IPED Students Visit South Africa

With the cable car closed for repairs, Fordham IPED students
 Jenna, Lorena, Juls, Iurii, Danielle, Deana, and Evan
had to scale by foot the 3,558 foot Table Mountain.
Contributed Photo   

If South Africa is the next big thing for business, Fordham students will know for sure.

As part of the Graduate Program in International Political Economy and Development’s (IPED) emerging markets program, 14 Fordham graduate and undergraduate students are spending three weeks in South Africa studying alongside 20 students from there. 

Their focus has been on the country’s macroeconomic performance, exchange rate stability and the prospects for portfolio investments, as well as in some of the larger emerging markets around the globe.

The trip is the seventh one the IPED program has sponsored, and in addition to graduate students, it has featured undergraduates from both Fordham College Rose Hill and Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

In addition to an intensive set of classes, briefings from business, government, and labor leaders, the students also had the opportunity to visit Cape Town, hike up Table Mountain and take a ferry to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. 

Once the course is concluded, students will also have the opportunity to attend a three-day safari in Kruger National Park.

—Patrick Verel

Fordham Student at Epicenter of Ebola Crisis

The July 29 death of Sierra Leone’s top Ebola doctor, Sheikh Umar Khan, from the disease has intensified fears about the epidemic that is overwhelming West Africa.

“On a daily basis, Ebola regularly comes up,” said Kathleen “Ellie” Frazier, a student in Fordham’s International Political Economy and Development (IPED) program who is working in Sierra Leone. “I overhear people discussing it on the street and there are awareness posters everywhere.”

Researchers are working to develop a treatment for Ebola, but right now there is no cure or vaccine.
Infected patients receive only supportive care, such as saline and fever-reducing medication.
Photo courtesy of BBC News

Currently, Sierra Leone is the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak, which causes high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and sometimes internal bleeding. The highly contagious virus, for which there is no cure or vaccine, remains infectious even after a person has died.

More than 1,200 cases and 670 deaths have been reported across West Africa. So far, 454 Ebola cases have been reported in Sierra Leone.

Frazier is stationed in a rural area of Sierra Leone as an intern at Timap for Justice, the country’s largest paralegal network. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Rwanda, she has worked extensively only social justice issues, especially in post-conflict regions. In Sierra Leone, she is working with Timap to develop organizational assessment tools and training materials, and is observing paralegal activities in its various offices.

She was there just a week when Ebola cases began to emerge.

“In the first week I arrived, Ebola was confirmed in the eastern part of the country, marking its departure from the original area along the eastern border with Liberia and Guinea,” she said. Initially, she hesitated going to Timap’s rural offices. She even thought about leaving the country.

“But, with the exception of one mining company in the east, no one was evacuating their staff. The rural offices I was supposed to work in were not in the most heavily affected districts, so I decided to go.”

Frazier has not known anyone who has contracted the virus, although several Timap staff members fled a city with a major Ebola isolation unit after a prominent teacher there died. She said two of Timap’s offices in the east have been forced to temporarily suspend activities.

Image courtesy of BBC News

Frazier said that misinformation about the virus is rampant. Some Sierra Leoneans doubt it even exists, partly because Ebola symptoms are similar to the common diseases of malaria and Lassa fever. And there are some who insist the disease is a conspiracy, citing that the original contamination area is a stronghold of the opposition political party.

Conflicting messages early on from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health and Sanitation caused further confusion, Frazier said. In more remote rural areas, villagers have even driven out WHO and Doctors Without Borders workers.

Fear also breeds misconceptions, she said. Because of the virus’ high contagion rate, those who test positive for Ebola are immediately transferred to an isolation unit, where loved ones cannot visit. If they die, their bodies are bagged and buried in a designated area, denying family members the opportunity to perform customary funeral rites. As a result, many people see going to the isolation word as a “death sentence” and resist taking sick family members to health centers or hospitals.

“Some rumors go so far as to say that the wards are fronts for organ harvesting, or that they inject you with the virus once you are admitted,” Frazier said.

Frazier said that those affected by Ebola are facing discrimination. Health professionals are ostracized by friends and family because of their work with victims. Children from affected families have been driven away from school. People refuse to buy goods from affected families.

“Beyond individuals and families, it is likely that the districts most heavily affected will carry a stigma long after this outbreak subsides—whenever that may be.”

— Joanna Klimaski Mercuri

IPED Students Visit South Africa

Fordham IPED students gather in
Mandela Square after visiting
the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Photo by Henry Schwalbenberg

Henry Schwalbenberg, Ph.D., professor of political science and Director of the Graduate Program in International Political Economy and Development, shares with us this dispatch from Johannesburg, where 27 students are currently enrolled in Fordham IPED's Emerging Markets program in South Africa:

"They have completed the first two weeks of the program and have one more week to go. Twelve of these students are regular Fordham students from New York, while the remaining 15 students are sponsored by various South African institutions such as the University of Pretoria, the Reserve Bank of South Africa and the DeBeers Mining company," he writes.  

"Besides regular classes, students have received briefings from key policy makers representing South African businesses, government and labor as well as officials representing American businesses and the US Embassy.  

At the conclusion of the class, the students who have traveled from New York will go on safari in South Africa's famous Krueger National Park."

Can't wait to see those safari pictures!

—Patrick Verel

IPED Alumna Takes Post at Japanese Development Agency

Mayu Sakagauchi, GSAS ’11, has been appointed to the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Sakagauchi is an alumna of the graduate program in International Political Economy and Development (IPED). Sakagauchi graduates in May. Following the completion of four months of orientation in Japan, she will begin a two-year assignment to the African nation of Malawi. While in Malawi she will represent the Japanese government as a community development officer and will work closely with the Malawi Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

While at Fordham’s IPED, Sakagauchi specialized in international and development economics with a focus on project management. Her initial interest in Africa came from her participation in IPED’s summer study tour of South Africa.

Fordham a Strong Presence in Presidential Management Fellowship Competition

Back in October, 2010, 9,100 graduate students from around the country applied to become Presidential Management Fellows. Of those, only 1,530 made it through the rigorous selection process to become semi-finalists, and ten of them hail from Fordham.

Henry Schwalbenberg, Ph.D., associate professor of Economics and Director of the Graduate Program in International Political Economy and Development (IPED), noted that the percentage of Fordham students who have made it this far (10 out of 39, or 26 percent) is much higher than the national average of 17 percent.

With five semi-finalists hailing from the School of Law, three from IPED, one from the Graduate School of Education (G.S.E.) and one from the Graduate School of Business Administration (G.B.A.), Fordham is well-positioned for one of the country’s most prestigious fellowships.

“The presidential management fellowship program is the flagship leadership development program for the federal government. It attracts and selects the best candidates coming out of America’s graduate schools,” he said. “It is designed to develop a cadre of potential government leaders for the future.”

The process of becoming a fellow is one that finishes in March, when 900 finalists are offered jobs within the federal government. Schwalbenberg noted that the final round of the process, which is taking place right now, involves a full day of interviews and observations in Washington D.C.

The payoff for such a grueling process is a two-year long fast track into the agencies that make the executive branch function. Former students who have completed the fellowship have gone on to work in the International Trade Administration, which is part of the Commerce Department, the Foreign Agricultural Service, which is part of the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“The aim is that towards the end of their career, these will be the leaders of the Civil Service,” Schwalbenberg said. “So they won’t be the political appointees, but they’ll be the people who actually run the bureaucracy for the different secretaries and political appointees.”

—Patrick Verel

Professor Labonte reports from Sierra Leone (II): "Arrival"

Assistant Professor of Political Science Melissa Labonte is spending 10 days in Sierra Leone and will send occasional dispatches from there – depending on the reliability of the power supply and her Internet connection.

I arrive at Freetown-Lungi International Airport at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 19. IPED graduate and my former student, Jay Endaya, is due to meet me on the "Aberdeen side," with the person who will likely be my part-time driver during my stay. The airport is very much what I expected -- and it's probably good that we landed in the dark because the photos I've seen of the airfield during daytime include abandoned aircraft wreckage.

Lungi Airport has to be the worst located airport on the entire planet. It sits on a peninsula and there are three ways to get into Freetown proper (and your hotel): car, ferry and taxi. The land route takes at least 4 hours. The ferry takes about an hour, but weather can complicate this and there is always the chance of too few life vests for too many passengers. The helicopter is expensive (relatively speaking) but fast (15 minutes). Each option has its risks, including the helicopter route; one crash in June 2007 killed all 22 people on board. So, you pick your poison and hope the travel gods are with you.

The neon sign telling us where we have landed read "F EETO N INTE NATIONAL A POR. " The first thing to hit you when you leave the plane is the humidity. I've managed three summers in Richmond, Va., and have traveled a fair bit in tropical countries, but it's not quite the same as the equatorial humidity here.

The second thing to hit you is the chaotic environment. Getting through customs was relatively straightforward, but it's what's on the other side that was a shocker. Dozens of porters (no clue if they are "official" or not) grab at your luggage, and beckon you to follow them here or there, either to the ferry or to the helicopter offices. They make a chalk mark on your luggage, which designates a temporary "ownership" and deters poaching by other porters. I took only two carry-ons for this trip, knowing this would be something I'd face. But Mohammed, the porter who eventually caught up with me, persisted and so I finally gave in and let him wheel my bag out to the helicopter office.

My helicopter ride was uneventful. The most unnerving thing about it was finding out that the Syrian pilot flying our Russian craft got his license in Nigeria. ‘Nuff said. We land. More chaos. My bag is nowhere to be seen and Mohammed is on the other side of the peninsula. Other passengers are similarly worried, and it takes about 30 minutes for them to "reappear." By this time, Jay is in the parking lot with his colleague, Henry, and the driver, John. So we head to the hotel and. as I swat a few mosquitoes away from my ears and drift off to sleep, I realize I've finally arrived in Sierra Leone.

IPED Graduate Helps Sudan Refugees

Before he graduated in 2009 from Fordham University's Graduate Program in International Political Economy and Development (IPED), Chengguang Zhao specialized in international development studies and project management.

Now his experience has propelled him to some of the most desperate corners of the world, including his most recent assignment, as Catholic Relief Services’ area manager in Darfur, Sudan.

At the end of January, Zhao arrived in Habila, a southern part of West Darfur near the Chad border that is a potentially volatile section of the country. As an area manager, Zhao is responsible for relief programming for a cluster of camps for internally displaced refugees. These responsibilities include the delivery of food supplies as well as the proper provision of shelter, water and sanitation.

It’s a huge task, given that Catholic Relief Services is one of the few relief services allowed to operate in the region. But Zhao is as capable as anyone, having previously worked in Sierra Leone, where he coordinated the Catholic Relief Services’ efforts to improve child nutrition and food security.

—Patrick Verel

IPED Students Honored with Scholarships and Internships

The plaudits keep rolling in for Fordham’s International Political Economy and Development (IPED) program.

The latest news, courtesy of IPED Director Henry Schwalbenberg, is that Xiaoyi Fan, IPED Class of 2010, has been awarded a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) scholarship from the New York Society of Security Analysts and the CFA Institute. Fan, who specialized in international banking and finance, joined four winners from Baruch College and Princeton, Columbia and Pace Universities.

Meanwhile, Jedidiah Fix, IPED Class of 2011, has been offered a summer internship abroad with the United States Department of State. Pending security clearance, Fix will intern in the economics section of the United States Embassy in Manila, The Phillipines.

A native of Spokane, Washington, he majored in economics as an undergraduate at MacCalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He came to Fordham this past fall after working for the United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal, West Africa. He is also the recipient of a Peace Corps Fellowship, for which he is assisting the Fordham Road Business Improvement District.

—Patrick Verel

IPED Alumni News: Jason Gehrig

Jason Gehrig, IPED Class of 2009, presented the results of his book, Water and Conflict, at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, January 6, 2010.

Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services, introduced Gehrig to an overflow audience. The session was filmed by C-SPAN for later broadcast (video here). Commenting on Gehrig's work were Tjip Walker, Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation, U.S. Agency for International Development, Professor William E. Hall, from the Conflict Resolution Program at Georgetown University, and Geoff Dabelko, Ph.D., director of the Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center. The moderator of the panel was Dennis Warner of Catholic Relief Services.

Gehrig's book, Water and Conflict, was written with Mark M. Rogers and explores water’s complex role in development and conflict. It finds that water scarcity, access to water supplies, pollution of water sources and transboundary water management increasingly play a role in disputes, political manipulation and, in worst cases, outright conflict. In the course of these disputes, traditional community practices and human rights often are ignored and the natural environment may become degraded. The report challenges the development community to ensure that peacebuilding principles of equity, justice and reconciliation are applied to water conflicts to prevent and, if necessary, mitigate these situations.

During the question and answer period, the World Bank's policy of promoting the privatization of water in Bolivia was discussed. This privatization effort led to the outbreak of violence. Gehrig suggested, that from his experience in Bolivia, community cooperatives might prove more effective in mitigating violence and in providing water to the poor.

Catholic Relief Services published the book and major funding for the research was provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development. While writing the book, Mr. Gehrig was a student in Fordham's Graduate Program in International Political Economy and Development (IPED) and the holder of an Arrupe Fellowship.

Jason Gehrig with Mark R. Rogers. Water and Conflict: Incorporating Peacebuiliding into Water Development (Catholic Relief Services—United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Baltimore, 2009).

Photo: Jason Gehrig (L) with Henry Schwalbenberg at book launch.

—Henry Schwalbenberg, Ph.D., Director
Graduate Program in International Political Economy and Development (IPED)

IPED Scholars Announced

Catholic Relief Services announced the following Spring semester assignments for International Political Economy and Development Program (IPED) International Peace and Development Travel Scholars:

• Patrick Gallic, Sierra Leone
• Peter Gutierrez, Rwanda
• Blain Cerney, Senegal
• Gyanu Sharma, West African Regional Office (Senegal)

Catholic Relief Services uses their International Development Fellows Program to recruit the best and brightest from among the graduates of the leading graduate programs in international development.

This group of students are scheduled to spend six months at their assignments from mid-January until mid-July.

IPED Students Tapped for Dominican Conference

Two Fordham IPED students will serve as student journalists at the International Conference of the Americas (Conferencia Internacional de Las Americas -- CILA 2009), sponsored by the United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic.

Graduate students Patrick Gallic and Matias Pablo Mangas were chosen by the United Nations Department of Public Information to attend the conference, held in the Dominican Republic from Oct. 28 to Oct. 31. The conference provides a diplomatic forum for youth to debate global issues related to the UN Millennium Development Goals, and will be attended by approximately 1,500 students, primarily from Latin America.

Mangas is a first year student from Argentina who received his bachelor's degree in international studies from American University in 2009. Gallic previously worked for the Catholic Medical Mission Board in Southern Sudan. As part of their trip both students will have the opportunity to meet with the president of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez. Last year at this time, Fernandez was a guest of the IPED Program and drew an overflow crowd to the Keating First Auditorium.

IPED in South Africa

Sixteen Fordham students are currently studying in South Africa as part of an Emerging Markets Travel Program sponsored by Fordham's Graduate Program in International Political Economy and Development (IPED).

Fordham students in South Africa at the Nelson Mandela Square
in Sandton, the financial district of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Housed at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, the students are divided into five teams and spend most of their mornings collecting and analyzing South African economic and financial data. Their afternoons and Fridays are spent meeting various policy makers.

At the U.S. Embassy Fordham students discussed the challenges and opportunities facing the South Africa economy with the head of the U.S. Commercial Service. At the National Union of Metulurgy Workers, the students debated with the president of one of South Africa's largest unions over the appropriate government policies needed to deal with South Africa's severe unemployment problem.

At the South African Reserve Bank, the students analyzed South African monetary policy and the regulation of South African banks with one of their chief economists. The students will also be meeting with leaders from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Besides academic pursuits, the Fordham students have attended several social events, including a gala to recognize women of achievement in the South Africa economy, at which the students met the former first lady of South Africa, Zanele Mbeki, the governor of the South African Reseve Bank and all the CEO's of South Africa's major banks.

IPED's Emerging Markets Travel Program in South Africa is very grateful for the strong support that we have received from the University of Pretoria, the government of South Africa, and the government of the United States.

—Henry Schwalbenberg, Ph.D.

IPED Grad Named to International Advisers Program

A graduate of Fordham's International Political Economy and Development (IPED) Program has been named to a federal initiative that provides assistance to global emerging markets.

Julie Cerqueria, IPED '09, will be traveling to Indonesia in September as part of the Emerging Markets Development Advisers Program (EMDAP). The program is operated by the United States Agency for International Development in cooperation with the Institute for International Education.

EMDAP advisers are selected on the basis of merit through an open, national competition that seeks to identify top graduates from the best MBA and MBA-related programs.

In other IPED news, Xiaoyi Fan, IPED '10, and Holomo Kourouna, IPED '10, passed on their first tries the first level of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) examination.

The New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) sponsored Kourouna's preparation for the CFA exam with a scholarship.

IPED Students Claim Prestigious Fellowships

Several students in the International Political Economy and Development program (IPED) will take prestigious positions with aid groups this fall, according to Henry Schwalbenberg, Ph.D., IPED's director.

Bridget Bucardo Rivera, who will receive her master's degree in August, has been named an International Development Fellow by Catholic Relief Services, and will be assigned to Nicaragua in the fall. Through an IPED International Peace and Development Travel Fellowship, Rivera is currently working in El Salvador with Catholic Relief Services on a four-country initiative that assists 7,100 small holder coffee producers in Central American and Mexico.

John Briggs, also an August graduate, has been named an International Development Fellow by Catholic Relief Services, and in the fall will be assigned to Uganda. He is currently working in Honduras with Catholic Relief Services on a project that will offer at-risk and gang-involved youth with options for meaningful and sustainable livelihoods through vocational training. Briggs is also an IPED International Peace and Development Travel Fellowship recipient.

Catholic Relief services uses their International Development Fellows Program to recruit the best and brightest from among the graduates of the leading graduate programs in international development, according to Schwalbenberg, who says out of a thousand applications, only about 20 are chosen. The majority of the applicants come from large elite schools such as Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs, the Fletcher School of Diplomacy and International Law and John Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. Given the small size of the IPED program, Schwalbenberg said he is very pleased to account for about 10 percent of all successful applicants.

Chengguang Zhao, although not officially selected as an International Fellow, has been offered a contract to continue his work with Catholic Relief Services in Sierra Leone. Through an IPED International Peace and Development Travel Fellowship, Zhao has helped to implement a U.S. Department of Agriculture school feeding program. Zhao, also an August graduate, is currently involved with coordinating a grant proposal to USAID to help address Sierra Leone's extremely high child mortality rate: roughly 20 percent of all children in that country die before the age of 5.

IPED Students Selected for U.S. Government Fellowships

Ryan Jones and Anthony Cotton, two graduate students in Fordham’s program in International Political Economy and Development (IPED) have been selected for the United States Presidential Management Fellowship Program, IPED’s director Henry Schwalbenberg announced.

The program is a prestigious two-year paid fellowship, sponsored by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, for recent graduate students in a U. S. government agency. The fellowship is often a stepping stone to securing a governmental leadership position.

Both students have experience studying abroad. Cotton was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana and studied French in Burkina Faso last summer. Jones worked last summer for the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service, and participated in IPED’s Emerging Markets Program in South Africa.

The good showing by Fordham puts it one step behind Yale's Program in International and Area Studies, which has had three students accepted to the fellowship program. Yale's international program traditionally has the highest quantitative average in Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scoring among the members of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs. However, Schwalbenberg says that next year's graduating class has the same average quantitative GRE score as Yale.

“Our goal for next year is to beat Yale!” Schwalbenberg said.


—Janet Sassi

IPED Student a CFA Scholarship Winner

Holomo Koni Kourouma, a Fulbright Fellow studying in the International Political Economy and Development program (IPED) at Fordham, has received a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) scholarship from The New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA).

Kourouma holds a bachelor’s degree in management from the University of Conakry, Guinea. Before enrolling in the IPED program, he spent eight years as finance manager for ExxonMobil’s Guinean subsidiary and worked for Catholic Relief Services.

“Meeting the CFA Charter requirements will allow me to respond to the demand for sound analytical skills and uncompromising ethical behavior in the financial market," Kourouma said. "Ultimately I will build on these skills, behaviors and experience to better address developing countries’ investments and financing needs.”

NYSSA and CFA Institute have awarded scholarships to five candidates taking the June exam. Scholarship winners are a select group that meets strict criteria which take into consideration a number of factors, including experience and interest in the investment profession, adherence to ethical standards, financial need and commitment to NYSSA and CFA Institute. Scholarship recipients received awards valuing more than $2,000. NYSSA provided free registration and materials for the Weekly Review, and CFA Institute waived the CFA exam program fees.

IPED Lecture: Post-Conflict Economic Recovery

John Ohiorhenuan, former deputy assistant administrator for crisis prevention and recovery at the United Nations Development Programme, will present findings from the report, “Post-Conflict Economic Recovery,” at the International Political Economy and Development (IPED) program weekly lecture on Thursday, December 4, at 4 p.m. in the Flom Auditorium, Walsh Family Library, lower level.

Free and open to students and faculty.