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Issue 33September 2012
Greetings!

The Harvard Humanitarian is a monthly e-newsletter compiled by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) to publicize news, publications, and events in the Harvard community related to advancing responses to humanitarian crises of war and disaster. Please help us make this a robust resource by contributing your Harvard community news items via email.

 

SPECIAL FEATURE 
HHI Faculty Member Organizes Climate Change and Urbanization Seminar, Prepares for 2013 Climate Summit     

From Radcliffe Magazine
HHI faculty member Dr. Ronak B. Patel organized a Radcliffe Exploratory Seminar in winter 2011 entitled "Climate Change and Rapid Urbanization: Crossroads of a Disaster."

Featured in Radcliffe Magazine's Summer 2012 issue, the seminar brought together scholars in different fields from multiple nations to discuss the potential environmental disasters threatening urban slums. Participants examined a range of case studies in cities including Nairobi and Mumbai, focusing especially on impact and response to climate change at the local level.      
 
In addition to facilitating new partnerships - both within and outside the university - to address these issues, the seminar sets the stage for the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative's Climate Summit, to be held in 2013.   
 
To read the article, please click here. 
To learn more about HHI's Urbanization and Humanitarian Emergencies Program, please click here.


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HHI Concludes Satellite Sentinel Project Pilot, Launches Signal Program 

 

The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) announced the launching of its new Signal Program on Human Security and Technology on July 18. The goal of Signal is to transform lessons learned about the use of technology in tracking human rights violations into the first-ever research and academic program for the practice, study and teaching of crisis mapping. 
 
The launch of Signal follows the release of the final report documenting the pilot phase of the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP). HHI was responsible for designing SSP's methodology and managing its day-to-day operations and report production during an eighteen-month pilot, which concluded June 1, 2012.

Signal plans to continue to conduct participatory action research about how technology can prevent and document threats to human rights and human security around the world.  The faculty and students working on Signal gained expertise in this arena through their work with the Satellite Sentinel Project, which was founded in December 2010 by George Clooney and John Prendergast of the Enough Project to monitor threats to human security along the border of Sudan and South Sudan.
 
To view the full press release, click here.   
To read more about the Signal Program, click here.  


HHI Faculty Discuss the Future of Humanitarian Work in the Harvard Gazette

From the Harvard Gazette
 
HHI Co-Founders Dr. Jennifer Leaning and Dr. Michael VanRooyen, along with associate faculty member Dr. Parveen Parmar, discussed their experiences delivering humanitarian assistance in diverse settings with the Harvard Gazette
 
Dr. VanRooyen emphasized the importance of developing training and education for the humanitarian assistance community to improve effectiveness, an endeavor that HHI has undertaken through the Lavine Family Humanitarian Studies Initiative and the new Humanitarian Academy at Harvard.
 
To read the article, click here.  

 

 

Women in War Partnership Publishes Study on Impact of LRA Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 

 
   
In June, Discover the Journey and HHI's Women in War Program published a landmark report documenting the wide and severe impact of violence on the lives and communities of formerly abducted children in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  
 
Highlighting the humanitarian needs of communities devastated by Joseph Kony's notorious Lord's Resistance Army, the study emphasizes the importance of integrated solutions to respond to multi-level problems.
 
To read the full report, click here.
To read the press release, click here.


HHI Fellow Named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer

National Geographic Live! - Patrick Meier: Crisis Mapping
National Geographic Live! - Patrick Meier: Crisis Mapping
The National Geographic Emerging Explorers Program recognizes and supports young individuals who are already making a difference early in their careers and who show potential for future breakthroughs in their fields. HHI fellow Patrick Meier - who co-founded HHI's Program on Crisis Mapping and Early Warning - was selected for the award for his leadership in the field of crisis mapping and his efforts to make it available, accessible, and free to humanitarian organizations and volunteers across the globe. 
 
For a link to the article, please click here.
To watch National Geographic Live!'s coverage, please click here.  
 
 
UPCOMING EVENTS                                                              

Event times, dates, and locations listed here are subject to change without notice. Please contact the event host for more information.

   

  

Fall 2012 Open House: HKS Program on Crisis Leadership and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative

 

Wednesday, September 12
4:15 PM
Taubman 401
Harvard Kennedy School

Interested in crisis leadership, humanitarian relief, or post-disaster recovery? Attend this welcome session for new and returning students and hear from faculty and staff affiliated with Harvard Kennedy School's Program on Crisis Leadership (PCL) and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) about academic offerings and activities related to disaster management and risk reduction.
Leaders of the Crisis Management PIC at HKS will also be present to discuss additional opportunities for student involvement. Light refreshments served.

For more information, please click here.

 

 

United Nations and Islamic Law: Using Islamic Strategies to Achieve Universal Development Goals?

 

       

Tuesday, September 18

4:00 - 5:30 PM

Austin Hall West

Harvard Law School

  

The Islamic Legal Studies Program is hosting a lecture and discussion by Mohammed Siraj Sait (SJD '89), reader and head of research, University of East London. He is a former human rights prosecutor in India and legal officer with UN-Habitat in Kenya, and recently led the evaluation of the UN Iraq development programs. Reception to follow. 

 

For more information, please contact [email protected] .

 

 

Cloudy with a Chance of Solutions: The Future of Water

 

Friday, October 12
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Radcliffe Gymnasium
10 Garden Street
Cambridge MA, 02138

 

The Radcliffe Institute's annual science symposium will focus on the important and challenging topic of water. Water is a theme that encompasses issues as varied as environmental contaminations, public health, agricultural shortages, and geopolitical disputes. "Cloudy with a Chance of Solutions: The Future of Water" will focus on the ecological and public health hazards of emerging environmental contaminants, the promise of new technologies in water treatment that can help to mitigate exposures to contaminants, advances in urban and other geographical areas that play increasingly important roles in water conservation, and the all-important roles of commercial interests and governmental policy. The majority of the talks will focus on the "hard science" of water-related issues; others will offer the perspectives of experts from the policy, business, or urban-planning worlds to put the scientific discussions in a broader context and to link them thematically.  
 
This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required and opens mid-September. For more information, please click here.
 
 
PUBLICATIONS & PRESS                                                      
About The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
HHI fosters interdisciplinary collaboration at Harvard University in order to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian strategies for relief, protection, and prevention; instill human rights principles and practices in these strategies; and educate and train the next generation of humanitarian leaders. In 2005, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative was established as a University-wide interfaculty academic and research center, supported by the Office of the Provost and the Harvard School of Public Health with the participation of faculty from Harvard schools and affiliated hospitals. For more information, visit www.hhi.harvard.edu.