About the Blog

This blog provides a platform to help connect scholars and practitioners on a range of development and humanitarian issues. It seeks: to foster exchange and debate on topics related to international development and humanitarian response; to profile organizations and individuals doing interesting, innovative work of relevance to NGOs; and to share views, critique approaches and discuss new ideas about NGOs, development, humanitarianism and related policies.

Sherine Jayawickrama manages this blog and is its lead writer and editor.  Please contact Sherine with any feedback and ideas, and let her know if you are interested in submitting a guest post to the blog.

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE BLOG

Sherine Jayawickrama manages the Humanitarian & Development NGOs blog and is the blog’s lead writer and editor. She writes on a variety of topics including development effectiveness, U.S. aid reform, impact measurement and NGO advocacy. Sherine manages the Humanitarian & Development NGOs domain of practice at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University, and is Executive Director of the NGO Leaders Forum. She worked for ten years at CARE USA in a variety of positions, including Deputy Regional Director for Asia, Senior Policy Analyst and Special Assistant to the President. Earlier in her career, Sherine worked on freedom of expression issues at PEN American Center in New York City and on environmental policy issues in Sri Lanka at the Natural Resources & Environmental Policy Project (NAREPP). She grew up in Sri Lanka, and has a B.A. in economics and international relations from Scripps College, and an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Steven Lawry writes on philanthropy, international NGOS and the effectiveness of nonprofit initiatives intended to reduce poverty.  Steven joined the Hauser Center as Senior Research Fellow in January 2008.  In addition to his research at the Center, he founded and convened the Philanthropy Study Group, which introduces Kennedy School students to some of the debates surrounding the policies and practices of US foundations.  Steven currently writes from Juba, Southern Sudan, where he directs a USAID-funded project assisting the Government of Southern Sudan prepare a national land policy.  An authority on land tenure reform, Steven was Associate Director for Africa Programs at the University of Wisconsin’s Land Tenure Center from 1990-92.  He has lived and worked in several African countries in addition to Sudan, including Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Egypt.  Steven worked for the Ford Foundation from 1992 to 2005, heading Ford’s offices in Namibia and Egypt, as well as its Office of Management Services in New York.  Steven was president of Antioch College from 2006 to 2007.

Elisa Peter is a regular contributor to the blog. She writes on global contemporary trends in civil society, including social movements and NGOs. Elisa joined the Hauser Center in August 2011 as a mid-career fellow. She has worked both in nonprofit and intergovernmental organizations. Currently on leave from the United Nations Non-governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS), she spent the past 6 years guiding international non-governmental organization, community based organizations and membership based groups in their efforts to participate in the UN’s intergovernmental deliberations. She helped amplify the voices of people directly affected by UN decisions, and bring their policy recommendation to the fore on issues such as poverty eradication, food security, women’s rights or sustainable development. Before joining the UN, she spent 10 years working as an environmental and social change activist, including 5 years in a remote indigenous community above the arctic circle. She seats on a number of nonprofit boards. Elisa earned a degree in agronomy from the National Superior School of Agronomy in France and is currently pursuing a Mid-Career Master in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School.