Blog Post

I’ve just returned from a series of meetings in New York. With the UN General Assembly  and the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) conference taking place, the energy in the international development community was palpable.

I was especially excited to learn about the new Girls Not Brides initiative launched at CGI by The Elders in partnership with the Ford and Nike Foundations, as gender is one of IREX’s core focus areas.

IREX staff member Swathi Balasubramanian shares beautiful photos from a recent trip to the Middle East where immobilizing walls depict mobilizing messages of hope. 

Only a third of youth in the Arab world believe their education has prepared them to get a job, according to a recent study by the Education for Employment Foundation. Not surprisingly, employers there say only a third of newly hired graduates are actually ready for work.

Jocelyn Grange, a media consultant working for IREX in Chad, writes about two community radio stations and the dedicated journalists who keep them running in spite of limited resources. 

Thirty years ago, I arrived in China as a young American diplomat after the normalization of relations between the two countries. This summer, I returned to China to witness the vast changes that have taken place.

I had the opportunity to attend the expansion ceremony for IREX’s China Student Journalism Program and the second annual journalism camp held in the remote northwestern province of Gansu. Walking into an auditorium filled with Chinese and American youth, I could feel the energy and excitement in the room. Students and their teachers were proud of the newspapers displayed on the walls of this large auditorium. Their eagerness and commitment to serving as voices for their peers and community were inspiring.

When I think about what I want exchange students to experience during their time in the United States, grocery shopping has never made the list. Visit Washington D.C. and view the Declaration of Independence? Check. Attend a baseball game? Sure. Debate the merits of fruits and vegetables found at the local grocery store? Not really one I'd considered.

A recent report from News Group International analyzed trends in social media around the Arab Spring, specifically looking at the footprint and characteristics of online discussions immediately before and during the political uprising in Egypt. It highlighted a trend in the online discussions that demonstrated the inter-connected nature of economic frustration and political upheaval, even highlighting a tipping point in January 2011 when the demands of political defiance overtook the discussion of economic frustration.

While Tunisia’s revolution continues to have different meanings for different constituencies, perhaps in nowhere is the transformation more profoundly felt than in the media sector. After decades of extreme censorship, and in some cases outright brutality directed against journalists and editors, and more recently bloggers, who circumvented the government line, media representatives now feel the fear and intimidation lifting.

“Education is the manifestation of the perfection already within a person.” As I listened to the words of Sanjoy Ganguli, founder of the Jana Sanskriti movement and keynote speaker at a recent conference I attended, I couldn’t help but smile.

I recently had the opportunity to contribute to the Impatient Optimists blog, sharing my observations on the role of rural public libraries in supporting the families of migrant laborers. What follows are my thoughts as they appear on Impatient Optimists.