HarvardforHumanity

For those who doubt America’s leadership, its political system, or its economy, there is one fact that is not up for debate: Americans are charitable people.  Even during the worst economic climate since the Great Depression, U.S. chartable giving exceeded 300 billion dollars. We have seen this charitable spirit at Harvard; following the 7.0 earthquake that has devastated Haiti, Harvard students, in cooperation with the Office of the President, Harvard College Dean’s Office, and the Office of Fine Arts, established Harvard for Haiti, an organization which has raised just over 23,000 dollars so far.  Although efforts like Harvard for Haiti are absolutely a step in the right direction, Harvard, and especially its students, can offer something more valuable to the international community than fundraising.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with excelling at raising money. But, as the Haiti disaster has demonstrated, the main problem is not raising enough money; rather, it is making sure that donated goods arrive in an efficient manner. Harvard should facilitate finding solutions to fundamental problems like this, as well as aiding with temporary relief efforts. To do this, the administration should create a prize program named HarvardforHumanity. Modeled after the Harvard Catalyst and InnoCentive Prize for Innovation, HarvardforHumanity would be a prize competition, soliciting both answers and questions to different challenges with a focus on seeking solutions to humanitarian problems throughout the world.

As a prize competition, HarvardforHumanity could choose a series of developmental challenges to tackle and award start-up capital for winning teams to bring their ideas to fruition. With the disaster in Haiti drawing much of the world’s attention, the inaugural edition might solicit ideas to maximize the efficiency of airplanes landing and taking off from Haiti’s lone airstrip. Challenges would be specific, yet varied, such as how to maximize the efficiency of doctors arriving and departing from Port-Au-Prince or create a more portable and cost-effective way to purify drinking water in sub-Saharan Africa. If the answer to a challenge is not found, however, HarvardforHumanity would also solicit and reward entries that explain what is needed for further progress on the goal. Thus, the winning entry becomes a new challenge posed by HarvardforHumanity and even technical failure result in a step forward for the overall challenge goal.

The beauty of HarvardforHumanity is that it could have multiple prizes with different completion deadlines running at the same time.  Challenges would be created to address short-term problems or disasters that strike without warning, or long-standing issues that afflict scores of people around the world. In that sense, HarvardforHumanity serves as both a community service idea engine and a global problem solver. Thus, the point is not that the best ideas come from Harvard internally. It is that although good ideas may come from outside Harvard’s campus, it is Harvard that sees their potential and gives them a chance to grow.

Not only would HarvardforHumanity attract attention to Harvard, but it will also attract the right attention. Rather than being in the news for huge drops in its endowment, Harvard could be in the news for finding a new way to deliver supplies to disaster stricken areas. Most importantly, however, HarvardforHumanity positions Harvard as a leader in humanitarian ideals. As a premier research institute and university, Harvard has clearly set itself a goal to advance human knowledge. But in translating that goal to undergraduate education, perhaps we are aiming too low by just educating the next generation of humanitarian leaders. Harvard students come up with innovative and ingenious ideas to small problems on a regular basis—witness last term’s Computer Science 50 fair—and with a little prodding, they can set their attentions on bigger prizes right now. With HarvardforHumanity, we can certainly take big steps to ensure that help reaches those who need it the most.

Rexhep Dollaku ’13, a Crimson editorial writer, lives in Holworthy Hall.