Rebranding in a war zone, with Prosper Global (formerly Mercy Corps)

Introduction to Prosper Global

0:00We cannot settle for survival. We can't respond to choosing between today's crises and helping communities prepare for tomorrow. And also a message of hope and defiance, right? There are so many examples of people thriving and being able to do great things in the midst of really difficult circumstances. And so really trying to change the narrative about what our aspirations should be and what we can achieve. We are not aiming high enough.

0:30That's Jada McKenna, CEO of Prosper Global, which provides humanitarian support around the world and was long known as Mercy Corps. Jada just rebranded the organization to Prosper Global as we head into UN General Assembly Week in a bid to change the dialogue around crisis relief. With aid services under unprecedented financial pressure following funding pullbacks by the Trump administration, Jada talks about recent visits to Syria and Ukraine and Sudan, shares insights about conditions in Nepal after the devastating flood, and outlines what governments and donors are often missing when assessing crises.

1:11Jada's commitment to those in Nepal after the devastating crisis. Jada's commitment to those in need is warm, but her resolve is steely, even calling on AI firms to step up in helping nonprofits like hers. There's a lot to learn and be inspired by in her defiant optimism, so let's get to it. I'm Bob Safian, and this is Rapid Response.

Climate disasters and Nepal

1:32I'm Bob Safian, and I'm here with Jada McKenna, CEO of Prosper Global, formerly known as Mercy Corps. Jada, welcome back to the show. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here. I am eager to discuss the renaming of Mercy Corps. But first, I have to ask you about the, while I have you, the flooding in Nepal. You've been on the show before talking about humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and Gaza and Syria. What's the situation now in Nepal?

2:05Nepal is a devastating situation, and it is a country that in a matter of months has gone from crippling heat to now this severe catastrophe and flooding. And the reality is Nepal is very prone to climate disasters, mainly due to issues that they had no contribution to. Obviously, we're there helping people immediately in terms of food and hygiene kits and shelter. But what's really important for Nepal is really helping them to build for the future because these kinds of crises are recurrent. I mean, this one just feels like this crazy, unexpected kind of, you know, but the reality is there are these recurrent crises.

2:47And so, really, like, some of the longer-term work we've been doing in Nepal has been helping to, like, stop riverbank erosion by planting different grasses, helping people with emergency and disaster preparedness. And those are things that people need to kind of be resilient and survive the next one. And this particular slide that sort of started this all, do we know if it's, like, related to climate change? Will we ever definitively know? I think, you know, if it's related to, like, a melting glacier, I think there is, it's hard to argue that it's not climate change related.

3:21The reality is we have this increase in these very, like, dramatic, severe weather-related incidents, right? They're coming faster, like, closer together, more severe than they ever have before. And so, I think, you know, we can call it whatever we want, but we've, basically, we've got to meet the needs of people who are being impacted consistently by these kinds of crises.

Rebranding from Mercy Corps

3:44Issues. In the midst of that, Mercy Corps officially launched a rebrand to call itself Prosper Global. Yes. You've said that you outgrew the old identity. Can you explain that? You're not about mercy anymore? Yes. I think organizations outgrow identities just as people do. A lot of people's classic definition of aid is swooping in to save the day, whether it be food and, like, thinking of ourselves as the agents of mercy.

4:15And the reality is we are there in emergency situations providing people with what they need. But oftentimes, that crisis is just the beginning. And so, we're also there with communities, working with them to provide the conditions for longer-term sustainability and prosperity. So, when I would talk to potential donors about the kinds of things that we do, I would talk about cash assistance, but also things like seed insurance or the use of blockchain for identity management.

4:46And I had one time a potential donor said to me, that has nothing to do with your name, Mercy Corps. Like, these kinds of long-term, innovative, market-oriented things. Mercy Corps doesn't encompass that. Our evolution to Prosper Global really is trying to, like, shorten the conversation a bit, like, stating our values up front. We believe everybody has the ability to prosper, not just survive. Often, it doesn't take that many resources to do so, and we invite people into that journey with us.

5:17This focus on prosperity in the new name, it's not that it's changing the focus or the strategy behind the organization. It's more better reflecting what you've already been doing. Our mission and values are the source of continuity, not our name, right? So, our mission and values have been to help people live their best, full, productive lives, particularly people who are beset by issues caused by poverty, conflict, or climate change.

5:48That outward statement of our mission and values has not changed at all. I was having a conversation with someone about the fact that we have a venture capital fund and that we've had one for 10 years. And I was talking about, you know, the businesses that we invest in are businesses that serve the types of communities, but they're helping them with financial services products, like, things like better building materials for climate-related things. And someone said, but Mercy Corps, like, what are you doing doing venture capital? Like, why do you know about that?

6:18I think Mercy Corps really describes the way that aid started and just not what we are doing today, not how we operate, not where we are going and where we have been. I was thinking that it's not a typical, like, corporate rebrand because of how long and hard it can take for reputation and trust to be built in some of these communities where you work. And changing the name could make things more dangerous in the near term for some of those on the ground, physically dangerous.

6:53Yes, we are in over 30 countries. In many of those countries, we have, like, remote substation offices, a lot of times in conflict zones. And the communities know Mercy Corps. They knew to look for the prior Mercy Corps color. And so we do have a phased transition. It really has been country by country, people telling us, like, what the right timing is and what the context of that is. And so really getting people used to the fact that our identity has changed, talking to different government officials. But, you know, we work in very complicated countries sometimes with, like, contested governments, you know.

7:28There's not just one authority that you're talking to. And so it is a process. Safety is on the line. Like, we don't travel with armed guards. Like, we are not, we don't carry arms. Like, we are able to work because of the trust of the communities that we serve. I could see the conversations being maybe difficult for you with some of your team members who are there. Like, for you, in your conversations to raise money, sure, it's easier to have this name. But for them, changing it doesn't necessarily make it easier for them.

8:01You know, it's been interesting because people, 90% of our staff live and work in the communities where they're from. Some of our program staff were, like, the first people to really get it because they see themselves. They're like, yes, like, we are not just charity cases. Like, we want to prosper. Like, there are innovative things going on where we are. It was more people from the global north that were like, really? And I think a lot of our staff, like, they kind of got it right away and they felt really proud. This is us building our next chapter and how we want to be perceived in the world.

Rebuilding in Syria and Sudan

8:35You recently got back from a trip to Syria, I understand, which is faced a long war and an earthquake. Was that related to the rebrand? I think Syria is a great example of the rebrand and the need to move this conversation that you can't just settle for survival. You have a country that is emerging from a 14-year civil war. So, it's, you know, it's a country that needs to rebuild. It's facing just great devastation. I saw a lot of rebel. I did a road trip from Aleppo and Idlib down to Damascus.

9:06So, but you also, it's one of the few countries in the world where people are migrating back to. So, you have, like, millions of people who are returning home. At the same time, so there's this dichotomy of this great opportunity. At the same time, you have a lot of people still living in camps, still, like, needing basic needs being met. And even some of the returnees still basic needs. And they're returning to communities with no functioning water. You know, the water systems have been destroyed. Homes have been destroyed. I talked to a woman, Ola, whose husband was hurt in the war.

9:39Prior to the war, she did not work herself. She was in a community where it's not customary for women to do certain things. She was forced to kind of pick up the agriculture, start the land. We've been working with her to do, like, basic drip irrigation. We're rehabilitating the water system in the area. And in the process of working with us, she's learned how to ride a motorcycle. She's, like, found another group of women to work with. She's had to raise her daughters. And at the same time, dealing with a husband who's just no longer able to do these things and helping him get to the next level.

10:10So, and, you know, they want, they have people coming back into the community. They're trying to rebuild their lives. And so it's this, it's a great opportunity. Syria could be one of the really good news stories happening in the world. But I think there's so much going on in so many countries. It's getting forgotten. Well, we do get distracted by whatever the new tragedy or disaster is and sometimes lose sight of that longer road of recovery. Yes, and Syria is, like, in a region, you know, where everyone around is being affected by the Iran war.

10:46And a lot of returnees, you know, people are returning to Syria from not only places like Turkey, but from Lebanon, from Jordan, you know, places that are affected by the conflict itself. So it's an exciting time, but it's also a period that still needs support. You published a report recently called From Hormuz to Hunger, tracking how the Strait of Hormuz conflict is rippling through six fragile countries, right? Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Lebanon.

11:19So how does oil disruption in the Mideast lead to, you know, an empty food plate in Africa? Yes. I was in Sudan a few months ago. Many of these countries are reliant on the Strait of Hormuz for their basic fuel supplies. And this has affected fertilizer supply heavily. And so when I was in Sudan, you know, farmers have like a two to three week window in terms of getting seeds in the ground. The cost of fuel was up 60 percent. So now the cost of fertilizer is up.

11:49So now as people are making decisions about what to plant, what inputs they have, for some farmers, that could be the decision to abandon the land. Not only are people then grappling with the issue today, but now we are crippling food supply for the next season. You sounded almost optimistic about the possibilities in Syria. You don't sound quite as optimistic about Sudan. The reality is all these countries are like working to maintain and build a life during a war.

12:21Like one of my staff members, he's like, I am 27. I need to get married. Like I want, you know, I want to reunite with this person who's had to evacuate. So people want to live. And then at the same time, on top of that, we are throwing in higher fuel prices, higher food, less availability. But also as aid providers, we are able to do less because we ourselves are also paying more for fuel. You know, aid resources have already been taken away. And now it's even more expensive to serve the same people.

12:52And there is a human cost to that.

Ukraine grain and aid challenges

12:54You're still active in Ukraine. Prosper Global just joined the UN and the Ukrainian Red Cross to launch a grain storage program there. Ukraine's facing a big shortfall potentially from this year's harvest also. We have a very large programming of presence in Ukraine. I was in Ukraine in December. The reality is the nature of that war now. Russia is increasingly attacking civilian and economic infrastructure. There have been increasing attacks on ports, but also, especially with drones, on grain silos, on storage facilities.

13:31So even the farmers, there actually was a good harvest this year. But if you bombed out the silos and storage for people to store them, or if you've bombed the roads and the ports to move those grains out, then you've lost the income from that time period. And there are just deliberate attacks on this kind of infrastructure. And so we have been doing things like providing sleeveless grain storage, working with farmers, helping with demining. Because Ukraine was a breadbasket for a lot of the world, and it needs that food to care for itself in its own economy.

14:04When we talk about Prosper Global and helping people to not only survive the immediate, but to really build their future, that's exactly the kind of support. A lot of people have lost farm equipment, helping people to rebuild or figure out alternative paths. I wanted to ask you about Gaza, but I'm also struck by, like, I'm just going from one crisis to another, which I know is your life. But for a lot of folks listening, like, they might feel like, oh, my gosh, that is overwhelming. The number and the severity of crises, you've never had so many at one time.

14:39The need is relentless, and we have to be relentless in pursuing support. There's a current thing with the U.S. government to just do life-saving aid. That's actually the least effective thing to do. Working on prevention, trying to avoid these things is, like, seven times cheaper than coming in after it's happened. In your work, you're used to dealing with hostile political environments. But it is a little different when it happens in the U.S.

15:10Yeah, like, the pushback and just the misinformation about what aid is. You know, we were prepared to do this rebrand to Prosper Global before the beginning of the Trump administration. We put it on hold just to figure out where things were. In the midst of a crisis where there have been, like, you know, some funding has gone away, like, the sector is in a tough place. We've really, like, doubled down to help the American people really understand, like, the nature of humanitarian needs and what aid looks like today, right?

15:46And to correct a lot of misinformation or just things that people have been saying about it. I think the important leadership moment there is, like, being intentional. So there may be things that we have let go or not done, but, like, what are we building on? And building on that belief, like, our core belief that people deserve the right to prosper. And we do basic survival, but that's the minimum. And we shouldn't accept the minimum. And there's a cost to doing that that long-term leaves us worse off.

16:20Jada doesn't sugarcoat the challenges, but she's also optimistic that better outcomes are possible. So how will she use this year's U.N. General Assembly meeting to advance that goal? And could AI firms provide Prosper Global with a secret weapon? And we'll talk about that and more after the break. Stay with us.

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17:30So many of us feel overwhelmed right now. It feels like so much of the world is careening, and we don't have power. We don't have agency. That's the thing about the Masters of Scale Summit. It's really designed to remind us that we do have agency. Agency to lead. Agency to design. To build the relationships and the partnerships that empower us, and to make the change that we want to see. We program a stage. We curate an audience. We set a schedule that builds in time for these relationships to be made and to grow, so that by the time you leave Summit, you are fired out of a cannon, ready to run through walls to do better in the world.

18:09With the agency that you actually have. I hope to see you there. Visit mastersofscale.com slash summit.

18:19I hope to see you there.

18:49Every week, I sit down with the pioneers shaping our future, and we take you behind the scenes of the AI that's transforming our lives. Find pioneers of AI wherever you tune in. Before the break, CEO Jada McKenna talked about rebranding Mercy Corps to Prosper Global in the midst of major disruption in the crisis relief sector. Now, she talks about tapping both UN General Assembly Week and AI firms to amplify Prosper's impact.

19:23Plus, how an increase in natural disasters and altered wartime practices require a new playbook.

AI partnerships and future goals

19:30Let's jump back in.

19:40When there's all that pushback on foreign aid, you have to do more with less, right? Yeah, we have to do more with less, but we also are rebuilding an architecture in some ways as well. We have to just reinvent. All of the USAID offices and missions around the world did a lot of coordinating and information sharing, and all that has evaporated, has gone away. Is there a role that AI plays in this reinvention, or does it not really apply to humanitarian work?

20:12AI can't physically deliver things for you, and there are some limitations around what AI knows. But AI has been really, it's programmatically in terms of getting best practices, helping us to pinpoint more precisely what a community may need, or really anticipating what certain needs are. AI has been helpful in that, and one of the ways that we are hoping coming together is, and we haven't found the magic solution yet, but are there ways that we could better work with AI companies to really come up with something that really transforms humanitarian assistance?

20:45Where can we be using it to cut costs in some places? Are there opportunities to do things more? So are you in conversation with the AI companies about how they can- Yeah, we have been. We have been in conversations with them, and really, like I said, I would welcome more ideas. People, please reach out to me, tmckenna at prosperglobal.org, because we really would love to come up with more there. So I alluded to Gaza earlier.

21:14What's happening there now? Gaza is still a severe humanitarian situation in terms of displacement, the destruction of housing supply, the destruction of the hospital systems, and other infrastructure. You have a lot of people still living in tents. The sewage situation in Gaza remains dire. There has been an increase of food allowed in, but you still have situations where people can't afford it,

21:44or they may not be enough available because of transport or other things where things aren't available. Gaza is a good example of doing both ends. So we are meeting people's immediate needs by helping them, like getting them access to water. Clean water is very much an issue in Gaza right now. So like trucking water to people, getting them cash assistance to help buy food. But we also, we have an initiative that we've had for a long time called Gaza Sky Geeks, where we have trained people in remote technical work so that they can do more tech web-y stuff for others.

22:19And so we've set up a series of co-working spaces with electricity and facilities that people can go use so that they can still do their livelihoods and help to build themselves out of the crisis. So it's a situation where we are meeting emergency needs, but also trying to help people get their way back to sustainability. I saw that you said that the checks and balances governing international humanitarian law are being tested and violated. Was that specifically related to Gaza or is that a broader trend?

22:54That's a broader trend. You know, the first instances of that really being seen as a deliberate pattern was when Russia invaded Ukraine. So very quickly, we saw attacks on civilian infrastructure, like ports, like bridges, things that were traditionally off limits. And we've just seen that escalate across crises. So that spread to the way that warfare has been waged in Sudan. Like, you know, we believe there have been violations of international law in Gaza as well.

23:26And so we are seeing this pattern of this behavior, like spreading. Obviously, policy wonks understand it, that there are a lot of people that have no idea what international humanitarian law is. The millions of deaths and the destruction we saw in World War II that really made us create these rules that you can't have collective punishment. You need to allow people to go to school and have a hospital network. Civilians shouldn't pay. And that that we just see that violated all over the place right now. The U.N.'s annual General Assembly Week is coming up in New York City.

24:00It's a key gathering where historically some of these issues were would be addressed. What do you anticipate about about the mood this time around? The goals? The U.N. is under siege themselves in terms of its own funding. You know, the world dynamic has changed. I think the U.N. has still tried to be very assertive. I know there were recent declarations about drone warfare and the nature of autonomous drones. And, you know, like just another step towards increasing civilian casualty and loss and violations of wars.

24:34So I expect a very lively discussion and debate and we just need it to lead to more lasting action. Are there any specific goals that you and Prosper Global have or are hoping to achieve this year? I'm really looking forward to carrying the message that we cannot settle for survival. We can't respond to choosing between today's crises and like preventing them and helping communities prepare for tomorrow. And also a message of hope and defiance, right?

25:04People, these, there are so many examples of people thriving and being able to do great things in the midst of really difficult circumstances. We are able to do more with relatively small amounts of money. And so really trying to change the narrative about what our aspirations should be and what we can achieve. We are not aiming high enough. People sometimes say a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, you know, that we only learn things the hard way. Are there things that you've learned about leadership otherwise, things that others might benefit from that maybe you wouldn't have appreciated if you hadn't, you know, had to go through it?

25:44In a time where we had to contract really rapidly, there was a point where you had to say, look, it's not going back to the way it was before. And accepting that the status quo had changed, I've seen as a leader that I can take nothing for granted. Even using terms like internationally humanitarian law, I'm like, I might as well be speaking Greek to some people, right? So it's just like really breaking down step by step and, you know, just revisiting everything.

26:15Because at some point, you know, we can't just mourn what was. We've got to rebuild. And we have to make intentional decisions about where that's happening, where that isn't happening. And that's where the clinging to the mission and the values, not the structures, not the trappings. When the aid sector was thrown into crisis, I had laid off a lot of people. There was a moment where, like, in the midst of layoffs and just a lot of sadness, is it okay to make a further investment in changing your name?

26:51And I think that was the point where it was like, okay, the investment is in building our future. The investment is in changing the narrative. And this name change is absolutely imperative for us, like, securing that future. We were not accepting the trajectory as it is. We're like, we are going to remake the trajectory here. Well, Jada, I enjoyed having you on the show when it was Mercy Corps and, of course, even more as Prosper Global.

27:22Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me, Bob. Thank you. Thanks for having me on the show.

27:56In crisis, Ellen told me, don't play the cards you're dealt. Play the cards you want. When things are the toughest, that's when we define who we are by focusing on what we can control and cultivating hope in the face of despair. I'm Bob Safian. Thanks for listening. Hey, listeners, Bob here.

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