Please join us on Tuesday, December 3 for a public event focused on Sustainable Development Goal #1, which aims to decrease poverty and ensure social protections for the poor and vulnerable, increase access to basic needs and services, and support people harmed by natural disasters and other extreme events. Predictions suggest that 6 percent of the world population will still live in extreme poverty in 2030. People who live in extreme poverty face deprivation from social goods and services, and often live in areas where poverty is exacerbated by conflict or natural disasters. Through Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #1, the United Nations seeks to end extreme poverty, measured as people living under $1.25 a day, by ensuring all people have access to economic resources, reducing the poor’s vulnerability to climate disasters and other shocks, and implementing national social protection systems and measures for all. Despite many countries including social protections within their government spending, these programs need to be brought to scale. Although the number of people living in poverty has decreased since 2015, the rate of poverty reduction is slowing and ultimately means the world will miss the United Nations target of less than 3 percent. This event is part of the "Chevron Forum for Development" series focused on the SDGs and made possible with general support from Chevron. So far, we have hosted events focused on SDG#7: Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG#16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, SDG#17: Partnerships for the Goals, and SDG#11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. Our most recent event was focused on SDG#4: Quality Education.

Malnutrition has the potential to bankrupt countries and prevent children from reaching their full potential. Unlike other food groups, fruits and vegetables provide beneficial outcomes across all malnutrition forms. Yet, despite the nutritional punch of fruits and vegetables, current global consumption is far below the minimum daily requirements of five portions. Join the Global Food Security Project for the release of Seeds of Change: The Power of Fruits and Vegetables to Improve Nutrition in Tanzania, a new report focusing on how the United States and other donors are trying to boost fruit and vegetable consumption in Tanzania to improve nutrition through multisectoral and public–private approaches. The event will feature a keynote lecture by the former Tanzanian Prime Minister, the Honorable Mizengo Pinda, which will be followed by an armchair conversation. The subsequent panel discussion will explore the unique challenges to fruit and vegetable consumption and current efforts to change dietary behavior. This event is made possible by the generous support of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Please join us for an exit interview with Susan Fine to hear her reflections and recommendations based on her distinguished career at USAID.     Susan Fine recently completed a 30-year career at USAID, serving as Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Policy, Planning and Learning Bureau for the last two years. Retiring with the rank of Career Minister, Susan has extensive experience in the Sahel, East, and Southern Africa, including South Sudan during its transition to independence, and has championed effective planning and delivery of development assistance and USAID policy leadership in multiple positions in Washington. She has worked at the intersection of development, foreign policy, and humanitarian assistance at strategic and operational levels, represented US development interests in the international arena and engaged with non-traditional development actors such as China.   Susan Fine holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Colby College. She was a board member of the Washington chapter of the Society for International Development and a Peace Corps volunteer in Swaziland.  This event is made possible by general support to CSIS.

Please join us on October 30th for a discussion on Sustainable Development Goal #4: Quality Education.   Education plays an important role in achieving many of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and SDG 4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable, quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Yet, 262 million children and youth were not in school in 2017. Even more troubling, 750 million adults were illiterate in 2016, two-thirds of whom were women. Improving the education systems in low and middle-income countries has been a focus of the development community for years. Given the emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, developing country governments must also prepare their citizens for the workforces of the future and leverage new leapfrog technologies.  This event is part of a series CSIS is doing on the SDGs made possible by general support from Chevron. So far, we have hosted events focused on the role of the private sector, SDG 5: Gender Equality, SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals. You can find the link to all the events here.

Governments throughout Africa employ religious slogans, symbols, and doctrine to advance their political interests and to undermine religiously inspired sources of violence. Different contexts and different state capacities produce different outcomes. States that intervene too frequently in the religious realm risk undermining religious authorities who are critical allies; too little regulation can create a vacuum that is exploited by violent actors. So how do states regulate religious spaces and for what purpose? How does the state approach differ when there is strong religious diversity among the population versus when there is a large religious majority? Our panelists will discuss how different states in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa are approaching this issue and what contraints they face when exerting control over the religious realm.   This panel is part of the project Faith in the Balance which analyzes the distinct ways that the governments of Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria, Kenya, and Burkina Faso attempt to manage religious affairs. The book aims to identify the objectives and consequences of state religious policies. We are grateful to the Henry Luce Foundation for its generous support of this study.  

Please join the CSIS Global Food Security Project for a discussion with a panel of experts on the relationship between climate change, political instability, and food security using current events on the African continent as a lens. The emerging consensus is that climate change poses significant national security threats. However, specific linkages between climate change and political instability are still opaque. As climate change reshapes the agricultural landscape across Africa, there is concern that higher food prices and falling yields will lead to widespread urban unrest and catalyze participation in armed extremist movements. Preceded by a keynote from Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), the discussion will examine how climate change is interacting with demographic trends in Africa to both heighten risks associated with agriculture in rural areas and those associated with dependence on global markets in urban areas. Our panelists will explore several issues such as how averting crisis in the face of climate change and food insecurity will require:   Better incorporation of agricultural production and food prices—both global and local—into risk assessments. Reinvestment in agricultural and transport infrastructure to reform global agricultural trade to make it more climate-resilient for consumers and producers in the developing world. Opportunities to work with regional governments to develop more inclusive responses to manage political and economic instability. This event was made possible through general support to CSIS.

The ongoing violence in northeastern Nigeria continues to generate substantial humanitarian consequences and shows no signs of abatement. The Government of Nigeria has been inconsistent in its campaign, alternating between disengagement and the disproportionate use of force to counter Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa. Its response to humanitarian challenges have been equally problematic; Nigerian officials have herded civilian populations into so-called garrison towns. This policy misdiagnoses the underlying drivers of the conflict and is deeply counterproductive. It has created fear and distrust in part because the government has alleged that civilians who chose not to move are Boko Haram sympathizers. This approach has implications for U.S. policy toward Nigeria in general and its assistance programs in the northeast region in particular. The panel will examine North East Nigerian current conflict dynamics, government policies toward the region, and opportunities and challenges for U.S. political, security, and humanitarian engagement. Panelists will include: Brandon Kendhammer, Ohio University; Fati Abubakar, Documentary Photographer & Public Health Worker; Ambassador Alexander Laskaris, former Deputy to the Commander for Civil-Military Engagement, U.S. Africa Command; Dafna Hochman Rand, Vice President for Policy and Research, Mercy Corps   Moderator: Judd Devermont, Director, Africa Program, CSIS This event was made possible through the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) on July 17, has been ongoing for over a year. As of mid-August, there have been over 2,800 cases and 1,900 deaths. The outbreak is not expected to be contained in the near future. Some experts argue that Ebola is becoming endemic to the area and will spread regionally. Médecins Sans Frontières and other NGOs are retooling their approaches to win community trust, while WHO, the World Bank, the U.S. government, and others are putting in place plans for a renewed push in the next six months. Access by seasoned U.S. civilian public health experts to the hot zone remains highly problematic, owing to violent attacks on health providers, the limited capacity of the United States to deploy official civilian experts into austere environments, and a risk aversion born of the Benghazi tragedy. The U.S. response is further constrained by U.S. funding restrictions that limit the scope of assistance to the DRC national government.   This panel will examine how to navigate the formidable barriers to access — the chaos, insecurity, and rampant community resistance in eastern DRC – in this next phase. Panelists will include: Admiral Tim Ziemer, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, USAID; Ella Watson-Stryker, Humanitarian Representative, Médecins Sans Frontières; and Jeremy Konyndyk, Senior Policy Fellow, Center for Global Development   Moderator: J. Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President and Director, Global Health Policy Center, CSIS   This event was made possible through the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Download the Brief For many developing countries, the absence of quality infrastructure is a significant bottleneck to sustainable economic growth. A large number of studies have demonstrated that quality infrastructure yields large scale and long-term economic dividends. Political leadership in host countries is required to ensure that quality infrastructure investments are made. With support from donor countries and multilateral development banks, such efforts to pursue sustainable quality infrastructure can be supplemented with planning and procurement practices that look at long-term economic efficiency and life-cycle costs. CSIS, with generous support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, undertook a comprehensive research study to examine the importance of transparency and sustainability in achieving quality infrastructure, the findings from which have been captured in a short policy brief. Through this public event, CSIS and its panel will share insights that build on the emerging consensus among G20 member states ahead of the Osaka summit. The inputs and recommendations of the policy brief will enable more quality infrastructure. Please join us at CSIS for this timely discussion on quality infrastructure in the context of the upcoming Osaka G20 Summit. This event is made possible through generous support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

Since their first October 2017 attack in Mozambique, Islamist extremists—invariably called al-Shabaab or Ahlu Sunna wa Jama—have conducted over 110 attacks, with more than 295 civilian and military deaths. Despite this escalating violence, there are significant gaps in our understanding of the problem. There is not a consensus about the key drivers of extremism in the region, including the linkages between local, regional, and international extremist networks. Experts have struggled to identify who comprises al-Shabaab (Ahlu Sunna wa Jama), and furnish answers to key questions regarding their objectives, recruitment, or funding sources. Join the CSIS Africa Program on Thursday, June 6, 2019, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. for a half-day conference on growing insecurity in Mozambique. This event will feature two expert panels on the drivers of extremism and potential response efforts in Mozambique. Keynote Address: Stefanie Amadeo, Director of the Office of Southern African Affairs (U.S. Department of State) Panel 1: Examining Social, Political, and Religious Drivers Featuring Dr. Alex Vines (Chatham House), Dr. Yussuf Adam (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane), and Dr. Liazzat Bonate (University of West Indies) Moderated by Emilia Columbo Panel 2: Exploring Regional and International Response Efforts Featuring H. Dean Pittman (former U.S. Ambassador to Mozambique), Zenaida Machado (Human Rights Watch), and Dr. Gregory Pirio (Empowering Communications) Moderated by Judd Devermont (Director, CSIS Africa Program) This event is made possible by the general support to CSIS.