Climate Change
During the 2016-2017 academic year, the Climate Change Working Group built upon its prior work on climate change and migration in Bangladesh. The group worked on developing a set of scenarios to examine possible outcomes of climate-induced migration in Bangladesh and Vietnam. While research shows that it is likely there will be an increase in the number of vulnerable families who are forced to relocate due to climate change, there is not a good understanding of what is likely to happen in the receiving communities. These scenario studies will provide insight into the impact on receiving communities. The group planned to submit their work to be considered for presentation at the Dupont Summit in Washington, D.C. in December 2017.
Gender Dynamics of Violent Extremism in Africa
The U.S Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the Agency for International
Development (USAID) have developed programming to counter support for violent extremism
(CVE) in Africa. The working group examined gender-based drivers and identified genderoriented
efforts to mitigate attitudes that support violent extremism. The research was done
in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State Diplomacy Lab initiative to which the team
delivered a report and presentation in January 2017. The team has since moved on to another
phase of its research: comparing counterinsurgency and CVE programs across Asia and Africa
in order to identify the similarities between these types of programming. The team will carry
out new research with a focus on gender-related CVE programs in the fall of 2017.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Do corporations have a responsibility to society? Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be defined as a “corporate initiative to assess and take responsibility for a company’s effects on the environment and impact on social welfare. The term generally applies to company efforts that go beyond what may be required by regulators or environmental protection groups.” This working group explored the ways in which corporations responded to being involved in environmental accidents.
Gender Equality in Public Administration (GEPA)
In 2013, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched Gender Equality in
Public Administration (GEPA)–a research and policy development initiative to collect and
make available up-to-date information on gender equality in public administration. Beginning
in September 2015, the Ford Institute for Human Security began hosting the GEPA student
working group, which partnered with UNDP on this initiative. Led by Dr. Müge Finkel and Dr.
Melanie Hughes, working group members collected, evaluated, analyzed, and visualized
data on women’s representation in public administration worldwide. For the past two years,
the group has supported the ongoing development of a new global system to track and
report data on gender equality in the civil service. In the 2016-2017 academic year, the group
collaborated with UN consultants to assess the state of global sex-disaggregated data in
public administration. Student researchers specifically focused on the links between youth
and gender in public administration, national and subnational level data, and LGBTI data.
The group has presented their research to the UN GEPA team in December 2015, May 2016,
December 2016, and May 2017. The spring presentations were held at the UN Secretariat in
New York.