How a Former Refugee is Working to Give Others a Voice

Stanikzai spent most his childhood in a refugee camp.

When Mojeeb Stanikzai looks at the displaced children of South Sudan, he sees himself.  He was just six years old when his father was killed in a bomb blast during the Soviet-Afghan war. Out of money and options, his family fled their native Afghanistan to a refugee camp in Pakistan, traveling through the desert for three days. Stanikzai still remembers the makeshift graves of those killed along the way.

Life in the refugee camp was hard, but with help from a relative he was able to get an education and graduate from medical school. Stanikzai gave up a career in medicine for another calling: international development. Now he works with Winrock, helping South Sudan’s children have access to a safe education and a better future.

Stanikzai spoke to Haydé Adams FitzPatrick about the lessons he learned from life as a refugee and how he’s paying it forward.

1. How have your experiences growing up in a refugee camp shaped your approach to your work in South Sudan?

Stanikzai and his family fled their native Afghanistan when he was seven years old. He returned to the country as a student.

I have seen how conflict takes everything from you: your family, your belongings and your dignity. You are forced to start from scratch and become a new person. Refugees, migrants and displaced people need three things: a support structure; access to resources; and a voice – someone who will advocate for them.

When we first arrived at the refugee camp, some of our relatives who were already living there rejected us. We had no clue what would happen to us and who to ask for help. Fortunately, years later, my mother’s brother was in a position to help us. He supported my dream to become a doctor. He advocated for us. He gave us a voice. So in my work I always look for ways we can support people in addressing those needs.

2. How do you help people rebuild their lives and restore their hope for the future?

I see a community as a microcosm of a nation. If positive change happens in a community, it becomes easier for that change to be replicated in other places. Education is something that gives you hope for the future; with it, you can rebuild your life, like I did. My parents were my first teachers. My mother taught me the basics, and I was able to teach others from a young age. Later, I started earning money from teaching. I was given a future through education. It fed me — literally. I say to people, do what you can to make sure you educate your family — your sons and your daughters.

3. How can a community suffering from recurrent conflict make sure that change is sustainable?

Stanikzai gave up a career in medicine to work in international development

When I look at conflicts around the world, most of them are driven by politics. We as a development community cannot fix everything. But we can raise awareness about the effects of conflict and respond to those effects by giving people access to the resources they need to rebuild their lives. Earlier in my career, we tried this in Afghanistan, to go to the root cause of the problem. We managed to bring opposing factions to the table. But, because we couldn’t solve the political root cause, the conflict went into a chronic phase and continues to be a problem. So it’s not easy to remove the root of the problem alone as a development organization. But we can help change mindsets and attitudes, so people choose peace over conflict.

Working to change mindsets: Stanikzai addressing community elders in Logar, Afghanistan.

4. Do you remember a moment in your work that made you optimistic about the future?

Whenever I go to South Sudan and visit schools, I see teachers and students using the learning materials that we have provided them. It reminds me of my own childhood, when those who had given us books came to see how we were doing. Now I am at the other end, working to support children in similar situations and helping to bring a positive change in their lives. That gives me great satisfaction. It makes me feel proud, and optimistic about the future.

In South Sudan, Stanikzai works with children who have been displaced by war. Photo: Tom Willcox

5. What inspired/motivated you to put your talents and expertise to work at Winrock?

 At Winrock, people are always looking for new, innovative ways to do development work. We look at the greater outcome of the work we do and how those outcomes or results would ultimately contribute to the future of the country in which we are working. The organization itself has come a long way, starting in agriculture and entrepreneurship and expanding into the areas of counter-trafficking, education, governance and the environment. I’m glad to be part of this family.

Mojeeb Stanikzai is a senior program officer with Winrock’s Civil Society and Education Group. He manages the USAID-funded Room to Learn project in South Sudan.

By Rodney Ferguson, President and CEO, Winrock International

Mercy Dahn was 9 years old when she began working on her father’s rubber farm in Liberia. At first she dug holes and planted young trees, but as she grew older the tasks grew more difficult and dangerous. She worked with acid that irritated her skin, and carried heavy buckets of latex that leaked wastewater into her eyes. She never thought of stopping because her family needed help. Going to school was out of the question.

But Mercy’s life began to change two years ago, when she learned to grow and sell vegetables as a way to provide income for her family and go to school. “It is the economic hardship that caused my daughter to do the kind of work she did,” said Mercy’s father, who attended workshops that raised his awareness of child labor’s hazards. “But thank God it’s over.”

Now 17, Mercy is a peer mentor in her village. Her life improved in part thanks to a U. S. Department of Labor-funded ARCH program run by Winrock International that brought rubber companies, unions, farmers and communities together to create shared solutions to reducing child labor. Strange bedfellows? Perhaps. But combining forces has strengthened relationships between management and workers, and made child labor issues harder to ignore.

One hundred and sixty-eight million of the world’s children work at unsuitable tasks and unsuitable hours. Fueled by poverty, low wages, lack of decent jobs and limited access to school or vocational training, child labor denies kids an education and access to skills that would lead to better paying jobs in the future. It robs them of childhood, it’s self-perpetuating, and — worst of all — many of us enable it.

Child labor is no longer someone else’s problem. The complexities of modern production make it more likely that something we use or consume every day — from seafood and chocolate to the minerals used in phones and laptops — may be made, mined or harvested by a child. Which is why this year’s World Day Against Child Labor highlights supply chains. The gnarly nature of these chains — and the many links in them — should concern us all.

But if it took a global village to create this situation, a global village can also end it. At Winrock, we take a collaborative approach to eradicating child labor, addressing its economic, social and educational causes by engaging with governments and the private sector. Our private sector involvement is not just lip service; we work with companies from the inside, setting up mechanisms to monitor the presence of children in the workplace, incorporating child labor issues into company policies and more. We also know first-hand the willingness of governments to address child labor head on — not just because it damages the reputations of countries and companies who allow it, but because it’s the right thing to do.

The government of Rwanda, where we have a project called REACH-T, has made child labor an issue in its national development plans. There is legislation prohibiting child labor and new policy guidelines to withdraw all children from the workforce and give them a chance to go to school. Equally encouraging is how these new policies are being embraced by an unlikely alliance of employer’s organizations, trade unions, private sector agencies, civil society organizations and, of course, families and children themselves. With rising school enrollment rates, Rwanda is proving that solutions, like challenges, do not exist in isolation.

But Rwanda is not alone. In every country where we have projects striving to end child labor — Liberia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ghana, Brazil, Malawi and Zambia — governments and private sector companies are part of the solution.

In our newest project, we’re helping 40 cocoa-growing communities in Ghana design and implement their own plans for raising awareness about child labor. The project will propel more than 2,800 children back to school and give 1,600 women household members with the tools to improve their livelihoods and increase income levels.

Although the Ghana MOCA-Youth project is just beginning, we’ve been involved in child labor eradication efforts in the cocoa sector since 2002, working from within the industry through the World Cocoa Foundation. And we applaud such private sector efforts as the fair-trade company Divine Chocolate and the 85,000 farmer members of the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Ghana who own it. The co-op has worked hard to eliminate child labor from its supply chains, and the commercial success it’s enjoyed is helping small villages build new schools.

Whether in the rubber farms of Liberia, the tea plantations of Rwanda or the cocoa-growing communities of Ghana, children fare best when adults work together to make change. It’s not just the best way; it may be the only way.

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By John Fisk, Director, Wallace Center

How many times have you heard that people are an organization’s most valuable resource? Turns out they make a big difference to the food value chain, too — in a surprising new way.

The Wallace Center at Winrock International has been working closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support 10 new value chain coordinator positions across the country as part of the Food LINC initiative. The coordinators will connect farmers to buyers and build understanding and relationships between local food processors and hospitals, schools, restaurants and others.

Like the connectors described by Malcolm Gladwell in “The Tipping Point,” these coordinators have a special ability to bring people together — integral to the success of food value chains.

One of the new coordinators, Sarah Fritschner of Louisville, Ky., does everything from persuading a national food manufacturer based in Louisville to use local food in his products to working with schools that are helping kids better understand what they eat.

Sarah Fritschner

In recent years, both the public and private sectors have invested in food hubs, food processing businesses and distribution networks to expand opportunities for small and mid-sized farm and food entrepreneurs. This support has helped chip away at the infrastructure gap for local and regional foods.

But the value chain coordinators add something new. They are part of a “soft” infrastructure — people on the ground who can build relationships with farmers, processors, distributors and buyers and put the pieces of the puzzle together in a way that hasn’t been done before.

The Wallace Center will develop a community of practice and create new knowledge about value chain coordination. It will document the work in each region and share best practices with organizations interested in starting similar programs in their communities.

It’s a bold new step that harkens back to a very old model — one where communities shaped their own economic destinies and people knew and appreciated the food on their table because they grew it themselves.

On April 20-21, Food Tank hosted the second annual Food Tank Summit in Washington, D.C., where Winrock International President and CEO Rodney Ferguson joined other food and agricultural experts to discuss “Investing in the Food Movement.”

Ferguson had the opportunity to speak with Food Tank ahead of the summit to discuss what inspires him to address food challenges, how to better U.S. and global food systems, and the small changes everyone can make in their lives right now to make a difference.

Food Tank: What inspired you to get involved in food and agriculture?
Ferguson: When you look at the effects of climate change, the burgeoning populations of South Asia and parts of Africa, combined with our own problems of childhood obesity and food deserts here in the United States, the way we feed ourselves has an enormous impact on the planet. How we grow and consume food affects our water systems, our atmosphere, the oceans and biodiversity at all levels. If we are going to move toward sustainable and more resilient systems, we need to do food and agriculture right, and we need to do it fast. Winrock International is particularly well positioned to play a leading role in addressing all those challenges. That’s what inspired me to become involved with an organization that has a proactive approach to food and agriculture.

Food Tank: What do you see as the biggest opportunity to fix the food system?
Ferguson: I believe that creating and strengthening markets around the world is one of the most effective ways to lift people out of poverty. It’s also the best way to create food security. Internationally, we work to help connect smallholder farmers to local markets. We do that by building those markets which create opportunities for farmers to connect with buyers. In the United States, the Wallace Center at Winrock International is supporting the farm-to-table movement, by improving market access for smallholder farmers. I think there isn’t a more important task than providing farmers around the world with the ability to improve their own livelihoods. If we support and invest in farmers and the value chains they work within, we would all be amazed by the many positive results we will see in our health, education and longevity.

Food Tank: Can you share a story about a food hero that inspired you?
Ferguson: I have been particularly inspired by Majora Carter, who helped create a food hub in one of New York’s most underserved neighborhoods. When you learn about her story, it is almost unbelievable the hurdles she faced in her efforts to bring local, healthy food to one of the biggest, most sophisticated cities in the world. She demonstrated that, with enough perseverance, you can improve the healthy food access of virtually anyone, anywhere in the world. I was privileged enough to be working for the MacArthur Foundation, when she received the MacArthur Genius Award. I don’t think anyone’s ever been more deserving than her.

Food Tank: What drives you every day to fight for the bettering of our food systems?
Ferguson: I’m driven by the inequity that people around the world, and right here in the United States, experience in terms of access to good food. In this day and age, when we have such capacity for producing and distributing good food both locally and globally, it’s frustrating that we still have pervasive problems around hunger and food-related disease. We must do everything we can to find solutions to these challenges.

Food Tank: What’s the biggest problem within the food system that our parents and grandparents didn’t have to deal with?
Ferguson: My grandparents were tenant farmers in Alabama. I was lucky enough to spend part of my childhood on my grandfather’s farm. Over the years, I have seen how more and more people have become further removed from the production of our food. As a result, our inability to procure the best qualities of fresh, locally and responsibly produced food has increased. Many people have become so far removed from the understanding and appreciation of what constitutes real food.

Food Tank: What’s one small change every person can make in their daily lives to make a big difference?
Ferguson: Support locally grown farmers, fishers, beekeepers, livestock producers and food distributors. And do our best to ensure no one is ever further than a healthy walk away from fresh, healthy food.

Food Tank: What’s one issue within the food system you’d like to see completely solved for the next generation?
Ferguson: The threat of food insecurity to people’s lives, livelihoods and safety. Food should never be a weapon of war, or be withheld for political reasons. Food is a human right. Natural disasters will always interrupt food systems, and require food assistance. However, I hope we will reach a point where we no longer have to distribute food because of systemic deprivation and man-made crises.

Food Tank: What agricultural issue would you like for the next president of the United States to immediately address?
Ferguson: Agriculture depends on water. The Flint, Mich., water crisis should be a wake-up call to this country about the importance of ensuring our own food and water security. I think a massive undertaking is needed to ensure that every person in America has access to safe water and agriculture is focused on water-use efficiency and conservation. I would also like to see the next president address the entrenched agricultural commodity policy that keeps our agriculture from evolving and drives consolidation. I hope there will be a continued effort to expand local, healthy and sustainable food.

Motivated by his own past, CEO Rodney Ferguson has positioned Winrock International to offer solutions to the world’s most challenging problems

Interview by Chris Warren

Long before Rodney Ferguson became President and CEO of Winrock International, he was keenly aware of how development work can transform lives. As a young boy growing up in small-town Alabama, Ferguson was surrounded by the benefits of one of history’s most successful development initiatives. “We had electricity because of the New Deal. We had agricultural self-sufficiency because of the New Deal,” he says. “And my family was literally saved by the New Deal because my grandfather received agricultural subsidies during the Depression and World War II that allowed him to farm and feed his family.”

Though he left Alabama after college, Ferguson’s career has been animated by those early personal experiences and the conviction that disadvantaged people can better their own lives when given the right mix of resources, knowledge and opportunity. Indeed, for over 20 years Ferguson worked with a long roster of universities and nonprofits – everyone from the State University of New York (SUNY) to the MacArthur Foundation and Pew Charitable Trusts – to develop and implement innovative ways to empower people around the world.

Since becoming CEO of Winrock in April 2013, Ferguson has continued that mission; setting the organization on a course to become the most impactful development force in the industry. Approaching nearly three years on the job, Ferguson recently sat down for a wide-ranging interview in his Arlington, Va., office. Surrounded by mementos and photos from his travels to Winrock projects around the globe, Ferguson shared his thoughts on why a rapidly evolving development landscape demands internal change, what he’s learned since becoming CEO and why Winrock is uniquely positioned to deliver solutions to many of the world’s biggest problems.

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