Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 20:24, 21 June 2006

The Hunger Project (THP) describes itself as a global non-profit organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. In thirteen countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the organization implements programs that mobilize rural grassroots communities to achieve sustainable progress in health, education, nutrition and family income. The Hunger Project has received a great deal of positive recognition, and has been honored for its innovations in gender and development.

The Hunger Project has been criticised for its methods and associations, as well as its past links to Werner Erhard and Erhard Seminars Training.

Current activities

Objectives

In each region of the developing world, The Hunger Project's programs apply principles of self-reliance, gender-equality, local leadership and local democracy to overcome root issues of hunger and poverty.

Primary activities

In Africa (in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal and Uganda) The Hunger Project carries out what it calls its "epicenter" strategy. The Project organizes clusters of 10-15 villages to establish and manage their own programs for rural banking, improved agriculture, food-processing, income-generation, adult functional literacy, food security, and primary health-care (including the prevention of HIV/AIDS). A committee of villagers (with equal representation of women and men) manages each epicenter facility. A special program of microfinance, the African Woman Food Farmer Initiative, integrates with the epicenter strategy.

In 14 states of India, working in partnership with 90 local civil-society organizations, The Hunger Project focuses on the role of women elected to local village councils. It has trained 45,000 elected women as effective change-agents for solving problems of education, health and nutrition in their villages. It provides women with training in social and political citizenry, local governance and village-level planning, and provides them with links to existing government programs. Women are organized into federations to strengthen their ability to lobby for change.

In 450 clusters of villages spread over all 64 districts of Bangladesh, The Hunger Project has trained more than 60,000 village volunteer "animators" to strengthen the institutions of local democracy and to carry out campaigns to improve food production, incomes, sanitation, nutrition and public health.

In Latin America, where poverty especially affects rural indigenous communities, The Hunger Project works with such communities to overcome their economic marginalization - particularly that of the indigenous women. The Hunger Project implements programs in indigenous communities of Bolivia, Peru and Mexico.

Administrative and fundraising expenses, revenues

The Hunger Project receives its primary support from the private contributions of individuals in the United States, Europe, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan.

Fundraising and administrative expenses as a percentage of total support and revenue is approximately 23.5%. The Hunger Project meets all financial standards of governmental and nongovernmental agencies. Charity Navigator gives it three out of four stars, and the American Institute of Philanthropy gives it an A- rating.

According to the Combined Federal Campaign, 2004:

Under OPM regulations, if an organization’s administrative and fundraising expenses exceed 25 percent of total support and revenue, it must certify that the expenses are reasonable under the circumstances and include a formal plan to reduce such expenses below 25 percent.

Joan Holmes, the project's president, was paid $232,010 in 2004. . According to Charity Navigator:

Compensation for the CEO of this charity is equal to 2.97% of this organization's total functional expenses.

History

Origins

The folksinger John Denver; Oberlin President Robert W. Fuller; and Werner Erhard, founder of Erhard Seminars Training (est), founded The Hunger Project in 1977 in close association with R. Buckminster Fuller, the environmentalist Dr. Donella Meadows, and the land-reform expert Professor Roy Prosterman. Joan Holmes, previously associated with Erhard Seminars Training as "consulting educational psychologist", has been the CEO of the Hunger Project from its inception. Holmes had previously managed the independent study est and education.

Werner Erhard's initial influence

Main article: Werner Erhard

Erhard formed the opinion that death by starvation occurred not because of lack of food to feed all those who suffered from chronic hunger. Instead he blamed the context in which people viewed and interacted with chronic hunger. That context, he said, consisted of a closely-held belief (or discourse, or conversation) that saw hunger as inevitable, a context of scarcity that governed all the interactions and fixes currently applied by those then attempting to fix the problem.

The Project had the initial stated intention of making "The End of Starvation within 20 Years an 'Idea Whose Time Has Come.'"(Copyright, 1977). Erhard served on the Project's board from 1979 to 1990, after which he ceased contact with the organization.

Erhard Seminars Training, early connections

Main article: Erhard Seminars Training

Initially, Erhard had utilized Erhard Seminars Training as a forum to discuss and recruit members to The Hunger Project's cause.

From the outset, Erhard was quick to insist there was no direct connection between est and the Hunger Project other than a $400,000 "interest-free loan" to begin the new endeavour, a $100,000 grant from a separate est foundation and the many hours that est staffers and volunteers contributed to the cause.

Many of the original members of The Hunger Project staff came directly through the Erhard Seminars Training program run by Werner Erhard. As stated above, CEO Joan Holmes served as a consulting educational psychologist for Erhard. Prior to its incorporation, The Hunger Project was housed within the est foundation, which employed Joan Holmes as the project manager:

The est Foundation's manager for the recently announced project that has been formally named The Hunger Project.

According to a public statement made by Bob Alman, the initial planning of The Hunger Project took place within the Erhard Seminars Training Advisory Board:

This work was still gathering momentum on Valentine's Day, 1977, when staff members of the est Foundation met with Werner to discuss the problem. As the meeting drew to a close, Werner said, 'I take responsibility for ending starvation within twenty years'. The est Foundation people went off to think about it. A few days later, they were managing The Hunger Project even before they knew exactly what it was. Werner crystallized what the project stood for and formulated his presentation of it several weeks later when he discussed it with the est Advisory Board, and it began taking its present shape.

Yet another staff member of The Hunger Project, Lynne Twist, came over from Erhard Seminars Training. Twist, who was initially in charge of training the Guest Seminar Leaders within Erhard Seminars Training, later moved on to become a part of The Hunger Project's "founding executives." She has since stopped working for The Hunger Project as of 2000:

I worked for the Hunger Project from its inception in 1977 until the year 2000. I was one of the founding executives and the director of global funding.

The Hunger Project recruited for est

Though it is no longer a current practice of the organization, at the outset The Hunger Project was used as a form of recruitment for more members to take part in Erhard Seminars Training.



NOTE: Sourced quote from Raising Hell: How the Center for Investigative Reporting Gets the Story., David Weir (journalist), Dan Noyes, the Center for Investigative Reporting:

We had no idea at first that one of the purposes of the HP was to pressure people to take the est training, which cost three hundred dollars. We found this out because both Noyes and Lieberman were pressured repeatedly to take est. And furthermore, one day in the bathroom, Lori overheard another HP volunteer being accosted by several Hunger Project staff members who insisted she take est. Then, as a final corroboration, I myself was pressured to do est by Ellis Duell, who was the president of the Hunger Project. He even said he'd pay for the training. I got numerous phone calls from a woman in the HP office who tried to get me to take the training.

Evolution of programs

From its inception, The Hunger Project was designed to not duplicate the efforts of other organizations, but to be a strategic organization guided by the question "What’s missing which, if provided, would enable humanity to take a leap forward in ending hunger?"

In 1977, the National Academy of Sciences World Food and Nutrition study stated that what was missing was the "political will" to end hunger. Based on this conclusion, The Hunger Project launched programs of education and advocacy designed to mobilize a global constituency committed to the end of hunger.

In 1979, as the world initially failed to respond to a growing famine in Cambodia, The Hunger Project participated in generating a White House conference on the crisis and then carried out campaigns to raise funds for relief organizations. A similar campaign was created for the Somalia famine of 1980. These actions revealed that cooperation and coordination among hunger-response agencies was missing, and The Hunger Project launched a series of initiatives which contributed to the founding of InterAction in 1984.

As famine swept across Africa in 1983-84, The Hunger Project met with Africans across the continent to gain a clearer understanding of the root causes of the crisis, concluding that the famine was fundamentally a failure of leadership and a failure of policy. The Hunger Project launched initiatives in both these areas, as well as a research initiative to discover ways it might make a difference on the ground in developing countries.

During this exploration, members of its board felt that what was missing was a comprehensive, global strategic plan, however in 1989 it was concluded that top-down planning was not the solution but was part of the problem. Beginning in 1990, The Hunger Project redirected all its efforts to pioneering decentralized, multi-sectoral bottom-up approaches to development – starting in India, and by 1995 was active in 10 states of India, 20 districts of Bangladesh, Senegal and Ghana.

In 1996, Unicef published a study, the Asian Enigma, demonstrating that entrenched gender inequality was not only a major factor in hunger and poverty, as The Hunger Project has long emphasized, but was actually the primary root cause for South Asia’s high rates of child malnutrition. This led to the creation of new interventions designed to overcome gender inequality in each developing region. These include the African Woman Food Farmer Initiative, the Panchayati Raj Campaign, the AIDS and Gender Inequality Campaign and National Girl Child Day and new strategies for the empowerment of indigenous women’s leadership in Latin America.

Criticism in the media, public commentators

Over the years there has been some criticism of The Hunger Project in various media articles. This criticism has mainly been focused on (a) the organization's original ties to Werner Erhard and Erhard Seminars Training, (b) the fact that "The early programs of The Hunger Project (1977-1990) focused on public education and advocacy, not on direct action on the ground.", and (c) that The Hunger Project has responded to articles it considers as being demonstrably false and defamatory through letters threatening legal action, and some instances of actual legal action, which has sometimes resulted in apologies, correction and payment of damanges.

On May 30, 1981 the board of directors of Oxfam Canada passed a resolution which stated they would not endorse any activities or programs sponsored by The Hunger Project, nor would they accept funds from the project.

Complaints, Lawsuits

The Christian Century, the fifth estate, Mother Jones and Rick Ross have all received complaints from The Hunger Project for publishing articles that The Hunger Project considered to be false and defamatory.

...the Hunger Project has reacted strongly against other reporters who have attempted to cover the group's activities. Pat Lynch, then an NBC News reporter, stated that the Hunger Project carried out a four-month campaign to discredit her while she was preparing what eventually became an NBC Evening News segment in 1980. And when Dan Noyes was asked by a radio station in 1983 to participate in a program with a Hunger Project spokesperson, the organization refused to appear. Instead they requested a tape of the program with Noyes alone for review by the group's lawyer.

Some of these articles also alleged that The Hunger Project at one point promoted Erhard Seminars Training to its staff, as part of its work culture. The Hunger Project staff also spends time regularly editing Misplaced Pages.

Timeline, Criticism in Media/Commentators

The timeline below shows some of these media articles, and The Hunger Project's responses. For a summary,The Hunger Project: A Historical Background, A News Summary, April 8, 2004. This is Rick Ross's compilation of these reports from public media sources.

• December 1, 1978 - Suzanne Gordon, Let Them Eat est, We Confront Werner Erhard With Our Awareness Of His Manifestation Of What We're Clear Is A Big Scam, Mother Jones. Retracted 1984.
• May 2, 1979 - The Hunger Project, You Can't Eat Words, Dr. David Hoekema, Christian Century 2004: Withdrawn from the web by the publisher and here posted as part of copyright fair use law.
• December 26, 1979 - The Hunger Project and EST: Close Ties, Dr. David Hoekema, Christian Century 2004: Withdrawn from the web by the publisher and here posted as part of fair use copyright law.
• April 19, 1980 - Kevin Garvey writes article titled Hunger Project: Erhard's est laboratory, for Our Town, a New York City newspaper.
• December 1984 - It Doesn't Add Up, Seed Magazine
• February 13, 1985 - McGill Daily publishes article Hunger Project Feeds Itself.
• June 1985 - Hungry for Converts, John Tanner, new internationalist
• October 23, 1986 - documentary aired on The Fifth Estate television program, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, documentary, Carol Giambalvo interviewed.
• April 2002 - Devotion Over Dollars, Jim Provenzano, Associated Press Here posted as part of fair use copyright law.
• February 5, 2003 - John Coonrod, COO & VP, writes letter to Carol Giambalvo, stating: "The Hunger Project has never denied that Werner Erhard was one of the founders of The Hunger Project or that, in the late 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Erhard encouraged participants in his programs to support The Hunger Project"
• April 8, 2004 - The Hunger Project: A Historical Background, A News Summary, Rick Ross published in response to his being remonstrated for copyright violation by Christian Century.
• April 12, 2004 - Response to "The Hunger Project: Inside Out" by Carol Giambalvo, the official response of The Hunger Project to Carol Giambalvo's 1987 article.
• April 19, 2004 - The Hunger Project: Going After Critics, Austin Cline, About.com
• May 2006 - Hunger Project refutes innuendos, an article posted on The Hunger Project's offical website, posts information regarding Werner Erhard's relationship to The Hunger Project

Governance and administration

Executive staff

• Joan Holmes, President; previously consulting educational psychologist, Erhard Seminars Training.
• John Coonrod, Vice President and COO
• Fitigu Tadesse, Vice President for Africa
• Badiul Alam Majumdar, Vice President and head of Bangladesh programs

Board membership

• Peter Bourne
• Joaquim Chissano, former President of Mozambique
• V. Mohini Giri, former Chair of the National Commission for Women in India
• Joan Holmes
• Specioza Wandira Kazibwe, former Vice-President and Minister of Agriculture in Uganda
• George Mathew
• Queen Noor of Jordan
• Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peruvian diplomat, fifth Secretary-General of the United Nations
• Cecilia Loría Saviñón, Former Director of Indesol in Mexico
• Amartya Sen, economist, & winner, Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences
• Steven J. Sherwood
• George Weiss

Chair Emeritus

• M. S. Swaminathan, heads the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation.

Further reading

Corporate websites

• The Hunger Project official website
• The Hunger Project Policy Briefings Site

Financial information

• Combined Federal Campaign, Office of Personnel Management, note, Word document., As "Global Hunger Project", item #1436, "fundraising and administrative expenses as a percentage of total support and revenue." = 21.9%
• CVC Charity Application from Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign, "The combined fundraising/administrative costs incurred by this organization" = 20.54%
• The Hunger Project Financial Statistics from Charity Navigator, 2004
• Better Business Bureau, Charity Report, 2003

Other

• website, The Orange Papers, see subsection, citations & article briefs on The Hunger Project
• Million Dollar Initiative to Help African Women Farmers By Thalif Deen, September 13, 1999
• Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: What Really Works on the Ground OneWorld South Asia, posted, November 8, 2005.
• PanAfrica: Better Leadership Determines Our Future Concord Times, Freetown, May 19, 2006.
• Message from President Joan Holmes to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan griefandrenewal.com, Freetown, posted May 15, 2006.

See also

Individuals

• Werner Erhard, founder
• Robert W. Fuller, founder
• John Denver, founder
• Joan Holmes, CEO
• R. Buckminster Fuller
• Donella Meadows
• Steven Pressman
• Carol Giambalvo

Organizations/Concepts

• est/Erhard Seminars Training
• Food and Agriculture Organization
• Food sovereignty
• Famine/Hunger/Malnutrition/Poverty/Starvation/Thirst
• Humanitarian Aid
• Oxfam Canada
• Sustainable Agriculture
• World Food Day
• World Food Conference
• Make Poverty History

References

1. Combined Federal Campaign, Office of Personnel Management, note, Word document.; see "Global Hunger Project", item #1436
2. CVC Charity Application from Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign
3. Combined Federal Campaign, 2004, http://www.opm.gov/cfc/04lists/2004NationalListwithout25WordStatements.doc
4. The Hunger Project financial statistics from Charity Navigator, 2004
5. The Hunger Project, Charity Navigator, CEO Pay FYE 2004, % of Expenses - "Show Me.", http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/6427.htm
6. Mother Jones citation, (Dec. 1978). Society of Professional Journalists, Food Lion vs. ABC Amici Brief, excerpt/citation, http://www.spj.org/foia_tools_legal_abc.asp
7. Pressman, Steven, Outrageous Betrayal: The dark journey of Werner Erhard from est to exile. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. ISBN 0312092962
8. The Graduate Review, public newsletter sent to graduates of Erhard Seminars Training/est, August 1977.
9. Alman, Bob. "An Idea Whose Time Has Come", The Graduate Review, public newsletter sent to graduates of Erhard Seminars Training/est, September 1977.
10. Interview with Lynne Twist, The Brande Foundation, website, http://www.brandefoundation.org/Pages/L_Twist.html
11. Raising Hell: How the Center for Investigative Reporting Gets the Story., David Weir (journalist), Dan Noyes, 1983, by the Center for Investigative Reporting, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company: Reading Massachusetts.
12. The Hunger Project Refutes Innuendos, May 2006, The Hunger Project, website, http://www.thp.org/overview/responses/
13. "Hunger Project Feeds Itself", McGill Daily, February 13, 1985.
14. Raising Hell: How the Center for Investigative Reporting Gets the Story., David Weir (journalist), Dan Noyes, 1983, by the Center for Investigative Reporting, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company: Reading Massachusetts.
15. The Hunger Project: A Historical Background, A News Summary, April 8, 2004, Rick Ross, http://www.rickross.com/reference/hunger_project/hunger_project1.html
16. Mother Jones citation, Dec 1978. Society of Professional Journalists, Food Lion vs. ABC Amici Brief, excerpt/citation, http://www.spj.org/foia_tools_legal_abc.asp
17. Dr. David Hoekema, Christian Century, May 2, 1979, http://www.ex-cult.org/Groups/Landmark/landmark-cherries.dir/apostate/lecarchive/canteat.htm
18. Dr. David Hoekema, Christian Century, December 26, 1979, http://www.ex-cult.org/Groups/Landmark/landmark-cherries.dir/apostate/lecarchive/closetie.htm
19. Hungry for Converts, John Tanner, new internationalist, vol. 148, http://www.newint.org/issue148/hungry.htm
20. Devotion Over Dollars, Jim Provenzano, April 2002, Associated Press, http://members.tripod.com/~homeo/wheels7.html
21. The Hunger Project: A Historical Background, A News Summary, April 8, 2004, Rick Ross, http://www.rickross.com/reference/hunger_project/hunger_project1.html
22. The Hunger Project: Going After Critics, Austin Cline, About.com, April 19, 2004.
23. Hunger Project refutes innuendos, The Hunger Project website, May 2006, http://www.thp.org/overview/responses/

• International charities
• Development charities
• 1977 establishments
• Human Potential Movement
• NPOV disputes