http://www.impact.upenn.edu//international-issues/feed Content from the International Issues Reports for the Center for High Impact Philanthropy en-us info@sp2.upenn.edu Copyright {gmt_date format="%Y"} {gmt_date format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%i:%s%Q"} http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/improve_health_in_the_worlds_poorest_communities/ http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/improve_health_in_the_worlds_poorest_communities/#When:01:06:36Z Download the pdf. Worldwide millions of people suffer and die annually from preventable and treatable diseases because they lack access to health services. Fortunately, there are high impact solutions that can ensure the health of communities by providing essential medical care and prevention. How You Can Help Support community-based primary healthcare systems — a proven, cost-effective way of bringing health services to even the poorest, most remote communities. These systems reach people where they live. They provide access to prevention and treatment services, health education, and advanced hospital care and essential surgery in emergencies. In addition, they address the root causes of poor health, such as the need for clean water and nutrition. High Impact Opportunity Around the world, these comprehensive systems have decreased sickness and death for the most vulnerable people, particularly children and pregnant women, and at the same time increased the health of the overall population served. For example, compared to the rest of Haiti, risk of death before age five was 58 percent lower in communities served by the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) Health System. While costs vary by country, results from Haiti’s HAS Health System translate into an estimated cost of less than $3000 to avert a child’s death. Take Action You can support effective communitybased primary healthcare systems throughout the world. The Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP), Jamkhed in the Maharashtra state of India, BRAC in Bangladesh, and programs linked to Partners In Health in countries that include Rwanda, Haiti, and Malawi are among organizations that use this model. Tips Look for programs in which community health workers, mobile clinics, and health educators reach people where they live; programs that employ local people, which enhances effectiveness and sustainability; and those in which there are linkages to programs in literacy, improved agricultural and food security, clean water and sanitation, and income-generating activities. For detailed examples and additional tips, see our guide Haiti: How Can I Help?, pages 5-12. << Previous Opportunity: Feed families, increase income, and preserve the environment Continue to U.S. Domestic Opportunities >> http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/feed_families_increase_income_and_preserve_the_environment/ http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/feed_families_increase_income_and_preserve_the_environment/#When:00:55:24Z Download the pdf. In many of the poorest regions of the world, farming provides the most immediate way for families to feed themselves and earn a living. Yet many farmers cannot produce enough for their own families, let alone a surplus to sell at market. Even worse, many farming practices result in deforestation, soil depletion, andother environmental harm that creates a negative cycle in which subsistence farming becomes harder and harder. How You Can Help Support sustainable agriculture programs that improve a farmer’s income while preserving the environment. Programs that combine agro-forestry and farmer associations enable farmers to grow enough food for their families, sell produce for income, and contribute to regenerating land that is severely degraded by deforestation. Agro-forestry combines growing dual-purpose trees, which produce income-generating fruit and prevent land degradation, with cultivating staple crops like corn, cassava, and other vegetables, which provide short-term income and food. Farmer associations help members expand their enterprises through business training, intra-group lending, and connections with suppliers, traders, and exporters. High Impact Opportunity Sustainable agriculture programs produce results. In Malawi, a program led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) resulted in improved food security and adoption of best farming practices by more than 85 percent of participants. With crop yields increased by 20 – 90 percent, families had more food to eat and sell. Household assets, such as livestockand farm tools, increased by 110 percent. Improved farming practices and planting of dualpurpose trees resulted in regenerated land and decreased risk of soil erosion. Costs for this model vary by country, but in Haiti, for instance, we estimate a new program would cost about $90 per beneficiary per year. Take Action Organizations such as CRS, CARE, and Oxfam are implementing sustainable agriculture programs throughout the developing world. To find others, see web sites of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), or the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which provide links to local partners and research centers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Tips When assessing sustainable agriculture programs, look for organizations that make local economies grow (e.g., by promoting sales of local rather than imported seeds at seed fairs), that support farmer participation by allowing them to make decisions about what to grow, and that promote farming practices that conserve water and soil. For additional tips and information, see our guide Haiti: How Can I Help? pages 23-27. Next Opportunity: Improve health in the world's poorest communities >> << Previous Opportunity: Move the Poorest Out of Poverty http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/move_the_poorest_out_of_poverty/ http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/move_the_poorest_out_of_poverty/#When:00:45:46Z Download the pdf. More than half the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. Sickness, natural disasters, and economic crises keep families in a perpetual cycle of extreme poverty, unable to provide basic food and shelter or to allow their children to attend school. How You Can Help Help the poorest families take the first step toward self-sufficiency by supporting the graduation model. Unlike microfinance, which targets people who have a source of income, the graduation model works with the poorest of the poor, by providing assets, skills, and networks that help participants generate a source of revenue, readying them for microfinance in the future. High Impact Opportunity First pioneered by the Bangladeshi nonprofit BRAC, the graduation model has been adapted to many different localities, where it advances the poorest to progressive levels of economic independence. In Haiti, Fonkoze’s Chemen Lavi Miyò (CLM) — “Pathway to a Better Life” — is an eighteen-month asset transfer program that provides ultra-poor women with productive physical assets (such as goats and chickens); helps build their skills and confidence; connects them to social networks; and gives them shelter, a cash stipend, and access to healthcare. Clients then “graduate” to income-earning activities that enable them to sustain themselves without subsidies. Using Fonkoze’s 95 percent “graduation” success rate in their pilot, we estimate that in Haiti it costs approximately $1,600 to move a participant out of extreme poverty to increased economic security. Take Action You can fund Fonkoze or BRAC (both allow tax-deductible contributions by U.S. donors). Or go to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor’s (CGAP)’s information-rich web site, blog, and community of practice: graduation.cgap.org to find other organizations that use this model in countries around the world, including Ethiopia, Honduras, India, Pakistan, Peru, Ghana, and Yemen. Tips Look for organizations that go beyond financial capital to help clients build their skills, networks, and assets, which are as important as income. Productive assets, like farm tools, goats, or weaving looms, increase people’s ability to generate an income. Non-productive assets like housing help reduce risks and improve clients’ ability to recover from economic crises. For more tips and in-depth information on this model, see our guide Haiti: How Can I Help? pages 15-22. Next Opportunity: Feed families, increase income, and preserve the environment >> << Previous Opportunity: Deliver life-saving medical treatments to children http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/deliver_life-saving_medical_treatments_to_children/ http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/deliver_life-saving_medical_treatments_to_children/#When:00:32:07Z Download the pdf. Millions of children under age five worldwide live in remote areas where care from trained health professionals is more than a day’s walk away. The severe shortages of health workers — and the relatively inexpensive medications they provide — mean that children are dying from malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, and other treatable diseases. How You Can Help Deliver life-saving interventions to children living in remote areas by supporting a community case management (CCM) program. These programs use trained and supervised community health workers to provide basic health education, prevention information, and diagnosis and treatment for the most common life-threatening childhood illnesses. High Impact Opportunity When the CCM approach was used in Africa and Asia to deliver antibiotics for pneumonia, the biggest killer of children under five, studies showed a 24 percent reduction in overall death rates for young children. In Mali, the nonprofit Save the Children worked with the Ministry of Health to give trained local health workers community drug kits, thus offering families access to oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea, antimalarial medications, and other life-saving therapies. We estimate that when this model is implemented with local and international partners in rural Mali, it saves a child’s life for approximately $1000. Take Action Organizations such as Save the Children, UNICEF, and International Rescue Committee have been supporting this effective approach in communities throughout the world. You can find other organizations through the Core Group, an umbrella organization of nonprofits that work on community-based maternal and child-health interventions. Tips Look for organizations that have a track record of experience, trust working with the local population, and a process for self-evaluation for continuous improvement. Health workers should have ongoing support and training through an explicit system of supervision. For more information on the CCM approach and our analysis of this philanthropic opportunity, see our guide Lifting the Burden of Malaria, pages 18-19. Next Opportunity: Move the Poorest Out of Poverty >> http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/high_impact_holiday_giving_around_the_world/ http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/high_impact_holiday_giving_around_the_world/#When:00:26:21Z High Impact Holiday Giving is for individuals and their advisors who seek to optimize the social impact of their philanthropic activities during this traditional season of giving. These pages share what we have learned over the last five years, presenting our best opportunities for making a meaningful difference in people's lives around the world. View the complete guide or click below to view each opportunity. Download the complete pdf of the report for reading, saving, and/or printing by visiting our Investment Analysis. Deliver life-saving medical treatments to children Move the poorest out of poverty Feed families, increase income, and preserve the environment Improve health in the world's poorest communities http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/follow_updates_on_twitter_impactmalaria/ http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/follow_updates_on_twitter_impactmalaria/#When:22:11:54Z We've put together a list of exemplary models and agents we mention in Lifting the Burden of Malaria: An Investment Guide to Impact-Driven Philanthropy. You will find updates and real-time information in this feed related to the organizations from our investment guide. You can follow this twitter list here—@ImpactMalaria: http://twitter.com/ImpactMalaria/malaria. For information on World Malaria Day, which takes place on April 25th, you can follow tweets related to the topic of #worldmalariaday. new TWTR.Widget({ version: 2, type: 'list', rpp: 10, interval: 6000, title: 'List of exemplary models and agents', subject: 'Lifting the Burden of Malaria', width: 500, height: 600, theme: { shell: { background: '#6d28a9', color: '#ffffff' }, tweets: { background: '#ffffff', color: '#000000', links: '#6d28a9' } }, features: { scrollbar: true, loop: false, live: true, hashtags: true, timestamp: true, avatars: true, behavior: 'all' } }).render().setList('ImpactMalaria', 'malaria').start(); http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/follow_updates_on_twitter_impactsp2/ http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/follow_updates_on_twitter_impactsp2/#When:23:18:44Z We've put together a list of people, organizations, and other resources related to the Penn Year of Water. You will find updates and real-time information in this feed related to the participants of this event. You can follow this twitter list here: http://twitter.com/ImpactSP2/lists/penn-year-of-water. For World Water Day, taking place on Tuesday, March 22, 2011, you can follow tweets related to #worldwaterday. new TWTR.Widget({ version: 2, type: 'list', rpp: 30, interval: 6000, title: 'Penn: Year of Water', subject: 'List of Water Organizations', width: 500, height: 600, theme: { shell: { background: '#6d28a9', color: '#ffffff' }, tweets: { background: '#ffffff', color: '#444444', links: '#6d28a9' } }, features: { scrollbar: true, loop: false, live: true, hashtags: true, timestamp: true, avatars: true, behavior: 'all' } }).render().setList('ImpactSP2', 'penn-year-of-water').start(); http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/s/ http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/s/#When:23:05:07Z Welcome to our Social Media home page for International Issues. Here you will find social media resources for connecting to and learning about some of the organizations we mention in our investment guides, reports, as well as event partners. You can download all of our products for free by visiting our Investment Analysis page and creating a member account. The Center for High Impact Philanthropy can be found on various social networks, many of which you can find on our "FOLLOW US" page. Our Center also follows organizations that we have mentioned in our work, and social networks are a great way to keep up with news and events. Please check back as we continue to update these resources as more and more organizations develop a presence on the social web. Haiti Blogs on Haiti: You can read blogs related to Haiti: How Can I Help? Models for Donors Seeking Long-Term Impact on our High Impact Philanthropy blog. Malaria Blogs on Malaria: You can read blogs related to Lifting the Burden of Malaria: An Investment Guide for Impact-Driven Philanthropy on our High Impact Philanthropy blog. Penn Year of Water @ImpactSP2 Penn Year of Water Twitter List: Our @ImpactSP2 twitter is the Center's main twitter account for updates, news, and conversations related to high impact philanthropy, nonprofits, and social impact. We've created a list of people, organizations, and other resources related to the Penn Year of Water. Blogs on Water: You can read blogs related to Penn: Year of Water on our High Impact Philanthropy blog. http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/haiti_how_can_i_help_models_for_donors_seeking_long-term_impact/ http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/haiti_how_can_i_help_models_for_donors_seeking_long-term_impact/#When:18:26:37Z View the full guide of Haiti: How Can I Help? Download Haiti: How Can I Help? from our Investment Analysis. View the Table of Contents. Why This, Why Now? You have heard a lot about Haiti, much of it focused on the poverty that existed before the January 12, 2010 earthquake and the devastation that followed. In this guide, we outline ways that donors can help Haitians develop the capacity they need to build a brighter future for themselves, their communities, and their nation. None of Haiti’s problems are unsolvable. As attention shifts from immediate disaster relief to building the country back better, we show you nonprofit models with proven track records for making lasting impact. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the island nation resulted in a large-scale humanitarian crisis: the death toll has been estimated at well over 200,000; an estimated 300,000 people were injured; and an estimated one million have been left homeless. The earthquake destroyed the commercial and political capital of the country—Port-au-Prince—prompting a dramatic reverse migration to the impoverished, rural communities many Haitians had fled in search of better opportunities. The earthquake revealed the acute underdevelopment that has plagued Haiti for decades and compounded the poverty, destroying what little infrastructure and capacity had previously existed. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the international community generously responded with disaster relief. But as the celebrity appeals fade and the hard work of building back better begins, we set out to answer the question: “What can donors support that will lead to long-term impact?” What’s in this guide To help donors understand where high-impact opportunities exist, our multidisciplinary team spoke with dozens of people, including nonprofit practitioners working in Haiti, members of the Haitian Diaspora who were in daily contact with loved ones in Haiti, development experts, donors with long-term projects in Haiti, and researchers who had conducted assessments of the models described in this guide. We reviewed nonprofit program and financial information, listened in on conference calls reporting on the status of relief efforts, and met with individuals designing programs aimed at improving Haiti’s long-term development prospects. This guide is the result of our efforts. As always, our hope is that by doing much of the legwork for you, we provide the kind of independent, practical advice that will help you move from concern and good intentions to impact. Our focus on Health, Livelihoods, and Education This guide is divided into three major sections: health, livelihoods, and education. We focus on these areas for the following reasons: These areas represent the three pillars of socioeconomic development; without significant improvements in each of these areas, Haiti will not be able to move past the current devastation. Promising nonprofit models already exist in each area and are currently operating in Haiti. Models in these areas offer effective and cost-efficient opportunities for donors to help. The three areas are interrelated so that investments in one area yield gains in others. In fact, most programs are integrated across all three sectors. The models are similar in that they all emphasize capacity building. All are responsive to local needs, are staffed almost entirely by Haitians, and are designed to support and strengthen the government’s effectiveness. By involving affected communities in their own recovery and rebuilding, these models have produced sustained impact — positive change that lasts long after you make a donation. What you can expect in each section This guide was written for individual donors seeking long-term impact in Haiti. Each section includes: A brief analysis of the current situation. A description of high-impact models to improve the situation, including an estimate of the impact and cost of each model. Examples of the Models in Practice currently operating in Haiti to help donors understand how nonprofits target these core issues effectively. Contact information for nonprofits mentioned. We focus our analysis on identifying effective models rather than on rating specific nonprofits. This is because much of the available evidence on impact and cost-effectiveness exists only at the level of the model. In addition, many donors, particularly major individual donors, are looking for guidance to inform their own entrepreneurial efforts or help them improve the effectiveness of their current philanthropic activities. To help donors understand how nonprofits apply these models in real-life settings, our Models In Practice provide concrete examples of nonprofit agents implementing the various models. There are many other nonprofits working in Haiti whose efforts we don’t describe in detail. For donors considering other nonprofits, we outline the essential components to look for when assessing whether a program can deliver the kind of results we describe in this guide. You can find these lists at the end of each section. While this guide focuses on efforts in Haiti, the models we describe have been effective in other developing countries. At the end of the guide, we list examples of other places where the models have achieved impact. We also offer tips for giving to any nonprofit described in our Models In Practice. This guide represents the best insight we can offer given the information currently available. We welcome continued input and are exploring ways to update this material to incorporate new information and new developments. To receive notices of updates to this guide, please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ' ') output += "&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"; else output += unescape(l[i]); } document.getElementById('eeEncEmail_S7ML2r0Nnm').innerHTML = output; //]]> . http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/haiti_education/ http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/haiti_education/#When:21:19:54Z OPPORTUNITY 3: EDUCATION Addressing the Education Needs of Haiti's Children Download Haiti: How Can I Help? from our Investment Analysis. View the Table of Contents. Opportunity for Philanthropists There can be no lasting improvements in Haiti without educating Haiti’s children. This section describes two models you can fund to bring education to more than one million Haitian children who currently have no access to schools. The first model is community schools, a proven strategy for increasing educational access to poor, rural children. We provide details of how one nonprofit has successfully implemented this model in Haiti and elsewhere. The second model is healing classrooms. Developed over 27 years in conflict-affected countries, healing classrooms is a tested approach to providing immediate access to education for children traumatized by war or disasters. We describe how this model has achieved results elsewhere and is currently being implemented in Haiti. Both models represent necessary and effective investments in Haiti’s long-term prospects.