It’s not new to say that the COVID-19 pandemic upended just about everything. From national economic trends to household dynamics, we have felt the shift everywhere. One area that initially remained resilient was philanthropy, with supporters from all sectors rallying to the cause.
In the early response, record private sector giving supplemented stable or increased public investment, especially abroad. Nearly four years out, it might feel as if we can take our foot off the gas and return our gaze to our domestic troubles of old. That would be a grave mistake.
American leadership — both public and private sector — cannot recoil from the outside world. It will be tempting to become entrenched in our own problems, what with an upcoming presidential election, growing income inequality, and more frequent emergencies here at home, such as wildfires and storms. As we heard in the latest spending negotiations on Capitol Hill, calls to cut international spending are only getting louder, with many policy makers across the spectrum favoring to tighten our belt and focus funding on domestic issues.
This is a false choice.
The gap between humanitarian needs and the funding available to respond has grown steadily — swelled by new conflicts, economic downturns, and the climate crisis. Our humanitarian dollar is being stretched to the breaking point. Global economic headwinds and long-term fiscal tightening means that many government donors and other partners are reducing their levels of support.
While humanitarian funding from public and private sources reached a record $47 billion in 2022, according to the Global Humanitarian Assistance report, it still left a $20 billion shortfall for United Nations-backed humanitarian appeals – an all-time high. The gap between what aid costs and what is available is five times more than it was a decade ago. In 2023, donor fatigue has firmly set in while the need goes up and up and up.
The result? We are entering a humanitarian doom loop where we try to save those with the most extreme need while allowing millions of others to sink deeper into poverty, hunger, and vulnerability themselves. Civil society leaders everywhere are sounding the alarm, warning of social upheaval and catastrophic loss of life. Children will be hit particularly hard. We risk losing years of hard-won development gains, directly impacting hundreds of millions of lives, including Americans.
We live in a global society, and beyond the moral urgency to save lives around the world, working to secure peace and prosperity beyond our borders will also help our own cause. Let’s look at the role of food insecurity. The year 2022 was one of unprecedented global hunger. Predictably, global instability rose in tandem. More than 10,000 protest events occurred last year in countries facing rapid food and fuel price increases, many in middle-income countries experiencing crisis levels of food insecurity for the first time. Food price riots and protests like these are most common in urban areas. But recent years have also seen a rise in more extreme forms of food-related violence from non-state groups operating in hard-to-police rural areas.
Former U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) was known to say, “show me a nation that cannot feed itself, and I’ll show you a nation in chaos.” War inevitably produces poverty and hunger. But it is also true — as the senator knew — that hunger can lead to instability a vicious feedback loop.
Leaders with foresight will see that this is the time to step up, not step back. Helping other countries address social ills like poverty, hunger and disease will reduce conflict, slow migration, and stabilize global economies. As the war in Ukraine has shown, disruption in one region can have world-wide ripple effects. With the climate crisis wreaking its own chaos through extreme weather and resource scarcity, investing in robust societal development today will buttress against future cascades of turmoil.
These are complex problems, but the price tag to solve them is not as big as you might expect. International aid makes up only a small portion of overall spending in the U.S., and the return on investment is priceless. In 2022, the U.S. allocated roughly $119 billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. Compare that to the $7 billion our government gave to the United Nations World Food Programme to cover hunger needs across the rest of the globe. This year, the U.S. has given just $2.1 billion, significantly less than even pre-pandemic years and at a time when needs are greater than ever. This need not be an either or choice We can improve lives at home and abroad, to the benefit of us all.
But it should not all be on the back of government. Private sector businesses and philanthropy can give us an even greater edge not just to carry out our most immediate work, but to help us co-create the ideas and approaches that will open new avenues for development. Humanitarian groups can benefit greatly from a model of co-creation, which taps the deep well of innovation and research and development that exists in many major businesses and that we, quite frankly, don’t typically have the resources or the experience to do well.
Google, for example, is partnering with both multilateral and local organizations to develop new technologies that can more accurately predict climate disasters, take timely action to mitigate impending crises, and use the latest in artificial intelligence to not only understand hunger trends but empower local organizations with the insights they need for rapid and effective decision making. This kind of investment aligns with their business goals, but also builds capacity in other countries, like Kenya for example, to become less reliant on aid in the future.
Another example of a successful public, private, and civil society partnership are the school feeding programs that have become increasingly popular around the world. The U.S. has been a leading supporter of school meals, whether it be through the ground-breaking McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program or through private investment like that of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, among many others.
To date, 76 countries have joined the global School Meals Coalition, providing much more than a plate of food — vital as that is. When done right, school feeding programs improve the health and education of children; make communities more resilient; promote gender equality; and support national economies and social stability. They are transformational investments that can be taken over by local governments once the requisite infrastructure and best practices are established.
These are the opportunities that are at risk if we let our attention and commitment drift. This would be a detriment not only to those made most vulnerable by poverty, climate change and conflict, but to us all.
As we head into 2024, there is a tremendous risk in the economy and likely a difficult financial year ahead. Government funding is unpredictable and private sector donors will be increasingly selective.
Nonprofit leaders must not only make the case for investment in each of our own missions, worthy as they are, but also to paint the picture of what is at stake collectively. I’m tackling this through a three-pillar approach that is equally focused on philanthropy, advocacy and brand storytelling. In every conversation, be it in the halls of Congress or a corporate boardroom, our job is to communicate impact and illustrate what we stand to lose.
We must call on the decision makers of America to build a true multi-sector coalition with clear vision and urgency. Now is not the time to look away. The consequences of doing so will be measured in millions of lives potentially lost and the shattered hopes and dreams of mothers, children and families.
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Barron Segar is president and CEO of World Food Program USA in Washington, D.C.
