Global Washington

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May 15, 2013 | 9:21 AM | By  | 

Seattle’s GiveBIG seeks collaboration amid the competitive chaos of our day of giving | 

Give-BIGToday is the annual GiveBIG event in Seattle, a massive online giving spree sponsored by the Seattle Foundation aimed at raising money for good causes and for fostering a broader “collective” identity and appreciation for this region’s many charitable and humanitarian endeavors.

“GiveBIG is an opportunity to focus on the collective work we are doing to build a healthy community,” said Mary Grace Roske, spokeswoman for the Seattle Foundation. “It’s a day to come together.”

It’s also a day that drives many people nuts due to all the competing demands for attention from the 1,400 non-profit organizations hoping to get you to donate during GiveBIG – thanks to the event’s promise to ‘stretch’ donations (not quite matching, but adding to donations, up to $25,000) and its random Golden Ticket award.

Joy Portella
Joy Portella

“I recently returned from a weeklong vacation to find my email inbox clogged with more than a dozen appeals from nonprofits pleading for donations on May 15. Feeling overwhelmed, I did what many people in my position might: I deleted everything,” wrote Joy Portella, in a guest column for the Seattle Times entitled Has Seattle Foundation’s GiveBIG campaign gotten too big?

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Bookda Gheisar, fund-raising, GiveBIG, Global Washington, Jared Watson, Joy Portella, Seattle, Seattle Foundation
December 10, 2012 | 2:59 PM | By  | 

Seattle pushes women’s rights & private sector to fight poverty | 

It’s International Human Rights Day and you may be surprised to learn that the modern notion of human rights is little more than half a century old. The universal declaration of human rights was made largely due to the Holocaust, the atrocities of WWII.

Locally, the focus of two leading humanitarian organizations is on advancing women’s rights and finding more effective ways to combine traditional aid and development strategies with a supposedly kinder, gentler and more socially responsive private sector.

It’s the Seattle approach – socially liberal and business friendly, if not economically conservative.

“We are compassionate, creative and outward looking,” Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said at Global Washington’s annual meeting last week. McGinn noted how at the World’s Fair in Seattle some 50 years ago, many predicted we would have flying cars and jet packs when, in fact, today we continue to have poverty, inequity and injustice — here and abroad.

“We care about that and are doing something about it,” he said. “And that’s what it really means to be a city of the future.”

Two meetings last week back up the mayor’s claims. (Sorry I’m a bit late, but I had a family emergency and this is a one-man news operation)

Global Washington, an organization dedicated to building up the region’s burgeoning humanitarian and social enterprise community, held its annual meeting with an opening keynote talk by Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, an activist and educator who is promoting women’s rights and childhood education in Afghanistan despite threats against her life.

Sakena Yacoobi, speaking at Global Washington

“I believe education is a key issue to transform life,” said Yacoobi, who described the many obstacles she has faced and what motivates her despite the risks. Women’s and girls’ rights are critical, she said: “Afghanistan will have peace when the women of Afghanistan are leaders.” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, aid, Amir Dossal, Bill Clapp, business, Claudia Paz y Paz, development, Global Washington, Joe Whinney, Oxfam, Raymon Offenheiser, sustainable
February 27, 2012 | 12:37 PM | By  | 

Global comprehension is the key to global competition | 

Washington state is big on international trade, the largest exporter per capita in the U.S. with about one in three jobs linked directly or indirectly to international commerce. We are indeed a globalized state.

We constantly hear that our educational system today should be geared toward keeping the U.S. “internationally competitive” in the global economy. Folks attending a Wednesday Seattle Chamber of Commerce event on education and the workforce will likely hear it again.

But what often gets left out of this mantra is that you can’t really compete in the world if you don’t understand it.

“What we need is a new way of thinking,” said Bookda Gheisar, executive director of Global Washington, which as part of its mission to strengthen Washington state’s efforts in global development and international affairs is now targeting education.

What do you think? You can have your say in this as well, but you’d better hurry.

The Global Education Initiative is an effort launched a year ago by Global Washington in collaboration with leading academic institutions, educators, policy experts, business leaders, non-profit organizations and major manufacturers like Boeing or Microsoft aimed at coming up with a consensus strategy for improving global education in the region. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, education, Global Washington
October 31, 2011 | 8:00 AM | By  | 

The global state of Washington state | 

It’s natural to become a bit self-centered when times are tough and uncertain.

Yet times are tough all over (for most, the 99 percent?, of us anyway) — and a lot tougher and uncertain for those living in the poorer parts of the world.

Today is the kick-off of an event by Global Washington aimed at counteracting our natural tendency toward self-absorption (and even good old American isolationism) — by celebrating, and fostering, the growth of Washington state’s global development community.

The global state of mind in Washington state, says Global Washington executive director Bookda Gheisar, is needed now more than ever.

“I think most people understand generally that a healthy global economy is good for all of us,” said Gheisar. “But many people think we spend something like 20 to 25 percent of the federal budget on foreign aid and development when it is really less than one percent.”

The Seattle area has a long history in international commerce, involving items such as airplanes, timber, coffee or software. Because of that, people here may understand better that assisting the poor overseas benefits us, she said. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Bill Clapp, Bookda Gheisar, economic development, foreign aid, Global Washington
August 29, 2011 | 11:38 AM | By  | 

Coming Tuesday: Forum on “reforming aid, transforming the world” | 

Tuesday afternoon, Global Washington will host a public discussion on foreign aid — why we do it and how to do it better — at the UW’s Kane Hall, room 120.

The event, entitled “Reforming Aid, Transforming the World,” is open to the public, with registration starting at 3:30 p.m. and at a cost of $10 to non-members.

Moderated by Carol Welch, a development policy expert for the Gates Foundation, speakers include a member of Congress, an aid advocate from Oxfam, a representative of World Vision and an official from USAID. The event couldn’t be more timely. As Global Washington says:

Even in a challenging economy, many policymakers believe that foreign assistance is an integral part of the U.S. budget. The United States can be a leader in creating a more stable and prosperous world–improving global health, alleviating poverty, and combating injustice. But in order to do so, aid projects must actually be helping. Limited resources must be used as efficiently as possible.

Sure, but isn’t there a more fundamental question here? Many in Congress seem to be inclined to cut foreign aid, even though it represents less than 1 percent of the federal budget. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Politics, Adam Smith, foreign aid, Global Washington
August 1, 2011 | 8:42 AM | By  | 

New Global Washington resource for job seekers | 

Looking for a job aimed at making the world a better place?

Global Washington, an umbrella group that represents and supports many organizations in this region working on issues of global development, health and povery, has created a new online, searchable jobs resource. The jobs listed include firms outside of the region, as well as jobs anywhere in the world.

Here’s the link to their Careers in Global Development site. Below is just a screen grab:

FILED UNDER: Basics, Global Washington, jobs
July 29, 2011 | 9:51 AM | By  | 

A(nother) guy named Bill creating Seattle’s do-gooder community | 

Bill Clapp

Some of the most amazing people I know on this beat — covering Seattle’s role in global health and poverty reduction — are named Bill.

There’s Bill Gates, of course, his bold and insightful (and often funny) dad Bill Gates Sr., Bill Foege, the local doc who figured out how to beat smallpox, and then there’s Bill Clapp.

I can’t really quantify this, but I don’t think many would argue with me if I said that Bill Clapp has probably done more than any other single person (named Bill or not) over the years to try to promote the culture, the emerging community, of do-gooders in Seattle and throughout this region.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the 8,000-lb gorilla on the scene today, of course. The Gates Foundation and its primary mission of global health tend to dominate the do-gooder conversation and media coverage.

But Clapp and his wife Paula were active philanthropists fighting poverty years before Bill and Melinda Gates got into the act — and well before most of us were really paying that much attention.

Flickr, papalars

This is the second of three parts in a series looking at how Seattle’s burgeoning humanitarian “sector” is coalescing, coming together. As noted in the first post, it’s a bit of a hodgepodge right now, with hundreds of groups working on their own, often unaware of others with shared interests and missions.

Moving from this creative chaos to community has long been one of Clapp’s primary aims.

“I believe in synergy, the power of collaboration,” he said.

He and Paula have launched or helped launch several initiatives aimed at creating this kind of synergy — the Seattle International Foundation (subject of my first post), Global Washington and the Initiative for Global Development.

Arguably, all of them are different means to the same end — bringing people together to figure out how to make the world a better place. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Bill Clapp, building community, Global Washington, Initiative for Global Development, Paula Clapp, Seattle International Foundation
May 6, 2011 | 8:30 AM | By  | 

Geek heretic: Technology cannot end poverty | 

Kentaro Toyama

Kentaro Toyama is clearly a heretic. A geek heretic.

And, based on his career path, I would guess brilliant.

A computer scientist currently at the University of California, Berkeley, Toyama co-founded Microsoft Research India in 2005 and remained there as assistant managing director until 2009.

If you’re not familiar with what they do at Microsoft Research, think artificial intelligence, computer vision, terabyte juggling, high-octane mathematics and the craziest things you can try to do with bits, bytes or any kind of information technology.

While in India, Toyama launched Microsoft Research’s Technology for Emerging Markets group. (The website shows a toddler who appears to be sending a text message by cell phone.)

So you’d expect Toyama to be another one of those folks claiming that if we can just “bridge the digital divide” in poor countries, many chronic problems will be more easily solved. You’d expect him to be happy to see headlines like this New York Times article Can The Cellphone End Poverty?

Nope. ”That’s the reason I quit Microsoft,” said Toyama.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Science, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, cell phones, Global Washington, Grameen Technology Center, Kentaro Toyama, Microsoft Research, poverty, technology