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

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:

• CNNMoney.com: White House: Middle Class Jobs are Trickling Back
• Whitehouse.gov: Chairman Alan Krueger Discusses Reversing the Middle-Class Jobs Deficit

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

Students present their strategies to judges in the consulting competition. 

SIPA’s fourth annual Public Policy Case Competition was hosted by the school’s Consulting Club on Friday, February 17. The day-long event brought together 39 students and 10 judges from various organizations including Deloitte, The Bridgespan Group, Chemonics and the Clinton Global Initiative.

The students were divided into teams of three and had the opportunity to compete in one of three categories:

1. International Development: Challenged to recommend a best strategy for educational programs of Developments in Literacy in Pakistan.
2. Social Innovation: Challenged to present a sustainable business model for maternal care in Tanzania for the Zanzibar Neema Hospital, under a project of Deloitte Consulting LLP and the Tanzanian Ministry of Health.
3. U.S. Public Policy: Challenged to develop a plan to strategically allocate funding for a high speed rail program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

“This is a safe space for us to play - a learning environment,” said Susmita De (MDP ‘12), co-president of the SIPA Consulting Club, “And we’re grateful to have the judges give their professional feedback.”

Student teams were challenged to come up with strategies and recommendations for the case assigned to them, in just five hours, with no prior knowledge of the case. At the end of the day, one team was declared the winner for each case, and one individual was named the MVP of each category. 

“I’m interested in consulting, and I had not done it before, so I wanted to get a feel of it,” said Khulan Davaadorg (MPA ‘12), a member of the winning team in the international development category. 

“It was a really good experience. The case was pretty hands-on. It was a challenge that we really have nowadays.”

Members of the International Development winning team Jesse Baver (MIA ‘13), Khulan Davvadorj (MPA ‘12), and Rajitha Swaminathan (MIA ‘13), with their judges from Developments in Literacy, Chemonics, DAI and the Clinton Global Initiative. 

Nicholas Arguello (MPA ‘12), Ania Calderon (MPA ‘13), and Natalie Tang (MPA ‘12), the winning team in the Social Innovation category, present their strategy for a mobile prenatal health clinic in Tanzania. 

Quekan Anike Ibidunni (MPA/MPH ‘12), co-president of the SIPA Consulting Club, presents the MVP award of the Social Innovation category to Angie Palacios (MPA ‘12). 

Adam Yukelson (MS ‘12 in sustainability management), who was competing in the Social Innovation category, added about the competition:

“This is a more effective way of learning than hearing about management in a lecture. It’s experiential learning. 

The event was not only seen as a learning experience, according to De, but also as a chance for students to shine through a competition and a networking opportunity as well. 

The competition was sponsored by Deloitte, Chemonics, SIPA’s Management Specialization and the Office of Career Services.

- Michelle Chahine

Photo credit: Miji Park (MPA-DP ‘12) 

Drilon Gashi (MIA ‘12) and Behar Xharra (MIA ‘12) lead a discussion among prominent members of the Kosovar diaspora in the United States. 

Members of the Kosovar diaspora gathered at SIPA on February 7, with the Ambassador of the Republic of Kosovo to the United States, Avni Spahiu, to discuss the role of the diaspora in public diplomacy. They were invited by Behar Xharra, (MIA ’12), a SIPA student from Kosovo. The discussion was moderated by Drilon Gashi, (MIA ’12), another member of the Kosovar diaspora.

Xharra published a paper during his first year at SIPA,  titiled “Public Diplomacy of Kosovo: Status Quo, Challenges and Options,” with co-author Martin Wahlisch, a visiting scholar at The Harriman Institute

This year, he has continued his research, focusing on the role of the diaspora. In March, he will present his new findings to the Foreign Policy Club in Kosovo , where he will meet with government officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Diaspora, members of Parliament and civil society. The paper will be published by the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy.

The February 7 event was an informal, intimate discussion with members of the Kosovo diaspora in the United States that have found success in various fields, including Giorgio Kolaj, owner of Famiglia Pizza; Tony Dolovani, International Ballroom Dancing Champion (and professional dancer on “Dancing with the Stars”), and celebrity photographer Fadil Berisha, among others from academia, diplomacy and the media. Xharra presented his new research to the group and gathered their input on how the diaspora can be used to improve the image of Kosovo. 

“The diaspora is important because half Kosovars live abroad,” explained Xharra.

“We need to tap this resource in trying to enhance the image of Kosovo. It’s been through war. It doesn’t yet have a stable democracy. It has a bad image, besides war, there’s crime and corruption. We need to change that. How do we change that?

We brought together different diaspora leaders to see how we can redefine the new role of the diaspora. It’s not just about sending money back…. The diaspora can definitely serve as role models to inspire people in Kosovo and abroad.”

A slide from Xharra’s presentation

His paper was met with great enthusiasm.

“I went through your study. It’s very important,” said Ambassador Spahiu. “It’s one of the rare studies on Albanian-Americans.”

From left to right, Ruben Avxhiu, Editor-in-chief of Illyria, Tony Dovolani, Behar Xharra (MIA ‘12), Drilon Gashi (MIA ‘12), Avni Mustafaj, Executive Director of the National Albanian-American Council and Ambassador Avni Spahiu. 

- Michelle Chahine

An unauthorized immigrant mother showing Paola Medina the empty mobile homes of former neighbors who have fled Alabama since the enactment of HB 56.

The spring semester at SIPA nearly always means Capstone Workshops for second-year students. But for Paola Medina (MPA, MSSW ‘12), her workshop came a little earlier because of her dual degree work with the School of Social Work. What came next for Medina was a front-row seat for one of the most contentious debates in the United States today: immigration and states’ rights.

“A recent team of students worked with Human Rights Watch (HRW), a Washington, DC-based organization, that supports efforts to preserve and to protect basic human rights of people around the world,” said Professor Paul Thurman, faculty adviser to the team. “The group studied whether certain federal provisions reduced crime reporting by illegal aliens in specific Virginia and Arizona counties.”

Their assignment was to conduct quantitative analysis examining the effects of Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The goal was to see if there was an effect on calls for emergency services (namely the police and fire departments) in counties that had anti-immigrant policies. The team examined undocumented populations.

“It’s a population that is in the shadows,” explained Medina. “So it’s difficult to document. What you can do are statistical inferences.

In the end, our recommendation to Human Rights Watch was to have a survey team assess what is happening.”

Medina and her teammates were doing their research from New York based on existing data sets.

“Human Rights Watch usually does qualitative research,” added Medina. “They wanted to have us do some quantitative work. I think when talking to policymakers you need the quantitative data to support the stories behind an issue.”

Through the relationships she built while working on the Capstone Workshop, Medina landed an internship in the U.S. Division at Human Rights Watch. She began last September and remains there until the end of this academic year.

In October, she traveled to Alabama as a consultant, along with U.S. Program researcher Grace Meng, to assist with research for a report on the state’s controversial new immigration law: the Hammon-Beason Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, commonly known as HB 56.

Medina and Meng were there to get a better understanding of what was happening after the law was enacted and to see how people were being affected.

“When we landed in Birmingham, we went right to work,” said Medina. “We met with local community organizers. We spoke to people doing work on the issue.

We went to a rural area outside of Birmingham and spoke to a pastor. He mentioned people leaving the church because they were leaving the state… We also spoke to two members of his church that day, one of them undocumented. So we got a good feel of what was going on in the community.”

Prior to the HB 56, these two U.S. citizen girls partook in several activities, such as soccer practice and games. Now, their undocumented parents are too afraid to drive them to these activities in fear of getting detained.

A Mexican restaurant owned by an unauthorized immigrant single mother who has resided in Alabama for seven years and in the U.S. for 12 years. 

An unauthorized immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for 12 years sits with her US citizen grandson in her Mexican restaurant. Alabama’s new immigrant law could prevent her from renewing her business permit when it expires this year.

An Alabama immigrant family that has been affected by the recent law and that has been living in fear since its passage.

Read the full report here: No Way to Live: Alabama’s Immigrant Law

Currently, Medina is working on her own project at HRW, focusing on undocumented longtime resident immigrant youth in the U.S., conducting policy research and analysis for what will hopefully become an upcoming report that she will co-author.

- Michelle Chahine

photo credit: © 2011 Grace Meng/Human Rights Watch

After his graduation from SIPA, Carlos Terrones (MPA ‘08) left New York City for Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, he worked for the U.S. Department of State in governance and reconstruction-development efforts. He was then asked to assist with similar work in Afghanistan.

Carlos shared photographs from his time in Afghanistan with SIPA. View the full photo album.

In an interview with Michelle Chahine, Carlos discusses his experiences since leaving the halls of SIPA.

What is your work currently in Afghanistan? How long have you been there, and how long will you remain?

I am currently the Civilian Team Leader for the District Support Team in the District of Maiwand. I am the State Department Representative and lead governance advisor. I lead a team of USAID and U.S. Army Officers in charge with governance and reconstruction-development. I’ve been in Afghanistan for almost a year and will end my tour end of January 2012. I came to Afghanistan after working in Iraq from 2008-2010. 

What has your experience been, both personal and professional?

On the personal level: Working in conflict zones in Iraq and Afghanistan has increased my mental and physical strength. I spent my tours in Iraq and Afghanistan embedded with the US Military in combat areas far away from the large cities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Life was lonely and I discovered encouragement through my friendship with my US military counterparts, friends and family. I almost lost my life once in Iraq and once in Afghanistan. I’ve learned on how take care of myself because I have dealt with uncertainty and violence.   

On the professional level:  Despite the violence and uncertainty that I have been exposed, professionally, I have learned a lot and gained substantial experience from both the international coalition and Afghan side.  I’ve learned the importance of being street-wise and how to adapt to the culture tribal norms and expectations.  

My prior military experience as a Marine and in international development in Latin America, Middle East and Asia provided me with the tools to work in conflict zones. Working in tough situations has brought out of me my critical thinking to go outside the box, always seek self-improvement and provide with best alternatives to assist the local communities and sub-national governments.

I have really enjoyed assisting in the development of Afghan sub-national government that is trying to become self-sufficient, transparent, accountable and capable of identifying, prioritizing and servicing the needs of the Afghan people. As I am coming to an end of my tour in Afghanistan, I am proud to have been able to turned around one of the most war-torn districts in Afghanistan, that was known as one of the birthplace of the Taliban, into one of the most supportive and engaged districts in governance and development activities.  

Although, much work remains to be down to destabilized the Taliban Shadow Government, the mentorship and perseverance working side by side with our Afghan local officials is finally showing positive signs whereby local leaders and villagers are becoming active agents in their communities.   

How do you feel SIPA prepared you for this?

My SIPA education was essential and important to excel in this work. SIPA provided me strong analytical tools that I have applied for development strategies in a district West of Kandahar City that is undergoing recovery from the Taliban insurgent activity. I have a Master in Public Administration with a concentration in Economic and Political Development. 

Do you have advice for students who may want to work in conflict zones post-SIPA?

For those interested in working in conflict zones, I will recommend them to take management classes while you are at SIPA. Having a basic knowledge in management is important because of the rapid changed of policies that we continue to have and adapt. With good management you will be able to adapt to crisis and create solutions for your work colleagues and local counterparts.

If you work as an advisor or have to lead a team, your military and local counterparts would look up to you as the subject matter expert to be creative, goal oriented, responsible and visionary.  Being a good manager can make things easier in how to allocate your development resources and produce impact.

-Michelle Chahine