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October 2010 • Vol. 28 • Issue 10

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Monday Developments Magazine
The Latest Issues and Trends in International Development
and Humanitarian Assistance

Performance-based From Prostitute to Pilot:

Incentives An Afghan Refugee
for NGO Staff Returns Home

The
Urban Poor
One Billion and Growing
How Anti-Terrorism Law History,
Affects Peacekeepers Ahistoricism and
the Practice of
www.mondaydevelopments.org International
Development

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1400 16th Street NW, Suite 210
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Monday Developments Magazine

THIS ISSUE
Departments
4 Reflections from
the President
October 2010 Vol. 28 • No. 10 5 InfoBytes
7 Washington Update
10 29 Best Practices
31 Projects
33 Events
34 Job Opportunities

14
25 18

Cover photo by sumnersgraphicsinc

Features 21 Closing the

10 Our Urban Earth

Accountability Chain
The case for performance-based
21
The next great development incentives for development workers.
challenge. By Francesco Paganini
By Judith Hermanson
24 Secure Land Rights
14 Urban Food Overcoming poverty requires
Insecurity tackling fundamental issues of
Addressing scarcity in a land ownership.
of plenty. By Tim Hanstad
By Daria Gage
25 Prostitute to…Pilot?
18 No More Tea with The complex life and prospects of an
Terrorists Afghan refugee returned from Iran.
Considering the impact of By Heidi Kingstone
Holder v. Humanitarian Law
Project. 27 Retrieving the Past
By Joshua Gross History, ahistoricism and
the practice of international
development.
By Michael Gubser and
Jerrold Keilson

October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS 3

 Reflections from the President
Tackling the Changing
Landscape of Poverty
Over the last year, many
crises have shaken our
global community, from
natural disasters in Haiti and
Pakistan to violence in the
Democratic Republic of the
Congo and Kyrgyzstan.
The InterAction community has developed sound
strategies to tackle these complex humanitarian
emergencies, many of which are exacerbated by
climate change. The overwhelming outpouring of
financial support from individual U.S. citizens to
our community has demonstrated the desire of the
American people to relieve the burdens of poverty,
violence and climate change-related natural disasters
around the world.
These crises underscore the link between endemic
poverty, violence and natural disasters, as we move
closer to the 2015 target for achieving the Millen-
nium Development Goals (MDGs). In July, the U.S.
government published its strategy for meeting the
MDGs. It reflects a new approach for the govern-
ment, including transparency and aid effectiveness as
necessary elements to achieve the MDGs. However,
as the recently published InterAction response to this
strategy states, it does not address the importance
of U.S. government reform as a means of moving
development forward. The challenges posed by pov-
erty, both urban and rural, are accelerating, despite
progress on a number of fronts. As climate change,
natural disasters, violence and economic recessions
wreak havoc on poverty alleviation programs, it is
time to consider how to meet these challenges and
what new models and tools we can employ. It is time
to take a step back from the traditional poverty alle-
viation methods to consider the different needs of
urban and rural poor, as well as the opportunities
for change that technological development brings.
If the NGO community is to retain its importance
in the development field, we must adapt and adjust
our frameworks for success. Adjusting these strate-
gies should include a more inclusive, community-led
approach to solutions that will at once relieve the
burden of poverty and empower communities to
lift themselves out of its clutches. We need to make
sure we remain vigilant in our efforts to recognize
4 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010
new challenges as they arise
and flexible in our ability to
adapt our work accordingly.
We need to move boldly as
we work together to develop
a new model for poverty
alleviation.
Achieving the MDGs by
2015 is an important goal.
However, so is the process
identifying what happens next and taking the steps
necessary to sustain these successes.
The MDGs have given the international com-
munity a framework within which to focus devel-
opment efforts. Given the diversity of international
actors, the continuation of such a framework would
increase the effectiveness of development work.
Poverty alleviation and sustainable development will
not be achieved by 2015; it will take sustained and
unified focus from all development actors for many
more years. We need to look beyond 2015 and ask,
“What will development look like by 2030?” This
new vision needs to take many emerging global
trends into account, including the rise of non-state
development actors and increased engagement by
citizens, especially in the global South.
While disaster response and MDG activities
cannot succeed without global government
involvement, the work of InterAction’s 200
members is pivotal to ensuring their long-term
sustainability. This year InterAction is honoring
the UN’s International Day for the Eradication of
Poverty (October 17) with its third annual
Progress Against Poverty Week (October 12-15)
focusing this year on the question: Will the U.S.
keep its promise? Several staff members from
InterAction and its alliance will participate in the
Global Hunger Challenge, living on a food budget
equivalent to that of an average Haitian for one
week to understand this devastating reality and to
raise awareness of poverty around the globe. Join
us this year in examining the role we all play in
achieving the MDGs and furthering development
in the decades ahead. MD
Sam Worthington
President and CEO
InterAction
Monday Developments Magazine
Managing Editor/Art Director
Chad Brobst
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Katherine Delaney
Copy Editor
Kathy Ward
News Editor
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Proofreader
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Monday Developments Magazine
is published by:
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nongovernmental organizations. With
approximately 200 members operating
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works to overcome poverty, exclusion
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 InfoBytes
Passings: Jacques Montouroy
Jacques Montouroy, who worked for Catholic
Relief Services for 41 years, often taking on
the most difficult assignments in some of the
world’s most dangerous places, died of com-
plications from an ulcer July 29 in Freetown,
Sierra Leone. He was 63.
Jacques served with CRS in 11 countries
around the world. Many of those years were
spent in conflict areas. In Haiti, during the
1990s, for example, when the country was
in the throes of violence, Jacques picked up
bodies off the street because, he said, nobody
else would do it.
During Liberia’s civil war, a hopped-up rebel
leader looking for publicity had pointed an AK-
47 at Jacques and asked him why he’d stolen
his rice. Jacques was calm, choosing not to
mention the rice actually belonged to CRS.
Jacques’s presence must have had an effect
on the rebel because he eventually let him go.
Jacques helped hundreds of thousands of
people. But the people he influenced the most
had nothing to do with CRS.        and really brings home the idea that this a place
He called them “his boys” and they called
him “Papa Jacques”. They were Freetown’s
young footballers. He changed their lives more
than any humanitarian project could. In the
slums of Freetown, Papa Jacques was a con-
stant, someone who cared about them. The
boys listened to him like a coach, a friend and
a father. Many don’t see their own very often
and Jacques, with his wit and dash, filled the
void nicely.
Jacques bought them shoes and flew them
to tournaments and taught them how to move
the ball up the side of the pitch. His teams
routinely beat those of older and more expe-
rienced boys. “Growing football players is like
raising chickens,” Jacques used to say. “At a
certain point, you have to let them go.”
Jacques estimated that between 20 and
25 players from Sierra Leone are now playing
at various levels in Europe. Since 1969, when
Jacques arrived in Africa, around 40 players
he has coached have gone on to Europe.
Following Jacques’s death, when CRS staff
went to his house, it was nearly empty, ex-
Photo: Lane Hartill/CRS
cept for his beloved cats and turtles. “He was
a truly selfless humanitarian,” said a friend
who knew him well. “He not only gave his life
for others in conflict situations, but he never
spent anything on himself.”
Films not to miss... with several of the children, giving them cameras
and letting them choose their subjects and
By Sean Patrick Murphy
styles. Through this experience the children were
given a glimpse, however fleeting, of a better life.
Born into Brothels (2003)
Because of their origins, the children began
life behind the eight ball. They are vibrant, funny,
and—no doubt because of their circumstances—
wise beyond their years. But they are children,
first and foremost and Briski never loses sight of
this, treating them like nieces and nephews.
Faced with one of the world’s most byzantine
bureaucracies, Briski moves heaven and earth
to get the children into schools and even
attempts to obtain a passport for one child to
travel to Amsterdam for an international exhibit
of young photographers.
The work these children create is stunning,
especially given the fact that most had
never even seen a camera before. But the
cinematographic style of the film must also be
mentioned; the camera moves artfully through
the twisted streets of Calcutta’s red light district
of secrets, of darkness, and desperation.
These children know what their mothers
(and grandmothers for some) do for a living
They live in the margins of society, the children and most accept their lot in life. While they may
of prostitutes in Calcutta, India. escape physical abuse, many of them suffer the
They are given time and space to discuss outbursts of people who don’t really love them.
their lives with New York-based photographer Though not heartwarming, this documentary
Zana Briski. Briski, who co-directed the film with lends voices to children who have none.
Ross Kauffman, started a photography class Born into Brothels is available to rent.
Gates Award for Global Health 2011
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-established Gates Award for Global Health is seeking
nominations “to reward and exemplify organizations which have developed processes for improv-
ing health, especially in resource poor settings with measurable results.”
Organizations such as NGOs, charities, nonprofits, private companies, government agencies,
universities and multilateral organizations that have been in operation for a minimum of ten years
can apply for the Award. Preference will be given to NGOs and nonprofits.
In submitting nominations for the Gates Award for Global Health, emphasis should be placed
on an organization’s accomplishments to date. Applications should include a brief history of how
the organization has made a sustained contribution in the field of global health. Nominators may
wish to consider the following criteria in describing the Nominee’s work:
• Extraordinary contributions toward progress in the knowledge and practice of health in
low-income societies, with a substantial and sustainable impact on the principal issues that
contribute to global health
• An established record of achievement
• Innovation in program design
• Organizational capacity; i.e. evidence of financial and program stability
• Collaboration with others
Evidence that contributions have had significant influence or have been adopted across geo-
graphic and organizational boundaries.
The deadline to submit nominations is October 29. Visit www.fundsforngos.org/goto/link/9723/1
October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS 5
InfoBytes

Michel Gabaudan Named The U.S. Summit for

Refugees International President Global Citizen Diplomacy
Refugees International recently appointed Michel
Gabaudan as its new president. Upon winning the Nobel Peace Prize, President Barack
Mr. Gabaudan brings to RI a dedicated history Obama challenged the world to find ways to address
of service to refugees, most recently as Regional the global issues that confront us each day, encouraging
Representative for the United States and the Caribbean citizens to be the ones to take the lead.
for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy has responded
(UNHCR). Michel Gabaudan’s career with the UUNHCR to President Obama’s call to action by convening the
spans more than 25 years and includes service in Africa, historic U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy, the
Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. Prior to his most first such event since President Eisenhower’s People to
recent role, he served as the Regional Representative for People Conference in 1956. The summit, in partnership
UNHCR in Beijing. with the Office of Public Diplomacy & Public Affairs, U.S.
Mr. Gabaudan’s UN career took him to field operations Department of State, will serve as the launch point for a
in Cameroon and Pakistan where he witnessed decade-long initiative to increase the number of Americans
thousands of people displaced without access to health engaged in international activity and their effectiveness at
care, water and food. He spent several years at the addressing global challenges.
agency’s headquarters in Geneva, where he served as the In order to build a solid foundation for the initiative, the
first public health advisor to the organization and later summit will bring together over 150 leaders in areas such as:
oversaw the agency’s donor relations service. Prior to
joining UNHCR, he utilized medical and tropical public • development assistance • international cultural
health training to serve vulnerable populations in Guyana, • business engagement
Zambia, Brazil, London and Yemen. • community/local • international voluntary
organizations service
• faith-based • K-12 education
organizations • travel and tourism
• global health • youth service
• higher education

Participants will explore innovative ways to address

global challenges, provide new ways for Americans to get
involved and establish a platform for open collaboration
between the federal government, corporations and
nonprofits. Most importantly, the summit and initiative will
begin to transform the mindset of Americans to see their
responsibilities to the world around them.
InterAction President & CEO Samuel Worthington and
Save the Children International President & CEO Charles
MacCormack are leading the Development Assistance
Task Force during this ten-year initiative. The task force
hopes to increase U.S. citizen involvement in development
assistance worldwide, not only in terms of emergency
relief, but also in sustained support of local community
empowerment and development projects.
The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy is calling on all
citizens, regardless of age or expertise, to help define
America as a country that desires to partner with the
world to solve major global challenges. The summit invites
participation by government, non-profit, corporate and
youth representatives from across the U.S.

Registration for the November 16-19 summit is open at:

www.uscenterforcitizendiplomacy.org

6 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010

 Washington Update
Supplemental
appropriations bill
passed and signed
On July 27, the House approved
the Senate-passed version of
the combined supplemental
funding measure (H.R. 4899)
for the government’s 2010 fiscal
year (FY2010), which President
Obama then signed. The bill
closely mirrors the administra-
tion’s multiple supplemental
funding requests, but also
contains critical increases for
Haiti reconstruction funding,
the International Disaster Assis-
tance account and the Migra-
tion and Refugee Assistance
account.
The bill provides $110
million more for the Inter-
national Disaster Assistance
account than the administra-
tion requested, totaling $460
million, but still $224 million
less than InterAction recom-
mended. The bill also provides
$25 million more for Haiti than
was requested, totaling $918
million, split between the Eco-
nomic Support Fund and the
International Narcotics Control
and Law Enforcement account.
On top of that, the supplemen-
tal also includes $212 million in
debt relief for Haiti.
Economic Support Funds
(ESF) in the bill will provide:
• $1.3 billion for Afghanistan,
including direct budget-
ary support of the Ministry
of Finance, and support
for health, education, the
Afghan Civilian Assistance
Program to assist families
and communities that have
suffered property losses
and/or deaths as a result of
U.S. military operations, and
agriculture, including water-
shed reforestation programs;
• $259 million for Pakistan,
including social and eco-
nomic services, protection
of women, health, water
and sanitation, agriculture,
and human rights pro-
grams through the Bureau
of Democracy, Human
Rights, and Labor at the
State Department, includ-
ing training government
officials and security forces
and assistance for human
rights organizations;
• $770 million for Haiti,
including contributions to
the multi-donor trust fund,
USAID Operating Expenses,
education (school construc-
tion, teacher training and
child education programs),
community stabilization
activities, shelter programs,
health, health system recon-
struction, health services for
IDPs (internally displaced
persons), assistance for
people with disabilities,
food security, reforestation
and watershed restoration
projects;
• $100 million for Jordan;
• $25 million for El Salvador;
• $15 million for the Demo-
cratic Republic of the
Congo; and
• $12 million for Vietnam.
House Appropriations
Committee increases
302(b) allocation for
State, Foreign Operations
in FY2011 budget
On July 20, the House Appro-
priations Committee formally
approved subcommittee spend-
ing allocations for the coming
fiscal year, providing $1.3 bil-
lion more for the State, Foreign
Operations bill than what was
agreed on at the end of June,
bringing the final allocation to
$53.983 billion. This number
is still about 5 percent below
the administration request
and about 2 percent below the
expected FY2010 total, which
includes $1.8 billion expected
“forward funding” from FY2009
and $4.5 billion in supplemen-
tal funding. The Committee
If you would like to be added to InterAction’s weekly public policy email update
please contact Margaret Christoph at mchristoph@interaction.org
statements and news reports
that the allocation is an increase
over FY2010 excludes those
numbers.
Chairwoman Nita Lowey
of the House Appropriations
Subcommittee on State, Foreign
Operations and her staff team
will decide how to allocate the
additional $1.3 billion, and
presumably the change will be
part of a manager’s amendment
that will be added to the bill in
full committee mark-up or floor
consideration, whichever comes
next. (A manager’s amendment
is a package of numerous indi-
vidual amendments agreed to
by both sides in advance.) There
is no reliable word yet on when
that next step might happen,
nor on when the Senate might
mark up its bill. Tentative Senate
mark-up dates—first July 22,
then July 29—have slipped.
Senate State/Foreign
Operations bill specifics
Several provisions have been
included in the Senate State/
Foreign Operations FY2011
funding bill text and the accom-
panying committee report lan-
guage that may be of interest:
• USAID Budget Autonomy.
Section 7055 of the commit-
tee report has the head-
ing “UNITED STATES
AGENCY FOR INTERNA-
TIONAL DEVELOPMENT
POLICY AND BUDGET,”
which seems to be an effort
to support as much budget-
ary independence as possible
for USAID within the con-
fines of the current statutory
authority structure in which
the USAID Administrator
reports to the Secretary of
State.
• Country Strategies. Sec-
tion 7056 of the committee
report states that a summary
of each country strategy
is to be submitted to the
appropriators before dis-
October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS
bursement of development
assistance, Economic Sup-
port Funds (ESF), Interna-
tional Narcotics Control and
Law Enforcement (INCLE)
funds, Democracy Fund,
and Assistance for Europe,
Eurasia and Central Asia.
• ERMA account draw-down
procedures and ceiling.
Draw-downs from the
Emergency Refugee and
Migration Assistance Fund
(ERMA) require affirmative
certification from a senior
administration official. Cur-
rently the certification must
be made by the president.
However, text on page 93 of
the bill shifts that responsi-
bility from the president to
the Secretary of State and
increases the funding ceiling
of the account from $100
million to $200 million.
• Country ownership. Intro-
ductory language on page
7 of the committee report
states “[t]he design, imple-
mentation, and oversight of
foreign assistance programs
should be conducted with
the full participation and
support of national or local
governments and/or civil
society organizations.”
InterAction and its mem-
bers have long advocated
for country ownership, and
have included it as a key
principle of foreign assis-
7
Washington Update
tance reform advocacy.
• Evaluation, termination.
Introductory language on
page 7 of the committee
report also states “[t]he
Committee is concerned
that too often programs are
not well coordinated and
the measure of ‘success’
is the amount of funds
expended, rather than the
results achieved. Programs
which fail to meet clear and
achievable goals and objec-
tives should be terminated.”
InterAction has also pushed
for greater monitoring and
evaluation of programs to
determine that funds are
being spent in the most
impactful way.
• Feed the Future Coordina-
tor at USAID. Page 40 of
the committee report states
8 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010
that “[t]he Committee is
concerned with the delay in
naming a coordinator for
global food security to lead
the Feed the Future initia-
tive and recommends that
the coordinator be located at
USAID as the lead agency in
implementing the initia-
tive.” The Feed the Future
Coordinator is one of several
key development positions
not yet filled. Housing it at
USAID would allow better
coordination with other
development programs.
House version of Haiti
authorization bill
introduced
On July 30, Representative John
Conyers introduced the Haiti
Empowerment, Assistance, and
Rebuilding Act of 2010 (HR
Kjaer Group (US Liaison Office) Inc. | 1601 North Kent Street, Suite 100 | Arlington, Virginia 22209
Tel: (703) 778.9400 | Fax: (703) 778-9405 | USA@KjaerGroup.com | www.kjaergroup.com
6021). The bill would establish
a Senior Coordinator for Haiti
within the State Department,
require a Haiti Rebuilding and
Development Strategy from
USAID, and authorize $3.5
billion in assistance for Haiti
to be provided over five years.
The House’s version mirrors
the Senate’s version of the bill
as it was originally introduced.
At its mark-up of the bill in late
May, the Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee amended the
Senate version, changing the
authorization to $2 billion over
two years.
U.S. climate bill stalls
in Senate
Citing a lack of support, Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid
said that Democrats were
going to put off efforts to pass a
comprehensive climate bill that
would cap carbon emissions.
Democrats were unable to gain
any Republican votes, prevent-
ing them from reaching the 60
votes necessary to overcome
any filibuster attempts. Going
forward, the failure to pass
a cap and trade bill weakens
the United States’ position in
upcoming climate negotia-
tions with the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC). The NGO and
environmental communities
generally have reacted to the
news with dismay and frustra-
tion. However, some hope that
the Senate will take up a limited
climate change bill again now
that the August recess is over
or will do so in a lame-duck
session after the November
elections. MD
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Our
W
ithin the lifetime of
most baby boomers, the
world’s population has almost
tripled. Our planet has been
transformed by that growth: not only because
there are 4.5 billion more people now, but also
because now more than half of the people in
the world (3.3 billion) live in urban areas. The
fastest growing segment within the acceler-
ating urban sector is the urban poor. Today
one-third of the world’s urban population, one
billion people, live in conditions that can only
be characterized as slums—lacking sanita-
tion, clean water, other infrastructure, and
safety from the elements. To visualize what
this means, imagine Miami with its approxi-
mately 5 million residents. Now imagine that

Urban
there 200 Miami cities and every single person

The next great development challenge

in each one lives without running water or
garbage collection.

What does an urban earth mean for us?

The most significant development chal-
lenges of today and tomorrow are likely to
be more urban than rural in nature. Under-
standing the linkages between urban and rural
areas is important; “urban” and “rural” are
not opposites, but instead are linked in many

EarthBy Judith Hermanson, Director, Center for NGO Leadership and

Development (NGOLD), Northern Illinois University
Illustration: creative - Fotolia.com

10 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010


ways. However, although many development
activities may take place in cities and still more
may affect cities, relatively few NGOs have an
“urban agenda” as a priority. Much the same
can be said for most major donors.
Cities have historically been associated
with economic development and enhanced
prosperity. And with care, it may remain gen-
erally true. However, the pace and the scale
of urban growth in some places jeopardize
that prospect. If countries were prepared
to accommodate such rapid growth, there
would be no cause for concern. However,
few places are prepared. Rapid urbanization
is largely responsible for the fact that tens of
millions live in squalid, inhumane conditions
in shantytowns at the periphery of cities or
deteriorated, dense, inner-city slums, with-
out sanitary facilities, clean water, garbage
collection or proper drainage. Their shelters
are often flimsy, over-crowded and insecure.
They also often lack access to education and
health care. Their employment opportunities
are usually in the informal sector and they
live with a great economic uncertainty. What
future can they hope for?
The consequences of unmanaged, undi-
rected, unabsorbed urban growth play out
on many fronts and intersect with the global
strategic issues that are the stuff of our daily
news. As he was leaving office, former UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, “The
locus of global poverty is moving to the cities,
a process now known as the urbanization of
poverty. In this global village, someone else’s
poverty very soon becomes one’s own problem
of lack of markets for one’s products, illegal
immigration, pollution, AIDS and other dis-
eases, insecurity, crime, fanaticism, terrorism.”
No longer can we turn away, for the challenges
of an urban Planet Earth affect us all.
Community-level programming
Successful programs incorporate meaning-
ful methods that help urban poor participate
in making the decisions that affect them. And
the slums and the people who inhabit them
are an integral part of any city. While residents
of these areas face many barriers in accessing
services and finding employment, the future
of the city depends upon incorporating such
slums and other informal settlements into its
planning processes. Issues such as governance,
political will and economic development pose
both macro- and micro-level challenges. But
any successful integration methods will likely
heed the voices of the urban poor. Commu-
nity-level programming that enables the urban
poor to become and be seen as important
stakeholders in the urban space is one of the
many threads that must be woven to make
urban fabric strong and vibrant.
With the new realities of the urban 21st
century, new ways of conceptualizing devel-
opment are possible. One such community
October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS
Urban Poverty
initiative, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, seeks to unleash the energy and
talents of the urban poor to enable them to
play a meaningful role in the urban future.
The Urban Learning Initiative, now in its
fourth year, is re-balancing relationships
among stakeholders in the urban space, cre-
ating a powerful message through its focus
on the residents of poor urban communities.
One successful strategy aligns various
government, private sector and civil society
interests and finds the points of leverage.
Two important elements in this approach
are: (1) the basic assumption that the work
and skills of the urban poor have value; and
(2) the urban poor have a formative role to
play. This enables a “win” for all concerned
parties and for the urban sector as a whole.
Two examples of Gates Foundation-funded
initiatives that have re-framed development in
urban areas are illustrative. One addresses the
ubiquitous issue of solid waste management
and its overall public health and environmen-
tal implications. The other addresses inclusive
city-level planning. Neither issue is new. What
is new and what each has in common is that
they have begun with the premise that the
urban poor have something to bring to the
table. In enabling the meaningful participa-
tion of the urban poor, both initiatives are
finding solutions that also serve the greater
urban good.
11
XX
Urban Poverty
Waste Concern and ESCAP in
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam:
Pro-poor solid waste management
Recycling cannot be the whole answer to
urban solid waste management, as over 70
percent of solid waste is organic and formal
solid waste management systems, which tend
to be capital and technology intensive, are not
doing an adequate job. With these facts in
mind, Waste Concern and ESCAP (the UN
Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific) developed a better idea based
on a compost plant project. With funding
from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
the two organizations developed a decentral-
ized neighborhood-based system of Integrated
Resource Recovery Centers (IRRC), the main
component of which is compost plants. The
approach has been replicated in Sri Lanka
and Vietnam and is now being replicated in
other locations throughout the Asia-Pacific
region. With a flexible approach that varies
depending on local needs and context, the
existing centers each serve approximately
1,000 families and treat nearly three tons of
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12 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010
waste per day. Local government is an active
partner and has provided land and other forms
of support. Daily door-to-door solid waste
collection provides steady employment for
the waste pickers. Households increasingly are
sorting their waste and waste pickers transport
it to the plant where it is sorted again into
organic waste, recyclable waste and rejects.
Over 70 percent of the waste is composted
and approximately 20 percent is sold to junk
dealers. The city collects the remainder and
takes it to a dump site. Each of the compost
plants is generating a profit from its three rev-
enue streams: collection fees, sale of compost
and sale of recyclables. The results include a
cleaner physical environment for everyone,
better incomes for waste pickers, a more effi-
cient collection system for local government,
significant revenue generated through car-
bon credits, local economic activity through
recycling businesses, and lower demand on
existing landfills.
In Bangladesh, Waste Concern and ESCAP
have provided training and the program con-
cept has been successfully transferred and
Center for Continuing Studies
implemented beyond its borders. In Viet-
nam, for example, by collecting waste from
schools and other public facilities, compost
facility staff have been able to raise the wages
of the waste-pickers. As the compost plant
manager explained, “[t]he main success …
is the surprising fact that household waste
can be transformed into good compost. This
helps tremendously in reducing the environ-
mental pollution in our area and contributes
to lessening the volume of waste that needs
to be disposed at the city dumpsite. Another
important success of the project is that the
compost produced has gained the appreciation
of the farmers and demand is always higher
than supply. The compost plant is a good, self-
financed model to improve the community
environment and at the same time generate
income for poor people.”
Population of
Miami
(approx 5 million)
Total number
of urban slum
dwellers
worldwide
(approx 1 billion)
The total number of urban
poor worldwide would
occupy an area equivalent
to 200 cities the size of
Miami. It would be an area
of slums, without running
water or proper sanitation.
 Urban Poverty
XX

Street vendors in Durban, South Africa:
Pro-poor physical and economic
planning
WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment
Globalizing and Organizing) is working to
improve the status of women in the informal
economy. One of its partners in the Inclusive
Cities Network is a new South African NGO,
Asiye Etafuleni (AeT), which means “bring it
to the table.” Active in Durban, AeT provides
support services to the approximately 7,000
street vendors working in a section known as
Warwick Junction.
To help the urban poor enhance their work-
ing conditions, one objective of AeT is to
incorporate the informal sector and the urban
poor in the planning process for the area.
One example of the type of success is the
experience of Sibongile, a 64-year-old trader
in traditional medicines. Because she is a
street vendor, the local government did not
previously recognize her right to do her work,
which created uncertainty and insecurity
as she tried to find space by the side of the
road. She was vulnerable to many forces, and
without a reliable work venue, she had been
unable to take her product to market and was
frequently harassed. First with municipal and
now with NGO support, she has found a voice
and strength she did not have previously and
has gotten access to a kiosk from which to sell
her highly sought product. As simple as kiosk
access might sound, the backdrop and pro-
cess leading to it are far from simple. And the
impact on Sibongile’s life is also far from simple.
The kiosk provides predictability, brings her
closer to customers and provides a safe place
to store her product—all essential elements
to any successf ul business enterprise. Kiosk
access has increased Sibongile’s income signifi-
cantly. And that fact alone contributes greatly
to societal good. As one of the many poor,
urban women responsible for the well-being
of children, Sibongile also uses her income to
care for several children of relatives who have
died from AIDS. Now because of the kiosk, she
can give the children better care. But it is by no
means a one-way street. Sibongile’s increased
sales also mean more money is injected into the
local economy and local government benefits
from the fees she pays.
The urban poor usually have no means to
make their voices heard and, as a result, the
assets they bring to the city are frequently
overlooked. Projects such as those of Waste
Concern/ESCAP and Asiye Etafuleni/WIEGO
change the equation, serving as a vital link
in a supply chain or, better, a key component
in a complex mechanism that is enhancing
the overall urban experience. They have
increased incomes and employment oppor-
tunities. Equally important, they have received
acknowledgement from the city governments,
businesses and consumers, who are customers
of their valuable goods and services. Similar
programs that focus instead the intersection
of apparently competing interests and leverage
these for the common good are also starting to
influence policy approaches; in so doing, they
hold promise for sustainable and equitable
urban change. MD

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October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS 13

Urban Poverty: Food
Urban Food
Insecurity
Addressing scarcity in a land of plenty.
By Daria Gage, Technical Advisor for Food Security, CHF International
F
ood insecurity has
historically been associated
with images of rural fam-
ines and widespread severe acute
malnutrition. While the world
still faces localized crises of avail-
ability, there is a growing accep-
tance of a broader definition of
14 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010
food security. According to the
Food and Agriculture Organiza-
tion of the United Nations, food
security is “when all people, at all
times, have physical, social and
economic access to sufficient,
safe and nutritious food.” Seen
from this aspirational perspec-
tive, while an adequate supply of
food (availability) is a necessary
precondition, if a household does
not have the means to obtain that
food (access), or if there are con-
straints to the proper utilization
of that food, or if the reliability
of its sources of income and
therefore food are in question,
then that household is not food
secure. The lives of many urban
poor epitomize this daily chal-
lenge of food access and utiliza-
tion: living “hand-to-mouth” in
a city where there is seemingly
endless supply and variety of
food available, facing compet-
ing demands for the little cash
they earn, and unable to rely on
the same social support networks
and additional sources of food
that are more likely to exist in
rural areas. Even when they do
succeed at obtaining a sufficient
quantity and diversity of food,
clean water and food safety are
often outside the control of a
particular urban household,
negatively impacting health and
nutrition.
Relatively little research has
been done to define the causes
of urban food insecurity, perhaps
because malnutrition is rarely as
severe or widespread as it is in
rural areas. In an effort to under-
stand the dynamics and determi-
nants of urban food security more
completely, CHF International
has developed the Urban Food
Access and Nutrition Approach
(UFANA). UFANA comprises a
framework and guidebook for
collecting and analyzing house-
hold-level information on pur-
chasing power, sources of food
and constraints to food utilization
that can be used to design more
effective urban food security pro-
gramming. As this article goes to
press, CHF is conducting a case
study to pilot test the UFANA
framework in the Ayidiki slum
community in New Town, Accra,
Ghana; and subsequent country
case studies are planned in the
near future.
To date, the CHF research
shows that although the basic
determinants of household
food security in urban areas are
the same as in rural areas, they
vary in terms of importance and
impact. In an urban environment,
In an urban
environment, it is
more difficult to
identify geographic
pockets of food
insecurity than in
rural areas, where
price and supply
shocks tend to
affect the whole
community.
it is more difficult to identify geo-
graphic pockets of food insecu-
rity than in rural areas, where
price and supply shocks tend
to affect the whole community,
with the lowest wealth group hit
the hardest. Urban food insecu-
Photos: Daria Gage/CHF International
rity is rarely a community-wide
phenomenon, even in the poorest
neighborhoods, except in a con-
flict or disaster situation. Rather,
food insecurity is a function of
the fortunes and misfortunes of
individual households through-
out the city, although it is possible
Mark E. Chiaviello, Director, Corporate and Investment Banking
Standard Bank, 320 Park Ave., 19th Floor New York, NY 10022 (212) 407-5000
mark.chiaviello@standardnewyork.com

Maureen Harrington, Director, Corporate and Investment Banking

Standard Bank, 320 Park Ave., 19th Floor New York, NY 10022 (212) 407-5000
maureen.harrington@standardnewyork.com
Urban Poverty: Food
to isolate some characteristics of
particularly vulnerable house-
holds in order to better identify
them. For instance, in Accra our
research indicates that the central
determinant to urban household
vulnerability and resilience is not
necessarily the quantity but the
reliability of a household’s sources
of income and food. And while
livelihood options may appear
limitless, there are relatively few
possible types of income (e.g., sal-
ary, market-dependent or casual
work). As in many urban econo-
mies, most people earn wages on
a daily basis and then spend the
entire income on that day’s food,
making it difficult for the poor
to save, store, and secure food-
stuffs and capital. The urban
poor, particularly migrants, often
lack financial, social and physical
assets (i.e., money, connections
and property) to rely upon when
there is a reduction or interrup-
tion in income, or when a price
shock reduces the purchasing
power of that income.
While relying on aggregate
indicators is dangerous, it is use-
ful to look for a few “red flags”
that may indicate vulnerability.
For instance, in the lowest wealth
group, a low ratio of income earn-
ers to number of dependents is
a good sign that the household
may be at risk. Another is the per-
centage of total income spent on
food; in some parts of Ayidiki, we
found many households in which
food comprises 95 percent of the
household budget, since they are
living almost rent-free in commu-
nal homes and large compounds.
What percentage is acceptable or
indicative of vulnerability will
vary from place to place. How-
ever, in all cases it is necessary
to assess the livelihood options
available to the poorest, to gauge
the reliability of current sources
of income and the potential
impact of losing those sources.
In many urban contexts,
poor households have multiple
16 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010
sheep, despite extremely limited
space and questionable land use
rights. Most urban agriculture
consists of high-value production
and serves as a source of income,
but some families do consume
some of what they produce. Also,
some urban households receive
shipments of food from family
in agricultural areas, especially
after harvest. While they may be
expected to return the favor with
cash remittances, it is a mistake
to consider this as a purely trans-
actional exchange. Such rural-
urban linkages are important
sources of food that may make
one household more resilient to
shocks than its neighbor. Other
Different programs for different needs sources of food, such as formal
An assessment of the reliability of purchasing power, sources of feeding programs and informal
food and constraints to utilization in a particular urban community charity, should also be quanti-
will reveal a number of possible intervention points. For example, fied and taken into account when
an urban agriculture initiative can focus on supplementing income assessing an urban household’s
or food sources, given the right regulatory environment, access to food security.
small swathes of land, wastewater treatment options and the req- Even purchased food is
uisite farming skills among interested beneficiaries. With support accessed in a variety of forms
and consumer marketing, street food vendors can be encouraged with different economic and
health impacts. Most striking in
to improve safety and nutrition. A jobs center that pre-certifies
urban communities is the fre-
office and domestic workers can link a community’s hidden
quent reliance on food prepared
skills and credentials with the broader metropolitan economy. outside the home, from deep-
Programs can help women balance the trade-offs they face on fried or packaged snacks to full
a daily basis between their roles as income generators, heads meals prepared in local restau-
of household, food preparers, caregivers and/or food producers. rants, in make-shift stalls on the
For instance, there may be opportunities to pool resources, buy street, or in home kitchens and
foodstuffs in bulk, improve home storage capacity and even sold from carts. Street food may
share cooking responsibilities. be consumed simply because of
its cost and convenience, such
as a midday meal for individu-
als working away from home, or
a quick evening meal that does
income sources to make ends that a “male friend” from a dif- not require time to prepare. But,
meet, although gathering infor- ferent neighborhood came often as the CHF research has dem-
mation on these supplementary at night and gave her additional onstrated, the poorest house-
sources may be challenging. In money. holds have additional reasons
the Ayidiki case study, one Togo- The urban poor face a num- for relying on street food: it does
lese woman reported operating ber of unique decisions and chal- not require access to a stove or
a small kiosk selling maize flour lenges when it comes to sourc- clean water for cooking, it can be
and other sundries. She gave a ing and consuming food. While purchased in smaller quantities
precise accounting of her house- it is true that urban households without having to purchase all the
hold expenses, profit margins and purchase the vast majority of ingredients and fuel it would take
revenues, but the numbers did their food, it is also important to to prepare at home, and it often
not add up. Only after hours of account for other sources of food. contains just enough nutritional
one-on-one conversation with a Some urban households cultivate diversity (fat, protein and car-
female interviewer did she admit crops, or keep poultry, goats or bohydrates). Nevertheless, there
 Urban Poverty: Food

are trade-offs that many families
might not even recognize. First,
while street food puts one meal
on the table at a cheaper cost,
over time street food can be less
economical if it costs more per
kilocalorie than it would to buy
ingredients and cook at home.
Secondly, when children pur-
chase street food on a regular
basis, their primary caregiver’s
oversight is reduced. In Ayidiki
community, one mother knows
that her children will each be able
to feed themselves for 30 pese-
was (20 cents), whereas the sum
total of 150 pesewas ($1.00) is not
sufficient to buy all the necessary
ingredients to put a homemade
meal on the table. However, in
going the street food route, she
has lost control over their food
choices and does not know if they
are getting the protein and nutri-
ents they need, or if the vendors
they select are preparing food in
sanitary conditions.
Local economies function
differently in urban areas than
they do in rural areas, where a
systematic economic interac-
tion between different wealth
groups is more common. In
rural communities, the outputs
of the poor are typically utilized
by the wealthier groups, which in
turn bring in capital from their
economic interactions outside
the community. In a poor urban
neighborhood that has migrants
from many different parts of the
countryside, the CHF research
has found less economic reciproc-
ity and trust between different
wealth groups, with wealthier
groups preferring to employ
domestic help and business ser-
vices from outside (often those
from their home areas). As a
result, there are few links not
only between different wealth
groups within a given commu-
nity, but also between the poorer
community members and the
greater metropolitan economy.
Poor urban communities thus
risk economic isolation. While
they consume foodstuffs and
other goods supplied from out-
side, their ability to draw capital
into the community is limited.
In terms of lessons for the
practitioner, a program targeting
food insecure urban households
must consider how all of these
dynamics play out in a particular
context, using a set of quantitative
and qualitative analytical tools to
understand the complexities of
the urban context. Because some
determinants of food insecurity
may be more pronounced than
others and each community pres-
ents unique intervention points
and constraints, the comprehen-
siveness of data allows the prac-
titioner to design interventions
that respond to the most critical
determinants among different
target groups.
With food by far the num-
ber one use for income, it goes
without saying that urban food
security is fundamentally an eco-
nomic development issue. In that
regard, the UFANA framework
and other urban household vul-
nerability assessments must be
coupled with an understanding
of the broader market environ-
ment, utilizing a variety of exist-
ing tools and resources to iden-
tify the market dynamics and
economic opportunities that can
move households out of poverty
and toward wealth creation. MD
Questions and comments can
be sent to the author at dgage@
chfinternational.org.

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October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS 17

Anti-Terrorism Law
No More Tea with Terrorists
Considering the impact of
Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project
By Joshua Gross, Director, The Glover Park Group
18 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010
I
n June, the U.S. Supreme Court
heard arguments in the case of Holder, et al.
v. Humanitarian Law Project, et al., a lawsuit
closely watched by scholars and NGOs that
work alongside armed groups in fragile states.
The case was widely seen as the first major
test of the constitutionality of a controversial
provision of the Uniting and Strengthening
America by Providing Appropriate Tools
Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terror-
ism Act (“the PATRIOT Act” HR 3162).
U.S. “material support” statutes are meant
to empower the government to prosecute
individuals and groups who provide money,
weapons, and training to terrorist groups that
have been formally listed on one of several
terrorist lists. These statutes—most impor-
tantly, 18 U.S.C. § 2339B(a)(1)—date back to
the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing.
In 1998, Ralph D. Fertig and his organi-
zation, the Humanitarian Law Project, chal-
lenged the U.S. government’s definition of
material support for terrorism. The group had
advised the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
until the U.S. government listed the PKK as a
terrorist organization. The Humanitarian Law
Project sought to distinguish its intentions
from those with violent aims. Its work with the
PKK consisted mainly of holding workshops
in humanitarian and international law and
training PKK leaders on how to gain visibility
in international organizations such as the UN.
In 2001, mediators and free speech advo-
cates were again alarmed by the passage of the
PATRIOT Act, which broadened the definition
of material support to terrorism to include the
provision of expert advice or assistance (“advice
or assistance derived from scientific, technical
or other specialized knowledge”).
Fertig and his lawyers fought the govern-
ment’s definition of material support for
Photos: chattange; scoutingstock - Fotolia.com
twelve years and celebrated some minor victo-
ries. The Ninth Circuit Court found the term
“training” “too nebulous to provide sufficient
notice as to the activities proscribed by the
statute,” and the term, “expert advice and
assistance” to be “unconstitutionally vague”
and a potential intrusion into protected First
Amendment activities.
However, in a 6-3 decision issued in July,
the Supreme Court overturned the Ninth Cir-

cuit’s interpretation, ruling instead that the
First Amendment does not protect groups
or individuals who provide “expert advice or
assistance” or “training” to proscribed terrorist
groups, even when they do so to further peace-
building efforts. As a result, even individuals
who directly advise proscribed terrorist groups
to disarm and participate in negotiations are
now vulnerable to prosecution in a U.S. court.
What are the terrorist lists?
The U.S. uses terrorist lists to prevent ter-
rorist financing and provide policy-makers
with tools to sanction armed groups that have
attacked or intend to attack American citi-
zens and interests. The current system can be
traced back to Executive Order 12947 issued
in January 1995 and the U.S. Antiterrorism
and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. The
1996 legislation gave the executive branch
authority to create a definitive list of terror-
ist groups, the Foreign Terrorist Organization
(FTO) list. FTOs were folded into a growing
U.S. sanctions regime, joining rogue states and
a category of groups and individuals known as
Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs). Today,
all FTOs are also classified as SDNs. Terrorist
designations are assigned through a process
involving the Departments of Justice, State and
Treasury, as well as the intelligence services.
The SDN list is a master list maintained by
the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign
Assets Control (OFAC) and is best understood
as the primary means by which foreign policy
is implemented through sanctions against
groups and individuals. It lists thousands
of sanctioned individuals and entities. The
Department of Treasury uses the SDN list—
and only the SDN list—when pursuing the
assets of individuals and groups, including
charitable organizations identified as support-
ers of terrorist groups.
The SDN list is different in form and content
from the FTO list, which is managed by the
Department of State. According to Matthew
Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near
East Policy, “In some ways the FTO is more
important because it is the list of foreign ter-
rorist organizations. The Treasury lists aren’t
meant to be the list, but they are meant to be
a disruption tool, to name and shame, and to
Anti-Terrorism Law
freeze funds and ban business transactions.” help humanitarian and peace-building groups
When a group is listed, its U.S. assets are determine which groups they can and cannot
immediately frozen. Any “U.S. person” (which contact and what type of conduct is forbidden.
includes U.S. citizens, permanent legal resi- They also attempt to facilitate the complex
dents, corporations incorporated in the U.S., process of cutting off terrorist organizations’
U.S.-based NGOs and foreign NGOs with a access to funding and preventing their mem-
presence in the U.S.) must comply with the bers from entering the United States.
sanctions. However, OFAC can issue licenses But the lists also complicate diplomacy. For
that “permit a person or entity to engage in a example, in 2008, Nepalese Maoists won a plu-
transaction which otherwise would be pro- rality of seats in an internationally-monitored
hibited.” NGOs or individuals that anticipate election. Following Hezbollah in Lebanon and
interactions with proscribed groups must Hamas in the Palestinian Territories, Nepal’s
apply for OFAC licenses or risk potential Maoists became the third U.S.-sanctioned ter-
enforcement action (civil or criminal). rorist group to gain power through democratic
elections. Events in all three places highlight
Diplomacy and development the challenges of relations with democrati-
challenges cally elected governments dominated by a
Terrorist lists are an important element U.S.-sanctioned terrorist group.
of U.S. counter-terrorism policy. They are In the field, complications related to terrorist
intended to clarify legal efforts to identify and designations have strained relations between
prosecute terrorists. They are also meant to U.S. embassies and NGOs. Several individuals
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Anti-Terrorism Law

involved in peacebuilding in Nepal, who asked
to remain anonymous, expressed frustration.
One scholar recounted being frozen out of
project funding after American donors learned
that the scholar was working with the Maoists.
Donors cited fears of being connected with
financing terrorism. Another recalled talking
with a mid-level Maoist commander who was
considering publicly challenging hardliners
and advocating a more conciliatory approach
to negotiations. The scholar suspected that the
commander was unsure of the strength of his
arguments, but was unable to provide advice or
encouragement, knowing that doing so could
be interpreted as providing material support
to a terrorist. “What they want is compara-
tive knowledge,” explained the scholar. “This
is different than telling them how to build a
bomb. You can’t even give them advice on how
to change their direction and move toward
nonviolence.” Another NGO (not operating
in Nepal) was approached by the State Depart-
ment to provide legal advice to an SDN. When
they requested an OFAC waiver, they were told
that it was unnecessary, because the contact was
in the interest of “peace,” which is “intangible.”
Clearly, confusion and challenges remain.
Tea with terrorists
The widely quoted mantra in the field is
that you cannot have “tea with a terrorist.”
Tea or lunch that is served at a Track 2 medi-
ation workshop attended by members of a
proscribed group has a monetary value and is
therefore prohibited. In fact, any service that
can be construed as having tangible or intangi-
ble monetary value—such as providing advice,
reviewing a contract, covering transportation
costs—can be considered a violation of U.S.
material support statutes. Holding meetings
or conferences for a proscribed group or act-
ing as a negotiator on their behalf is illegal.
However, even if an NGO employee does
buy a terrorist tea—or provide advice for the
purpose of peacebuilding—the statistics to
date suggest that it is unlikely that he or she
will face prosecution by the Department of
Justice. OFAC decides the utility of prose-
cuting someone who has allegedly provided
material support and the Department of Jus-
tice has prosecutorial discretion. Since 2001,
150 individuals have been prosecuted with a
70 percent conviction rate in material support
cases. However, of all the cases reviewed in a
report on post-9/11 terrorist trials by NYU’s
Center on Law and Security, none revolved
around expert advice and assistance and/or
training in the interest of peacebuilding.
Nonetheless, Holder v. Humanitarian Law
Project has catalyzed a self-cautioning conser-
vatism in the peacebuilding community, given
the state of the law and the fact that the power
to prosecute exists. At a recent panel convened
by the U.S. Institute of Peace, practitioners
listed a number of other activities—activities
that many will agree are in the U.S.’ national
interest to pursue—that will likely be affected
by the decision’s chilling effect: providing
flood relief to Pakistan in areas where militant
groups predominate; monitoring future Pal-
estinian or Lebanese elections; clearing mine-
fields in territory held by proscribed groups;
and negotiating with militant leaders for the
release and demobilization of child soldiers.
continued on page 34

Plant knowledge. 
Grow justice. 
GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN  
SUSTAINABLE INTERNATIONAL  
DEVELOPMENT 
 MA in Sustainable International Development 
 MS in International Health Policy and Management 
 PHD in Global Health and Development 

Brandeis University
Boston 

http://heller.brandeis.edu 

20 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010

 Accountability

Closing the
Accountability
Chain
The case for
performance-
based incentives
for development
workers.
By Francesco Paganini,
Disaster Response Program Officer,
World Relief

I
n the last two decades, the
international community has worked hard to
develop indicators and mechanisms in order
to create concrete expectations for projects. It
is now unheard of for a program to develop
projects without providing the funding source
with an explanation of how performance will
be measured and success evaluated.
However, for all this progress, the interna-
tional community has yet to make the fun- (3) it encourages self-motivated and ambitious contracts are allowed to lapse and people are
damental leap from linking program fund- professionals to move out of our field. transitioned out, but even these rather mild
ing and program performance to providing sanctions are rarely used.
individual incentives to the people who make No carrots, no sticks, no innovation In short, program managers who are intel-
success happen. The notion of paying bonuses In my (admittedly brief) career as a devel- ligent and hardworking and perform their
to program managers who accomplish spe- opment professional, I have never heard of tasks effectively receive the same benefits as
cific program goals is an industry taboo not an NGO that provided substantial and mean- driftwood that merely does the bare mini-
discussed even among friends. But without ingful bonuses for program managers who mum (or less). This reality trickles through
personal incentives, all the responsibility and obtained specific, pre-determined objectives. in how we design and implement programs.
ownership that is supposed to be created by Similarly, I have never encountered a situation For example, in a recent trip to Haiti, I was
establishing program success parameters is where a program manager who dramatically dismayed and amused by the common sight of
never actualized; the result is a culture where failed to achieve the pre-established objec- “cash for work” teams composed of five work-
failure is never truly attributed and success is tives was sanctioned or sacked. In fact, the ers watching two others load a tiny boulder
never really recognized. norm in our industry if a project is a fail- into an empty dump truck.
Illustration: Junial Enterprises

This lack of the final link in the responsibil-
ity chain results in three undesirable realities
in the professional development world: (1)
it creates a disincentive for innovation; (2)
it hinders the field from engaging in sincere
self-scrutiny and professional growth; and
ure is to avoid the placing of responsibility
on any individual or group of individuals.
Instead, general discussions are held about
the difficulty of working in certain environ-
ments and some kind of organizational “mea
culpa” is provided to the donor. Occasionally,
The fact that most of those workers are paid
by the day creates an incentive to work slowly
and drag out the clearing of rubble. With all
the intelligence that is being devoted to the
reconstruction of Haiti, why is it that the idea
of paying “cash for work” teams on a project

October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS 21

Accountability
basis (or by cubic meter) is not the standard
and is only being used only by certain entities?
If payment is linked directly to the removal of
debris from an area, instead of the number of
days worked, we would still accomplish the
goal of providing a cash injection and employ-
ment, but would probably also increase the
amount of rubble cleared each day.
In the same way, why not pay a construc-
tion manager or a health manager a bonus
when specific objectives are obtained in the
pre-established time frame? In the most com-
petitive industries in the world, from finance
to restaurant management, this is the norm.
Meanwhile, in the development industry the
linking of results to personal rewards borders
on blasphemy. As a result, program managers
do not have the incentive to find new ways to
accomplish their goals. Any additional effort
they do put into figuring out how to meet
their objectives (which results in a loss of
time with their families and leisure) will not
be rewarded; while failure to meet the objec-
tives will often be accepted without personal
sanction or reprimand.
See no evil, speak no evil
Development professionals often complain
in private conversations about the perfor-
mance of a program or a partner. This is most
evident in the relationship between NGOs and
the UN. The UN, which acts as both an imple-
menter and major donor for a large number
of projects, is often the source of complaints
by NGO workers. From UNHCR to UNICEF
it is a common complaint, made over Nile or
Prestige beer, that “so-and-so” or an agency
doesn’t understand this project or that reality.
However, sincere discussions of efficiency and
programming effectiveness are rare.
While many complaints of the UN are not
justified—and I am sure UN staffers also
spend a significant amount of time com-
plaining about NGO staff—the truth is that
real dialogue between and within the NGO
community about performance is stifled by
a culture of no concrete criticism. At one of
the never-ending meetings held as part of
the response to the Hepatitis E outbreak in
Northern Uganda in 2007, I made the idi-
otic comment that there was no vaccine for
a virus. Instead of either pointing out to me
that in fact vaccines are indeed often used
to prevent viruses (including other forms of
hepatitis), people simply nodded their heads
and the meeting continued. Nobody corrected
22 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010
People who enjoy
designing programs and
testing new systems
will not remain in an
environment where these
activities are not linked to
individual rewards.
me during the meeting or afterward. This was
done to avoid making me look foolish in the
crowd and is appreciated, but unfortunately
even larger errors are often treated similarly.
This collegial attitude hinders individual
growth and professional interaction. If we
cannot point out basic mistakes of logic in
a meeting then we will never be able to have
sincere discussions about projects and project
outcomes. The collegial culture of develop-
ment is that you complain about other agen-
cies or partners over beers but you don’t point
out why a program design or activity is ill con-
ceived—instead we tend to just gloss it over.
When people do make strong criticisms they
are often accused of not being team-players
and are frequently marginalized. The result is
that some programs and activities which are
doomed even before they begin are rolled out
anyway. While it is important that we maintain
our civility and mutual respect, we must also
be willing to engage in sincere discussions
about our performance as organizations, agen-
cies, and individuals.
Drift wood floats, power engines sink
The people who provide the innovation,
growth and imagination to most industries are
rewarded with new opportunities and addi-
tional benefits. But in development, they are
at best given some recognition and at worst
criticized for failing to be team-players when
they critique projects or activities.
This lack of personal rewards frustrates
innovative and committed individuals. The
NGO community often turns, at considerable
expense, to outside consultants for innovation
or in-depth analysis. If we developed internal
incentives to keep the motivated and bright
people from seeking employment in consulting
firms, our long-run successes would increase
and our long-run costs would drop. People
who enjoy designing programs and testing
new systems will not remain in an environ-
ment where these activities are not linked to
individual rewards. This does not necessarily
mean that we have to throw more money at
our human resources but it does mean that we
need to better link how our incentives line up
with our performance expectations.
The donor’s dollars
As in most things, those who pay the piper
must change the song. Donors need to begin to
encourage implementers to include individual
bonuses in project design. These can take a
variety of forms, but most likely would often
have to be structured as percent pay-outs on
salaries. In order to be effective, the incentives
need to be significant and substantial, such that
missing objectives is a burden for the program-
mer and obtaining them has an impact on his/
her life. We are not talking about gumboots or
t-shirts; while incentives need not necessarily
be monetary, they must be substantial for the
individual. Of course this would vary whether
we are talking about a program manager, pro-
gram associate or a direct implementer, but the
premise is the same: reward people for achiev-
ing the goals they were expected to meet and
provide sticks (in the form of missed carrots
or sanctions) for those who do not.
In the long run, linking personal success
to the success of the program will result in
donors seeing their funds used more effec-
tively and the attraction of more innovative,
ambitious people to our industry. Clearly,
linking individual behavior and goals to
broader project objectives is not always
easy or straightforward. However, even in
the current structure of development agen-
cies, performance assessments and goals are
usually established at the start of a work year
and evaluated periodically. The challenge is
making the next step and linking rewards and
penalties tied to those individual evaluations.
The NGO community has spent significant
amounts of energy and resources discussing
outputs versus outcomes; and on a macro-
scale it has even laid out concrete goals for
the development community to achieve (the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
being the most obvious example). But we
have never fully translated the obtaining of
these broader outcomes/outputs to the indi-
vidual actions that development workers do.
While there are challenges in making this
link, the impetus for facing those challenges
is the same one that drove the creation of

the MDGs. In the same way that the indus-
try should be held accountable, so should its
practitioners. Ultimately, the creation of the
MDGs was viewed as a mechanism to cre-
ate accountability for development includ-
ing development agencies. The creation of
individual incentives is the next, natural step
towards establishing that accountability.
Taking this step is both necessary and not
without precedent. While it is still the excep-
tion, there are instances where individual
responsibility has been weaved into program
design. Rwanda’s experiment in health perfor-
mance-based financing has been consistently
praised as having rapidly improved a health
system that had suffered a significant loss of
human capital. The approach was introduced
after traditional, input-focused approaches
failed to achieve significant improvements.
While I am not endorsing a cookie-cutter
approach to the development of incentives
systems, and I recognize that Rwanda’s pay
for performance (P4P) involved different
incentive schemes working simultaneously, it
is important to note that although the schemes
Lead the response
Columbia University’s Program on Forced Migration and Health
Petionville Camp, Haiti January 2010
implemented used different approaches, they
were all based on providing individual incen-
tives for achieving program goals.
Since Rwanda’s P4P is generally viewed
as having worked effectively, why aren’t we
seeing more programs designed with similar
incentive structures? Personal incentives do
not have to be limited to the health sector;
they can be applied to all sectors and can work
as a natural incentive to achieving program-
matic goals across all activities.
I am not suggesting we pay AIG-level
bonuses. Making millionaire practitioners is
not the goal of development and is not a main
motivator of our personnel. However, between
working for AIG and being essentially unac-
countable bureaucrats there is an opportunity
for a middle ground.
See, speak, hear and report no evil
The last unspoken challenge in implement-
ing individual incentives is the fear of public
criticism of our programs. This fear generates
collusion between donors and implementers,
in which it is easier to paper over failure rather
October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS
Accountability
than punish and own it. The lack of individual
responsibility makes institutional failure easier
to mask and therefore the creation of indi-
vidual sticks and carrots will force greater, true
transparency in the development community.
This is a difficult thing to do, but donors should
demand it of implementers; and the leadership
of donor institutions (including donor govern-
ments) needs to demand it of their institutions.
Personal accountability will complete the chain
in the process that the development community
started when it decided that it wasn’t enough
to do good but it had to do good well. The use
of personal incentives exists in other govern-
ment contracts why should development be
any different? Clearly those who have devoted
their lives to helping the neediest are not moti-
vated by the desire to become millionaires;
however, our beneficiaries will be better served
by people whose performance is linked to their
rewards. MD
The opinions expressed are solely those of the
author and do not reflect the official stance of
any organization.
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23
Land Rights
Secure Land Rights
Overcoming poverty requires tackling
fundamental issues of ownership.
By Tim Hanstad, President and CEO, Rural Development Institute
N
o matter what your org-
anization is doing to improve the lives
of the world’s poor, one element can
multiply your impact dramatically: secure
land rights.
Secure land rights are a fundamental build-
ing block for the development of sustainable
prosperity, and peaceful societies. Studies have
shown conclusively that when people have
secure rights to land:
• Conservation efforts are better supported;
• Investments in education reach larger
numbers of children;
• Public health programs can produce bet-
ter outcomes;
• The potential for conflict is minimized;
• Movement toward gender equality can
Learn More about land rights
The following sources are useful tools for those interested in learning more about the
power of land rights and economic prosperity:
Publications
• A Field of One’s Own, Bina Agarwal
• The Mystery of Capital, Hernando De
Soto
• One Billion Rising, Roy Prosterman,
Robert Mitchell, Tim Hanstad (RDI)
• Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook, World
Bank (www.worldbank.org/genderinag)
Key Web Sites
• International Land Coalition (ILC) www.
landcoalition.org, a global alliance
promoting secure and equitable access
to and control over land for the poor.
• Rural Development Institute (www.rdiland.
org)
• United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (UNFAO) (http://www.fao.
org/nr/tenure/lt-home/en), an online
database with information on the status of
property rights in almost 80 countries
24 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010
take root; and
• The poorest and most vulnerable can bet-
ter access government services.
Consider these benefits on a large scale and
it becomes clear why the most stable and pros-
perous societies tend to be those that have
broadly distributed and secure land rights.
Where land ownership is highly concentrated
and land rights are insecure, poverty and
instability are widespread.
This is something both General Douglas
MacArthur and Taiwan’s Chiang Kai-shek
understood when they carried out major
land-to-the-tiller programs after World War
II. But such efforts needn’t be punitive, break
the bank, nor involve land confiscations.
• UN Global Land Tool Network, (www.
unhabitat.org/categories.asp?catid=503)
established in 2006, promotes the issue
of land rights and tenure security.
• USAID has just established a new portal
that contains a comprehensive listing of
country-specific land tenure and property
rights issues: http:// ltpr.rmportal.net/
products/country-profiles The site is
contains a couple of dozen countries now
and is growing weekly.
• The Millennium Challenge Corporation
and the World Bank also offer expertise in
this area.
Recent Reports from RDI
• A new report highlighting rural
undeveloped forestland in China: Who
Owns the Carbon in Rural China?
• A report analyzing women’s inheritance
rights to land and property in South Asia
Last year, India launched a $200 million,
three-year initiative aimed at providing 2 mil-
lion more landless families with house and
garden plots (tennis-court sized lots that allow
a family to build a house and grow their own
food). Such programs, which involve gov-
ernment-owned land or land purchased by
the government at market rates, have already
allowed thousands of India’s poorest families
to bootstrap themselves out of poverty.
Farm laborers like Padma in the village of
Teetha in Karnataka State, who once worked
long and hard in others’ fields for 18 cents a
day—not enough to feed herself and her fam-
ily—now earns about $4.50 per day. Padma
planted jasmine flowers on her home and
garden plot and sells the flowers at a nearby
temple. The proceeds from her business
allowed her to pull her daughters out of the
fields where they worked to supplement the
family’s income and put them in school. Now
their dreams can take root and flower.
As a landowner, Padma has increased respect
in her village, access to more government ser-
vices, and can apply for loans for fertilizer and
other improvements. Secure rights to her own
patch of land gives Padma and others like her a
toehold in the modern economic system.
And land programs can be tailored to varied
environments. China, with its 800 million rural
poor, for example, is in the midst of a historic
land reform program in which the government
is awarding farmers 30-year lease agreements to
the land they currently farm. In areas where it
has been instituted, the contracts afford farmers
protection from land expropriation. This lon-
ger-term security has encouraged Chinese farm-
ers to invest in their plots. Recent research by
the Rural Development Institute has shown that
these farmers with secure land tenure are about
twice as likely to invest in their plots as farmers
without secure land tenure. Areas where the
new land tenure laws have been implemented
have witnessed a diversification of crops, forays
into organic farming and increased harvests.
NGOs working in the fields of maternal
health, children’s nutrition, education, wom-
en’s rights and the environment all need to be
mindful of the role of land rights. If they do
not have expertise in this area, they should
explore creative collaborations with organiza-
Illustration: CreativeSwell
tions that do. Integrating the issue of secure
land rights into their own poverty alleviation
strategies can mean the difference between
achieving long-term systemic change and
unsustainable programming. MD

Prostitute to…Pilot?
The complex life and prospects of an
Afghan refugee returned from Iran.
By Heidi Kingstone, Journalist, Kabul
N
argis doesn’t seem the type
of young Afghan woman to thrive
on adventure and crave danger. She
is tiny and wears a skin-tight black top that
only emphasizes just how petite she is. She
first got hooked on adrenaline while watching
Indian actresses in Bollywood films playing
army soldiers. Now her addiction is drugs.
She is one of an estimated one million Afghan
returnees from Iran, people who once fled to
escape the civil war and their children who
where born outside the country.
The first time Nargis saw Afghanistan was
after being deported to the border from Evin
prison, the notorious Tehran jail where Cana-
dian Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi
died. Her crime was prostitution, the end
result of rape in a region where the woman,
not the man, is blamed.
Her dream now is to be a pilot, says the
25-year-old as she smokes and sips fresh fruit
Photo: David Belluz
juice in the tranquil, green garden full of roses
at a cafe in Kabul. Smoking, along with so
much else including bike riding, is considered
inappropriate for women. “Do you think I
“Do you
think I am a
bad girl?”
am a bad girl?” she asks me as she tells her
story. “No,” I say. Being a bad girl—a term
that covers a woman’s behavior from smok-
ing to smiling to sex with a man who is not
your husband—is wrapped up in the notion
of honor, and honor and shame can simply be
an excuse for violence, control and bullying.
Domestic violence is rife in Afghanistan.
While there have been some improvements
over the past nine years since the fall of the
Taliban, the situation for women has not
greatly improved. According to USAID statis-
tics, women continue to suffer from illiteracy
(about 15 percent of women can read), poor
health and extreme poverty. The country’s
maternal mortality rate is among the highest
in the world, while women’s life expectancy
(44 years) is among the lowest. Afghan women
suffer from malnutrition, anemia, post-war
trauma and clinical depression; 68 percent of
tuberculosis sufferers are female. Women have
long been excluded from education, health-
care, employment and participation in pub-
lic life. Horror stories of women being sold,
raped, beaten and sent to live with the farm
October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS
A Refugee’s Story
animals as punishment are all too common.
Bored by studying law at a private university
in Kabul, Nargis knows she is also unlikely to
fulfill her dream of being a pilot. At this point
she barely gets through the day. As she puffs
on her cigarette, I ask about the marks on her
arms: round, pale, maroon circles and long,
thin, healed-over scars. Slash and burn. Ciga-
rette burns and knife marks, the wounds of
self-harm. Hers is a typical tale in many ways.
Her parents left Afghanistan during the
years of upheaval that included the 1979 Soviet
invasion, the subsequent civil war, Taliban rule
and the current presence of NATO forces. Like
many Afghans, they sought refuge in neigh-
boring countries, which is why Nargis was
born in Iran, to which an estimated 1.5 to 2
million Afghans fled.
Life was often difficult and many returned
as drug addicts. “My parents went to Iran
because it is an Islamic country. But in Iran
they hate Afghans. In fact, they call us ‘dog-
washers,’ the ultimate insult. I was born in
Iran but I cannot get citizenship,” says Nar-
gis. “My family really suffered there. They
had to work so hard and do what no Iranian
would do.”
Then she says the unsayable, but something
I have also heard from other women on a
number of occasions. “I hate Muslim people.
I don’t believe in Islam, I only believe in God. I
don’t have a future, especially here, and I have
no hope. There are no facilities, no parks, no
good streets, no security.”
As a child of six or seven and from a des-
perately poor family, Nargis went to work at
a brick factory, laboring in intolerable heat in
the summer and freezing cold in the winter.
At the forge her life took an even worse turn.
When she was about fifteen, she went to
collect her salary. No one else was there that
day. “The manager, was fat and ugly,” she said.
“There was nothing I could do. He raped
me.” Rape is seen as the woman’s fault. Often
women are killed for the disgrace this brings
on the family. “I was a child. I didn’t know
what was happening, but I knew I could never
tell my family.”
Soon after that, a cousin suggested that Nar-
gis was a good age to get married and recom-
mended a man who also had the blessing of
her parents. It was impossible. “I couldn’t. I
was not a virgin. It’s a crazy and cruel culture
that a girl must be a virgin, especially as this
is so personal and a woman must be able to
chose for herself, but for Muslim people this
25
A Refugee’s Story
is very important. So I decided to leave. I ran away and went to Tehran
and lived in Mellat Park. It is a beautiful, big park near the homes of
rich people, but when you meet someone there you know what kind
of girl they are.”
After two nights, a young woman struck up a conversation with
her. “She asked me what I did, not realizing at first that I was Afghan.
It was then she told me about a house where she was staying, and she
told me if I wanted to come with her I would have to do ‘bad actions.’”
At a house in Sosh, a suburb of Tehran, there were three other girls
and an old woman. “Leila Khanom Raes, the boss, said to me that if
I wanted to live here, I had to do whatever she wanted. She smoked a
lot of crystal shisha—like crack—wore a lot of makeup (the sign of a
prostitute or a bride) and after one week I was using them too.”
In the evenings, the door would be left open. Men would enter into
one room and Leila would go and chose a girl. The usual outfit Nargis
wore was a tight, short-sleeved t-shirt (a woman exposing her arms is
also taboo), jeans or a skirt and lots of doll-like makeup. “Leila would
charge the men between 3,000 and 5000 tuman, but we never got any
money. She said she gave us food, clothing and housing.” Nargis stayed
for two months until one night when a party went too far.
That night there was drinking, drugs, loud music and sex in the villa
of a very rich man. A neighbor called the police and the police arrested
all of them. “They knew we practiced fahsh [basically prostitution],
which is against the law in Iran.” Nargis ended up in Band 3 Nasvan, a
wing of Evin where she stayed for a month during the new year festival
26 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010
of Narwoz, a time when the courts are closed for almost two weeks.
“It was a very bad, dirty place, and the food was awful: rice with
meat and bad potatoes. I was with one girl in my cell who was between
20 and 25. She was a lesbian and got her drugs from outside. I was
so unhappy and depressed. I took a knife and cut my veins. Another
woman was in prison with me who had killed her husband with the
help of her boyfriend. Another girl had also left home. Her name was
Khutura and she had been married to an older man and we smoked
drugs—crack and heroin—together. I didn’t have the money to pay,
or a boyfriend or husband on the outside who would provide things,
so I cleaned rooms and washed clothes.”
Sometime later a judge gave Nargis a ten-month sentence. “He
was a very religious mullah. He asked me about my family—where
they live, what they do—and then he told me I would be deported to
Afghanistan.”
At the end of her sentence, a bus took Nargis and other Afghan
deportees to Islamkala, just over the border in Afghanistan and near
Herat. Here Afghans can cross without documents. She made her way
to here uncle’s house and, two weeks later, she left for Kabul to see her
parents, who had moved back three years before.
She started washing dishes at a restaurant, saved money, took com-
puter lessons and English. Then she worked for a private company
as a secretary and then in administration at a TV station. Today she
works as a data operator for an American company, a position due
to end this autumn.
For good reason we often see women in this culture as victims, as
too often they are. But society works in complex ways and, like every-
where, there are also strong women and brave women, and women
whose fight to change the rules. So far Nargis is an unlikely survivor.
This, though, is not a story with a happy ending. Nargis asks me if I
like Kabul. “Yes,” I tell her. But it is different for Afghan women because
they have to worry about their reputations if they come home later than
6 p.m. or talk to men amongst other things. Going out to work is also
considered shameful in some parts of this very varied and complex
society. Afghanistan has many different ethnic groups and classes, and
the traditions between various parts of the country also differ greatly.
Women’s rights might be enshrined in the constitution, but that has
very little impact on the day-to-day life of an ordinary Afghan female,
especially in Pashtun areas in the southern part of the country.
“I wrote a story about my past,” says Nargis, “and I want to find a
director. I will play myself. When my country improves we will loose
politics from religion. Religion is personal not public. I don’t want to
marry, especially not an Afghan man, and he would never accept my
past anyway.”
Being a single woman in this culture is very unusual and can be very
difficult. And breaking a wedding engagement can “ruin” her. Even if
she breaks such an engagement because she discovers that her finance
failed to disclose that he is already married, it is unlikely that anyone
else will marry her. Few men will call again. Similarly, if a woman does
not have a big enough dowry, if her family is poor or if her father is
dead, she is considered less valuable and her chances of marrying fall.
People won’t rent single women rooms. They are discriminated against
and life is even more difficult in some respects.
All of this makes Nargis despair of her culture and her future. “I don’t
know why I can’t enjoy myself. I drink, I smoke and I take drugs. I don’t
like living. I ask why I should live? Now I want to sleep forever.” MD

Retrieving the Past
History, ahistoricism and the practice of
international development.
By Michael Gubser, Assistant Professor of History, James Madison
University, and Jerrold Keilson, Vice President and Director of Planning and
Development, Creative Associates International, Inc.
The Abseron Peninsula near Baku,
Azerbaijan, after decades of Soviet oil
exploitation. For most Azeris, the country’s
newest oil boom produced only more
environmental degradation.
T
o insist that international
development professionals should be
aware of history seems like a statement
of the obvious. Yet as many aid commentators
point out, the past is consistently ignored in
development practice. In The White Man’s
Burden, William Easterly claims that “[t]he
lack of historical memory in the aid com-
munity inhibits people from learning from
their mistakes.” Economist and property law
advocate Hernando de Soto deems the failure
to consult previous modernization efforts one
of the main flaws of development policy and
practice. And the HELP Commission, con-
vened in 2008 to review American foreign aid
and recommend reforms, found a systematic
failure of institutional learning at USAID.
Development, of course, denotes change
over time, and aid professionals broach history
in myriad ways: as part of the background con-
text and needs assessment that inform project
Photo: Michael Gubser
design; as longitudinal data used in monitor-
ing and evaluation; as lessons gleaned from
earlier projects. Given the prevalence of these
concerns, the dehistoricized approaches favored
by the aid industry are striking. Aid profes-
sionals rarely give more than cursory attention
the history of the countries or sectors where
they work. In proposals and reports, context
is confined to a current snapshot venturing no
more than a few years back. This short past
is further simplified into best practices and
lessons learned that serve as decontextualized
tips for wide application. Unique and dynamic
social forces are reduced to steps in a technical
process, a myopia that weakens the ability to
implement effective programs and conduct
thorough assessments of their impact.
There are many reasons why aid profession-
als overlook history. High-pressure demands
and short time horizons prevent anything more
than perfunctory acknowledgement of the past.
When USAID launches an initiative, it is often
reacting to immediate political exigencies and
short-term fiscal allocations. As a result, proj-
ect designers enjoy little time for reflection
on precedents; they must gather facts quickly
to meet rigid deadlines and conduct sector
appraisals with scant concern for how current
problems arose. Needs assessments rarely delve
back more than three to five years, the typical
length of an aid project. Managers, too, obey
October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS
Attention to History
strict implementation milestones that allow for
little analysis beyond what is required to com-
plete the work at hand. The demand for prompt,
measurable results encourages the short-term
accomplishment of superficial tasks—“quick
wins”—over long-term but deeper transforma-
tions. Historical analysis becomes a luxury since
it cannot offer instant prescription.
Furthermore, donor and contractor employ-
ees are generally hired for their field practitio-
ner’s experience, specific technical expertise
(such as health or education) or social science
training, which incline them away from his-
torical analysis toward technical “know-how”
applicable across times and cultures. As a result,
they tend to work like technicians, treating their
interventions as tools for fixing the broken
machinery of a poor society, subdividing social
trends into discrete but manageable steps, mold-
ing projects around models abstracted from one
country and re-implemented in another. The
combination of political pressures, bureaucratic
demands and a technocratic culture enforces
a mechanistic approach to development that
marginalizes concern for the past. History is
reduced to an obligatory page of contextual
background that opens a field report; a catalog
of facts demonstrating a contractor’s knowledge
of local context; or a ritualized reference to the
recent past at formal gatherings.
Yet the study of the past has a tremendous
amount to offer development professionals.
Three principles of historical analysis—plac-
ing events in wider context, tracing change
through time and considering multiple per-
spectives—could help to transcend the tyranny
of the present and reveal broader trends. By
contextualizing local circumstances, historical
accounts illuminate the interaction of social
forces and establish complex causal relation-
ships. By explaining events over time, historians
connect earlier and later developments in order
to achieve a nuanced understanding of social
change. And by considering a problem from
various perspectives, historians strive to reduce
bias, acknowledge divergent viewpoints and
recognize cultural complexity. Detailed knowl-
edge of a country’s past can help aid workers
recognize available resources for cultural change
and strategies suited to a given region, offering
new possibilities for progress rooted in local
experience rather than imposed from outside.
27
Attention to History
Underdevelopment is not a mere static
state; it is a product of long-term policies
and trends. Failure to consider the historical
experience of poor communities may turn a
technically sound intervention into a social
disaster. As historian Margaret MacMillan
warns, “[i]f you do not know the history of
another people, you will not understand their
values, their fears, and their hopes, or how
they are likely to react to something you do.”
The dangers of ahistorical
development: democratization in
Eastern Europe
USAID democratization efforts in East-
ern Europe illustrate some of the dangers of
ahistorical development practice. After the
end of the Cold War, American aid programs
sought to promote economic restructuring
and civil societies in Eastern Europe. Some
of the largest exchange and training programs
in USAID history brought thousands of East-
ern Europeans across the Atlantic to learn
about American social and political practices.
USAID missions reinforced these exchanges
with assistance delivered directly to the region,
including a large regional intervention, the
Democracy Network (DemNet) program,
with individual country activities that aver-
aged six to eight years for between $4 and
$6 million and a region-wide initiative that
fostered cross-country cooperation.
DemNet grew primarily from an understand-
ing of American democracy and civic activism.
Citing then-modish ideas of Alexis de Toc-
queville and Robert Putnam, USAID planners
maintained that Communist regimes had stifled
independent civil societies and that democracy
required citizens to be weaned from government
welfare. To encourage political engagement and
self-reliance, DemNet supported the founding of
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that
could advocate on behalf of citizens. Through
training, technical assistance and small grants,
USAID strove to help Eastern Europeans under-
stand the importance of NGO activities, civic
responsibility and electoral politics.
Yet project planning involved only limited
analysis of citizen participation and democratic
precursors in the target countries. USAID bid-
ding documents referred to recent historical
trends, such as the dramatic collapse of com-
munism and the danger of renewed autocracy,
but did not address deeper regional histories of
civic activism. As a result, despite some local
tailoring, program activities were applied across
28 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010
the region with little variation—in Romania
and Bulgaria as in Poland and Czechoslovakia.
Greater historical insight could have revealed
distinctions. The northern states, for example,
have a significant history of civic engagement,
with active churches and vibrant social move-
ments that channeled citizen interests. Yet the
program’s focus on the immediate circum-
stances of local civil societies largely ignored
these democratic assets. Southeastern Europe,
by contrast, had little tradition of civic auton-
omy and few existing civil society groups.
These differences rarely factored into pro-
gram designs. World Learning, a U.S.-based
implementer, was expected to award grants to
Romanian NGOs as rapidly as other imple-
menters in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslova-
kia, despite the Balkan country’s infant NGO
sector. When the strategy predictably stalled,
implementers were often blamed. Similar
recriminations occurred in Bulgaria, Croatia
and Bosnia, despite somewhat greater flexibility.
At times, local DemNet projects sparked
feuds when new citizen groups, born after
1989, competed for funds against older orga-
nizations with communist ties that could bet-
ter meet grant requirements. In Bulgaria and
Croatia, for example, DemNet grantees made
up of former apparatchiks embittered younger
program affiliates. Unaware of these resent-
ments, U.S. implementers supported groups
that alienated them from more radical demo-
crats, engendering mistrust that sometimes led
to programming stalemate. While historical
analysis would not have prevented all antago-
nism, it could have forewarned implementers
of local sensitivities and disputes.
More dramatic misapplications of history
could be witnessed further east, where USAID
democratization efforts in post-Soviet Azer-
baijan exemplify the shortcomings of ahis-
torical development. After the collapse of
the Soviet Union, USAID sought to facilitate
liberalization in successor states. As democ-
ratization efforts expanded in Azerbaijan,
the apparent success of Eastern Europe’s
post-communist transition offered a seduc-
tive model for project planners. Yet after a
decade of donor support for democratization,
the country still lagged behind many of its
post-Soviet counterparts in indices of civic
activism, corruption and political openness,
despite an oil boom that enriched the coun-
try’s autocrats. Development projects alone
cannot undermine authoritarianism, but it is
fair to say that donor democratization efforts
not only failed to foster political reform but
at times exacerbated stratifications of wealth
and power. This miscarriage grew partly from
neglect of the country’s recent past, which
could have shown that Azerbaijan was ill-
suited to a Polish or Czech-style transition.
USAID assessments conducted between
2002 and 2005 reveal this failing. They
describe an incipient NGO sector that was
much frailer than in other parts of the former
Soviet Union. “Most transition and developing
countries have a much deeper layer of NGOs,
professional associations, business associa-
tions, and other interest groups developing
and finding their way in civil society,” reported
a 2002 assessment. “These groups are gener-
ally either weak or non-existent in Azerbaijan.”
A 2003 report noted that government officials
discouraged civic activity, deploying force to
silence critics and limit public accountability.
A 2005 civil society assessment lamented the
poisonous mix of government repression, citi-
zen “apathy” and low NGO capacity.
In this context, the Eastern European exam-
ple was not only inappropriate but also mis-
leading. It encouraged donors to favor licensed
Baku-based organizations that lacked cred-
ibility beyond the capital, rewarding NGOs for
clientelism and exacerbating social divisions.
Moreover, donor activities sometimes compro-
mised their neutrality. The 2003 assessment
questioned a contractor’s decision to “provid[e]
transportation for voters to polling stations on
elections day”—a good strategy in a “normal
setting” that appeared as “overt pressure to vote
for the ruling party” in Azerbaijan. Training
opposition parties was similarly ineffective
because they lacked venues to apply new cam-
paigning techniques. USAID, in other words,
hoped to cultivate a new Solidarity in the unfa-
vorable climate of the Caucasus.
Unsurprisingly, Azeri informants expressed
dissatisfaction with USAID programs. Donor
policies, they complained, lacked a community
base, ignored citizen activity outside official
frameworks, and fostered hierarchy and cor-
ruption. In short, USAID hampered democ-
ratization by widening the gulf between elite
players and a host of worthy citizen initiatives
with limited capacity but intimate knowledge of
local needs. Greater awareness of recent history
could not have guaranteed effective program-
ming or averted controversial decisions. But
understanding the specific circumstances of
Azerbaijan’s post-communist transition might
continued on page 32
Kicker

Have you gathered lessons learned

from your work in the field that

Best Practices
could benefit others? Send your
summary of less than 1000 words to
cbrobst@interaction.org and share
your expertise with the entire NGO
community.

Business Matters
• Degraded natural resources;
• Limited access to water for
irrigation;

A six-year project in Bolivia shows why a • Low agricultural productivity;

• Limited productive infra-

market-oriented approach is key in tackling structure;

• Few agricultural supporting

food security. services; and

• Underdeveloped market
linkages.
Nor Cinti, whose livelihoods
By Daniel Wortman, Program Management Bureau
depended significantly upon Though such constraints
Chief, and Jozimo Santos Rocha, Agricultural Economist subsistence agriculture, were are not entirely unique in the
Advisor, ADRA International selected based on their levels of developing world, the market-led
food insecurity. These communi- approach that ADRA used for
In April 2008, the Adven- in Bolivia since 1976, faced a ties faced significant geographic, this program was less common
tist Development and Relief number of significant constraints social and economic constraints, at the time and was met with
Agency (ADRA) completed a when it began the project in including: certain skepticism by those who
six-year, USAID-funded food 2002. Rural communities in the • Low literacy rates; doubted a market-led approach
security project that targeted department of Chuquisaca in • Geographic isolation and could succeed with vulnerable
smallholder farmer households the provinces of Sud Cinti and limited market access; smallholder farmers who seemed
in Bolivia’s valley region. To
increase food security in one
of the poorest countries in the
Western Hemisphere, the proj-
ADRA’s demand-driven approach
ect, Food Security: A Market-
oriented Approach, Supported
by Integrated Development,
utilized a demand-driven
approach to enhance the use
of market information for
farm-level, strategic decision-
making and thereby increase
incomes.
This approach was somewhat
unusual at the time in Bolivia,
but by placing emphasis on the
market and encouraging and
facilitating market linkages, farm
sales experienced a fifty-fold
increase from 2002 to 2008,
despite the occurrence of El Niño
and significant political and social
instability. The lessons learned
are increasingly useful given the
growing importance of market-
led agriculture in reducing food
insecurity.
ADRA, which has operated

October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS 29

Best Practices
to lack the skills and resources
to compete in an increasingly
competitive market environment.
Demand-driven approach
This food security program,
like many others, used an
integrated approach addressing
issues related to food availability,
access and utilization. Through
the income generation compo-
nent, ADRA sought to enhance
smallholder farmer capacity to
respond to market opportuni-
ties and move from subsistence
farming—characterized by
low-quality production of tradi-
tional crops, primarily for self-
consumption—to commercial
farming, which would produce
high-value products in response
to market specifications, take
advantage of economies of
scale through joint sales, and
utilize more innovative financial
mechanisms to reduce risk and
to increase investment. The
income generation component
was complemented by activities
to enhance health and nutrition,
basic infrastructure and natural
resource management.
The program included key
activities to increase agricultural
productivity common under
previous food security programs,
such as organizing farmers’
groups, training in enhanced
agricultural technique, and
enhancing productive infrastruc-
ture). These activities were also
integrated with market-led inter-
ventions that were less common
at the time including:
• Completing value chain
studies;
• Collecting, analyzing and
using market information;
• Forming producers’ asso-
ciations;
• Training in management and
leadership strengthening;
• Developing agri-business
plans;
• Establishing agricultural col-
lection centers;
30 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010
• Establishing and strength-
ening supporting services
(such as financial services,
product certifications, pack-
aging); and
• Organizing business
networking forums and
agricultural fairs.
Results
The market-led approach
achieved significant results,
particularly with regard to small-
holder farmer incomes. Accord-
ing to the project’s externally
conducted final evaluation, sales
through forward contracts and
producer associations increased
fifty-fold between 2002 and
2008. As a result, the average
beneficiary household’s income
doubled during this period, even
when adjusting for 2002 prices.
In addition, increases in income
led to important improvements
in household well-being (e.g.,
through improved diets, house-
hold asset enhancement and
increased school attendance).
The higher incomes also led to
increased investment in their
farms (e.g., through improved
seeds, investment in enhanced
machinery and equipment,
increased farmland), which they
increasingly viewed and treated
as businesses.
These results, despite less
than ideal conditions during the
implementation period (occur-
rence of El Niño, unstable and
uncertain political and social
conditions), suggest that a mar-
ket-led approach can achieve
significant results in even more
vulnerable communities. In addi-
tion, the continued functioning
of farmers’ organizations and
commercial linkages with value
chain actors and supporting
service providers after the end
of the project suggests that such
activities can be sustainable in
addition to achieving important
impact during a project’s imple-
mentation period
Lessons Learned vate sector, companies provided
While further assessments, interest-free credit for input
including ones currently under- supplies, certified seeds and
way by USAID, will undoubtedly machines and delivered techni-
provide additional critical infor- cal support to farmers groups.
mation to guide future interven- Third, firm-level upgrad-
tions, a number of useful lessons ing was critical to the success
have already been identified. of target farmers. The project
First, market information assessed critical, firm-level
is critical to demand-driven bottlenecks and helped farmers
approaches. The project to strategically address them
enhanced the capacity of farm- in order to take advantage of
ers to access, analyze and use market opportunities. Farmers
market information for farm-level were trained in entrepreneurial
decision making to respond skills, use of agri-business plans
to market requirements. With and enhanced post-harvest
enhanced access to market infor- techniques, which enabled them
mation systems and expanded to produce high-value crops
knowledge of how to conduct with enhanced levels of quality
market research, farmers are in and, in turn, increased sales and
a better position not only to pro- income.
duce according to demand, but Fourth, cooperation among
also to negotiate a better price firms and other value chain
with suppliers and buyers. actors through vertical and
Second, rapid initial results horizontal relationships is critical
were critical to boosting private for transferring skills and
and public sector participation reducing transaction costs.
during the initial phases of the Farmers benefited from the
project. Despite the challeng- enhancement of horizontal
ing environment faced in the linkages with the establishment
intervention area, the project of farmers’ organizations through
capitalized on the rapid results which capacity building takes
obtained in terms of increased place and joint input purchases
productivity, product quality and and product sales are con-
volume of sales. These results ducted. The increased econo-
were key to increased engage- mies of scale and enhanced
ment with target farmers by both bargaining power achieved
public and private sector actors. through these organizations also
Local governments invested in enabled the establishment and
productive infrastructure such enhancement of vertical linkages
as agricultural collection centers between farmers and other value
and irrigation systems, and chain actors, including buyers,
facilitated the establishment of input suppliers, and financial
technical service units. In the pri- service providers. MD
Monday Developments Magazine provides
in-depth news and commentary on global trends
that affect relief, refugee and development work.
Monday Developments Magazine
It features the latest information on the work
of InterAction members around the world and
keeps readers up-to-date on legislative action in Congress that could
impact U.S. foreign assistance to poor countries. Monday Developments
Magazine also describes new resources for relief and development
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employment listings.
www.mondaydevelopments.org
Projects
Building Support for
Micro-Enterprise
Organization
Education Development Center,
Inc. (EDC)
Location
Rural India
Funders
Hewlett-Packard Development
Company, L.P.
The Project
As a child growing up in a family of agricul-
tural laborers in the rural village of Kalol, India,
Varshaben Luva hated the long, hot truck
rides at harvest time. Now that she is earning
her living on the farm, Luva dreads the 100-
mile drives to the marketplace even more.
That’s because as an adult Luva under-
stands that the long trips are not simply
exhausting. They often result in a financial
loss.
“Individual farmers don’t have the bar-
gaining power to negotiate a good price.
If they can’t sell the product, they have to
transport the product back to the farm,”
says Yupaporn Boontid, who works for the
nonprofit Education Development Center,
Inc. (EDC), a member of InterAction. “The
farmers pay round-trip transportation costs
for nothing.”
But recently all that changed for Luva
and other rural farmers. By signing up for
a mobile texting plan, she transformed the
way they do business.
After attending a technology session
at a nonprofit training center called Self
Employed Women’s Association (SEWA),
Luva started her own business. Combin-
ing her new technology skills with her
background in agriculture, she now goes
to SEWA each day to research market
analyses and prices of commodities online.
Farmers pay Luva 50 rupee (or just over
US$1) a month to receive daily text mes-
sages from her about current market prices.
The farmers can then decide whether
it’s worth transporting their crops—mostly
cotton and corn—to the market that day. To
date, Luva has 88 clients in the Mehsana
District of Gujarat.
“Her business, serving all the rural parts
of India, provides the basic information to
farmers,” says Boontid.
Luva is also one of a growing number of
women in India breaking through traditional
gender roles by starting her own business.
As part of EDC’s technology training
program, over the past five years, SEWA
has trained 5,000 women workers from rural
regions of India in core computer skills,
enabling them to find jobs, become self-
reliant, and overcome traditional gender-
associated constraints.
Other female entrepreneurs at SEWA
agreed with Luva that the SEWA training
improved their sense of equality in India,
where there are far fewer women in the
workforce than men.
“After I got married and moved in with
my husband, my life was like being in a dark
room because I was unemployed and had
to rely on him,” says another SEWA trainee.
“After I received HELP training and started
earning income from my data entry job at
home, my husband and his parent began to
involve me in decision-making.”
Since 2007, EDC has managed SEWA,
along with 48 other centers across 10 coun-
tries in the Asia Pacific Region, for Hewlett-
Packard’s Learning Initiative for Entrepre-
neurs. As the organization managing the
local centers, EDC encourages networking
opportunities, manages grants, monitors
activities, and administers capacity-building
to trainers of courses such as the one that
Luva took—the one that has inspired her to
make changes that will help many others.
Such courses are making a difference.
Says Boontid, “Now farmers only load up
and travel to nearby cities if they know they
can make a profit.”
October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS
Does your organization implement
unique projects or programs? Share
them with the Monday Developments
community. Send your project’s
name, implementing organization,
location and funder(s) along with a
brief description of 400 words or less
to cbrobst@interaction.org
Conditional Cash Transfers
(CCT), Tuition Assistance
Program (TAP) and Social
Service Program (SSP)
Organization
IREX and Save the Children, in
partnership with the World Bank
Location
Kazakhstan
Funders
The BOTA Foundation
The Project
Programs designed to improve the quality of
life should serve as a hand up rather than a
handout, and should invest in reducing the
education, health and social welfare dis-
parities between rich and poor. Taking this
approach in mind, IREX, Save the Children
and the World Bank have partnered to over-
see the development of the BOTA Founda-
tion, registered in April 2008 and now the
largest independent NGO in Kazakhstan
dedicated to improving the lives of children
and youth suffering from poverty.
Serving over 5,000 beneficiaries since
its launch in January 2010, BOTA’s Condi-
tional Cash Transfers (CCT) program seeks
to narrow development gaps by providing
financial incentives to promote behaviors
that will reduce anemia levels in pregnant
and lactating women, increase enrollment in
early childhood education, and increase the
prevalence and quality of home-based care
for children with disabilities. The program
makes cash payments to needy families that
enroll and sustain participation in health and
education services. To determine eligibility
and target benefits to those who need them
most, BOTA developed and administers a
Proxy Means Test (PMT) that uses data on
household expenditures and composition to
predict poverty levels. It is the first CCT pro-
gram in Kazakhstan as well as the first large-
scale CCT initiative administered by an NGO.
31
Projects

BOTA’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP),
now in its second year, supports over 330
undergraduate scholars. Most of the tuition
aid in Kazakhstan is merit-based, and there
are still many would-be students who cannot
afford university fees. To identify applicants
with the greatest financial need, BOTA uses
the PMT to target students from families that
fall below Kazakhstan’s national subsistence
level. Approximately two-thirds of the recipi-
ents represent the first generation in their
families to attend college. The scholarships,
which cover full tuition, room and board, are
akin to the U.S. government’s need-based
Federal Pell Grants and can be used for
study at any accredited college or university
of the student’s choice in Kazakhstan.
BOTA’s Social Services Program (SSP)
makes grants to local and international NGOs
that demonstrate the institutional and profes-
sional capacity to effectively deliver social
services and systematically improve the wel-
fare of children and youth suffering from pov-
erty. SSP has issued over $2 million in grants
to support 115 Kazakhstani organizations that
tackle issues such as limited access to pre-
school services for young children and poor
health, education and social welfare services
for children and youth with disabilities. MD
Attention to history
continued from page 28
have restrained the desire to apply Eastern
European models in an adverse situation.
Toward a pragmatics of history
Merely pointing out the lack of historical
awareness will not lead to its incorporation.
Aid professionals will only consider systematic
historical analysis if they know how to apply
it and what difference it can make. Practical
applications include:
• Trend and coalition analyses that chart the
relation between current aid challenges
and evolving trends; identify develop-
ment tactics used in the past and the pre-
conditions for their application; and map
local alliances, available social resources
and potential political obstacles. It mat-
ters enormously if a particular tension is
centuries old or of recent vintage, espe-
cially if there are people who remember
other ways of doing things.
• Consultation with elders that incorporate
questions about the past so as to under-
stand local perspectives, cultural con-
straints and development options.
• Impact analyses conducted several years
after a project ends (not simply as the
closing activity) to reveal its lasting effect.
Some of these applications can be intro-
duced immediately, whereas others require
more systematic change in the culture and
administration of aid programs.
Historical analysis, of course, cannot pro-
vide indisputable certainties, nor can it assure
successful development interventions. But it
may enhance the effectiveness of aid programs
by improving project planning, increasing
knowledge of local resources, and facilitating
social and cultural understanding. In the end,
the proposal to rejoin the present with the past
is simply a call for development to embrace
its own character as history in the making. MD

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32 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010

Kicker

Events
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your upcoming events in Monday
Developments Magazine. Send your
event’s name, date, location and
contact information to publications@
interaction.org

October 18 – 29 October Washington, DC Disorders Addressing

Conference of the Parties Contact: bifortconf@cgiar.org Imbalances: Promoting
5 October to the Convention on Equity in Mental Health
InsideNGO Workshop: Biological Diversity 16 – 17 November Washington, DC
USAID Rules and Nagoya, Japan Gift-in-Kind Summit www.wmhconf2010.hhd.org
Regulations www.cbd.int/cop10/ Crowne Plaza
Washington, DC Ft. Myers, Florida 25 November
www.insidengo.org/ 20 October www.giksummit.org International Day for
workshops.htm State of the World Contact: coleeng@ Elimination of Violence
Population Report worldconcern.org Against Women
9 – 11 October Issued by the UN Worldwide
2010 Annual Meetings of Population Fund 17 – 19 November
the International Monetary UNFPA, New York Sixth World Conference on December
Fund and the World Bank www.unfpa.org/swp/ the Promotion of Mental
Group Health and Prevention of 1 December
Washington, DC 22 October Mental and Behavioral World AIDS Day
www.imf.org/external/am/ World Neighbors:
index.htm A Journey Around the
World Gala
12 October Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
The Expat Forum 2010 Contact Tina Evans at
Washington, DC tevans@wn.org or by phone
http://expatforum.clements. at 405-418-0406 Need the latest headquarters
com
salary and benefits trends for FY11
24 October
14 – 15 October UN Day decision-making?
USAID Proposal www.un.org/en/events/ Participate in the InsideNGO Annual HQ Salary 
Development unday and Benefits Survey with over 100 NGOs and get 
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access to data on over 100 positions.  
www.insidengo.org/ November
workshops.htm Sign up now at the Surveys page of our website. 
6 November
16 October Hands Across Borders: Does your organization need help
World Food Day Celebrating Project
www.fao.org/getinvolved/ navigating international human
Concern International’s
worldfoodday/en/ 50th Anniversary resources in the NGO world?
Del Mar Fairgrounds – Learn the intricacies and nuances of global HR from 
17 October San Diego County over a dozen NGO HR and legal experts.  
International Day for the Contact: mjschumann@
Eradication of Poverty ProjectConcern.org Register now at the Workshops page of our website. 
Worldwide
www.un.org/esa/socdev/ 9 – 11 November
social/intldays/IntlDay/index. First Global Conference To learn more, go to—www.InsideNGO.org
html on Biofortification

October 2010 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS 33

Jobs
Are you looking to hire experienced
development and humanitarian
professionals? The candidates
you’re looking for read Monday
Developments! Send your classified
position announcements or display
advertisements to Katie Delaney at
publications@interaction.org

JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc.

Targeted States High Impact Project (TSHIP)
Job Title: Senior Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Specialist
  Location: Bauchi, Nigeria
  Responsibilities:
Employment Opportunities  Participate in the Senior Management Team, reporting to the COP
 Plan and implement project data collection, management, and
analysis, and support M&E-related capacity-building activities;
Africa Regional Kampala,  Help compile/analyze TSHIP data and monitor for quality;
 Document project performance and ensure data use for evidence-
Director Uganda based decision making and project implementation improvements;
 Oversee development and maintenance of project database and
ensure timely data entry;
 Supervise day-to-day work of the M&E staff;
Asia Regional Phnom Penh,  Lead dissemination of project results/data to stakeholders;
 Plan and draft midline and final evaluation reports.
Director Cambodia Qualifications:
 Masters degree in relevant field and at least 8 years work
experience in international public health;
Program Port-au-Prince,  Familiarity with M&E in health and/or development programs and
experience in research design, conduct and analysis;
Manager, Health Haiti  Prior management, supervision, and capacity building experience;
 Ability to work independently as well as part of a team;
 Excellent English writing and communications skills required;
 Computer literacy (word processing, database, statistical software).
If you would like to learn more about Medical To apply for this position, please visit www.jsi.com and click on
Teams International or to apply for these “TSHIP Sr. M&E Specialist” on the “Job Opportunities” page.
positions visit us at www.medicalteams.org.  

Anti-Terrorism Law
continued from page 20
Moving forward
Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project was a
controversial decision, adding to the already
polarized nexus of counter-terrorism and
humanitarian assistance. Critics can take con-
solation in the widespread opposition to the
decision, including the opinion of the three
dissenting justices. The dissenters, represented
by Justice Stephen Breyer (whose unorthodox
decision to present an oral summary of his dis-
sent from the bench reinforced the intensity
of the dissenting judges’ opinion), argued that
the majority’s decision draws a false analogy
between humanitarian assistance and the advice
and training provided by groups like Fertig’s.
He argued that while money provided to a pro-
scribed group for humanitarian or charitable
purposes has the potential to free up resources
for the provision of weapons, teaching human
rights law to members of such a group does not
result in resource diversion. The editorial boards
of The New York Times, Washington Post and Los
Angeles Times applauded Breyer, with The New
York Times stating, “By preserving an extremely
vague prohibition on aiding and associating
with terrorist groups, the court reduced the
First Amendment rights of American citizens.”
Moving forward, Congress could reform
terrorist list policy by amending the U.S. Anti-
terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of
1996. Armed groups that meet certain positive
criteria, such as commitments to ceasefires or
active involvement in peace accords, should be
offered some variation of probationary status as
an incentive for continued constructive behavior.
In the meantime, OFAC should proactively
open a direct channel to peacebuilding groups,
while concurrently expediting specific requests.
For their part, peacebuilding organizations
should revisit their monitoring standards and
demonstrate greater due diligence and trans-
parency in reporting their interactions with
armed groups to OFAC. Even those with good
intentions can be misled by empty promises
of future moderation by terrorist groups. MD
The author wishes to thank Antonia Chayes and
Susan Hutner for their guidance with this article.
The opinions expressed in this article are the
author’s personal opinions and do not necessar-
ily reflect the position of The Glover Park Group.

34 MONDAY DEVELOPMENTS October 2010

Jo b O p e n i n g s Chief of Business
and Program
Development
Arlington,VA

Sudan Country
Director
Juba, Sudan

Costing Controller
Arlington,VA

Structural
Engineers
Kabul, Afghanistan

Director of Training
Arlington,VA

Yemen Country
Director
Sana’a,Yemen

1621 North Kent Street For more information,

Fourth Floor contact Christine
Arlington,VA 22209 Dalpino at 703.248.0161
P: 703.248.0161 or visit www.ird.org
F: 703.248.0194 www.ird.org and click on “careers.”
Committed to the Aid and Development Industry.
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