Results (organization)

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RESULTS is a US non-partisan citizens' advocacy organization founded in 1980.

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The organization aims to find long-term solutions to poverty by focusing on its root causes. It lobbies public officials, does research, and works with the media and the public to fight hunger and poverty. RESULTS has 100 U.S. local chapters and works in six other countries. [1]

Founding

Founded in 1980 by Sam Daley-Harris, RESULTS facilitates citizen advocacy by recruiting and educating volunteer citizens to become the voice of the poor and lobby on global and domestic poverty issues. [2] In the late 1970s, Daley-Harris read the report from Jimmy Carter's 1978 Presidential Commission on Hunger and decided to help build political will to address hunger. Daley-Harris identified two obstacles; people did not believe they had any influence and they lacked the structure needed to be effective. Realizing that Americans were failing to take advantage of their access to democratic institutions, Daley-Harris developed the “deep advocacy” approach RESULTS uses. [3]

The name RESULTS was originally an acronym for "Responsibility for Ending Starvation Using Legislation, Trimtabbing, and Support," though the organization's name is no longer an acronym. [4] "Trimtabbing" was a reference to trim tabs, the small surfaces that allow boat or aircraft pilots to control larger control surfaces like rudders or elevators and which were popularized as a metaphor for individual empowerment by Buckminster Fuller in a 1972 Playboy interview.

Principles

RESULTS works to build the political will to end poverty by transforming everyday Americans into skilled advocates. These volunteer advocates have helped shape federal government funding priorities to address the basic needs of poor people in the United States and around the world. Advocates are provided regular support by the RESULTS organization. This includes guidance on working with the media, policy expert briefings, and building communications skill. RESULTS volunteer efforts regularly lead to the publication of op-ed essays and letters to the editor. Advocates also receive coaching to create rapport with congressional staff. In 2017 during the first 100 days of the Trump administration, RESULTS volunteers had 300 meetings with members of Congress or their aides. [3]

Child survival

In the 1980s RESULTS worked with UNICEF director Jim Grant on child survival. Reaching out to elected officials and generating newspaper editorials, child survival support tripled. According to Kul Chandra Gautam formerly UNICEF's deputy executive director, this encouraged other countries to join in. UNICEF estimated this campaign saved the lives of 25 million children. [5] In 1990 RESULTS took the lead in creating the candlelight vigils that helped ensure the establishment of the World Summit for Children. To do this RESULTS mobilized $40,000 of seed money from Japan and the celebrity support from Carol Kane, Valerie Harper, and many others. [6]

Microcredit

RESULTS helped introduce microcredit to America. In 1987 Muhammad Yunus, who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance, was visiting the United States and speaking to a congressional committee. After the hearing RESULTS connected Yunus on conference calls with twenty-eight editorial writers resulting in editorials that helped ensure the passage of legislation that allocated $50 million for microcredit programs for the poor. [7]

AIDS, TB, and malaria

One strategy RESULTS has pursued is to advocate for resources to address infectious diseases. On the tenth anniversary of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the executive director of RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund (REF), Joanne Carter, called for a renewal of U.S. commitment to the Global Fund. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microcredit</span> Small loans to impoverished borrowers

Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to impoverished borrowers who typically lack collateral, steady employment, and a verifiable credit history. It is designed to support entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty. Many recipients are illiterate, and therefore unable to complete paperwork required to get conventional loans. As of 2009 an estimated 74 million people held microloans that totaled nearly US$40 billion. Grameen Bank reports that repayment success rates are between 95 and 98 percent. The first economist who had invented the idea of micro loans was The Very Reverend Jonathan Swift in the 1720’s. Microcredit is part of microfinance, which provides a wider range of financial services, especially savings accounts, to the poor. Modern microcredit is generally considered to have originated with the Grameen Bank founded in Bangladesh in 1983 by their current Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus. Many traditional banks subsequently introduced microcredit despite initial misgivings. The United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit. As of 2012, microcredit is widely used in developing countries and is presented as having "enormous potential as a tool for poverty alleviation." Microcredit is a tool that can possibly be helpful to reduce feminization of poverty in developing countries.

Advocacy is an activity by an individual or group that aims to influence decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to influence public policy, laws and budgets by using facts, their relationships, the media, and messaging to educate government officials and the public. Advocacy can include many activities that a person or organization undertakes, including media campaigns, public speaking, commissioning and publishing research. Lobbying is a form of advocacy where a direct approach is made to legislators on a specific issue or specific piece of legislation. Research has started to address how advocacy groups in the United States and Canada are using social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microfinance</span> Provision of microloans to poor entrepreneurs and small businesses

Microfinance consists of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings and checking accounts; microinsurance; and payment systems, among other services. Microfinance services are designed to reach excluded customers, usually poorer population segments, possibly socially marginalized, or geographically more isolated, and to help them become self-sufficient. ID Ghana is an example of a microfinance institution.

Grameen Bank is a microfinance specialized community development bank founded in Bangladesh. It provides small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad Yunus</span> Chief Adviser of Bangladesh (born 1940)

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist, entrepreneur, politician, and civil society leader, who has been serving as the 5th chief adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh since 8 August 2024. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. Yunus has received several other national and international honors, including the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One Campaign</span> Non-profit organisation fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease

ONE Campaign is an international, non-partisan, non-profit organization advocating for the investments needed to create economic opportunities and healthier lives in Africa. The campaigning organization uses data, grassroots activism, political engagement, and strategic partnerships to get political leaders to support policies and programs that save lives and improve futures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poverty reduction</span> Measures to reduce poverty permanently

Poverty reduction, poverty relief, or poverty alleviation is a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social entrepreneurship</span> Approach to develop, fund and implement solutions to social or environmental issues

Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of organizations, which vary in size, aims, and beliefs. For-profit entrepreneurs typically measure performance using business metrics like profit, revenues and increases in stock prices. Social entrepreneurs, however, are either non-profits, or they blend for-profit goals with generating a positive "return to society". Therefore, they use different metrics. Social entrepreneurship typically attempts to further broad social, cultural and environmental goals often associated with the voluntary sector in areas such as poverty alleviation, health care and community development.

Grameen Foundation, founded as Grameen Foundation USA, also known as "GFUSA", is a global 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, that uses digital technology and data to understand very poor people, in detail, and offer them—and the entire ecosystem of agencies and actors surrounding them—empowering tools that meet and elevate their everyday realities. Its CEO is Zubaida Bai. Grameen Foundation's mission is, "To enable the poor, especially women, to create a world without poverty and hunger." According to the OECD, Grameen Foundation’s financing for 2019 development increased by 33% to US$45.5 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom from Hunger</span> International development organization

Freedom from Hunger is an international development nonprofit organization working in nineteen countries. Freedom from Hunger focuses on providing small loans and business education to poor women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microcredit Summit Campaign</span>

The Microcredit Summit Campaign, an American non-profit organization, started as an effort to bring together microcredit practitioners, advocates, educational institutions, donor agencies, international financial institutions, non-governmental organizations and others involved with microcredit around the goal of alleviating world poverty through microfinance.

UNICEF, originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide. The organization is one of the most widely known and visible social welfare entities globally, operating in 192 countries and territories. UNICEF's activities include providing immunizations and disease prevention, administering treatment for children and mothers with HIV, enhancing childhood and maternal nutrition, improving sanitation, promoting education, and providing emergency relief in response to disasters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab</span> Global research center working to reduce poverty

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology aimed to reducing poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by rigorous, scientific evidence. J-PAL funds, provides technical support to, and disseminates the results of randomized controlled trials evaluating the efficacy of social interventions in health, education, agriculture, and a range of other fields. As of 2020, the J-PAL network consisted of 500 researchers and 400 staff, and the organization's programs had impacted over 400 million people globally. The organization has regional offices in seven countries around the world, and is headquartered near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Advocacy groups, also known as lobby groups, interest groups, special interest groups, pressure groups, or public associations, use various forms of advocacy or lobbying to influence public opinion and ultimately public policy. They play an important role in the development of political and social systems.

Challenging Heights is a non-governmental organization in Ghana protecting the rights of children and focusing its anti-trafficking efforts in the fishing and cocoa industry. According to Challenging Heights, over 24,000 children in Ghana fall victim to the worst forms of child labour annually. Challenging Heights aim is to end Child Trafficking through Rescue & Recovery, Prevention, and Advocacy.

Citizens' Climate Lobby (CCL) is an international grassroots environmental group that trains and supports volunteers to build relationships with their elected representatives in order to influence climate policy. The CCL is a registered 501(c)(4) with approximately $680,000 in revenue in the United States in 2018. Operating since 2007, the goal of CCL is to build political support across party lines to put a price on carbon, specifically a revenue-neutral carbon fee and dividend (CF&D) at the national level. CCL is supported by notable climate scientists James Hansen, Katharine Hayhoe, and Daniel Kammen. CCL's advisory board also includes former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, former US Representative Bob Inglis, actor Don Cheadle, and RESULTS founder Sam Daley-Harris.

The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) was a United Nations-hosted organization contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 6, Target 6.2 on sanitation and hygiene. It was established in 1990 and closed at the end of 2020. WSSCC advocated for improved sanitation and hygiene, with a focus on the needs of women, girls and people in vulnerable situations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armenia and the United Nations</span>

Armenia was admitted into the United Nations on 2 March 1992, following its independence from the Soviet Union. In December 1992, the UN opened its first office in Yerevan. Since then, Armenia has signed and ratified several international treaties. There are 20 specialized agencies, programs, and funds operating in the country under the supervision of the UN Resident Coordinator. Armenia strengthened its relations with the UN by cooperating with various UN agencies and bodies such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Food Programme, and with the financial institutions of the UN. Armenia is a candidate to preside as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2031.

Sam Daley-Harris is an American activist and author. He is the founder of Results, and has been a hunger eradication advocate and democracy activist since the mid-1970s. Daley-Harris is also the author of Reclaiming Our Democracy: Healing the Break Between People and Government.

Marshall L. Saunders was an American activist and founder of the Citizens' Climate Lobby. He raised funds and served on the board of a microfinance organization, spoke to thousands about climate change, and lobbied for United States Congress to adopt policies to reduce poverty.

References

  1. ↑ Hall, Tony (2006). Changing The Face of Hunger. Thomas Nelson. p. 194. ISBN   0-8499-1869-3.
  2. ↑ Kristof, Nicholas D.; WuDunn, Sheryl. A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity. pp. 26–27, 329.
  3. 1 2 David Bornstein (2017-07-04). "Putting Citizenship Back in Congress". New York Times. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
  4. ↑ Daley-Harris, Sam (2013). Reclaiming our Democracy: Healing the Break Between People and Government. ISBN   978-1933822846.
  5. ↑ David Bornstein (2013-05-29). "Lobbying for the Greater Good". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-01-19.
  6. ↑ Daley-Harris, Sam (2013). Reclaiming our Democracy: Healing the Break Between People and Government. pp. 180–186. ISBN   978-1933822846.
  7. ↑ Yunus, Muhammad (1999). Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty . United States: PublicAffairs. p.  147,148. ISBN   1-891620-11-8.
  8. ↑ Joanne Carter (2012-03-28). "10 Years On, Funding Crisis Threatens the Global Fund's Effort to End AIDS". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-01-19.
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