Fourteen Stanford researchers addressing global poverty through a range of academic disciplines are receiving a total of $4.6 million in awards from the university-wide Global Development and Poverty (GDP) initiative.

Their projects, which are the first to be funded by the GDP, deal with challenges of health, violence, economics, governance and education in the developing world.

“GDP seeks to transform scholarly activity and dialogue at Stanford around the topic of global poverty, so that the university may have a greater impact on poverty alleviation in developing economies,” said GDP faculty co-chair Jesper B. Sørensen. “By focusing on placing a small number of big bets, GDP encourages researchers to think big, and to move beyond the conventional way of doing things. We are thrilled by the inaugural set of awardees, as they demonstrate the creative, inter-disciplinary approaches that will make Stanford a leader in this area.”

The GDP initiative is part of the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (SEED) and is administered in partnership with Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). The GDP is co-chaired by Sørensen, the faculty director for SEED and the Robert A. and Elizabeth R. Jeffe Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business; and Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, senior fellow and director of FSI and the Stanley Morrison Professor at Stanford Law School.

SEED, which seeks to alleviate poverty by stimulating the creation of economic opportunities through innovation, entrepreneurship and the growth of businesses, was established in 2011 through a generous gift from Robert King, MBA '60, and his wife, Dorothy.

Through complementary areas of focus, GDP funding and other SEED research initiatives will stimulate research, novel interdisciplinary collaborations and solutions to problems of global poverty and development. GDP research aims to pursue answers to crucial questions that are essential to an understanding of how to reduce global poverty and promote economic development. That includes governance and the rule of law, education, health, and food security – all of which are essential for entrepreneurship to thrive. By contrast, other SEED research focuses on innovation, entrepreneurship, and the growth of businesses in developing economies.

Since 2012, SEED’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Developing Economies Award program also has doled out 22 awards and seven PhD fellowships to help support and scale businesses in developing economies. Among the $1 million in funded projects were studies of how to improve the livelihoods of small-holder cacao farmers throughout the tropics; how to identify startups with high job- and wealth-creating potential in Chile; how political accountability affects the ability to attract investment in Sierra Leone; and how managerial practices affect trade entrepreneurship in China.

First GDP Awards

The first 14 GDP award recipients are professors of economics, political science, law, medicine, pediatrics, education and biology, and senior fellows from FSI, the Woods Institute, and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).

“Each of these projects cuts across disciplines, reflects innovative thinking, and has the potential to generate crucial knowledge about how to improve the lives of the poor around the world,” Cuéllar said. “These projects, along with a variety of workshops engaging the university and external stakeholders, will help us strengthen Stanford’s long-term capacity to address issues of global poverty through research, education and outreach.”

Among the award recipients is Pascaline Dupas, an associate professor of economics and senior fellow at SIEPR. Dupas, along with faculty from the Center for Health Policy and Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, will launch the Stanford Economic Development Research Initiative using GDP funds.  This initiative will focus on collecting high-quality institutional and individual-level data on economic activity in a number of developing countries over the long term, and making these data available to scholars around the world.

Beatriz Magaloni, an associate professor of political science and senior fellow at FSI, is receiving an award to lead a team focused on criminal violence and its effects on the poor in developing economies, and the practical solutions for increasing security in those regions.

Douglas K. Owens, a professor of medicine and FSI senior fellow, was awarded an award to help him lead a team that will develop models to estimate how alternative resource allocations for health interventions among the poor will influence health and economic outcomes.

Stephen Haber, a professor of political science and history and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, received an award to bring together Stanford researchers interested in examining the long-term institutional constraints on economic development. Their goal will be to provide policymakers with a framework for determining the conditions under which particular innovations are likely to have positive payoffs, and the conditions under which resources will likely be wasted.

Other projects will address the educational impacts of solar lighting systems in poor communities; identifying interventions to improve the profits and safety among poor, smallholder pig farmers in Bangladesh and China; the role of law and institutions in economic development and poverty reduction; and how to rethink worldwide refugee problems. Awards are also being provided to researchers focused on microfinance, online education and teacher training.

The project proposals were reviewed by an interdisciplinary faculty advisory council chaired by Cuéllar and Sørensen. 

“We were very encouraged by the impressive number of project proposals from a wide range of areas and are looking forward to introducing several new capacity and community-building activities in the fall,” Sørensen said.. “This wide range of research initiatives will form a vibrant nucleus for Stanford’s growing community of scholars of global development and poverty.”

Scholars, law enforcement officials, business leaders and community activists gathered at Stanford for a two-day conference to examine violence and policing in Latin America and the United States.

The April conference highlighted the work being implemented by law enforcement, entrepreneurs and grassroots organizations to reduce violence in major cities. Practitioners from Latin America and the U.S. shared their experiences and best practices to reduce violence. Many violence-plagued cities in the U.S. have implemented innovative initiatives to address the challenge that have included community policing tools and youth violence interventions. Similar initiatives are also taking place in Latin America with varying degrees of success.

The event was hosted by the Program on Poverty and Governance (PovGov) at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, and held in partnership with the Bill Lane Center for the American West, the Center for Latin American Studies, the ‘Mexico Initiative’ at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Center for International Security and Cooperation, the conference

“Our conference was a success in terms of facilitating a dialogue among scholars, practitioners, grassroots organizations, police, and policy-makers whom might not otherwise interact. The conference gathered experiences about violence-reducing initiatives, innovative ways to engage the youth population at high risk and ways to enhance police accountability and police-community relationships that are taking place in major cities in the US, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia,” said Beatriz Magaloni, an associate professor of political science who directs PovGov, a program that studies the links between public action, governance and poverty.

Photo Credit: Christian Ollano

“Our conference was part of our on-going effort to build a network of scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers dedicated to understanding and finding solutions to the ongoing problems of violence and weak rule of law in the Western hemisphere. We will follow up with a workshop in the fall convened by the World Justice Project, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Program on Poverty and Governance at CDDRL in Washington DC,” said Magaloni, who is also a senior fellow at FSI. 

Conference sessions were led by CDDRL faculty members and affiliates, including: FSI Director Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar; Francis Fukuyama, the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow; FSI senior fellow and CDDRL affiliated faculty member Alberto Díaz-Cayeros; and former President of Peru and CDDRL Visiting Lecturer Alejandro Toledo.

One of three featured keynote speakers, Sergio Fajardo, the current governor of Antioquia, Colombia, spoke about how he and his team implemented an effective strategy to reduce the level of violence in Medellin while he was mayor of the Colombian city. The two other keynotes included Mariano Beltrame, minister of security of Rio de Janeiro who is credited for the enactment and implementation of the Pacification Police Unites to reduce violence in the favelas of the city and Hector Robles, major of the municipality of Zapopan who has implemented various innovative policies to give better opportunities to the youth in Mexico, including an initiative called Jovenes con Porvenir (Youth with a Bright Future). 

The conference built upon a PovGov research project that is focused on the Brazilian military police in Rio de Janeiro. Targeting an important initiative in the city's favelas, the "Pacifying Police Units", the ongoing project investigates the use of lethal force by the police and reforms aimed at controlling violence.

Conference resources, including a full report, presentations and videos, are available. To access, please use the links below.  

Conference Resources:

Full Report

Executive Summary

Videos

PowerPoint Presentations

Agenda

Speaker Bios

Facebook Album  

Social Media Thread: #PovGov 

Scholars, law enforcement officials, business leaders and community activists will meet next week at Stanford to examine violence and policing in Latin American and the United States.

A two-day conference beginning April 28 will highlight the work of entrepreneurs and grassroots organizations trying to reduce violence and rebuild civil society. The gathering is hosted by the Program on Poverty and Governance (PovGov) at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. It is hosted in partnership with the Bill Lane Center for the American West, the Center for Latin American Studies, the ‘Mexico Initiative’ at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Center for International Security and Cooperation.

"Violence linked to drug trafficking, gang wars and criminality is one of the leading barriers to development that effects the lives of millions in Latin America,” said Beatriz Magaloni, an associate professor of political science who directs PovGov, a program that studies the links between public action, goverance and poverty.

“The conference brings together people who have dealt with these problems in cities in Latin America and in the U.S. Seldom is the case that we bring to campus practitioners with first-hand experience dealing with some of the most pressing problems the hemisphere is confronting,” said Magaloni, who is also a senior fellow at FSI. 

The first day of the conference will feature a panel with Jose Galicot, the driving force of Tijuana Innovadora, a movement that helped Tijuana recover from devastating criminal activity and violence the last four years. Galicot will be joined by Jailson Silva, from Observatório of Favelas, one of the most reputable grass-roots organizations in the slums of Rio that undertakes research, consultancy and public actions focused on the city's favelas.

Many violence-plagued cities in the U.S. have implemented innovative initiatives to address the challenge that have included community policing tools and youth violence interventions. Similar initiatives are also taking place in Latin America with varying degrees of success. One of the goals of the conference is to get practitioners to share their experiences and best practices to reduce violence in major cities.

One of three featured keynote speakers, Sergio Fajardo, the current governor of Antioquia, Colombia, will speak on April 29 and help build the foundation for such dialogue. From 2003 to 2007, Fajardo implemented an effective strategy to reduce the level of violence in Medellin while he was mayor of the Colombian city.

By providing alternatives to illicit work, allocating resources to the most disadvantage areas, reclaiming public spaces and fostering dialogue among different sectors of society to create a sense of collective ownership, Fajardo transformed Medellin.

The two other keynotes include Mariano Beltrame, minister of security of Rio de Janeiro who is credited for the enactment and implementation of the Pacification Police Unites to reduce violence in the favelas of the city and Hector Robles, major of the municipality of Zapopan who has implemented various innovative policies to give better opportunities to the youth in Mexico, including an initiative called Jovenes con Porvenir (Youth with a Bright Future). 

The conference will also bring together police chiefs from Brazil and the U.S. to share their experiences and insights on grassroots implementation of initiatives designed to reduce violence. General Commander of Operations, Coronel Paulo Henrique, from the military police of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Chief Eric Jones from Stockton, CA will be speaking on a panel titled, “’Pacification’ Strategies and Policing” on day two of the conference. Tony Farrar, chief of police for the city of Rialto, CA will be joined by Robert Chapman, deputy director of Community Policing Advancement and others to present on police accountability and gang violence in the U.S shortly thereafter.  

The conference will build upon a PovGov research project that is focused on the Brazilian military police in Rio de Janeiro. Targeting an important initiative in the city's favelas, the "Pacifying Police Units", the ongoing project investigates the use of lethal force by the police and reforms aimed at controlling violence.

A number of conference sessions will be led by CDDRL faculty members and affiliates, including: FSI Director Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar; Francis Fukuyama, the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow; FSI senior fellow and CDDRL affiliated faculty member Alberto Díaz-Cayeros; and former President of Peru and CDDRL Visiting Lecturer Alejandro Toledo. A conference report will be made available following the event.

Sessions will be held at Stanford University's Bechtel Conference room in Encina Hall on Monday, April 28 and the Alumni Center on Tuesday, April 29.  All sessions are free and open to the public. Please RSVP here to attend. A complete agenda can be found here.

For conference updates via Twitter please visit #PovGov

Stanford's Program on Social Entrepreneurship is proud to introduce its fourth class of Social Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at Stanford (SEERS Fellows) who will be joining the academic community in January. Tackling complex social justice issues in the Bay Area and globally, this group is working to raise literacy rates in public schools, hold international institutions accountable for their abuses, and defend the rights of women and girls across the state of California.

The three SEERS fellows will co-teach a course (IR/CAS 142) that explores the role of social entrepreneurship in advancing democratic change. This service-learning course allows students to work first-hand with the SEERS fellows on projects to scale-up their work as social change leaders.

The 10-week residency program brings social entrepreneurs inside academia to document the impact of their work and build their institutional capacities. It also provides students the opportunity to learn about the emerging field of social entrepreneurship by working with practitioners inside the classroom.

The incoming group of SEERS fellows have been widely recognized for their innovative work pioneering new approaches to address outstanding social problems, receiving prestigious awards including; the MacArthur Genius Fellowship; the Echoing Green Fellowship; and the Social Innovation Fund award from the U.S. federal government, among others.

Leading innovative organizations, these SEERS fellows have been successful in introducing new programs but also influencing policy changes to transform educational and social outcomes for communities in the developed and developing world.

While studying abroad in Chile, Natalie Bridgeman Fields witnessed indigenous women being tear-gassed as their land was being forcibly seized for a World Bank-financed project. At that moment, Fields was inspired on her journey as a social entrepreneur, working to launch the Accountability Counsel in 2009 to defend the environmental and human rights of communities across the developing world. The Accountability Counsel has been successful in winning victories for marginalized communities and influencing international institutions to change their policy and practices.

Michael Lombardo is a successful product of the public education system in the U.S. When as an adult he saw that only 35 percent of fourth graders read at a proficient level he decided to commit himself to closing the early reading achievement gap. Reading Partners employs an innovative model of matching mentors with children in public schools to tutor them and improve reading outcomes. The model has worked and Lombardo has been successful in growing Reading Partners to serve over 40 school districts across eight states nationwide.

At the age of 19, Lateefah Simon was appointed the executive director of the Center for Young Women's Development, an organization working to support the needs of low-income young women in San Francisco. Since then, Simon has committed herself to a life of service to support juvenile and criminal justice reform and gender rights in the state of California through positions at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, and most recently at the Rosenberg Foundation.

The SEERS fellows will be on campus through March in residency with the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. For more information on the program, please visit pse.stanford.edu.