| |
|
The Near East Foundation, a private nonprofit development
agency, works directly and through local institutions to help
people in the Middle East and Africa build better lives for
themselves and their communities.
The Near East Foundation defines its mission as "fostering
inclusive local institutional processes that both socially empower
and technically equip the poor to participate in a wider economic
and social arena."
|
| NEF IS: |
| A catalyst -
helping communities articulate their needs, determine
priorities, and access resources. |
| A resource -
providing its own funding and store of knowledge and expertise. |
| A multiplier
of resources - involving both local and international
partner organizations so that every dollar contributed to NEF
is leveraged to produce as many as five dollars for work in
the field. |
| A trainer -
teaching a wide range of development skills, both to people
in their communities and to personnel of governmental and other
private agencies. |
| A developer of
local professional capabilities - recruiting nearly all
of NEFs staff from the countries served, leaving a strong legacy
for the future. |
| |
| What lessons has NEF learned about Sustainable
Poverty Reduction? |
Impediments to development must be identified
through participatory dialogue with the poor. These impediments can then be overcome through particaptory institutions with the poor themselves
in charge of the change process.
Economic growth programs must be built upon existing commercialized
assets (e.g., land, housing, livestock, jewelry, "mattress money")
already at work, however informally, in the local economies of the
poor.
Mobilizing these hidden assets and transforming them into investable economic and capital resources requires the kind of local institutional capabilities that can support bridges to national and international markets. |
•
