6. Stress a "can-do" approach. Don't open with fear, guilt or comments that overwhelm listeners about the enormity and complexity of problems.
7. When appropriate, cite examples of other countries (and NGOs) that are working alongside the U.S.
8. Cite examples of what works and offer success stories.
9. Empower listeners by telling them what they can do to help. Talk about yardsticks citizens can use to evaluate policy actions and progress over time. (See "Engaging Citizens")
13. Avoid jargon and acronyms. (See "Wonk-Speak Translator.")
15. Use numbers sparingly and put them in context.
- Paint a picture that defines what the U.S. can do as bigger than just aid -- including, for example, trade policies, health care, peacekeeping, investment, environmental policies, and helping to build systems of law. Help your audience understand that rich countries' policies matter for all countries' development. Explain how development works best with the right balance of activities and actors, when we connect the dots and address all aspects of the challenge.
- Quantify and contain the problems, and show how far relatively small investments can go. Help people understand why the problems are manageable and talk about what we can do (e.g., put a proposed amount of spending in a per-citizen context or some other understandable context).
- Invoke the "investment" concept, for example, "through new assistance programs, through trade and through basic health and education programs." Explain how we can "help others to help themselves."
- Emphasize success stories that demonstrate durable solutions and show how certain actions, policies, and investments helped entire groups of people -- communities, countries, and regions -- to lift themselves out of poverty. Talk about the potential to duplicate these successful efforts in other countries and regions.
- Make assistance come to life by giving examples of what assistance is and looks like as you speak (e.g., "programs to deliver vaccinations, clean water, and schools to ...")
- Portray people and groups in developing countries as capable and responsible partners. Point to the effectiveness of local commitment. Show how U.S. actions support processes that people in other countries have initiated.
- Point to other countries and international institutions as actors on the scene.
- See recommendations for "Talking about Trade and the Global Economy."
- When someone says "we spend too much abroad," or "we need to take care of our own first," don't treat the person as if they don't understand the need. Don't assume the other person is truly isolationist or is selfish -- most often they are not. The sense of obligation to poor people in our own communities is no less altruistic. The vast majority of Americans want to give something to help poor people abroad; the question is how much. (See "Do's" above.)
- Do not try to counter misimpressions about how much America spends abroad with guilt, shame, or mere facts. For instance, the fact that America is ranked among the lowest of rich countries in its per person contributions on development spending is often rejected by listeners because it contradicts deeply held beliefs that America does it all and pays for everything around the world. (For alternatives, see "Do's" above.)
- Don't talk only about successes in helping one individual without linking that story to a larger picture of success -- at the level of government, society, or community -- to show how systems as well as individuals are involved. People may get "stuck" on an individual's story and wonder why everyone doesn't do what that plucky person did.
- Don't champion aid as an end in itself. Like multilateralism (see international cooperation), it's a tactic to get things done, not a goal.
- Don't deny that the U.S. has used and continues to use development assistance for political purposes. Try talking about the need to close gaps between our values and actions; the need to find other ways to pressure badly performing governments to whom we give aid. Try stressing that the more politicized aid becomes, the tougher it will be to fight corruption.
- Agree that certain types of aid are less helpful to people in need. Aid that is primarily designed to win other countries' support of American interests is unpopular with a large segment of Americans.
- Many Americans are leery of imposing our ways on other cultures and political systems; many oppose efforts to "impose democracy" or "export Western values."
- When corruption issues are raised, align yourself with those who have been ripped off by corruption and explain that the U.S. government and NGOs are committed to cracking down on corruption and have made great strides. Clarify that much of America's assistance comes via direct services channeled through well-meaning NGOs. Talk about openness and accountability as a key part of the new development agenda.
- See advice for talking about trade issues.
Comprehensive;
Can-do We do know what works to help people and countries lift themselves up. Families and communities do best when they have the right mix of tools and resources available
to them -- when people have access to jobs and economic opportunity, basic health and
education, the ability to participate in decisions that affect them, and the basic rights and dignity
valued by people everywhere. What works is to offer local people a little extra help and remove
impediments so that people can use their own energy, innovation, and determination to change
their lives. The right combination of approaches -- applied in countries like China and India,
and in now-prosperous countries like Ireland and South Korea that were poor just a generation
ago -- has allowed millions of people to lift themselves out of poverty, and has more than
doubled the number of democracies worldwide. Smart Investments What works: promoting education to give people the tools for
success. Investing in education -- making sure every child learns the basics -- pays off
in improved health, longevity, and income. And access to good basic education is vital for
whole countries to succeed in today's high-skills, information-based world economy.
- No country in modern times has achieved sustained economic growth without offering
basic education to nearly all its citizens.
- Getting children, especially girls, to attend and stay in school is critical for their health
and economic success. For each year of schooling a girl receives, her children are 5 to
10 percent less likely to die as infants. And the children and grandchildren of educated
women are much more likely to be educated themselves.
- In Mexico, the number of girls in school increased by 20 percent when a private
organization offered financial help to families that made a commitment to getting their
kids educated. Bangladesh increased the number of kids in school by one-third by
offering food aid to families that promised to have their children attend school.
Effective;
Pragmatic What works: improving health care. It's basic: Healthy children are more
likely to go to school and are more able to learn. Healthy adults can hold jobs, start
businesses, farm, or care for their families. Healthy families have access to medical services,
including family planning, so that their children are wanted, immunized, and more likely
to survive. Killer diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria sap resources,
energy, and human potential, turning back progress that whole societies have made.
- Through UNICEF and other international organizations, international support for
childhood immunization, improved nutrition, and disease control has helped raise
worldwide longevity by more than one-third and cut infant mortality in half since 1960.
- Partnerships that bring together government, the UN, and private business firms make
investing in health efficient and effective. One such partnership has cut the incidence
of two diseases carried by parasites by 99 percent, saving the livelihoods of thousands
of people and allowing whole communities to farm and grow again.
- Investments in health are incredibly cost-effective; a dose of medicine that cuts a
newborn's risk of contracting HIV/AIDS in half costs less than a soft drink.
Effective; Common Sense What works: getting tools for economic empowerment into the
hands of people, businesses, and whole nations. People with jobs and
investment have a stake in their societies, a chance to invest in their own countries' future,
and a real opportunity to achieve what people everywhere want -- better lives for themselves
and their children. Several practical tools have been proven to get results:
- Investing in debt relief: Many poor countries spend more in interest on old loans to
foreign governments than on health and education for their own people. Canceling
loans for countries that are committed to good policies and clean government can make
a huge difference. For example, $3 billion in debt relief is helping Tanzania send 1.6
million children to school. Its neighbor, Uganda, used its debt relief to make primary
education free for every child, something it couldn't afford before.
- Empowering the poorest people: Microcredit -- that is, offering tiny loans to start-up
entrepreneurs, often women who work from home -- is another way to ensure that aid
money goes straight to those who need it, and to encourage entrepreneurs and selfsufficiency.
In India, it takes just three years of microcredit for one in three loan recipients
to move out of poverty. Global repayment rates for these loans, which can be as little
as $50, are over 90 percent -- a rate commercial banks everywhere would love to match.
- Trade rules that level the field: Like people everywhere, citizens of poor countries would
rather earn money than depend on handouts. Making trade rules fairer so that poor
countries could compete in the global economy on an equal footing with industrial
countries like the U.S. would generate more income than all the assistance programs of all
the world's governments combined. Africa alone has the potential to earn from trade six
times every year what it currently receives in assistance.
Effective What works: fighting corruption by supporting reformers who
fight for clean government and democracy. Corruption is a very serious
problem, stealing from the very people we want to help. But we can combat corruption --
we do it most effectively by helping the people who are corruption's first victims to fight it
and to make government and business more accountable.
- A group called Transparency International -- with citizens' chapters in more than 90
countries -- has developed a "Big Mac Index" to highlight places where corruption
raises the price of basic consumer products like fast food. In Argentina, citizen outrage
over "Big Mac Index" findings drove down the corruption-inflated price of school
lunches in Buenos Aires by half within a few days.
- Through another nongovernmental initiative, called Publish What You Pay, citizens are
pressing to find out how much money their governments get from private companies
producing lucrative natural resources -- and where that money goes. Nigeria, with the
world's ninth-largest oil reserves and severe corruption problems, has already pledged
to publish the amount it receives from the oil industry.
- Sixteen African countries have volunteered to have outside experts come in and scrutinize
their governments for corruption, human rights abuses, and poor public services, beginning
in April 2004.
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