Student Coalition Empowering Emerging Nations Connecting Students and Organizations Confronting

Student Coalition Empowering Emerging Nations

Connecting students and organizations confronting the human conditions through partnerships of an academic nature in order to enhance their effectiveness and impact.

Spring 2007 Biannual Report

The Student Coalition Empowering Emerging Nations is a fully student-run organization associated with the Emory Development Initiative under Emory College. Seeking to allow undergraduates to invest their expertise and time in development initiatives, SCEEN forms student groups and matches them with specific projects carried out by NGOs, business, nonprofits and other organizations. These projects have been determined to be critical by the organization but do not involve fundraising or marketing. The goal is to satisfy the partner organizations’ need for able minds, willing hands, and committed hearts while providing stimulating opportunities for Emory undergraduates to contribute to their community. Table of Contents

Semester in Review………………………………………………………3

Partner Organization: eStandards Forum...... ……………………………4

Partner Organization: Orbis International……..…………………………5

Partner Organization: Jumpstart International………….….….…………6

Challenges…………………………………………….….………………7

Recruitment………………………………………………………………8

Looking Ahead………………………………………………….….….....8

Final Remarks………………………………………….…..…………….9 The Semester in Review

The Spring 2007 semester was the start of the first full SCEEN administrative year. For the first semester of SCEEN, spring 2006, SCEEN’s Executive Board was made up of three seniors and a sophomore. As ¾ of the board would no longer be present to administrate SCEEN, the Election Committee chose a new one to serve for the Fall 2006 semester. This committee then made the decision to choose another board for the beginning of the Spring 2007 semester, this board then being required to serve until the commencement of the Spring 2008 semester. The new board chosen for 2007 was Nicole French (having served on the previous Executive Board), Wesley Pickard, and Pooja Gala.

Three projects were confirmed at the end of the Fall 2006 semester, two with eStandards Forum, and one with a new organization, Orbis International. The descriptions of these projects were found below. There were two new analysts which were added through no formal recruitment process other than their expression of interest to members of the Executive Board: Julia Thayne and Elizabeth Livengood (an analyst for the Spring 2006 semester).

The Executive Board met on a weekly basis throughout the semester, and collectively decided to undertake another project for Jumpstart International, which will continue into the summer. Among the many topics of discussion over the year, the Executive Board discussed future recruitment of NGOs, the possibility of getting a charter from College Council, and Emory’s steps to develop a program in international development, the EDI. Ideas for a partnership between EDI and SCEEN were discussed with members of the EDI, but nothing concrete was decided before the summer.

Within the first week of classes, possible Engagement Managers had been interviewed and selected for the projects, and the analysts were assigned to their projects based on their personal preference. At the start of the semester, a retreat occurred on February 11, 2007 and projects commenced. The semester passed without a major incident with regards to analyst problems, and the projects, as will be discussed below, were successful. Partner Organization: eStandards Forum

Two SCEEN teams worked with eStandards Forum to complete several sections of their Mali country assessment and their Uganda country assessment. The New York-based advisory firm disseminates detailed information on country risk for investors, underscoring objective, nontraditional measures of risk rather than analysis limited to traditional macroeconomic indicators. While their database contains 83 nations, it does not have a significant representation of less developed nations. The firm would like to include them to highlight the efforts that these countries are making to adhere to international standards, encouraging continued improvement and private sector involvement in the processes.

Uganda

Engagement Manager: Matthew Perrigino Analysts: Julia Thayne, Solomon Stein, and Vanessa Gonzales. eStandards Contact: Matt Zimmer Website: www.estandardsforum.org

Project Description: Under the guidance of eStandards official Matt Zimmer, the analysts on the Uganda project continued the work of editing that had been begun by SCEEN analysts working during the spring 2006 semester. This work included editing reports that will appear on the eStandards website for the benefit of other NGOs on the demographics and economic conditions of Uganda. The project, which extended until the last week of school, was deemed successful by the Engagement Manager and Matt Zimmer.

Engagement Manager: Christina Welsch Analysts: Elizabeth Livengood, Jean Goldwyn eStandards Contact: Matt Zimmer Website: www.estandardsforum.org

Project Description: During the fall 2006 semester SCEEN analysts researched human capital and development for a country report on Mali. Work during the spring 2007 semester consisted of editing and filling in gaps in the country report on Mali. Analysts identified the key questions that still needed to be answered in the report and attempted to contact various Mali officials that could aid in answering these questions. This project proved to be difficult since contacts were hard to get in touch with, however analysts successfully identified the problem spots in the Mali report and filled in as many holes as they could.

Partner Organization: Orbis International

Orbis International gave SCEEN a new project for the Spring semester of 2007. One team, consisting of one Engagement Manager (EM) and three analysts, was assigned to this project. Orbis International is a nonprofit organization dedicated to blindness prevention and treatment in developing nations. In order to achieve this goal Orbis establishes long-term, sustainable eye-care services in countries of need. Orbis also brings this cares to people around the world with their Flying Eye Hospital. This aircraft is a fully functioning facility used for teaching and operation purposes. The plane houses doctors, nurses and technicians making eye care and surgery possible for many living in poverty.

Engagement Manager: Svetoslava Milushkeva Analysts: Saranya Selvaraj, Cathryn Lee, Edgar Vilchez Orbis contact: Website: www.orbis.org

Project Description: Currently, Orbis has permanent country programs in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, India, China and Vietnam and similar programs have begun in parts of Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. In order to ensure the sustainability of these programs Orbis would like to employ a capacity assessment tool to evaluate their clinics and guarantee they are operating at the optimal level of efficiency and organization. To aid Orbis, the team analysts researched and evaluated a list of 16 different tools. This research included information about how the tool should be used, the cost, challenges in implementation and use and the effectiveness of its results. This information was complied throughout the semester and submitted to Orbis at the end of April 2007. Orbis will use this information to decide which tool is best for them to use in evaluating their clinics. Thus far, our contacts at Orbis have been very pleased with our work; here is what they had to say "My colleagues here at ORBIS and I are very much impressed with your diligence and your success in ferreting out a range of resources for our consideration. As well, we are thankful for your assessment of the value that each of the fourteen tools may bring to the work of ORBIS in strengthening the institutional capacity of its eye health program partners...an expression of my sincere gratitude for all the efforts of you and your colleagues at Emory University. I do believe that your support truly enhances ORBIS’s efforts to strengthen the capacity of its long-term, eye health partners to fight blindness in the world. Your work shall help us help others in ways that are profound and long-term." Partner Organization: Jumpstart International

A SCEEN team made up of the members of the Executive Board began work the fourth week of March for Jumpstart International, an Atlanta based NGO that works to facilitate the development of underdeveloped countries by providing training and resources to its inhabitants. According to Ray Knott of Jumpstart, Jumpstart “provides job opportunities in regions of the world that are afflicted by conflict, natural disaster and systemic poverty. The organization is currently looking to expand its operations to include training individuals in skills that are relevant to their location.” The project assigned to the SCEEN team was to: “Research potential markets for job training and placement programs in the Middle East / North Africa. Identify potential training needs in these areas.”

Engagement Manager: Wesley Pickard Anaylsts: Nicole French, Pooja Gala Jumpstart contact: Ray Knott Website: www.jumpstartinternational.org

Project description: The project began the first week of April, and worked throughout the end of the semester to complete the assigned task. The group decided after consulting Ray from Jumpstart to focus on primarily the Palestinian territories in Israel. Work could not be completed by the end of the semester, and continued into the summer.

Project status: Incomplete

Challenges

This year marked the beginning of SCEEN’s second operational year, and it was not without its changes. On the surface, the basic structure of rapport between an Executive Board who managed the recruitment of members and NGOs and overall group guidance to analyst and Engagement Manager, who managed specific projects, remained unchanged. The projects progressed smoothly, although the members of the Executive Board seemed to notice increasing disunity within the group. Also, there was noticed the negative effects of a distinct lack in funding.

Challenge #1: Forming the SCEEN family Other than the SCEEN retreat which occurred at the beginning of the semester, there was no occasion during which SCEEN met as an entire group. Whereas all the members of a successful organization are supposed to know and interact well with each other like a functional family, it seemed to the members of the Executive Board that there was very little rapport between the Executive Board and the specific projects, and between the specific projects. This in turn (we think) will lead to a growing feeling of dissociation from the “group” among all SCEEN’s members. Therefore, we propose as a possible solution to this problem, the creation of monthly or bi-monthly “SCEEN group meetings.” During these meetings, hopefully all the analysts would be able to get together and talk with each other and with the Executive Board. Hopefully this would serve to bring the group closer together and allow individual analysts to express comments or concerns with the clubs.

Challenge #2: Funding SCEEN is not officially chartered under any organization at Emory. This means that any funding that SCEEN could possibly receive would have to be self-generated, which is very difficult for members of the Executive Board to worry about during semesters replete with academic and other commitments. If SCEEN does not find a concrete source for funding within a few years, such activities as SCEEN retreats or the possibility for SCEEN events or T-shirts will be impossible. Therefore, we propose that SCEEN act immediately to gain a charter under an Emory organization, most specifically College Council. We realize that this is not the best of all possible worlds, but there is still the room to look for charters from other Emory organizations when the opportunities arise. For now, an immediate need for funding is pressing, and a charter under College Council seems to be the most expeditious method to solve the need. Recruitment

Because the spring semester occurs as the second semester of the official SCEEN academic year, no official recruitment was undertaken during this semester.

Looking Ahead: SCEEN 2007-2008

In preparation for the start of the fall 2007 semester, the Executive Board has been hard at work during the summer with a few basic goals: 1) work on recruiting organizations for SCEEN projects; 2) develop the SCEEN website; 3) develop the SCEEN calendar for the fall semester; and 4) work on the on getting chartered by College Council.

At this point in the summer, SCEEN has three to four projects in preparation for the fall semester: one project will be the continuation of the Jumpstart International project started at the end of the spring semester. Another project will tentatively be from WaterPartners International, working to research the water crises in third-world countries. SCEEN could also receive other projects from Orbis International, as well as eStandards Forum.

Also, the members of the Executive Board are working to re-design the SCEEN website, which is currently out-of-date and underdeveloped. With the recent international exposure that SCEEN has received through the Malaria Foundation International website, our own website needs to be fully updated and functional. Current options we are pursuing are the free content-management websites as well as a more traditional page through Dreamweaver.

Also, in the attempt to further coordinate SCEEN’s doings as an organization, as well as further strengthen the SCEEN family, the Executive Board is working to set and formalize a SCEEN calendar, on which the various SCEEN group meetings and retreats will be set. Accomplishing this task will reduce the amount of work for the Executive Board during the semester, and will allow the Board to schedule catering and book rooms well in advance.

Also, in an attempt to secure permanent funding for SCEEN’s actions as an organization, the members of the Executive Board are working to become officially chartered by College Council. This process involves creating a SCEEN constitution and filling out a charter application provided by College Council. Once these objectives are completed, the Executive Board will have to attend a meeting of the College Council Administrative Committee, who will then recommend or not recommend that SCEEN be chartered.

Final Remarks

As an organization, we would like to thank very much our partner organizations, eStandards Forum, Orbis International, and Jumpstart International for agreeing to provide our analysts with projects to work on.

We would also like to thank the members of the previous Executive Board, Suhas Sridharan, Zak Manfredi, and Kyle Valenti for working with these organizations to secure the cooperation between their organization and ours.

Finally, we would like to thank the analysts who make-up the heart of SCEEN, without whom our work as an organization would not be possible.