Heifer International as disaster relief organization

Has the organization precommitted to a limited funding need for the relief effort?

Tsunami

• Heifer International reports that it called for $1 million for its tsunami effort. After meeting the goal, the website stated “As a result, your Heifer gift can now be put to use helping people in other parts of the world..” 6 It is not clear whether the organization received earmarked funds that it used elsewhere.

Haiti

• On Jan 22, 2010, Heifer International posted an update in which it announced its goal to raise $3 million for Haiti relief efforts. 7
• Heifer International specific on its Haiti donation page that funds which exceed the amount needed for rehabilitation in Haiti will go towards its general operations in Haiti and elsewhere. 8

Quality: have the organization's activities been competent, cost-effective, and matched to local needs?

Does the organization give examples of what distinguished its activities / set it apart from other organizations?

Tsunami

• We did not find any information on this issue.

Haiti

• We did not find any information on this issue.

Does the organization share an evaluation that includes failures and/or critical feedback?

Tsunami

• We did not find any evaluations on the tsunami relief and rehabilitation efforts.

Haiti

• We did not find any evaluations on the Haiti relief and rehabilitation efforts.

Preparedness: does the organization have global response capacity, i.e., staff on the ground in relevant areas prior to anything happening?

• Heifer International had projects in 54 countries and 28 U.S. states 2009. It is not clear how many staff the organization has in each country. 9

Other: how does the organization score on its everyday work?

Activities:

• In “Our Successes,” Heifer International gives examples of its activities. Most of these examples are stories of people helped by programs. It is not possible to get an overall view of its activities from the stories. 10 In “Our Approach,” there are very general descriptions of its work, but not many specific details (e.g., numbers of people helped overall, numbers of animals distributed total). 11 On the “Fund a Project” page, there are descriptions of specific grants, with details on location and number of people who would receive animals. 12
• There are a few more details on overall numbers provided in the annual reports, where Heifer International listed total number of families helped by the gift of an animal and total families receiving training of some kind. 13
• In summary: it is possible to get some sense of what the organization does, but we did not find any documents with compiled information on projects which would allow one to get a more precise view.

Evaluation:

• We found a page describing the evaluation of an academic researcher who led a team which “visited more than 139 Heifer projects in 20 countries.” 14 The Heifer International page on the evaluation provides quotes regarding Heifer International's positive impact, but no more specific details on the evaluation, research methods used, etc. There is no link to the report, and we did not find the report published elsewhere.

Sources

• 1 “Immediately after the tsunami disaster, Heifer committed $1 million for programs to provide training, livestock and related help to victims on the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and elsewhere in the region to rebuild lives and farms over the next few years. Thanks to your extraordinary support of the Indonesia tsunami recovery effort, we have met our $1 million funding goal to provide training, livestock and related help to victims on the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and elsewhere in the region.” Heifer International, “Rebuilding Lives in Indonesia”
• 2 “At the same time, Heifer donors and supporters generously provided more than $1 million to help fund the rehabilitation work that lays ahead in Haiti.” Heifer International, “Sustainability organization developing three-year plan to aid limited-resource farmers”
• 3 “Heifer International's Asia field staff is completing an initial assessment of conditions in areas devastated by the tsunami and has recommended that Heifer expand existing sustainable development programs in Northern Sumatra. Heifer has helped small farmers on the Indonesian island for more than a decade. The existing Heifer projects are inland and not directly affected by the quake and its aftermath. Coastal communities, however, are in dire need of resources. Heifer will reach out to those communities and support families in their efforts to rebuild.
  Heifer Indonesia staffers and partner organizations already on the ground will work together over the next few years to rebuild agricultural production, increase family incomes and support housing, education and public health efforts.” Heifer International, “Rebuilding Lives in Indonesia”
• 4 “Heifer International is not a first responder agency, but immediately after the earthquake, Heifer country staff coordinated and worked with local and international relief organizations to deliver humanitarian aid to injured and displaced people. For weeks after the earthquake, the Haiti team provided water, rice, sugar, medicine and transportation to local health clinics and shelters for more than 2,000 people in Les Cayes and Cap-Haitien.” Heifer International, “Sustainability organization developing three-year plan to aid limited-resource farmers.”
• 5 ““At present, project work continues in the southern and northern parts of the country coordinated through the offices in Les Cayes and in Cap-Haitien, and Heifer is working with current and past partner organizations to design community development plans to respond to constituency needs. By the end of June, Heifer Haiti expects to have aided 85 families in five partner organizations affected by the earthquake:
  Ӣ Association for the Development of Varreux II (ADEVA II): 25 families will receive 100 goats to reactivate the Passing on the Gift, which began with Heifer's project 23-0413-02.
  Ӣ Associations of Farmers of Dilaire (GEDWA): 20 families will receive 20 heifers. The original project, 23-1404-99, was implemented in the Commune of Ouanaminthe, some 72 kilometers from Cap-Haitien near the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
  Ӣ Small Farmer Organization of Saut Mathurine (OPS): 20 families will receive 20 heifers. The grassroots organization is part of Heifer's project 23-1405-02. The community of Saut Mathurine is on the edge of the Massif de la Hotte Mountains in the southern peninsula.
  ”¢ Association of Collective Hands of Roche-à-Bateau (APMCR): construction of four cisterns to aid in water collection and storage for 20 families.
  ”¢ Association of Citizens for the Development of Dupré (ACDD): improvement of four kilometers of rural roads in the community of Beaulieu to provide vehicle access to local markets. Construction is expected to take two months. Families from APMCR will also benefit from this improvement.” Heifer International, “Sustainability organization developing three-year plan to aid limited-resource farmers.”
• 6 “Immediately after the tsunami disaster, Heifer committed $1 million for programs to provide training, livestock and related help to victims on the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and elsewhere in the region to rebuild lives and farms over the next few years. Thanks to your extraordinary support of the Indonesia tsunami recovery effort, we have met our $1 million funding goal to provide training, livestock and related help to victims on the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and elsewhere in the region. As a result, your Heifer gift can now be put to use helping people in other parts of the world where the need is great!” Heifer International, “Rebuilding Lives in Indonesia”
• 7 “Heifer has set a goal to raise $3 million to fund a multi-year recovery restoration effort in Haiti.” Heifer International, “Heifer International Haiti Update — January 22, 2010”
• 8 “Funds raised in this appeal will be used in the recovery and rebuilding effort in Haiti in the wake of the earthquake. Any funds that exceed the level needed to provide relief in this rebuilding effort will go toward the disaster relief fund and for the entire mission of Heifer International.” Heifer International, “Haiti Disaster Rehab Form”
• 9 Heifer International, “2009 Annual Report,”
• 10 Heifer International, “Our Successes”
• 11 Heifer International, “Our Approach”
• 12 Heifer International, “Fund a Project.”
• 13 “Heifer's unique community development model assisted more than 287,000 families last year with gifts of animals, training and passing on the gift. In addition, members of 423,000 more families received special training that included sustainable farming techniques, and another 812,000 families received significant benefits indirectly.” Heifer International, “2009 Annual Report,” Pg 1.
• 14 “The research team, led by Dr. Michael Scriven, considered one of the founders of evaluation science as a modern discipline and associate director of the evaluation center at WMU, visited more than 139 Heifer projects in 20 countries. In site visits and interviews with 5,000 Heifer program participants, evaluators measured accountability and transparency, community spirit, gender equity, training, diets, incomes, the health and care of livestock and environment.” Heifer International, “Measure of Success”