NORTHBROOK, Illinois — Since its establishment in 1979, Mercy Corps has distributed almost two billion dollars in aid and services to impoverished people in 107 countries. The organization focuses on transitioning areas experiencing conflict, natural disasters, or economic turmoil into stable environments.
Using a multi-stage process, Mercy Corps focuses first on bringing in primary resources necessary to sustain the people and then on laying the groundwork for long-lasting recovery throughout the course of 10-20 years.
The organization’s model involves stationing natives in poverty-stricken areas to stimulate local business growth, increase employment opportunities, and set up money-lending models. By having natives facilitate this economic growth, Mercy Corps team members have an understanding of the deeper complexities of specific issues, enabling them to more effectively cater solutions to the root causes of poverty.
“Our network of experienced professionals in more than 40 countries literally speaks the language — 93 percent of our field staff are from the country where they work — giving them unique insight into what will move communities from relief to recovery and ultimately toward resilience,” according to the organization’s “About us” page.
The organization — which was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 — is credited by RYOT News as providing basic emergency-relief such as clean drinking water to 400,000 Syrian refugees and food to 23,890 Nigerians during serious drought. In later phases, Mercy Corps provides school supplies and services such as health education and job training. Currently, two of its projects involve bringing new agricultural techniques to North Korea and rejuvenating the businesses of rice farmers in Myanmar.
Since 2009, Mercy Corps has been working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on its design of a low-tech, yet highly efficient, stove design in order to address insufficient access to fire wood, deforestation problems, and risks of abuse for women when collecting wood. The organization has currently distributed about 25,000 of these stoves. In later phases, Mercy Corps President Nancy Lindborg said she hopes to supply air-time credits for women with cell phones in order to further development of the country.
In an interview with Steve Forbes, Lindborg compared some of the organization’s successful “cash for work” programs to Work Projects Administration programs in the United States. She later noted that one of the biggest successes of the organization thus far has been the establishment of a “bank of banks” to serve 50,000 micro-finance institutions in Indonesia.
“These micro finance institutions were limited by the amount of capital they had to on-lend to their clients,” she said. “And we are establishing a technology platform so that these small, micro finance institutions can connect into many more advanced ways to serve their clients.”
Mercy Corps replicates projects like these in areas with similar issues, adjusting the programs properly to adapt to fit the populations at hand. By doing so, the organization is able to successfully set the groundwork for long-term recovery in many tragedy-stricken areas throughout the world.
– Arin Kerstein
Sources: BBC, Forbes, Mercy Corps, RYOT News,
Photo: Beijing Rally 2014