Tony Campolo Quotes

I think a lot of the problem with foreign aid and things like that is you go in, give a bunch of stuff, and then it runs out. It's about helping them learn how to continue to be sustainable and live.

You have to be willing to see that sometimes the governments of these poor countries don't come through. You have to think about that as a constraint. How do you help them be better? How do you come up with things that actually work, even in those tough situations.

It's always a tricky thing, trying to make aid sustainable.

Of course, aid is only one small part of international development. Some of the greatest benefits to the world's poorest can be achieved through policy changes by developed countries.

We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.

Humanitarian help will never solve any problems. It is necessary to help us create some kind of economic infrastructure.

Local businesses and communities must be included from the very start in developing solutions to fragility, violence, and conflict.

There are still many, many uncertainties, challenges and difficulties in Afghanistan. But we have to enable the Afghans to manage those challenges themselves. We cannot solve all the problems for the Afghans.

Our assistance in Somalia has been remarkably effective and successful, and we have helped with very small resources - a large group of people and we can now do even more.

To make sustainable progress in reducing extreme poverty will require improvements in both the quantity and quality of aid.

The United States should help strengthen nongovernmental humanitarian agencies working in Sudan so that they can handle an increased flow of aid.

Finally, I also come in recognition of the great work that has been undertaken by the NGOs and UN agencies that have been active for many years here, especially through the local staff and international staff here in Somaliland and in Somalia at large.

Rich countries have been sending aid to poor countries for the last 60 years. And, by and large, this has failed.

But when others suggested that the poor should not simply be the objects of these programs but also the subjects - that they should be actively involved in shaping the programs, making decisions about how to spend the money etc. - some of the previous supporters reconsidered.

I wrote 'The Blue Sweater' to inspire more people to become engaged in working to solve the problems of global poverty.

For our welfare reform efforts to be successful, we must empower local charitable organizations with the resources to address their local community needs.

Infrastructure alone won't end poverty. The World Bank had to learn this lesson, too. While we believed too much in bricks and mortar in our early days, we now understand that bringing together funding, technical expertise, and tested knowledge goes much further.

I make it a point to go home every weekend so I can meet with Georgians and hear from them directly.

Things come in waves, and I'm always more interested in places like, for instance, Chicago, where people don't follow fashion. They're not galloping past your window on the way to the latest anything. They're living their lives. You do a play, they come and see it and say, 'That's nice', and then they go home.

Primarily, we need to change 100 years of thinking, where we try to extend the promise of American life by moving things to Washington, and let's move it the other way: less of Washington, more from ourselves.

Since world demand [for foreign aid] exceeds are ability to supply, we are going to have to concentrate our emergency assistance in areas where it will be most effective.

Maximum Feasible Participation of the Poor

Many problems are so complex that even if we had the money to fix them, we wouldn't know how to do it. Fixing inner-city schools, reducing obesity, creating peace in the Middle East are just a few examples.

Human Needs Project is really about how to come up with a different approach to helping, really focusing on the dignity of people living in communities you are not a part of, and how to approach these communities with help, but more look at it as an investment and a collaboration with these communities rather than, 'Here comes the white savior!'

When I travel, I make certain that I spend at least half of my time in the field. You have to get out to meet people that are in poverty, that are looking to improve their lives. That's something that you can't read in books.