Supporting Oxfam America's Call to Modernize Foreign Aid

Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

A new report released today by Oxfam America highlights the need for major reform in the way the U.S. provides foreign aid. The report, entitled Smart Development: Why US foreign aid demands major reform, argues for foreign aid programming "that effectively empowers effective states and active citizens to manage their own way forward from poverty and injustice. Smart development puts responsible governments and poor people first on the agenda, reflecting their indigenous knowledge, entrepreneurial assets, and needs."

The Oxfam America report argues that U.S. foreign aid programs focused on development must be given equal priority alongside diplomatic and defense missions. The analysis highlights the need for more predictable, long-term and flexible assistance provision that allows recipient countries to build responsible state ownership of the development programs while involving their active citizens in building their own futures.

Mercy Corps commends the release of the new Oxfam America report as a valuable contribution to ongoing debates about how to make each U.S. dollar spent on overseas assistance as effective as possible.

For almost three decades, Mercy Corps has worked alongside families, governmental partners, businesses and host country governments to lay strong foundations for secure, just and productive communities. Our capacity to not only work, but also achieve program success in some of the world's most challenging places - including Iraq, Somalia and Sudan - demonstrates a commitment to social entrepreneurship and collaboration with stakeholders on all levels. In addition, our effective and responsible use of funds - over the last five years, more than 90 percent of resources have been directly allocated to programs - shows a tried-and-true understanding for making every dollar count.

Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds. Since 1979, we have provided $1.3 billion in assistance to people in 100 nations. Supported by headquarters offices in North America, Europe and Asia, the agency's unified global programs employ 3,400 staff worldwide and reach nearly 14.4 million people in more than 35 countries.

Over the years, Mercy Corps has learned that the effectiveness of this enterprise hinges on many factors. In particular, the kinds of field programming we currently have show us that:

1. Aid needs to be flexible

Mercy Corps has consistently demonstrated the ability to adapt and continue responding to the ever-changing needs of the people it serves - sometimes shifting from short- to long-term programming within the span of weeks. The agency first mounted an emergency response in northern Uganda, a region torn by a generation of conflict, in July 2006. Initially, Mercy Corps delivered hygiene supplies and other necessities to families living in displacement camps in Pader District.

Photo: Roger Burks/Mercy Corps

But by September 2006, opposing forces reached a ceasefire and displaced families migrated to "return camps" - transitional areas situated close to their original villages. Mercy Corps transformed its programming to provide seeds, farming tools and technical advice to more than 8,800 people whose life in the displacement camps had kept them from agricultural activities for years.

The ceasefire has held and, today, families are beginning to resettle in the villages they fled at the height of the conflict. Once again, Mercy Corps has adjusted its programming to meet prevailing needs. The agency is now helping newly returned families gear up for productive agriculture that serves household and local market needs alike. This includes creation of animal husbandry and beekeeping activities, introduction of cash crops such as pineapples and upland rice, and rehabilitation of local roads through cash-for-work programs. In northern Uganda, the needs of families and nascent communities changed dramatically in just a year and half - and Mercy Corps stayed flexible in its programmatic response.

2. Programs need to be driven by local people and about building relationships

Mercy Corps has learned that communities recovering from war or social upheaval must be the agents of their own transformation for change to endure. It's only when communities set their own agendas, raise their own resources and implement programs themselves, that their first successes result in the renewed hope, confidence and skills to continue development.

Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

One place where this is particularly true is India's Darjeeling District and Assam state, where the Community Health and Advancement Initiative (CHAI) - implemented by Mercy Corps through local partners - empowers communities to outline their own development strategies through Open Initiatives. Today, more than 36 communities, including several that exist within northeastern India's famed tea estates, have formed self-help groups and economic development councils to address critical prevailing needs. These groups meet regularly with CHAI program staff to make plans, marshal resources and monitor progress on projects that range from infrastructure to complex market linkages.

Each Open Initiative requires a significant contribution from the community - whether in cash, materials or in-kind labor - creating a substantial investment for the project to succeed. The community drives these projects, with the CHAI program acting as technical advisors. This program has also brought community stakeholders and tea estate management into closer collaboration, resulting in more sources of project capital and encouragement for community revitalization.

3. It takes time to promote peace building and for development programs to show tangible benefits

Some of Mercy Corps' most successful and sustainable work takes place in immediate post-conflict settings. We entered Serbia in May 2000, soon after violence in Kosovo shook the region. The entire region was suffering from the repercussions of economic sanctions as well as the burden of hosting refugees and displaced persons. Mercy Corps shifted its efforts to not only serving immediate needs, but also laying the foundation for a democratic future.

Photo: Mercy Corps Serbia

At the heart of Mercy Corps' work was Community Revitalization through Democratic Action (CRDA), a unique program whose biggest goal was to bridge the gap between everyday citizens, businesses and the local government through projects aimed at civic participation, economic development, civil infrastructure, and the environment.

From May 2000 until June 2007, Mercy Corps and its numerous local and regional partners took part in a landmark project to aid post-conflict Serbia. More than four million people spread out through 18 municipalities took part in at least 1,300 community redevelopment projects aimed at promoting citizen participation, building peace and addressing their needs for economic and social revitalization.

The biggest legacy for former Country Director Craig Hempfling was self-sufficiency for the country, as well as a "change in attitude and relationship with the local government and the citizens. The more [the government] was willing to get something done for their community and the more open they were, the more empowered that people felt about getting things done within their community."

In a variety of regions and contexts, Mercy Corps continues to prove that effective, sustainable foreign aid depends heavily upon flexibility, community involvement and the willingness to see the job through in the short- and long-term. We laud the steps outlined in the Oxfam report, and stand ready to lend our thinking and expertise to ongoing discussions on the future of foreign aid.