Global Hunger Project dba The Hunger Project

We have recognized these ten principles as being fundamental to The Hunger Project. We challenge ourselves to ensure that each strategy builds on these principles.

Human Dignity. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, including the right to food, health, work, education. The inherent nature of every person is creative, resourceful, self-reliant, responsible and productive. We must not treat people living in conditions of hunger as beneficiaries, which can crush dignity, but rather as the key resource for ending hunger.

Gender Equality. An essential part of ending hunger must be to cause society-wide change towards gender equality. Women bear the major responsibility for meeting basic needs, yet are systematically denied the resources, freedom of action and voice in decision-making to fulfill that responsibility.

Empowerment. In the face of social suppression, focused and sustained action is required to awaken people to the possibility of self-reliance, to build confidence, and to organize communities to take charge of their own development.

Leverage. Ending chronic hunger requires action that catalyzes large-scale systemic change. We must regularly step back — assess our impact within the evolving social/political/economic environment — and launch the highest leverage actions we can to meet this challenge.

Interconnectedness. Our actions are shaped by, and affect, all other people and our natural environment. Hunger and poverty are not problems of one country or another but are global issues. We must solve them not as “donors and recipients” but as global citizens, working as coequal partners in a common front to end hunger.

Sustainability. Solutions to ending hunger must be sustainable locally, socially, economically and environmentally.

Social Transformation. People’s self-reliance is suppressed by conditions such as corruption, armed conflict, racism and the subjugation of women. These are all rooted in an age-old and nearly universal patriarchal mindset that must be transformed as part of a fundamental shift in the way society is organized.

Holistic Approach. Hunger is inextricably linked to a nexus of issues including decent work, health, education, environmental sustainability and social justice. Only in solving these together will any of them be solved on a sustainable basis.

Decentralization. Individual and community ownership of local development is critical. Actions are most successful if decisions are made close to the people. This requires effective national and local government working in partnership with the people.

Transformative Leadership. Ending hunger requires a new kind of leadership: not top-down, authority-based leadership, but leadership that awakens people to their own power — leadership “with” people rather than leadership “over” people.

In sum, world hunger can be ended, but not by merely doing more of the same. Ending hunger requires principles consistent with our shared humanity.

Our programs in over 12,000 communities throughout Africa, South Asia and Latin America are based on an innovative, holistic approach, which empowers women and men living in rural villages to become the agents of their own development and make sustainable progress in overcoming hunger and poverty.

While adapted to meet local challenges and opportunities wherever we work, all our programs have at their foundation these three essential elements:

1. Empowering women as key change agents
2. Mobilizing communities for self-reliant action
3. Fostering effective partnerships with local government

One of our first activities is a Vision, Commitment and Action Workshop, which serve as the foundation of our work, inspiring individuals to move from “I can't" to “I can" to “We can." Through participation in our training, people set a vision for their communities, and then lay out the actions they will take to achieve that vision. Read more about our innovative approach to ending hunger and poverty. Visit www.thp.org

350+ staff indigenous to the countries where we work.
Almost 500,000 volunteers globally
A state of the art Monitoring and Evaluation system designed in partnership with our community partners
Partnerships with local governments and institutions
Fundraising strategies that inspire both — our investors (donors) and community partners
Spearheading a vibrant, inter-organizational gender-focused advocacy movement called The Movement for Community-led Development

More than 16 million are actively enrolled in their own development through partnership with The Hunger Project, successfully working collectively toward the goal of declaring sustainable self-reliance and taking complete ownership of local resources and development.

With more financial resources and partner organizations declaring a commitment to de-centralizing development through the Movement for Community-led Development, THP can both elevate the visibility of community-led development and continue to deepen and expand programs in the communities in which we work. A powerful global network and proof of concept within self-reliant communities will lead to stronger government partnerships, causing further breakthroughs in ending hunger at both local and national levels.