The United States of America is the world's only superpower — the strongest and richest nation on the planet, with a population enjoying standards of living that people in most other countries can only dream of. With such credentials, you would expect this nation to take a leadership role on almost every issue, be it economic or geo-political.
Indeed, it does. The country plays a leading role in the biggest financial institutions like the IMF and the World Bank, and holds a decisive voice in global bodies such as the UN and NATO. But alongside all of this, is there also a moral leadership the country is supposed to provide — and, if so, is it providing it?
Many people feel the answer to that second question is "no." According to them, the USA is not leading the world on the issues that require moral leadership. The decision to pull the country out of the Paris Climate Agreement is one large example of this failing. But even more disappointing is the American failure to lead on issues like poverty and hunger — issues that are not nearly as politically sensitive as climate change.
01Clint Borgen and The Borgen Project
Clint Borgen is a genuinely unusual figure. A graduate of Washington University, he volunteered to provide aid in the refugee camps during the Kosovo War in 1999 — an experience that moved him to take a serious interest in making the American government more responsive to humanitarian needs around the world.
But he couldn't simply begin doing what he wanted. As a young man, he had to earn his living and find ways to support his mission. So he took up jobs that would hardly seem worthy of a man now regarded as one of the most well-known lobbyists in the country — manning a fishing vessel, working as a room-service assistant in a hotel — earning both a respectable salary for himself and a little money to fund his grand project, The Borgen Project.
The mission of the project is easy to understand: to awaken the people of the United States to the humanitarian needs of the world, and to the potential their country has for helping the poor around the globe.
The Borgen Project
Established in 2003 and headquartered in Seattle, The Borgen Project has a presence in 754 cities through its volunteers. Its offices are, remarkably, manned by volunteers alone.
- Founded
- 2003
- Headquarters
- Seattle, Washington
- Reach
- Volunteers in 754 cities
The project focuses its energy on four primary areas of advocacy:
- Global food security
- Food aid reform
- Newborn, child and mother survival
- Access to clean water, sanitation and power
Since Borgen is not a billionaire like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, he doesn't have big coffers to pour into the program. But what he does have is a large number of enthusiastic supporters who volunteer their time to the organisation.
02The methodology of The Borgen Project
The way Borgen and his associates seek to bring about change is by getting volunteers in different cities and congressional districts to lobby their representatives in the U.S. Congress to support measures for combating poverty across the world.
Borgen is a firm believer that change can only come from the bottom, and that it has to be driven by the very constituents of the politicians who sit on Capitol Hill. He has the ambition to recruit volunteers in all 435 congressional districts to do this lobbying and force public representatives to take notice of their demands.
The Borgen Project has succeeded to a large measure in its goal of becoming a major advocacy group, and today Clint Borgen is recognised as one of the most influential activists in the country. The board of directors now consists of some genuinely big names from the corporate world as well as the political sphere. Very smartly, it includes both a Republican and a Democratic congressman, to ensure there is bipartisan support for the group.
With people from various walks of life joining The Borgen Project, we can hope for its continued success.
