We try to make comprehensible the incomprehensible responses from those we criticize

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Our targets for criticism have evolved a new tactic of writing longwinded unreadable responses (at least Vernon Smith had brilliant ideas underlying his unreadable book reviewed today). So the Global Development Network wrote us a bureaucratic reply to the charge that they were too bureaucratic. World Vision’s reply to our charge that they were inappropriately manipulating our feelings towards children generated a similarly long-winded reply. To avoid the “tl;dr” comment we got on the GDN response, we did World Vision the service of extracting the high points of their response below. (We posted their letter in full here.) On a far more positive note, we are always grateful when organizations take the time to respond and we think it is a good sign of organizational health and accountability.

Thank you for inviting us to respond…

…World Vision does not focus on children in order to 'tug at the heart strings' and gain greater support for our campaigning and fund-raising work. Rather, World Vision focuses on children as, globally, more children than adults by far live in poverty … and are generally much more

susceptible to the effects of poverty than adults, especially during infancy…

…In response to the comment concerning children's participation at international meetings such as the G8, World Vision, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, strongly believes that children have a right to express their views in all decisions that will affect them….

…However, we recognise that children's participation, particularly at large national or international events can often amount to little more than tokenism. As such, in 2008, World Vision worked with Plan International, Save the Children, UNICEF and others to develop minimum standards for children's participation at these events in order to ensure that their engagement is both meaningful and beneficial to all present…

Yours sincerely,

Philippa Lei Senior Child Rights Policy Adviser World Vision UK