The Graduate Program in International Political Economy And Development ~ Fordham University Beyond Borders Reports from IPED’s International Peace & Development Fellows Volume 5 Fall 2012 WHAT IS IPED’ S INTER- NATIONAL PEACE & D E- VELOPMENT TRAVEL SCHOLARSHIP ? All matriculated IPED stu- dents in good academic stand- ing are invited to apply for IPED’s International Peace & Development Travel Scholar- ships. Up to four are offered each year. Scholarship recipi- ents spend six months at the conclusion of their studies working overseas with an in- ternational non-profit relief and development agency. For Spring 2011, these travel scholarships were in partner- CRS Staff and Erin Atwell, left, in Rwanda. ship with Catholic Relief Ser- vices. Students were assigned Erin Atwell, CRS Rwanda Inside this issue: to Rwanda, Burkina Faso, and Imagine vulnerable Rwandan areas of Rwanda with little to Sierra Leone. farmers, many who lost im- no education, are using iPods Erin Atwell, 1,3 mediate family in the 1994 to collect valuable informa- Rwanda genocide and live on less than tion on CRS project benefici- Editorial Board $1.25 a day PPP. Imagine aries. Emily Groene, 2,3 integrated project interven- Burkina Faso John Casey, tions that address food avail- In March 2012, CRS/Rwanda Editor and Designer ability, access, and use. Now, hosted the annual CRS ICT4D Emily MacGruder, 4 imagine iPods. In current CRS (Information and Communica- Erin Atwell, Emily Groene, Sierra Leone and Emily MacGruder, (Catholic Relief Services) tion Technologies for Devel- Contributors Rwanda programming, new opment) conference in Kigali. technologies function along- As an International Peace and Dr. Henry Schwalbenberg, side project interventions. Development Fellow from the IPED program Director While some of my own family Fordham IPED program, I Tel. 718.817.4064 in the United States may not was given the opportunity to participate in this conference Email: [email protected] be comfortable navigating an and to learn about the current www.fordham.edu/iped iPod Touch, CRS Field Agents, who come from rural use of technology Continued page 3 Page 2 Beyond Borders Reports from IPED’s International Peace & Development Fellows IPED Fellow Emily Groene with CRS Global Fellow seminarians. Emily Groene, CRS Burkina Faso The hope for Burkina Faso As an intern with the Interna- In order to demonstrate the With the use of the M&E sys- lies with its children and the tional Peace and Development impact of the program, the tem the FFE team was able to institutions that work to in- Fellowship, my responsibility is FFE team is required to gather successfully collect and ana- crease access to and improve to support the FFE program. data on health and education lyze all relevant data used for the quality of education. This opportunity has allowed me indicators daily. These indica- our final report. This process “Beog Biiga,” “Tomorrow’s to utilize my familiarity with tors include: student enroll- was a great learning opportu- Child,” is a Food for Educa- educational programs to create ment, commodity consump- nity for everyone involved and tion (FFE) program sponsored training materials as well as fa- tion, vitamin supplementation, by adjusting the strategy as by the United States Depart- cilitate trainings of animators in and daily attendance for needed throughout the pro- ment of Agriculture (USDA) the areas of mentorship, inclusive 130,000 students in remote gram; we were able to meet that focuses on improving education, participatory learning, villages of the program area. our objectives. food security while increasing and early childhood develop- To help aid the data gathering educational opportunities. In ment. Furthermore, after learn- process, I developed and man- The greater tasks of respond- order to meet its objectives, ing about challenges specific to aged the implementation of a ing to food crises and ensuring Beog Biiga seeks a multifac- the area I worked in, I was able monitoring and evaluation educational opportunities re- eted approach. This includes to collaborate with my colleagues (M&E) data collection system main high priorities for Catho- improving the school environ- to introduce new techniques suit- using ICT4D, an information lic Relief Services (CRS) ment, health and nutrition, able to the local context. In addi- and communication device Burkina Faso. An example of gender equality, and commu- tion to working with our staff, used in the development field. this is the quick response by nity and governmental capac- I’ve had the chance to collabo- Using iFormBuilder software, CRS Burkina Faso in deliver- ity by providing meals to stu- rate with our partners at the I prepared a system for mobile ing food supplies to refugees dents attending school. The Ministry of National Education data entry using iTouch de- escaping the crisis in desire is to improve overall and Literacy (MENA) and visit vices and trained a team of 11 neighboring Mali, a result of a school enrollment and atten- teachers in the field to encourage data collectors. recent coup. This example dance. their work in school health, hy- highlights one of CRS’s giene and nutrition. Continued page 3 Volume 5 Page 3 Continued from page 2: Emily Groene, Burkina Faso strengths, it’s ability to WHAT IS IPED? quickly transition from development work to IPED stands for the Interna- disaster relief when the tional Political Economy and occasion calls for it. I’m grateful for this intro- Development Program at Ford- duction to CRS’s work, ham University in New York and I find on an everyday City: a program that trains basis that the IPED de- graduate students in the ad- gree has prepared me vanced interdisciplinary analy- well to help meet the sis of global economic rela- needs of the organiza- tions and international devel- tion. ■ opment issues. Graduates frequently work as financial analysts in the private sector, economists and policy analysts in the public sector, and pro- ject managers in the non-profit sector. Continued from page 1: training on bio-intensive agri- field agents on the use of iPods on agriculture and peace Erin Atwell, Rwanda culture techniques for food as a data collection tool. The building. The Fordham Uni- crops and improved methods use of iPods by field agents has versity fellowship has served in the development sector. I for producing quality coffee resulted in saving time and as an important introduction learned about using iPods at plants. Additionally, they re- money as the data is now col- to CRS and to the realities of small animal and seed fairs ceive what has become the lected electronically. a career in international de- for accountability, mobile trademark integrated model of velopment. It has equipped phone technology to share CRS/Rwanda. This includes Once baseline data on these me with important skills and market prices and manage nutrition interventions through farmers was collected, I used experiences. Additionally, I financial transactions, geo- Positive Deviance/Hearth statistical analysis software, am now prepared to be an graphic information systems groups focusing on the use of specifically SPSS Statistics, to advocate for integrating tech- for beneficiary mapping, and locally produced food, and analyze the data and develop a nology into development pro- the multitude of public and SILC training, a community- baseline report. gramming to ensure efficient private-sector actors who are based micro-finance approach. and effective interventions. available to partner with CRS Additionally, CRS programs The use of sophisticated analy- in delivering high-quality always stress the importance sis tools is increasingly recog- ■ development interventions. of peer to peer knowledge nized as vital to CRS/ Rwanda’s monitoring and Since arriving at CRS/ exchange in order to insure the viability of the program long evaluation systems. To that Rwanda in January 2012, end, in June 2012 CRS/ technology as a development after any relief organization “I find that the IPED has left. Rwanda hosted a SPSS Statis- tool has marked all of my tics training to ensure that key degree has prepared me activities. One project in We knew that rigorous moni- staff members have the capac- well to meet the needs which I was actively involved toring and evaluation would be ity to use this software. of the organization.” was a Green Mountain Coffee critical in assessing the out- Roasters livelihoods interven- comes of the project. Instead Beginning in September, I will -Emily Groene tion that supports coffee farm- of dealing with lengthy physi- continue my work with Catho- ers who own 200 or fewer cal questionnaires that may get lic Relief Services as an Inter- coffee trees. As part of this lost or be completed incor- national Development Fellow initiative, farmers form rectly, we chose to train rural in Burundi, where I will focus Farmer Groups and receive Emily MacGruder, CRS Sierra Leone Serving as an International Peace and Development Fellow in Si- erra Leone, I have had the oppor- tunity to work on multiple pro- jects during my four month fel- lowship, but there is one project “This experience specifically that highlights the with CRS has greatly work and progress I have experi- increased my under- enced while serving in Sierra Leone, the Quality Circles pro- standing of what’s ject. required for quality The Quality Circles project is an project manage- operational research project be ment…” ing implemented in the Kailahun district of Sierra Leone. This -Emily MacGruder district was one of the areas most affected by the decade-long civil war. In a country that consis- tently ranks as one of the worst in terms of maternal, infant and child mortality rates; the Kaila- hun district sits as the worst in The CRS West Africa Regional Director, Sierra Leone Country Representative, and Emily Mac- Sierra Leone. The Quality Cir- Gruder (left) with the District Medical Officer and his staff in Kailahun , Rwanda.