OECD/DAC Chair to Lead Global Policy Program

Former USAID Administrator Returns to Humphrey School in January

Former Dean Brian Atwood will return to the Humphrey School of Public Affairs in January 2013 as Professor of Public Affairs and Chair of the Humphrey School’s Global Policy Area. Since January 2010, Atwood has served with distinction as Chair of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In that role, he shepherded the landmark Busan Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation. The Busan Declaration establishes a framework for development cooperation that embraces traditional donors, the emerging economies, the global south, civil society organizations and the private sector.

As Chair of the School’s Global Policy Area, Atwood will draw on his experiences at the DAC, and as USAID Administrator, and on his decades of public service. In particular, he will lead efforts to integrate and expand global affairs scholarship, training and service, strengthen the Humphrey School’s Master of Development Practice program and develop a master’s degree program in human rights, and promote policy engagement and partnerships in Washington, New York, around the world.

Brian Atwood (right) with OECD Chair Jose Angel Gurria at a meeting of the International Monetary Fund

Senior Clinton Foreign Policy Aide to Speak at Humphrey School

Jake Sullivan on American Leadership in the 21st Century

On October 26, Jake Sullivan, State Department Director of Policy Planning and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will speak at the Humphrey School on “American Leadership in the 21st Century.” Sullivan, a Minnesota native, has been deeply involved in all of the major national security issues confronting the United States over the past four years, from the Middle East and South Asia, to Africa, the Americas, East Asia and the Pacific. Eric Schwartz, Dean of the Humphrey School, served at the State Department with Sullivan between 2009 and 2011, and commented on Sullivan’s role: “As both the Director of the key foreign policy planning office at the Department of State and one of the Secretary of State’s closest personal advisors, Jake Sullivan has played an extraordinarily important and influential role in both the development and implementation of U.S. foreign policy.”

Sullivan’s October 26 address, which will be held in Cowles Auditorium from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., is open to the public, but participants must register and can do so at http://americanleadership.eventbrite.com.

Jake Sullivan with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

The Humphrey School in the Americas, South Asia and Africa

Incorporating International Development Field Experience into the Curriculum

The Humphrey School’s Master of Development Practice (MDP) program provides students with an extraordinary opportunity to gain valuable field experience between the summer of their first and second years. During this period, all MDP students participate in one of several development teams, taking on a field project under the guidance of faculty mentors and in close collaboration with local communities.

In Costa Rica, students worked with the Ministry of Forestry and an association of small landowners to develop more effective and environmentally sustainable means for communities to garner increased benefits from timber resources. In Nepal, students conducted a value-chain analysis of non-timber forest products, in coordination with Nepal’s Federation of Community Forest Users. They focused on fiber allo, used in Nepali cloth, lokta (Nepali) paper production, and essential oils, assessing points in processing between raw materials and finished products where the community could realize increased revenue.

In Jamaica, the challenge for the Humphrey School’s MDP team was to help communities make best use of new technology to turn breadfruit into flour. Ubiquitous in the Caribbean, breadfruit is eaten when ripe and not traditionally stored for later use—with surplus fruit rotting on the ground. Humphrey students partnered with a local farming group, the Jeffrey Town Farmers Association, and an Illinois-based NGO, the Trees that Feed Foundation, in this effort to increase the use of breadfruit to improve nutrition. They also explored other “value-added” processes for breadfruit (such as roasting the crop for export).

MDP students with stakeholders in Jamaica	MDP students on their way to work in Senegal

In Senegal, MDP students worked with USAID Senegal to strengthen the ability of local institutions to promote economic and social development in the country. The Humphrey team conducted a national survey of Senegalese NGOs, professional associations and businesses, identifying opportunities for stronger development partnerships in such areas as health, agriculture and education, as well as a potential national network of local capacity building organizations. Finally, in Northern Uganda, a student team worked with Lira Integrated School to conduct a feasibility assessment for expansion. Through stakeholder interviews, cost analyses and investigation of potential revenue sources, the MDP students developed a series of recommendations for next steps in the development of Lira Integrated University.

After the Arab Spring

Humphrey’s Ragui Assaad on the Egyptian Labor Market and Egypt’s Political Economy

As a co-author of After the Spring: Economic Transitions in the Arab World (Oxford University Press, 2012), Professor Ragui Assaad and colleagues argued for economic reforms in the Arab world focused on opportunities for youth, modernizing the public sector, combatting corruption, and global economic engagement.

These conclusions are informed by Assaad’s critically important research on Egypt’s labor market. He is just back from a year in Cairo, where he led the third round in a longitudinal survey that tracks labor market participation by household in Egypt. The latest of Professor Assaad’s surveys will help researchers and policymakers understand how individuals and households are dealing with the country’s economic turmoil.

According to Assaad, the survey results are likely to further validate the need for economic modernization, in general, and increased opportunities for youth, in particular. Labor market rigidities have created extremely high unemployment among new entrants, with many of the costs of the political crises shifted to young people. Unemployed youth played a large role in the ouster of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 and in other protests within the region, and new civilian governments will have to come to grips with these challenges in the months and years to come.

Ragui Assaad (front right) with his survey team in Egypt

Teaching Global Policy–Globally

Technology-enhanced Course links Humphrey Students with Counterparts in Mexico and Israel

This spring, the Humphrey School’s Global Policy course will be taught in Minneapolis, Mexico City and Beersheva, Israel—simultaneously. The course was developed by Professor James Ron, the Harold E. Stassen Chair-holder at the Humphrey School, and will be co-taught by Professor Ron and Professor Kimberly Nolan Garcia of Mexico’s Center for Economic Research & Teaching (CIDE).

Students from the Humphrey School, from CIDE and from Ben Gurion University will connect through both an internet “cloud”-based platform and via Skype. The cross-cutting theme of the course will be human security, and students will jointly explore a broad array of issues, from human rights and humanitarianism to the role of non-state actors. Students from all three institutions will participate in transnational working groups, debating issues and exchanging ideas. As Professor Ron puts it, the course objectives will include “true engagement and dialogue between students in distinctly different social, political and cultural environments.”

James Ron

International Fellows Enrich Humphrey School, Twin Cities

Vibrant Program Strengthens School’s Global Policy Area

The Humphrey School welcomed 22 new international fellows this year, representing some 16 countries around the world. Over more than three decades, the Humphrey School has hosted well over 400 fellows from more than 100 countries, reflecting Hubert Humphrey’s life-long commitment to international cooperation and understanding.

The Humphrey School’s International Fellowship Programs office oversees several different fellowships, including the State Department-supported Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship, a national program for students from the developing world established to honor the memory of Hubert Humphrey. In addition, the Humphrey School hosts the Edmund S. Muskie Fellowship and fellowships involving mid-career scholars and practitioners from the United Kingdom, India, South Korea and Mexico. Through these programs, the School brings accomplished mid-career professionals and graduate students from around the world to Minnesota for professional development, academic study and cultural exchange. In addition to developing their own skills, fellows serve as invaluable resources to our diverse community of educators, community leaders, professional groups, students, and government and nonprofit organizations.

In welcoming this year’s Fellows, Eric Schwartz, Dean of the Humphrey School, noted that “the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul reflect the growing diversity of our state, our region and our country. With growing populations of African Americans, Asian Americans, and immigrants from all over the world, and with corporations and non-governmental organizations that have a truly global reach, our community offers enormous opportunities for the kinds of exchange that makes our fellowship programs so valuable.”

2012–2013 international fellows at the Humphrey School