The purpose of the course I created for and teach annually at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service is to create a framework to conceptualize and subsequently engage in development as an integral component of capacity building. Development conveys the significant scope of strategic planning and creative yet disciplined execution required for effective sustainable results. I designed the course for those who engage in development from any perspective: as a grant maker or seeker – individual, corporate, foundation, NGO or other – at global, national or local levels. My premise is that development is most successful when approached within the synergy of overall institutional organizational coherence. This principle holds true at all times, but is particularly significant during difficult economic times... more

After saying goodbye to Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who I’ve known since we worked together in the 1980s, I reflected. All of us who participated in this historic Colloquium reconnected with friends we’d known from our work over the decades on behalf of gender equity and a more just world. We made new relationships with wonderful advocates from the public, private and civil society sectors of many countries. We had intensely in-depth discussions about where we’ve been, where we now are and where we are determined to be with the status of women in our respective nations, regions and the world. We had innumerable poignant insights about opportunities and challenges we each face: often the same ones, sometimes quite unique... more

The first two days were focused on international issues; the third day, with support from the women of the world, was focused on Liberia’s National Plan of Action. Today continues drawing the relationship among national, regional and international efforts to advance women’s rights in all arenas. This morning we had exactly the powerful start needed to make that connection. We saw a production of Speak Truth to Power. Right after the performance, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and presented awards to representatives of the Liberian women’s organizations that had made peace possible and now continue to press for gender equity in every sector of society. I was deeply moved by the gorgeous symmetry of global and national commitment to basic human... more