MA/SID Practicum Students Blog from the Field
Current students Prachee Sinha and Clay Westrope talk about their Practicum placements on the Global Brandeis blog. Visit:
A New Institute Established at The Heller School
Professor A.K. Nandakumar will direct the Institute for Global Health and Development (IGHD). With a focus on identifying “actionable learning,” IGHD seeks to impact policy making by transferring and diffusing knowledge to those driving policy and implementing reform. For further details, please click here.
Heller Professor Clark Abt and "The Myths of Nuclear Power"
The forum sponsored by the Massachusetts Disarmament Network can be viewed by clicking here.
SID student, Curt Davis implements solar panels in Nicaragua
Curt volunteered with Grupo Fenix in Nicaragua, where he worked with the NGO to help implement solar powered energy into the community. His experience is featured in the Global Brandeis Blog.
Curt pointing to a LED light that is connected to a solar panel.
REAWAKENING A SLEEPING GIANT: ZIMBABWE'S SENATOR DAVID COLTART'S TALK IN THE ZINNER FORUM
February, 2010
Zimbabwe's Minister of (Basic) Education, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart gave a talk at the Zinner Forum on Tuesday (February 9). The talk was titled: Zimbabwe: A Vision for Recovery. The session was chaired by Professor Joe Short. Senator Coltart said that reforming Zimbabwe and bringing it back to a path to development is like "awakening a sleeping giant". Poor governance, corruption, rigged elections, hyperinflation and violence among a myriad of other problems have plagued Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Southern Africa and a country with one of the highest literacy rates in Africa. The only politically unstable country in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe has become what Senator Coltart called the "albatross of Southern Africa".
A human rights lawyer, Senator Coltart is a founding member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) whose leader is the current Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai. Senator Coltart represents Khumalo Constituency in the senate. In his introductory remarks, Joe Short read from an article he wrote in the early 1980's where he said that one of the main issues that the then newly-independent Zimbabwe faced was land reform. Several years later, the ghost of land reform came to haunt the country. Despite an existing willing-buyer-willing-seller land policy, President Mugabe decided to initiate a compulsory land redistribution program. Under this program, the landless citizens were encouraged to invade and take possession of farms. The impact of this controversial program, together with corruption and human rights abuses was a free fall of the agriculture-based economy.
The 2008 general elections held the promise for change in Zimbabwe. The main presidential candidates were Robert Mugabe (ZANU-PF) and Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC). When evidence showed that the ruling party ZANU-PF rigged and manipulated the election process to their advantage, the already simmering violence threatened to boil over. Faced with sanctions from the international community and pressure from within Zimbabwe and the African Union, Robert Mugabe's government agreed to participate in mediation talks. Negotiations that followed resulted in the creation of a coalition government made up of ZANU-PF and MDC with Robert Mugabe as president and Morgan Tsvangirai prime minister.
Senator Coltart recounted his first experience as a minister when he went to the ministry's headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. At the entrance to the 18-floor "beautiful building" he saw women carrying buckets of water on their heads, an image that is common in the rural areas but not in the city. When he asked why the women carried water into the building, a senior civil servant told him that there had been no water in the building for one year. In the ministry, the senator had to deal with a plateful of issues: lack of teaching/learning materials and textbooks, run-down infrastructure and striking teachers, all this with a budgetary allocation of $36 million per year. To revamp the education sector, his ministry had to get money to pay teachers. He did not get enough money to give the teachers a decent pay. The $160 monthly pay is below standard and, according to the senator, teachers agreed to go back to work out of patriotism. The ministry established a scholarship program to sponsor bright and talented students to attend the few good schools and universities. To keep "grubby paws" off the money coming in from international development partners, the ministry partners with UNICEF. In this partnership, UNICEF manages donor funds and the senator chairs the management committee.
One participant asked the senator about what appears to be a growing trend in Africa where opposition parties negotiate to share power with ruling parties that are themselves responsible for the mess in governance. His response was that the coalition arrangement is "flawed" but it is the only peaceful option that was available to Zimbabwe. He said the simmering violence in Zimbabwe could have exploded and turned the country's development clock three decades backwards like in Somalia and Liberia.
A major weakness in a coalition system of government came up when a participant asked the senator what his ministry was doing to ensure high quality of teachers. The senator responded by saying that there are two ministries of education: his ministry whose jurisdiction is basic education and another ministry in charge of higher education. Since teacher training falls under tertiary education, the other ministry is responsible for the quality of teachers. The two ministers of education come from different parties and therefore follow the visions of their respective parties and party leaders; a reality that has a negative impact on the quality of government services. Senator Coltart painted an optimistic picture of Zimbabwe in both governance and the economy. The discovery of huge reserves of platinum and diamond may help to reawaken Zimbabwe's economy. The senator concluded by stating that he is not an "Afro-pessimist" and that he believes the "African Renaissance" is back on track in Zimbabwe.
May, 2009
Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri Delivers Heller School Commencement Address
Dr. R.K. Pachauri spoke to the graduates of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, including those receiving the Master of Arts in Sustainable International Development, the Master of Science in International Health Policy and Management, the Master of Public Policy, the Master of Business Administration and the Ph.D. in Social Policy. Later in the day, Dr. Pachauri was one of seven distinguished individuals receiving honorary degrees as part of the Brandeis Commencement.
Click here to watch Dr. R.K. Pachauri's Commencement address.
Dr. Pachauri was also interviewed by Professor Susan Holcombe, Professor of the Practice, while at the Heller School.
Click here to watch the one-on-one interview with Dr. R.K. Pachauri.
Rajendra K. Pachauri is an Indian environmentalist who serves as director general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), an organization in New Delhi dedicated to research and the promotion of environmental sustainability. He holds a Master's degree in industrial engineering and Ph.D.s in industrial engineering and economics from North Carolina State University, where he also served as a member of the faculty. In 1981-82, he was a visiting professor of resource economics at West Virginia University and a senior visiting fellow at the Resource Systems Institute at the East-West Center in Washington, D.C.
The author of some twenty-three books, he has also written more than 100 articles for academic journals. Since he joined TERI in 1982, it has become one of the best-known research institutes in the world. Since 2002, Pachauri has chaired the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, where he spearheaded the production of its fourth and most challenging assessment report. He has also served the government of India as a member of the prime minister's Economic Advisory Council, Advisory Board on Energy, and Council on Climate Change, a scientific intergovernmental body that provides policymakers an objective analysis of climate change.
The recipient of many global honors, he was awarded India's Padma Bhushan for his service to the environment and received the country's second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan. In 2006, the Government of France awarded him the Legion of Honor medal, and in 2007 he was co-recipient with Al Gore of the Nobel Peace Prize.
