In 2013, the Blum Center and the Center for Effective Global Action founded the Development Impact Lab, to launch the new field of Development Engineering and create a model for university-based poverty action labs. Since that time, the Development Impact Lab, with support from USAID, has tested over 135 innovations and engaged more than 500 students, 400 experts and 375 organizations, involving 16 universities in the United States, India and Uganda.
On June 4, key representatives from the network met at the Blum Center to discuss their five years of findings and outcomes. Temina Madon, executive director of the Center for Effective Global Action, summarized Development Engineering as enabling doctoral students from multiple disciplines to research and test poverty solutions as part of their dissertations. A panel entitled “Institutionalizing the Field of Development Engineering” included UC Berkeley Mechanical Engineering Professor Alice Agogino and Economics Professor Paul Gertler, who attested to the long need for such a PhD minor.
“Thanks to this new field, doctoral students considering international development now have a way to harness this aspect of their academic interests,” said Professor Agogino, who is chair of the Graduate Group in Development Engineering and Education Director of the Blum Center.
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Rachel Pizatella-Haswell, a Goldman School of Public Policy student, interviews Joshua Blumenstock, Assistant Professor of the UC Berkeley School of Information and a member of the Blum Center's Development Engineering faculty. Professor Blumenstock's research lies at the intersection of machine learning and development economics, and focuses on using novel data and methods to better understand the causes and consequences of global poverty. In this Q&A, he answers questions about what remote sensing, geographic information system and cell phone data can tell us about a variety of poverty indicators.
Read the interview.
Global Poverty & Practice Celebrates 69 Alumni
At the 10th annual Global Poverty & Practice (GPP) minor graduation ceremony, 69 students representing 31 majors joined a total of 857 graduates of the program. GPP was launched in 2007 to provide UC Berkeley students an academic and hands-on pathway to examine contemporary forms of poverty, wealth and inequality. GPP graduates have gone on to leadership positions at nonprofits, government agencies and social enterprises dedicated to reducing poverty and solving wicked problems.
The 2018 keynote graduation speaker was Charisma Acey, Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley and a Development Engineering faculty member. Professor Acey specializes in environmental governance and community-based development and has ongoing projects in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda addressing household access to clean water, safe sanitation and alternative energy solutions. She warned GPP graduating students there will be times ahead when they face fierce challenges and ethical dilemmas, and urged them to remember their GPP coursework, practice experiences and other learnings.
Veronica Brown ('18 Political Economy) served at the ceremony's graduation speaker. A Mexican-American and first-generation student from Southern California, Brown completed her GPP practice experience at The Bread Project, a social enterprise in Berkeley that addresses employment barriers for low-income individuals. She is now on staff at The Bread Project as an employment and graduate services specialist. Brown, who hopes to work in the California State Legislature someday, told her fellow graduates: "We're never going to make lasting impact on poverty and inequality on our own. It's about the incremental steps we take collectively that make a difference."
Mondale Urges Student Engagement in Politics
Former Vice President Walter Mondale, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ and UC Berkeley Regent Richard Blum met to discuss U.S. governance on the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. They discussed the need to maintain democratic institutions, strengthen bipartisanship around free trade and foreign aid and inspire the next generation of political leaders, especially women.
"You're really needed," said Mondale to the students in the audience. "If you decide to do something to help us, no one can stop you. You can change it all."
Professor Clair Brown Lectures at Vatican
Blum Center Affiliated Faculty member Clair Brown (Economics) presented a talk at the Vatican titled "Living a Balanced Meaningful Life in the Digital Era." She addressed policies to share global prosperity, including improving worker empowerment and transferring technology and resources from rich to poor nations as well as transitioning to a clean energy economy. Professor Clair presented a copy of her book Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science (Italian edition) to Pope Francis. For more information: http://buddhisteconomics.net
Big Ideas Winners in the News
PedalTap—a hands-free, foot-operated water dispensing device designed to reduce the spread of infectious disease and save water launched its Tippy Tap product in March 2018. PedalTap was a 1st place winner in the 2017 Scaling Up category of Big Ideas, representing Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Grace Nakibaala, founder and CEO of PedalTap, has been on the move this year, promoting her product at conferences, including Next Einstein Forum 2018 (pictured above; Nakibaala center). Referencing the spread of Ebola and other infectious diseases in West Africa, Nakibaala, an architect by training, demonstrated why a foot-operated faucet is a significant health improvement for schools and refugee camps and reduces water waste by 50 percent.
MarHub—a chatbox designed to help refugees navigate the asylum process by providing tailored legal information and connections to NGOs—was featured in Fast Company. A 2018 Big Ideas winner in the Connected Communities category, the innovation addresses the fact that 65 million people have been forcibly displaced, including 22.5 million refugees, and only 2 percent of refugees have access to durable solutions. Refugees living in long-term encampments, urban destitution or enduring further migration lack access to relevant information and services. One result is they take chances with smugglers rather than apply for asylum.
According to Fast Company, "The chatbot–which will be offered first on Facebook, and later on WhatsApp and via text, recognizing that refugees with limited wireless data are reluctant to download new apps–takes refugees through these details, provides sample questions for practice, and an Arabic mnemonic to help them remember key points such as making sure their story is consistent, and sharing emotion. At the end of the process, it gives someone the option to connect with a legal volunteer (lawyers are only provided in the asylum process after someone’s application has been denied and they are appealing)."
Acari—a 2018 Big Ideas winner in the Food Systems category was featured in Berkeley News and California Magazine. The social enterprise—started by Mike Mitchell and Sam Bordia, UC Berkeley International Development Master's students—turns Mexico's invasive devil fish into jerky for export, solving an environmental problem and creating a new high-protein food source at the same time.
According to Berkeley news, Mitchell and Borida "hope to have their fish caught by local Mexican fishermen, processed nearby by migrants, and shipped to big cities in Mexico and the United States to be turned into fillets or jerky. The final destinations, they hope, will be the cafeterias of big-name tech companies, an online store and, eventually, supermarket and gas station snack shelves."
Spotlight on Hope Film Camp, the 2017 Big Ideas winner in the Art & Social Change category, was featured in the Daily Trojan for expanding its film workshops for pediatric cancer patients to the University of Southern California. Established in 2013 by UC Riverside student Cassie Nguyen, a pediatric brain cancer survivor, Spotlight on Hope Film Camps are held at USC, UCLA and UC Riverside, with plans for expansion to UC Irvine.
“I think art in general can change people’s lives for the better,” said Eleanor Cho, a USC film major running the camps on her campus. “Just the process of imagining something and bringing it into reality is transformative. Knowing that you have the ability to bring things to life is really amazing.”
Global Water Labs, a Big Ideas 2017 Scaling Up category winner, and its founder Katya Cherukumilli were spotlighted by VentureWell for developing a scalable and affordable fluoride removable technology to help reduce the risk of people contracting irreversible diseases. In addition, she was an E-Team grantee and third place winner of the 2018 OPEN Minds Showcase.
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