Connections — Happy New Year 2011
Letter from the Director
Kellogg Executive Director Reflects on Visit to Uganda
By Steve Reifenberg
The earth turns a deeper red and the palm trees are more plentiful as you travel two hours west from Uganda’s capital, Kampala, towards Ugandan Martyrs University (UMU), near the shores of Lake Victoria.
Lining the road are compact homes and shops painted orange, turquoise and bright pink, the colors of competing cell phone companies. Along the road, people carry large bundles of firewood and plastic containers heavy with drinking water in the shadow of a giant billboard that reads “Get Facebook for Free on Your Mobile Phone!”
Rural Uganda strikes me as an odd mix of images of globalization side by side with the challenges of poor villages often lacking the most basic necessities—clean water, food, health care, and educational opportunities.
Travelling as part of a delegation from the Kellogg Institute, I come to realize that the challenges are interrelated. The average family in the Nnindye area near UMU spends over 25 hours each week collecting and carrying potable water. Children often drop out of school to help the family with these chores. A doctor at the local clinic says 50% of his patients have malaria and 60% of the children are malnourished, making studying or working difficult.
The Kellogg Institute’s Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity is working with UMU, the country’s premier Catholic university, to explore the roles that university partnerships can play in promoting human development in difficult situations such as those in and around Nnindye. The partnership extends to the local community, whose members are designing and implementing the development projects. The partnership also aspires to facilitate collaborative research and student engagement on development issues.
Over the past three years, the Ford Program and UMU have identified areas where collaboration can help meet critical needs identified by the citizens of Nnindye. But exactly how should a US-based research university and a local Ugandan university work together to address difficult problems of poverty, health, education, and human development?
Universities have the capacity to ask good questions about complex problems, bring interdisciplinary perspectives to bear, and evaluate what works and what doesn’t work.
In the Nnindye villages, access to clean water is a particularly vexing problem. Water-borne intestinal diseases are pervasive and many wells do not work and are fouled by weeds. A pond of brackish water ringed by cattle dung serves as the source of both washing and drinking water for much of the community.
One out of six people in the world does not have access to clean water and in Uganda the figure is closer to 50%. The question is not simply how to drill more wells—the Ugandan landscape is littered with internationally funded wells that now fail to work for lack of parts or are contaminated.
One of the useful roles a university can play is to step back and look at the larger picture, evaluating and exploring how to create water systems that are sustainable. A partnership with Purdue University, Notre Dame, and UMU is doing just that.
There is nothing simple about universities partnering across 8000 miles. But we are moving forward, together.
“We are committed to the development of each individual through education,” says UMU Vice Chancellor Charles Olweny. “Our priority is to make our university work relevant to the lives of the local communities in Uganda, and in attempting to do this, the partnership with Notre Dame is extremely important.”
Steve Reifenberg is the Kellogg Institute’s executive director.
Teaching
Minor in International Development Studies
In Fall 2010, the first cohort of undergraduates began the Kellogg Institute’s new interdisciplinary minor in international development studies (IDS). The 13 pioneers represent all five colleges and schools at the University and their more than a dozen majors—including applied mathematics, biology, architecture, economics, and anthropology—reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the field. What the students share is a deep interest in the dynamics of development in communities across the globe. Below is a reflection by Morgan Iddings, ’13.
“At the end of my freshman year at Notre Dame, I learned from one of my professors that a new interdisciplinary minor, sponsored by the Ford Program, was going to be offered in International Development Studies (IDS) beginning the following semester. I was immediately intrigued, so I applied.
“The minor in International Development Studies has been a great opportunity for me to learn more about specific issues regarding international development in the globalized international community. It has opened my eyes to the various methods nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and state-run committees utilize to pursue development in other countries. This program has been a great addition to my coursework so far, and I anticipate learning even more about this international phenomenon in the future through my academic studies.
“Although my primary focuses are Russian language and anthropology, I am also very interested in history and political science. This minor has given me the chance to enroll in classes outside of my major, which has provided me with access to learning I may never have encountered otherwise. For example, this coming semester the IDS classes offered range from a civil engineering course on water, disease, and global health to courses on the modern history of Africa. This diverse and well-rounded educational experience is something I have sought since coming to Notre Dame.
“Participating in the minor involves several requirements, including the gateway course, three electives, a summer research project, and a capstone course. The opportunity to complete an in-depth research project in a developing country is one of the key reasons I chose to enroll in this minor. I plan to study how the formerly socialist nations of Eastern Europe have begun to develop since their economic and political collapse in the early 1990s. So far, I have been thrilled with the minor and wish to encourage more students to apply this coming spring. It has been a great opportunity to learn more about global development and how we can contribute positively now and in the future.”
Human Development Conference 2011
“Unleashing Human Potential: Global Citizens in Pursuit of the Common Good”
The third annual student-led Human Development Conference will take place at the University of Notre Dame on February 11 and 12, 2011. Hosted by the Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity, the conference gathers students from around the country—and the world—to share their research experiences and discuss the current state of authentic human development from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
This year’s theme aims to encourage the presentation of student research in the context of broader issues—particularly the empowerment of communities and individuals, the roles and responsibilities of global citizens, and the ethical implications of development. Participants will explore interdisciplinary, holistic approaches to improving livelihoods and advancing human dignity.
The conference will continue campus dialogue on this year’s Notre Dame Forum theme, “The Global Marketplace and the Common Good”, and give students the opportunity to lead the conversation.
Cosponsors include Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns and SIT Study Abroad, a program of World Learning.
Engaging Students through Discussions on Development
The Ford Program hosts the “Discussions on Development” series to encourage thoughtful discussion on the interdisciplinary nature of human development.
The 2010–11 series kicked off in September with a group of talented young alumni engaged in different careers within the development field.
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Matthew McGarry (ND ’00), Catholic Relief Services country representative for Afghanistan, shared his work with one of the world’s largest development and relief organizations. He highlighted the interpersonal experiences he had with the people he has been able to help in a small mountainous village in Afghanistan and elaborated on CRS efforts to develop the region through education.
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John Polk (ND ’97), deputy resident country director in Honduras for Millennium Challenge Corporation, shared MCC’s focus on construction of infrastructure, buildings, and other government-level institutions.
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Mary Claire Sullivan (ND ’08, ND ’12 MBA candidate) shared her experience working with Community Enterprise Solutions in Guatemala and Nicaragua. She focused on development through microfinance and microventuring by giving small loans to individuals to help them start their own businesses.
All three speakers told incredible stories of their work, bringing to the evening their different perspectives on development and their respective career experiences. Having the chance to analyze their approaches to development and see how they all fit together made this a great discussion.
In October, Rev. Oliver Williams, CSC, associate professor and director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business at the Mendoza College of Business, and Doug Cassel, professor of law and director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights (CCHR), discussed “The Common Good, Corporate Responsibility, and Human Rights.”
Connecting to the annual Notre Dame Forum, which this year focused on the role of values and ethics in reshaping the global economy, the discussion explored how corporations might respond to human rights violations and critiques.
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Fr. Williams spoke about his work as a board member of the United Nations Global Compact Foundation, which works with corporations to instill respect for human rights.
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Cassel discussed how the CCHR is assisting Guatemalan indigenous communities in a legal case against a Canadian-owned gold mine. Supported by the local Catholic Church, the group accuses the mine of violating community rights to land, to a clean and healthy environment, and to consultation in corporate decisions that affect the community.
This discussion highlighted the importance of policies implemented by the United Nations intended to guide corporate responsibility, but also the difficulty in enforcing these policies. Audience members asked questions about corporate responsibility and the concept of human rights “norms” and how they contribute to the common good.
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n November, the discussion centered on “Microfinance, Entrepreneurship, and Fair Trade” with Ann-Marie Conrado, associate professional specialist of industrial design and Joseph Kaboski, the David F. and Erin M. Seng Foundation Associate Professor of Economics. They debated the virtues of both small-scale entrepreneurship and large-scale industrial development.
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Conrado highlighted her work in Nepal with Hope Initiative, an international nonprofit that utilizes design to address social and humanitarian concerns in developing countries. Conrado’s students work with local artisans in Nepal and elsewhere to design globally useful products. You can read more on her work here: http://blogs.nd.edu/social-design/.
Kaboski seconded the value of smaller-scale initiatives but also discussed the importance of macroeconomic development. In particular, he talked about microfinance, questioning the common wisdom that microfinance is always beneficial to local communities.
The Ford Program will host three more Discussions on Development this semester, beginning with a Discussion on the reconstruction process in Haiti on January 26th at 7pm
Research
Kellogg Welcomes First Visiting Fellow from Uganda Martyrs University
Robert Esuruku (PhD, University of Dar es Salaam), senior lecturer at the Institute of Ethics and Development Studies of Uganda Martyrs University (UMU), is in residence at the Kellogg Institute for the 2010–11 academic year. In his project “Gender, Local Governance, and Participatory Rural Development in Uganda,” he is investigating how gender is constructed and institutionalized in local politics and rural development. Exploring representation, rule of law, accountability, human rights, and popular participation in local development programs, he aims to draw lessons for public policy from women’s experiences. He is also working closely with the Ford Program to advance its community engagement work in Uganda.
The founding dean of the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at UMU, Esuruku participated in the recent African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) evaluation of the Ugandan state initiated by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). His Kellogg project will advance his book project “Gender, Governance, and Development” and contribute to UMU’s Democracy and Development Studies Programme.
New Kellogg Fellows Compliment Ford Program Mission
Tamo Chattopadhay (EdD, Teachers College, Columbia University) is assistant professor of practice and director of international educational development for Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI). His research interests include policies and practices of international educational development in the era of globalization.
In ongoing projects, Chattopadhay is studying student social capital in Brazil’s urban public schools while in his native India he and IEI colleague Joyce Johnstone are examining school-based interventions that bring rich and poor children together through peer teaching. In conjunction with the Brazil project, he received an $87,000 Fulbright-Hays grant to bring 12 American teachers to Brazil this past summer to develop high school curricula with Brazilian educators.
Chattopadhay is also engaged in research on high-school entrepreneurship education with Harriet Mutonyi, a faculty member from Uganda Martyrs University, and is taking part in Notre Dame’s efforts to help rebuild Haiti’s educational system.
“Kellogg is a vibrant intellectual community,” he says. “I naturally feel drawn to link my interest in education with some of the cutting-edge social, political, and economic development scholarship that is happening here.
“I also like the Institute’s commitment to and support of undergraduate research in developing countries,” he continues. “I think it is fantastic that our talented undergrads get an opportunity to grow into young scholars.”
Chattopadhay, who speaks five languages, holds an MS in theoretical physics from People’s Friendship University of Russia and an MBA in finance from the City University of New York. A frequent consultant for UNICEF and UNESCO, he was a vice president for J. P. Morgan Chase before returning to academia.
Joseph Kaboski (PhD, University of Chicago), the David F. and Erin M. Seng Foundation Associate Professor of Economics, came to Notre Dame in summer 2010 after nearly a decade at The Ohio State University. His research focuses on growth, development, and international economics, with an emphasis on structural change, finance and development, schooling and growth, microfinance, and international trade.
Motivated to study economics by his Catholic faith and a concern for the poor, Kaboski was drawn to Notre Dame in part by the University’s Catholic mission, in part by the rapidly developing Department of Economics. Few Catholic universities are known for excellent economics departments, he points out, and it is exhilarating to be part of an effort to build one—particularly one with a growing emphasis on growth and development and international economics, precisely his areas of interest.
The interdisciplinary Kellogg community was a third important draw. “I am excited about the Ford Program and the fact that the goals and resources of the Kellogg Institute will help us build a strong program in economic development,” he says. “The connections we are building with East Africa and Catholic Relief Services will keep our research efforts in touch with and directed toward real-world needs.”
His published and forthcoming papers can be found in the American Economic Review, the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, Econometrica, the Journal of the European Economic Association, the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, and the Review of Economic Dynamics.
A faculty research fellow for the National Bureau of Economic Research, Kaboski has served as a visiting researcher for the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago and St Louis and consulted for the World Bank. He was a visiting faculty member at the Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, in 2009 and a visiting professor in the University of Chicago’s economics department in 2007.
Community Engagement
Ford Program Seeks to Address Urban Poverty, Explores Partnership with Holy Cross Parish in Nairobi
Beginning in January 2011, the Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity will investigate ways to address urban poverty by rubbing shoulders with the people of Dandora, one of Nairobi, Kenya’s most notorious slums. The priests and brothers of Holy Cross have been at work in Dandora for more then 30 years. The Ford Program will partner with Holy Cross Parish, which sponsors the slum’s busiest medical clinic and a large primary school. In this initiative intended to integrate teaching, research, and grassroots community engagement, the Ford Program is also seeking to partner with the Catholic University of Eastern Africa [CUEA].
Dandora is a low-income housing estate located 11 kilometers east of the Nairobi city center. Though precise census figures are difficult to obtain, it is estimated that 200,000 people live in Dandora, an area that covers approximately 350 hectares. The majority of residents live in chronic poverty, earning between $1 and $2 per day working in the jua kali or informal sector where wages are low and work is uncertain. Men typically work as security guards or as day laborers in factories and construction sites. With little education, most women in Dandora work in low-wage and low-skilled jobs hawking food and engaging in petty trade. Some also work as maids for middle-class families living in the Dandora housing estate as well as far-off estates such as Komarock and Buru Buru. In the absence of viable income activities, many resort to prostitution and the illegal brewing of alcohol.
It is the women and children in Dandora who bear the brunt of poor living conditions. Single mothers who have fled bad marriages or are widowed head the majority of households. Others have left to escape the poverty and deprivations of rural life. In contrast, most men are in the slums because of the cheap accommodation and access to day-labor jobs; their goal is to stay only as long as it takes to raise funds to pay their children’s school fees and build a home in the rural area where their wives and children live and where they will return to retire. Unlike the men who work outside Dandora and just eat and sleep there, most women are present in the area all day. They are responsible for families and household duties and many also work near their homes.
Youth and children in Dandora are also vulnerable. Children are forced to play in mounds of garbage and open sewage, a situation that exposes them to diseases—such as cholera, typhoid, TB, and malaria—that are caused by unsanitary conditions. As a result, the overall mortality rate for children under five in the slums is two to three times higher than the city as a whole and 50% higher than in the rural areas.
The Ford Program commissioned a three-week initial assessment of how to proceed, carried out in July 2010 by Muthee Kiunga of Notre Dame’s Center for Civil and Human Rights, and Christine Bodewes, a human rights lawyer with many years experience in Nairobi’s slums and with the Catholic community there. As a result of their initial report the Ford Program has determined that, while more listening and learning is necessary, Notre Dame is well positioned to develop the kind of partnerships that would allow Notre Dame faculty and students to learn important lessons and contribute to human well being in Dandora and beyond.
Calendar year 2011 will focus on partnership building and initial assessment of the needs of the community, ending with a strategic plan for how Notre Dame can best operate in Kenya, beginning in Nairobi, to learn about and address the development needs of the people there.
Leading Notre Dame’s efforts in Dandora will be Kerubo Caroline Okioga, a Kenyan human rights lawyer who earned her LLM in international human rights from Notre Dame in 2006. She has significant experience working with Nairobi’s slum dwellers and refugees and on issues of human rights, housing, and water with a number of international organizations.
“In many ways, urban poverty is more dehumanizing than rural poverty since people in urban areas often lack a basic sense of community that people in villages tend to enjoy,” says Ford Program Director Rev. Bob Dowd, CSC.
“I expect very important research questions to emerge from our exploration, including those related to health and to how people solve collective action problems. I am grateful we have this opportunity to explore how Notre Dame might most effectively partner with Holy Cross Parish in Nairobi and to work with the people of Dandora to realize goals they set for themselves,” notes Dowd.
Student Engagement in Uganda
This past summer, five Notre Dame students had the exciting opportunity to work on the ground in Uganda with Ford Program partners Uganda Martyrs University and the nearby villages of Nnindye, where Ford community engagement efforts are concentrated.
Katie Rose ’13 and Matt Razzono ’12 undertook Ford Program internships in Nnindye arranged through the Kellogg Institute’s Internship Program. At the same time, in a collaboration at Notre Dame with the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Mendoza College of Business and the Center for Social Concerns, the Ford Program hosted Annie Kotz ’10 and Jordan Bergmann ’11 through the International Summer Service Learning Program (ISSLP).
Bill Flavin ’11, a biochemistry major, worked with the Ford Program in Nnindye to learn more about enteric and diarrheal diseases in a developing setting where extreme poverty poses severe challenges to basic healthcare.
Rose, a member of the first cohort accepted into the Ford Program's new academic minor in International Development Studies, spent much of the summer investigating the history of water interventions in Nnindye. The community has identified a shortage of accessible, clean water as one of their toughest challenges to development. Her work provides necessary background information for planning water interventions in the community.
Razzano worked with the Nkozi Agri-Business Training Association, researching cooperatives and people's attitudes towards them to help inform Nnindye's plan to establish demonstration banana farms in each of their 12 villages. Nnindye community leaders have faced some challenges in mobilizing the entire parish around the establishment of these farms. Matt’s research and further discussion with the people is helping move the project forward. All 12 villages have now prepared the farms for planting and are only waiting on the rains to start.
“What I have enjoyed most about my summer with Ford is simply its approach to development...because it allows for the community to grow on their own, as opposed to us forcing our western policies and programs upon them,” Razzano said.
Kotz and Bergmann both took the two-semester Microventuring Certificate Program offered by the Gigot Center to be eligible for their ISSLP placement. In Uganda, they worked with small business owners in the areas around UMU to develop progressive business plans.
During the summer, each of the four Notre Dame students teamed up with an undergraduate partner from UMU. Patience Arinaitwe, Henry Kakinda, Olivia Nabisenko, and Dennis Jjuuko were invaluable in helping the Notre Dame students make the most of their eight-week summer experiences in a new culture and language. The partnerships were also an exciting way to promote international student collaboration on significant community projects.
“I've been forced to confront the challenges of development head on,” said Rose. “I didn't realize before how complicated the process is, how many cycles are in place that prevent growth from happening, and how difficult those cycles are.” (Read more about Katie’s experience below.) (link to article).
Student interns leave Uganda committed to a long-term connection with the issues that they learn about and are affected by, and they often return to the developing world to deepen their understanding of the many challenges of extreme poverty.
My Life in Uganda
Reflection by Katie Rose, ‘12
Today I ate pineapple for lunch, wore a pair of worn-out flip flops that have absolutely no sole left, and walked back from class at about a third of my normal pace. While eating fruit for lunch, wearing old shoes, and being a bit sluggish after class doesn’t have much meaning for most people, to me each one of these represents a small piece of my experience in Uganda this past summer.
I spent eight weeks in Nkozi, living and working at Uganda Martyr’s University (UMU) as an intern for the Ford Program. During those eight weeks I learned both what I had gone there for—to further my understanding of development, specifically the challenges of development and water—and hundreds of small lessons I’d never have expected to learn.
I had applied for the internship to better my understanding of the challenges of grassroots development and to see if it was a career path I was interested in. The structure of the internship allowed me to do just that. With the guidance of staff at UMU, I was able to choose my area of focus from development projects in the neighboring parish of Nnindye. Notre Dame and UMU have a partnership with the people of Nnindye to promote community development within the parish.
After reading through many documents on the project, I decided working on water was what I was most interested in. As a result, I spent the larger portion of my eight weeks visiting water sources and homesteads of different villages with my UMU student partner and translator Dennis Jjuuko. At the end of these visits I compiled all of the information on specifics of the water sources—when man-made ones had been put in, the depth, reliability, etc.—as well as the community’s reactions to the water sources (involvements with NGOs, participation in maintenance, etc.). My goal was to contribute to the ND-UMU collaboration by providing information they will find useful in planning major water interventions in the coming years and to help the program avoid mistakes that other NGOs have made in the past.
While my work and goals sound pretty straightforward, the complications were truly innumerable. The bulk of my days was spent thinking about or discussing all of the problems with development and water and how many obstacles needed to be overcome. The cultural impacts of development along with the financial burdens imposed on the communities, mixed with the necessity for clean water, impossible governmental structures, and mistrust leads to a logistical nightmare. I would literally think myself into headaches over how complicated and cyclical the development process was. Regardless of how much information I had read or learned before arriving, I could never have understood the true depths of the challenges of grassroots development until I witnessed it firsthand.
At the same time I was learning so much about the realities of development, I was learning much about Ugandan culture. My experiences ranged from incredible discussions with the other Notre Dame and UMU interns, to lessons in Luganda [the local language], to World Cup watches and leisurely walks to the equator. Possibly the most important experience for me was immersion into the food of Uganda. For the first two weeks I ate nothing but the Skippy peanut butter I’d been generously given, but slowly I began to understand Ugandan food. I started by eating pineapple—a fruit I’d claimed to hate before the summer began— and even gave in to the staple foods of matooke and posho. By the end of the summer I would finish heaping amounts of everything on my plate, more than making up for my small fast at the beginning.
I learned other things as well, such as an acceptance of walking slowly—I didn’t have to be on an incredibly tight schedule all of the time. I discovered my own strengths in handling freezing showers and cockroaches the size of my face. I began loving to stroll to the local trading center in my red-dust-covered, worn-out brown flip-flops to buy bananas with Annie, another Notre Dame intern.
Whether it’s noticing my pace is significantly slower than the people around me, stepping into a warm shower in the morning, letting a fly buzz around without swatting at it, slipping because my shoes are still dust covered and completely worn out, or seeing freshly cut pineapple in the dining halls, I am reminded of my summer experiences daily, and constantly reflect on the lessons I learned, both big and small.
