The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs

Organization: Center for Democracy and Development
Team: Michelle Betton, Carolina Hernandez, Therese Vana
Summary: Develop a current affairs type webzine specifically written by and for the global Liberian community. Students will be responsible for designing the site, soliciting initial content and providing editing and feedback to authors and contributors.

Organization: Cities Alliance
Team: Allison Castaldi, Allie Esslinger, Mark Farrell-Javits, Silvana Gramajo Barboni, Daniel Liswood, Cinthya Marquez, Louise Moreira Daniels, Marc Mousky
Summary: PIA participants will have the opportunity to work for Cities Alliance to establish a University Network for Urban Assistance which will involve developing-country universities interested in researching impact of international urban assistance in their respective cities. This work will involve creating a system for developing profiles of universities in the developing world where there is a major potential for this work, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and subsequently inviting them to participate in a 2009 international meeting. The work will also include developing a dissemination strategy for city development studies, slum upgrading strategies, and other "knowledge products" developed by the Cities Alliance which is a collaborative program of 25 governments, the United Nations, and the World Bank.

Organization: Little Penang Street Market
Team: Kadijatu Conteh, Alexa Degioannini, Rachel Elin, Hanna Kadlec, Ryan Short
Summary: Design of an evaluation module for artisan fair in Malaysia. Student travel in summer to implement survey in Malaysia contingent on fundraising during the semester and/or student's own resources.

Organization: ProDESC - Proyectos de Desarrollo Económico, Social y Cultural
Team: Mac Glovinsky, Chelsea Long, Ingrid Rosario
Summary: Preparing report on international best practices and comparative perspectives on human rights-based community development in Mexico's extractive industry.

Organization: UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations
Team: Jihane Ben Khedher, Alisha Banji, Haruka Ishii, Mayuri Saxena, Karin Smith, Nicole Weitzner
Summary: Rape is a war crime. Sexual violence has been a focus in Congo, and there has been increasing civil society and humanitarian organization pressure for action. The UN SC passed resolution 1820/2008 demanding "immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians." Students will collect data on this issue, make an assessment and suggest measures for adoption by the UN to provide protection to girls and women against sexual violence. In addition, students will examine the question: Can UN SC resolution 1820/2008 achieve its objectives? Is there will among member states to act or is the resolution going to meet the same fate as so many other UN resolutions?

Organization: UN NGO Committee on Migration
Team: Kyle Carroll, Leonore Haskell, Gigi Khadivian, Jennifer Velasquez, Andrea Wise, Nejdan Yildiz
Summary: The NGO Committee on Migration would like to be more effective advocates on behalf of migrants as the debate moves forward to the 3rd GFMD in Athens in October 2009 and the 4th GFMD in Argentina in 2010. It would like students to produce a Policy and Analysis paper that includes recommendations and strategies.

Organization: UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service
Team: Asch Harwood, Mariluz Lopez, William Post, Bradley Seelig, Christian Sempere, Jon Wallach
Summary: Work with the UN NGLS to prepare for official international deliberations on globalization. Project would involve identifying, soliciting, receiving and synthesizing NGO views from around the world on financial architecture reforms for the General Assembly president's commission on the financial crisis. For the ECOSOC/BWI/WTO meeting, help prepare NGOs by reviewing proposals and ideas to be considered for reform of FfD intergovernmental process, and prepare report as draft for an NGLS briefing paper on desirable directions for reform. Also, assist NGLS during ECOSOC meeting April 27.

Organization: Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID)
Team: Brian Gutterman, Shahreen Rahman, Jorge Supelano, Laura Thies, Mai Yang
Summary: Against setbacks in achieving MDGs, it is widely acknowledged that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can potentially accelerate pace of progress. This project would begin to make the case for ICTs as an instrument of economic and social development and guide to policy-makers, ICTD practitioners, governments, donors and international development agencies. Students will develop a series of white papers, one for each MDGs cluster, culminating in the 2010 UN Summit on MDGs, to explore and make recommendations on how ICTs can contribute to the MDGs. The clusters this semester are Health (Child and maternal health, HIV/AIDS) and Education.

Organization: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Team: Semra Hailelul, Alex Iyasu, Vitali Tcherniak, Markus Urek
Summary: The year 2010, which marks the twentieth anniversary of the global Human Development Report launch, provides an opportunity to review its contributions to development thinking and assess impacts on policy and practice. This practicum group will conduct a critical review of the literature related with the Human Development indices and a selection of global composite indices from major development institutions. The review will assess the additional value of proposed alternatives in supporting development policies and programmes.

Organization: Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)
Team: Elizabeth Beresford, Joshua Greenstein, Jen Hill, Nat Katin-Borland, Johanna Quinn
Summary: Analysis of the One United Nations (One UN) pilot projects in Vietnam and Tanzania from a gender perspective, including documenting best practices and challenges in Tanzania and Vietnam to allow possible replication in other pilot countries, recommending how to most strategically use the UN space to advance women's priorities in a particular country, and ensuring women's perspectives are heard and documented.