The Program on Arab Reform and Democracy (ARD) at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) is pleased to welcome Egyptian economist Samer Atallah as a visiting scholar for the 2015-16 academic year. Atallah has taught economics at the American University in Cairo (AUC) since 2011, and his work focuses on development economics and political economy of democratization. He is a leading contributor to debates on economic public policy in Egypt, and previously served as an advisor to the 2012 presidential campaign of Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fettouh. He holds a PhD in Economics from McGill University and a Masters Degree in Engineering from University of California, Berkeley. His research on the Arab world has received the support of the Arab Council for Social Sciences and the Economic Research Fund, and spans a wide range of areas, including; education, electoral behavior, public opinion, trade policies, and political institutions in resource dependent economies.

During his residency at CDDRL, Atallah will work on a series of publications examining salient questions in the political economy of the Arab World, including the impact of trade and capital flows on governance in Egypt and Tunisia, and the relationship between education and wealth inequality in Egypt. Atallah’s fellowship is generously funded by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation to support scholars from the Arab world. In the following interview, Atallah discusses his current research projects and their relevance to important public policy debates.

What are your research goals and priorities during your residency at CDDRL?

First of all, I would like to say that I am extremely delighted to be here and excited at this valuable opportunity to collaborate with distinguished scholars at CDDRL and Stanford University, which promises to be a nourishing environment for my research. 

My research agenda during my residency here at CDDRL includes working on two projects, both of which are related to broader questions of democratization and development. This first one is a comprehensive theoretical and empirical study investigating how political and economic institutions evolve as economies become integrated in the global economy. I am interested in understanding how trade and capital flows impact institutions - in the economic sense of the term - and the implications of that impact on political change. For instance, the experiences of economic liberalization in countries like Egypt and Tunisia had unquestionable consequences on the distribution of wealth within their respective societies. Economic liberalization policies had equally important effects on the performance and evolution of their legal, economic governance and political institutions. My own research seeks to investigate how these institutional changes have evolved and the impact of these processes on political change.  The second project is an empirical study examining the relationship between wealth inequality and educational inequality in Egypt.

In what ways do your projects speak to contemporary debates on the origins and trajectories of the Arab uprisings?

I would argue that the divergence in outcomes across the various uprisings in Arab region cannot be understood without seriously thinking about the different historical evolution of political and economic institutions in these countries. These institutions impact the functioning of the economy, its growth, and the social inclusiveness of that growth—factors that were very pertinent to the popular mobilization that advanced the post-2010 uprisings. Certainly these institutions are in part the product of how the economy is managed in a given country in the short-run. At the same time, they are the result of long-term external and internal factors that we need to investigate and understand.

A case in point is the bureaucratic apparatus in Egypt. That sizable bureaucracy is the outcome of a long-standing policy of guaranteed employment, which the government had adopted in the 1960s to secure political support. Whereas economic liberalization policies adopted by President Anwar al-Sadat in the 1970s shrunk the economic role of the state, the size of the bureaucracy, nevertheless, increased significantly. Thus, the question we confront as researchers is why have these institutions remained stagnant and shielded from change despite the fact the nature and priorities of the economy have shifted. This is a major concern in my own research.

What lessons, if any, does your work offer policy-makers involved in the areas of economic and human development?

My second project on inequality and education speaks to one of the central factors that have animated the post-2010 uprisings in the Arab world, namely economic inclusion. In the context of Egypt, educational inequality has contributed greatly to the huge disparities in income and wealth in the country. Exacerbating and reinforcing these disparities is an intergenerational dependency in educational attainment—that is, children of uneducated parents are highly likely to remain uneducated, and by implication, economically underprivileged. This is an area that leaves a lot of room for policy interventions.

But such interventions must be grounded in a better understanding of the causes of this dependency and why it persists. Toward that end, my research seeks to investigate how the type and range of assets in a given household affect schooling and education decisions. Other key determinants of these decisions include access to credit, spatial distribution of educational facilities, and volatility of household income. With a sufficiently nuanced understanding of the problem at hand, all of these factors present potential areas for policy interventions to alter the incentives for school enrolment and quality of education delivery. Such interventions could potentially lead to a better distribution of education and income in the long run.

What are the potentially important research questions that address Arab reform and democracy?

I believe the recent upheavals in the Arab world have pushed us to re-evaluate our understanding of the underlying reasons and implications of political and economic change. This has opened up a multitude of lines of inquiry related to the economic incentives and costs of political change. One such endeavor entails an ambitious effort to compare the evolution of social movements, economic policies, and political structures in the Arab world with other regions of the world. For instance, I think we could draw multiple parallels between the Arab experience and that of many Latin American countries, especially with respect to the role of military institutions, the impact of economic liberalization, social inequality, and civil society movements. Having said that, there is also a lot of work that needs be done in understanding and analyzing the divergent outcomes of the Arab uprisings.

Stanford’s Program on Social Entrepreneurship welcomes four social entrepreneurs to campus this year to engage students and the Stanford community with leaders in the social sector. The four will serve as Social Entrepreneurs in Residence at Stanford (SEERS) Fellows at the Haas Center for Public Service through June, and will be teaching a service-learning course (IR142) in the spring quarter. 

The SEERS Fellows lead organizations using entrepreneurial models to advance social justice and pioneer new approaches to public service delivery for marginalized communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and internationally. They have all been recognized for their path-breaking work in the field of social entrepreneurship with awards and prestigious fellowships for their contributions to their sector. 

The 2016 cohort will join 15 other SEERS alumni who have been part of the program since its launch in 2011. 

Hip Hop Therapy Goes Global 

CDDRL Associate Director Sarina Beges poses with Tomas Alvarez at Beats Rhymes and Life’s Oakland headquarters

View Tomás' profile here.

Photo Caption: The program's co-founder Sarina Beges poses with Tomás Alvarez (right) at Beats Rhymes and Life’s Oakland headquarters.

From Farm to Firm to Family: Advancing the Food Justice Movement 

Jered Lawson is making food systems change and reform a reality through his work as the co-founder of Pie Ranch, a farm located along Northern California’s coastline. Pie Ranch’s mission is not just to grow delicious and organic agriculture, but to educate, train, and form regional partnerships to realize their vision of cultivating a just food system. Lawson leads many of their education programs, which bring Bay Area high school students to farm the land, learn more about locally grown food, and maybe even inspire a new generation of farmers. Lawson has worked with local government and community organizations on policy reform to secure more land for small farming. He has also partnered with Silicon Valley technology firms – and Stanford Dining – to provide sustainably grown and sourced food for employees and students to enjoy. 

View Jered's profile here.

Re-envisioning Just Development 

Rajasvini (Vini) Bhansali brings an international lens to the SEERS program this year as the executive director of the International Development Exchange (IDEX), an organization based in San Francisco, California that works globally in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Growing up in Rajasthan, India, Vini developed a strong sense of social justice from an early age and has translated that wisdom into her work at IDEX. The organization provides flexible funding to local organizations led by women, youth, and indigenous leaders with innovative solutions based on local knowledge and customs. Vini has helped lead IDEX’s work to challenge traditional patterns of philanthropy and international development that favor top-down externally driven solutions to local problems.

View Vini's profile here.

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty 

Josefina Alvarado-Mena is the 2016 Echoing Green-SEERS Fellow, her fellowship made possible through a partnership with Echoing Green, an organization that funds early-stage social entrepreneurs. Each year, Echoing Green selects a member of their alumni community to participate in the SEERS fellowship. Mena, a 1996 Echoing Green fellow, is the executive director of Safe Passages, an organization based in Oakland, California that works to create a better future for Oakland’s children and youth. Through an integrated model that works with children and their families from the cradle through adulthood, Safe Passages helps to interrupt the cycle of poverty and put children on a track towards college and career. Their innovative programs provide early childhood education to new parents, work with schools to integrate education and social services, provide career development opportunities for youth, and build strong family partnerships with community members. 

View Josefina's profile here.

Stanford students will have the opportunity to work on service learning-based projects with SEERS fellows through a course (INTNLREL 142) offered in the spring quarter. Service-learning allows students to gain experience working alongside non-profit leaders to tackle real organizational challenges. From designing new policy reform to developing fundraising strategies, students come away from the experience with new insight into the field of social change and concrete skills. 

The SEERS fellows will be on campus through June to teach the service-learning course, participate in events, and engage with student groups. To learn more about the Program on Social Entrepreneurship visit (pse.stanford.edu) or to connect with the SEERS Fellows, please contact Sarina Beges (sbeges@stanford.edu).

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Two of the case studies Finney discussed during the week-long LAD workshop required students to analyze options to improve border management in Costa Rica and Indonesia. They were particularly relevant to Finney since much of his work in 2015 for Save the Children has involved directing food and medical supplies to families in the wake of the Nepal earthquake, the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and elsewhere. 

“I deal all the time with the complex behaviors of governments and difficult regulatory environments where the goal posts keep moving,” he said. “The LAD training really helped me understand all this in a more holistic way.”

The Leadership Academy for Development, part of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, trains government officials and business leaders from developing countries to help the private sector be a constructive force for economic growth and development. Participants benefit from lectures and discussions centered on real-life case studies led by a team of international scholars and local experts. Students are also required to work in teams to apply the ideas and skills they have gained to specific challenges they are facing in their professional duties.

That team assignment “triggered something for me,” Finney recalled. He had been thinking about Save the Children's work to persuade more motorcycle riders in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia to wear helmets. Motorcycle accidents are now the leading cause of childhood deaths in Thailand, for instance, where parents often balance multiple kids on their bikes, and teenagers as young as 13 race one another through traffic-clogged streets. Thai law requires all riders to wear helmets but few people comply and police are often reluctant to issue tickets.

Finney and the Save the Children team are applying some of these ideas around compliance and enforcement in Thailand: The “Helmet Hero” campaign includes playful videos designed to appeal to young people that have attracted a wide following. One video, for instance, features a monk who warns young people that even his blessing can’t protect them if they don’t wear a helmet. 

After the Singapore workshop, Finney stayed in touch with LAD-affiliated faculty member Kent Weaver who will teach the LAD curriculum at SMU again early next year.

“Kent suggested I write the helmet campaign as a case study about how to affect behavior change.” Finney has done that and come January, the student will become the teacher—Finney will take the podium, helping to teach a new group of LAD participants. 

It is time for universities to rethink how they deliver social impact education, prioritizing experiential and purpose-based training over start-up competitions. 

This article originally appeared in the Stanford Social Innovation Review on Sept. 4, 2015

As more students look to pursue meaningful careers in the social sector, it is imperative that educational institutions offer experiential and purpose-based training to support their personal and professional growth. Complex local and global challenges demand innovative solutions that are developed collaboratively by those with the experience, relationships, and values to effectively advance social change. There is no textbook for teaching social change, and the closer we can bring students to social problems–both inside and outside of the classroom–the more informed and effective they will be in developing solutions.  

At Stanford University, where I help lead a program on social entrepreneurship, students become part of an entrepreneurial culture from the time they set foot on campus. Whether launching student groups or social enterprises, the desire—and pressure—to create something new permeates much of the fabric of student life on campus. This is reinforced by a surge of competitions and awards that encourage aspiring social changemakers to experiment, fail, and then try again. 

As the social change sector attracts a new wave of university graduates, it is crucial that higher education responds by providing more meaningful experiences for students to learn through direct engagement. By working with community partners, supporting student fellowships, and experimenting with purpose-driven programming, we can better prepare our students for the challenges and complexities of social change work. It is time to put aside the awards and competitions, and focus on training social movement builders who are guided by purpose and values to make more meaningful and lasting contributions to the field.