Skoll Foundation

Skoll Awardee Gawad Kalinga just received $5.8 million, or 250 million pesos, to help people in three Philippines cities who were affected by last month’s floods.

San Miguel Corporation donated the money to Gawad Kalinga for the  victims of Tropical Storm “Sendong,” and is donating another $5.8 million to Habitat for Humanity. The money will help build more than 5,000 homes. Plus, Gawad Kalinga will help create healthy communities after the homes are built. Gawad transforms slums into peaceful and productive communities. Engaging all sectors of society, mobilizing them to work together to end poverty, the organization is building a global army of volunteers on the ground and online, working with schools, corporations and other organized institutions to mainstream a culture of caring and sharing. Gawad Kalinga means to “give care.”

“This is our way of sharing our blessings from the heart,” San Miguel chairman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. said. “We want to give our fellow Filipinos hope by providing them the means to start over again. We’re looking at providing livelihood opportunities on top of the houses that we will build for them.

Read more about the donation: http://www.sanmiguel.com.ph/2012/01/smc-to-donate-p500m-to-build-homes-provide-livelihood-for-sendong-victims/

Generation Capital Management just released a white paper called Sustainable Capitalism. The Skoll Foundation was the first foundation investor in Generation, and sustainable markets is one of our focus areas. An excerpt from the 26-page paper:

“The objective of this paper is twofold. First, we make the economic case for mainstreaming Sustainable Capitalism by highlighting the fact that it does not represent a trade-off with profit maximisation but instead actually fosters superior long-term value creation. Second, we recommend five key actions for immediate adoption that will accelerate the mainstreaming of Sustainable Capitalism by 2020:

1. Identify and incorporate risks from stranded assets; 2. Mandate integrated reporting; 3. End the default practice of issuing quarterly earnings guidance; 4. Align compensation structures with long-term sustainable performance; and 5. Encourage long-term investing with loyalty-driven securities.

Read the rest: http://www.generationim.com/media/pdf-generation-sustainable-capitalism-v1.pdf

The March issue of Reader’s Digest features the Surui, Google and Skoll Awardee Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) in a piece called “21st Century Amazons,” which you can read only in the print edition.

The Surui are central actors in the Skoll Foundation’s Amazon Corridors Initiative. Part of the initiative is to support the Surui indigenous organization and their NGO partners to replicate much of what the Surui have accomplished with other indigenous groups in their region. Vasco van Roosmalen, of ACT-Brasil, says in the piece, “The great thing about the Surui is that they try to find their own solutions to the problems they face. If you look at the arc of deforestation in the Amazonian rainforest, the areas that still have forest are indigenous lands. The tribe is absolutely crucial to holding back deforestation.”

See the Reader’s Digest photos: http://www.rd.com/slideshows/images-from-brazils-suri-tribe/ and read more about our Amazon Corridors Initiative: http://www.skollfoundation.org/amazon-conservation-team-and-skoll-foundation-launch-innovative-new-approach-to-amazon-rainforest-conservation/

On the news, the events of the Arab Spring looked dramatic, incontrovertible, finite. But justice is an ongoing, mutable effort. The International Center for Transitional Justice visited the Skoll Foundation today to talk about transitional justice – and to remind us of the subleties behind the headlines. David Tolbert, ICTJ’s president, was a deputy chief prosecutor at the war crimes trials in Yugoslavia trials: 121 people were tried, rape was treated as a war crime, and much was accomplished. But there was never a truth commission, he pointed out. “A broader approach is so important,” says Tolbert,  “A few convictions, or a bit of truth, or  a few reparations is not enough.” You have to have all of them. And you have to have institutional reforms. “A court process only tells part of the story.” read more

News from Skoll Awardee Ceres:

Leading U.S. investors announced they have filed shareholder resolutions with Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, Chesapeake Energy, ConocoPhillips and 14 other oil and gas companies, pressing them to disclose their plans for managing environmental and workplace challenges including hydraulic fracturing, greenhouse gas emissions and worker safety.

“The common thread of these resolutions is stronger management focus on environmental and social challenges that will have real bottom-line impacts,” said Mindy Lubber, director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) and president of Ceres, which helps coordinate the filings. “These investors are telling companies they expect to see real progress on climate change, clean energy and other sustainability fronts, despite the policy paralysis in Washington.”

Most of the resolutions address financial risks from hydraulic fracturing–called “fracking”– for natural gas. Resolutions filed with EOG Resources, Chevron, Penn Virginia, Anadarko Petroleum, Range Resources, Chesapeake Energy, Noble Energy, Ultra Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, and Stone Energy seek detailed financial accountings of how companies are addressing risks associated with community concerns, regulatory changes and drilling moratoriums.

Read the rest of the press release: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/investors-challenge-18-oil-and-gas-companies-on-climate-change-hydraulic-fracturing-and-sustainability-risks-2012-02-08

It’s always exciting to see two Skoll Awardees team up, and that’s just what Partners in Health and Riders for Health are doing in Malawi. Here, the official announcement.

Two leading social enterprises will show how, by working together, they can create sustainable and more cost-effective development.

Partners In Health (PIH) and Riders for Health will work together to help strengthen health care coverage in the Neno District of Malawi, announced the two organizations today. Riders for Health will manage a portion of PIH’s vehicles on a cost-effective basis, ensuring PIH has available the reliable transport and vehicles it needs to support the Ministry of Health. This partnership will allow PIH to be able to focus its resources on supporting the Neno District’s two hospitals and 11 health centres, providing health care to around 110,000 people over 1,469 square kilometers. read more

It’s been 10 years since wear began in Afghanistan, and Good magazine interviewed Skoll Awardee Connie Duckworth of Arzu about her work with women. An excerpt:

“Duckworth ticks off ARZU’s other accomplishments like items on a grocery list. The group has created 1,000 jobs and avoided the security risks of putting foreign nationals on the ground by training an all-Afghan staff to carry out local operations. ARZU has figured out how to heat its workshops by burning briquettes made from shredded paper discarded by the U.S. Embassy instead of contributing to Afghanistan’s deforestation problem—they even sell leftover briquettes to local government offices. Digital collaborations between American and Afghan designers have produced carpet patterns that appeal to a wide variety of tastes while preserving traditional techniques.

This success hasn’t gone unnoticed. ARZU’s model won the 2008 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and was recognized by the Edison Awards last year for best new product in the lifestyle and social impact category. Now Duckworth is hoping to turn ARZU’s $10 to $15 “peace cord”—a wristband woven from military parachute fabric—into the next Livestrong bracelet.”

See more photos and read more: http://www.good.is/post/rebuilding-afghanistan-s-villages-rug-by-rug/

Skoll Awardee Luis Szarán of Sonidos de la Tierra (Sounds of the Land) was awarded an honorary doctorate from Universidad Nacional del Este in Paraguay. It is a recognition from the leading university in his home country for his leadership as a world-renowned conductor and his work with low-income kids making beautiful music with instruments made from garbage.

Congratulations, Luis!

After many years of hard work by Skoll Awardee Ceres and others, California, Washington and New York announced that they will require insurance companies to disclose the climate risks they are facing and how they will respond.

This has been a key priority for the Ceres team.  “This is a big policy win for Ceres and all that care about climate change,” said Ana Lucia Zacapa, Skoll Foundation senior program officer. “Insurance companies touch all sectors of the economy. Disclosure of their risks and plans to address these risks will likely lead to insurance companies and those they insure to change their behavoir to one that cause less climate change and is less exposed to its risks.”

Read more about the news in the New York Times, which credits Ceres’ critical role.

Sundance, so glitzy on top, is constantly and astonishingly substantive underneath. The best films are often documentaries and the best conversations, at least last week, were about social entrepreneurship not celebrities. Four Skoll awardees – Imazon, Mothers2Mothers, Tostan and Water.org – gathered at the festival in Park City, Utah from Monday to Friday for movies and merriment, but most of all for deep analysis of their own story-telling. The question: How can they more powerfully get the word out about their work?

The Stories of Change convening, led by the Sundance Institute and the Skoll Foundation, came to a really productive close on Friday, with all four awardees having significant breakthroughs. Each is at a crucial inflection point: Imazon has helped reduce Amazon deforestation from 60M acres a year ten years ago to 15M a year, and aims for less than 6M by 2020. Mothers2Mothers reaches 20% of HIV+ pregnant women and is poised to eliminate mother to child transmission of HIV in the next three years. Tostan has enabled 6000+ villages in West Africa come together to abandon practices such as female genital cutting (FGC), child marriage and domestic abuse and is set to rid Senegal of FGC. Water.org has pioneered the concept of water credit and now is in a position to lead a global movement to ensure that everyone in the world will have access to clean water and sanitation – in our lifetime. read more

The Global Journal,  a new publication aimed at opinion leaders and policy makers in the development sector, has just put out its Top 100 Best NGOs in the World, and 31 of them are Skoll Awardees. They started with a list of 1,000, then narrowed it down to 400, then these. Read about their criteria and metrics. Congratulations to all:

Partners in Health, Barefoot College, Water for People, Pratham, APOPO, Ceres, Digital Divide Data, Teach for America, Landesa, Root Capital, Saude Crianca, Population and Community Development Association, Gaias Amizonas, Tostan, Escuela Nueva, Aflatoun, Gram Vikas, Search for Common Ground, Center for Digital Inclusion, One Acre Fund, Kickstart, One World Health (founder Victoria Hale, is a 2005 Skoll social entrepreneur), Room to Read, Free the Children, IDE-India, Friends International, ICTJ, Witness, International Bridges to Justice, Injaz Al-Arab, and Global Footprint Network.

SKOLL FOUNDATION AND SUNDANCE INSTITUTE PRESENT CELEBRATING “STORIES OF CHANGE” PANEL
AT 2012 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

Fifth Stories of Change Convening for Filmmakers and Social Entrepreneurs

The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and the Skoll Foundation announced a special Celebrating “Stories of Change” panel to be held at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The panel celebrates the five-year partnership Stories of Change: Social Entrepreneurship in Focus Through Documentary initiative, dedicated to exploring film’s role in advancing knowledge about social entrepreneurship.

At this special event on Tuesday, January 24, 3 p.m. at the Egyptian Theatre, Skoll Foundation President and CEO Sally Osberg will moderate a thought-provoking dialogue between award-winning filmmakers (including clips from their work) and innovators who are impacting millions. Panelists include Joia Mukherjee (Partners in Health), Jehane Noujaim (Director, Control Room), Bunker Roy (Founder, Barefoot College) and Kief Davidson (Director, The Devil’s Miner). For tickets,  visit www.sundance.org/tickets. The above photo, taken at the 2010 Sundance Festival, from left to right:  Robert Redford with Skoll entrepreneurs Quratul ain Bahkteari (IDSP), Bunker Roy (Barefoot College), Munqeth Mehyar (EcoPeace) and Martin von Hildebrand (Gaia Amazonas). read more