Although the organization's roots were grounded in part in Christian pacifism, it operated on a nonsectarian basis, accepting volunteers regardless of their religious beliefs or nationality.
IVS was founded and its organization and program heavily influenced by: 1) staff of the new U.S, foreign assistance agency in 1953; 2) private individuals from traditional peace churches and other groups; and 3) its first Executive Director.
Two men in the newly created TCA, Stanley Andrews and Dale D. Clarke, saw the potential to tap talents of the religious community for the new initiative.
Andrews identified about 75 religious organizations with programs around the world that understood local conditions and were supported by American citizens, who were willing to work for the common good.
[1] The church representatives agreed that there was a role for young, well-trained agriculturalists and nurses to work in rural villages of developing nations.
IVS’s corporate charter, dated February 16, 1953, stated as its first objective “to utilize the services of volunteers on an organized basis to combat hunger, poverty, disease, and illiteracy in the underdeveloped areas of the world and thereby further the peace, happiness and prosperity of the peoples thereof.” [4] Arrangements for initial projects in Egypt and Iraq were completed by July, when the first meeting of the IVS Board of Directors confirmed the concepts for the new organization.
Evans of Prairie View A & M College, Captain William H. Tuck, director general of international refugees during World War II, Carl C. Taylor of the Ford Foundation, and Margaret Hickey, an attorney, journalist, and women's rights activist.
Managing the fledgling IVS organization fell to its first Executive Director, John S. Noffsinger, who assumed the position in 1953 and served until he left to work at the new Peace Corps in 1961.
IVS’s initial program model was that of sending teams of volunteers for two-year assignments to work on rural development from training centers supported by the U.S. International Cooperation Administration (Egypt, Iraq, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam).
[1] Some U.S. Government funding continued for specific and comprehensive country projects including operating costs, construction, materials, training, and other inputs complementing volunteer services (Sudan, Bangladesh, Botswana).
At the same time, a change in USAID policy provided central program funding for NGOs and allowed IVS to independently launch project activities in countries of its choice (Mauritania, Honduras, Indonesia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Papua New Guinea, Sudan).
Increasing numbers of staff and volunteers were recruited from outside the U.S. IVS was forced to compete for funding with other NGOs, many of which were engaged in economic development and relief work.
IVS lost its unique volunteer-based program model but continued its commitment to community level service delivery and participatory development.
The first four country programs were in the Middle East and South Asia for the following reasons: 1) individuals from the Peace Churches had prior experience in the region; 2) the U.S. foreign assistance agency staff of the International Cooperation Administration (ICA) [Link to his Wiki article] supporting establishment of IVS had contacts there; and 3) the area was a priority for U.S. foreign policy due to the political tensions following formation of Israel.
Iraq, Nepal, Liberia, Cambodia) forced to close due to shifts in international relations, U.S. government strategies, or host country policies.
[17] This climaxed in 1967, when 49 IVS volunteers signed a letter addressed to President Lyndon Johnson and shared with the New York Times describing the devastating impact of the U.S. military presence in Vietnam.
The Bangladesh Program was prominent with its work in agriculture, horticulture, and health and family planning, as well as its support to development of local NGOs.
Donor agencies, particularly the U.S. government, were unwilling to fund larger programs, in part because the Peace Corps was fielding large numbers of volunteers.
In a few cases (Sudan, Botswana, Bangladesh), IVS obtained USAID country funding for comprehensive projects including operating costs, construction, materials, training, and other inputs to complement volunteer services.
Other agencies could just as easily hire local staff for their projects, and IVS’s unique institutional capability for value addition to international development was eroded.
An earlier model for this had been Friends In Village Development, Bangladesh (FIVDB), which spun off from an IVS activity in 1979 to become a sustainable local NGO.
[9] When the eventuality of closing IVS became unavoidable, the organization committed itself to establishing its remaining operating programs in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Bangladesh as national NGOs.
[6] This decision coincided with a policy change within USAID to require a 50 percent matching contribution for its grants to private voluntary organizations.
[1] IVS received private funding from many churches, corporations, individuals, European organizations, and others, but amounts were modest and often covered only country activities and not the Washington management and overhead costs.
[6] IVS was an ambitious experiment, positing that placing young people in foreign countries and institutions could promote social and economic development.
This was important to the Peace Churches, whose members frequently sought “conscientious objector” status and avoided serving in the military, because of their opposition to war.
[9][24] Archival materials of Charles F. Sweet, an IVS volunteer who served in Vietnam during wartime, are available at Cornell University Library in its Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.
[1] [6] Notwithstanding the diverse, highly personal, scattered and often short activities of volunteers, IVS has left its mark after its closure March 31, 2002.
[10] They passed this proposal on to President John F. Kennedy, whose administration launched the Peace Corps, drawing on IVS staff and operational policies in its establishment.
[1] Over the years IVS's innovative programs guided by its executive directors and board members with diverse backgrounds provided lessons and direction for many other development efforts.