PARTNER PROFILES: FOUNDATIONS
In this section:
Foundations Work with USAID to Fight Illiteracy
and Disease, Deliver Technology
Bill and Melinda Gates Give Billions for Vaccines,
Libraries, Food
Alternative Justice System Comes to Colombia
Young Dominicans Learn Computer, Life Skills
for Modern Jobs
Foundations Work with USAID to Fight Illiteracy and Disease,
Deliver Technology
Their wealth is just one aspect that makes foundations good
partners for agencies such as USAID. Another is their willingness
to spend their money abroad: American foundations spent $3
billion in developing countries last year, fighting diseases,
helping people get an education or a job, building homes for
the poor, and bringing technology to remote areas.
USAID has worked with foundations for more than 40 years.
But under the auspices of the Global Development Alliance
(GDA), such partnerships have become more frequent.
“The importance of foundation growth lies in its promise
for the future. The larger the foundation world, the greater
the resources that will be available to the nonprofit sector,”
according to the Foundation Center, a group that provides
information about philanthropy in the United States.
Between 1980 and 2002, the number of grants made by foundations
rose from 22,000 to 65,000. Assets of such organizations ballooned
during that time, from $48.2 billion to $435.2 billion.
Philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates are leading one of
the world’s largest immunization campaigns aimed at children
in poor countries. Typically, this work was done by international
aid organizations. But the Gates Foundation’s budget
is larger than that of many development groups.
Among the largest foundations are the Gateses’ and
the Rockefeller Foundation. Others include the Lincy Foundation
and the German Marshall Fund.
Some foundations fund mostly democracy and civil society
projects; others fund health campaigns and the construction
of hospitals and clinics. Some work in just one region of
the world; others have offices in numerous time zones. Some
are private, others public.
Bill and Melinda Gates Give Billions for Vaccines, Libraries,
Food
 |
|
A toddler is vaccinated in Africa in 2001.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation |
Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda are conspicuous
in their philanthropic giving.
The Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has
a $27 billion endowment, and handed out nearly $1.2 billion
in grants in 2003 for global health, education, libraries,
and organizations that support children and families in the
Pacific Northwest.
It is among an elite group of “mega- donors.”
In The Chronicle of Philanthropy list of biggest grants
announced in 2003, the Gates Foundation took 10 of the 16
spots, including the top six.
Started in 2000, the Gates Foundation was formed by merging
the Gates Learning Foundation, an effort to expand technology
in public libraries, and the William H. Gates Foundation,
which focused on global health. William H. Gates is Bill Gates’
father, and now heads the Gates Foundation with Patty Stonesifer.
Working from the belief that every life has equal value,
the Gateses’ largesse—$4.7 billion in five years—focuses
most often on creating a healthy and educated world.
In a 2002 speech at the United Nations, Bill Gates said
he and his wife chose to make health the focus of their philanthropy
after learning that 11 million children die every year from
preventable diseases.
“Personally, I hadn’t planned on getting involved
in philanthropy until later in life—when I was in my
sixties, when I could devote full time to it,” said Gates,
who is 49. “But the more I learned, the more I realized
there is no time. Disease won’t wait.”
“Where health takes hold,” he said, “women
choose to have fewer children; and literacy, equality, the
environment, and economic opportunity all improve. When health
improves, life improves—by all measures.”
 |
|
Women watch as a child receives an oral polio vaccine
in India in 2002.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation |
Close to 60 percent of the foundation’s funding goes
to global efforts.
The Gates Foundation is a founding partner of the Global
Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI)—a unique
partnership with pharmaceutical companies, research institutes,
NGOs, and established institutions such as USAID and the World
Bank—with $754 million to immunize children in developing
countries. USAID has given $219 million to the Vaccine Fund,
the financing arm of GAVI.
Current market forces discourage development of vaccines
against diseases most prevalent in poorer countries, such
as malaria and diarrhea, so backing by the likes of the Gates
Foundation brings attention and financial muscle.
“The foundation has emerged as a market force through
its partnership with NGOs, governments, and companies,”
said Jason Wright, a USAID donor coordinator.
In late January, for example, the Gates Foundation announced
a $750 million grant to support GAVI and called on other donors
to follow their lead. The Norwegian government committed $290
million to the effort, and Britain promised to more than match
the $750 million. News reports said Sweden and France were
also considering sizeable contributions in response to the
foundation’s appeal.
In March, the Gates Foundation, USAID, UNICEF, the World
Health Organization, and Save the Children participated in
the launch by the British medical journal, The Lancet,
of a health series on newborns.
Alternative Justice System Comes to Colombia
 |
|
Farmers in the restorative justice program sort blackberry
seedlings. After harvest, the berries are processed
into jam by a women’s cooperative and sold to supermarkets.
Mauricio Casafrancos |
CALI, Colombia—Young people in poor, violent
neighborhoods are learning to apologize for their crimes and
become healthier members of their communities. At the same
time, farmers in the nearby Cauca Valley are taught about
organic vegetables they could harvest instead of coca plants,
and how to solve conflicts using restorative justice.
Such projects are helping Colombia overcome the legacy of
50 years of conflict that escalated during the 1990s drug-trafficking
boom.
The country is disarming thousands of former guerrilla and
paramilitary fighters, but there is little public awareness
about restorative justice, a process used in conflict-torn
countries such as Ireland and post-apartheid South Africa.
So the AlvarAlice Foundation, through a three-year USAID public-private
alliance with Fundación Corona, Fundación Vallenpaz,
Fundación Paz y Bien, and Javeriana University Cali,
is introducing the concept to Colombians.
A symposium in mid-February brought several speakers, including
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to discuss ways of bringing former
combatants to justice while peacefully integrating them into
communities.
“The central concern is not retribution or punishment…[but
rather] the healing of breaches; the redressing of imbalances;
the restoration of broken relationships; a seeking to rehabilitate
both the victim and the perpetrator, who should be given the
opportunity to be reintegrated into the community he has injured
by his offense,” Archbishop Tutu said.
AlvarAlice is carrying out a three-pronged approach to restorative
justice.
In Cali, it runs three homes for young criminal offenders.
Another two centers will open next year.
If a 17-year-old boy steals a car, instead of being sent
to jail through the official justice system, he goes through
a restorative justice center, where he apologizes to the victim
and makes amends for the crime.
The program aims to compel juvenile delinquents “to
take responsibility for their criminal actions by apologizing
to the victims, offering reparations to the victims and community,
and asking for forgiveness,” said Thomas Johnson of USAID/Colombia,
which, together with the GDA Secretariat and the Office of
Conflict Mitigation and Management, has invested some $1.7
million in AlvarAlice.
This sum was matched by AlvarAlice and other local program
supporters, including $800,000 from the local sugarcane processing
industry.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe recently introduced legislation
based on restorative justice principles. The proposed law
is intended to serve as a framework for demobilizing paramilitary
and guerrilla combatants and reincorporating them into society.
The rural component of the project is working with some
3,500 farming families from 10 towns in the southern Cauca
Valley and the neighboring state of Cauca.
Agronomists specializing in ecoagriculture are teaching
local farmers new planting and irrigation techniques to grow
organic lettuce, tomatoes, maize, cassava, and coffee beans,
which fetch higher prices. The farmers are also helped to
organize and sell their products to exporters.
The final stage of the project, which is still in the works,
is to create course curricula focused on humanitarian law
and restorative justice at several Colombian universities.
“You won’t find international humanitarian law
or restorative justice in any of the universities now,”
said Maria Eugenia Garcés, one of AlvarAlice’s
founders. “But we intend to incorporate these contents
for lawyers and political science personnel.”
The AlvarAlice Foundation was founded in 2003 by a family
of philanthropists based in Cali with the assistance of the
Synergos Institute, a frequent USAID partner.
The foundation runs programs and alliances with other institutions
focused on education, healthcare, housing, microfinance, job
creation, and entrepreneurial ventures for disadvantaged youth
in Colombia.
Young Dominicans Learn Computer, Life Skills for Modern
Jobs
 |
|
Entra 21 program in the Dominican Republic, shown here, provides training for up to 360 young people
ages 18–29. So far, 170 have graduated from the program, 85 have completed internships, and 96 are
now employed.
|
For Ruth Dary Ortiz of Cartagena, Colombia, life prospects
were bleak. She and her family fled their village for Cartagena
after her brother was killed by armed fighters. She started
working as a maid, but lost her job.
Then she heard about Entra 21, a program where she could
sign up for classes in computer maintenance. She says the
program is “my opportunity in life.”
The International Youth Foundation (IYF), which operates
Entra 21, works with young people in close to 70 countries
and territories to help them do well in school and in life.
Created in 1990, IYF and its partners run education, employment,
health, and youth leadership programs. The group handed out
close to $11.5 million in grants in 2004, funding projects
in more than 40 countries.
Entra 21 is a joint effort between the foundation and the
Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development
Bank. USAID is contributing $4 million to the $25 million
program, whose aim is to train 12,000 young people ages 16–29
for information technology (IT) jobs.
There is high demand for workers with IT skills, according
to a study by the Bolivian Ministry of Transportation and
Communication. Yet more than 90 percent of Bolivians ages
20–24 are unemployed.
Businesses were surveyed to determine the kinds of IT jobs
they need to fill.
By 2005, some 10,500 youths in 16 Latin American countries
had either undergone training or were being trained to work
with computers, the internet, and other technology typically
used in the workplace.
About 500 youths in Bolivia are learning IT skills, and
another 1,700 in Brazil are enrolled in classes to learn IT
applications in a variety of job settings. The students also
learn life skills, such as how to conduct themselves during
an interview and dress for work.
The program has expanded to reach urban youth in South Africa,
Malawi, Mozambique, and Rwanda. In South Africa, 69 percent
of students have been placed in jobs.
“By sharing good practices learned in South Africa
with Malawi, Mozambique, and Rwanda, this partnership with
USAID improves young people’s ability to succeed,”
said USAID/South Africa Mission Director Dirk Dijkerman.
In February, IYF announced the Education and Employment
Alliance, which aims to help thousands of young people in
Egypt, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
The new alliance is backed by an $11 million USAID grant.
The goal—here and in all IYF programs—is to prepare
young people for the workplaces and world of the 21st century.
Standing against those efforts are outmoded education systems
and high dropout rates in many countries.
“Youth in these countries are the next generation of
employees, policymakers, and community leaders,” said
Mark Ward, USAID’s deputy assistant administrator for
Asia and the Near East. “The way they are educated will
drive their countries’ future growth and place in the
global economy.”
The new alliance will marry public, private, and nonprofit
sectors to boost education for young people.
“Education systems need innovative approaches brought
to the table by new partners,” said William S. Reese,
IYF’s president and CEO, when the grant was announced.
“Companies thrive on innovation and can provide fresh
insight. They also depend on having an educated workforce
and educated consumers.”
Back to Top ^
|
