Alumni Accomplishments

DPMI alumnus puts training to work in food security efforts in Ethiopia

Carolyn Meyer Alumni Accomplishments, DPMI, MIIS Update, News, Stories From the Field

IMG_1772Sitting down with Care Deputy Chief of Party and January 2015 Monterey DPMI Alumnus, Girma Hailu

During a 3-day trip to Addis Ababa after the DPMI Kenya training, I was able to meet-up with January 2015 DPMI Monterey alumus, Girma Hailu in his hometown of Addis, Ababa, Ethiopia.

Girma has been serving as Deputy Chief of Party, Food Security for Farmers (FSF) for CARE in Ethiopia since last fall.

The CARE Food Sufficiency for Farmers project (FSFP) is a 5 year project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and executed by CARE Canada through CARE Ethiopia. The project aims at ensuring sustainable food security of chronically food insecure women, men, girls and boys in selected districts of the Oromiya and Amhara regions. The project works in collaboration and builds on the Ethiopian government National Food Security Programs and targets over 34,000 households; among which 13 percent are female-headed. The project will be implemented through 3 main components: i) improving the enabling environment for food security; ii) diversifying economic activities for food insecure households and iii) improving resilience to climate risks.

Prior to that his post at CARE, Girma served as an MDG Policy Analyst with UNDP Ethiopia. His work at UNDP included a substantial report to the Government of Ethiopia on on “Trends and Prospects for for Meeting MDGs by 2015“.

Girma has a special relationship to the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) at Monterey— where he completed the Program on Design, Partnering, Management and Innovation (DPMI), as his wife, Konjit Habtemariam, also originally from Addis Ababa, completed her MBA at MIIS from 1999-2001.

Now that Girma has completed the DPMI, there are two alums in the family.

After sitting down with Girma, here’s what he had to say about his experience and where he sees the development sector headed:

Which module of DPMI do you use the most in your current work with CARE Ethiopia?

At the moment, I use many of the project design components Dr. Beryl Levinger covers during the first week, but I plan to use the facilitation and partnering tools in future projects and positions. 

Who would benefit from DPMI?

It’s definitely designed and best-suited for practiticioners like me who are managaging and developing projects on a daily basis, although I can see other benefits for those who study international development theory and want to pick-up practical tools and logical frameworks for sustainable development to widen their skill area. Author’s note: Girma and I also both agreed that a hidden benefit of DPMI is observing the skilled teaching style of the practicioners. The hands-on learning in teams throughout the training is just one of the effective instructional techniques used by DPMI instructors.

What changes do you expect in the international development sector in the next 5 years?

I think many governments will want to change or develop an exit strategy for the cycle of aid that currently exists. One way they might do this is through developing small and medium enterprises with the help of the international community. I see social entrepreneurship (a tenant of Module 3 of DPMI) continuing to grow. Programs focusing on promoting entrepreneurship and business skills should continue to grow with a push from local governments. 

In closing, I have to send a big “Thank You” to Girma and his colleague for showing me around Addis and taking time to meet with a prospective DPMI Monterey applicant working on social affairs and migration issues for the African Union.

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About the author: Carolyn Meyer, MA IPS ’05 is Director of Immersive Professional Learning and Special Programs in the Graduate School of International Policy and Management. She can be reached at cmeyer@miis.edu.

MIIS IPSS alumnus tracks illicit weapons trading around the world

Carolyn Meyer Alumni Accomplishments, Immersive Learning (MIIS & External Ops), IPSS, MIIS Update, Stories From the Field, Student Accomplishments

Jonah_Leff_UN_Weapons_Inspector
Information provides governments and policymakers with arms data previously never available.

It was my first year working at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) at Monterey when I met MIIS IPS ’06 alumnus Jonah Leff. He was studying the effects of conventional and small arms violence under the tutelage of MIIS professor Edward Laurance, a pioneer in the field of small arms and light weapons trade treaties and research. Jonah was also a fellow serving an internship at the United Nations Office for Disarmament Research (UNODA) through the MIIS International Professional Service Semester (IPSS) program. The IPSS program is designed to help students jump-start their careers through junior-level internships in their field during their final semester of graduate schoo.

Jonah currently serves as Director of Operations at Conflict Armament Research and is based out of Nairobi, Kenya (where we recently met). It’s been wonderful reconnecting with Jonah over the years and to see the MIIS and Middlebury College students he has supported in entering the important field of preventing armed violence.

Why is the field of armed violence reduction so important? The use of small arms and conventional light weapons (guns, etc.) is the leading weapon of choice in most of the violent conflicts in the world, and Jonah’s organization provides first-hand research and tracking of illicit arms in a think-tank fashion designed to inform governments and civil society organizations. The information Conflict Armament Research tracks had never been systematically recorded and analyzed leading to policy decisions not informed by concrete data. Their in-depth weapon analysis

It was a pleasure to see Jonah out of a conflict zone and enjoying a Nairobi café last week. He shared his current work and where he sees the field headed. I gave him as many of the exciting updates I could remember from MIIS and the larger Middlebury College community.

Thanks to Jonah for all you do and for being a model alum!

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About the Author: Carolyn Meyer is Director of Immersive Professional Learning and Special Programs within the Graduate School of International Policy and Management

Greater Middlebury alumni community comes together in Nairobi

Carolyn Meyer Alumni Accomplishments, DPMI, FMS, Middlebury, MIIS Update, News, Summer Programs

IMG_1640 IMG_1633 IMG_1636 IMG_1635 IMG_1639A June 9th reception in Nairobi drew over 25 members from the entire Middlebury community including alumni from Middlebury College, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), the MIIS Frontier Market Scouts fellowship, and the MIIS Program on Design, Partnering, Management and Innovation (DPMI).

The event was held at the Aga Khan Graduate School of Media and Communications in the 9 West building in the Westlands neighborhood of Nairobi, the site of the June 2-11 DPMI Kenya training. The group welcomed the wonderfully diverse group of DPMI Kenya trainees to the alumni community. DPMI Kenya participants in the June training hail from over seven different countries (Kenya, Nigeria, Niger, Venezuela, the Philippines, South Africa, and the US).

Highlights from the event include how effortlessly the group of alumni from different Middlebury backgrounds connected as well as the short speech made by guest of honor, Dr. Beryl Levinger, a Distinguished Professor and Development Policy and Practice Program Chair at MIIS. During Beryl’s speech, she likened what many alumni are doing in the development and social enterprise space to a quote from Thomas Edison on the process of inventing the light bulb, ‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Beryl then told the group, “You fail many times trying to find the right approach. The common thread is that you are all here trying to make a difference.”

Group discussions at the event circled around the social enterprise and NGO sector in Nairobi, language learning and translation, as well as the standard griping (albeit not too bad) about Nairobi traffic. The event ended with everyone receiving a Middlebury Institute long-sleeved t-shirt in the signature Middlebury royal blue. “A color that seems to look good on everyone!” mentioned one alumna.

A bright orange sunset easily viewable from a all class wall on the 7th floor of the 9West building was the breath-taking backdrop for a wonderful event filled with alumni from all backgrounds and nationalities sharing stories/experiences, making new friends, and reconnecting.

Asante Kenya! Here’s to doing it all over again in June 2016!

About the Author: Carolyn Meyer is Director of Immersive Professional Learning and Special Programs Within the MIIS Graduate School of Policy and Management.