World Vision is angling to double its aid for East Timor and the Pacific by engaging other major donors in the region.
The Christian humanitarian organization serving nearly 100 countries around the world wants to raise its current $25 million funding for East Timor and the Pacific states of Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu for the next five years, a World Vision spokeswoman told Devex.
Kristy Allen-Shirley, World Vision communications director for South Asia and Pacific, explained that the group has committed to “working collaboratively across borders” by partnering with the Australian and New Zealand governments to deliver aid in the region.
“Australia and New Zealand has a strong historical, cultural and geographic connection to the Pacific and East Timor and World Vision’s forging of a stronger commitment in the region will enable us to address poverty with greater focus and resources,” she said.
The global partnership, Allen-Shirley added, will help the organization better understand and serve the needs of beneficiaries and donors.
“This new collaborative and focused approach to our work in the Pacific and East Timor will enable greater connectedness and engagement on the part of communities and donors,” she said.
Allen-Shirley noted that the strategy “acknowledges the changing donor landscape and globalizing of giving while seeking to further empower communities and enable child well-being as part of the change journey” and illustrates the amplified regional strategic focus of Australia, New Zealand and major multilateral institutions’ humanitarian assistance.
World Vision expects to see from 2014 a “gradual increase” of funding from corporate and major donors, as well as government and multilateral grants, to stimulate investment in East Timor and the Pacific states.
Investment will be focused on community-based development work in water, sanitation and health, maternal child health and nutrition, food security, climate change and disaster risk reduction.
World Vision is currently present in 20 community areas across the four target countries in partnership with beneficiary communities and other aid groups.
“We have successful projects underway including early childhood education, addressing gender-based violence in the Solomon Islands through partnerships with the church, tacking tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea with Global Fund and governments and food security initiatives in Timor Leste,” said the World Vision official.
If proven successful, this new milestone in the organization’s 15-year history in the Pacific will be adopted in other regions where World Vision is present, another example of the regional partnership trend recently seen with the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
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About the author
Johanna Morden
Johanna Morden is a community development worker by training and a global development journalist by profession. As a Devex staff writer based in Manila, she covers the Asian Development Bank as well as Asia-Pacific's aid community at large. Johanna has written for a variety of international publications, covering social issues, disasters, government, ICT, business and the law.
