Announcements

IREX is pleased to launch a new 10-month project in Tunisia to support digital journalism trainings for older, established journalists.

The 2012 cohort of Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship fellows arrived to the U.S. this month with a special distinction. These 68 community, business, and government leaders from Eastern Europe and Central Asia are the 20th group of Muskie fellows to begin studies since the program’s inception in 1992.

To improve teaching and strengthen the universities' capacity to provide youth the skills needed in today's workforce, IREX paired three prestigious US universities with three in Iraq. Together these institutions are sharing new teaching methods, revising outdated curricula, and engaging in joint research projects.

Seventeen scholars and professionals are set to advise the U.S. government on key policy issues. From a look at "corporate raiding" in Ukraine to understanding why some of Russia's young Muslims join religious extremist and violent organizations, the fellows will inform key decisions on a wide variety subjects.

IREX is very pleased to announce the launch of its new Center for Collaborative Technologies (CCT) to better serve our beneficiaries by enhancing our existing skill set in our seven focus areas of media, civil society, education, conflict resolution, youth, gender, and technology.  The Center establishes autonomous space for the consolidation and sharing of our more than 15 years of ICT expertise, both across IREX as an organization and externally. 

Washington, DC – Today IREX received a new grant from the United States Institute of Peace, which will expand its peacebuilding activities in Kyrgyzstan. With this funding, IREX will train and support youth and adults to create peer mediation programs in schools and establish and support a multi-ethnic youth theater performance troupe.

IREX is pleased to launch a five-year Media Strengthening Program (MSP) in Mozambique. IREX will work with professional and community reporters, media managers, journalism educators, advocacy organizations and civil society to strengthen the quality of news and information available to citizens.  The program will develop innovative approaches to an open, diverse and self-sustaining media sector that provides Mozambicans with platforms for engaging in informed dialogue encouraging accountability and development. The $10 million MSP is funded by USAID with additional assistance from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

There is optimism in African development despite often-gloomy headlines. That was the central message delivered recently by a panel of African experts, donors and policymakers at “Beyond Kony 2012: Championing African Leaders.” They discussed the important role Africans play in building stronger institutions in their own diverse countries.

IREX congratulates Ricky Richard Anywar, recipient of the 2012 IREX Founders’ Day Award. Anywar is Founder and Executive Director of Friends of Orphans (FRO) in Uganda, which works to reintegrate child soldiers into their home communities, train IDPs in managing and resolving disputes, and increase food production in local areas. A former child soldier himself, Ricky received the 2008 Harriet Tubman Freedom Award, given every year to exemplary organizations that work to create sustainable freedom in communities vulnerable to slavery. He also received the 2008 Humanitarian Award from World of Children for his work with former child soldiers, child mothers, and vulnerable children. He is an alumnus of IREX’s Community Solutions Program.

IREX is pleased to announce the winners of its Make a Better World Photo Contest. The contest received 2,400 submissions from over 120 countries in an effort to best capture IREX’s tagline, “Make a Better World.” A panel of expert judges selected winning photos based on both artistic merit and their demonstration of one or more of IREX’s seven focus areas; IREX’s friends and followers on social media also helped select the “People’s Choice” winner.