Harnessing Student Potential In Microfinance

The Role of Students in the Process of Economic Development

One of the founding motivations of the Two Dollar Challenge (TDC) was to create favorable conditions for students to directly engage themselves in the process of economic development. My students at the University of Mary Washington and I had used the Two Dollar Challenge to raise the seed capital for our own micro-financial institution – La Ceiba (www.laceibamfi.og) – in the spring of 2008. Last year, TDC launched its national Poverty Awareness Program. Over 15 campuses across the country participated and raised awareness about global poverty and funds for their various development initiatives. Like La Ceiba some of those initiatives were also student led and operated. Yet, as a number of my La Ceiba students prepared for graduation last spring, I was forced to confront the possible limitations of student-led development programs; namely, the instability caused by turnover.

Necessarily, with the success of our Poverty Action Program last year came the weight of responsibility. How would those other student-led initiatives survive graduation? And, if they did not survive it, as an economist, I had to recognize the lost opportunity; namely, the awareness, funds and passion generated for a student-led initiative that failed could have been generated for an established non-profit organization. How many mothers, fathers, sons and daughter will remain mired in poverty because these scarce resources were not allocated to an established non-profit?

The TDC Team decided to approach this dilemma the following way:

1. Pilot a Preferred Partner Program: We decided to partner with an established NGO. One that we know will make the most effective use of any and all resourced garnered through this partnership. This year's partner is Opportunity International (www.opportunity.org)

2. Continue to engage students in the process of economic development by supporting their development initiatives.

3. Continuously ask ourselves and others the following two questions:

Q1: Why do we believe that student engagement will hasten the end of poverty? In other words, what is the theory of change or the causal chain of reasoning that links student engagement and the end of poverty?

Q2: How do we go about structuring student engage ment so that we maximize those benefits while minimizing the potential harm? How do you make student engagement both effective and responsible?

We would appreciate your thoughts on these two questions.

Attachments:

2010-Manual2.pdf, 3.2 MB

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Permalink Reply by Matthew McNaughton on July 22, 2010 at 10:57am

Greetings Shawn,
I think you raise some important questions. These are definitely things I (and my organization GYC) have grappled with.

The schema you outlined is a good start. Partnering with a non-profit provides a strong base for sustainability. As it relates to students, I think you have to consider them as a whole and at the margins. As a whole, students (or this generation of young people) tend to be more conscious about global issues. More students are studying abroad, more globally aware education, and the internet has made distance less of a factor for accessing information.

Also, we (young people) are more inclined to get involved in organizations in which we *believe* in the cause. We also provide a good avenue for getting word of moth out. Most of these things you probably new already.

At the same time, you have to consider us at the margins. Many persons will be intersted and participate but never really go on to get involved much more. They will get jobs other areas doing unrelated things--and thats ok. I think the important thing for these people is that organizations have impacted them in broadening their perspective in the world. They may not become Bono or NGO employees, but in making them aware of the issues in the greater world, and that we are all implicit in the solution they become a type of freedom fighters--no matter how marginal. Those are the employees that will best be able to understand the double and triple bottom line--not just the profit margins

Also on the margins, you are going to come across those students who are immensely passionate and want to get involved. These are also very important to the sustainability to the non-profit sector. The value of these students speak for themselves.

I guess my response was more focused on Q1, but I hope it helps.

I also took a look the $2/day challenge and it looks good. I definitely think my group at the College Of Wooster would like to get involved with it the next time you have it. PM me if possible.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn Humphrey on July 25, 2010 at 4:43pm

Hey Matthew. Thanks for the thoughtful reply. You raise a valuable point of looking at the whole student and also at the margin. One of the key steps to realizing change through students is (like you pointed out) making a career in development an attractive option for them upon graduation. Others who are also passionate about engaging youth in development have commented that they do not believe that universities do a very good job of preparing students for a career in development. I would have to agree. It seems that this a prime area for improvement.

On another note, I reviewed your groups homepage (Globalyouthconnectioin.com). Very creative. My students and I run a microfinance initiative in Honduras (La Ceiba: www.laceibamfi.org). There may be an opportunity for our two organizations to work together in the future.

With respect to the Two Dollar Challenge, your group is free to use the Challenge as an awareness and fundraising opportunity whenever you choose - anytime throughout the year. Under the "The Challenge" tab (www.twodollarchallenge.org) you can download the sourcebooks for TDC campus leaders and participants. They contain the rules, code of conduct, ideas and other information about making the experience a success. Feel free to reach out to me at anytime if you have questions.

Lets connect again. Enjoy the summer.