The Duke Program on Global Policy and Governance in Geneva, Switzerland is the only program of its kind. It prepares graduate and professional students from around the world to tackle the world’s most pressing policy challenges. Through summer internships and an intensive, one-week course, fellows gain unparalleled access to UN agencies and other leading Geneva-based institutions.

The summer program includes:

• Four fellowship tracks
  • ​Global Health Fellows 
  • Environment, Energy, and Economics Fellows
  • Humanitarian Action Fellows
  • Global Social Innovation Fellows (Based in London and Geneva) 
• A Policy Internship of 7-12 weeks
• A choice of four intensive, one-week courses
• Events throughout the summer to network and socialize with other policy interns and experts
• An engaged cohort of students with similar interests in global policy

For more information, please visit http://graduate.sanford.duke.edu/geneva for more details. 
Applications are due November 24 by 11:59pm EST.

 
Join us for an information webinar on Friday, October 17th at 12pm EST (the webinar will cover all 4 program tracks--Global Health; Environment, Energy, and Economics; Humanitarian Action; and Global Social Innovation).  
Please RSVP to Maggie Woods at margaret.j.woods@duke.edu if you wish to attend.

The workshop is open to all Duke students.  Continental breakfast, sandwich lunch, and refreshments provided.  Space is limited to 50 participants so be sure to sign up soon!

I cannot believe that two-month internship at the World Health Organization (WHO) is going to end soon. This is truly a wonderful and unforgettable experience for me as a future global health researcher. I met a group of talented interns who have the same passion for global health and are willing to dedicate their entire lives to bridging the gaps between developing and developed world in public health. I was also lucky to work with my amazing supervisor Islene Araujo de Carvalho, who leads me to the evidence-based policy-making world by showing me how it works in the field.

The department I was interning in is Age and Life Course and our focus is to create an ageing-friendly world where every elder can enjoy a healthy ageing life. I primarily worked on the Knowledge Translation on Ageing and Health (KT) project, of which the aim is to facilitate the development of evidence-based policy responses to ageing globally. China is one of the two piloted countries of KT project given its rapid ageing situation and the availability of data from the WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (a nationally representative sample comprised of eight provinces on older people’s health).

Initiated in November, 2013, the KT China project aims to facilitate evidence-informed policies and priorities for elderly health and establish a multi-sector collaboration mechanism for elderly health efforts to improve health status of the elderly in China. Led by China National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) and WHO Country Office in China, the project consists of four major steps to close the gap between research and policy-making on ageing: 1) identify priority problems on ageing in China; 2) synthesize and package evidence on interventions; 3) engage local policy-makers and experts for a national policy dialogue and policy briefs and 4) implement policy-directed interventions. The China project was on the second stage and most of my work was to help coordinate the project partners and prepare for the policy briefs.

Evidence-based policy-making is definitely a new idea in China and the traditional way of policy-making depends on experts’ opinions instead of research evidence. As a loyal supporter of the evidence-based policy-making, I am excited to witness the change and be given the opportunity to foster its happening. While I was working on synthesizing the evidence, however, I did have a few concerns towards the evidence: 1) Most of the high-quality evidence, typically randomized control trails, are from high income countries rather than developing countries where the interventions are going to be implemented in; 2) Some systematic reviews find that the evidences available, for example in long-term care, are pretty weak and limited. Bad-quality evidences will surely mislead policy-makers and result in unimaginable consequences to the society. There is a need for well-designed high-quality researches whose results can boost the policy development, especially in developing countries where the research capacity is a huge issue. How to help build the research capacity should be another import area to work on. Further, personally I think as a policy-maker he or she should be able to distinguish good evidences from under-qualified ones. Having a research background is more than necessary for policy-makers, which, however, is often not the case in countries where evidence-based policy-making is novel. 

It involves system thinking in fostering evidence-based policy-making in developing countries. Neither building evidence pool nor research capacity alone can create an enabling environment for its development. Seven elements, as the WHO framework has highlighted, are essential to formulate and influence evidence-based policy-making. These elements include: “1) Context looks at whether ageing is included in current policy agendas and if the health system values the use of research to inform policy-making; 2) Linkage and Exchange Efforts examine the relationships needed to enable the use of evidence; 3) Knowledge Creation looks at the opportunities and existing capacity to conduct relevant research in the local context; 4) Push Efforts assesses whether the information is pushed to different user groups in appropriate formats; 5) Pull Efforts are the efforts of policy-makers to seek and use research on ageing and health; 6) Facilitating Pull Efforts relates to systems that enable access to relevant research in ageing and health: for example, technical infrastructure, ‘one-stop websites’ and unrestricted access to online resources and journals providing research evidence on ageing and health; 7) Evaluation Efforts assess whether health systems allocate resources and funding to monitor implementation and evaluate the impact of evidence informed decision making in ageing and health.” (Cited from the WHO Ageing and Life Course internal working paper)

It does take time and efforts to achieve such an enabling environment for evidence-based policy making and hopefully I can be part of it to make it happen in China. 

Looking for ways to get involved in SEAD, social entrepreneurship, and global health at Duke?  Don't miss these upcoming opportunities!

When: Thursday, September 18th 12:00pm
Where: Trent Hall Room 040, Duke West Campus
Website: http://globalhealth.duke.edu/calendar#event-33123

Currently, David Epstein is the Director of Duke-NUS's Centre for Technology & Development (CTeD), the aim of which is to advance healthcare innovations derived through Duke-NUS' partnerships with SingHealth and the Singapore healthcare cluster.  Epstein's work within CTeD focuses on entrepreneurship and developing novel models of value creation and value capture. He is particularly interested in understanding how "closed ecosystems" such as that in Singapore, impact innovation & improvements in healthcare delivery. In 2014, he was named the founding Director of Singapore's National Health Innovation Centre (NHIC) which is funded and overseen by the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) with the aim of providing the clinical research sector long-term financial support and strategic guidance related to innovation and commercialization. 

When: Thursday, September 18th 4:30pm
Where: Gross Hall, Duke West Campus
Website: http://entrepreneurship.duke.edu 

Join us to learn more about our programs and activities for students, including entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship clubs, TheCube selective living center, DUHatch, Innovation Co-Lab, Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs, Duke in Silicon Valley, Duke in Chicago, DukeEngage in Detroit, Summer Innovation Program, Bass Connections, American Underground, HQ Raleigh, and more…

SEAD is currently hiring two Research Assistants for the 2014-2015 academic year to work between 8
and 10 hours a week at Fuqua’s standard rate ($11.50 to $12/hour) This is a great opportunity for MBA
students to work on mini-consulting projects and gain a breadth of exposure to the healthcare
innovation space.

These positions will be managed by IPIHD and the RAs will primarily work from IPIHD’s offices located in
the American Tobacco Campus, downtown Durham. Some hours can also be worked in the SEAD/CASE
suite in Fuqua.  

Read the full description here.  Applications are due Friday, September 19th.

When: Friday, September 19th 2:00pm
Where: Teer Hall 115
Website: http://gwht.pratt.duke.edu/gwht-informational-session


All freshmen, sophomores and juniors from the Trinity School and the Pratt School are invited to attend the first GWHT Center Info Session on Friday, September 19th at 2pm in Teer Building, room 115. 

If you want to know more about the center or if you have some questions that need to be answered, this is the event come to. We will be discussing the GWHT fellowship, the GWHT program, and how to get involved at any undergraduate level.

Do you have an idea that you think could change the world?  Are you looking for mentorship and cash to help you bring your innovation to developing countries?  Do you want to meet with other student social entrepreneurs and innovators from across the globe?

The TechCon 2014 Innovation Marketplace showcases the concepts, innovations, and research of young innovators focused on international development. The Innovation Marketplace will take place on Monday, November 10th on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, as an integral part of USAID's Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) TechCon 2014 agenda.

Cash  and in-kind awards will be made to the top innovators and researchers. This is an excellent opportunity to get exposure for you and your idea, build support for your project, receive technical feedback, and to practice your pitching skills.
Projects can be submitted to one of three categories:

• Innovation- your device, approach, or system is ready to go in the field!
• Research- wow, what you have just figured out is incredibly interesting, important, and changes everything!
• Concept- you have the next great idea and have begun working on it!

All applications, including all supporting documents and links to required multimedia files, must be submitted to SEAD by 
Monday, September 22nd. The SEAD team will evaluate all applications for completion and merit. The top ranked applications will then be submitted to USAID for final review and selection of Innovation Marketplace participants. SEAD will have a limited number of travel grants available to participants. 

View the documents below for submission requirements and how sell your idea through multimedia:

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns have been sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships.  Today's post comes to us from Divya Giyanani, who interned with USAID in the Global Development Lab.  The Global Development Lab "brings together a diverse set of partners to discover, test, and scale breakthrough solutions to achieve... the end of extreme poverty by 2030."

A wicked problem is like a tangled ball of yarn.  Each piece of the yarn that you pull can have positive and/or negative effects on the rest of this tangled ball; while some implications are expected and accounted for, others are unexpected and sometimes even unknown until much too late.  Thus, it is important to exercise immense amounts of caution when dealing with a tangled ball of yarn…or a wicked problem, if I might end my analogy here.

International development is one such wicked problem, and I would argue that it is likely one of the most significant. Between malnutrition and abject poverty, low literacy and inadequate access to basic healthcare, the challenges facing developing areas of the world (not excluding those in our own backyard) are vast, urgent, and complex. And with increasing globalization, the landscape of international development is shifting dramatically; public and private organizations as well as individual philanthropists are entering the field in droves to address these challenges.  As such, the methods and strategies once used are becoming increasingly obsolete. 

In an effort to address these challenges, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) recently launched the Global Development Lab with a role of discovering, testing, and scaling breakthrough development innovations to find solutions to some of the most critical global issues.

As a summer intern with the Lab, I work in the Center for Global Solutions to build platforms and tools around adoption at scale, focusing specifically on scaling adoption of drought-tolerant maize in sub-Saharan Africa.  And if I could describe my experiences thus far, I could, at best, sum it up to be a whirlwind of intense challenge and thrilling opportunity.

During my past month here at USAID, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with various teams across the Lab to conduct value chain analyses and market studies, in order to under the industry as a whole. I have had the opportunity (and the challenge) to think widely, critically, and extensively, and I have been asked to consider the unconventional…then to take it a step further.  I have had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest minds in development, and the opportunity (along with the encouragement) to try, fail, and then try again.

My past month here at USAID has taught me much more than I could ever hope to learn in a classroom.  It has reinforced the idea that development work is hard, that development work is complicated, frustrating, and messy.  But if development work were not difficult, would it even exist?  This work is complicated, frustrating, and messy, but it is also fascinating, enriching, and ever so important. 

As old methods and strategies of development work become obsolete, the Lab seeks to find new ideas, new innovations, and new strategies.  In essence, it’s trying to change the way we do development. And I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it.

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns will be sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships.  Today's post comes to us from Ishan Thakore who has been interning with USAID in the Global Development Lab.  The Global Development Lab "brings together a diverse set of partners to discover, test, and scale breakthrough solutions to achieve... the end of extreme poverty by 2030."

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns will be sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships.  Today's post comes to us from Vinesh Kapil who has been interning with USAID on the Saving Lives at Birth campaign.  Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development works to find innovative ideas around the world that can help reduce maternal and infant mortality rates.  Vinesh shares with us the work he has been doing while in DC this summer.

The heat is on in DC. When I step outside in the morning to head to work and it’s “only” 85 degrees, I count myself lucky. I begin the journey to the Ronald Regan Building (where USAID is based), maximizing time spent in the shade while dodging cars, checking the metro schedule and crafting a “to-do” list for the day.

After I pass through security, I settle into another day at the office. Sometimes I have to catch myself- if it weren’t for the multiple boxes of Spongebob macaroni and cheese in my cupboards at home, I would almost feel like I’m living the adult life. The heat, the busy commute, the work I do, it all seems so very real.

Through Duke SEAD, HESN and USAID, I am working on the planning and execution of the Saving Lives at Birth Development Exchange. My internship is multifaceted, fast-paced, and I can say with 100% accuracy that no day is exactly the same as another. The DevX, an event that brings together entrepreneurs, innovators, scientists, donors and organizations from all around the world, is a chance for “game-changers” to showcase how their work is improving maternal and child health. It is a chance to share ideas, to learn from each other’s successes (and mistakes), and to inspire one another with the passion that pushed so many of the participants to find a way to improve health outcomes for mothers and children in the first place.

When I consider the internship at a more “macro” level, I realize that the goal of this project, indeed, the goal of the entire “Grand Challenge” from which it arose, could not be more real. The effect of such a program, funding these innovators, and exposing the public to what has been done, and what is left to do, is not only real work but it is one of the most worthwhile things I could be doing. Sure, I’m not in the field every day saving lives. And there are days when I wonder exactly how what I’m doing is improving health for others around the world. But then I recognize that the work I’m doing is contributing to a larger cause, to a larger machine. By doing my work (doing it well, I might add), I am helping to further a cause. So yes, some days, I might jokingly tell myself that the fact that I’m living the adult life is just an illusion. But I must remember that the work I’m doing is indeed real. It is concerning a problem that is a reality for many around the world and I am proud that I am able to contribute to alleviating those problems in my own way. It is an absolute pleasure to represent Duke here at USAID, be that as a young student pretending to be an adult, or an adult holding on to his Spongebob macaroni for all he is worth.  

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns will be sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships. Today's post comes from Megan McCarroll.  Megan participated in the Duke Global Health Fellows Program based out of Geneva, Switzerland.  She tells us about the work she did with the International Organization for Migration and her visit to the Human Rights Council.

I tried to begin my internship in Geneva with as few expectations as possible. I failed, of course, but my efforts have allowed me to be as open as possible to the myriad of perspectives and opinions surrounding the United Nations. I began my internship with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on June 2, so I have now been here for one month. I am interning in the migration health division under the Senior Policy advisor for migration health.  She is one of those “larger than life” people—trained to be a pediatrician in the Philippines and began working in a refugee camp for the IOM, has worked in war zones and now works in the headquarters while traveling to countries in the midst of crisis to address major pressing health issues, such as a cholera outbreak in a refugee camp. While it is awesome to be working for such an interesting person, she has been away on mission for most of this month. She was in Iraq for a week, then South Sudan for 2 weeks, and now she is heading to Zimbabwe at the end of next week! She says (and I am hoping) that she will be staying in Geneva for the rest of the summer after Zimbabwe, so we’ll see… 

As for my duties as an intern, I have written two IOM position papers—one general paper on HIV and migration and the other on HIV in emergency settings—which will be used as advocacy tools for IOM staff and various officials in the field, and I made an info sheet on HIV as well. I do not have much of a background on migration health, so there has been a steep learning curve while doing research and liaising with staff in regional offices around the globe. Some of points that have stuck most with me:

• Migration is a loaded word with a negative context, causing migrants and mobile populations to face issues with stigma. 
  
• There are many different kinds of migrants— immigrants from particular countries, emigrants in overseas work, ethnic minorities, internal migrants, victims of exploitation and abuse, and irregular migrants and displaced persons, though they are often clumped into one category when making global policy. 
  
• National policies often forget to include migrants in their strategic health plans, especially in emergencies. 
  
• Migrant populations + HIV = Stigma x 2   
  
• Migrants are good for a host country/community. The common stereotype is that they are “carriers” of disease and steal away jobs from local people. These ways of thinking affect national policies and local attitudes. 
  

Several weeks ago, I participated in a two-day departmental retreat that really helped me gain insight into how a headquarter organization functions. Some of the main issues discussed were: 

• The need to harness information systems to produce quality data 
  
• Visibility—IOM’s role within the UN, relationship with UNHCR, and distinguishing its role as the lead organization for migration 
  
• The need to strengthen coordination between IOM divisions and departments, UN organizations, and other sectors 
  
• The need to establish a Migration Governance Conceptual Framework to improve the organization’s focus, strengthen communication within the IOM and partners, and identify cross-cutting issues. 
  
• Lack of human resources—headquarters staff cannot be experts in every part of the world so they are always sprinting to keep up

I also had the opportunity to attend meetings at the Palais des Nations during the Human Rights Council in June. I was sent to take notes in meetings specifically addressing migration and/or health but I also got to attend a few that interested me personally. The Palais is a huge maze of fancy buildings and rooms and it is very hard to navigate (a symbol of UN bureaucracy?). For the Human Rights Council, country Ambassadors typically led the meetings, while other member states had country cards that they would raise when wanting to make a point. Watching countries argue over wordings of resolutions was both fascinating and mind-numbing. The politics surrounding migration created subtle tensions between certain countries, but on the surface, the mood was mild and the pace was extraordinarily slow. That, I believe, is one of the more frustrating aspects of the UN system. Last week I heard a U.S. diplomat say that Americans are obsessed with efficiency and forget that global policy has to move slowly to affect real change. Change does not happen in a couple weeks or months. It often entails major shifts in ways of thinking about a problem. Today during a talk from the World Health Organization, the speaker stated, “better to walk together slowly than to run ahead alone.” I know that I need more time to reflect on this statement and see where it lies in relation to my values and where I see my future self in the global policy field.   

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns will be sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships.  Today's post comes to us from Pablo Ramos who has been interning with salaUno in Mexico.  SalaUno operates a network of eye clinics in Mexico that aims to provide affordable, accessible, and high-quality eye care to low-income populations.  Pablo shares his observations on how salaUno's mission drives the entire company towards success.

I spent two months of my summer working at salaUno. The company is a fantastic Mexican startup, built by young, kind-hearted entrepreneurs who see beyond building a profitable business. The company’s core activities are focused on helping the underserved population in Mexico and the company’s mission of Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico is adhered to by everyone in the company. In fact it is part of the reason the company has been able to attract great talent from young individuals and external consultants. Witnessing this work culture had taught me three main lessons from salaUno.

Hard work will always be rewarding. For some time now, I have been looking for the perfect moment to launch my own company.  Now I realize there is no such thing as “the perfect moment”. I may come out of my MBA highly indebted, using that as an excuse to wait for better timing but later I may have kids and the same thing will happen. Working at salaUno made me realize that no matter what the circumstances are, with hard work and a good team everything is possible. After losing support from the federal government to subsidize cataract surgeries, salaUno lost a significant revenue stream that could have taken the business down. Nevertheless, hard work and perseverance made salaUno find new avenues to keep growing. I am certain these avenues will take salaUno beyond what they imagine.

Building a great team is of utmost importance. I was thrilled to see all the talent that salaUno has been able to attract due to its amazing mission. This mission allows salaUno to attract plenty of young, qualified individuals that are doing a great job and impacting the company’s future for the better. I also realized the value of a well-diversified top level management team. Both founders of salaUno have very similar careers and while they have been able to manage and grow the business for 3 years now, I believe they need to include someone with medical expertise in top-level management. Working in healthcare involves so many specific details that having this expertise will very helpful. As a business man, one can think a lot of things are possible but when dealing with people’s lives having this expertise at this level in the organization is imperative.

Businesses with a social mission are a reality.  This is the most important lesson that I got out of my experience. SalaUno reached breakeven after only two months of operations.  Today it is a company that employs over 80 people and impacts thousands of lives by providing accessible eye care to everyone. By aligning the company’s mission with its profitability, the company will make more money as long as they do more surgeries and impact more people. Aligning interests and incentives for employees is not a simple feat and I believe that it is a key feature of salaUno’s business model: increasing profitability and impacting more lives with growth hand-in-hand.

Overall, working with salaUno was a great experience. I was able to see firsthand how startups are run, all the challenges they face and how they need to be solve, but most importantly that being a successful social entrepreneur is possible!