UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

A new student asociation, affiliated with the UC Davis Blum Center, is forming that will highlight and support efforts to address global poverty, provide education and establish a network among students, faculty and staff at the UC Davis Campus. The second meeting was held this week. The Community Room at the International House (Davis) was buzzing with excitement, as students from all walks of life sat in a circle discussing the potential of our group.  We began our meeting with introductions and found that members of our newly formed collective included students from freshmen to post docs. Associates of the UC Davis Blum Center were present, and agreed to offer support and serve as advisors to our student group.  The group then spent time discussing our “needs and assets,” that is what we felt we needed from, and could offer, the Association as individuals, and what we thought the Association needed, and could offer, the University and the worl...

Dear UC Davis Community: Would you like to make a difference in a child’s life and education? Ann Prepare Lavni invites you to join us in our journey to make a difference in the life of a child in Haiti. We are in desperate need of volunteers, donations of school supplies and hygiene products. The Ann Prepare Lavni team and UCD students are currently working with the communities of Davis and Sacramento, California, to gather materials for students in Haiti: one of the poorest countries in the world. This is our chance to make a difference! Your donations are priceless and will make a world of difference to a child; let’s take advantage of this opportunity today, life is too short to wait for tomorrow. You can drop off your donations at the Student Community Center (SCC) building: Undergraduate Research Center URC (2nd floor) and Student Recruitment Retention Center SRRC (1st floor) Or send them to our P.O. Box: One Shield Ave-ASUCD Box 103 Davis, CA 95616 ...

Dear UCD community, I am proud to announce that the second volun-tourism trip to Guatemala to work on the agricultural education initiative the "Guatemalan Mayan Bean Project" is scheduled for June 15-22, 2012 (just after finals and back in time for summer session I) and we are now accepting applications. Details about the trip and applications are attached.  If you are interested, please contact me at clspurlock@ucdavis.edu . We will be holding a fundraiser to help pay for the students to go on the trip at a lunch of beef or veggie stew over pasta at Little Prague Restaurant @ 330 G St, Davis on Thursday, May 17th any time from 12 PM - 4 PM (so any office staff can come during lunch!). The cost is $15/ ticket. Please contact me if you would be willing to help sell tickets or if you would like to buy a ticket. There are also other fundraising opportunities for students. Alma Cautiva NGO is also looking for a motivated volunteer(s) to help with soc...

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!! Five MBA students from the UC Davis Graduate School of Management are presenting their project in the finals at the Hult Global Case Challenge in a live webcast which starts at 2:00 PM PST Thursday, April 26th. The 2012 Hult Global Case Challenge is focused on solutions to global poverty in three areas: housing, education and energy. The UC Davis MBA team is competing in the energy track. $1 million in seed money is at stake for these innovative solutions. UC Davis MBA students Keith Weissglass, Evan Howell, Emma VanGenderen, Adam Baillie and David Fisher will present their very creative and out-of-the-box-thinking business plan for non-profit SolarAid to replace dangerous and dirty kerosene light with ecofriendly, less expensive solar lanterns for more than 140 million in rural Africa. You'll be impressed with their strategy, cell-phone battery powered prototype and prospects to test this idea -- and their pledge to use prize money to roll o...

"The experience of working with three microfinance institutions in Peru during the summer of 2011 left me with a greater interest in the planning component of program design and strategic implementation of development initiatives that ostensibly seek to improve social and economic justice rather than simply assist in poverty alleviation. In Peru, a country that as of 2009 was home to over 220 regulated and unregulated microfinance lenders this is particularly striking. In recounting my experience from working abroad, I’d like to highlight the intermediary role institutions like Freedom From and consultants like myself play, using the case of just two of the microfinance institutions: FINCA Peru and Financiera Confianza, for they reflect the nuanced difficulties of adapting a social and economic equity program, such the Credit with Education Program, to different geographic and social circumstances. For interventions to be effective their design must account for the var...

 Last summer Terri Harris had the privilege of going to East Africa with the Global Women’s Water Initiative.  At the Making a Difference panel, she shared with the audience the three greatest things she learned during this experience: the technologies, working in the field and building relationships. "The Technologies-- When I first found out about this project, what most attracted me to it was the opportunity to get hands-on experience with Rainwater Harvesting Tanks.  I think that rainwater harvesting is very important -- anywhere!  I think we should be doing it here in the States. I think we should do it everywhere possible, because not only is it a good way to get water (without the heavy metals of groundwater) but it also mitigates some of the environmental damage we cause with all our impermeable surfaces. I was excited to get my hands on the technology and hoped to get a better understanding of what it takes to do rainwater harvesting.  I could n...

Kelly Taylor, an undergraduate International Relations student spoke on the Making a Difference: Challenges and Opportunities of Working Internationally panel, Wednesday February 29th at the International House. She spoke with Freedom from Hunger's Research and Evaluation specialist, Bobbi Gray, and International Agriculture Development graduate student, Byron Hoy, on her experiences gathering qualitative and quantitative data from micro finance clients in Peru over the summer. "In the beginning of this quarter, I was asked to define what I thought was my role in development. What an interesting question, but to be honest, cannot cogently describe what my role in development should be. Development is a word with a big definition; includes expectations, implications, assumptions, and many, many people’s lives. The ethics and impacts of foreign development and poverty alleviation—the whole thing is very subjective. I entered the field in Peru fascinated by different culture...