Rusalia Resource Foundation (Fall 2020)

Project Background:

The Rusalia Resource Foundation (RRF) is a new non-profit legal entity operating in Kisumu, Kenya with a parallel non-profit organization located in South Bend, Indiana.  Founded by Dr. Juliana Otieno, a Kenyan Pediatrician who was in the 2019-2020 Inspired Leadership Program at Notre Dame, RRF works to empower West Kenyan girls by providing full high school tuition scholarships and mentorship opportunities, with a special focus on life skills education. As a result of Foundation provided guidance and study, Rusalia Scholars are hoped to be “college-ready” and learn the value of education, personal strength, independence, and service to the community.

The purposes of RRF are: 1) To provide opportunity and create an enabling environment for qualified girls to become self-actualized adults by providing access to an integrated support system including education, growth opportunities, values and mentorship that would otherwise not be available due to the circumstances of their families; 2) To provide scholarships that will fund the expenses of girls that are academically eligible to attend high school and improve the transition to higher learning institutions such as community, national colleges and universities; and,  3) To enrich the academic experience of Rusalia scholars through mentoring and training from professionals and others with special expertise, such as health advocacy, particularly in preventive medicine protocols, and environmental management. The girl child in the target area in Kisumu, Kenya is at risk given the poor living conditions in most rural homes and the hostile environment. Educational opportunities are not the same for girls and boys. This comes from the cultural preference of taking boys to school as opposed to girls, with a combination of factors such as poverty, diseases, sexual and labor exploitation putting girls, particularly at risk. This has led to a high school dropout (50%) rate and teenage pregnancies. The role of mentoring of the girls is crucial.

Opportunity:

The importance of mentoring the young (or less experienced) by an older (senior), more experienced or knowledgeable person is well known and appreciated as it fosters learning, communication, and personal development opportunities. This mentoring process will enhance confidence, life skills, and build self-esteem.  The question we want this DAT to explore is how might we provide effective mentorship opportunities to high school girls in low socioeconomic areas to achieve 80% or higher high school completion rates and be the change agents for their community? Virtual and face to face mentoring may be applicable. We also want to explore the roles of peer mentoring, task-focused versus relationship-based mentoring, and short vs long term mentoring. 

Definition of Success:

We look forward to inspiring and concrete examples of the best programs globally for providing expanded mentoring and development opportunities for girls that might inform the new programs for girls that we are developing. We hope to take specific lessons from these international experiences and build them into our own programming, including for helping set expectations for both the girls and mentors.

Meet the Team:

Final Deliverable

Rusalia DAT Final Deliverable F2020 by DAT on Scribd

Yazidi Homeland (Fall 2020)

Project Background:

The genocide committed by the Islamic State has left Yazidis, a historically- persecuted ethnoreligious minority, largely displaced from their ancestral homeland in the Nineveh governorate of Iraq. Roughly 300,000 Yazidis now live in or around Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. They are subject to ongoing rights abuse, exposed to floods, fires and extreme weather and live in squalid conditions: there is insufficient physical security, housing, health care and no reliable access to clean water, food, schools and jobs. Roughly 100,000 Yazidis have gained asylum in foreign countries, but the numbers receiving asylum have shrunk significantly due to populist backlash against immigrants and refugees (the United States, for example, accepted only twenty Yazidi refugees in 2019). Some Yazidis may settle permanently in Kurdistan, but the KRG has neither the will nor the means to accommodate large-scale integration of Shingali Yazidis into the housing and labor market. Many feel that the pressure to identify as “Kurds” makes Yazidis culturally invisible, perpetuating the genocide against them. Approximately 60,000 returned to Northern Shingal and Shingal City prior to June 2020, but the infrastructure is largely destroyed and many of these people are living either in tents on the mountain or in houses that do not belong to them. Nearly everyone is dependent on humanitarian aid, apart from those who are employed by international agencies, NGOs, or local security forces. The capacity for the full population to resettle in the North does not exist. Since June 2020, a growing number of Yazidis (roughly 15,000 over six weeks), have returned to Shingal, including Southern Shingal. Facilitating sustainable resettlement in the South is particularly necessary because, prior to the genocidal attacks by ISIS, Southern Shingal was home to the majority of Yazidis and during the years of ISIS occupation, it was much more seriously damaged than the North. The Federal Government from Baghdad lacks the political will and funding to enable a large-scale return (Iraq faces a budget shortfall of billions of dollars due to Covid-19). The interests and needs of Yazidis are consistently neglected due to their small population, a lack of political influence, and a history of systemic discrimination and oppression. The Iraqi government has done very little to address basic infrastructure needs, including landmine clearance, provision of electricity and water, and rebuilding of roads, hospitals, and schools. Some NGOs, particularly Nadia’s Initiative (led by Yazidi recipient of Nobel Peace Prize, Nadia Murad) have concentrated on solutions that address primarily the needs of those who were taken into captivity by ISIS and their families. Such projects include furnishing houses with appliances, giving grants to women looking to start small businesses, and equipping female-led households with basic equipment to farm small plots of land. Nadia’s Initiative has demonstrated progress by building several schools, helping to rebuild the local hospital, and demining more than a million meters of land.

Opportunity:

There is a need to accelerate and augment Nadia’s Initiative by expanding support to reach other parts of the community. We propose facilitating the return of a number of Yazidis to the South of Shingal; in particular, to ancestral villages at the base of Shingal Mountain, where they lived prior to forced removal by Saddam Hussein’s regime. We focus on Yazidis who already have rights to the land they are returning to, who, prior to 2014, were already skilled builders, farmers, and community leaders and who are willing to contribute to the rebuilding of Shingal. Providing them with the equipment and materials that allow them to resettle and rehabilitate their own land through regenerative farming practice will enable them not only to make a livelihood for themselves but to rebuild roads and basic infrastructure, address needs such as water, food and electricity shortages, rebuild shrines, and provide sustainable work opportunities with a positive impact on the broader community.

Definition of Success:

We would like students to create a list of potential partners in each area listed above, including a description of each partner, a point of first contact, and a rationale as to why these particular entities are likely to support this work. In addition, we would like students to reframe the general narrative set out in the proposal, in ways that make plain how the work we are doing aligns in a special way with the interests and objectives of these fields.

Meet the Team:

Final Deliverables

Yazidi Presentation F2020 by DAT on Scribd

Regenerate Shingal Yazidi DAT Deliverable by DAT on Scribd

Marketing & Donor Communication | Education Bridge (Fall 2020)

Project Background:

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peacebuilding. As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy, in Bor, South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17, the Greenbelt Academy currently serves over 400 students in grades 9-12, and in a very short time, has become one of the strongest academic schools in South Sudan. The Greenbelt Academy seeks to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese who are not only well prepared academically, but who also see themselves as peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Opportunity:

Education Bridge has worked with Notre Dame DAT teams over multiple semesters on projects related to developing a peacebuilding curriculum, building enhanced opportunities for girls, and enhancing international partnerships. Education Bridge now wants to consolidate some of this work, and help map opportunities for future development, particularly in ways that raise the profile of their work internationally with key stakeholders, as well as develop a communication plan for long-term sustainability.

Definition of Success:

The development of a good system for managing regular stakeholder communication (including to the network of people who are currently committed to supporting the yearly educational costs for one South Sudanese student), with concrete suggestions on a communication strategy that helps build enduring networks and sustainable partnerships that will be relevant for Education Bridge. This could include a better plan for newsletters (possibly using mailchip), fundraising, and storytelling

Meet the Team:

Final Deliverable

Eb Comprehensive Deliverable | F2020 by DAT on Scribd

Past Development Advisory Team Review (Spring 2020)

Project Background:

A major component of both International Development in Practice I & II revolves around the Development Advisory Teams (DATs), where teams of students work long-distance with an international development organization client that has identified a specific problem or opportunity. As part of this client-based project, students work with a specific organization and provide recommendations responding to questions or issues identified by their client organization. Some students have had the opportunity to travel and work with their organization in the field or present their final recommendations in person to their client organization. Former ND students from the class have become DAT clients as well. Since the fall 2013, students have worked on 66 Development Advisory Teams with 36 different organizations, in 20 counties. 

Definition of Opportunity:

While organizations are given the opportunity immediately after the DAT project to evaluate the deliverable the students have produced, there has never been any longer term analysis of the impact of the DAT projects on the problem, the organization or the students involved. This project will allow a DAT to use a mixed methods approach to engage the partner organizations and ND graduates to assess longer term implications and impact of this work. 

What does success look like? 

It is hoped that the final project will effectively assess the longer-term impact on DAT approach on the problems addressed, the organizational implications, and impact on students.  It is meant to be forward looking in assessing what has worked well in this DAT process, and what can be improved in the future. Ideally, this review might also lead to a publication about the approach, pedagogy, and/or impact of this kind of work.  

Meet the Team:

Vía Educación (Spring 2020)

Project Background:

Vía Educación is a non-profit organization in Mexico seeking to improve people’s quality of life by promoting sustainable social development through education. The organization believes that every person is capable of improving their opportunities in life as well as those of their communities. Vía Educación implements Learning Communities, a project whose model is founded on 30+ years of research and practice by the Community of Research on Excellence for All (“CREA”) at the University of Barcelona. The model involves “implementing ‘Successful Educational Actions’ (SEAs) characterized by reorganizing the available resources in the school and the community to support all pupils’ academic achievement” (Flecha, Soler, 2013).  The model is implemented internationally through different implementing partners in countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Perú, among others. Vía Educación is the implementing partner in Mexico, working with nearly 200 public elementary and middle schools across 8 states in Mexico as of July 2019.

Definition of Opportunity:

The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team at Vía Educación would like to understand the link between these programs and academic achievement. Are the schools involved in this program scoring higher on standardized test scores than they did before they were implementing the program? While the model’s theoretical background asserts that schools implementing SEAs improve their academic achievement, we would like to explore this relationship in practice. An important thing to keep in mind is that the implementation in the 200 schools in Mexico is not homogenous across all schools - rather, schools choose which of the 7 SEAs they want to incorporate into their school. 

What does success look like? 

Success for us would look like a clearer picture of the relationship (with evidence) between the program and academic achievement, that we could use to support the theoretical arguments behind this program. This project is an opportunity to collaborate with a successful educational program as well as an opportunity to put in practice your data analysis abilities (mostly quantitative) to empirically demonstrate the relationship between the program and academic achievement.

Meet the Team:

Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities (Spring 2020)

Project Background:

All over the world, people are experiencing the effects of climate change in a variety of ways. Droughts, extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and wildfires are some of the most obvious effects. Climate change has been linked to increased famine, joblessness, conflict, and displacement. These effects are particularly apparent in poor, rural communities. These result in equally significant strains on the social bonds in these communities. Under these accelerating pressures, cultures and communities that have successfully overcome challenges for generations are suddenly in danger of breaking down. 

The Joint Learning Initiative on Faith & Local Communities is an international collaboration across academia, practice, and policy that convenes people to discuss research and evidence about the role of religions in humanitarian and development work. The collaboration, founded in 2012, serves as an open access knowledge-sharing platform and research network for all sectors and organizations of all backgrounds. Their work is divided topically into the following hubs: Anti-Trafficing & Modern Slavery, Ending Violence against Children, Gender-Based Violence, and Refugees. They are exploring the opportunity of creating a new Learning Hub around climate change. There is extensive research documenting these significant negative impacts on communities worldwide. The Joint Learning Initiative (JLI) is trying to understand how to better support these communities and build the assets available to counter these impacts. This project will partner with the Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD), an international non-profit and member of JLI, that collaborates with church partners and local organizations on development programs and has been actively engaged in the climate discussions at JLI.

Definition of Opportunity:

JLI is interested in producing a study, using Ghana and Sri Lanka as comparative cases, to understand how stakeholders at multiple scales - from communities and organizations to individual leaders and community members - are coming together to adapt to these stressors. These adaptations may include migration in and out of rural communities, which may enhance resilience while at the same time creating new stresses. An understanding of how these adaptations operate within local perceptions, practices, history, norms, and beliefs will be essential to identifying responses that have the potential to be sustained. JLI has a particular interest in understanding the current and potential role of faith communities (conceptualized broadly to include faith-based NGOs, clergy, people of faith, etc) in protecting and strengthening the social bonds affected by climate change.

What does success look like? 

It would be useful to have a 10-15 page final briefing paper on the findings, with a one-page executive summary, that can be shared with the learning hub and provide the foundation for future work. We are also interested in making further connections with academics and faith-based organizations in the case study countries, which could be an outcome of the case study process.

Meet the Team:

Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Spring 2020)

Project Background:

The ​Tecnológico de Monterrey​ ​and its network of campuses throughout Mexico is committed to providing quality education, world-class research, and building innovative models for the benefit of society. With the leadership of ​ITESM’s School of Medicine and the School of Government​, the University is building a new interdisciplinary institute for global health training and research with strong links to practice. The fall 2018 DAT helped develop some of the foundational ideas for the new Institute for Global Health Equity (IESG).

The IESG aims to be a global center of excellence that generates health through training, research, innovation and knowledge translation, addressing in an interdisciplinary way the existing inequities in Mexico and the world, based on health as a human right. The IESG aspires to lead in training, research, implementation and public policy development in Global Health and Social Medicine in Latin America, through the creation of integral solutions to address social factors and strengthen health systems with an intersectoral approach, with a preferential option for poor and vulnerable populations.

Definition of Opportunity:

In August 2019, ITESM’s IESG created a partnership with Partner In Health’s sister organization, ​Compañeros en Salud​ in Chiapas, Mexico and the International Center for Social Innovation of Tec de Monterrey (Centro Internacional de Inovación Social, CIIS in Spanish) to generate collaborative projects. Compañeros en Salud works in rural Chiapas Mexico to provide quality health care to underserved communities and hopes to serve as an inspiring model to train and accompany health professionals and community health workers, and to deliver quality health care in low resource settings in Mexico and elsewhere. ​The International Center for Social Innovation (CIIS) is a world-class center that offers an ecosystem apt for social innovation. The CIIS focuses on research and the generation and validation of innovative solutions to social problems. Located in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, every year, during the summer and winter,  the CIIS receives dozens of students from various Tec campuses to work on the resolution of social problems in Chiapas communities. For a 5-week period, the students take various classes and work to generate solutions to social problems in a community. CIIS follows up on the work until the best solutions get implemented. IESG and PIH​ have deep ties to Notre Dame, and both IESG and PIH have served as clients on DAT projects in the past. 

In late November-early December 2019, IESG, CIIS, and CES offered the first-ever immersive global health course in rural Chiapas to Tec students from any discipline at any campus. The five-weeks course was aimed to initiate long-term partnerships with local communities where CES worked and collaboratively address local social issues while training Tec students in the philosophies of accompaniment, program implementation, and global health. Professors, administrators, and communities were excited to see this program unfold. After three weeks of advertising, however, the course offer had to be withdrawn due to lack of interest expressed -- only three students registered to the course.

What does success look like? 

1. That IESG, CIIS, and CES are able to use the lessons and recommendations by the Development Advisory Team to successfully attract talented students interested both in learning about global health and in making contributions to the 2020 summer immersive course in global health. 

2. That after using the partnership framework during the immersive experience in rural communities in Chiapas, a diverse group of stakeholders is satisfied by the experience and work and we can replicate and expand the model in the future. Such stakeholders include people in the villages, CES staff, students, CIIS and IESG administrators, and Tec professors.

Meet the Team:

Strategic Frameworks for Peacebuilding | Education Bridge (Spring 2020)

Project Background:

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peace building.  As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy, in Bor, South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17, the Greenbelt Academy currently serves over 400 students in grades 9-12. The Greenbelt Academy seeks to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese who are not only well prepared academically, but who also see themselves as peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Definition of Opportunity:

Education Bridge has worked with Notre Dame DAT teams over multiple semesters on projects related to developing a peace building curriculum, building enhanced opportunities for girls, and enhancing international partnerships. Education Bridge now wants to consolidate some of this work, and help map opportunities for future development, particularly in ways that raise the profile of their work internationally as well as develop a plan for long-term sustainability. 

What does success look like? 

The development of a good model, with concrete suggestions on building networks and sustainable partnerships that will be relevant for Education Bridge, as well as concrete proposals that Education Bridge can utilize and implement as part of its strategic planning process to become a more dynamic and sustainable organization.

Meet the Team:

- VIA Educacion (Fall 2019)

Project Background:

 Vía Educación is a non-profit organization in Mexico seeking to improve people’s quality of life by promoting sustainable social development through education. The organization believes that every person is capable of improving their opportunities in life as well as those of their communities. 

Vía Educación developed a methodology for social transformation based on building problem-solving capacities on communities of youth and adults. The methodology aims to increase individual and collective self-efficacy among community members; develop civic competencies through solving relevant community needs; and strengthen social capital. This methodology is the backbone of the organization and is applied in a variety of programs and settings in Mexico. 

Definition of Opportunity:

With that in mind, the Investigation and Evaluation team at Vía Educación would like to explore the link between these acquired skills (teamwork, democratic and citizenship participation, conflict resolution, assertive communication, collective organization skills, among others) and mobility (social, educational, economic). An emerging body of literature suggests that civic engagement may affect peoples’ wellbeing. Are our participants expanding their opportunities in life? The team would like to further learn about this, and even possibly incorporate a tool we could apply with our alumni network and current participants to test this potential relationship. 

What does success look like? 

Success for us would look like a clearer picture of the relationship between civic participation skills and mobility (e.g. a couple of pages concisely stating what literature has to say about this relationship as well as the mechanisms behind it – that is, if there is a positive relationship, how do civic participation skills contribute to expanding an individual’s opportunities in life?). We also would appreciate a concrete tool that we could use to test in the field to measure this relationship in a variety of settings (e.g. urban, indigenous, marginalized, rural communities, etc.) and populations (from students in high school to teachers and authorities in Mexico’s public school system as well as neighborhood community members).

Meet the Team:

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Best Global Practices for Tobacco Control - National Institute for Respiratory Diseases, Mexico (Fall 2019)

National Institute for Respiratory Diseases, Mexico

Project Background:

The Tobacco Clinic (TC) at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) aims to provide support to all smoking patients so that they can quit such a habit in Mexico. Currently, TC provides care to more than 300 patients with an 85% success rate once treatment is finished, 50% at 6 months and 35% at one year after treatment. Through a multidisciplinary team of medicine, psychology, nursing, and nutrition, the Clinic has a cognitive-behavioral program made of 10 group or individual sessions for 5 weeks. This program also includes medical consultation along with pharmacologic treatment to improve therapy outcomes. The whole Clinic’s program is available to the general population: any patient can enter the program. The cost of the sessions is decided according to a socioeconomic level study which varies between $20 and $200 USD. In case pharmacologic treatment is required, the patient will probably spend between $40 and $400 USD depending on his or her needs.

Furthermore, there is a monthly support session for ex-smokers to strengthen addiction cessation through three objectives: 1) Continuous professional interaction with patients so that follow up can be completed; 2) Connection with people ranging on different stages of the smoking cessation process; 3) Provide information regarding the impact tobacco has on patients’ health so that abstinence can be reinforced.

Besides its welfare component, the Clinic has a very important clinical research component, trying to associate different consumption patterns with genetic and functional variations, symptoms and patient prognosis. The TC is currently including dual users (patients that smoke both tobacco and marijuana) in its research and care groups. Moreover, the Clinic is nowadays the headquarters for the Interinstitutional Committee for Tobacco Control, a working group that gathers key stakeholders in private, public and hospital Institutions around Tobacco Control policies.

Definition of Opportunity:

Despite its 30 years of experience, the TC has not compared its model to other successful models for tobacco cessation. Nor has it expanded its influence through e-health. The TC has a limited impact mostly because its population comes almost exclusively from the patient population from inside INER. This limits most of its focus on patients older than 50 years with an already existent pulmonary and/or chronic disease. Thus, there is a need to attract younger populations. Moreover, there is a wide gap of knowledge regarding a patient who has drug addictions that can affect the lung such as inhaled polymers, cocaine and others. For this, the Clinic is currently trying to launch an app that can provide support for patients who want to quit smoking and at the same time feed the TC with data useful for research. Additionally, our Interinstitutional Committee has important and yet unused talent due to a lack of social communication and PR strategies.

Initial ideas:

Comparative work from what the TC does, compared with what other evidence-based centers are doing is extremely useful. Moreover, being able to compare what differences exist between developing and developed countries can help the Clinic find the middle ground that could scale its impact. Specifically exploring the following topics:

• Best examples of Tobacco Cessation Group Session strategies

• Tobacco Cessation Center’s outcome tracking and impact measurement

• Use of e-health strategies to scale the Clinic’s impact

• Successful Strategies for Tobacco Control Committees.

What does success look like:

Specific deliverables regarding the four areas shown above would help the Clinic greatly. Any further development of each one of these comparative tasks into an actual application to the TC would be most welcome. For example, if based on a comparative table of other Tobacco Center’s main impact measures, the team could aid the Clinic in creating its own or our joint project would really make a lasting difference.

Meet the Team:

View fullsize

Final Deliverable

Using Data to Drive Impactful Investments - Puente, Dominican Republic, (Fall 2019)

Project Background:

Puente leverages mobile data and local volunteer networks to identify community needs and match them with smart, sustainable solutions. Our impact primarily comes from helping partner organizations operate efficiently (by accessing and using better data) to solve more problems with available resources. However, we’re also equipped to lead our own projects and bring in partners that can expand the project’s scope and scale. This case study provides a nice overview of how Puente identifies and solves problems in communities where we work.

Founded in 2018 by a team that includes two Notre Dame alumni (class of 2015), Puente now works across several regions of the Dominican Republic with operations based in the city of Constanza. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a lean, young, diverse team that is excited to work with ND students this semester.

Definition of Opportunity: Puente has surveyed communities across the Constanza region and possesses data on a wide range of unmet needs. Our goal is to act on this data while it remains current by designing one or more interventions to target needs exposed by our survey data. Puente hopes to invest up to $10,000 in community development projects by year-end, so students will use data (and local insights from Puente’s team on-the-ground) to answer the question: “how should we invest $10,000 to improve one or more Constanza-area communities?”

Initial Ideas:

We seek to work with motivated students on a real-world project that can have an immediate impact on populations in need. Our goal is to design a project from the ground-up, which involves identifying and validating community needs, understanding potential interventions, designing an execution plan, and much more. We hope to provide a dynamic, hands-on experience to students interested in learning more about what it takes to implement community development projects internationally.

Students will initially work with Puente’s leadership team to analyze survey datasets and geospatial maps, looking for unmet needs and actionable project opportunities

Needs identified in the data will then be validated by Puente’s local team, who will also evaluate the community’s motivation, cohesion, and resources

Students will simultaneously research and compare the various interventions available to address needs in Puente’s datasets

We must understand how our project can have the greatest impact on the most people given budgetary constraints. Comparing the expected benefits and costs of interventions like water filters, latrines, roof repairs, educational programs, etc. will help us decide where resources should be directed first

After validating community needs and matching them with interventions, students will work alongside Puente’s team to write one or more real project proposals

Puente then hopes to fund and implement the projects through both internal capacity and a network of NGO and foundation partners

What Does Success Look Like?

A successful semester results in Puente being able to move forward with one or more actionable project proposals. Project proposals that frame interesting opportunities or are beyond Puente’s range of capabilities may also be impactful -- we can continue pursuing them after the semester ends, and share them with partners more equipped to execute. In either case, the work we do this semester can result in changed lives for many families and communities in the Constanza area.

Meet the Team

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Expanding Global Surgery as Part of the Global Health Agenda - Program of Global Surgery and Social Change, Philippines, (Fall 2019)

Organizational Background:

The Program in Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC) is a collaborative effort between the Harvard teaching hospitals, Harvard Medical School/ Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and Partners In Health (PIH). This organization emerges out of work of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, that was led by Dr. John Meara at Harvard Medical School (and a 1986 ND graduate). PGSSC’s objective is to advocate for Universal access to safe, affordable surgical and anesthesia care when needed. The strategy is two-fold: 1) Global Surgical Systems Strengthening through Research, Advocacy, and Implementation Science, using the Frameworks developed as part of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, and 2) Developing Leaders in Global Surgical and Health Systems through Research, Advocacy, and Care Delivery. PGSSC's research focuses on surgical and health systems strengthening that is measurable, transparent, and locally-driven. Click here for the Strategic Plan that focuses on implementation science, research, advocacy, and training leaders.

The Opportunity:

The World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) has developed a strategic health plan for the region. At the recent World Health Assembly in Geneva, the Regional Director for WPRO indicated his interest to integrate surgery into the regional health plan, and specifically promote the National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anesthesia Plan (NSOAP) model for countries of the WPRO region, potentially including Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Viet Nam and/or Mongolia.

Initial Steps:

One of the initial steps in the development of NSOAPs is a baseline analysis of a country’s current surgical capacity. Review the Tanzanian background research document that created a baseline for the Tanzania NSOAP as a first step to moving forward on the NSOAP process in the WPRO.

Identify with the client the most relevant countries to research.

Conduct a systematic review of academic literature and government policy documents, including form the Ministry of Health websites, to build a baseline on access to and the state of surgery in each of the selected countries.

What does success look like?

The development of research to support a set of future scenarios or pathways that PGSSC might use for potential partnerships with the WHO regional office to support the development of surgical policy, as well as the strategic use of their experience, expertise, and capacity to maximize their organization’s impact on global surgery goals.

Meet the Team:

More Humane Repatriation - USCCB, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala (Fall 2019)

Project Background:

The U.S. government has apprehended and deported more unauthorized migrants from the Northern Triangle countries of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) than those from Mexico in the last five years, according to the latest 2019 report released by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI). In 2017 alone, there were 163,000 apprehensions of migrants from the Northern Triangle countries, compared to 128,000 apprehensions of Mexicans, a pattern that continued into 2018. With this shift in the country of origin the demographics and migration patterns of individuals crossing the southern border have also changed. In the past, migrants coming across the border were over- whelmingly single males. More recently, far more families, members of the LGBTQ community, women and unaccompanied children comprise these migration streams. And while in prior periods the migrants were crossing mainly for economic reasons, the recent arrivals to the border include sizable numbers of migrants seeking asylum or humanitarian protection, straining the U.S. and Mexican asylum systems and intensifying political debates on immigration policy.  According to the U.S. Department of Justice data, migrants from the Northern Triangle countries filed approximately 40,000 asylum claims in U.S. immigration courts in 2016, nearly five times as many claims as those submitted in 2012. 

The US Conference on Catholic Bishops has traditionally helped resettle more refugees in the United States than any other organization.  The Department of Migration and Refugee Services works closely on issues of migrants in all dimensions of their journey. The Office is interested to look systematically at issues of deportation (repatriation -- forced migration and voluntary as well) to El Salvador, Honduras, and/or Guatemala from the US. The USCCB would like to examine the threats, challenges, and gaps in services related to the situation of people deported from the US, during the repatriation process, and following their return to their home countries.  In particular, the USCCB is interested in understanding more about the systems, strategies and mechanisms in place to help support individuals during this often arduous process. 

Definition of Opportunity: This project will be in partnership with Notre Dame’s Initiative for Global Development (NDIDG) that has a project working to strengthening research capacity in countries in the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador). 

Initial Step: 

Review and build on initial research done by USCCB/MRS on this topic. 

Review relevant policy statements from the region, including statements by Episcopal Committee in Honduras and NDIGD policy brief.

What Success Looks Like:

Begin to build a partnership among Notre Dame, USCCB/MRS and the IGD, on bringing research capacity to bear on this important issue. The hope is this background work will provide the foundational research for a team of Integration Lab (i-Lab) Master of Global Students who will work for the full 2020 calendar year on this issue, including travelling to the region.

Meet the Team:

Building Networks and Alliances to Address “Wicked Global Problems” - Latin American Leadership Academy (Fall 2019)

Project Background:

Latin American Leadership Academy (LALA) seeks to promote sustainable economic development and strengthen democratic governance in Latin America by developing a new generation of leaders. LALA creates international and socioeconomically diverse cohorts of the most promising graduating high school students who have demonstrated an unshakeable commitment to social change. LALA is launching leadership boot camps throughout Latin America to create local hubs of social impact and find values-aligned youth. In the near future, LALA hopes to open an eighteen-month program, which blends entrepreneurial leadership, a liberal arts education, and social and emotional learning. The program connects participants to mentors, resources, and opportunities, and LALA envisions a diverse continental ecosystem that collaborates across differences to bring shared prosperity to Latin America.

Definition of Opportunity:

Silos are the bane of systemic change. A shared fear among policymakers, community organizers, and entrepreneurs alike is that all their hard work adds up to nothing due to missed opportunities for networks and alliances. As LALA’s visibility grows in Latin America, so too does our responsibility to support, respond to, and collaborate with changemakers across the region who are addressing its most seemingly intractable issues -- “wicked problems.” After two successful years of boot camps and a gap year academy on the horizon, LALA receives proposals for partnerships with organizations across the continent every day. Our vision is to become the region’s flagship leadership organization by making strategic alliances with institutions that are doing similar work. However, we need a framework that would help us systematically find these organizations and negotiate partnerships that are both mutually beneficial and valuable to the region.

Initial Steps:

We need a systematic strategy to identify specific issues and to identify and classify programs and organizations in Latin America that intersect with our issue areas in the countries that we serve and identify the young people who care about them. For example, we have identified five priority areas, and a team might focus on one or multiple issues, depending on their backgrounds and interests:

Central American communities suffering drug trade violence. Eg. Tijuana, Acapulco, San Salvador, Guatemala City, Distrito Central.

Unprecedented Latin American migration crisis , including 3.4 million Venezuelans and . Mostly from Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and settling in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, and Peru.

25% of region's urban population live in slums. Eg. Alagados, Paraisópolis, Rocinha, Comuna 13, Moravia, Nezo-Chalco-Itza, Villa El Salvador, and others.

Although 40% Indigenous and Afro-descendants remain a disproportionate share of poorest . Eg. Quechua, Aztec, Aymara, Muisca, Tairona, Mayan, Shuar, Yanomami, Kogui, Guarani, Afro-Colombians, Afro-Brazilians.

Rural poverty in Latin America has increased for the first time in a decade.. Eg. Pará, Piauí, Ceará, Bahia, Chocó, Huancavelica, San Pedro, Chiapas.

What does success look like:

Latin American Leadership Academy wants to enhance its understanding of possibilities for strong networks to combat social inequality in the region. We want to develop a network of partnerships with people and institutions that have the strongest commitments to supporting education and social change. And we are committed to bringing young people (14-18 years old) who are connected to these issue areas into our existing LALA network of 450+ alumni. These issue areas are supported by many organizations from across the globe and we want to map the outreach and partnerships that will allow young people to access our leadership development opportunities more readily. From this exploration of best practices, we would like to launch strategies to nurture, thicken, and enhance the connections in our Latin American ecosystem. Broadly speaking, this team hopes to map successful examples of network building in support of social impact initiatives that might serve as models to help improve LALA’s decision-making and better inform our network building aspirations.

Meet the Team:

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Building International Partnerships for Students and Teachers - Education Bridge (Fall 2019)

Project Background:

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peacebuilding. As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy, in Bor, South Sudan in February 2017. Led by South Sudanese Notre Dame graduate Majak Anyieth ’17, the Greenbelt Academy currently serves over 400 students in grades 9-11, with plans to double the school population and have grades 9-12 over the next years. The Greenbelt Academy seeks to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese who are not only well prepared academically, but who also see themselves as peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Definition of Opportunity:

Education Bridge has worked with Notre Dame DAT teams over multiple semesters on projects related to developing a peacebuilding curriculum, building enhanced opportunities for girls, contributing to organizational sustainability, and international partnerships. For example, this past year’s DAT resulted in Education Bridge high school students attending Notre Dame’s Pre-College Program (on ND scholarships), as well as a similar program at Yale. Education Bridge now wants to explore the possibility of continuing to build networks internationally in the service of its students and teachers that expand opportunities, as well as formalize relationships that support the development of the overall organizational culture of Education Bridge.

Initial Ideas:

Education Bridge will work with a team of ND students to research how other non-profit organizations, especially those running educational and/or child development programs in the international context, have effectively built mission-driven international networks. We would like to focus on students' opportunities and/or faculty/staff professional development opportunities.

How can we connect our students with a wider set of global possibilities, whether through technology or by travel, that will help expand their understanding of the world and their possibility to make a transformational change? We believe we can draw lessons from the African Leadership Academy and other institutions, and want to explore student exchange, model UN, leadership development and the like. How can we build on the success this past semester with the partnerships with Notre Dame and Yale? We might like a usable database of summer educational programs in the US students can explore (ND Pre-College might be very valuable for acquiring information).

One key question is how to make our students and faculty competitive especially through the university application process. A big part of our international partnership model is related to universities and we need to understand what universities look for in these kinds of candidates and partnerships. A good model for partnering will help us build lasting relationships with universities that will go a long way.

How can we find relevant development opportunities in support of teachers and administrators? We could also imagine a “Greenbelt Fellowship” that might draw talented educators and professionals to work with the Greenbelt Academy to help develop and train current teachers, develop new curricular and extracurricular activities, and more generally expose the school to more innovative pedagogy and technology.

What does success look like?

The development of a number of good models and concrete contacts and ideas for building networks and sustainable partnerships will be relevant for Education Bridge students and teachers, as well as concrete proposals that Education Bridge can utilize and implement as part of its strategic planning process to become a more dynamic and sustainable organization.

Contact Persons: Majak Anyieth, Founder and President of Education Bridge. Majak is a 2018 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He is also a Dalai Lama Fellow, an Echoing Green Social Entrepreneurship Fellow, and a StartingBloc Fellow. The team will also have access to talk with Education Bridge board members and supporters, most of whom are in South Bend IN.

Meet the Team:

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Project Ricardo: Clean Water Access For Arcabuco, Colombia - NDIGD (Fall 2018)

Client Profile

The Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development (NDIGD) combines the existing world-class teaching and research faculty of the University of Notre Dame with a dedicated staff of experienced international development professionals, administrators, and researchers. Together we address the challenges of building just and equitable societies by leveraging the University’s signature strengths to promote development and human dignity worldwide. 

Partner Description

"The Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development (NDIGD) is forming a team of 8 undergraduates to support research to improve clean water access in Arcabuco, Colombia. The student team will travel to Arcabuco twice during the 2018-2019 calendar year (Fall Break and Winter Break). 

Initial Ideas

The student team will travel to Arcabuco on two separate occasions during the 2018-
2019 academic year for field research.

Definition of Success

Students will gain valuable, real-world experience by working with the Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development (NDIGD) on an innovative, applied research project to improve local water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) systems in Arcabuco, Colombia.

Meet the Team

Recommendations

Building a new curriculum on climate change working with Madras schools - BCAS, Bangladesh (Fall 2018)

Client Profile

Climate change is a global issue that does not recognize borders. There is perhaps no place where this is more apparent than Bangladesh, which is exposed to a myriad of hazards: flooding, cyclones, temperature and rainfall variations, drought, water logging, and salinity intrusion in water and soil. Bangladesh is often considered the country most vulnerable to climate change in the world.

Definition of Opportunity

The Keough School Integration Lab is partnering with the Bangladesh Centre of Advanced Studies (BCAS) to help advance its important policy work focused on climate-vulnerable populations. This i-Lab BCAS Project specifically assesses the climate vulnerability of different sub-populations, especially women and children, across the ecosystems of Bangladesh in order to evaluate current national policies and develop climate vulnerability maps that can further inform future policy making. Critically important is increasing public awareness about climate change, particularly among the poor and those who are most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.

Initial Ideas

Given the need for greater awareness and education, the team has begun to think about the possibility of developing a curriculum for climate change and disaster risk reduction, especially looking at the role that Madras schools, that provide education to the majority of the poor population,  might play.

Definition of Success

Working with BCAS, the development of a accessible and informative curriculum that could be used by Madras schools in Bangladesh that addresses issues of climate change and disaster risk reduction in operational ways.

Recommendations

Building a new university-based, interdisciplinary center for global health - ITESM, Mexico (Fall 2018)

Client Profile

The Tecnológico de Monterrey and its network of campuses throughout Mexico is committed to providing quality education, world-class research, and building innovative models for the benefit of society. With the leadership of ITESM’s School of Medicine and the School of Government, the University is looking to build a new interdisciplinary center for global health training and research with strong links to practice.

The DGHSM aims to be a global center of excellence that generates health through training, research, innovation and knowledge translation, addressing in a profound and interdisciplinary way the existing inequities in Mexico and the world, based on health as a human right.  The DGHSM aspires to lead in training, research, implementation and public policy development in Global Health and Social Medicine in Latin America, through the creation of integral solutions to address social factors and strengthen health systems with a preferential option for vulnerable populations.

Definition of Opportunity

ITESM’s DGHSM is currently exploring the possibility of partnerships with the Program on Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC) and the Partner In Health’s sister organization, Compañeros en Salud in Chiapas, Mexico.  The Program on Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC) is a collaborative effort between the Harvard teaching hospitals, Harvard Medical School/ Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and Partners In Health (PIH).  This organization emerges out of work of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, tled by Dr. John Meara at Harvard Medical School (a 1986 ND graduate).  PGSSC’s objective is to advocate for Universal access to safe, affordable surgical and anesthesia care when needed. Compañeros en Salud is affiliated with Partners In Health and works in rural Chiapas Mexico to provide quality health care to underserved communities and hopes to serve as an inspiring model to train and accompany health professionals and community health workers, and to deliver quality health care in low resource settings in Mexico and elsewhere. Both PGSSC and PIH have deep ties to Notre Dame, and have served as clients on DAT projects over multiple semesters.

Initial Ideas

The ITESM Department of Global Health & Social Medicine is looking for models of university-based, interdisciplinary centers that work in the international context in close partnership with health service providers and policy makers.

●      ITESM is interesting in exploring different models of partnership that have been established for developing, first-rate, interdisciplinary global health centers that have strong links to practice, that highlight different institutional structures, incentives, and potential partnerships.

●      ITESM hopes to explore and expand partnerships with international development and health organizations, such as Compañeros en Salud, the Harvard Medical School and the University of Notre Dame, consistent with its strategic objectives.

●      ITESM is interested in implementing a framework to develop international partnerships.

Definition of Success

That ITESM uses the systematic examination of different examples and models for building an interdisciplinary, university based Center for Global Health with a strong link to practice in ways that it might serve as a roadmap for a path forward.

Recommendations

Building a powerful network of young leaders and accompanying them across the continent - Latin American Leadership Academy (Fall 2018)

Client Profile

Latin American Leadership Academy (LALA) seeks to promote sustainable economic development and strengthen democratic governance in Latin America by developing a new generation of leaders. LALA creates international and socioeconomically diverse cohorts of the most promising graduating high school students who have demonstrated an unshakeable commitment to social change.

LALA is launching leadership boot camps throughout Latin America to create local hubs of social impact and find values-aligned youth. In the near future, LALA hopes to open an eighteen-month program, which blends entrepreneurial leadership, a liberal arts education, and social and emotional learning. The program connects participants to mentors, resources, and opportunities, and LALA envisions a diverse continental ecosystem that collaborates across differences to bring shared prosperity to Latin America.

Definition of Opportunity

As the LALA ecosystem expands, attracting new members to the community (youth participants, social entrepreneurs, facilitators, advisors, etc.), we need creative ways to stay connected, both in local hubs and at a distance, essentially building and sustaining effective networks. More than just “keeping track” of what people are doing, we aim to create a community of mutual support and guidance (i.e. accompaniment). So far, after our one-week boot camps, alumni have used Whatsapp groups to keep in touch about projects they are developing, to celebrate accomplishments, and share resources about college applications, educational opportunities, local politics, etc. However, Whatsapp is visually messy, has a limited audience, and can restrict engagement to a superficial level.  

Latin American Leadership Academy wants to enhance its understanding possibilities for strong networks to combat social inequality in the region. We want to develop a network of partnerships with people and institutions that have the strongest commitments to supporting education and social change.

Initial Ideas

LALA would like to know: what are other organizations doing successfully to “keep their communities connected”? Some ideas that were brainstormed: “Humans of LALA” posts, a podcast, a LALA interface with notifications, among others.

Definition of Success

From this exploration of best practices, we would like to launch strategies to nurture, thicken, and enhance the connections in our Latin American ecosystem. Broadly speaking, this team hopes to map successful examples networks building in support social impact initiatives that might serve as models to help improve LALA’s decision-making and better inform our network building aspirations.

Recommendation

LALA_ND DAT Appendix by on Scribd

Contributing to the Sustainability Model for Nutrition - Sherlock Knowledge Lab CREN, Brazil (Fall 2018)

Client Profile

Malnutrition is a significant challenge facing children worldwide, and it has been increasing in the past decades: today, one third of the world’s population (2.1 billion) is either undernourished or overweight/obese. While best practices for addressing nutritional challenges among children and adolescents abound, the rising rates of malnourished children internationally indicate that treatment efforts are still lacking.

Addressing the challenge of malnutrition is not merely a matter of enabling access to resources, but it is about understanding the root causes that are inextricably linked to behaviors influenced by family, community, lifestyle, and complex environments. It depends on understanding the relationship of malnutrition to other areas of health and to social and educational interventions.

Definition of Opportunity

In 2017, Gisela Solymos, co-founder and former CEO of CREN, Center for Nutritional Recovery and Education, Nitesh Chawla and his team from the Interdisciplinary Center for Network Science & Applications, and Walter Link and his team from the Global Academy Foundation have integrated efforts to develop the concept of a Knowledge Hub (KH) that provides a framework for capturing data, knowledge, and experiences to help drive positive outcomes in child health and malnutrition.

The action-oriented hub is intended to support entities working in the field to more accurately capture the reality of the contexts in which they are developing interventions and to obtain a real-time assessment of their efforts. For this purpose, the hub will:

• gather different types of knowledge from diverse fields related to the health and development of children, their families, and their communities;

• conduct research and experiments relevant to these topics and their concrete application;

• publish papers, books and audio-visual materials for diverse types of media;

• convene dialogues between relevant stakeholders to advance knowledge and understanding and generate concrete action steps;

• offer learning and training opportunities in diverse forms, including in-person and virtual programs and audio-visual offerings;

• share its knowledge with governments, NGOs, global leaders, and other key players in the field.

Initial Ideas

We look forward to working with a team of Notre Dame students to advance our project’s ideation and organizational strategy through research into the following:

• What are the best practices of organizations focused on innovative work with child malnutrition in developing countries?  What are the innovations and how have they been deployed? What interventions and strategies do they use to share these ideas and make them operational?

• Do they use technology such as electronic medical records, mobile apps, etc.? How do they use it?

• What is their "business model"? (describe how they work)

Definition of Sucess

The generation of a professional presentation of the best organizational practices related to addressing malnutrition, and in turn, supporting and exploring the Knowledge Hub’s unique potential contributions to the field.

Recommendations