We have all seen the statistics: more than 1.5 million people displaced and 230,000 lives claimed. The January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti was the second deadliest on record in the last decade.

The lack of infrastructure and strong government leadership, and overall short-comings in health care, education, housing and access to water and sanitation in Haiti only magnified the devastating impacts of the earthquake. The immense damage sustained and number of lives lost and uprooted put the international spotlight on Haiti in a historically new way. With the world’s eyes suddenly focused on the poorest country in the western hemisphere, NGOs responding to the crisis felt an increased pressure to improve their transparency, accountability and coordination.

Expectations have been high; NGOs in particular have been faced with endless questions on donations raised, accomplishments and progress. InterAction members alone raised more than $1.3 billion in private funding since the earthquake, and are currently implementing over 320 projects all across Haiti.

To facilitate transparency and coordination, InterAction developed Haiti Aid Map, a snapshot of who is doing what, where. Using Haiti Aid Map and its features, you can quickly determine the activities going on in a given commune or within a specific sector, which organizations are working there, and who are the beneficiaries. Mapping projects in Haiti also allows the public to better understand how their contributions are being used and how they are being allocated.

But Haiti Aid Map is more than just dots scattered across a map. Photos and videos on project pages show how communities are rebuilding and how lives are moving forward. From newly opened schools to expanded health care services to increased access to clean water, visitors to the map can see the vast amount of progress that has been made. In addition to these successes, two-thirds of those displaced have moved out of temporary camps, rubble continues to be cleared and the unexpected cholera epidemic has been contained.

Although much work remains to be done, the progress in Haiti over the past two years could not have been achieved without a coordinated and transparent response.

To learn more about the on-going work of NGOs in Haiti, please visit Haiti Aid Map.

InterAction is an alliance of US-based international NGOs focused on the world’s poor and most vulnerable people. Haiti Aid Map is part of NGO Aid Map, InterAction’s online mapping initiative. To learn more or to participate in Haiti Aid Map, email mappinginfo@interaction.org.

The easy-to-use map allows you to drill down on a specific organization’s projects by sector, country or region. Click on the image above to explore the graphic now.

Find out more and RSVP by clicking the links below—and don’t forget to tell your family and friends to sign-up, too!

May 5-6
Save the Children
Advocacy Day 2010

May 11-12
CARE
2010 National Conference and Celebration

June 2-4
InterAction
Forum 2010: Moving at the Speed of Change

June 14-18
Global Health Council
Dateline 2010: Global Health Goals & Metrics

June 15
Bread for the World
Lobby Day 2010

June 20-22
RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund
Celebrating the Past, Shaping the Future: 30 Year of RESULTS

July 21-22
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition
2010 Washington Conference

Mark your calendars! This June 2-4, our friends at InterAction invite you to attend Forum 2010: Moving at the Speed of Change. At this multi-day event in Washington, DC, participants will connect, engage and influence with more than 100 experts from around the world and over 1000 professionals from more than 250 NGOs, corporations, foundations and governments. Join in discussions on a whole host of issues, from budget appropriations and military communications to global data mapping and the MDGs in 2010.

To register for the forum and learn more about the exciting schedule of events, click here.

For full details on the competition, click here.

InterAction members do not make up the totality of the US NGO response in Haiti but they do make up 80-90% and they are the sole group that has agreed to meet the highest global NGO standards. InterAction’s 193 members work with 1800 corporations, they represent 13.7 million people in red and blue states, and they come from all faith groups. These NGOs will be in Haiti for the long haul and we urge Americans to support the full diversity of NGOs that are committed to rebuilding Haiti. Click here for more details.

-Sam Worthington, InterAction President and CEO

Given that the financial crisis – which started in the U.S. – has disproportionately affected poor and developing countries, InterAction believes developing nations’ economic concerns should be well-represented at the G-20. As the largest alliance of U.S.-based international development and humanitarian NGOs, we have been organizing the NGO community to advocate the G-20 for pro-poor policy reforms. Our strategy has been two-fold:

First, several NGOs came together to write policy briefs that outline two key concerns (Climate Change and Economic Crisis) and recommendations for addressing them. In August, these briefs were hand-delivered and discussed with the U.S.’s lead representative to the G-20 Summit.

Second, we have established an NGO Hub to provide workspace for some of the many organizations that will be present in Pittsburgh next week. While only one representative per NGO has been promised access to the Summit, it’s important that they are on hand to amplify key messages to policymakers and the media. Having our voices heard in the media is key to ensuring that the economic concerns of the developing world are not forgotten amidst discussions about how to stabilize the global economy.

The InterAction alliance and several partner organizations will be on-the-ground and plan to be a strong, vocal presence. Visit http://www.interaction.org/pittsburgh-g20-summit for more details.

-Sam Worthington, InterAction President and CEO

On Wednesday, at the height of the Republican National Convention, I joined former USAID Administrator Brian Atwood and former Chairman of the House State, Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee Jim Kolbe on the Kojo Nnamdi radio show to discuss “Global Poverty and the Next President.”

The conversation focused on the role of grassroots organizations like ONE and Bread for the World in promoting a bold agenda for development, as well as the possibility of totally restructuring the systems that the U.S. government uses to implement and administer development assistance overseas.

You can listen to the 30-minute segment on WAMU’s website here.

-Sam Worthington, President & CEO, InterAction

When I was in high school, every April the principal would get on the PA and give his annual speech about “rams butting heads” – which was his way of telling the boys to keep their tempers under control. Fights always seemed to peak in the springtime. Fifteen years after I first heard the speech, I found myself living in the Balkans. The speech would always be in the back of my head when I spoke with my colleagues about how we hoped for a late winter thaw to minimize the potential for springtime fighting. Today, I find myself in Afghanistan.

Right after I arrived – just around the time that Josh Peck started sending emails about the global food crisis and ONE members could help – the demonstrations began in Afghanistan about the skyrocketing food prices. At the time, I was admittedly too busy trying to get used to a new job, making new friends, and adjusting to the altitude to do more research about how extreme poverty affects the Afghan people. But over the last couple months, I have talked to more people and a picture has begun to form.

25 years of war. Landlocked country with extreme summers and extreme winters. Low water tables. Dilapidated, bombed out, under-funded, or non-existent schools. Ditto for health clinics. 70% illiteracy rate – as a population – female literacy rates are the lowest in the world. TB. 40% of the population has access to clean water. Malaria. 53% of the population lives below the poverty line. Highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Unexploded land mines. 40% official unemployment. Life expectancy of 43. The opium trade and the resulting crime. Internally displaced persons.

Afghanistan is a country full of vulnerable groups – widows, orphans, victims of war, IDPs, youth, woman. But there is one vulnerable group that doesn’t get mentioned enough – military-aged males. Boys who are just becoming men and about to make pivotal decisions about their futures. Do they choose the “straight and narrow” path – full of the struggles outlined above – unemployment, food insecurity, lack of access to health care and education for their families? Or do they choose the “easy” way out and join with one of the criminal and anti-government elements so prevalent through the country?

ONE members know the OV08 tag-line – “Saving lives, securing our future” – but increased funding for international development is not just a talking point. Although I see examples of the positive impacts of international development daily in Kabul, I have been thinking about the “securing our future” portion a lot of the last couple days as international news sources carried stories of the prison break in Kandahar. Many of them began with a phrase like “the summer violence in Afghanistan starts with a bang.” Again, I was reminded of my high school principal and his springtime speech. And then I thought of all the military-aged males here who are trying to decide what to do with their futures.

Poverty breeds instability.

As ONE members step up their engagements with presidential candidates this summer and fall – keep these boys in mind when you band the candidates. The “saving lives” part is easy to remember – providing basic medicines, increasing access to education, supplying clean water. But remember that its not just securing Americans’ futures. Giving choices to teenage boys is securing everyone’s future – so the boys then don’t have to resort to “butting heads” every spring to provide for their families.

-Annisa Wanat

You can get all the information and purchase tickets here: http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/powerful-noise/