Confronting Grief Meet the Newly Bereaved

Maoz Inon is one of the newest bereaved members of the Parents Circle – Families Forum. Inon’s parents were killed on October 7th, 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel. Mohamed Abu Jafar, a Palestinian member of the Parents Circle, lost his brother in 2002 when he was killed by Israeli soldiers.

Join us for a conversation between Maoz and Mohamed on how they are confronting grief and the work of bereaved peacemakers during a time of war.

Confronting Grief: Meet the Newly Bereaved webinar recording December 19, 2023

RefugePoint’s Leadership Role at the Global Refugee Forum

The Global Refugee Forum (GRF), a quadrennial event taking place from December 13-15 of this year, is the main venue to drive and review progress towards the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees, which include: 

• Easing pressures on host countries

• Strengthening refugee self-reliance*

• Increasing access to third-country solutions such as resettlement, family reunification, labor, mobility, and other pathways*

• Supporting conditions in countries of origin that allow refugees to return home safely 

RefugePoint is playing a leadership role in four multistakeholder pledges relating to two of these objectives: refugee self-reliance and third-country solutions (starred above). Additionally, RefugePoint leadership will be speaking in several official events at the GRF as well as formally announcing the multistakeholder pledges on family reunification and on economic inclusion and social protection, an honor reserved for the leaders in each of these areas.

Why is RefugePoint So Heavily Involved in the Global Refugee Forum? 

The goals of the Global Refugee Forum align with RefugePoint’s strong agency-wide commitment to systems change. RefugePoint is leading the development of several multistakeholder pledges that are aligned with our programmatic priorities. Our engagement and investment in global initiatives such as the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative and the Global Family Reunification Network position us well  to provide leadership and convene others to take collective action on these themes. 

RefugePoint’s commitment to refugee-centeredness has informed much of our involvement in the 2023 GRF. RefugePoint and the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative are proud to  have refugees and former refugees join our delegations to the GRF, and we are also supporting these colleagues as they have assumed prominent roles at the GRF. 

See below for a comprehensive list of RefugePoint’s involvement in the events of the 2023 Global Refugee Forum.

Refugee Self-Reliance

Multistakeholder Pledge Leadership: The Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative, hosted by RefugePoint, is the lead coordinator in the Multistakeholder pledge on economic inclusion and social protection, in collaboration with the governments of Denmark, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, and United States of America, as well as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Eastern Africa. 

In Plenary: Kari Diener, Executive Director of the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative, will be announcing the pledge in the plenary session. 

Parallel High-Level Events: The Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative, and through it RefugePoint, is also helping to plan two high-level side events relating to refugee self-reliance: one on employment and entrepreneurship  for refugees and another on social protection for refugees.  The event on economic inclusion will be moderated by RefugePoint Board Member and U.S. Enterprise Executive Director of Alight, Nasra Ismail.

Third-Country Solutions

Resettlement

• Multistakeholder Pledge Leadership: RefugePoint co-chairs the Friends of Resettlement Initiative (along with the Government of Australia and UNHCR), which has been responsible for developing the Multistakeholder pledge on resettlement. 

• Parallel High-Level Event: RefugePoint CEO Sasha Chanoff will be speaking at the Parallel High-Level Event on Resettlement, an event RefugePoint has helped to plan.

Family Reunification

• Multistakeholder Pledge Leadership: RefugePoint is a member and advisor to the Global Family Reunification Network (FRUN), which leads the Multistakeholder pledge supporting refugee family reunification. 

• In Plenary: RefugePoint CEO Sasha Chanoff will be formally announcing the Multistakeholder Pledge on Family Reunification in the plenary session. 

• Speakers Corner: RefugePoint delegate Geeta Rahimi will be delivering remarks in a Speakers Corner focusing on Family Reunification. Geeta is a resettlement professional in the U.S. and the Refugee Congress Delegate for the state of Texas. She will be speaking about her experience of family separation and reunification and noting best practices and recommendations.

• Linked Event: In coordination with the FRUN, RefugePoint will be co-hosting an evening reception on family reunification at the Red Cross Museum. The program will feature refugee leaders and senior representatives from UNHCR and the Red Cross and will be an opportunity to highlight some of the contributors to the multistakeholder pledge on family reunification.

Labor Mobility

• Multistakeholder Pledge Leadership: RefugePoint is a member of the Global Task Force on Refugee Labor Mobility, which co-leads the Multistakeholder pledge on skills-based complementary pathways.

• Parallel High-Level Event: RefugePoint CEO Sasha Chanoff and RefugePoint Board Member Nasra Ismail will speak at a High Level Side Event on Refugee Labor Mobility. 

• Linked Event: Both Sasha and Nasra will reprise their roles at a high-level evening reception featuring speakers from the whole society, including UN organizations and corporate leaders. Both events work toward RefugePoint’s goal of demonstrating a refugee-centered model for labor mobility for the world and for our partners.

George Orwell, Gaza, and “The Debasement of Language”

“Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” George Orwell wrote these words, which come at the end of his essay “Politics and the English Language,” in 1946. He could be writing them from the grave today and thinking of ways in which language is being used in the context of the so-called “Israel-Gaza war.” “In our time,” Orwell says, “political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible.” He is not alluding to falsehoods or fallacies, but to words and phrases that keep us from the facts, or from the effect the facts would otherwise have on us. His essay is about “debased language”: language that defends the indefensible by preventing us from thinking.

Day after day, as Israel has laid waste to Gaza, unspeakable atrocities have been spoken about in language that robs them of their horror. Israel’s relentless devastation of Gaza, the destruction of 40% of homes in the strip (at the time of writing), as well as hospitals and infrastructure, the blockade on fuel and electricity and other vital services, the killing, the maiming, the terrorizing, the aerial bombardment that has wiped out entire families, the mass displacement of 1.9 million people (at the time of writing), all this is indescribable.

Sometimes it is better to be lost for words. Perhaps we should remember this more often. Perhaps we should hold our tongue until we find words that approximate to reality—the brutal human reality of suffering, grief, loss, and despair. This means suppressing the impulse to appropriate the facts for our agendas, or resisting the urge to smother those facts with words that cushion their impact, euphemisms that soften their blow. Sometimes we should just stand open-mouthed, without a political analysis falling fully formed from our lips. There are times when we need to stop talking in order to start thinking—thinking politically. Now is such a time.

Sometimes it is better to be lost for words. . .  . Perhaps we should hold our tongue until we find words that approximate to reality—the brutal human reality of suffering, grief, loss and despair.

Orwell writes in his essay: “As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed …” Phrases do not have to be around for long in order to become hackneyed. A turn of speech can turn into a cliché almost overnight, provided there is a sufficient incentive. People will latch onto it with alacrity if it helps to conceal an inconvenient truth or to take cover from the implications of their own unbearable position. Take, for example, “humanitarian pause,” a phrase that has become a commonplace in the last couple of months. There has, so far, been one temporary ceasefire, which was towards the end of November 2023. But Israel could not be clearer about its intentions: to continue to lay waste to Gaza. And that is just what they have done, blasting whole neighborhoods to smithereens. Yet there are calls for more “humanitarian pauses.” How reassuring the word “humanitarian” is! But whom does it console: the people of Gaza or the people who utter the phrase? Sara Roy asks: “What does a pause mean in the middle of such carnage? Does it mean feeding people so they can survive to be killed the next day? How is that humanitarian? How is that humane?” But critiquing a mindless mantra or a hackneyed turn of speech is a thankless task. The repetition of the phrase “humanitarian pause” is like a lullaby, and the debate around it is a form of sleep-talking.

Sleep-talking can also take the form of stringing together stock items of vocabulary, “ready-made phrases,” as Orwell calls them, letting them “construct your sentences for you – even think your thoughts for you.” Or, to put it differently, they make the act of thinking passive. They do this according to a kind of algorithm, dictated by a political ideology or program. “It is at this point,” Orwell observes, “that the special connexion between politics and the debasement of language becomes clear.” What could be more debased than a jargon that turns barbarism into justice, atrocity into progress, so as to get the facts to fit a preconceived frame? Consider this set of facts about the actions of Hamas or its allies during its incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023: around 1,200 people killed in “more than 20 different locations”; in kibbutz Be’eri alone, “at least 100 people slaughtered … dragged from their homes and murdered”; women “raped before they were shot”; over 200 people abducted as hostages, “including infants, children, and elderly people.” Here is how these horrific facts were reflected in the banner headline of a “progressive” newspaper two days later: “Rejoice as Palestinian resistance humiliates racist Israel.”  In this headline, the horrific is turned into the heroic at a stroke. By a kind of verbal alchemy, civilian victims of the crimes committed on October 7th become mere tokens of a state: personifications of Israel, not persons in their own right. It is the Israeli state (“racist Israel”) that was raped, not individual women; the state that was murdered and abducted, not infants or children or the elderly. Similarly, an eminent Israeli historian, but coming to the defense of Israel, declared : “On 7 October Israel [itself] was raped  …” You could say this is hyperbole, but it amounts to theft: stealing the ordeal of rape from the women who experienced it and transferring it to a theoretical entity, the state. To recall Orwell’s words: “the concrete melts into the abstract.” In the banner headline that I have quoted, the flesh-and-blood victims of horrendous acts are erased by a phrase “racist Israel.” Even Israel is not the ultimate villain or target, as the subhead, via a dubious historical comparison, explains: “Like the Tet Offensive in Vietnam in 1968, the Palestinians’ surprise attack has humbled imperialism.” Jargon (“imperialism”) has the last word.

The repetition of the phrase “humanitarian pause” is like a lullaby, and the debate around it is a form of sleep-talking.

Moreover, in these two sentences (the headline and the subhead), Hamas’s onslaught is referred to as “Palestinian resistance,” regardless of whether or not this is how Palestinians themselves see it. The synonymy is assumed. But this is a matter for Palestinians themselves to debate and to decide, not something for a person or group in faraway Britain to decree. In this scheme of things, however, Palestinians do not count in their own right, any more than Israelis do. They count only as representatives of (to quote another phrase from the article) “the oppressed.” It is quite an achievement to write an article about the strife between Palestinians and Israelis in which Israelis and Palestinians come into the picture only as stand-ins for “oppressor” and “oppressed.” This article—and there are many others like it—is a helpful demonstration of how “the debasement of language” degrades political thinking. For thinking is not political unless it is grounded, and it is not grounded when, to quote Orwell again, “the concrete melts into the abstract.”

In the passage in which Orwell talks about “the defence of the indefensible,” he immediately illustrates the point with a scenario that is uncannily recognizable. “Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside … the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification.” Substitute “Israel’s right to defend itself” for “pacification” (and maybe “tents” for “huts”), and the picture corresponds to the here and now. Perhaps he really is writing from the grave.

True, President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Rushi Sunak, and other world leaders who assert Israel’s right to defend itself, add that Israel should act within international humanitarian law (or “the laws of war”). But add is the operative word. The emphasis falls repeatedly on the former, giving the clear impression that the right of the state has priority over the human rights of the Palestinian population of Gaza: “Israel has the right, but…” The “but” is an echo of the refrain, “We stand with Israel,” which Biden and Sunak and other world leaders have declared from the start. (Or, as Sunak said, shaking hands with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, “We want you to win.”) The sound of the refrain, like background noise, never fades, even if we are not aware of hearing it. This too is how speech can confuse and mislead. Language is an instrument. And Biden, Sunak, and the others, are like a collective Nero, fiddling while Gaza burns.

What language can prevent, language can promote: thinking politically. This requires using words that bridge the gap between the concrete and the abstract, without either flinching from the facts or appropriating them for the sake of a cherished theory or agenda. Only thus can we broach the most political of questions, not least for Palestinians and Israelis: how to share the common spaces we inhabit, so as to advance the common good. This, apart from the diagnoses of linguistic malpractices, is what I take from Orwell’s essay—a prophetic blast from the past, which speaks powerfully to us in the present abysmal moment.

Jehane Sedky

Jehane Sedky is a seasoned senior executive and chief of staff known for providing strategic guidance and support to prominent leaders such as former US President Bill Clinton, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy and the late Harvard University Professor Dr. Paul Farmer. Her expertise spans a wide spectrum of responsibilities, including strategic program development, implementation, fundraising, media, and communications. Renowned for exceptional project and people management skills, Ms. Sedky excels in unifying teams toward common goals. Notably, she served as President Clinton’s senior advisor and head of office during his tenure as UN Special Envoy for Haiti and, earlier, as his spokesperson and speechwriter for his role as the UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery. Furthermore, in her capacity as a senior advisor to Dr. Paul Farmer, Ms. Sedky played a pivotal role in steering the strategic direction and executing his vision for both his UN office and the subsequent establishment of the think tank he founded, the Science of Implementation Initiative.

Prior to her work with President Clinton and Dr. Paul Farmer, Ms. Sedky served as senior strategic advisor to UN Assistant Secretary-General for Conflict Prevention and Recovery. In this chief of staff role, Ms. Sedky was instrumental in shaping the strategic direction of a 200-person global operation, managing communications, fundraising efforts, delicate staff relationships, and overall program strategy.

Renowned for her team-building skills, Ms. Sedky has effectively led senior management teams, navigated crises calmly, and fostered an environment focused on achieving strategic goals. Her extensive experience in cultivating and managing partnerships across diverse institutions and continents underscores her proficiency in establishing impactful global networks.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Sedky served a stint at CNN International and later led the UNICEF Global Media Relations team responsible for spearheading the organization’s messaging and crisis management across 150 country offices. Ms. Sedky has authored a book on children and armed conflict and a chapter in Paul Farmer’s book Haiti After the Earthquake. In addition, the cutting-edge research she led at the United Nations and later at the Science of Implementation Initiative has been cited in Paul Farmer’s books and various articles.

Ms. Sedky speaks four languages and is the proud mother of three. In her free time, she leads a youth group that supports the homeless in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Adam Levy

Adam Levy is a career diplomat with the U.S. Foreign Service. He currently serves in Bogota, Colombia leading the Department of State's efforts to advance human rights and peace.  Previously, Adam worked as a Special Assistant to Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, as a desk officer for Syria supporting peace building efforts, in addition to assignments in Canada, Cuba, Mali, and China. Prior to joining the U.S. Department of State, Adam worked for Beyond Conflict where he was involved in reconciliation and track 1.5 negotiations initiatives involving Iran, Cuba, South Africa, Kosovo, and elsewhere and with a transitional justice initiative in East Africa. He completed his undergraduate degree with high honors from Tufts University with a focus on peace and justice studies and earned a Master's degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  Originally from Ecuador, Adam calls (the winters of) Massachusetts home.

At Tufts, Adam was deeply involved with the Institute for Global Leadership's EPIIC and BUILD programs and was an avid member of the university's Klezmer Ensemble. He describes his time with the IGL as full of sparks. Sparks that created lifelong friendships and professional peers, Sparks that gave him early previews of the intellectual challenges, informational grey zones, trade offs, and moral quandaries facing foreign policy practitioners through research in Serbia and Kosovo, photojournalism projects focused on migration along the U.S.-Mexico border and in Nepal, as well the seeds for a reconciliation initiative in northern Uganda with two IGL alums.

Adam was one of the students who thoroughly drew upon the Institute's offering and routinely gave more than he received.  

Thoughtful, incisive, and perspicacious he always knew how to assess and integrate knowledge, theory, and practice, well-honed skills which won him the Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship Program, a graduate school fellowship program that provides funding for graduate students as they prepare academically and professionally to enter the U.S. Foreign Service and enabled Adam to attend Harvard.  

Adam's picture and Michael Eddy in Prizren, Kosovo during an IGL-EPIIC sponsored research trip in January 2007. Adam and Michael, both Tufts 2008 magna cum laude graduates and EPIIC alumni were studying the impact of the United Nations on Kosovo graces this Institute archive page documenting the exponential growth of Institute research.  By the time I left to become Emeritus in 2016 well over one hundred students were engaged in such immersive efforts, one of the Institute's distinctive accomplishments. 

Serendipitously, given what Adam is currently doing at State, as a senior, helped organize and conduct this Program of Justice in Times of Transition workshop with the Colombian Senate entitled: “Politics without Violence: National and International Reflections on Facing Electoral and Political Reform” which surely helped him in his current role.

The Program sought to achieve two interrelated goals: 1) to help the leadership in the Colombian Senate consider how Colombian political institutions such as the Senate could better contribute to the fledgling peace process with the ELN and the FARC and how the Senate in particular could go about reestablishing credibility as a democratic institution; 2) to present to the Senate with strategies drawn from the Central American peace processes for keeping the peace process alive and facilitating a transformation from violence to peace despite evolving and challenging circumstances. The practitioners PJTT brought from Central America to share experiences included: Ana Guadalupe Martínez, Senior Advisor to the Vice President of the El Salvadoran Legislative Assembly and former FMLN leader; Alvaro DeSoto, former Secretary General’s Personal Representative for the Central American Peace Process and Secretary General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus, Western Sahara, and Burma; and José María Argueta, Director of the Central American Institute of Strategic Studies, former and first Civilian National Security Advisor of Guatemala, and former Ambassador of Guatemala to Peru and Japan. The workshop with the Senate was held at a very timely moment when many Senators had been discredited due to links with paramilitary organizations. Discussions at the meeting helped the remaining Senators consider how to revitalize the credibility of the Senate and be a more active leader in facilitating a serious peace process in Colombia. 

The PJTT at the time was hosted and the Institute for six years and created this mentorship program, ACCESS.   

Adam also participated in the Institute's Program on Narrative and Documentary Practice. He wrote the text "Mining for a Better Life, a story about a Honduran immigrant man, Israel who worked in an immense copper mine in Mexico and who was seeking citizenship papers.  

Here is his work with wonderful Sam James, an EPIIC and Synaptic Scholar, and lecturer in the PNDP program who provided the accompanying pictures and subsequently went on the great recognition as a photographer. 

What endeared me to Adam is love for his family, especially his younger brother. It told me all I needed to know about his vast reservoir of care and concern for people, both close to him but also quite distant. Human rights were not something abstract for him. 

Isabel Weiner

Isabel Weiner works in the field of sustainability, ESG, and social impact, focusing on strategy, advisory, and investment.

Most recently, Isabel has been based in Saudi Arabia, working with McKinsey’s sustainability practice to support clients across the region and globally, in developing their ESG strategies and investment prospects.

Before McKinsey, Isabel oversaw special projects at Open Society Foundations, supporting the discretionary portfolios of President Chris Stone, President Patrick Gaspard, President Emeritus Aryeh Neier, and Chairman George Soros. First based in the Arab Regional Office in Jordan, Isabel’s work initially focused on migration and women’s rights in MENA, and later expanded to cover a range of topics globally, including human rights, criminal justice, climate, education, and economic development.

Isabel began her career working in non-profits advocating for refugee rights and survivors of torture, in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel / Palestine. She later returned to Egypt through EPIIC to conduct research on the ousting of then President Mohamed Morsi, and the influence of the Egyptian military on social movements.

Born and raised in New York City, Isabel received degrees in Arabic and International Relations from Tufts, and an MBA from INSEAD.

Navigating Green Corridors in Ukraine

Click the photo below for the full essay (PDF):

Frontier Markets at COP28

From Ajaita Shah

Dear All,

We are looking forward to seeing you at COP 28 this year!

 We're thrilled to announce that Frontier Markets and Frontier Innovations Foundation will have a presence at COP 28 this year.

We will be introducing our new initiative: "She Leads Bharat: Mahila Kisaan.” which aims to unlock the potential of 1 million small women farmers as climate champions of rural India through women facilitators, digital platforms, and market solutions in agriculture, renewable, energy and finance. This initiative is powered by Frontier Innovation Foundation’s “She-Leads Impact Fund,” a $20MN blended capital facility aimed to unlock markets and private sector capital for women. This first-of-its-kind catalytic capital fund was initiated by women leaders to harness the power of grant funding, corporate partnerships, and technology designed by women for women.

Our ultimate goal is to enable 1 million women digital facilitators who will positively impact the lives of 100 million women by 2030. The inaugural investments of the She Leads Impact Fund will focus on inclusive finance and climate interventions in India.

I am looking forward to speaking at several amazing COP 28 events this coming week thanks to amazing partners like Kite Insights, Edelman, EY, Adelphi, and of course, 2X. I'm looking forward to sharing insights and learning from the discussions at the summit.

Reach out if you want to chat more or find opportunities to collaborate: https://www.frontiermkts.com/she-leads-bharat

Here are the events – looking forward to seeing you there,

Ajaita

Event 1: Women In Finance and Energy Transition ROI: The new ROI return on impact through women in finance

Diversity is proven to be a competitive advantage across various industries and locations. A recent Blackrock study reveals that companies with more gender-balanced workforces outperformed their least-balanced counterparts by up to 2 percentage points annually from 2013 to 2022. Our panel discusses how gender parity is particularly crucial in the clean energy transition, where women often drive innovative and inclusive solutions. 

We will be discussing the challenges in recruiting and retaining more women at all levels of the energy transition, from fund management and middle management to on-the-ground business ownership. The discussion emphasizes the unique perspectives and skills women bring, the impact of gender parity on decision-making, and the necessary steps to achieve it.

Location: Mubadala Pavilion, Energy Transition Hub, Green Zone

Date : December 4

Time: 15:00 – 16:00

Event 2: 2XG : Gender and climate-smart investing: the key to accelerating climate action

Despite being disproportionately negatively impacted by climate change, women – whether at a global, national or local level, within a political, business or social context – are already leading the charge for climate action. Moreover, as outlined by the UNFCCC women are key critical agents of change to building our society’s resilience and need to have elevated roles in decision-making positions and as users of climate capital. It’s been shown that corporations with robust female leadership have yielded a Return on Equity (ROE) of 10.1% annually, in contrast to the 7.4% for those lacking such leadership. Financing and supporting innovative climate solutions at speed and scale is key to meeting the targets set out by the Paris Agreement and ensuring a just transition. Moreover, advancing and further funding gender- smart adaptation and mitigation climate solutions is a core part of this inclusive pathway. 

We will be discussing our role as a social business leading on gender and climate in India via She-Leads Bharat: Mahila Kisaan, and the opportunities to unlock private sector capital into the Agriculture, Finance and Renewable Energy sectors when investing in women entrepreneurs and women as market drivers.

Location: Technology and Innovation Hub, Green Zone

Date : December 4th

Time : 16:30 - 17:30 GST

Twist the kaleidoscope: Climate, gender and youth.

The roundtable discussion will examine how blended funding is particularly well suited to support young women entrepreneurs advancing solutions related to loss & damage, and adaptation & resilience, and explore what cross-sector, cross-industry and cross-skill collaborative solutions can be deployed towards this aim. How can thinking with a climate, gender, and youth lens help social impact entrepreneurs access the support they need to reach their full potential? 

We are looking forward to sharing our experience in bringing a gender and emerging market lens via She-Leads Bharat: Mahila Kisaan, the blended capital approach via our Foundation to drive pilots around climate gender solutions in India unlocking businesses to take strong interest in rural market, gender, and climate initiatives.

Location: Majlis Room, DP World, Green Zone

Date : 5th December 2023

Time : 10.30-11.30 am

Climate Impact Female Founders Council

ClimateImpact is collaborating with EY to host the third Female Founders Council alongside COP28. In line with COP’s thematic agenda, we will be exploring the topic of Just Transition through varied discussions. 

As Founder of Frontier Markets and Frontier Innovations Foundation, I will be sharing our perspective around where women farmers’ voices and experiences need to be included to design better green and climate interventions in India. Women as climate solvers, women as influencers, women as co-creators, women as the solution for Just Transitions.

Location: The Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Date: Tuesday, 5 December

Time: 4-6pm GST

UNFCCC COP 28 Side Event Concept

This event will address key issues of a proactive climate foreign policy: How can cooperation between different partner countries address the climate crisis and accelerate the global energy transition - complementary to the climate negotiation process? How can the phase-out of fossil fuels be realised as quickly as possible, even in countries whose economies are still largely based on corresponding export revenues? How can partnerships be designed in such a way that they are successful for both sides and enable a just transition to a climate-neutral and socially just future?

We are looking forward to sharing our perspective from working in India, the role that Development Finance can play to unlock the potential of gender and climate, and share more about our She-Leads Impact Fund

Location: German Pavilion, Blue Zone

Date: Friday, 8 December

Time: 11:30am - 12:30pm GST

Jan Kaliba

Former U.S. Correspondent to Czech Radio, public service media, Jan Kaliba has recently (September 2023) turned into the very first Climate Correspondent in a nationally relevant media in his „climate change sceptic“ home country.

As a lifelong sports enthusiast, during his studies at Charles University in Prague Jan started to work in Czech Radio as a member of the sports desk, covering predominantly soccer and skiing. As a radio journalist he attended and broadcasted live from two Winter Olympics, soccer World Cup in Brazil, two soccer European Championships and many other events. His storytelling gained him a place among the top 10 in 2016 AIPS Sport Media Awards where the best sport stories of the world are recognized. In 2017, he also co-founded Football Club, Czech quarterly magazine for soccer culture.

In 2017 he was selected by Czech Radio to serve as its Foreign Correspondent to the USA. In the following six years until summer 2023 he experienced and covered on the ground the 2020 Presidential Election, storming of the national Capitol in Washington D. C. on January 6, 2021, covid-19 pandemics, the protests after the murder of George Floyd and many other events, just to name a few. He also focused on the topics of systemic racism, climate change, situation of Native Americans, refugee crisis and other issues on the southern border, Czech-American community etc. His stories on Tangier Island and on the US southern border won the international category of reportage at the annual radio festival Prix Bohemia Radio two times.

In July 2023, Jan moved back to Czechia with his wife Adela (Head of International Relations in Czech Radio and an international production of Czech Radio´s broadcasting of 2020 US Elections) and two kids who were raised in Bethesda, Maryland, and Washington D. C..

Jan has turned into the very first Climate Correspondent to Czech Radio, based in Prague. Inspired by many international media outlets, figuring out his future within Czech Radio, Jan came up with a new position of a Climate Correspondent. This is the very first position of this kind in any national media in the Czech Republic. Jan is now trying not only to bring climate stories and the issue of climate change generally more into public awareness in Czechia, but also finding the best techniques to do so and trying to create networks with other journalists and experts. Just to illustrate his daily struggles let´s mention that Czechia is one of the most sceptical country in protecting climate and the debate about it among the EU member states.

Jan of course loves to play soccer and finds it as a worldwide language which took him to many great places and let him know many wonderful people, including members of Shahin AC, the international community soccer group in Bethesda, Maryland.

Steedman Hinckley

Steedman Hinckley worked more than 30 years on Russian affairs and US-Russian relations at the departments of State and Defense, the White House, and the intelligence community. He served in Russia in multiple assignments for the Department of State.

Prior to joining government, he worked on Russian and Soviet affairs at the RAND Corporation and was a wilderness guide in Alaska. He holds a B.A. in Russian and Soviet Studies from Wesleyan University and an M.A. in Policy Analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He lives with his wife, Lisa Farnsworth, a landscape painter, in Truro, MA.

I've had the privilege of enjoying a close friendship with Steedman, learning from him and thinking with him on a broad range on security and geopolitical issues, often in wonderful conversations on Truro beaches. 

He is a nuanced, careful and thoughtful analyst, with a great depth of knowledge of Russia.

Steedman is a superb host. Iris and I enjoy his culinary skills and his renowned cosmopolitans. He is well-known for his sense of humor, love of music, and playing his guitar. Remi greatly enjoys his Newfie, Sona.

Tracy Bourke

Tracy Bourke has a passion for bringing stakeholders together to create value and impact. Tracy was born in Melbourne, Australia, where she grew up in the diverse suburbs south of the city.

She graduated top of her class and went on to complete degrees in business from Melbourne University and applied finance from Monash down the road. She started her career at Ernst & Young's office in Melbourne before moving across the world to New York to join the team's innovation and digital practices. She has led projects looking at digital transformation work for a range of fortune 500 companies, and has a passion for creating accessible banking products and financial literacy. 

Tracy recently completed her executive MBA at Stern, NYU, and was named by poets and quants as one of the "best and brightest" EMBAs of the year.

Carmen Avcioglu

Carmen Avcioglu was born and raised in Puerto Rico where she became a pharmacist.Looking to expand her professional and personal horizons she moved to Boston,MA  during her mid-twenties. She has continued her career as a pharmacist in a number of diverse areas in the fields like Hospital,Pharmaceutical Sales, HIV  Specialty Pharmacist, Home Infusion and latest as Community Pharmacist. Her biggest belief is about patient care and wellbeing. It has been a challenge to practice her career in a for profit healthcare system. Nowadays she is looking for her third Act.

Asi-Yahola Boutelle

I’ve been committed to social justice and activism my whole life, a calling nurtured by my family, my San Francisco Bay Area upbringing, and my time with Professor Sherman Teichman.  I first met Sherman following the EPIIC Program in the 2002 Global Inequities Symposium, at the Global Health Inequity panel.  It was here where I also met another long-time mentor of mine, Dr. Paul Farmer, after putting a fellow panelist of his who represented a pharmaceutical company in the hot seat during Q&A at the sophomoric age of 18.  Following the 2002 EPIIC symposium, I became intrigued by this fascinating program and educational format, which led me to join the Sovereignty & Intervention EPIIC Colloquim the following year.  Sherman would also introduce me to a beloved mentor of mine and fellow Convisero mentor, Dr. Sousan Abadian.  I worked with Dr. Abadian in my junior and senior years, doing research on Indigenous Peoples in America and the use of culturally based treatment modalities to combat intergenerational trauma and oppression.  I went on from Tufts to earn Master’s Degrees in Bioethics, Biomedical Sciences, and Business Administration, and I’m currently completing my fourth Master’s Degree in Public Health.  I’ve researched and written on topics from Indigenous public health, to novel ways to fight antimicrobial resistance, heart disease, and global health.  I’ve also published my research on the impact of climate change on kidney disease in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.  I currently work for a non-profit in Upstate New York doing community development and case management work while raising my two beautiful children.  My ultimate goal is to practice clinical medicine, which I will work towards after completing my Public Health Degree.

Erica Goldstein

Erica Goldstein is a palliative medicine physician at North Shore University working within an interdisciplinary team that specializes in serious illness across a breadth of clinical conditions. She has particular interests in care coordination and accessibility, health policy and management, physician engagement, global partnerships, social medicine, and diversity and inclusion within the health field.

Her training includes medical school at NYU Langone, emergency medicine residency at McGovern Medical School (formerly known as the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston), and palliative medicine fellowship at NYU Winthrop. She took time between years in medical school to complete a Master of Public Administration degree in Health Policy and Management at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service, which developed her skills of managing and working within teams, conducting program analysis and evaluation, communicating patients’ needs to essential decision-makers and stakeholders, and understanding the business of medicine.

In the emergency department, she worked in what is often the gateway to the US healthcare system at the height of the COVID epidemic in Houston, which was one of the cities that was hardest hit.  During that time, she was in the EMRA Leadership Academy and completed the Texas College of Emergency Physicians Leadership and Advocacy Fellowship. The latter, she sat in on board meetings of an organization with over 2000 members and proposed and founded the Diversity and Health Equity (DIHE) task force. These experiences provided insight to the world of organizational medicine and policy change. Within her residency training program, she also had roles as Vice Chair of Administration and Vice Chair of Community Engagement. She has written multiple pieces for the EM Resident + Policy Prescriptions Journal Club and for SheMD and was awarded the EMRA FIX Travel Scholarship to attend the FemInEM Idea Exchange (FIX) in 2020, which unfortunately was cancelled due to COVID.

She looks forward to continuing to serve patients and their families within the hospital and bolstering education around symptom management and ensuring that patients' care is aligned with their values and preferences. Down the road, she has ideas of making transparent the realities of people with serious illness to advocate on their behalf and to help others better understand what to expect when they or their loved ones fall ill.

Outside of work, Erica enjoys traveling, learning about other cultures, reading, writing, hiking, dance, music, and theater. 

Yoni Tsapira

I am a rising senior at Brookline High School. I am on the rowing team, where I am the captain of the varsity crew team and a three-year varsity athlete. I am also the vice president and co-founder of the economics club at Brookline High School. 

My interest in international relations led me to take the Global Leadership class offered at Brookline High School, ultimately leading me to Sherman, where he was a speaker. Since my father is Israeli, my interest in international relations originated from the Israel-Palistinian conflict. In addition, this aligns with my interest in languages, as I am fluent in Hebrew and proficient in Chinese. I feel that international relations and political science relate to everything and everyone and are very interdisciplinary. They affect both peoples day to day lives and the way the world works. Not enough is known about other countries here in America, which is very near-sighted. I also enjoy traveling; I have gone to Israel several times and previously volunteered in Costa Rica over the summer, and I plan on going to many more. 

I look forward to learning more about the Trebuchet and am eager to contribute in any way that I can.

Maria Udalova

I’ve had a diverse upbringing across Cyprus, London, Miami and Orlando, facilitated by my parent’s love for new adventures and change in environment. My parents also instilled in me a passion for the arts and humanities from an early age, taking my brother and I to museums, theatres, exhibitions, and historic sites around the world - a passion that’s still prevalent in my everyday life.  

I’m a rising junior at Brookline High School and at BHS, I’m part of the Mock Trial, Model UN, and Speech and Debate clubs. I’ve found that they’re incredible platforms through which I can engage in exciting discourse, challenge and improve my argumentative skills, and meet many wonderful people. 

Additionally, I participate in my school’s Climate and Food Justice club through which I write for the Greenzine, a forum for news, opinion and creative expression about climate change, outdoor education and the environment. Engaging in this club and contributing to the zine this year has ignited my growing interest for international environmental policy, a field I am enthusiastic about pursuing in the future.

Outside of school I play rugby, work as an artist in a pottery studio, and volunteer at the Brookline food pantry. When I have a few hours to spare, I love to bury my nose in a book, start a new art project or hang out with my friends. 

I met Sherman when he came to my Global Leadership class at school as a guest speaker, after which I sought him out in hopes of working for him over the summer and beyond. I found him to be captivating and delightful to be around, and I can’t wait to see what working on the Trebuchet with them will bring me.

Meg Grieve

I am a rising senior at Tufts University pursuing a degree in International Relations and Arabic. I was born in Northern California, raised for the most part in Washington, D.C., but moved around a lot between the two, having lived in 13 houses by the time I graduated high school. Not quite ready to settle in one place for college, I took a gap year to move to Rabat, Morocco where I took language classes, lived with a host family, and volunteered to teach English, until COVID hit, forcing me to return home. Having played soccer my whole life, it wasn’t until one afternoon in a back alley of Marrakech when I stumbled upon a group of kids kicking around a soccer ball that I understood the extent of the global nature of the game and its ability to bring any two humans together. Since then, I have been interested in conflict resolution and the advancement of women’s rights through sports.

On campus, I am President of the Middle East Research Group (MERG) under the IGL and serve as captain of the Tufts University Women’s Football Club. With MERG I traveled to Cyprus to conduct research on education policies for refugee children. Additionally, I helped put on symposiums on Freedom of The Press and the United States’ pullout of Afghanistan, along with smaller panels and weekly current events discussions.

I just finished a semester at the University of Jordan on a full immersion program where I took classes, explored the country, and volunteered at Squash Dreamers, an organization that provides the opportunity for young refugee girls to play squash and learn English. I am currently an Oslo Scholar, working for the Centre for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies, completing weekly country reports and researching fundraising strategies for global pro-democracy movements. Through the scholar’s program, I was able to attend the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway this June, connecting with activists and dissidents from around the world.

I was connected with Sherman through Grace Spalding-Fecher, a recent Tufts alumni and former Trebuchet intern. I am honored to be a part of this community and excited to work with Sherman and the rest of the Trebuchet team on our many overlapping interests.

Sandenna McMaster

In 2021, I graduated from Lewis & Clark College, where I received a degree in International Relations with a concentration in the Middle East and Northern Africa region. On campus, I served as the co-chair for the 59th Lewis & Clark International Affairs Symposium: “System Shocks: Finding Clarity in a Chaotic World”. I was also an active participant in the French Club, the College Outdoors program, and the Botany club. During my studies, I had several external opportunities to conduct research projects surrounding humanitarian conflict resolution, environmental sustainability and agricultural adaptation, policy implementation and tribal conflicts in Western Africa. Originally from Alaska and a dual citizen of France and the United States, I had the chance to grow up with diverse narratives from the communities surrounding me. This instilled in me an understanding of the power of perspective, cross-cultural collaboration, and the interconnectedness of the issues our systems face today. 

Through my academic and professional career, I sought every opportunity to explore the world – to interact with diverse cultures and environments. In 2016, I founded a project to finance and deliver educational supplies of over 150 children in the coastal village of Gomoa Fetteh, Ghana. In the summer of 2017, I researched and collaborated with an advocacy group in Ollantaytambo, Peru to fund the building of a primary school in the remote, mountainous village of Willoc Alto. Through these experiences, I not only continued to grow my passion for global development, but also challenged myself to see how and by what means others interact with the world around them.

After graduating, I followed my interest in conflict analysis and mitigation and began working as a research assistant in Paris, focusing on the concepts of memory, vengeance, and retributive justice in conflict. I then worked as a paralegal for the International Arbitration team at Bird & Bird LLP, focusing on Middle Eastern and North African arbitral cases. Here, I have gained the necessary technical knowledge on international law, and the mechanisms at work behind international negotiations, treaties, and relations. 

Throughout my travels and the different places I have lived, I have been able to keep my connection to my hometown of Palmer, Alaska strong through my favorites hobbies: climbing (both on rock and ice), hiking, snowboarding, and backpacking.

Meeting through a mutual friend, I have had the pleasure and privilege to get to know Sherman Teichman, and in turn, this incredible community he has created. Joining the Trebuchet fills me with both a sense of great pride and of greater responsibility; it serves not only as a network of inspiring global actors, but a wholly necessary conduit for multidisciplinary connections and collaborations that ignite innovative projects for a prosperous future.  

Shaharris Beh

Shaharris is the founder and Supreme Commander (actual title) of NeedList.ORG, a tech charity that helps shelters get free groceries delivered weekly.

Recently, during the 2021 pandemic, he helped launch Taco Bell in Malaysia as Head of Marketing and Technology; as of November 2023, there are 22 outlets.

Most of his professional life was spent as founder and CEO of HackerNest, a global nonprofit that produced 1200+ tech events (hackathons, tech socials, innovation trainings, job fairs, etc.) in 65+ cities with partners including the US/UK/Canadian governments, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Stanford, Harvard, Dove, Deloitte, Grindr, Airbnb, banks, law firms, and hundreds others. He raised ~$4m in sponsorship and was a prolific speaker, advisor, and consultant for numerous public and private sector organizations. In 2016, he received the Institute for Global Leadership's Boryana Damyanova Award for Corporate Social Responsibility for his work on HackerNest.

Past career blips include:
- founding a VC-backed tech startup alongside a web development firm to fund it and a coworking space to house it
- working with the UNDP on HIV/AIDS
- copywriting for DDB
- private equity financial analysis for Centaur Capital Partners
- voice acting for cartoons

At Tufts, he was a member of the EPIIC 2001-2 colloquium on Global Inequities, the Chair of the TCU Judiciary, a member of the International Relations Director's Leadership Council, a campus resident advisor, and a women's self-defense instructor. 

Trivia: Shaharris was the "before and after" guy in a Head & Shoulders commercial, went to 11 schools in 10 years, and used to build and donate computers to shelters as a hobby.