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Today more than ever, Ministers are challenged to maintain progress in health, education and economic growth in the face of severely depleted fiscal reserves. Data is critical to guiding ministerial decision-making as they try to optimize available budget. With the help of a group of current and former Ministers, the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program last October launched a Dashboard on Human Development for Economic Progress, whose primary aim is to…

Continue reading “Customizing Human Development Data for Ministerial Decision-making”

What are the factors affecting gender equity in higher education in Zambia? Which districts should pilot a stay-in-school program for girls in Sierra Leone? What have been the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ethiopia’s essential health services? These are pressing issues that Harvard Ministerial alumni Ministers are currently facing. Over the past year, 44 Harvard graduate students from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Graduate School of…

Continue reading “Harvard Student Policy Research Supports Ministerial Planning”

Ramping up the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa is essential not only to stemming the pandemic, but also to alleviating loss of income, increased poverty and growing food insecurity, as well as to more rapidly regenerate economic activity. Although the severity of the pandemic in Africa has seemingly not reached the same intensity as other parts of the world, the social and economic impact has been profound for the…

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Charles Gale, a Ph.D. candidate in the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the 2021 recipient of the Tessa Jowell Doctoral Research Fellowship.  Charles’ research will build on education reforms in Ghana by identifying measurable factors that can predict the performance of early career teachers. The Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program annually awards the Tessa Jowell Fellowship through an open application process available to support doctoral research which aligns with…

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On February 17 the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa co-hosted a webinar with some of Africa’s most experienced leaders on what practical steps governments should be taking now to organize across government and in communities to meet public expectations that vaccines will be equitably distributed and accessible. Panelists include: H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia; Hon. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Minister of…

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The Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program established the Tessa Jowell Student Research Fellowship providing up to $15,000 in support of doctoral or post-doctoral level research.  Research must focus on health, education or other human capital development-related sectors with the goal of informing government policy, programs, and priority setting in countries participating in the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program. To apply, please submit a CV and a one-page research proposal outlining the principal…

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This is the the fourth year of the Harvard Ministerial Student Policy Research Fellowship, a flagship program engaging Harvard graduate students in providing research support to ‘alumni Ministers’ participating in the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program. Students are assigned to teams of four to respond to requests from Ministers for policy-related research to help inform ministerial decision making. Usually, this program involves initial remote research by graduate students teams with an…

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Leading a thinly balanced coalition government is challenge enough for any Prime Minister, but taking office after your predecessor is implicated in the murder of his former wife and on the eve of a global pandemic would severely test the resilience of most. Undaunted, the Rt. Hon. Moeketsi Majoro, Prime Minister of the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, is upbeat about his test of leadership over the past six months. Interviewed…

Continue reading “Former Finance Minister Moeketsi Majoro Takes the Reins”

The Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program was compelled early in the year to pivot to virtual engagement with the some-80 Program ‘alumni’ Ministers currently in office in countries across Africa, South East Asia and Central America. The challenge was how to be useful to Ministers caught up in the worst global pandemic of the past 100 years while avoiding replicating the work of major institutions such as the World Health Organization…

Continue reading “Dashboard to Help Ministers Re-Set Priorities in an Era of COVID”

During January Michelle Korte and her classmate Oriol Solé Borràs, traveled to the Gambia to research the social determinants adversely affecting maternal mortality in this small West African nation. This was her first experience in Gambia; she had worked previously in East Africa and Myanmar, and was excited to learn more about this new country. “What really struck me with my time doing in-country research was the huge gulf between…

Continue reading “Student Researchers Help Reshape Maternal Health Care in Gambia”