World Refugee Day: Global Economic Crisis An Opportunity for Targeted Universalism, Strategic Philanthropy
posted on: Wednesday, June 24, 2009
by Niki Jagpal
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) dubbed this year’s International Refugee Day “Real People, Real Needs” to highlight the negative consequences of threatened cutbacks in foreign aid on the 42 million displaced persons around the globe. The UNHCR noted that “a shortage or lack of the essentials of life—clean water, food, sanitation, shelter, health care and protection from violence and abuse—means that every day can be a struggle just to survive.”
According to a comprehensive assessment of refugees and other marginalized groups that UNHCR serves, 30 percent of this group’s basic needs, a third of them in services, remained unmet. “Improvements in nutrition and water supplies, access to primary health care, strengthened child protection programmes, better protection for women from sexual violence and abuse, and improvements in living conditions and sanitation facilities are just some of the needs that are not being met worldwide.”
Queen Noor of Jordan explained in an op-ed on Huffington Post the importance of identifying explicitly the positive outcomes of intentionally targeting refugees and displaced persons in grantmaking, noting the vast number of such people in her country because of the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East for the last 35 years. She stated:
“Yet, I have also seen that refugees are a tremendous inspiration. Supporting these vulnerable people not only reduces their suffering, but also brings peace to troubled regions. Despite the pain and trauma they have experienced, refugees and displaced people hold on to the hope that they can someday return home and rebuild their lives. Like all of us, they want to be able to contribute to society, earn incomes, and send their children to school. An investment in refugees is an investment in whole communities and a clear way to promote peace and prosperity.”
Noor’s statement speaks directly to the high “return on investment” of using an approach called “targeted universalism,” a means for broad society-wide advancement by accounting for the needs of those groups most disadvantaged by our institutions and structures and discussed in length in Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best (pdf). Refugees/immigrants were one of the 11 special communities we included in defining broadly “marginalized groups” based on Foundation Center data, where giving intended to benefit both groups is counted under one category. This suggests that giving explicitly to improve refugees’ life conditions could be lower of if the two groups were separated out.
Still, our analysis of disaggregated data on philanthropy intended to benefit these two groups in the years before the global economic crisis set in fully found disappointingly low-levels of giving. The range of the top five funders for this special population group showed great variation, 12.9-40.3 percent (Please see p. 114 of the Criteria Data Appendix [pdf]).
Our analysis is especially disturbing given the dire need, the unbelievable number of displaced persons around the world, and the resounding impact on every aspect of life in the developing world.
The 2007 growth rates among countries in the African continent were finally showing signs of improvements after years of stagnation. If foreign aid is indeed scaled back, economic gains will more than likely revert to the pre-2007 levels, undoing the positive impact of foreign direct investments and aid in the continent (please see the World Bank’s 2007 Africa development indicators for additional information and links to various other country statistics).
The UNHCR called on the global community to do more for refugees this year, reminding us that “basic needs that must be met so they have a chance to rebuild their lives.”
The important questions for international donors are: Will this crisis lead more donors committed to helping displaced persons to consider “targeted universalism” as a way to augment the impact of their contributions? Do you think that we in the U.S. all have a stake on peace and protection of human rights in Sudan , Rwanda
What do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Niki Jagpal is research & policy director at NCRP, and primary author of Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best: Benchmarks to Assess and Enhance Grantmaker Impact.Labels: marginalized communities, Philanthropy at Its Best, Strategic Philanthropy, targeted universalism, UNHCR, United Nations, World Refugee Day
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) dubbed this year’s International Refugee Day “Real People, Real Needs” to highlight the negative consequences of threatened cutbacks in foreign aid on the 42 million displaced persons around the globe. The UNHCR noted that “a shortage or lack of the essentials of life—clean water, food, sanitation, shelter, health care and protection from violence and abuse—means that every day can be a struggle just to survive.”
According to a comprehensive assessment of refugees and other marginalized groups that UNHCR serves, 30 percent of this group’s basic needs, a third of them in services, remained unmet. “Improvements in nutrition and water supplies, access to primary health care, strengthened child protection programmes, better protection for women from sexual violence and abuse, and improvements in living conditions and sanitation facilities are just some of the needs that are not being met worldwide.”
Queen Noor of
“Yet, I have also seen that refugees are a tremendous inspiration. Supporting these vulnerable people not only reduces their suffering, but also brings peace to troubled regions. Despite the pain and trauma they have experienced, refugees and displaced people hold on to the hope that they can someday return home and rebuild their lives. Like all of us, they want to be able to contribute to society, earn incomes, and send their children to school. An investment in refugees is an investment in whole communities and a clear way to promote peace and prosperity.”
Noor’s statement speaks directly to the high “return on investment” of using an approach called “targeted universalism,” a means for broad society-wide advancement by accounting for the needs of those groups most disadvantaged by our institutions and structures and discussed in length in Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best (pdf). Refugees/immigrants were one of the 11 special communities we included in defining broadly “marginalized groups” based on Foundation Center data, where giving intended to benefit both groups is counted under one category. This suggests that giving explicitly to improve refugees’ life conditions could be lower of if the two groups were separated out.
Still, our analysis of disaggregated data on philanthropy intended to benefit these two groups in the years before the global economic crisis set in fully found disappointingly low-levels of giving. The range of the top five funders for this special population group showed great variation, 12.9-40.3 percent (Please see p. 114 of the Criteria Data Appendix [pdf]).
Our analysis is especially disturbing given the dire need, the unbelievable number of displaced persons around the world, and the resounding impact on every aspect of life in the developing world.
The 2007 growth rates among countries in the African continent were finally showing signs of improvements after years of stagnation. If foreign aid is indeed scaled back, economic gains will more than likely revert to the pre-2007 levels, undoing the positive impact of foreign direct investments and aid in the continent (please see the World Bank’s 2007
The UNHCR called on the global community to do more for refugees this year, reminding us that “basic needs that must be met so they have a chance to rebuild their lives.”
The important questions for international donors are: Will this crisis lead more donors committed to helping displaced persons to consider “targeted universalism” as a way to augment the impact of their contributions? Do you think that we in the
What do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Niki Jagpal is research & policy director at NCRP, and primary author of Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best: Benchmarks to Assess and Enhance Grantmaker Impact.
Labels: marginalized communities, Philanthropy at Its Best, Strategic Philanthropy, targeted universalism, UNHCR, United Nations, World Refugee Day
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