Sam Worthington

Title:

President & CEO

Department:

Bio
Articles
Blog Posts

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.

InterAction's Food Security Pledge: $1 Billion of Potential Leverage

Submitted by Sam Worthington on Thu, 05/16/2013 - 1:37pm

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 corporations who believe in their cause and approach, they do.

It's Time to Move from Rhetoric to Action on Aid Transparency

Submitted by Sam Worthington on Thu, 05/02/2013 - 8:53am

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.

Tackling Chronic Hunger Together In 2013

Submitted by Sam Worthington on Mon, 12/10/2012 - 8:41am

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.

Public-Private Partnerships: The Value Of Recognizing Each Other's Value-Add To Curb Hunger

Submitted by Sam Worthington on Wed, 10/31/2012 - 8:13am

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 are a call to collective action.

Sharing the Olympic Dream

Submitted by Sam Worthington on Thu, 07/26/2012 - 4:35pm

The struggle to achieve personal dreams and goals is a universal one whether you are in London, Darfur or Washington D.C.

Dear G8: Issues NGOs Want Addressed

Submitted by Sam Worthington on Fri, 05/11/2012 - 11:34am

Yesterday InterAction launched a series of blogs on the Huffington Post. This blog series shines light on development issues that must be addressed during the G8 Summit, an annual meeting where heads of state from the Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States gather to discuss issues of global concern. This year, the United States will host the G8 summit at the secluded Camp David from May 18th to May 19th.

Foreign Assistance, Even In Tough Times, Is A Good Investment

Submitted by Sam Worthington on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 2:39pm

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 interconnected global marketplace. This, in turn, creates growth opportunities at home and abroad. Effective development directly improves the lives of the world's poor and contributes toward a thriving international economy that serves our shared economic interests.

Foreign Aid Makes Fiscal Sense

Submitted by Sam Worthington on Tue, 11/22/2011 - 9:47am

Originally published on CNN.com on Nov. 22, 2011.

Not A Watershed, But Progress At G20 In Cannes

Submitted by Sam Worthington on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 3:05pm

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 InterAction. After days of rumors over what might be in the communiqué, we finally had something firm to respond to.

Getting The NGO Message Heard By President Sarkozy

Submitted by Sam Worthington on Wed, 11/02/2011 - 5:27pm

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy was clearly in his element as he pointed a finger at the French NGO leader: "You and I understand each other,” he said.

NGO leaders representing civil society from the North and South, met the French president on Wednesday to discuss core development priorities ahead of the two-day G20 summit in Cannes, which starts today (Thursday). A team of InterAction staff is at the G20 in Cannes, seeking to get our issues heard and the meeting with President Sarkozy is part of that mission.

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