71 results for author: VantagePoints Editor

BEST PRACTICES, PART I: SUCCESS IS IN THE DETAILS

"Best practices have become a major force in all sectors and industries, with managers and clients alike assuming that proper application of behaviors and processes deemed “best practices” will automatically lead to desired results. The reality is more complex and nuanced. "

DO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS MAKE US FEEL GOOD ABOUT POVERTY?

"Hope sells. Not quite as well as sex, but certainly better than despair. Politicians know this, marketers know this, and the politicians and marketers in the organisations concerned with global poverty know this."

DANIEL ROSE ON U.S. CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM

"The private, for-profit prison industry today runs 130 private prisons containing 157,000 beds, with some 6% of all state prisoners and 16% of federal prisons. They take in some $4 billion a year, with great profits. And they spend millions a year lobbying fiercely in support of candidates who favor longer minimum mandatory sentences, stricter anti-parole regulations, more and longer imprisonment of anyone for any reason."

A MONTH OF GIVING: RAMADAN, PHILANTHROPY, AND HUMANITARIANISM

"Through interfaith initiatives, we are able to serve a wider base of beneficiaries of all different backgrounds, strengthening the humanitarian community, and creating harmonious bonds that seek to serve others. This is particularly beneficial to individual communities of each organization, as they will also be connected to groups of other faiths and seal social gaps that prevented this from before."

SUSTAINABILITY, COMMITMENT, AND THE VOLUNTEER SPIRIT

"The marketplace in business requires that you have to be financially sustainable. This factor is why corporations tend to be much sharper in the way they are managed. What CELA stands for now, in terms of the broader human aspect, is no different than it was when it was started."

ERADICATING PARASITIC DISEASES IN ETHIOPIA

"NALA first implemented their holistic program in the city of Mekelle, Ethiopia, in 2009, and carried it out there for four years. The results have been dramatic. Evaluations have demonstrated a steep and sustained reduction in prevalence levels of intestinal worms and schistosomiasis throughout Mekelle. In 2009, the rate of infection in Mekelle was at 40 percent. In 2012, the rate of infection had dropped to 5 percent and by 2014, the rate was down to 2 percent..."

PASS INAUGURATES AND CELEBRATES THE NATACHA FUND

"The fund, which has been created by PASS, LLC in conjunction with Mr. Andrew Koval, is dedicated to improving global health in the poorest countries of the world. This mission has a particular focus on treating children with parasites, neglected tropical diseases, and pediatric and breast cancer."

ENVISIONING ALTERNATIVE FUTURES

"The future of countries, organizations, and individuals will not happen in a “vacuum”—that is, their futures will not be determined solely by a narrow set of parameters isolated from developments in the larger world around them. Nor will their destinies be simply of their own making or a result of navigating their immediate economic, political, or social ecosystem."

EDUCATIONAL RELIEF IN THE SYRIAN CONFLICT ZONE

"By now we are all too familiar with the nightmarish figures: 3.9 million displaced Syrians, with thousands more fleeing every day, are in exile in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt, where they see no prospects for returning home in the near future; have few opportunities to restart their lives; and in many cases, struggle to survive."

VOLUNTOURISM: THE NGO PERSPECTIVE

"In the end, there is a lot more all of us can do in the development sector to be more accountable, more informed, and more nuanced. Volunteers need to be more critical of organizations, and to fundamentally alter their discourse and attitudes about volunteering abroad."