THE
HUNGER
PROJECT
A strategic organization
committed to the sustainable
end of chronic hunger
When you think about
“world hunger”
what are the first images
that come to mind?
When you see those images
what thoughts arise?
When you see those images and
have those thoughts
what feelings follow?
What you’ve just described is a type of
hunger called “famine” defined as “a severe interruption in an
already vulnerable area caused by natural
and or/man-made disaster – for example,
drought, earthquake, war…”
Famine is “an emergency”
That’s how it gets into the TV news,
onto the headlines,
and into our minds as the main kind of
severe hunger we know
Famine
accounts for less than 10% of world hunger
The other 90%
Chronic, persistent hunger
Doesn’t look anything like “famine”
Chronic hunger
Can be defined as
“not enough of the right kind of food over a
long period of time”
Unlike famine, chronic hunger is
invisible and silent –
even when you are looking right at it.
How many?
854 million people roughly 1 in 7 people in our world
Today and everyday,
20,000 will die as a consequence of chronic hunger –
¾ under 5 years old.
Not from starvation,
but from diarrhea, flu, and other basic illnesses that we’ve
all had and survived because we were not chronically
hungry.
Progress?
Is world hunger better, worse or the same
today as it was in the 1970’s?
1977 estimate =
41,000 deaths per day
Every headline today could read:
Humanity cuts hunger by half in 30 years!
Where is most chronic hunger?
29% in
sub-Saharan
Africa
The rest in Latin
America, mostly amongst
indigenous people, and in
other parts of Asia
35% in South Asia
(India, Bangladesh,
Pakistan and Nepal)
Hunger in the U.S.?
Yes – and many great organizations are
addressing it –
it’s the severity and prevalence in South Asia,
Africa and Latin America that are so much
higher
The Hunger Project is focused where chronic
hunger is most widespread and severe
Famine is…
Fundamentally an issue of food –
food shipments
delivered quickly
end famine
Chronic hunger is fundamentally
NOT
an issue of food
Consider India
A net exporter of food for decades since the
Green Revolution improved their
agriculture in the 1950s and 1960s.
• Today has more than 40 million tons of
grain in storage
• AND today - 47% of all children in India
are malnourished – worse than Africa
If food is not the answer?
Chronic hunger is best understood
as an issue of opportunity
It occurs when people lack the opportunity
to translate a full day’s work into enough:
• Food
• Money
• Education
• Health care
• Voice in decisions affecting their lives
Question becomes:
Why is this opportunity so diminished where
chronic hunger persists?
1996 study commissioned by
UNICEF
Asked why rates of malnutrition
in South Asia were so much higher
than most African countries,
even though all other indicators such as
economic growth, agricultural production,
infrastructure – all suggested the opposite
should be true?
Conclusion:
“The exceptionally high rates of malnutrition
in South Asia are rooted deep in the soil of
inequality between men and women”
Study revealed that severe discrimination
against women and girls gives rise to
“a cycle of malnutrition”
In India, since 2000
More than 50,000 elected women
representatives in 14 states have
completed the 3-day, residential
Women’s
Leadership
Workshop.
In India, since 2000
More than 100 local Indian
non-governmental
organizations
are now partnering with
The Hunger Project to
provide ongoing trainings
and support to these
women as they work to
transform the quality of life
in their villages.
In India, since 2001
• The Hunger Project’s Sarojini Naidu Prize
for Journalists Reporting on Women in the
Panchayats
 In 2001, 166 articles were submitted
 In 2006, 1517 articles were submitted
 Awards ceremony on Gandhi’s birthday,
October 2
 2006 was hosted by the Ministry of the
Panchayati Raj at the Minister’s residence
Ending Hunger In Africa
• Leadership
• Marginalization of Women
Farmers
• Infrastructure
• HIV/AIDS
The Epicenter Strategy:
5 years to self-reliance!
Principles
•
•
•
•
•
Local leadership
Self-reliance
Gender Equality
Partnership with local government
Integrated strategy vs. sectoral, i.e. food
production, income, education, health, nutrition,
literacy et al…..all together
• Minimal external inputs
• Affordable, replicable, sustainable
Essence of the Epicenter strategy
• …to transform a culture of dependency,
resignation, despair and discrimination
against women and girls…
• … to one of responsibility, self-reliance,
and gender equality.
Four phases - overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
•
Mobilization (1 year)
“Tipping Point” (1 year)
Progress on all fronts (3 years)
Self-reliance
Demand-driven – people move when
they are ready
Phase 1: Mobilization
• Support of local
leaders
Phase 1: Mobilization
• Support of local
leaders
• Vision,
Commitment,
& Action
workshop (VCA)
Phase 1: Mobilization
• Support of local
leaders
• VCA workshop
• Train volunteer
leaders called
“Animators”
Phase 1: Mobilization
• Support of local
leaders
• VCA workshop
• Train Animators
• Animator Initiated
Projects
Phase 1: Mobilization
• Support of local
leaders
• VCA workshop
• Train Animators
• Animator Initiated
Projects
Phase 1: Mobilization
• Support of local
leaders
• VCA workshop
• Train Animators
• Animator Initiated
Projects
Phase 1: Mobilization
• Support of local
leaders
• VCA workshop
• Train Animators
• Animator Initiated
Projects
• Elect Epicenter
Committee
Phase 2: Tipping Point
• Chief donates land
Phase 2: Tipping Point
• Chief donates land
• Learn to make
concrete blocks
Phase 2: Tipping Point
• Chief donates land
• Learn to make
concrete blocks
• Build the epicenter
building
Phase 2: Tipping Point
• Chief donates land
• Learn to make
concrete blocks
• Build the epicenter
building
• Subcommittees for
health, education…
Phase 2: Tipping Point
• Chief donates land
• Learn to make
concrete blocks
• Build the epicenter
building
• Subcommittees for
health, education, etc.
• HIV/AIDS Gender
Inequality workshop
Phase 2: Tipping Point
• Chief donates land
• Learn to make
concrete blocks
• Build the epicenter
building
• Subcommittees for
health, education, etc.
• HIV/AIDS Gender
Inequality workshop
• Inauguration!
Phase 3: Progress in all sectors
Phase 3: Progress on All Fronts
• Community Farm
Phase 3: Progress on All Fronts
• Community Farm
• Food bank
Phase 3: Progress on All Fronts
• Community Farm
• Food bank
• Women
Empowerment
Project (WEP)
Phase 3: Progress on All Fronts
• Community Farm
• Food bank
• Women Empowerment
Project
• Mobilize savings
Phase 3: Progress on All Fronts
• Community Farm
• Food bank
• Women Empowerment
Project
• Mobilize savings
• Bank Certification
Phase 4: Self-reliance
•
•
•
•
Low IMR, MMR
Water & sanitation
Halt AIDS, Malaria
Sustainable
livelihoods
• Sustainable
environment
• Men return from cities
• Self-reliance,
responsibility and
gender equality
• Authors of their own
development
• Women as leaders
$8 per person per year
over 5 years
200
180
160
140
120
Credit
Construct
Training
100
80
60
40
20
0
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
The next great challenge
• "The last 50 years of development practice
have shown that project success is not
enough. The greatest technical challenge
lies not in identifying the right interventions
or making them work in one village—but in
taking known interventions to scale.“
Investing in Development: A practical plan to Achieving the
Millennium Development Goals, UN Millennium Project Report 2005
Ghana Epicenter Scale-up
Demonstration
• Eastern Region –
already mobilized 7
epicenters
• Not too far from the
capital - Accra
• 16 rural districts – 1.3
million rural people
• Good cooperation
with local government
Ghana - Eastern Region Scale-up
120
100
80
Epicenters
60
40
20
0
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
The Hunger Project
• Founded in 1977
• Currently working in 13 developing countries:
• West Africa – Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana,
Senegal
• East Africa – Ethiopia, Uganda
• Southern Africa – Malawi, Mozambique
• South Asia – India, Bangladesh
• Latin America – Mexico, Peru, Bolivia
The Hunger Project
• Giving more than 22 million people
the opportunity to improve their lives
The Hunger Project
•
•
•
•
2006 Global budget = $13.5 million
248 staff worldwide
150,000 volunteer leaders
Staff and volunteers are all indigenous – no
outsiders lead our programs in developing
countries
• 79% $$ for Programs
• 21% $$ for Administration and Fundraising
• Charity Navigator – Four star rating (their
highest)
The Hunger Project - Funding
• Investment or charity?
• Investing as co-equal, strategic partners in
creating a future free from hunger.
• Investing to have a meaningful personal stake in
the historic process of ending hunger
• Investing as an intervention in our own
complacency, consumerism, and status quo.
• Investing to obtain a substantial return – real,
cost-effective, sustainable progress
The Hunger Project - Funding
• How much to invest?
• Highest Appropriate Level
• Somewhere between
• too low to remember that you did it
• so high that it’s unrealistic and disempowering
• How you know?
•
•
•
•
Inspired
Awakened
Courageous
Connected to partners throughout the world
Current Funding Sources
• Global Investment Group (GIG) – individuals,
families and institutions at $5,000+/year
(currently up to $1 million/year)
• GIG provides more than 75% of all our funding
• 90% comes from $1,000+
• Financial Family – monthly investment
• Various high level opportunities
• 10% from Foundations and Corporations
• Funding from 15 different countries
How can I participate?
• Become an investor
• Make a list of others you think might be
interested in learning about The Hunger Project
• Invite others or host gatherings for others to
learn about The Hunger Project
• Learn to lead Hunger Project presentations
• Learn more – www.thp.org
• Contact The Hunger Project – locally or in New
York at 212-251-9100 or info@thp.org
Service Delivery vs. Empowerment
CONVENTIONAL, TOP-DOWN
SERVICE-DELIVERY
MODEL
THE HUNGER PROJECT’S
BOTTOM-UP EMPOWERMENT
MODEL
Who are hungry
people?
Beneficiaries whose basic
needs must be met.
Principal authors and actors in
development – hardworking, creative
individuals who lack opportunities.
What must be
done?
Provide services through
government or charities.
Mobilize and empower people’s selfreliant action, and stand in solidarity
with them for their success.
What’s the
primary resource
for development?
Money and the expertise of
consultants and program
managers.
People: their vision, mobilization,
entrepreneurial spirit and confidence.
Who is in charge?
Donors, who provide the money
and hold implementers to
account.
Local people: through elected local
leaders whom they hold to account.
What are the
main constraints?
Bureaucracy: the inefficiency of
the delivery system.
Social conditions: resignation,
discrimination (particularly gender), lack
of leadership, lack of rights.
What is the role of Vulnerable group who must be
women?
especially targeted beneficiaries.
Key producers who must have a voice
in decision-making.
Service Delivery vs. Empowerment
CONVENTIONAL, TOP-DOWN
SERVICE-DELIVERY
MODEL
THE HUNGER PROJECT’S
BOTTOM-UP EMPOWERMENT
MODEL
What about social
and cultural issues?
Immutable conditions that must Conditions that people can
be compensated for.
transform.
How should we focus
our work?
Carefully target beneficiaries on
an objective-needs basis.
Mobilize everyone as broadly as
possible – build spirit and
momentum of accomplishment.
What is the role of
central government?
Operate centrally managed
service-delivery programs.
Decentralize resources and
decision-making to local level; build
local capacity; set standards; protect
rights.
What is the role of
local government?
Implementing arm of central
programs.
Autonomous leadership directly
accountable to people.
What is the role of
civil society?
Implementing arm of central
programs.
Catalyst to mobilize people; fight for
their rights; empower people to keep
government accountable.