President Obama has followed through on his promise to elevate global development to be as important a U.S. foreign policy component as defense and diplomacy.

Celebrate, Innovate, and Sustain: Toward 2015 and Beyond is a significant step toward a strategy for
reforming foreign assistance and meeting the 2015 Millennium Development Goals.

Six months after an earthquake devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010, Handicap International has made a provisional assessment of the situation, which you can find below along with an outline of its plans for the future. The association has a team of 480 people in Haiti, including 70 expatriate staff. It is the association’s largest ever deployment.

On January 12, 2010, an earthquake struck Haiti, devastating the nation’s capital and creating one of the most complex urban disasters in decades. More than 220,000 persons were killed and 330,000 injured. An estimated 3 million men, women and children – one in three Haitians  were affected.

Oxfam had been working in Haiti for 32 years when the quake struck. For the past six months, our programs have scaled up to provide water and sanitation, public health education, and ensuring people have access to food and basic needs through cash-for-work and cash grants programs. We are currently helping over 440,000 people through our relief and recovery programs.

Six months on, the dramatic destruction caused by the 12 January 2010 earthquake in Haiti is still synonymous with unbelievable stress for over three million people1, including 1.6 million living in 1,342 spontaneous settlements, of which 800,000 are estimated to be children.

The IRC launched programs in Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the January 12 earthquake.

JDC, the world’s leading Jewish humanitarian assistance organization, is proud to be using its expertise to bring ongoing relief to the people of Haiti in their time of need. As the process of recovery in Haiti begins, JDC is addressing the physical and psychological rehabilitation needs of those most devastated by the disaster.

Six months after the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake, life is slowly resuming for families in Haiti, but it is a new post-earthquake life of rebuilding communities and coming to terms with a new “normal.” The new normal includes some being able to return to homes that have been repaired. For others, it means having to find a new home - often with a relative or neighbor.

On an overcast and rainy May 25, CHF completed a payroll in Petit-Goave for 740 laborers in its ongoing cash-for-work program. Workers had spent the past two weeks demolishing crumbled buildings and removing rubble in support of the USAID-funded CLEARS program. At the payroll, CHF paid workers salaries totaling more than US$47,000, accounting for almost US$62 per person.

AMURT’s mission is to help improve the quality of life for the poor and disadvantaged people of the world, and to assist those affected by calamity and conflict. We believe that the best assistance is that which encourages and enables all people to develop themselves.

JUNE 2010 marks 6 months since a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the island nation of Haiti…While the recovery process has begun, devastation in Port-au- Prince, and many areas beyond, remains without precedent. As many as 3 million people were affected by the quake, 1 million left homeless, 300,000 injured, and over 220,000 killed.

To continue supporting Haiti after the 7.0 earthquake on January 12, Giving Children Hope is transitioning from an immediate recovery response to a season of long-term reconstruction.  To date, Giving Children Hope has distributed over $7 million worth of life-saving medicines, medical supplies and other relief items.

This report is compiled following a request by the Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)2 at a meeting on 6 May 2010. The report is written 6 months after the 12 January earthquake in Haiti and is concerned primarily with

Our efforts in Haiti continue as we meet the current rehabilitation needs of the amputees through an amputee clinic being managed at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in the Central Plateau by Hanger Orthopedics, Christian Medical Mission Board, and other founding members of the Haitian Amputee Coalition, including Physicians for Peace.

FACTS AT A GLANCE:
The global Red Cross network is providing:

Six months after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, there is still much to be done, however, the communities Plant With Purpose works with have made significant progress by planting trees, constructing soil conservation barriers, and providing incomes to support their families through our “Cash for Work” program.

The May 2010 issue of Monday Developments Magazine

 Notes from the "Consultation with the Global NGO Community on Building Back Better in Haiti" which occurred on March 25, 2010 in New York City.  The event was co-hosted by the European Union, InterAction, and the U.N. Office of the Special Envoy to Haiti.  

Letter from InterAction's President & CEO Samuel A. Worthington to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate State, Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittees on InterAction's recommendations for the anticipated FY2010 supplemental funding measure.

This brief, published by Save the Children in 2010, explores issues for policymakers and practitioners to consider as part of a renewed emphasis on stakeholder participation in development programs.