Francis Assaf and Kash Patel, 2013
Today, community colleges are becoming an ever more important part of students’ lives and livelihoods. Across the U.S. and certainly in New England, community colleges have become vital for providing necessary and affordable post-secondary education, labor force retraining, and skills enhancement. However, although enrollment continues to rise, the ultimate promise of leaving with a granted degree is slipping away. More»
Ning Fu and Shunde Tu, 2013
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has the potential to bridge the skills gap and help improve the productivity and diversify the economy for Ghana. However, the current TVET system has faced many challenges, including insufficient funding and lack of measureable outcomes to align the incentives in the system. More»
Rosie Wagner, 2013
As the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approaches, discussions are underway on a post-2015 development agenda. With experience showing that the ‘rule of law, justice and security — or their absence — have a major impact on the achievement of the MDGs,’ it is expected that the post-2015 agenda will include the rule of law. This paper explores four specific rule of law reform areas to assess the benefits of, and potential challenges to, their inclusion in such an agreement. More»
Victor Cedeño, 2013
As a response to the foreclosure crisis the city of Minneapolis developed its Foreclosure Recovery Plan. A key component of the Minneapolis strategy was its partnership with nonprofits to acquire and rehabilitate (rehab) properties for ownership and rental under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). Nonprofits have acquired almost 189 properties and completed 102 of the rehabs with funding from the city. More»
Mitigating the U.S. Response to the EU ETS Aviation Directive
Chase Foster, 2012
At the beginning of 2012, a new European law expanded the European Union’s emissions trading system (ETS) to include aviation GHG emissions. The law has prompted diplomatic difficulties because it counts emissions produced by flights to and from non-EEAS countries in its overall carbon cap. The United States government has responded negatively to this development and the Obama Administration has threatened to engage in retaliatory measures if the law proceeds. More»
Daniel L. Tavana, March 2012
On February 13, 2011, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces announced its intent to lead a pluralistic, consensus-driven democratic transition following the popular revolution that ousted President Mubarak. By summer, the SCAF called for elections and decided on a mixed-parallel electoral system, much to the dissatisfaction of Egyptian political parties. More»
R. Andrew Fitzpatrick, Sarah J. Haig, Andrew G. Werner, 2012
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)—the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) military mission in Afghanistan—is shaping its strategy and operations around the 2014 withdrawal. This will mark the full transition of security and governance responsibility to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA). More»
Dustin Cathcart, Meredith Gloger, Aaron Roesch, 2012
The U.S. Department of State’s Coordinator for Economic and Development Assistance in Pakistan has proposed the creation of a Pakistan Private Investment Initiative (PII), to be implemented by USAID, as an alternative to a legislated Enterprise Fund. This study surveys a range of potential options for designing the PII and proposes a model that is best suited for long-term economic growth in Pakistan. More»
Jodi Beckstrom, 2011
This independent study is based on the author's work with Wraparound Maine (WM), a state-level High Fidelity Wraparound Initiative that began in 2007 and serves youth with complex needs who are involved in multiple service systems like Child Welfare, Behavioral Health, Juvenile Justice, and Special Education. More»
Mattea Kramer and Michael Zakaras, 2011
Wholesome Wave, through its flagship Double Value Coupon Program, doubles the value of food stamps when they are used to buy farmers’ market produce. This nutrition incentive benefits low-income consumers by making healthy fresh fruits and vegetables more affordable. More»
Maria Cardenas Mendoza and Espen Beer Prydz, 2011
Although Indonesia‟s poverty rates have declined in recent years, an acceleration in the pace of poverty reduction is needed to achieve the government's goal of reducing the poverty rate from 14.2 percent to as low as 8.5 percent by the end of 2014. More»
Chenie Yoon, 2011
The Republic of Korea comes in 80th place in the “Women in Parliament” index by the Inter-Parliamentary Union with 14.7 percent representation of women in the National Assembly (January 2011). This number, below the global and regional averages, raises an important and simple question: how can we have more women in the National Assembly in Korea? More»
Katherine Didow and Jinnyn Jacob, 2011
In January 2011, protests started in Tunisia, sparking a string of uprisings in the Muslim world with consequences yet unknown. At the same time as the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, the Lebanese government collapsed bringing the Hezbollah-led March 8th coalition to power and the popular Governor of Punjab province in Pakistan was assassinated. These monumental shifts caught many policymakers, academics, journalists, and pollsters completely by surprise. As policymakers scramble to formulate policy to confront these new realities, in the context of two major wars and a brewing conflict in Libya, there is an urgent need for accurate and relevant public opinion data on the Muslim world. More»
Michele Stillwell-Parvensky, 2011
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) aims to tackle the persistent challenge of the academic achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their more advantaged peers by giving federal funding to school districts serving low-income students to improve educational opportunities for those students. However, despite 45 years of Title I investments and the sustained hard work of teachers, principals and school leaders, Title I has not accomplished its aspiration of closing the achievement gap. More»
Thackston Lundy, HKS MPP 2011, describes his Fellowship in Innovation working on teacher absenteeism and city-wide service in Pittsburgh and New Orleans. This fellowship was sponsored by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. More»
Soham G. Sen, 2010
The Sundarbans, a treasured UNESCO World Heritage Site, have degraded steadily over time. This paper argues that the Forest Department needs to “think outside of the forest” and address the primary causes of degradation nearly all of which fall outside the forest. More»
Samuel Downing and Lauren Murphy, 2010
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) aims to unleash Peru’s potential by training 100,000 women micro-entrepreneurs, but the IDB risks sacrificing quality for quantity if it offers large lecture classes and exacerbating existing inequalities if it limits these classes to the cities. More»
Alfred Wiederer and Ronald Philip, 2010
This Policy Analysis Exercise seeks to make policy recommendations to the Clinton Climate Initiative
(CCI), on the deployment of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in C40 cities - a group of the
world’s largest cities, which have committed to take action on climate change by reducing greenhouse
gases, including from the transport fleet. The C40 Electric Vehicle Network (C40 EVN) is a C40
initiative to facilitate the successful introduction of EVs through collective municipal actions. More»
Harini Angara, 2010
This resource map has been created as part of SJ2020, the initiative to close the achievement gap in San José by 2020, led by Mayor Chuck Reed and the City of San José, Superintendent Charles Weis and the Santa Clara County Office of Education, and partner organizations across sectors in San José. The following document compiles information about the work of 52 of these partner organizations. More»
Alejandra Vellejos Morales, 2010
Quoting Louis Brandeis' famous adage, "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants," Alejandra Vellejos Morales, HKS MPA 2011, describes her Ash Fellowship in Innovation working on data transparency at Washington, D.C.'s Data Feeds Program. Her fellowship was sponsored by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. More»
Lindsay Berger, 2010
Lindsay Berger, MPP 2011, describes her Ash Fellowship in Innovation working for San Francisco Mayor Newsom's Educational Advisor on key issues related to post-secondary education. Her fellowship was sponsored by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. More»
Holly Ming, 2009
The plight of migrant Chinese children living in burgeoning urban areas in many ways exemplifies the momentous challenges facing the world’s most populous nation. China has traditionally denied public schooling to migrant children, most of whose families were drawn to the cities by economic opportunity, and only recently (in 1998) did it begin to allow the children access to for-profit city schools, most of which are operated by migrants themselves. The effects and impacts of such a system are the focus of study by Holly Ming PhD 2009. More»
Ruth Kamukama, 2008
Because of current government strategies and wartime instability, the Batwa groups in East and Central Africa are largely becoming a forgotten population. Produced by Harvard Kennedy School MPA student Ruth Kamukama through an Ash summer research grant, this documentary shares their plight and demonstrates new plans for reintroducing them to mainstream society. Watch documentary»
Cecilia Barja Chamas and Karina Weinsteing, 2008
Produced by Harvard Kennedy School 2008 MPA Graduates Karina Weinsteing and Cecilia Barja Chamas as part of their 2008 Ash Summer Fellowship in Innovation, this documentary provides a window into the day to day struggles of women street vendors in La Paz, Bolivia. Watch documentary»
Emilyzen Ignacio and Yesenia Mejia, 2008
This Policy Analysis Exercise examines how designated case study governments are managing the temporary migration and employment contracts of low-skilled workers; and how these labor migration infrastructures influence the protection of overseas workers from pre-departure to employment abroad. More»
Ben Clark, Stephanie Lazicki, and Suba Sivakumaran, 2008
The purpose of this Policy Analysis Exercise is to identify and create consensus around core issues for inclusion in a Principles of Ethical Investing document for the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds (CMEF). The authors have generated a set of recommended concepts for inclusion in the CMEF document. More»
Semil Shah, 2008
The success of special economic zones (SEZs) in China motivated other developing countries to incorporate SEZs into their growth plans. From Indonesia to the Middle East, nations at different stages of development have turned to SEZs to attract foreign capital, boost exports, create jobs, stimulate industry, improve upon existing infrastructure, and many other benefits. These benefits, however, carry costs, and perhaps no country will struggle with that tradeoff more than India. More»