Chilean quake, following Haiti emergency, may strain resources of aid agencies

A number of aid agencies have expressed concern that ongoing rebuilding efforts in Haiti may affect their ability to respond to last month’s earthquake in Chile. Even before the earthquake, the US Agency for International Development last month alerted some relief groups that government funding for foreign disaster assistance could be affected by the cost of operations in Haiti. ‘A lot of resources have been devoted to Haiti, and there has been a shrinking of the capacity to respond,’ said Farshad Rastegar, head of Los Angeles-based humanitarian agency Relief International. This may particularly affect smaller agencies, such as Relief International, which concentrate on long-term relief efforts such as infrastructure rebuilding. This, as ever, is an underlying concern: that immediate aid will be forthcoming while the shock – and newsworthiness – of the event is still being felt, but that the longer-term effects, which will probably be just as grave, are likely to be neglected once international attention moves elsewhere.

Global Greengrants Fund, which has launched its own Chilean Disaster Recovery Fund, is concerned that some small communities in which it works will be completely bereft of their traditional livelihoods by the disaster, and unable to recover without sustained assistance. Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team (NESsT) has launched a Levantando Chile Fund to support local Chilean non-profit organizations that are channelling assistance to communities on the ground. The fund will support both immediate assistance and long-term reconstruction efforts in Chile, particularly those operated by organizations with which NESsT habitually works that are working with their communities to rebuild lives and livelihoods.

Short-term assistance is seen as less of a problem. A number of the larger aid agencies that deal with emergencies have given assurances of their ability to cope. ‘Organizations like ours are able to coordinate on multiple disasters,’ said Red Cross spokesman Eric Porterfield, citing as an example the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China’s Sichuan province in May 2008. Similarly, Doctors Without Borders is heavily involved in Haiti, but has already dispatched a team to Chile.

Another question weighing on relief organizations is whether people will be ready to give money on the same scale so soon after Haiti. There is some doubt, however, as to whether an outpouring of resources on the same scale is necessary. The UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee points out that, while the Chilean earthquake was more powerful than the one that struck Haiti, its effects were less calamitous because it occurred at greater depth and further from centres of population. In addition, says the DEC, while Haiti was ranked 149th in the UN’s Human Development Index, Chile stands at 44th and has an ‘already-significant capacity’ to respond.

For more information
www.kdvr.com/news/nationworld/la-fg-quake-aid28-2010feb28,0,7570062.stor...
www.dec.org.uk/item/428
www.greengrants.org/breakingnews.php?news_id=277
www.nesst.org/give/levantandochile.asp

Global Partnerships extends operations to Mexico to provide ‘more affordable’ microfinance

US organization Global Partnerships, which provides capital and expertise to microfinance institutions (MFIs), has announced the expansion of its work into Mexico. In October, Global Partnerships issued a $500,000 loan to Fundación Realidad (FRAC), a microfinance institution that primarily serves rural women in 11 Mexican states. (One of their programmes has helped to support a women’s collective in Mexico, pictured, to produce and sell earthenware pots.)

Microfinance is not new to Mexico − in fact it has seen rapid growth in recent years − but lack of competition has kept interest rates high, and one of the declared purposes of this investment, as Global Partnerships’ CEO Rick Beckett affirms, is to provide ‘affordable, mission-focused microcredit in Mexico’. The sector in Mexico is currently dominated by one large commercial MFI, Compartamos, which drew criticism for its public flotation in 2008 and accusations that it was managing its business to benefit its investors and not its borrowers (among the critics was microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus). Global Partnerships’ focus, by contrast, is on MFIs that are committed to producing high levels of social impact. With 17 branches in some of the poorest areas in the country, FRAC offers loans with an interest rate 12 percentage points below the Mexican microfinance industry median. Its client base is 82 per cent women and 87 per cent rural.

For more information
http://pndapps.fdncenter.org/link/25012222/4

IDB support for community participation project to bring gas to low-income communities

The Inter American Development Bank (IDB) is supporting the development of a community participation project to increase the provision of gas supplies in greater Buenos Aires. FOMIN, the Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund, will provide a $3 million loan and a $690,000 technical assistance grant to equip low-income communities to organize themselves to make a collective demand for gas services, build additions to the external network and install home service connections to the network themselves.

The project reproduces a successful community participation initiative called Fideicomiso Redes Solidarias (FRS), which expanded the gas service network to 4,000 families in five Buenos Aires neighbourhoods. After three years in operation, 60 per cent of the families in the FRS project area had natural gas service in their homes, and the estimated saving resulting from fuel substitution was $210 per year per family, or around 5 per cent of their annual income.

The executing agency for the project is a local NGO called Fundación Pro Vivienda Social (Foundation for Social Housing), which was also involved in the FRS scheme. An estimated 7,000 households will benefit from the project.

For more information
www.iadb.org/news/detail.cfm?artid=6509&language=English&id=6509

International Finance Corporation to finance ‘systemic change in Mexican retailing’

IFC, the World Bank’s investment arm, has signed a long-term agreement with Sistema Integral de Abasto Rural, SA CV (Mi Tienda), to finance an expansion of Mi Tienda’s operation. The proposed expansion will create 36 distribution centres, whose main target group will be rural shops in 14,740 small Mexican villages. In addition to providing necessities such as food and consumer goods, Mi Tienda’s distribution system will provide a platform for services such as insurance, payment of utility bills, branchless banking and microcredit. ‘IFC’s investment will help us generate a systemic change in Mexican retailing, resulting in improved services and accessibility to a wider range of products at affordable prices for rural communities,’ said José Ignacio Avalos, Mi Tienda’s founder.

For more information
www.microfinancefocus.com/news/2010/01/29/ifc-invests-2-5m-in-mexican-di...

‘Hybrid’ partnership key step in cross-sector cooperation for Mexico

Ashoka, the network of social entrepreneurs, and Fundemex, the foundation created by the Mexican Council for the Coordination of Business, have launched a partnership to promote what they call hybrid value chains – collaborations between social entrepreneurs and businesses that will use the strengths of both sectors to create, among other things, new products, channels of distribution and access to finance which will benefit poorer communities and provide greater access for businesses and social enterprises to those communities.

As an example, the Mexican Association of Social Sector Credit Unions (AMUCSS), led by Ashoka fellow Isabel Cruz, has launched a micro-life insurance programme for rural communities, in cooperation with insurance company Zurich. Currently, it is selling 1,000 policies a month, with potential for greater growth. The symbolic significance of the partnership is perhaps just as important, in that it marks a recognition on the part of both sectors that they are drawing closer together. Civil society organizations are becoming more efficient and economically sustainable, while for their part businesses are keen both to find means of becoming more socially responsible and to develop their customer base among poorer communities.

For more information
Contact Mari-Carmen Sierra at msierra@ashoka.org

Conferences and events

23-26 March
ANDE Latin America Conference: Growing Small Businesses in Latin America
Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs
Granada, Nicaragua
Contact www.andelatinamerica.org

7-9 April
6th GIFE Congress on Private Social Investment: 2020 Vision
Group of Institutes, Foundations and Enterprises (GIFE)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Contact www.gife.org.br

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Americas conference held in Uruguay

With more than 800 attendees and presentations of numerous case studies, the 7th Annual Inter-American Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, entitled ‘Facing Challenges with Responsibility,’ took place from 1 to 3 December in Punta del Este, Uruguay. The Inter-American Development Bank’s annual event was held this year in cooperation with the Uruguayan government and the DERES association of Uruguayan companies active in corporate social responsibility.

Conference sessions addressed the new global challenges that the business sector is facing, such as the financial crisis and climate change, in addition to permanent issues such as corporate social responsibility, competitiveness and poverty reduction through economic inclusion.

Despite the advances, CSR in Latin America has a long way to go. According to The State of Social Responsibility According to Latin American Company Executives, 2009, a survey of 1,500 business executives in Latin America carried out by Forum Empresa (Company Forum), 41.7 per cent say ‘relations with workers’ is one of the issues in which companies have been making headway as part of their CSR strategies. At the other extreme, nearly 30 per cent say corporate governance is the area where the least progress has been made. The report is the first regional survey of the state of CSR in the Americas.

For more information
www.csramericas.org
Full report available at www.empresa.org/sitio-2009/documentos/EstadoRSE_FE.pdf

Football for Hope launched in Latin America

In many countries, work is being done to transform communities with programmes based on football. Streetfootballworld is a worldwide network that brings together companies, social entrepreneurs, international organizations and governments to develop programmes for social change through the use of football.

In Latin America, Streetfootballworld has allied with FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) and the Inter-American Development Bank to promote the Football for Hope movement, which offers financial support to social organizations to carry out quality local projects, especially those linked to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The main beneficiaries, as well as the driver, of the Football for Hope movement are organizations that use football as a tool for social development in the areas of health promotion, peace, children’s rights, education, social integration, the environment and the fight against discrimination.

The 2010 Football for Hope Festival will take place at the World Cup in South Africa next year, bringing together 32 delegations, including many from Latin America. It will be the first time that an official FIFA World Cup event has been dedicated to the social aspect of the sport.

For more information
www.streetfootballworld.org
http://es.fifa.com/mm/51/56/34/footballforhope%5fs%5f47831.pdf

GIFE puts forward 2020 Vision for Brazil

GIFE (Group of Institutes, Foundations and Enterprises) is developing a ten-year plan for the growth of the philanthropy sector in Brazil. The motive behind ‘2020 Vision for Social Investment’ is the need to support civil society in Brazil, which has at least tripled in size since 1996 to over 300,000 organizations. Meanwhile, international donors are either leaving Brazil or reducing their commitments, in some cases becoming fundraisers rather than donors. The W K Kellogg Foundation has closed its offices in São Paulo and the Dutch agency Novib is likely to do the same. However, new potential sources of funding can be identified in the business community as well as among the wealthy people of Brazil. The Visions for 2020 strategy will be presented at the 6th annual GIFE Congress in Rio de Janeiro in April 2010.

For more information
www.gife.org.br

Brazilian entrepreneur among the best philanthropists, according to Barron’s and the Global Philanthropy Group

When the situation gets tough, philanthropists must try to do more with less. As a result, the use of donations becomes more relevant. A list published in early December reveals ‘the best of the best’ in a selection made by the Barron’s business publication in collaboration with the Global Philanthropy Group consulting firm. The 25 best donors of the year, in terms of the quality of results obtained (rather than the quantity), were chosen according to criteria such as innovation, the quality of alliances with other groups, the effects of donations and the possibility of replicating successful projects.

This list includes Brazilian entrepreneur Marcos de Moraes, president of the Sagatiba drinks company. De Moraes sold his ZipNet Company (which represented the largest computer business transaction ever in Brazil) a few years ago, and started the Rukha Institute, an NGO to help at risk children and their families. ‘Many people tell me that it is risky to invest so much in an NGO. But it is worse to have the opportunity to help and not do anything,’ says De Moraes.

For more information
www.cemefi.org/spanish/content/view/2999/25
www.rukha.org