COMPANY: Congress of Racial Equality
CATEGORY: Corporate Social Responsibility
BUDGET: $310,000
TIMEFRAME: 2003-ongoing
It all began with Paul Driessen's groundbreaking book "Eco-Imperialism: Green Power-Black Death," which argued how the social policies and practices of many governments and
aid organizations don't actually help those most in need: the poorest people who also are most at risk.
Driessen, a senior fellow with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow and with the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise (a nonprofit institute that
focuses on energy, the environment, economic development and international affairs), had been involved in ecological and environmental issues since the 1960s.
"The whole goal was to solve environmental problems, and to protect people's health and general prosperity," he says. "But over time, there's been a change in the
environment. The standards for environmental protection are not high enough in a lot of these places, and many organizations just don't want to see things like a new mine or fuel
generators move forward."
It was this revelation that proved to be the catalyst for Driessen along with several like-minded individuals to come together under the aegis of the Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE) to create the "Health & Prosperity International" initiative.
Launched at the 2003 World Trade Organization Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, Mexico, the aim was to call attention to such problems and to highlight the need to
improve the health, nutrition and economic conditions of poor people in developing countries.
The effort was a manifestation of what several organizations had been doing independently. "We created synergistically an idea about how we, personally and organizationally,
could create health and prosperity in places like Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya," says Cyril Boynes, CORE's director/international affairs.
According to David Rothbard, president of the Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow (C-Fact), the relationship with Driessen developed as they began to address
the ethical issues involved in corporate social responsibility and human rights.
"A lot of us felt there was a need for a stewardship effort that talked about the importance of taking care of the earth, animals and habitat, and also of making sure that
environmental policies were sound and reasoned," Rothbard says.
Ron Arnold, executive vice president of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, points out that the moral and ethical dimensions of free enterprise often are
ignored. "You can't have a free enterprise unless the government protects the right to public property," he says. "We realized that, by working together, we could make health and
prosperity a truly international event."
CORE originally was established in 1942 to address the issue of segregation in "Jim Crow" America. "We accepted that we have won that war," Boynes says. "At the same time,
our general purview is rights of people. And what more right is there than the right to have food to eat? Or to govern yourself? Or health and prosperity? We see ourselves as an
organization that is interested in people and their rights worldwide."
On a practical level, it is based on the biblical premise of teaching people to fish. "We're going to coordinate and replicate small projects," Boynes says. "We haven't got
mega bucks, but if we start by empowering women and getting them to produce things that can be sold in markets, then watch that grow."
Rothbard says the idea is to set up some model programs and to simply bring in the necessary tools in the hope of replicating the U.S. model, where many businesses are started
with equity loans. "The problem is not solved by giving aid," he says. "They want trade, not aid."
The coalition took its first step in Cancun, Mexico, by delivering food to a tiny village five miles away from the city, and by helping start a program tied in with a local
Catholic charity to get some property rights and land.
"Our goal is to set up something like the United States did with homesteading," Rothbard says. "For us, the exciting thing was that Cancun was one of the first times we acted
in a hands-on way. And by helping lead this effort, we entered into a relationship we could go back to."
Since then, there have been several similar initiatives in Africa and in Latin America. According to Rothbard, "What excites me about this program is that we are transcending
political and ideological boundaries. For so long, the debate has seemed to be harsh and confrontational, but we're talking about positive solutions and transcending the old way
in which these things have been approached. It's one of the most exciting positive developments that bodes well for the future."
While, logistically, the task of solving the world's problems might seem daunting, Boynes believes you work with what you have. "Rarely do you see these kinds of coalitions
being actively put together, and we didn't expend too much energy to do it," he says.
He adds: "Personally, I'm very involved in Africa, so it's not hard for me to identify small projects on the ground that involve real people we can help and to improve their
standard of living. The world is filled with these examples, and it's a matter of translating philosophy into actions."
Having established a series of initiatives, the next step was to let people know about them. It helped that Driessen's "Eco-Imperialism" book sold briskly on
Amazon.com and other such sites, and that it received many favorable reviews, leading to spots on radio and TV programs, at college campuses and conferences, and at
congressional briefings. And articles by Driessen and other members of the initiative appeared in newspapers, policy reviews and online publications internationally.
"The role of publishing is key to getting word out to supporters and funders," says Arnold. "We couldn't survive without good PR, so we have to make sure the media knows
about what we're doing. We use resources like Bacon's List for awareness. Each of us does part of it, then we get together and do it together."
According to Driessen, "We've achieved quite a bit to date, but there's so much more to be done. Each of us is stretched to our limit. We're all doing op-ed pieces, articles,
letters and conferences, but it's been a matter of getting momentum, critical mass and money. We're not there yet."
Boynes considers their biggest achievement as being able to come together quickly and move efficiently when most other coalitions get bogged down in bureaucracy.
"I spoke to someone at the State Department recently," Boynes says, "and he said, 'Gosh, the things you guys are doing we should be doing here. Only difference is we're
talking about it and you're doing it. I don't know of any private organizations that are doing things on the ground like that.'"
Contacts: Paul Driessen, 703.698.6171, [email protected]; Cyril Boynes, 212. 598.4000, [email protected]; Ron Arnold, 425.455.5038, [email protected]; David Rothbard, 202.429.2737, [email protected]
Shaking Up The Status Quo
The Health & Prosperity Initiative faces many challenges, including finding enough support and people to carry out its ideas. "The message is gold, but we have to find
the money to travel to some of these places, which are very expensive," says David Rothbard, president of the Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow (C-Fact). Then there's the
challenge of getting the message across so it's not threatening to the powers-that-be in the countries in which they want to work and so it doesn't look like a bunch of outsiders
coming in and telling them how to run their countries.
Author Paul Driessen, a senior fellow with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow and with the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, sees a potential major problem in
getting the established order to understand that what the group is proposing can work for them as well as for the people who don't have anything. Adds Cyril Boynes,
director/international affairs for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), "As we get our cottage industries established on the ground and producing goods that are world-standard,
can we find the markets to generate the money back so the production cycle can continue?"