Africa Connected Series: From Aid to Innovation
| When: | Back to Calendar » June 5, 2012 @ 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM | Where: | Northwest African American Museum, Studio 1 (Reception); Legacy Gallery (Lecture) 2300 S Massachusetts St Seattle,WA 98144 USA |
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| Cost: | Member/Student: $10; Non-Member: $15 | |
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Speaker: Dr. Darius Mans, President, Africare
Moderator: Dr. Mary Kay Gugerty, Associate Professor, Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington
For additional readings and resources to learn more about this topic, visit our blog post here. To hear our eventcast, click here.
Billions of dollars are spent around the world every year in aid, so how is this aid used to help people to better their own situations instead of relying on foreign governments to assist them? Many parts of Africa face challenges around issues such as health and HIV/AIDS, agriculture, food security, water, sanitation, and hygiene. In sub-Saharan Africa: an estimated 5% of the population is living with HIV/AIDS (68% of the world’s total); malnutrition affects a third of the population; and sanitation coverage is only at about 36%. What solutions are available for developing countries and communities to implement systems that will allow them to care for themselves?
The World Affairs Council presents a conversation with Dr. Darius Mans, President of Africare, who will use South Africa as a case study to discuss the work being done to empower the local people to strengthen their own systems at the community and societal levels, allowing them to sustain these systems without outside assistance.
Dr. Darius Mans assumed the position of President of Africare on January 4, 2010. Prior to joining Africare, Dr. Mans served as Acting Chief Executive Officer, Vice President of Implementation, and Managing Director for Africa of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). He has over 30 years of development experience with a major focus on African countries. Before joining MCC, Dr. Mans held various positions at the World Bank, including Director of the World Bank Institute (WBI) in Washington, D.C. and Country Director in Mozambique. Earlier in his career, Dr. Mans was an economist with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where he worked closely with the United States Treasury and the International Monetary Fund to establish a framework to avoid debt repudiation and restructure private commercial debt in Brazil and Chile. He also taught economics at the University of Maryland and was a consultant to KPMG on infrastructure projects in Latin America, and consulted on macroeconomic policy and strategic planning. Dr. Mans holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Mathematics from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan where he was born. A long-time resident of Washington D.C., he is married and the father of three children.
Founded in 1970, Africare is the oldest and largest African-American led NGO working in Africa. Africare works in some 25 countries throughout Africa in four principal areas: agriculture and food security; health and HIV/AIDS; water, sanitation and hygiene; and emergency humanitarian assistance.
Moderator:
Mary Kay Gugerty is an Associate Professor at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. Her research interests focus on rural development, governance and the design of collective action institutions among individuals and organizations, with a particular focus on Africa. Gugerty co-directs the Evans Policy Analysis and Research Group, which provides research and analysis services to the Agricultural Development Initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. EPAR’s recent work focuses on understanding the constraints to agricultural production among smallholder farmers in Tanzania. Gugerty’s previous research explores the structure and functioning of community development institutions in Africa, including the impact of NGO funding on indigenous self-help groups, the impact of ethnic diversity on collective action, and the role of rotating savings and credit associations (roscas) in promoting rural savings.
In addition to her work on agriculture and rural development, Gugerty’s research focuses on the emergence of accountability programs among nonprofits and NGOs globally. She is the lead editor of Voluntary Regulation of Nonprofit and Nongovernmental Organizations: An Accountability Club Framework, published by Cambridge University Press in 2010 and co-edited with Aseem Prakash.
NOTE: Reception, included in the cost of the event, will take place 6:00-6:50 p.m. Lecture with Q&A will take place 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Sponsor:
Co-presenters:
African Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest Uganda American Association
Prosthetics Outreach Foundation
Seattle University Global African Studies Program
Somali Community Services Coalition
Somali Community Services of Seattle
The African Network – Seattle Chapter
University of Washington African Studies Program
University of Washington Evans School of Public Affairs
University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies
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The World Affairs Council is a non-partisan, non-profit organization which provides a forum for speakers representing diverse points of view. The opinions expressed by any and all speakers, presenters and/or guests at Council events are those of the speaker alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the World Affairs Council members, staff, Board of Trustees, or Advisory Council.
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