William Reese, the current president of the International Youth Foundation (IYF), addressed issues surrounding the aftermath of the tsunami in South Asia and Africa, particularly foreign aid, in Braker Hall last night.
Reese, who became president of the IYF just last January, said the tsunami could not have come at a more interesting time with regard to eliciting such a philanthropic response. He said that the tragedy, which occurred on Dec. 26, came right after the holiday season - a time usually associated with uniting.
"The outpouring of support was the result of a combination of a spiritual time and the sheer tragedy of the event," Reese said.
While Reese conceded that the total amount of money raised across the globe through various organizations is impossible to pinpoint, he estimated that approximately three to four billion dollars was raised worldwide.
To bring this into perspective, Reese said that approximately one-half of the U.S. population contributed varying amounts of money to tsunami relief efforts in the following weeks.
Reese, who has worked with relief organizations for the past 30 years, said the organization of relief efforts has improved over the decades.
"The industry has become much better and more sophisticated in regards to delivery systems, advanced planning and stockpiling contributions," Reese said. He said that, tragedy after tragedy, aid organizations have "learned what to send and what not to send to ailing countries."
Reese also emphasized the importance of economic rehabilitation after the tsunami tragedy. He said that donations of money were the single best contributions because they helped buy local supplies, thus, stimulating the local economies.
Despite the improvements, Reese discussed a series of improvements he hopes to initiate within his own organization as well as within other non-profit groups. Among these is to acknowledge that sustainable development, a period of rebuilding, is a separate entity from relief efforts.
"Relief is not sustainable development because the approaches to both are different," Reese said.
He suggested that the transition, or "overlap" from relief efforts to a movement toward sustainable development, needs to happen earlier. Such an action, however, is at the expense of further contribution, he said.
"It is important to get people to think beyond immediate relief and to the long haul, which may not be as exciting or as compelling," Reese said.
Reese also warned against overlooking ongoing tragedies, such as the current genocide occurring in Sudan. These calamities, referred to as "silent tsunamis" by Reese, are of comparable or greater magnitude in terms of lives lost than that latest tsunami tragedy, and are "just as worthy" of receiving foreign aid.
In addition to addressing different approaches for more efficient Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), Reese also addressed foreign aid in the context of U.S. politics and policy making.
While under current U.S. President George W. Bush, the United States has doubled the amount of foreign aid doled out to developing countries. Reese attributed this to the influence of such high-profile philanthropists as Bono, the lead-singer of rock group U2.
Nevertheless, Reese said that the United States is still lagging behind other countries in terms of foreign aid contributions per capita.
"All withstanding, the United States gives, on a per capita basis, the lowest amount of aid out of all the industrial countries," Reese said.
He said that, while European countries give approximately 0.3 to 0.5 percent of its capita toward foreign aid, the United States donates 0.21 percent.
According to Reese, as part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) arranged with the United Nations (UN), the U.S. government aims to contribute 0.7 percent of its capita to foreign aid by the year 2015.
In order to achieve this, Reese said he suggests looking at global issues with a humanitarian heart while being conscious of the country's own national interests through the lens of democracy. While people may view them as being separate entities, Reese said the government can talk about both issues together because they fit together.
"There is a vocation for democracy in every part of the world," Reese said.
Regardless of these foreseeable difficulties pertaining to the merge of humanitarian and national interests, Reese said that progress will have to be made to ensure the well-being of other countries as well as the United States
"We're going to have to keep learning because these disasters, most unfortunately, are not going to go away," Reese said.
The event was attended by approximately 35 students. Senior Phil Gordon said he came to the event because "[I'm] interested in the interaction between nonprofit organization and business and getting the sectors to work together."
Reese's lecture was the first in a series of three lectures sponsored by the Institute for Applied Research Youth Development this semester. It was the first event in the Leven Family Lecture Series.
Sophomore Jessica Lessing and senior Avantike Taneja collaborated with Child Development Professor Richard Lerner as part of an independent study project to make the lecture possible.
