Save the CID

By Leila Chirayath

The news that University President Lawrence H. Summers is considering proposals to eliminate Harvard’s Center for International Development (CID) is cause for concern. The Center could not exist at a more crucial time—as the University becomes increasingly global, the problems of the developing world elicit more attention than ever before. More than 40 million people worldwide, a disproportionate number of whom live in poor countries, are afflicted with HIV/AIDS. Last month, the publication of the World Bank’s annual World Development Indicators revealed similarly upsetting statistics: despite unprecedented prosperity gains in the West, the number of people living on less than $1 a day in sub-Saharan Africa has more than doubled since 1981. The scale of the disparity is larger than most Americans can comprehend, and it will only widen if leaders do not take dramatic action. As one of the world’s foremost academic institutions, Harvard is uniquely poised to identify and train leaders with the capacity to effect this kind of change. The CID plays a pivotal role in this process; shutting it down would be detrimental not only to the Harvard community, but also to the larger world of sustainable development.

At such a critical juncture in their lives, undergraduates require an alternative to the more traditional careers offered in the corporate sector. The CID provides just that—last year alone, the Center disbursed over $16,000 in grants to undergraduates for summer research in developing countries. Since 2002, 30 students have participated in fully-funded internships as English instructors in Namibia, Costa Rica, China and Ecuador through the Center’s alliance with WorldTeach. Prominent policymakers and leaders of non-governmental organizations have attended CID dinners to speak to students about careers and issues related to development; last fall, this roster included the former Zambian ambassador to the United States and a representative from the non-profit group Students Partnership Worldwide. The staff provides financial and logistical support for the annual publication and distribution of the Guide to International Development, which helps students navigate the complex web of student groups, resources and professors that are dedicated to or share an interest in sustainable development initiatives. Finally, the Center selects and supports a network of over 40 student associates, committed to completing a development-related plans of study and honors theses.

Shutting down the Center would come at great cost to the student body—Harvard offers scant resources for the study of developing countries as it is. Outside the CID these are dispersed over dozens of departments and academic centers, such that students interested in majoring in the field must petition for a special concentration. Lacking the CID’s crucial cluster of resources, undergraduates would have virtually no incentive to study development. Summers has indicated that should he proceed with a shutdown, students would not lose these programs. Yet even assuming the ideal scenario—that all the CID’s tasks were to seamlessly transfer to other Harvard organizations—students would lose out. This scattered arrangement could never be an adequate substitute for a central body committed to development. Other groups have pre-existing mandates and priorities, and development issues may or may not fall within their purview. The newly-housed programs might easily disappear over time, subject to the same budget cuts and changes in administration that the CID now faces.

On a personal level, the CID exposed me to what I perceive as the biggest challenge to development: systematic violence. Two years ago, I traveled to Rwanda with five other undergraduates to observe an experiment in transitional justice in the aftermath of the country’s 1994 genocide. Some of us spent weeks monitoring proceedings in rural courts; others interviewed more than 40 survivors, prisoners and members of parliament about grassroots justice. It was an extraordinary opportunity for us to pursue serious field research in one of the world’s poorest nations, and to have our findings published in a leading journal. The CID was instrumental in demonstrating Harvard’s commitment to development studies through its exceptional faculty guidance and financial support for our project. I know our project was not unique; each year, tens of undergraduates are granted similar opportunities that often serve as the capstones of their college careers.

To me and countless others, the Center has a symbolic role: it is the home of a vibrant interdisciplinary community pursuing solutions to global challenges and encouraging students in their quest to do the same. Losing the CID would dismantle the University’s strongest pillar of research and innovation in the field of sustainable development, and deal a major blow to future undergraduates who aspire to affect positive change in the developing world.

Leila Chirayath ’04 is an special concentrator affiliated with Winthrop House. She is a former Center for International Development student associate and president of Bhumi, the Harvard International Development Group.