Lisa Cescon

INTREPID talks to World Vision's Chief Executive Officer Lisa Cescon, and asks about her opinion on the ever debated issue of poverty world wide.

INTREPID: Tell us briefly about how you got to where you are today?
Lisa: In Christchurch I trained as a chartered accountant and went straight into management. I had an element of early success quite early on in my career. I'm quite a greedy person, always pushing the bounds, wanting more, and getting bored quite quickly, so I moved up the ranks of the businesses I worked for. After four years I decided I needed more maturity, so took a year out and studied a Bachelor of divinity in Auckland. I then ran out of money and went to London where I ended up back in management, and I worked for the movie company 'Warner Brothers,' as the Deputy Managing Director. That was a very challenging and exciting role.
I had always had a passion to volunteer, and while in London for 10 years I worked part time at a homeless shelter, that worked to resettle homeless people in the city. After Warner Brothers I then decided to live off my savings for a few years and I threw everything in and went to Cambodia. Most people said, 'you're crazy nobody does that,' because I was at the peak of my career.
In Cambodia I helped set up prison fellowship and it was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was absolutely fantastic. At the start of my time there I would only get 10 minutes with the prisoners who were dying from every kind of terrible disease. Nothing prepared me for the decisions I had to make there. My time in Cambodia was very demanding.
After working with the marginalised for so long I needed to get a fresh grip on reality and so I then took a year off and travelled. I wanted to refresh and re-orientate myself. I then came to New Zealand and had been in the country for one day when I was told about the CEO position at World Vision, and so I applied and got the job. I've been working there now for one year and four months.

INTREPID: What are your goals as CEO of New Zealand's largest Aid Agency?
Lisa: They brought me in to bring change. And I love change. We've had a lot of change over the last year with a new strategic plan. Rather than just finding new ways of asking people to give their money, we want to focus on advocacy. We want to communicate the difference we're making, and to encourage New Zealanders to believe in our vision. We also want to encourage the government to support policies that prevent the spread of poverty here and worldwide.
Also something that no charity has cracked, is how to incorporate new technology such as Facebook, Myspace and Youtube to engage people in a fresh way.

INTREPID: What is New Zealand's biggest problem when it comes to combating poverty in the world?
Lisa: I've done a lot of travelling, in fact I've lived overseas for 18 years, and there are many New Zealanders who are doing amazing things. I've found New Zealanders are very generous on a whole and we tend to punch well above our weight.
I think New Zealanders are almost fatigued when it comes to hearing about natural disasters. Since 1982 the UN has been tracking natural and man made disasters around the world. In 1982 there were two disasters on record, and last year alone there were 162. The graphs have been steadily going up and up, probably no thanks to climate change. I think people that give to help the recovery of a disaster stricken community may feel their money isn't making much difference.
One thing we as World Vision want to communicate to New Zealanders is that the money does make a huge difference. In one town in Tanzania 45,000 people's lives have been dramatically changed over the last 15 years, due to the direct result of New Zealanders generously giving. That's a story that does work, and these stories need to be communicated properly.

INTREPID: What can you say about the contrast between New Zealand women compared to some of the poorer women around the world you've met?
Lisa: For World Vision an indicator we often use is how many women in a particular country have a person available at birth? In New Zealand there is always someone available at every birth, but in some countries world wide there are countless women who deliver their babies unattended. Often women and children are the lowest of the low, the bottom of the pecking order in poor communities, and are often the hardest hit by poverty.
We want to empower New Zealand women who were the first to gain the vote and are big on equal rights, to help empower women overseas who are far from being equal.

INTREPID: If you had unlimited resources how would you combat poverty in the world? And where would you start?
Lisa: I would start with the poorest of the poor. I would fund all of the projects, and child sponsorships we have going at the moment, and find more. But more importantly I would strive to allow the communities we help to become self sufficient.

INTREPID: A question that many people have of charity organisations is, how much money actually goes overseas?
Lisa: We have an open door policy at World Vision where people can walk in to the office and see exactly how we work. At least 75 cents in every dollar goes overseas.