Guess What Today Is?

Today is International Day for Disaster Reduction. What, you didn’t know? Me either, until I read a post on The Guardian‘s Poverty Matters blog.
It’s the brainchild of the U.N.’s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. This years theme: My City Is Getting Ready! (The exclamation point is theirs, not mine.) In light of the earthquake in Haiti, flooding in Pakistan and Poland, and other natural disasters affecting cities this year, their choice of themes seems rather prescient.
Learn more about what Heifer International is doing to safeguard the urban poor, as well as those left behind in rural areas as populations move toward the cities.

Kristof’s Advice to the Humanitarian World

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote an op-ed article this week, on the heels of the United Nations meeting to discuss global poverty. It’s been 10 years since the U.N. adopted the Millennium Development Goals, and we’re not doing so well on some of them. So Kristof offered three suggestions to organizations working to end hunger and poverty:
“First, boast more. … In fact, here’s the record: antipoverty work saves around 32,000 children’s lives each day. …
“My second suggestion is to focus not just on poverty relief but also on wealth creation. The best way to overcome poverty isn’t charity but economic growth, trade rather than aid. …
“My third suggestion: punchier marketing. Humanitarians tend to flinch at the idea of marketing, thinking that’s what you do with toothpaste. But it’s all the more important when lives are at stake.”
Does any of this sound familiar?