ADRA International Appoints Australian Leader Jonathan Duffy as New CEO
by AT News Team
The board of Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International voted Wednesday (October 10) to appoint the ADRA Australia country director, Jonathan Duffy, as the new president of the agency. His background is in public health and his record reveals a leader who encourages collaboration and innovation.
Sources have told Adventist Today that the search committee reported to the board with a ranked list of candidates that it had vetted and interviewed, in contrast to the abrupt change in leadership voted in 2010 which ended in conflict in June of this year. Pastor Geoffrey Mbwana, chairman of the board, described the process as “very transparent, very objective … one that gathered information from all levels of the organization.”
At least four other candidates were interviewed by the search committee, Adventist Today has been told. One of these was a current vice president and another was a senior staff member. The committee also talked to an Adventist who serves in a key position at World Vision. The search committee was chaired by an Adventist academic who is not a denominational employee. Adventist Today has been told that General Conference president Ted Wilson was not involved in the process.
Duffy was director of health ministry for the South Pacific Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church before he was appointed CEO of ADRA Australia in July 2008. He has written for the peer-reviewed Medical Journal of Australia and contributed to an analysis of the challenges faced by migrants in Yemen for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Relief published by IRIN.
Health promotion and community development have long been areas in which Duffy has worked. He has focused for several years on building resilience in young people, both in developed countries like Australia and in developing nations such as Fiji. In fact, ADRA Australia is one of the few national agencies in the ADRA network that has strong domestic projects, addressing the social issues of an industrial, urban society, as well as strong international development projects of the kind for which ADRA is better known.
The Fiji Times reported in June 2011 that Duffy was a key speaker at a symposium on youth resilience which brought together police, educators, health and corrections professionals. It was cosponsored by Fiji’s National Substance Abuse Advisory Council and ADRA. “Fiji is facing a youth crisis,” the newspaper quoted Duffy. “Modernization is eroding once strong family and community values. Creating resilient youths is about connecting them with families and other support groups, growing self-esteem and encouraging positive decision-making.” The gathering addressed the growing problems of alcoholism and drug use in the island nation and was “a first of its kind for the church in Fiji.”
The newspaper reported that Duffy was helping local leaders shape a “program designed to allow young people [to develop] internal strength to say no to risky behaviors. “It’s more beneficial than rules and regulations,” he told a reporter. Duffy has authored a book on how communities can build youth resilience as an effective approach to preventing substance abuse, teen pregnancy, HIV-AIDS and school dropouts.
Duffy is known by Australian media because of a bicycle tour he organized with five others in 2005 to promote youth services, health and fitness. They biked 4,000 kilometers in five weeks from Perth on the west coast to Sydney on the east coast. He spoke at scores of community meetings along the way. In 2007 he organized a similar tour with seven others, cycling the length of New Zealand from Cape Reinga to Bluff. These projects had a very serious purpose. “We have had very cynical social and youth workers turn up for the town meetings,” Duffy told journalists at the time. “But I have not heard one negative thing from them about” his wholistic approach to community youth work and prevention.
Another aspect of Duffy’s record is highlighted in the role he has played on the management committee for the Australian Research Institute (ARI). This is a serious, scientific research and development organization cosponsored by the denomination’s health care and higher education institutions, as well as ADRA and the food industry that the church owns in Australia. It is involved in public health, medical, nutrition and related research activities.
The official news release from ADRA International announcing Duffy’s appointed as president describes his achievements as country director in Australia purely in terms of fund raising. His leadership has “increased donations by 138 percent, the number of donors by 201 percent and the number of new donors by 271 percent.” Adventist Today has been told by sources that over the past few months donations to ADRA have declined significantly.
Duffy was educated at some of the top universities in Australia. He has an undergraduate degree from Flinders University with majors in biology and physical education, a Graduate Certificate in Health Management from Sydney University, and a Masters in Public Health from Deakin University. He also has a teaching diploma.
Adventist Today has previously reported on the developments at ADRA over recent months. The current issue of the print edition includes an in-depth article by Monte Sahlin about the larger issues faced by the agency and the future of Adventist humanitarian work.
Zoominfo provided research for this article.
A very good choice 🙂
They couldn't find someone with social work education in community development & superior organizational skills???
Can someone please explain the relationship between the SDA church and ADRA? What are the financial and policy connections and who or what agency directly oversees ADRA and to whom does ADRA have to report on its achievments, duties, and financial status. How much financial help, if any, comes directly from the church and how can a supporter of ADRA get reports on its operations and administrative costs. Is it required by law to report these figures annually?
Non-profits such as ADRA must file a 990 Form to the IRS, which is public record. A site I have used in the past to look at spending habits of non-profits is guidestar.org. I believe you need to register a free account to access the forms, but that should give you some of the information you are interested in.
My understanding is that the SDA Dorcas became ADRA. Probably in recent years they have become a separate charitable organization. It sounds like it is located on the same campus (?building) as the GC. I understand it has had questionable practices in the past (The story is the de-frocked past president may have had his hands in the till – I know he tried creative ways to obtain a full salary for both his wife and the executive VP's wife as the wives did not work outside the home.) I've wondered whether the Ingathering Offering each year went through ADRA. What happened to Ingathering? And when was it discontinued? It messed up pastors families every Christmas.
I suspect you can find out far more about ADRA and its relationship to the SDA Church by going online than what I can tell you. I have a good friend who worked with ADRA in Africa for many years, and he has told me that, despite Adventist Church control over the organization, there is in fact a high wall of separation between the Church, as a religious organization, and ADRA, as a humanitarian outreach. Most of ADRA's funding comes from the U.S. Government and U.N. Thus, it cannot be used to support the Church's religious mission in any way. In a very real way, ADRA provides, not just disinterested benevolence, but anonymous benevolence. Many church members would not support ADRA as they do if they realized how completely secular it is in its outreach.
My friend has told me that there is often considerable tension between ADRA officials in Africa and church clerics, who feel they should be able to use ADRA vehicles and resources. He told me that he has incurred the wrath of a former G.C. president, because he informed the president that he could not even pick him up at the airport in an ADRA vehicle, much less provide ADRA sponsored "limo" service while the president was visiting. I don't know if ADRA officials are this conscientious throughtout the world. But that's the way it is supposed to be.
Apart from the ability and willingness of ADRA workers to be to be living witnesses to the Gospel with their lives, aid recipients generally have no knowledge that the assistance they are receiving is sponsored by a religious organization, unless they know what the acronym, ADRA, stands for. And this is often a mandate, not only of the sponsoring governmental entities, but a requirement of the beneficiary countries, especially if they are Muslim.
Many church members in developing countries – and not just there – see no problem with using aid as an inducement to join the church. Some see it as extremely foolish not to do so. Many people join our church for the benefits that membership provides. We have accepted that when we publish stories about villages converting to Adventism because they observed God blessed the SDAs more than the Lutherans or other groups. What we never seem to mention is that the same village will often convert back if those blessings don't keep flowing.
We seem to find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that many people – wherever they live in the world – join for mostly, or even solely, pragmatic (even economic) reasons, not simply because they are convinced we have 'the Truth'. Convincing them of that may help keep them, but it is not usually the main reason they join. People in non-Western countries seem to be more comfortable with accepting that and working with it than we are.
Can Mr. Kevin Riley please name a few of these villages he refers to and where they are? How does one establish whether aid is used as an inducement to join the church? Where's the button on the gospel multimeter to measure this? Is there a document or policy stating this inducement ploy? People may come to church because they get helped, yes – but just assuming that it is intentionally used an inducement to join the church is defamatory and accuses the Church of misleading and deceiving these souls. Jesus helped and healed and ministered to many souls who followed him faithfully. Did he induce them with what he and offered them? The Church provides and assists destitute souls with aid which is inspired and driven in Jesus name. Adventists may not be the best at welfare ministry in all parts of the world but they are consistent in doing what they can for the poor and needy and those desperately seeking help and aid wherever we have a presence. In general, we are a kind and warm hearted people.
Joining the Adventist church may not be as beneficial as posited here in terms of trials and tribulations as Adventists have our fair share too. Then there are those who are ostracised from family and community for joining our church. Sabbath off from work is another major obstacle faced by Adventists and loss of higher earning potential is a result of this. First world Adventists have it kinda soft in comparison and yet are so quick to judge new converts coming into the church in developing countries many of them reeling in the aftermath of colonialism and tribalism. Women and men are asked not to wear jewellery and make-up so that also is a huge non-benefit to those who cling to these things. Then there is eating and drinking guidelines as well as lifestyle and behaviour standards which many turn their backs on. So I disagree that those joining are induced to by aid or that they offer any real major spin-offs. The spiritual, health, educational, family, personal benefits outweigh any of the deterrents especially knowing Jesus. Adventists really know who Jesus is and what he means to them. Those who experience this – stay.