Hungry for Answers

  We’ve used the same strategy for decades to provide refugees with food aid. Does it work?

Trump and the Deepening Refugee Crisis

Two Tufts professors say the future for millions of displaced people worldwide—especially women—could be dire with a new administration hostile to foreign aid.

Feinstein Faculty on Stage at the World Humanitarian Summit

The world is witnessing the highest level of human suffering resulting from conflict and disasters since World War II. The humanitarian “system” is not able to cope. The recent World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) was a once in a generation opportunity to change the way in which the world addresses humanitarian crises. 

Famine in Somalia

A quarter million people died in the Somalia famine of 2011. It didn’t have to happen.

Nutrition Innovations in Bangladesh

In the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, producing enough fruits and vegetables as well as storing fish in ways that are both affordable and safe pose many challenges. To tackle these problems, the Nutrition and Horticulture Innovation Labs have joined together to implement three unique aquaculture and horticulture technologies.

Cash Transfer Programming for Syrian Refugees

Karen Jacobsen, acting director of the Feinstein International Center, recently published a new report concerning optimization of cash transfer programs (CTPs) in humanitarian contexts. 

The publication, titled "Cash Transfer Programming for Syrian Refugees: Lessons Learned on Vulnerability, Targeting, and Protection from the Danish Refugee Council's E-Voucher Intervention in Southern Turkey," provides insight into three key components of CTPs:

Effective Exit Strategies for Development Food Assistance Projects: Kenya Country Study

A persistent challenge of development projects is ensuring that the benefits of interventions are sustained after the projects end. However, there is little evidence on the effectiveness of different strategies to ensure the sustainability of development projects’ activities, outcomes, and impacts. 

Sustaining Development

Drs. Beatrice Rogers and Jennifer Coates have released the high-level results of a four-country, multi-year study of the sustainability of development gains from several USAID Office of Food for Peace (FFP) development food assistance projects.

The study was funded by FFP and implemented through the Friedman School in partnership with the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance III Project (FANTA).

Sasha Chanoff: Changing the Face of Humanitarian Assistance

After years of working with large non-profits and government agencies to help refugees in war-torn parts of Africa, Sasha Chanoff, N04, had seen too many victims of combat and violence who were left behind by resettlement operations. "I wanted to move out beyond what was being done already to try to find new ways of helping people," he said. So Chanoff, a graduate of the Master of Arts in Humanitarian Assistance Program (MAHA), co-founded RefugePoint.

Farming for Peace

For Major Jessica McCoy, V98, N05, the symbol of peace is not a dove but a chicken. Stationed in Iraq since May 2007, McCoy, an Army veterinarian, is part of a State Department-led reconstruction team whose goal is to help revive Iraq’s domestic poultry industry. If successful, Operation Chicken Run (as the project is affectionately known) will not only improve the quality of the Iraqi diet but also create jobs and promote inter-tribal cooperation, says McCoy.