Columbia | SIPA

Health Services in Kisumu Slums

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 09:48:30 -0400

by Mariana Costa Checa (MPA-DP ‘13)

Julia is the owner of Kisumu Eastlands Community Medical Center– a one-bedroom adobe house with an old HIV prevention poster hanging on its unpainted walls. By U.S. standards, it could be anything but a medical facility. In Manyatta, the biggest slum in Kisumu, it is just one of the many small private clinics providing basic healthcare to the inhabitants of these dust-covered streets.

As part of our internship with Millennium Cities Initiative this summer, fellow MPA in Development Practice student Paloma Ruiz and I, are collaborating with Kenya’s Ministry of Health to do a mapping of all health facilities in one of Kisumu’s districts. Despite being the third largest city in Kenya, Kisumu has traditionally performed poorly in terms of health, with an HIV prevalence rate that doubles the Kenyan national average. Precise information on where and how are people being treated is key to change this reality, and although the government has a comprehensive database of health facilities in the city, this excludes the dozens of informal clinics populating the slums, which is why we have decided to focus our work there.

Julia is a retired nurse. She worked for more than 30 years at the Nyanza Provincial Hospital, the biggest public hospital in this region of Kenya. This is, at least, a guarantee that she knows her profession, and that despite the frequent lack of supplies and medicines to actually treat patients, she can guide them on what to do when it comes to common illnesses such as malaria, typhoid, or HIV-AIDS.

Considering how small Julia’s clinic and most of the others we visited are, and given that usually there are two or three people employed and rarely any patients in sight, I have been wondering how these clinics keep up their business. Seeing one or two patients per day, Julia probably earns no more than 200 or 300 shillings (around $3), from which she still has to pay her assistant.

A trained retired nurse earning less than $2 a day is the reflection of an economic system with almost non-existent business opportunities. Slum economies like Manyatta’s are overcrowded with (far from efficient) businesses, providing the few services some people are trained in, and those that others must buy, such as health. In part, it is this lack of opportunity for other businesses to arise in Manyatta that has made small clinics like Julia’s flourish despite their minimal economic benefits.

This is the same reason why there are usually 10 piki piki (motorbikes that serve as taxis) waiting for one occasional client on every corner; why street vendors sell more shoes than Kisumu citizens and their unborn children could ever possibly wear; or why three people work in a matatu (small transport bus) that could do with just the driver.

In Manyatta and Nyalenda, the main slums in Kisumu, many businesses are providing services where probably just one provider would do. The reasons behind this are clear and common in most poor settings. The same dynamics operate in many parts of my own country, Peru. It is a way of sharing minimal business opportunities and securing more employment, even if it is underemployment.

When it comes to health, however, this system also entails risks that go beyond economics. Almost anyone can sell shoes or learn how to drive a motorbike, but can anyone treat malaria adequately? Certainly not. Although, from what we have seen in Kisumu’s slums, the presence of a certified health professional, like Julia, is not necessarily a requisite for an institution to be called a “clinic”.

We hope that more information on who is providing health services in the most vulnerable communities of the city, and how are these being provided, will contribute to the current efforts undertaken by the government to improve the delivery of public health in Kisumu and as such, the living conditions of those who most desperately need it.

Mariana Costa Checa
MPA in Development Practice Candidate, 2013
School of International and Public Affairs | Earth Institute
Columbia University

SIPA Celebrates Capstone Workshops

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:54:00 -0400

More than 150 students, faculty, and Capstone clients were on hand May 3 as second-year MIA and MPA students celebrated the completion of this year’s Capstone workshops in the Kellogg Center at IAB. Guests enjoyed drinks and hors d’oeuvres — as well as a representative sample of student findings.

Joined by Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Dan McIntyre, Interim Dean Robert Lieberman saluted participating students and faculty advisers. The workshops, Lieberman said, are one of SIPA’s “hallmarks,” where the lessons of the classroom meet the practical challenges of the real world.

Over four months collaborating with selected public agencies, private companies, and nonprofit organizations students put their policy education and professional experience into practice —producing recommendations that clients can follow in the near future.

Suzanne Hollmann, Capstone program director, said that multiple clients had already expressed eagerness to implement student recommendations. And, she added, the team that visited Uganda — to study how the government might effectively manage newly found oil reserves — even attracted mentions in the Ugandan press.

All told, 362 students took part in 60 projects during the 2011-12 academic year, mostly in the spring semester. The five projects highlighted at the presentation included:

Evaluating the impact of budget reductions to the Department of Parks and Recreation’s tree maintenance program in Brooklyn (New York City Mayor’s Office of Operations)
Central and sub-national government fiscal relations: Indexing the risk posed to central governments by their sub-national governments’ contingent liabilities, Moody’s Investors Service
Global Commodities Research Politics and economics of the rare earths industry, Citigroup
Mapping youth access to contraception and abortion information and services in Ethiopia, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Data sharing in support of U.S. counter-terrorism efforts, The Markle Foundation

Congratulations to students on their successful completion of the workshops, and their impending graduation!

"If you don’t learn about China and energy, you’re missing half the story."

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:21:00 -0400

“If you don’t learn about China and energy, you’re missing half the story.”

-
SIPA Visiting Professor Manuel Pinho, Director of the International Energy MBA at the Lisbon Institute and former Minister of Economy and Innovation of the Portuguese Government.

Professor Pinho will be teaching at Renmin University in Beijing this summer.

“The course I will teach there is a short version of my SIPA course,” said Pinho. “My focus being energy, I’m excited to be going to China.”

Pinho explained that over the next 25 years, more than 90% of increased energy demand and consumption will come from non-OECD countries. China is already the leading consumer, and will continute to be so.

“I am really looking forward to teach Chinese students and also to get more knowledge about energy in China,” he said. “China has always been an important part of my courses at SIPA, and I think it will be even more so in the future.”

Pinho plans to meet with folks working in companies in the energy sector, which he says are the largest companies in the world, with the most innovation and investment. That’s why he finds it very important to get to know them better.

“It’s great to go somewhere with such intense activity in energy,” he said. “I’m very excited to go to China and then to have the opportunity to share my experience with my SIPA students.

I’ve been teaching at SIPA for two years, and, by the day, I see that there’s more interest by students. The demand for information about China increased dramatically in just one year. I expect this will continue to increase because students understand the importance of China and energy.”

- Michelle Chahine

SIPA Student Named United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Fellow

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:35:41 -0400

Mohsin Mohi-Ud Din  (MIA ’12) was selected as a 2012 United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) Fellow. He joined twelve fellows from the United States and Europe in touring the Middle East from April 2^nd to April 14th, visiting various cities in Morocco, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The UNAOC was a 2005 initiative of then Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the governments of Spain and Turkey. The program was established to enhance dialogue between the West and the Muslim world, especially after 9/11 and subsequent events. Under that banner, UNAOC has a fellowship program, whereby young leaders from Europe and North America are chosen to travel to the Middle East each year, and vice versa.

Mohi-Ud Din is one of four Americans in the 2012 fellows group. Others from the United States and Europe who travelled with him include a former White House fellow who worked with former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, lawyers, lobbyists, a Professor of economics from Sciences Po, journalists, entrepreneurs and leaders of civil society.

“It was really gratifying and humbling to be in that diverse group of leaders in their field,” said Mohi-Ud Din.

“My role in going there, especially as a member of the Muslim community in the United States, was to really touch on how the Arab Spring is affecting things, and how U.S. policies and Islamophobia are affecting things,” he added. “Islamophobia was a great concern, wherever we went.”

The UNAOC fellows spent 4-5 days in each country meeting with government officials, civil society leaders, youth activists, and presidents of universities, among others. Their travels began in Morocco.

Mohi-Ud Din inside the Moroccan Parliament, where the fellows met with several members.

“The three best meetings in Morocco were with members of parliament and especially three female members of parliament from the opposition, which was very insightful,” said Mohi-Ud Din.

Next, the UNAOC fellows travelled to Jordan, where they were hosted by the Ministry for Political Development and had the opportunity to meet with the Speaker of Parliament.

The UNAOC fellows meet with the Speaker of Parliament in Jordan.

In Saudi Arabia, the fellows were hosted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as with alums of the UNAOC fellowship.

“Saudi Arabia was probably my favorite part of the trip,” said Mohi-Ud Din. “Because, first, it’s hard to get in the country. And second, I had many preconceptions of oppression there. My preconceptions about Saudi Arabia were shattered. I found pockets of innovation, women empowerment and activism that I never thought I would see in a place like that… It’s very empowering. They want to change the status quo.”

They also met with one of the chief architects and philosophers in the country, Dr. Sami Angawi.

Mohi-Ud Din (right) with Dr. Angawi.

“He connected architecture to how we should see international affairs. He said, in life, there are constants and variables. And right now, there’s an imbalance to those forces. The key is a third player, which is us, that we need to be a balancing force,” said Mohi-Ud Din.

“He also talked about how he designed his house to accommodate for winds from the north and winds from the south, so there’s a constant breeze—in a place like Saudi Arabia where it is always so hot! That was really symbolic to me, for why we were on the trip.”

The twelve Middle Eastern fellows will be travelling to the United States soon, where they will meet their Western counterparts. Mohi-Ud Din said that they were planning to develop a network and possibly create a conference to present conclusions from their travels and strategize recommendations on how to move forward.

“Once you’re in the Alliance of Civilizations, it’s a lifelong membership. You’re constantly thinking of ways to promote dialogue,” he said.

He was first encouraged to apply to the program because of his time as a Fulbright scholar in Morocco, where he created an arts diplomacy initiative geared towards youth empowerment, particularly disadvantaged Muslim youth. The program was implemented in three orphanages in the country, and last year, Mohi-Ud Din travelled to Kashmir to implement the program in a fourth orphanage there.

Before coming to SIPA, Mohi-Ud Din had been working on human rights in Kashmir, where his family is from, since 2003. He first did independent investigations of human rights absues in the region, which he started writing about on The Huffington Post. This work lead to internships with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and a job at Human Rights First in the Crimes Against Humanity division.

His blog on The Huffington Post has since expanded to various other topics, such as on U.S. Muslim relations.

“My next series on the column will be about the fellowship,” he said.

- Michelle Chahine

The Future of the City

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:35:37 -0400

Columbia University’s Journal of International Affairs held its signature Thought Leadership Forum on Monday, April 23rd, 2012 at SIPA to launch its 65th anniversary issue: “The Future of the City,” an exploration of pressing global challenges through an urban lens.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer was the keynote speaker. He laid out his vision for the future of New York City.

“Successful cities are those who will meet the needs of an increasingly mobile and knowledge-based workforce,” said Stringer.

He stated three objectives for New York: first, create strong neighborhood-based governments; second, increase transparency; and third, focus on both hard and soft infrastructure, especially human capital.

“In our increasingly mobile world,” he added. “It’s no longer about having the fastest trains or best housing.”

Stringer’s address was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Professor Ester Fuchs, Director of SIPA’s Urban and Social Policy Program.

Left to right: Alexander Garvin, Jeffrey Inaba, Greg Lindsay, Ester Fuchs, Kavitha Rajagopalan, Carne Ross, Saskia Sassen and Jesse Keenan.

The diverse panel of thought leaders discussed various aspects of the city from urban planning to technology, immigration to democracy.

Professor Saskia Sassen, selected as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2011 by Foreign Policy magazine and a contributor to the Journal’s new issue, closed the discussion with general thoughts on cities.

“The city serves as a lens to understand enormously complex events,” she said.

“What makes a space a city? Cities are, one, a complex system, two, an incomplete system—and in that incompleteness lies the ability to outlive empires, multinational corporations… Third, in cities, norms are made.”

Sassen added that there is no perfect global city that can do it all, nor is there an idea about the perfect imperial capital city any longer. Rather, there is now a network of global cities. She ended with a call to listen to and learn from the city itself.

“Cities have speech,” said Sassen. “It’s a speech that’s been forgotten. If we begin to think that cities talk back to us… that opens possibilities.”

This event was live tweeted. For more highlights and quotes from the keynote speaker and panelists, click here:

http://storify.com/ColumbiaSIPA/the-future-of-the-city

“The Future of the City” is now on sale at select Barnes & Noble bookstores, online at the Journal’s website and as a Kindle e-book at Amazon.com.

- Michelle Chahine

Launch of the Center on Global Economic Governance On Thursday,...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:44:00 -0400

Launch of the Center on Global Economic Governance

On Thursday, April 26, 2012, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs launched its new Center on Global Economic Governance (CGEG). The event featured a keynote address by Alan Krueger, Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, followed by a panel discussion on the European crisis.

Columbia University Provost John H. Coatsworth opened the launch of CGEG, an idea which was born under his tenure as Dean of SIPA in 2008.

“The global economic crisis made us all painfully aware of the need to understand global economic policy,” he said.

The Director of the new center, SIPA Professor Jan Svejnar explained CGEG’s mission:

“We envision CGEG producing a new wave of policy recommendations on global economic issues, stressing excellence and impact,” he said.

Svejnar then introduced his former student, Alan Krueger, and his keynote address, “Reversing the Middle-Class Jobs Deficit.” Krueger outlined President’s Obama’s plans and economic policies to revive the middle class.

“The middle class jobs deficit is both cyclical and structural,” he said. ”Reversing the middle class jobs deficit requires playing both good defense and good offense. Both are necessary.

Defense means that we as a nation want to hold on to and promote as many good jobs as possible. Offense means we want to provide opportunity for new companies and training for workers to meet the demands of the modern workforce.”

Watch Krueger’s full address above, or read more about the speech on:

After Krueger’s remarks, SIPA Interim Dean Robert Lieberman introduced the panel, “Will Europe Derail the World Economy?” as the first of many such global economic policy conservations stemming out of CGEG.

“This is the kind of discussion which we think can only happen at a place like Columbia and SIPA,” Lieberman said.

“There’s no such thing as national or local public policy anymore. The challenges that the United States faces are deeply interconnected with things that happen elsewhere in the world. It’s to that new kind of challenge to which SIPA and our new Center for Global Economic Governance are devoted.”

Watch the panel discussion above, moderated by Kathleen Hays of Bloomberg Radio and featuring SIPA Professors Guillermo Calvo, Merit E. Janow, Sharyn O’Halloran, Jeffrey Sachs and Svejanar.

This event was also live-tweeted. For highlights and notable quotes from both Krueger’s speech and the panel, click here:

http://storify.com/ColumbiaSIPA/launch-of-the-center-on-global-economic-governance

- Michelle Chahine

Counterterrorism vs. Civil Liberties: Finding the Right Balance in a Post 9/11 World

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:39:27 -0400

On Monday, April 16, 2012 a panel was held at SIPA, moderated by Interim Dean Robert C. Lieberman, to discuss questions that have arisen from recent news about NYPD surveillance of student groups on New York City campuses, including Columbia University.

“It seemed like a good idea to convene a discussion here at SIPA, because the issues raised seemed to be at the core of policy,” said Lieberman as he introduced the panel, “the balance between counterterrorism efforts and civil liberties, in an extraordinarily diverse New York City.”

In a discussion that was more about starting the debate around these policy issues than about finding the answers, Lieberman posed a series of questions for the panelists: SIPA Professor Ousmane Kane, Columbia Law School Professor Daniel Richman and Haroon Moghul, journalist, author and Ph.D. Candidate at Columbia University in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies.

From left to right: Haroon Moghul, Professor Richman, Professor Kane and Dean Lieberman.

“There are at least two sets of interlocking questions,” said Lieberman. “One is about this balance that I alluded to before: the balance between the need for security and protection in a dangerous world and civil liberties, the protection of basic freedoms that are essential parts of a liberal society.

The second set of questions is about the impact of those efforts on the Muslim community in New York City and Columbia. Does this invoke legitimate fears of racial, religious and ethnic profiling? How legitimate are these approaches on the part of police in attempting to combat terrorism? The university can’t be what it should be without absolute freedom of speech. Should there be different standards at universities than out in the ‘real world’?”

The unique role of the university as a hub for bringing youth together to discuss and explore ideas was a major point of discussion. Professor Kane emphasized that a principle “concern is these measures were taken, Muslim Student Associations infiltrated, without universities’ knowledge.

“In universities where people are really open, I think these surveillance techniques are really problematic,” he said, adding that cooperation could go much further than secret surveillance.

“Instead of sending spies or people who would infiltrate Muslim Student Associations, it would be better for enforcement agencies to cooperate and work with these people.”

Moghul who has travelled to various Muslim Student Associations in universities across the United States agreed:

“For those of us who do put ourselves forward and try to be engaged and work with the NYPD and government, this puts us in a tight position from both ends.”

He added that since 9/11, two out of five terrorist plots against the United States have been stopped with help by the Muslim community.

“The problem is, when you have this kind of environment, people may shy away from speaking up and giving help… When making these decisions, we’re thinking short-term security, but we should also be thinking long-term security.

Human networks and human intelligence can do a lot more.”

This led Dean Lieberman to raise the question of whether this kind of activity from American law enforcement agencies does more harm than good.

“Another set of questions,” he continued, “is that we’re not talking about the FBI or national security apparatus. We’re talking about the local police force. Should local law enforcement agencies in large urban areas function as an arm of national security of the state?”

Professor Richman began by saying that SIPA is the right building to have this discussion.

“I’m here to tell you how little the law has to say on these issues. Don’t think that the law school is going to give you answers.”

He added that he does believe the NYPD has an important role, but the question is how much of a role. Richman gave the audience an optimistic picture with regards to the future:

“The idea that we’ve settled on a model that a) works, and b) is economically and morally viable is wrong,” he said.

“There’s no guarantee that when everyone internalizes the obvious pressures, things will be where we want them to be, but there are pressures that can help. And part of the university’s role is to remind people what their own interests are in the long term.”

Lieberman ended the discussion by reminding the group that the policy debate was in the gray area of these issues:

“From our point of view, all the interesting questions are in the nuances. It’s not: should the NYPD do it or not? It’s: where is the line?

It sounds like this is a very rich set of topics for further discussion.”

- Michelle Chahine

"You are not only trying to make a product just for research, but to have someone use it and make an..."

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:39:22 -0400

“You are not only trying to make a product just for research, but to have someone use it and make an effect in people’s lives… That’s the ultimate goal, especially in our Sustainable Development program: creating a product that will make a difference in people’s lives.”

- Aly Sanoh, PhD in Sustainable Development Candidate, expected to graduate in May 2012.

During his six years in SIPA’s PhD program, Sanoh has focused on national electricity planning in and across African countries. He has published his first two papers on this topic:

National electricity planning in settings with low pre-existing grid coverage: Development of a spatial model and case study of Kenya (2009)

Local and national electricity planning in Senegal: Scenarios and policies (2011)

Sanoh has already made a difference in real-world policy decisions. The infrastructure modeling that he did in these papers for local and national electricity planning in Senegal and Kenya was a factor in the World Bank’s decision to finance a $20 million wind project in Senegal and a $60 million energy project in Kenya, according to him.

A central topic of his thesis has been an infrastructure development project that looks at expanding electricity networks in Africa on a continental scale by conducting economic modeling.

“How do you do that in the best way, in the cheapest way?” he asked. “Because resources are there, what is the best way to move them? Institutionally, it’s a horror.”

For example, there are security issues. The Congo has a lot of resources and little need, while South Africa has little resources and high need. However, there are risks in having your resources depend on a country that’s at war. Sanoh proposes different scenarios to minimize risks.

“You have to package it in a way that’s appealing to both sides,” he said.

“I’m proposing to reduce regional barriers. It’s always good to do integration, but you always have to show benefits and costs. So I’m happy to show what’s gained from it is greater than what’s lost.

I’m going to prove numerically that what I’m proposing as a plan is a better option economically and socially.”

- Michelle Chahine

Avoiding the Resource Curse in Uganda

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:22:35 -0400

“Oil Bills: Will they erase our doubts?“ was published in the Ugandan newspaper The Daily Monitor while SIPA Professor Jenik Radon and his students were in Uganda in March doing field research for a Capstone Workshop. Professor Radon and Marie-Paule Jeansonne (MIA ‘12) are both quoted in this article, commenting on the latest draft of two petroleum bills currently being considered by the Ugandan Parliament.

Eight SIPA students have been working on a Capstone Workshop that focuses on Uganda’s “Oil Bills,” conducting research to make recommendations on ways to effectively legislate and manage newly found oil reserves.

The team’s initial comment on the legislation, which was put together by Jeansonne and Sri Swaminathan (MPA ‘12) under the guidance of Professor Radon, has been quoted in various media outlets in Uganda, including The Daily Monitor (above) and The Independent (“Parliament to pass weak laws on oil”).

The students and Professor Radon also presented their comments and recommendations in-person to 15 members of the Ugandan Parliament’s Natural Resource Committee.

The team presents its recommendations to Members of Parliament in Uganda. At right, Professor Radon and Jeansonne.

According to Professor Radon, the team’s two biggest recommendations are:

to have a stronger system of checks and balances, with an emphasis on transparency;
not to concentrate decision-making in one individual

During their time in Uganda in mid-March, the team also organized meetings with individuals from government ministries, members of Parliament (governing and opposition), civil society, Ugandan citizens, international donors, foreign embassies, and international and local media.

“We tried to identify what they see as the biggest issues and problems,” said Jeansonne. “By then, we already had ideas about what our recommendations would be, so our field trip was a good chance to test them. We had to make sure our report was something that could be actionable and something Ugandans could relate to.”

While Nithin Coca (MIA ‘12), Kazumi Kawamoto (MIA ‘12), Ida Dokk Smith (MIA ‘12) and Frithiof August Wilhelmsen (MIA ‘13) conducted interviews in the capital city Kampala, Chitra Choudhury (MIA/Journalism ‘12) and Frazer Lanier (MIA ‘12) travelled to the resource-rich “oil belt” region of Hoima, which shares a border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Choudhury and Lanier in Hoima.

“We conducted interviews with both local authorities and residents,” said Choudhury, “people who might be displaced, fishing communities that might be affected… We were trying to understand how far-removed people on the ground are from what’s going on in Parliament. It added an extra layer of understanding on the issues.”

Professor Radon added that one of the major images that has stuck in his mind from the students’ field research is that “the elephants are leaving” due to the drilling and vibrations.

“That’s something we found,” said Choudhury, “the environmental impact wasn’t being studied. The government is doing that now, with the help of NORAD [the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation].”

“You have to consider the full impacts,” Professor Radon added. “The importance of such a trip is you discover information from the locals. For example, there is a greater influx of fishing because of roads being built and increased access to [Lake Albert]. There’s overfishing, too much to be sustainable…. So these are the unintended consequences that you can only see on the ground.”

Jeansonne emphasized that because most of the oil drilling is on land, there are “grave implications for human rights, because people will be displaced.” This raises questions about compensation, how people should be displaced, and whether they should be displaced in the first place.

“Developing extractive industries is difficult to do in the best of circumstances,” Radon said. “So these questions need to be answered in the right way.”

- Michelle Chahine

SIPA Students Win at White House Energy Efficiency Competition

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:17:00 -0400

From left to right, Dara Hourdajian, Kevin Lehman, David Ganske, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Jorge Ordonez. Photograph courtesy of Department of Energy website, Energy.gov

A team of five students from SIPA’s Energy Association won “Best Proposal” for one of four cases at the Department of Energy’s inaugural Better Buildings Case Competition, held in the White House on Friday, March 2^nd, 2012.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the winners after an all-day event, where 110 students from 19 competing universities presented their proposals to judges in the Learning Annex of the White House.

The Better Buildings Case Competition, part of the Energy Department’s Better Buildings Challenge, reached out to the SIPA Energy Association (SEA) last semester, encouraging them to compete. This January, students from 19 schools received two different cases (Columbia University received the HEI Hotels and Resorts case and the City of Houston case). They had to submit a proposal for each case three weeks later and present at the White House a week after that. Both teams representing Columbia University were SEA student teams.

The winning proposal was for the HEI Hotels and Resorts Case. Dara Hourdajian (MPA ‘12), Kevin Lehman (MS ‘12 in Sustainability Management), David Ganske (MIA ‘13), Jorge Ordonez (MPA ‘13), and Tristan Wallace (MPA ‘13) submitted the proposal for a hotel energy efficiency plan, within certain restraints.

“When we first read through the case, the main challenge for us was to identify what was the objective. I think that set us apart from other groups,” said Hourdajian.

The objective, they found, was for a New Jersey hotel within the Marriott chain to make changes that would increase energy efficiency, with limited resources.

“Right away, we identified that this was a financial solution rather than a technical solution. So we started researching alternatives we could come up with,” explained Ordonez.

Their technique was to investigate what the State of New Jersey had to offer. They proposed depending on tax credits and incentives from the State of New Jersey rather than on financial assistance from the franchise, which was an objective that they had identified in the case.

“We saw that many universities tended to approach one side of the problem, instead of a comprehensive approach,” added Ordonez. “I think this was a strength of our case: being able to address the financial and policy side, making it attractive to industry professionals [who were the judges].”

The winning proposals will be posted on the Department of Energy’s website so people can have access to them and consider their recommendations.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to go back next year and defend the title,” Ordonez added.

- Michelle Chahine

Alum Named Treasury Financial Attache to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:16:47 -0400

On March 30^th, Bill Foster (MIA ’06) was named the Treasury Financial Attaché to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India. There, Mr. Foster will represent the U.S. Department of the Treasury on issues such as economic policy, terrorism finance, and the implementation of the U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership. Since graduating from SIPA in 2006, Mr. Wallace has gained extensive experience and expertise in India dealing with Treasury interests. He served as the desk economist for Japan, Australia, and New Zealand before becoming the desk economist for India in 2010. Working in this capacity, Mr. Wallace traveled frequently to and throughout India on projects such as a Private Sector Dialogue event with the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

SIPA Students are Finalists in the International Impact Investing Challenge

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:16:43 -0400

A team of four SIPA students have made it to the Final 10 in the competitive International Impact Investing Challenge, organized by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, partnered with the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business. Evgenia Sokolova (MDP ‘12), Vladimir Olarte Cadavid (MPA ‘12), Sandra Halilovic (MPA ‘12), and Helene Roy (MIA ‘13) will pitch their proposal—for a financial vehicle that would attract new sources of funding to areas that have high social benefits—to a panel of judges in the San Francisco Federal Reserve building on April 13^th, 2012.

According to SIPA Adjunct Professor Adam Quinton, the students proposed a unique independent study project, with the aim of entering this competition and creating the prospectus for the first round.

Quinton was the team’s advisor for the first half of the semester as they did independent research into potential financial vehicles. They submitted their prospectus in mid-March and were selected for the final round, competing against teams of graduate students from the University of Chicago, Stanford University, University of California, Berkley, Duke University and Northwestern University, among others.

“The submission had to be something that could be appealing to large investors and attract funding to for-profit enterprises that have a social benefit,” Quinton said. “If you’ve got to the finals in a competition like this, you’ve clearly done a pretty good job.”

Based on the presentations on April 13^th in the morning, the field will be narrowed to the final four teams, who will then compete for first place later in the day. $15,000 in prizes will be awarded to the winning teams.

Good luck to everyone!

- Michelle Chahine

(Click here to read more about this competition on The Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch.com.)

Voting Rights v. Voter Suppression Benjamin Jealous, President...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:57:00 -0400

Voting Rights v. Voter Suppression

Benjamin Jealous, President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was the keynote speaker at the 15th Annual David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum, “Voting Rights v. Voter Suppression,” on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at SIPA.

The event began with an introduction by Interim Dean Robert C. Lieberman, who introduced Jealous and the evening’s discussion, saying that voting rights in the United States was “something we had all been hoping was a settled issue. We now find it is not settled. Voting rights are once again at the forefront of the fight for civil rights and equality in America.”

In his address, Jealous emphasized that the fight against voter suppression was not happening in a void.

“My generation is the most incarcerated in the planet and the most murdered in the planet,” he said. “The disproportionate incarceration of the black community and voter suppression are exactly the same thing.”

Throughout his speech, Jealous shared personal stories about his grandmother and his family who have been fighting for civil rights at the NAACP for generations.

“What we have always been fighting for is a version of our freedom,” he said.

He explained that the main challenge for him is focusing on what to fight for when there is so much that needs to be confronted. “To make things better for the next generation, you have to be extremely focused. What do we fight for? These days, the fight is against mass incarceration.”

Losing the right to vote is not only a civil rights issue; it also limits the ability to fight against other civil rights issues.

“What we have fundamentally as a people, as a community, is our voice, our right to vote,” said Jealous. “We’ve suppressed the vote, minimized the vote, shaved off a little here, a little there… This year, what we have gone through is the biggest assault on voting rights, pushing out 5 million people.”

In the panel discussion following Jealous’s speech, SIPA Professor Dorian Warren added,

“Historically, efforts at voter suppression have always been about suppressing issues of equality and social justice.”

Jealous’s address came amidst the controversy in Sanford, Florida over the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin and subsequent protests. Jealous had been in the city the week before and described the situation as the tensest he had ever seen. According to the accounts he heard, Jealous said that the major reaction was the deep pain of racial profiling.

“Protecting the vote and ending racial profiling are actually the same thing,” he said. “The disproportionate incarceration of the black community and voter suppression are exactly the same thing.”

The persistent theme of the forum was the unfortunate and surprising ubiquity of voter suppression laws, both currently and in the foreseeable future.

“We will have to fight voter suppression legislation every year,” said Jealous.

- Michelle Chahine

"Sanford, Florida is really Sanford, USA."

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:24:00 -0400

“Sanford, Florida is really Sanford, USA.”

- Benjamin Jealous, President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Jealous was the keynote speaker at the 15th Annual David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum: Voting Rights v. Voter Suppression, on Monday, March 26, 2012 at SIPA.

In his address, Jealous emphasized that the fight against voter suppression was not happening in a void.

“My generation is the most incarcerated in the planet and the most murdered in the planet,” he said. “Though we’ve been incarcerated more than our white peers, not like this… The disproportionate incarceration of the black community and voter suppression are exactly the same thing.”

Jealous also discussed his recent trip to Sanford, FL because of the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin and subsequent protests. He had just spent a week in the city, and described it as the tensest place he had ever seen in his life. After talking to people and hearing 12 emotional testimonials, he found that two trends emerged:

“The first, is a deep pain of black men being killed and police not caring about it… and another broader theme of racial profiling,” he said, “and it occurred to me, that Sanford, FL is really Sanford USA.”

Watch Jealous’s entire address here: http://youtu.be/37uKs0tvrkI

After his speech, a panel was introduced by Professor Ester Fuchs, Director of the Urban and Social Policy Program at SIPA. The panelists each added their thoughts on voter suppression and racial profiling.

Panelists left to right: Professor Fredrick C. Harris, Elinor R. Tatum, Professor Dorian T. Warren, Benjamin Jealous, Professor Theodore M. Shaw and Professor Rodolfo de la Garza.

Professor Dorian Warren said that voter suppression was not only tied to mass incarceration, but to a range of activities being taken at the state level, that included racial profiling and racial targeting of immigrants. He added that, historically, suppressing voting rights has been about suppressing social justice and equality.

Professor Fredrick Harris, Director of Columbia University’s Center on African-American Politics and Society, also gave the audience a historical view of voter suppression, redistricting and demographic shifts, emphasizing “the importance of developing multiracial coalitions.”

This led to a discussion between Professor Rodolfo de la Garza and Jealous on the importance of coalitions between the black community and Latino community.

“We’ve got to do more together,” said de la Garza.

Columbia Law Professor Theodore M. Shaw later weighed in, saying:

“The issues with regard to African-Americans in this country, along the color lines, will remain dominant, important issues… Looking at what happened in the case of Trayvon Martin in Florida, and some people have the gall to say this isn’t about race. There is a deep racial divide, and that remains on the black/white divide even today.”

Finally, Elinor Tatum, Publisher and Editor in Chief of the New York Amsterdam News, warned of the role the media is playing. She said that by scaring people the media is dividing them.

Tatum later added a personal note, reflecting back on the evening’s main discussion points, particularly the importance of working together across minority communities:

“If we don’t work together, there will be nobody left standing. And it’s getting crucial, and it has been crucial. But I think we’re just seeing it now. From everything to this assault on voting rights to what happened to Trayvon,” she said.

“I have a 17-month-old daughter, and when I found out I was having a girl, I was so happy, because I was afraid to raise a black boy in the city.”

This event was live-tweeted. For more highlights from the event, click here: http://storify.com/ColumbiaSIPA/benjamin-jealous-sanford-fl-is-really-sanford-usa

- Michelle Chahine

Professor Jean-Marie Guéhenno Appointed Deputy Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States on Syria

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:29:50 -0400

On March 20, 2012, the U.N. announced that Professor Jean-Marie Guéhenno has been appointed as Deputy Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States on Syria. Guéhenno will work alongside Joint Special Envoy and former Secretary-general Kofi Annan in addressing the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria, which has continued to escalate since 2011’s “Arab Spring.”

Guéhenno has extensive experience both with the United Nations and with humanitarian missions, having served eight years as Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. During his tenure, Guéhenno oversaw Peacekeeping missions in eighteen countries, including Kosovo, Sudan, Liberia, and Haiti, and he led the largest expansion of UN Peacekeeping in the organization’s history. He has brought this experience to SIPA, where he teaches classes such as “Peace Operations in Fragile States,” and “International Conflict Resolution.” In addition, he is the Associate Director of SIPA’s Arnold A. Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies.

Guéhenno’s role as Deputy Joint Special Envoy will take him to Syria, whose government has been widely condemned for violence against protestors and civilians. The current conflict in Syria began in January 2011, alongside several other uprisings in the region which collectively became known as the Arab Spring. Protestors in Syria demand the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad and the dissolution of his government. While other regional conflicts have settled, Syria has attracted international attention due to escalating violence against protestors, civilians, and journalists.

In February, the United Nations and the League of Arab States appointed Kofi Annan as Deputy Joint Special Envoy in response to the crisis. In Syria, Annan and Guéhenno will work towards stopping the violence and allowing humanitarian agencies access to provide relief throughout the country. Joining them as Deputy Joint Special Envoy will be Nasser al-Kidwa.

Before his time at SIPA and the UN, Guéhenno worked extensively in international European politics. He served as director of policy planning in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the chairman of the French Institute of Higher Defense Studies, and the ambassador to the Western European Union. Guéhenno also acts as a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, as Chairperson of the Advisory Board of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and as a member of the board for the Center of Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva.

Access for All: Students Design Pilot Credit Program in Tanzania

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:18:00 -0500

A team of four students traveled to Tanzania in early January to design a pilot program for First Access, a new start-up founded by team member Nicole Stubbs (MPA ‘12). Stephen Matthew Lee (MIA ‘12), Maira Riaz (MPA ‘12), Ethan Wagner (MIA ‘13) and Stubbs are working on a unique Workshop in Development Practice, where the client is a company founded by a SIPA student.

Stubbs is the co-founder and CEO of First Access, a for-profit social enterprise.

“What we are doing is trying to reduce costs for borrowing and lending capital in informal markets where people traditionally have no formal financial records that can reliably show what they own or what they earn,” explained Stubbs.

“So we’re actually using an alternative credit scoring model to help extend financial access in informal markets.”

The team’s goal in going to Tanzania was primarily to design the company’s pilot project. To do this, they began to build relationships with government officials, corporations and microfinance institutions

They met with the management of microfinance institutions to collect information about their operations and determine the pricing models that would work best for them. Stubbs explained that a goal of their interviews with various microfinance institutions and data collection was to dive in and build process maps that incorporate the various steps in the lending process for individuals and groups.

The team “made a lot of exciting connections with start ups that are doing a lot of cool things in the tech/mobile space in Tanzania, which is a very new development there,” said Stubbs. “So it’s great to be part of it.”

They also met with lawyers to discuss establishing the subsidiaries, and they found office space in the Commission for Science and Technology, which is partially funded by the Tanzanian government, the World Bank, and Vodacom, the largest cellular provider in Tanzania.

“We have a lot of different organizations on board to help test this model once we’re ready,” she added. The team has now designed the pilot, which will roll out in June.

“We have a huge to-do list: establish our subsidiary, create memorandums of understanding to be signed by our partners, and start collecting a lot more data and build it into our model.”

“The main focus of this project was practical tools for the company,” she said.

It wasn’t so much researching something and producing recommendations, as actually creating something out of nothing.”

From left to right: Ethan Wagner, Nicole Stubbs, Stephen Matthew Lee, with an interviewee, and Maira Riaz.

Photo Credit: Ethan Wagner

To see more of this team’s and other student teams’ photographs from their fieldwork for their Workshops in Development Practice, click here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150625876862870.405181.76561782869&type=3

- Michelle Chahine

Several SIPA students share their experiences from field work...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:19:00 -0500

Several SIPA students share their experiences from field work across the world for their Workshops in Development Practice. For more information on the projects featured in this video, click on the links below:

Promoting a Political Voice in Georgia

Access for All: Students Design Pilot Credit Program in Tanzania

“Untouchables:” Students Examine Health Care Access for Nepalese Dalits

-Michelle Chahine

After the Storm: Destruction, Disinvestment, and Death

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:09:00 -0500

Losses one year after a natural disaster are much greater than those estimated during the same year, particularly when it comes to decreases in income and increases in female infant mortality rates.

This is a major finding of the 2011 study, Destruction, Disinvestment, and Death: Economic and Human Losses Following Environmental Disaster,by Jesse Anttila-Hughes, a candidate for SIPA’s PhD in Sustainable Development, and Solomon M. Hsiang, an alumnus of the program and postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University.

“The paper has pretty direct policy implications - which is generally what I aim for. I think it’s very difficult to do environmental risk work without it being policy related. It directly informs disaster response policy,” said Anttila-Huges.

For example, the paper shows that, in the year after disasters, “more people die than we thought, particularly females,” he added.

By looking at data from the Philippines after typhoons, they found the increase in infant mortality is mostly attributed to the death of female infants. This is driven by economic factors, according to Anttila-Hughes.

In addition, he explained that households with multiple children, particularly older sons, have higher rates of female infants dying.

“The fact that a lot of environmental impacts affect females is very interesting to me. There is a lot that can be done to intervene to change that,” he said.

Anttila-Hughes has been in the PhD program since the fall of 2006, focusing on environmental risk, disasters and demography, climate impact on public health, and behavioral responses to environmental risk.

He studied physics during his undergraduate education at Harvard University, along with several languages - he is fluent in Spanish, French, Mandarin and Japanese. The relationship between his studies led him to SIPA’s doctoral program:

“Physics gave me quantitative skills that I needed… What makes the sustainable development PhD different is we’re expected to do a lot of work in the sciences.

Foreign languages and international affairs [experience] had me thinking about the link between the two,” said Anttila-Hughes, describing the connections he began to make between science, international affairs and international development. “I found this PhD program, which is everything I wanted.”

Anttila-Hughes and Hsiang have a blog together: “Fight Entropy: The Global Environment and Economic Development.”

- Michelle Chahine

"Untouchables:" Students Examine Health Care Access for Nepalese Dalits

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:25:00 -0500

At left, Vivik Yadav (MPA ‘12) and Mai Shintani (MIA ‘12), with a group of Dalits in Nepal.

A team of five students is working with the Samata Foundation in Nepal this semester to help assess the health care access for the marginalized Dalit population.

Two team members, Vivek Yadav (MPA ’12) and Mai Shintani (MIA ’12), conducted field research in early January. They visited a Dalit compound, as well as met with NGOs, UNICEF, WHO, and government officials in Nepal.

“One of the goals of the January trip was to narrow our focus of what the project is, because earlier it was just too broad,” said Yadav. “So now we’re looking at exactly what health policies are in Nepal and how they relate to marginalized communities.

Secondly, what access issues do Dalits face when it comes to health care? How do their economic conditions, their educational background… affect their ability to access health care? And thirdly, what discrimination they face at the point of health care delivery.”

Shintani and Yadav interview members of the Dalit population in Nepal.

The rest of the team, Nadia Hasham (MIA ‘12), Kiryn Lanning (MIA/MPH ‘12), and Tsufit Daniel (MPA/MPH /12), will be traveling to Nepal in mid-March.

“We’re going to be there a little over two weeks,” said Lanning. “We also hope to capture more of the voice of the Dalit community, because as of now, we’ve already done a lot of interviews with policymakers and organizations working around these issues, but we really want to hear it from the communities that are most affected by this.”

The team explained that their deliverables include policy recommendations as well as next steps for the Samata Foundation. But an important component of the project is documenting and understanding the complex issue.

“There are so many different social constraints and circumstances and historical discrimination that are compounded within this one particular population,” explained Lanning.

“So understanding this nexus of discrimination is huge, and as a human rights organization, which is the agency we’re working for, being able to capture that in many different sectors and be able to apply it to policy would be amazing.

Basically, when we first started this, we were told that there’s no literature or understanding around health care access for this population, particular to Nepal. There’s a lot of literature on it in India, and there’s been a lot of work around it, but in Nepal there hasn’t been much.”

Lanning added that Nepal is currently designing its constitution, so this is an important time to bring these issues to light.

- Michelle Chahine

Photo credit: Mai Shintani (MIA ‘12)

View more of this team’s and other student photographs from the field.

Bob Herbert Calls for Popular Movement on U.S. Jobs Crisis By...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:02:00 -0500

Bob Herbert Calls for Popular Movement on U.S. Jobs Crisis

By Jennifer Wilmore, Communiqué

Feb. 15^th— “It’s a disgrace that this is happening in a country as rich as ours,” former New York Times op-ed columnist Bob Herbert said, describing what he called a “massive employment crisis” in the U.S.

Herbert, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the economic equality think tank Demos, delivered his lecture on “A Call to Civic Engagement” as part of SIPA’s Weston lecture series.

“As a society, we’ve been unwilling to face up to the enormous scale of this employment crisis,” Herbert said, calling on citizens to build a movement to put the jobs crisis at the top of U.S. policy and media agendas.

Read more from Communiqué, SIPA’s student-written, student-run newspaper.