Kumar Khatiwada won the second annual competition for a paper examining the impact of clean cookstoves in rural Uganda.
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]]>The article, “,” details the creation of the new Violence-Involved Persons Risk Assessment (VIP-RA) tool, which isan aggregate of seven psychometric and social risk assessment tools previously validated in various American and European contexts.
The article was co-authored by , assistant professor of psychology and peace studies;, senior technical associate at NDIGD;Ի, formerly a research and learning senior associate at NDIGD. TheKroc Institute and NDIGD are both housed within Notre Dame’s .
Miller-Graff was invited to join the NDIGD initiative because of her research on violence and its effects on mental health and well-being, although Honduras represented a new research context for her. The project seeks to move beyond identifying communities or groups at risk of crime and violence to highlight individuals who are most at risk of becoming involved in violence as either victims or perpetrators. Miller-Graff hopes that the assessment tool and research will be available not only to academic researchers, but also tointernational development practitioners.
"There are many great resources to support strong evaluation of programs, but given that academic papers are rarely available free of charge, a lot of important information about measures and their psychometric quality is hard to access by organizations focused on evidence-based practice and policy. Our goal was to help bridge this gap," saidMiller-Graff. "The measures we selected have been validated and used in a wide variety of contexts, so we anticipate that they could readily be used in other countries and cultural contexts as well."
The researchers initially included eight tools as subscales within the VIP-RA tool and worked with a number of local groups and researchers to determine how best to linguistically and culturally translate the subscales for a Honduran context. The researchers then interviewed more than 1,200 young adults (ages 16-30) in Tegucigalpa over a one-month period to validate the tool.
After the survey period, the researchers removed questions from subscales that showed weak reliability or validity, reducing the original number of questions included in the VIP-RA tool from 156 to 89. Only one subscale was removed completely from the tool.
“By using previously validated tools, we wanted to see if we could identify the primary characteristics of those most at risk in high-violence contexts like Honduras,a country that has been consistently ranked as over the last decade,”said Hare.
The revised version of the VIP-RA tool is able to measure several primary characteristics of at risk youth in high-violence contexts, including emotion regulation, depression, post-traumatic stressand resilience, among others. The researchers found that young adults involved in violence, as either victims orperpetrators, exhibited more signs of post-traumatic stress and depression. Additionally, the researchers found that young adults uninvolved in violence showed more signs of emotional regulation and factors associated with resilience.
“In addition to contributing to our knowledge about the characteristics of violence-involved youth in Honduras, this research and the VIP-RA tool can be used by other programs and organizations to focus their development interventions on the needs of those most at risk of becoming violence-involved,” said Hare.
The article was written as part of NDIGD’s “” project. As part of this project, NDIGD is working with and the to evaluate development interventions in Honduras that seek to increase citizen security.
Contact: Luis Ruuska, communications specialist, Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development, lruuska@nd.edu
Originally published by at on April 4.
]]>The (NDIGD), part of the, will implement the grant over the next two and a half years. NDIGD will work closely with Notre Dame International’s, which will serve as the primary base of operations throughout the duration of the grant.
NDIGD will host a number of residencies, which will bring Notre Dame and West Bank academic researchers together. Among other objectives, the residencies will focus on promoting research methods that adhere to international standards; curriculum, research material and research administration support training; and creating new partnerships between institutions of higher education throughout the West Bank.
By building the capacity of academic researchers, the project aims to increase the number of research engagement opportunities, and subsequently increase the overall research output of universities in the West Bank.
Additionally, NDIGD aims to connect West Bank faculty, researchers and graduate students with for-profit and nonprofit enterprises to promote technology transfer and commercialization efforts, with the goal of creatingjobs and advancing economic opportunity in the region.
“We hope to work with as many West Bank universities as possible on this initiative,” said , executive director of NDIGD. “The ultimate goal of this project is to leverage existing talent within higher education, the private sector and civil society. We want to foster collaboration among researchers through the creation of a research network.”
Contact: Amanda Skofstad, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-4313, skofstad@nd.edu
]]>The YLAI program aims to empower business and social entrepreneurs to transform their societies and contribute more fully to economic development and prosperity, security, human rights and good governance in the hemisphere.
As part of the four-week program, the YLAI fellows will each shadow one business or nonprofit organization in the Michiana region for four days each week during regular business hours. By working alongside these host organizations, the fellows will learn to accelerate their commercial and social ventures’ success and develop specific action plans to carry out upon return to their home countries. (NDIGD) and the , both a part of the new , will supplement the fellows’ experience through an entrepreneurship institute on campus and through various networking, leadership and cultural events.
The 2017 class of YLAI fellows, four men and six women, hail from 10 countries:
Notre Dame is among an elite group of 24 universities and city hubs chosen by the and its implementing partner, , to host these 10 YLAI fellows, who are part of a nationwide cohort of 250 in total.
Since the program’s establishment in 2016, NDIGD and the have partnered to facilitate the program at Notre Dame.
In mid-November, the fellows will travel to Washington, D.C., for a multi-day conference and networking event with top U.S. government officials, as well as global public, private and nonprofit leaders.
For more information about the YLAI program at Notre Dame, visit .
Contact: Luis Ruuska, communications specialist, Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development, lruuska@nd.edu
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Kumar Khatiwada won the second annual competition for a paper examining the impact of clean cookstoves in rural Uganda.
Read more:.
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The University of Notre Dame will welcome 25 bright, emerging African leaders to campus beginning June 16 (Friday) for a six-week business and entrepreneurship institute sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.
Since 2014, the (NDIGD) has worked closely with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and its implementing partner, IREX, to bring the , the flagship program of the (YALI), to Notre Dame. The fellowship empowers young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training and networking opportunities.
The program is highly competitive, and the U.S. Department of State received more than 64,000 applications for only 1,000 placements across the country this year alone. Notre Dame’s class of 2017 Mandela Washington Fellows, 11 men and 14 women, hail from 20 countries across sub-Saharan Africa.
Throughout the six-week program, the fellows will engage in a rigorous curriculum that will cover topics including design thinking, social entrepreneurship, business modeling and planning, strategic leadership and personal and professional branding, as well as applying foresight and innovation. The fellows will also visit different corporations and organizations to observe the application of different academic topics in the real world, including organizations in South Bend, Indianapolis, Detroit and Chicago. Community service and leadership activities will also be a core component of the program.
At the end of the institute, the fellows will travel to Washington, D.C., for the Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit, where they will take part in networking and panel discussions with 975 other fellows, as well as U.S. leaders from the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Following the summit, 100 competitively selected fellows will spend six weeks in professional development experiences with U.S. nongovernmental organizations, private companies and government agencies.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship at Notre Dame receives additional faculty support from the , the , the and the Kellogg Institute for International 91Ƶ’ . The program also receives additional financial support from the Notre Dame , , , the and .
For more information about the Mandela Washington Fellowship at Notre Dame, visit .
The Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development — an integral part of the at the University of Notre Dame — promotes human development and dignity among people worldwide through applied innovations, impact evaluation, education and training that help build just and equitable societies.
Contact: Luis Ruuska, communications specialist, Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development, lruuska@nd.edu
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On April 24, NDIGD gathered its partners from the private, government and non-profit sectors.
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The funding will be used to address pressing global development challenges through research abroad.
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The (NDIGD) has received more than $1 million, with additional funding being determined, from the (USAID) to lead a collaborative partnership of five organizations charged with conducting retrospective long-term impact evaluations of completed USAID projects. The project is called (ERIE) and will help guide decision making at USAID.
Partner organizations include , the , the at Notre Dame, and .
ERIE is part of the (MERLIN) Program in USAID’s . Through MERLIN, USAID collaborates with partners like NDIGD to identify, design and test cutting-edge solutions to more effectively understand and measure the impacts of development programs.
NDIGD researchers include lead , monitoring and evaluation specialist; , program director; and , program manager.
“Our experts will be using new and innovative research designs and taking advantage of available data sources — including satellite imagery, mobile and administrative data — to look back at projects completed in the last five or 10 years,” said Brown. “We hope that understanding the long-term impact of USAID activities will help guide the agency’s priorities and strategy moving forward.”
Retrospective impact evaluations will be conducted across various sectors and regions, including environment and sustainability, education, health, agriculture and food security.
The Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development — an integral part of the new at the University of Notre Dame — promotes human development and dignity among people worldwide through applied innovations, impact evaluation, education and training that help build just and equitable societies.
Contact: Luis Ruuska, communications specialist, Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development, lruuska@nd.edu
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