The Ugandan government has urged its citizens to ensure that their SIM cards are registered ahead of an upcoming deadline, in order for services to be uninterrupted.
The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) made the appeal on Monday as they attempt to have all mobile phone cards registered with the government in an effort to crackdown on piracy and enable new technologies to be rolled out.
“The only person who should be afraid of SIM registration, naturally, is the criminally-minded, who knows that their days are numbered after all existing SIM Cards are registered,” said the commission head of communication, Fred Otunnu.
The UCC added in a statement that “as technology becomes a necessity in daily transactions like mobile money, banking and utility bills payment as well as communication, the exposure to ICT based crimes is on the rise.”
They believe that many crimes in the country are a result of a lack of oversight of mobile phones and its technology and the UCC says that the registration process will enable the government and service providers the ability to better track criminal activity in the country.
“SIM card registration ensures that all subscribers’ data is captured to curb crime. Given the fact that Uganda still lacks an effective Identity Management System, or a national identity database of its citizens,” according to Otunnu, adding that “the exercise is necessary to prevent the harassment people go through as regards other people using mobile phones to perpetrate crime.”
Otunnu added, in a statement to Bikyamasr.com, that the anonymous nature of the unregistered SIM cards “that kidnappers exploit.
“It is how extortionists are able to get away with their deed. Text scams flourish in such an environment. Terrorists, insurgents and enemies of the state and society hide behind untraceable numbers. Rumour mongers use it to sow confusion, spread malicious information or start hoaxes,” he explained.
He argued that SIM card registration promotes user accountability, since telecom companies keep details of all users.
“It also promotes national security and social order, in addition to making it easier to enforce existing legislation.
“When you receive a threatening call from an unknown source, the first step is to report to the Police. A case file is opened after taking your statement as a complainant. An investigation with the objective of identifying the caller gets underway.
“Usually the basic procedure is for the investigating officer to apply for a court order, which is presented to the respective telecom company for a printout of the phone call logs (list of all incoming and outgoing calls) on your mobile number,” he added.
Report coming from Namibia indicates that some farmers in the South of the country, especially those farming in the Kalahari, have been cut-off from the rest of the world after Telecom Namibia disconnected their phone lines.
According to the farmers, they have not been able to use their phones since the end of October 2011 as a result of a switch from the old manual system to the WiMaX network which provides voice services, broadband data and high-speed internet access, said the Namibian.
This comes at the time when Vinton G. Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet widely known for creating the TCP/IP protocol, stirred-up the global information policy environment with his Op-ED piece in the NYT, “Internet access is not a human right.” Vint Cerf argues that technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself. No doubt, the response to Vint Cerf’s piece has been overwhelming (see The Internet IS a (Human) Right… and Why Did Vint Cerf Say That?).
His statement comes in barely six months after the release of the La Rue’s report of the United Nations which acknowledges that Internet access is a human right. The La Rue report recognized that the Internet has become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, and ensuring universal access to the Internet should be a priority for all states.
These two examples from Namibia and China clearly demonstrate the challenge with the issue of “Access to the Internet” and “Human Rights.” What will be the value of connecting rural communities with ICT infrastructure if the people can’t access it? Can the tool (Internet) enable or empower the people if they can’t use it? Nations or States can ensure that the tools are available – 3G, 4G and LTE technologies in remote communities such as these Namibian communities, but without the financial capability of the people to use the services and applications that go with the infrastructure, the tools may be useless.
The dimensions of the digital divide (inequalities between groups) include social, economic, and democratic accessibility or access to, use of, and knowledge of ICTs. As claimed by the farmers, affordability is the main barrier, preventing them to connect to the new Telecom broadband service. The farmers claim Telecom Namibia compelled them to subscribe to its new WiMAX phone packages or to be left without a phone service.
Photo Credit: Flickr
Responding to the farmers’ complaints, Telecom Namibia’s Head of Public Relations, Oiva Angula, said the company had to upgrade its network because the old system had become obsolete and was not financially viable. “We calculate our cost to the customers based on what we pay to provide services,” Angula reacted to the farmers’ affordability claims and said Telecom had reviewed the rental fees following complaints about affordability.
While the old system cost farmers N$91 a month, Telecom had initially offered a three-year contract at a monthly basic rental of N$1 755. Angula stated that customers can now subscribe to a special WiMax package offering voice services and Internet access for a monthly rental of N$199, and the faster WiMaX broadband for a monthly fee of N$349.
The Head of Public Relations said about 44 farmers were affected by the network switch but he could not say how many farmers have been connected to the WiMaX network. “Only a few are resisting, customers must understand the situation that the telecom industry is moving fast, and we must keep pace,” he remarked.
So the question remains, whether access to the Internet and its associated services is a human right or not, even in the remotest communities of Namibia. I believe that ensuring universal access to the Internet for all individuals worldwide needs to be well-understood in its totality. It goes beyond the provision of the infrastructure to promoting or facilitating the right to available, accessible and affordable content to all. In this case, while the upgrade for new services (voice services, broadband data and high-speed internet access) for the Telecom Namibia customers is necessary, care must be taken so that it is not at the expense of other basic services (telephone) for people at the bottom of the pyramid. And when it comes to human right issues, it does not matter how many people are involved – whether is an individual farmer or 44 farmers.
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As the protests and demonstrations rage on in Nigeria surrounding the government’s decision to cut subsidies on petrol, many citizen have taken to social media sites to voice their opinions. Fuel subsidies provided citizens with discounted petrol at the pumps, but with the government’s retraction of the subsidy, the price of petrol has literally doubled over night.
Users of social media site Twitter relay messages of protest action and subsidy news under the hashtags #Occupy Nigeria and #fuelsubsidy. “In Nigeria, the protest will continue tomorrow, and I will be there to occupy,” writes user toyinoddy.
“It is occupy time in Nigeria, let all of us occupy our resources,” tweets another user.
Mr.Perkinson added his displeasure by posting “I don’t believe in #fuelsubsidy removal and corruption and I’ll back it up till the end. Win or lose.”
Facebook, the world’s biggest social media website, has also been a source of information, but more importantly a place where Nigerians share their feelings and thoughts on the matter.
With rising prices and the high cost of transportation and communication, the internet is still one of the best ways to keep abreast of the happenings surrounding strike action and related violence.
“The Internet gives us very effective uninterrupted flow. We may not have access to newspapers, radios and televisions. We may not even have the money to make all the necessary calls. The Internet is a cheap medium for mobilisation. With the Internet, you don’t even have to go to the street and risk being shot by the police who would accuse you of shooting them first even if you have not handled a gun all your life,” Lagos-based lawyer Imam Okochua told Punch Nigeria.
He also voiced his opinion on the Occupy Nigeria movement, which – according to their Facebook page – aims to end political corruption, poverty, police intimidation, and wealth inequality. “Occupy Nigeria is the dream we have cherished for a long time – a peaceful pressure on the government to come out clean.”
But not everyone is pleased with the efforts made by the Occupy Nigeria movement, and took to social media sites to voice their concerns. “Nigerians too like to copy but like a bad photocopier the result is always very poor. What is Occupy Nigeria? A very, very poor copy of the Occupy Wall street protest,” writes Bodise Wilson, who lives in Yenagoa, Nigeria.
“You want to Occupy Nigeria? Nigerians want to occupy Nigeria, who lives here aliens? Fools! And what about the Oil marketers?” he added on Occupy Nigeria’s Facebook page.
Another helpful tool in getting messages across is the use of BlackBerry’s free messaging system, which allows users to send messages and photos to other users of the service. Soon after the strike commenced, there were unconfirmed reports that the Nigerian government was planning to shut the service down. Thankfully it was proven to be false, as Director of Public Affairs at the NCC (Nigerian Communication Commission), Tony Ojobo, issued a statement contradicting the rumours.
“The attention of NCC has been drawn to the information making the rounds that it had at a meeting agreed with CEOs of telecommunications networks to shutdown BlackBerry services in order to deny Nigerians the use of that very important social network. The management hereby states categorically that there was never such a meeting, nor was there ever a resolution to shut down BlackBerry services. The public is please advised to disregard such information.”
In today’s inter-connected world, social media has proven to be a valuable tool for spreading information at a rapid pace – and it’s only growing. The use of sites like Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry’s BBM service as a source of news and helpful hints highlights the importance of being connected – and how powerful a combined force of internet-savvy citizens can be.
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"Mohamed suffered a lot. He worked hard. But when he set fire to himself, it wasn't about his scales being confiscated. It was about his dignity." —Mannoubia Bouazizi, Tunisia Photograph by Peter Hapak for TIME
2011 will be remembered as the year that democratic awakening occurred in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Activists used information and communication technology (ICT) tools to organize and coordinate political demonstrations that brought an end to long-standing regimes and paved the way to landmark elections.
Time Magazine fittingly awarded the “Person of the Year” accolade to the protester. What would come to be known as the “Arab Spring” began in Tunisia’s under-developed town of Sidi Bouzid, where the late Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor whose wares were confiscated by the police, set himself on fire outside of a government building in December 2010. Few would have predicted that Bouazizi’s actions would trigger an uprising that brought an end to Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s 23-year-old regime on January 14th.
Video clips of the first protests, including demonstrations at the spot where Bouazizi set-himself on fire, were recorded on mobile phones, posted on YouTube, and spread across Tunisia and in the Arab world when they were shared on Facebook before news media outlets such as Al Jazeera began running their stories, reports Robert Mackey in the New York Times.
The Tunisian revolutionary spirit spread in neighboring Egypt. Inspired by events in Tunsia, political demonstrations began in January as thousands took to the streets in anti-government protests against poverty, rampant unemployment, corruption, and demanding an end to the 30-year autocratic rule of President Hosni Mubarak, writes Cara Parks in The Huffington Post.
Aware of the potent effect that social media had in Tunisia’s uprising, the Egyptian government blocked Facebook, Twitter, and later Internet services to lead a crackdown on the largest protests the country had witnessed since 1970s, according to Parks. Despite violent clashes with the riot police, protests kept going not only in Cairo, the capital, but also in Alexandria and Suez, and two other major cities.
Photo Credit: Huffington Post
The revolution’s main goal was achieved with the resignation of President Mubarak on February 11th. Activist Wael Ghonim, a marketing manager for Google who played a significant role in organizing the January 25 protests by reaching out to young Egyptians on Facebook, credited the social networking site for the success of the Egyptian people’s uprising, says Catharine Smith in The Huffington Post.
“[…] This revolution started on Facebook. […] We would post a video on Facebook that would be shared by 60,000 people on their walls within a few hours. I’ve always said that if you want to liberate a society just give them the Internet. […],” Ghonim told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview that Facebook and the Internet were responsible for the uprising in Egypt.
After Egypt, it was the turn of Syrians to protest against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Pro-democratic demonstrations began in January and young Syrians, inspired by the ousting of Ben Ali in Tunisia and Mubarak in Egypt, began organizing protests online and then took them to the streets.
In this citizen journalism image made on a mobile phone, Syrian men carry bread loaves during a protest against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, in the coastal town of Banias, Syria, May 3, 2011 Photo Credit: AP
Syrian activists have been working their computers and mobile phones, updating Facebook pages, sending out messages over Twitter, and uploading videos onto YouTube to inform the outside world of what was taking place in their surroundings since foreign reporters were banned, reports Margaret Besheer for VOA news.
Libya was the revolution’s next stop in North Africa . Protests broke out in February in the eastern city of Benghazi and escalated to an armed conflict as forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi clashed with anti-government rebels. Gaddafi was captured and killed on October 24 bringing an end to four decades of autocratic rule.
Libya Crisis Map illustrates how ICTs can be applied in a conflict situation. This web-based platform was created by the Standby Task Force, and used the Ushahidi crowdsourced crisis reporting system to map latest news from Libya gleaned from Twitter and traditional news sources.
The LibyaCrisisMap platform was activated by the request of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to the Standby Task Force (SBTF). The platform was fully handed over to OCHA supervision in April 2011, and continued to be supported by a team of volunteers until June 4th of 2011.
Yemenis also took up the streets in February to protest against President Ali Abdullah Saleh calling for his resignation. Saleh agreed a deal, in which he will transfer power to his deputy by February 2012, ahead of elections. Young Yemeni Activists are however angry that the deal guarantees immunity for Mr Saleh and his allies, reports the BBC.
The Kingdom of Bahrain, with financial, equipment and manpower backing from its Saudi neighbor, is the only government in the MENA region to have successfully crushed pro-democracy demonstrations, reports Adrian Humphreys in the National Post.
Revolutions in the spring paved the way to landmark elections in the fall.
Tunisian politicians engaged voters via YouTube ahead of the October 23rd elections of representative for the new Constituent Assembly, which will ratify a new constitution and appoint a new transitional government that will schedule elections for a permanent government. Tunisia Live, a startup news portal, launched Tunisia Talks on YouTube where citizens asked questions to politicians.
ICTs in form of social media platforms, cell phones, and the Internet played a significant role in the push for democracy and governance not only in the MENA region but also throughout the world.
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In another case of authoritarian regime vs. public protesters, information and communication technologies (ICTs) seem to have fueled the fire. Russians took to the streets last weekend in social media-driven demonstrations against alleged election fraud committed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party, in the biggest protest the country has ever witnessed since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Russian opposition activists have used Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms to uncover electoral fraud and organize protests. Such is the case of Danila Lindele, 23-year-old citizen activist, described by VOA News as a “new breed of Russian activist, one more likely to reach for an iPad than a bullhorn.”
Despite conceding that irregularities did occur during the electoral process, President Dmitry Medvedev criticized the protests using his official Facebook page.
“I agree neither with the slogans, nor the statements voiced at the protests,” President Medvedev said. Russians responded with insults such as “shame” and “pathetic”, according to VOA News.
BBC reports that at least “7,000 comments had appeared under his post by 20:00 GMT on Sunday, a day after the biggest anti-government protests since Soviet times. An early random sample showed the comments were equally divided between hostility, support and neutrality.”
Authorities carried out over 1,000 arrests, mostly in Moscow, and key protester, blogger and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny was jailed, the BBC said.
Global Voices, an online platform for bloggers from around the world who report on how citizens use the Internet and social media to make their voices heard, often translating from other languages, features posts by prominent Russian bloggers such as Navalny in their Russia 2011 Elections Special.
“The time has come to throw off the chains. We are not cattle or slaves. We have a voice and we have the strength to defend it,” Mr. Navalny blogged.
Navalny also posted a video of Putin’s speech at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex to illustrate the Prime Minister’s declining popularity as evidenced by boos he received from segments of the crowd.
http://youtu.be/ZxQslFifQBw
Blogger Sean Guillory points out that election fraud is not novel practice in Russian politics and refers to Leontii Byzov, a senior sociologist from the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences to explain why the largest anti-government protests is taking place now.
“There are several overlapping factors. First, the rise of a new generation of young people who don’t remember the ‘trauma of the 1990s’. They are not afraid of change, it is more attractive to them than the ‘gilded cage’ of Putinist stability. Young members of the middle class want social mobility and dream about meteoric careers,” said Byzov.
“Another factor is the swelling internal opposition within the Russian elite. In the 2000s, Putin served as a certain guarantor of balance between elite groups with completely opposite interests,” added Byzov. The tensions between the Putin-backed siloviki and liberals supporters of Medvedev are entangled in a power struggle over the control Gazprom and other state corporations.
Columnist DOĞU ERGİL argues that ICT tools in the form of social media platform, the Internet and cell phones can compensate for a lack of an opposition to an authoritarian regime, pointing to the power to connect millions and allow individuals to share messages and act in relative concert, that these platforms and networks possess.
“The Tahrir Square protest are the best example of what a virtual community can create in the absence of organized opposition,” he said.
As it was the case in Egypt and Tunisia, Russia has a strong, authoritarian leadership. ICTs are helping challenge the authoritarian state structure, as evinced by the recent anti-government demonstrations, and despite the Kremlin’s crackdown and control of the media, ERGİL argues.
In fact, two-thirds of Russians are said to be utilizing ICTs, especially the mobile phone network and blogging. The political space created by these tools enable exchanges that narrows the ideological divides and strengthen opposition to a government determined to sustain its grip on society as long as it can.
According to the BBC, “as many as 50,000 people gathered on an island near the Kremlin to condemn alleged ballot-rigging in parliamentary elections and demand a re-run” “The protesters alleged there was widespread fraud in the December 4th polls though the ruling United Russia party did see its share of the vote fall sharply.”
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In the words of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, 2011 will be remembered as the year human rights went viral. Activists used the Internet and social media platforms to claim their rights and drive political change through peaceful protests despite violent repression.
As the global community commemorates 63 years since the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations invites people worldwide to celebrate Human Rights Day on 10 December by launching a social media-driven campaign. The campaign draws on from the instrumental role played by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other new media tools during the popular uprisings in the Arab world as millions demanded greater rights and freedom and toppled long-standing regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.
“Our social media human rights campaign focuses on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and aims to help more people know, demand and defend human rights,” said Pillay.
According to the UN News Centre, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has an ongoing online discussion on Facebook and Twitter beginning on 10 November called “30 Days and 30 Rights,” which counts down to Human Rights Day with a daily posting about one specific article of the Declaration each day.
Meanwhile, questions are pouring in via different social media platforms for global conversation on human rights hosted by Pillay today at 9:30 a.m. New York time, which will be webcast and streamed live.
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Launched in June, ICT for Democracy in East Africa is a network of organizations seeking to leverage the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enhance good governance and strengthen democracy.
iHub, an open space for the tech community in Kenya, hosted a governance workshop in October. The event brought together stakeholders in academia, government, civil society and the tech community to identify governance challenges—such as an uninformed or misinformed citizenry about their basic rights and an entrenched culture of corruption. The take away from the session was that ICTs—particularly mobile phones—provide citizens with the platform by which they can engage in governance solutions in a discreet, personalized way, anytime, anywhere.
In the wake of 2012 Presidential elections, citizens need to be better educated, informed and engaged in the political processes to avoid post-elections clashes as it was the case in 2007. To this end, KHRC plans to tap into the potential of ICTs to increase citizen participation, monitor human rights violations, monitor the electoral processes, monitor government fulfillment of promises, carry out campaigns and also inform and educate its constituents and the public on various human rights and governance issues.
Civic participation and democracy monitoring is relatively weak in Uganda given that only 59% of registered voters cast their ballots in the February 2011 presidential elections, according to SPIDER. The proliferation of ICT tools, their potential to enhance communication and improve access to important information creates an opportunity for improved citizen engagement and advocacy towards increased transparency and accountability.
Through the strategic use of ICTs, Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), aims to improve access to public services, increase efficiency, transparency and accountability of government and political processes to ensure that citizens are informed about government functions and promote efficient service delivery.
WOUGNET will particularly target women, in community based organizations (CBOs) located in the rural districts of Northern Uganda. WOUGNET aims build the ICT capacity of these (CBOs) to monitor public service delivery as part of its anti-corruption strategy.
Similarly, Tanzania’s CHRAGG is implementing a project that will create a system that will enable citizens to file complaints, check the status of already filed complaints and receive feedback through SMS. The project will help poor Tanzanians forego the transportation lodging costs involved in filing complaints in far off regional offices.
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The United Nations recognizes December 2 as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, which marks the date of the adoption of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. According to the agency:
“The focus of this day is on eradicating contemporary forms of slavery, such as trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, the worst forms of child labour, forced marriage, and the forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.”
Though the problem of modern-day slavery is vast (with some estimates as high as 27 million people in slavery today), ICTs have a critical role to play in ending slavery practices. They can be used to monitor and report cases, raise awareness, and help grassroots groups implement anti-slavery activities.
Here is a sampling of some cutting edge ways that groups are using ICTs to fight slavery.
How many slaves work for you? Find out by taking this website and app’s lifestyle survey, which averages how many forced laborers have contributed to making the products you consume, from shoes to electronics. The questionnaire asks about what food you eat, clothes you wear, and your hobbies after investigating what goes into producing around 400 everyday items.
This game for smartphone devices attempts to provoke a critical reflection on its own technological platform. It brings to light that behind many consumer electronics hides the product of a troubling supply chain that stretches across the globe. Phone Story represents this process with four educational games that make the player symbolically complicit in mineral extraction in the DRC, outsourced labor in China, e-waste in Pakistan and gadget consumerism in the West. The controversial app was banned from Apple stores in September, but is available on Android.
This website empowers consumers to purchase products and support companies that promote fair trade, human rights, and democracy. The site makes it easy to determine which corporations use unethical (or ethical) practices through its Firefox browser extension that alerts consumers on where companies stand on particular issues as they browse the company websites.
The site that helps individuals or groups run online social change campaigns has a special section dedicated to anti-human trafficking efforts. There have been hundreds of campaigns started, though the one with the most signatures (103,155 and counting) is the International Labor Rights Forum’s “Tell Walmart: Intervene Before Labor Activists Are Sentenced to Death.”
Survivors Connect empowers survivors and grassroots movements against slavery, trafficking and violence by leveraging the power of ICTs. The SMS: SOS system is a basic text-message based crisis and response referral hotline. The system can support any texter to receive immediate emotional support, non-emergency transportation, risk assessment, referrals to community agencies, short-term counseling, self-help information and the like. There are several variations to this model, such child-specific helplines, women’s violence/DV hotlines, trafficking and others. Survivors Connect will help any organization design its own system as needed.
Knowmore.org
Organizations are continuing to develop new ways to leverage ICTs for anti-trafficking and slavery efforts. Below are several apps to look out for.
GBI Stop Human Trafficking App
The winner of GBI’s own Stop Human Trafficking App Challenge is a smartphone app with a device that helps prevent people from becoming victims of human trafficking. It will provide users with a means to verify potential employers that offer them jobs outside of Russia and eastern Europe and help them to mitigate situations where they are subject to being preyed upon. Implementing NGOs on the ground, such as World Vision, are working to make sure the data on the app is valid and up-to-date.
Enslavement Alliance of West Africa (EPAWA) and Internews began working on a project in August to build an SMS Helpline Network using mobile phones, a laptop and easy‐to‐use desktop software to combat human trafficking. The technology will connect a network of professionals who can respond in a crisis and facilitate timely exchange of information to parents and communities. EPAWA will train community members to report on human trafficking activity in their own communities and EPAWA will investigate the veracity of employment offers.
survivorsconnect.org
Fortunately, this list is just the tip of the iceberg for innovations in anti-slavery initiatives. Has your organization developed or is in the stages of developing an ICT project that fights slavery? Be sure to post a comment here or join the GBI Portal to tell us about it!
As we observe World AIDS Day, it is important to be aware that people living with HIV (PLHIV) are victim of human rights abuses, despite available evidence many governments are yet to develop effective strategies to deal with this problem.
The stigma and discrimination associated with PLHIV have “a serious negative impact on prevention efforts and the accessibility and effectiveness of treatment, care and support,” says a report by the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+).
Findings of pilot studies conducted in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia reveal that “the rights of PLHIV are being violated in various settings with complaints ranging from murder (in one case in Kenya) and torture to discrimination at work; in healthcare facilities and within the family.”
“After being diagnosed and found HIV positive by the health authority my husband sent me away from our matrimonial home,” said a female PLHIV in Kenya.
“I lost my job and my wife deserted me while in Luanshya (town in Zambia) and admitted in the hospital. She hired a vehicle and collected all goods and said we were shifting to a bigger house…After the loss of employment due to my sickness, I had no money and had to sell the remained properties,” added a Male PLHIV in Zambia.
To address this issue, GNP+ initiated Human Rights Count!, an evidence gathering program which documents HIV-related human rights violations against PLHIV. The initiative is the first of its nature to be driven by PLHIV. Information collected are used in advocacy campaigns that aim to raise awareness about these violations and instigate changes at the local and national level.
PLHIV around the world will be able to submit human rights violations in their community, city, and country electronically or by mail. GNP+ works with focal points at regional and national networks of people living with HIV to research, verify and analyze these violations.
GNP+ has developed a structured form used to elicit quantitative and qualitative data regarding the violations, which will be available as an online questionnaire and as a writable PDF. Individuals or networks can also print the questionnaire and fill it out by hand.
By collecting the information through focal points in the region, there will be a strong link to regional and national campaigns. In addition, working through communities of PLHIV will increase the level of understanding of rights and through this empower people to assert their rights. Reporting forms will shortly be available both online and at selected focal points.
The first training of trainers using the Human Rights Count questionnaire took place in Zambia in 2009. Over 20 participants have now returned to the respective towns and villages to train others to use the tools. The project has also been piloted in Kenya, Nigeria, Nepal and Indonesia.
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Voters are turning out in numbers at polling stations in major cities for the first elections since President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown. So far, the electoral process has been peaceful with few reported security concerns amid fears that polling could be delayed due to the deadly protests against the interim military regime.
Some Internet activists chose to boycott elections in protest of military rule whilst others have taken up the responsibility to monitor elections using social media tools. Tardiness of judges, missing allots, and inadequate security have led to delays causing long lines at polling stations, and there has been reports of apparent violations of the election code by some political parties. However, these expected shortcomings have not dented voters’ enthusiasm.
“They’re trying to make it delayed so that we get angry and go home,” a man cried outside a still-closed polling center in the poor, mixed neighborhood of Shoubra, an hour after it was meant to open, reports Joshua Hersh of the Huffington Post. “But we’ll show them. We will stay here and we will vote.”
Another voter exclaimed, “I am so happy; this is the first true election in the history of Egypt!” The old man added, “I am doing this for my sons and my grandsons.”
According to Robert Mackey in the New York Times, bloggers posted images of long lines at polling places. Kamal El Eid, 19, posted a photograph of the vast crowd inside her polling place in the Cairo district of Heliopolis. Ranya Khalifa, who also voted in Heliopolis, tweeted that it took her six hours to get to the front of the line.
Voters crowded into a polling place in Cairo’s Heliopolis neighborhood on Monday.
Bloggers also reported on voting irregularities such as breaking electoral law: campaigning in on Election Day.
According to Hersh, twitter was filled with reports, through the hashtag #egypviolations, that party workers for the Freedom & Justice Party (FJP), the political wing of the Brotherhood, were distributing campaign guides to voters in line.
Abdel-Rahman Hussein tweeted that several parties campaigned on Election Day by sitting with laptops outside polling places in Cairo offering to help voters look up the registration numbers they needed to cast their ballots and giving out flyers promoting their candidates.
http://youtu.be/52ziVn6A-Gg
The party responded that this was merely an attempt to assist voters who supported the party but were confused about the process, rather than attempt to campaign or coerce voters, Hersh explained.
Mosa’ab Elshamy, an activist at the heart of the Tahrir Square protests in February, witnessed “no significant violations in Zamalek,” an upscale part of Cairo and added that although few people from different parties were handing leaflets, most voters were “not interest” in the literature anyway, writes Mackey.
Bloggers also expressed concerns over the complicated voting process. Issandr El Amrani, the Moroccan-American journalist behind The Arabist, a Cairo-based blog, posted close-up images of the remarkably dense and confusing ballot papers voters were handed inside a polling station in the city’s Sayeda Zeinab district. Mr. Amrani explained that voters were asked to select two candidates from a list of 122 names who could only be distinguished by a small icon chosen by the would-be office holders.
This is the first of three separate polls over coming months, which includes the current elections of 508-memnber People’s Assembly or lower house set to end on 10 January 2012. Elections of 270-strong Shura Council or upper house will begin in 29 January and end on 11 March 2012. Presidential elections are due mid-2012. It is estimated that more than 40 political parties are set to compete, fielding more than 10,000 candidates.
https://www.integrallc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Integra-Blue-Logo-1.png00actualizehttps://www.integrallc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Integra-Blue-Logo-1.pngactualize2011-11-29 11:58:122021-01-08 14:15:50Egyptians queue up for second-day of landmark elections in post-Mubarak era
Summer Hunter-Kysor currently serves as Senior Project Associate for Integra’s EE/MELDS and AEO contracts with USAID. With five years of development experience and a strong background in peacebuilding, governance, and education, she has spearheaded impactful projects with the goal of improving the lives of individuals and communities worldwide. Armed with an MA in International Development and BA in International Relations, Ms. Hunter-Kysor possesses a deep understanding and curiosity of the everchanging complexities facing developing regions and has successfully supported the implementation of notable initiatives that drive positive social impact and sustainable change.
Prior to joining Integra, Ms. Hunter-Kysor worked at Creative Associates International, where she provided backstop support to three USAID- and USAID/OTI-funded projects with values between $3-$38 million. She managed several aspects of project efforts including technical, financial, contractual, reporting & communications, HR, and operational duties. She led her teams’ knowledge management efforts to ensure that project successes and lessons learned could be adjusted and applied in different contexts. She was further dedicated to business development efforts in the democracy and governance space, serving as a contributing author on a solicitation the company won valued at $24 million. Previously, she focused on monitoring, evaluation, and learning and process improvement through her work in Pittsburgh local government and community development-focused nonprofits. Ms. Hunter-Kysor’s experience also includes federal contracting, a graduate internship with the Department of State (DoS), data research for the UNDP, and teaching English as a second language through the DoS Fulbright program.
As a compassionate leader, Ms. Hunter-Kysor is driven by a commitment to empower marginalized communities, advocate for social justice, and promote equitable access to essential services through locally led and inclusive approaches.
Gevorg Torosyan
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Director
Mr. Torosyan leads one of the firm’s practice areas as the Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning. He brings 18 years of experience in USAID and other donor-funded project management, evaluation, and consulting roles in more than 15 countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Half of his career was dedicated to delivering development consulting assignments in field offices as Project Director, Team Leader, and Policy Advisor in projects funded by USAID, The World Bank, ADB, UNDP, and EU. The remaining half was devoted to managing USAID-funded projects from the corporate headquarters of development consulting firms in the Washington, D.C. area.
Mr. Torosyan’s technical expertise spans a wide range of private sector development topics, such as the improved enabling environment for trade and investment, firm-level competitiveness enhancement, value chain development, and increasing SME access to finance. He also has in-depth knowledge of public sector governance reform issues, including evidence-based decision-making practices, impact assessment schemes, regulatory convergence with international standards, reform of state-owned enterprises in the energy and other infrastructural sectors, anti-corruption, and improved public service delivery via Govtech solutions.
Beyond his extensive project management and advisory work, Mr. Torosyan has a decade of experience in project performance evaluation and monitoring. He has demonstrated his expertise in Monitoring and Evaluation Lead roles at a development consulting firm in Washington, DC, and as an independent Evaluation Team Leader and Principal Evaluator of multiple donor-funded projects in Europe and Asia.
Mr. Torosyan holds a Master of Advanced Studies degree in International Law and Economics from the University of Bern, World Trade Institute, Switzerland. He was also a research fellow at the University of Muenster, Germany, specializing in institutional economics, which led to a Doctor of Economics degree from the Institute of Economic Research. He speaks Armenian and Russian fluently.
Brenda Lee Pearson
Research Director, LEAP III
Ms. Brenda Lee Pearson is the Research Director for the Integra-managed USAID Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis Project (LEAP III) and has served as Team Leader for economic growth performance evaluations in Georgia, Kenya, Ukraine, and USAID’s global programs: CATALYZE, EDGE, US-SEGA, Women’s Economic Empowerment Fund. She served as the gender and social inclusion advisor to USAID/India and Indo-Pacific Strategy from 2020-21. She has been Team Leader for democracy, human rights and governance assessments and political economy analyses in Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Guyana, Honduras, Kosovo, Malawi, Romania and Tanzania. She served as global coordinator of nutrition programming for the United Nations World Food Programme, FAO, UNICEF and WHO. Ms. Pearson has provided technical assistance to projects funded by USAID, State Department, Millennium Challenge Corporation, DfID, AustraliaAid, World Bank, and UN agencies in 50 countries, and authored more than 100 articles. Ms. Pearson is the President of Cui Prodest, LLC, a woman-owned small business (www.cuiprodest.org) that partners frequently with Integra. Earlier in her career, she served as Chief of Party in Cambodia, Croatia, Egypt, N. Macedonia, Tanzania and Yemen.
Peter Levine
Business Development and Private Sector Specialist
Mr. Levine is a senior new business, project management and private sector development specialist with over 20 years direct experience in the design, oversight and implementation of complex international technical assistance programs, including extensive work in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. He is well versed in private sector development, agriculture, land use planning and international best business practices, with a strong track record for facilitating stakeholder relationships for tangible and practical results. He has a proven track record for impact with USAID, MCC, DFID and other donors, working as both a Team Leader, Chief of Party, or key member of a multi-disciplinary team on both innovative projects and winning proposals. Prior experience as Executive or Practice Area lead who helped grow technical, financial and human capital for firms/clients, including leadership of USAID projects valued at between US$25 – $75 million.
Elizabeth Ferris
Migration Expert and Advisor
Elizabeth Ferris is Research Professor with the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and an adjunct professor in the Georgetown Law School. From January-September 2016, she served as Senior Advisor to the UN General Assembly’s Summit for Refugees and Migrants in New York. She presently serves as an expert advisor to the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement.
From 2006-2015, she was a Senior Fellow and co-director of the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement where she worked to support understanding and protection of internally displaced persons. Prior to joining Brookings, she spent 20 years working in the field of humanitarian assistance, most recently in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Council of Churches. She has also served as the director of the Church World Service’s Immigration and Refugee Program, as research director for the Life & Peace Institute in Uppsala, Sweden and as a Fulbright professor at the Universidad Autónoma de México. Her teaching experience has included positions at Lafayette College, Miami University and Pembroke State University. She has written extensively on refugee, migration and humanitarian issues, including The Politics of Protection: The Limits of Humanitarian Action (Brookings Institution Press, 2011), Consequences of Chaos: Syria’s Humanitarian Crisis and the Failure to Protect, with Kemal Kirsici (Brookings Institution Press, 2016). Her latest book, Refugees, Migration and Global Governance: Negotiating the Global Compacts, with Katharine Donato, was published by Routledge in 2019. She received her BA degree from Duke University and her MA and PhD degrees from the University of Florida.
Quang Phan
Vietnam Country Director
Quang Phan has a 20-year track record of performance in running some of the most impactful projects in Vietnam and in the Mekong Region. These projects range from innovation and technology, sustainable public private policy dialogue and regulatory reform, and trade and investment facilitation. As an out of the box thinker, Quang has good judgement and a good sense of humour. He knows how to turn vision into ideas, and ideas into actions and results. He builds high performing teams and networks.
Quang has served as Integra’s Country Director in Vietnam since 2018 and leads the development and implementation of the USAID funded project in reforming PPP regulations and practices in Vietnam. Working with the home office and USAID/Vietnam, Quang has mobilized a team of international and local experts to work with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the National Assembly, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the business community on developing the first PPP Law of Vietnam. The team has built the capacity of a public private partnership committee that advocates for good PPP regulations and practices in Vietnam and piloted a PPP pipeline development tool in two provinces.
Theresa Miles Director, Business Operations
Ms. Theresa Miles is Integra’s Director of Business Operations and leads contract administrative management and oversees project operations and financial management. She guides the development of effective project operations and financial standards and operationalizing structures for delivery, risk management, reporting, and forecasting. She is also serving as the Operations Manager for the Integra-managed USAID Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis project (LEAP III), a five-year project that supports USAID globally by providing independent high-quality analytical services; strategy and project design; monitoring and evaluation; training; and knowledge management.
Theresa has 25 years of experience in international development and project management in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asia. She has split her career between home office project support and management roles and overseas roles. She excels at organizing and increasing efficiencies by examining operations, analyzing needs, identifying duplication of effort and tailoring policies and procedures to project, organization, and donor requirements.
She has long-term experience in Ghana, Uganda, Madagascar, India, Democratic Republic of Congo and short-term experience in Mexico, Egypt, Mongolia and Tanzania. Theresa holds an MA in International Policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and has a general understanding of Spanish and working knowledge of French. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her dogs, antiquing, and refurbishing old furniture.
Theresa Miles
Director, Business Operations
Ms. Theresa Miles is Integra’s Director of Business Operations and leads contract administrative management and oversees project operations and financial management. She guides the development of effective project operations and financial standards and operationalizing structures for delivery, risk management, reporting, and forecasting. She is also serving as the Operations Manager for the Integra-managed USAID Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis project (LEAP III), a five-year project that supports USAID globally by providing independent high-quality analytical services; strategy and project design; monitoring and evaluation; training; and knowledge management.
Theresa has 25 years of experience in international development and project management in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asia. She has split her career between home office project support and management roles and overseas roles. She excels at organizing and increasing efficiencies by examining operations, analyzing needs, identifying duplication of effort and tailoring policies and procedures to project, organization, and donor requirements.
She has long-term experience in Ghana, Uganda, Madagascar, India, Democratic Republic of Congo and short-term experience in Mexico, Egypt, Mongolia and Tanzania. Theresa holds an MA in International Policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and has a general understanding of Spanish and working knowledge of French. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her dogs, antiquing, and refurbishing old furniture.
Penelope Norton
Associate
Penelope is an Associate at Integra, where she supports a variety of USAID and MCC-funded projects. She has more than five years of experience in operations and project management and provides backstopping support on activities. Responsibilities include managing activity budgets, providing logistical support, recruiting, contracts, and travel preparations. Other experience includes data collection, program evaluation, quality assurance, and two years of program implementation in Guatemala.
Penelope holds an MS in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University with a concentration in Prevention, Reconstruction and Stabilization, and a BA in International Affairs from James Madison University. When not working, Penelope enjoys international travel or camping in the amazing US National Parks.
Kethi Mullei
Learning and Evaluation Director
Kethi Mullei is a social researcher and qualitative analyst with over 15 years of experience working in development in Sub-Saharan Africa, primarily East Africa. Her most recent long-term position was with the BMGF CIFF & Hewlett – funded program, HCDExchange, serving as the Learning Lead. She recently joined Integra as Learning and Evaluation Director to support the USAID/Kenya & East Africa Mission.
Kethi is a passionate learner and researcher with a background in global public health and a keen interest in generating evidence on the value of applying simple, replicable yet rigorous human-centered and action-oriented methodologies for optimal application in improving the quality of global health interventions and outcomes in the Global South. She brings a great wealth of experience in health policy analysis & development, protocol & product development (learning agendas, practical guidance), literature/ desk reviews, knowledge management, and application of participatory and one-to-one learning methods in practice (e.g., capturing success stories, appreciative inquiry (AI), outcome harvesting). Having worked for 15 years collaborating with various stakeholders—civil society, research institutions, private sector, and funders/donors—she is an eager contributor to the broad field of global health.
Sarah Eissler
Evaluation Specialist
Sarah is an evaluation specialist with broad international experience designing, implementing, and analyzing mixed-methods research and evaluation projects addressing issues in agriculture, food security and nutrition, climate change, women’s empowerment, and the environment. Sarah currently works as an independent consultant to lead and support mixed-method evaluations for USAID, UN Agencies, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others. She has supported several Integra activities under the LEAP III project as a data analytics and research design specialist with specific attention to the design and analysis of qualitative data. Recently, she has supported a strategic review of USAID’s Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship (PACE) Initiative, a portfolio performance evaluation of the former USAID Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative, a strategic review of USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) program, and evaluations and assessments in Egypt and Ukraine. She has a dual Ph.D. in Rural Sociology and Human Dimensions of Natural Resources and the Environment, and dual M.S. degrees in Rural Sociology and International Agriculture and Development from Penn State University.
Meziane Menasria
Associate
Meziane is an Associate at Integra, where he supports the MCC-funded Togo project and several other USAID projects. He brings more than seven years of experience working for a global K-12 education non-profit organization where he contributed project management, business intelligence, team management, budget tracking, and recruiting. He is a fluent French speaker and conversational in Spanish and Polish. He holds a BA in Government & Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park. In his free time, he enjoys watching club and international football (soccer) and hiking in the great outdoors.
Julienne Kaman
Technical Advisor – Papua New Guinea
Julienne Kaman serves as the Technical Advisor in Papua New Guinea (PNG) under USAID’s Asia Emerging Opportunities mechanism. Ms. Kaman has spent more than 30 years in the teaching profession, researching and doing consultancies in several PNG universities. She has taken short-term consultancies with the PNG Government and Governments of other Pacific Island countries, namely the Republic of Nauru. Ms. Kaman has also worked with international organizations such as UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, and the Incentive Fund Program of the Australian Government and with international nongovernment organizations in the country, namely, Save the Children Fund and Asia Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE) and with local companies such as Tanorama. As a certified and experienced teacher in PNG, Ms. Kaman has also written several contextualized textbooks in the Social Sciences for teachers and students to use at all levels of education in PNG.
Mrs. Hoang Anh
Business Environment Sustainability and Transformation (BEST) Director – Vietnam
Mrs. Hoang Anh Do serves as the Business Environment Sustainability and Transformation (BEST) Director in Vietnam under USAID’s Asia Emerging Opportunities mechanism. Before joining Integra, Mrs. Anh Do had experience holding several positions in the developing world and private sector. She served as Deputy Project Director of USAID/Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (VNCI), leading three impactful initiatives, including 1) Administrative Procedures Reform of the Government of Vietnam (known as Project 30) by the Office of the Government, 2) Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for Ministry of Justice and other stakeholders, 3) Public Private Partnership under Ministry of Planning and Investment, and 4) Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) with Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).
She also worked on legal and economic reform in the USAID/Sustaining Technical and Analytical Resources (STAR) project, which helped the State Bank of Vietnam, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Post and Telematics, the State Audit, different committees of the National Assembly to overwrite Vietnamese legal framework to implement Vietnam commitments under the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement.
In the private sector, she established and chaired health tech, agri-tech, and logistics companies. Her vast experience and network in Government and private sector are valuable for her work to accelerate the transformation of Vietnam’s business environment and sustainability.
Brenna Casey
Program and Business Development Manager
Brenna is a Program and Business Development Manager at Integra. She brings five years of experience in various project management and technical capacities across the USAID and MCC portfolios. Programmatic responsibilities include leading and providing task order oversight and support on contracts, recruitment, budgets, client and subcontractor relations, reporting, and quality assurance. Business development roles include strategic planning and pipeline development, market research, partner and proposal coordination, staffing, technical writing, and compliance. Technical capabilities include research and data analysis, including sectoral, political economy, and landscape assessments; performance evaluations; and trainings, workshops, and knowledge management engagements.
Brenna has managed several activities under Asia Emerging Opportunities (AEO) and the Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis Project (LEAP III), including the USAID/Middle East Bureau’s multi-year $1.7+ million buy-in for private sector engagement (PSE). This activity supported the co-creation and implementation of PSE Action Plans for the Bureau and Operating Units in the region, including Bureau and Mission learning events, remote and in-person private sector outreach, Private Sector Landscape Assessments (PSLAs), and a report on PSE opportunities coming from the Gulf region. She supports the kickoff of the USAID Europe and Eurasia Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, and Decision Support (EE/MELDS) and MCC Economic Analysis BPA contracts.
Ms. Casey holds a MA in Political Economy from Georgetown University and a BA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. She earned an advanced certificate in Political Economy from the ULB Solvay School of Economics and Management in Brussels, Belgium, and a project management certification from the University of Virginia. She is also certified in project management by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Additional professional experience includes a graduate internship with the Development Finance Corporation and health policy consulting in Alexandria, Virginia.
Eleanor Roberts
Associate
Eleanor is an Associate at Integra, supporting the USAID-funded Asia Emerging Opportunities task order. She assists in managing and backstopping projects, including planning, organizing, coordinating, program execution, and monitoring. Responsibilities include project reporting, budget tracking, and analysis, research and data analysis, assisting with project recruitment, ensuring contractual compliance, and providing administrative support as needed. Additionally, Eleanor assists in developing communications materials for the firm, including authoring content for Integra’s website.
Before Integra, Eleanor worked at Meridian International Center as a Program Associate implementing the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) — the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and History from Denison University in Granville, Ohio.
Kate Fehlenberg
Director of Scaling Innovations
Kate Fehlenberg is an international development professional with over 20 years of experience across a dozen countries. She has designed, managed, scaled, and evaluated small and multi-million dollar programs in Public Health, Agriculture and Gender. With deep experience in coalition building, systematic assessments of new technologies, and strengthening local systems, Kate is uniquely skilled in Scaling sustainable solutions. Kate has worked for NGOs, researchers, and donors at headquarters and the field in over a dozen countries across Asia and Africa; sat on donor and fundraising committees; run hundreds of workshops, and trained and led teams in numerous countries. In her last overseas assignment (2015-2019), Kate managed a $15M USAID food security project across six countries in Africa. She established the SeedAssure Alliance, a public-private coalition to digitize commercial value chains in Africa to improve Ag technologies accessible to millions of farmers. She currently works with Integra as Director of Scaling Innovations, leading assessments of development investments for their market impact and sustainability potential. Kate has an MPH in Population in Family Health and Complex Emergencies from Columbia University, a Master’s in Civil Engineering from Ga Tech, and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Samford University.
Paul Dodds
Enabling Environment Expert
Paul Dodds has a JD and over 25 years of experience in development consulting with MCC, USAID, DFID, the World Bank, AUS DFAT and ADB in over 15 countries. He has extensive expertise in legal analysis, policy reform and commercial due diligence, and experience working in AgCLIR analyses in varying capacities, with specific engagements for MCC in Tunisia, Philippines and Benin. In his AgCLIR work for USAID in Liberia, he focused on exploring the possible impacts of regulations restricting access to fresh markets for smallholder farmers and women traders.
Most recently, Paul brought technical expertise to the Integra team working in Bangladesh helping to design a support program for food safety and nutrition, and also on a detailed review of the new Vietnamese public private partnership law, providing background information to encourage the donor support needed for the law to succeed.
Paul studied Economics at Columbia and graduated from Harvard Law School. He spent the first decade of his professional career as a corporate lawyer and general counsel in Boston. He is now based in Little Rock, Arkansas where he owns and manages a growing portfolio of investments in renovated historic homes as his primary occupation. He speaks fluent German, serviceable French, Spanish and Russian and some Khmer.
Cynthia Mallory
Controller, Business Operations
Ms. Mallory has spent 20 years working with international development consulting firms. She currently serves as Integra’s Controller, and also manages Business Operations for the firm. She is an award-winning United State Air Force retiree who worked in forward locations during Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield. She provided aid to supply officers, transportation commanders, fighter pilots and many more.
Liesl Kim
Operations Specialist
Liesl has been an Associate at Integra for nearly two years, providing project management and operations support for USAID-funded projects. She serves as the lead Associate on the Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis (LEAP III) Project, spearheading reporting mechanisms. She manages many aspects from activity start up to close, including drafting concept notes and work plans; recruiting and managing consultants; tracking budgets; organizing field work logistics; reporting on findings; and designing infographics/presentations to disseminate lessons learned. Liesl also provides support to the Asia Emerging Opportunities (AEO) Project and has worked on more than 30 unique activities, serving as the Operations Lead on 16 activities to date. She has also contributed to performance evaluations, such as the evaluations of the USAID/OFDA LAC Regional Disaster Assistance Program and the Power Africa Transactions and Reforms Program. Prior to joining Integra, she interned at the Asian Development Bank North American Representative Office, assisting in outreach efforts with stakeholders and partner organizations.
She holds an MA in International Development Studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University and a BA in Political Science and International Studies from Pepperdine University. She is a 5th degree black belt in Taekwondo and attributes the global sport as first attracting her to the realm of international relations.
Kaitlyn Turner
Data Analytics Manager
Kaitlyn leads Integra’s quantitative analysis and data collection work as the Data Analytics Manager. Prior to joining the Integra team in 2020, she worked in both project management, and programming and analysis of impact evaluations for a number of research-focused non-profit organizations. She has experience designing evaluation plans, managing quantitative data collection work, performing data analysis using Stata, and developing reports and other dissemination tools for internal and external stakeholders. She has spent the last three years living in Nairobi, Kenya and working throughout East Africa. She has worked in many sectors including global health, agriculture, and digital financial inclusion.
Ruta Aidis
Gender and Economic Development Advisor
Dr. Ruta Aidis is a leading expert in gender and economic development. She has more than 25 years of experience teaching, researching, consulting and publishing in the area of gender, women’s economic empowerment, entrepreneurship, innovation, institutional development and public policy. She is an award-winning author with over 50 published articles, books and reports. Dr. Aidis has conducted multiple gender-related assessments and consultancies for USAID and other international donor agencies. In 2019, she led USAID’s first global gender analysis of the recycling and waste management sector piloting both the Women’s Economic Empowerment and Equality (WE3) toolkit and recommendations for Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) initiatives.
As part of the LEAP III program, Dr. Aidis is serving as the deputy team lead for USAID’s portfolio performance evaluation (PPE) of the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) initiative’s Round 1 funded activities. Previously she acted as the team lead for the 2020 Strategic Review of USAID’s Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship (PACE) initiative.
Dr. Aidis is also a Senior Fellow at the Schar School for Policy and Government, George Mason University and founder of ACG Inc. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Amsterdam, an MA in International Development from the Institute for Social Studies and a BA from the University of Maryland.
Tim Schur
Chief Executive Officer
Timothy Schur is leading the company into the future by building on a foundation laid by Bob Otto, the founder of the firm in 2010. With more than 30 years of experience in advisory and consulting services, Timothy has filled wide-ranging roles in corporate finance, strategy and innovation, impact investment, business development, and business practice leadership. For the last decade he has been supporting International Development programs and investments for the United States, United Kingdom, and Australian governments as well as direct investments by governments across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Throughout his career, Timothy has been a champion for performance-based contracting, impact investment and capital mobilization, systems enablement and knowledge sharing through technology, and program designs that result in durable solutions for economic independence.
Leading Integra is a return to the small business roots of Timothy’s career where client centric, nimble business solutions deliver impact for the investment stakeholders, beneficiaries and the individuals applying their expertise and experience to delivery. From a vantage point versed in traditional international development investors, cognizant of the capital constraints, and grounded in results measurement as the key to enduring impact; Timothy is positioning Integra as a key resource for government, private sector, and NGO clients seeking to capture and enhance both the financial and social return on their investments into emerging economies.
Robert Otto
Founder
Mr. Otto has more than 25 years of experience in international development and project management. He is highly experienced in providing consulting services and managing complex projects in private sector development, economic restructuring, and institutional development. Earlier in his career, Mr. Otto served as Chief Private Sector Officer, Financial Analyst, Project Development Officer, and Chief Environment Officer for the US Agency for International Development. Mr. Otto holds a MS in Management from MIT and a MS in Technology of Management from American University.
David Quinn
Chief Technical Officer
Mr. David Quinn is Integra’s Chief Technical Officer, where he oversees all company projects and activities. He has 15 years of experience working in international development projects and specializes in managing multiple-country, multiple-activity, mechanisms.
Currently, he serves as the Chief of Party for the Integra-managed USAID Learning, Evaluation and Analysis project (LEAP III), a five-year project that supports USAID globally by providing independent high-quality analytical services; strategy and project design; monitoring and evaluation; training; and knowledge management.
Mr. Quinn has conducted over 80 assignments across 23 countries. His technical expertise includes economic growth, policy and enabling environment reform, private sector engagement (PSE), and public-private partnerships (PPPs). In addition to his passion for international development (and Integra), he is an avid Liverpool Football Club fan.
Deanna Gordon
Director, Development Analytics
Dr. Gordon is Director of Development Analytics, as well as Chief of Party for the Asia Emerging Opportunities mechanism at Integra. She is an Agricultural Economist with a long track record in international development. Prior to joining the Integra team, she was with USAID as a Foreign Service Officer from 2005-2019. Her expertise is rooted in monitoring and evaluation, quantitative and mixed methods analysis, and impact evaluation. She has served in a variety of positions at USAID, including as Senior Agriculture and Food Security Advisor for USAID/BFS, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor at USAID/FFP, and Office Director for the Office of Economic Growth at USAID/DRC. She speaks French, Spanish, and Portuguese with professional proficiency and holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UC Berkeley.
Kent Ford
Director, Private Sector Engagement (PSE)
Kent Ford is a pioneering international development professional with over 25 years of experience in successfully leading and delivering a range of private sector-focused programs in emerging and developing markets. Under the Learning, Evaluation and Analysis Project III (LEAP III), Kent leads Integra’s Middle East Private Sector Engagement Activity supporting the adoption of USAID’s Private Sector Engagement (PSE) Policy in the USAID/Middle East Bureau and associated Missions. This includes inter alia, writing a Strategic Vision for the Middle East Bureau, leading the development of a ThinkPiece envisioning the future of PSE in the MENA region, developing and leading monthly training webinars widely broadcasted throughout MENA and USAID/Washington, and creating an actionable approach to engaging the private sector in the work of USAID.
Kent has broad and proven strategic management and leadership experience as well as economic, political and cultural understanding from having worked in nearly 60 countries. Mr. Ford is a two-time entrepreneur, most recently as co-founder and Managing Director of Global Development Solutions, where he directed the establishment, growth and leadership of a global network of staff and consultants spanning four continents.
Kent co-developed the integrated value chain and market analysis methodology used by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and sovereign governments to rigorously analyze agriculture and non-agriculture value chains to determine areas where foreign and domestic investment, access to finance and technical intervention would enhance the competitive position of entire market systems. He designed and spearheaded regional Trade and Investment initiatives by bringing together governments, private sector actors, NGOs, municipalities and development agencies—an innovative approach designed help businesses access new markets leading to millions of dollars in trade, investment, and market linkages. He has spent a total of eight years living in, working on and leading in-country private sector development project teams in the West Bank/Gaza, Albania, Kosovo, Nigeria and Uganda.
David Townsend
ICT Sector Advisor
Mr. Townsend is an international expert in ICT policy and economics and the leader of GBI’s Universal Service and Access Fund Support Program. For more than 25 years, Mr. Townsend has been a leading contributor to the evolution of the communications sector worldwide, and has advised governments in more than 40 countries on economic issues and policy options for ICTs. He has been one of the pioneers in the design of Universal Service Funds in numerous countries, and has worked extensively with the World Bank and the UN, among others.
Kimberly Hamilton
Director of Operations, MCC / Business Development Manager
Having joined Integra in 2012, Kimberly has provided technical and operational support for over 20 projects at the firm over the past decade. Currently, she serves as the Director of Operations for Integra’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) portfolio, working alongside technical staff and MCC representatives to ensure projects and deliverables meet client expectations and contractual requirements. She also serves the dual role of Business Development Manager, working directly with the CEO and CTO to pursue, manage, and execute partnerships and proposal efforts. This includes potential opportunities with a variety of USG-funded clients such as USAID, MCC, and the World Bank, among others.
Kimberly also provides operational and technical support on projects. This includes her current role as Operations Manager and Researcher for USAID’s performance evaluation of the U.S. Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, the first government-wide effort to advance women’s economic empowerment. She also provides operational oversight of Integra’s two-year-long engagement with USAID to support Vietnam’s development and implementation of public-private partnerships. In previous positions, she conducted field research for a variety of agricultural, M&E, and political economy activities, mostly in Southeast Asia and East Africa. Her favorite assignment to date was conducting field research for an agricultural market assessment in the Philippines for MCC, specifically focused on the value and supply chains of processed mango products. In addition to interviewing and analyzing data from smallholder farmers, mango traders, and exporters to inform MCC’s investments, mango tastings were a nice perk of the job.
Pin Thanesnant
Director of Operations, USAID Portfolio
Ms. Ganyapak (Pin) Thanesnant currently serves as the Director of Operations for Integra’s USAID portfolio. She brings ten years of experience in project management and operations, resource mobilization, and policy and market assessments, specifically in areas of food security and the business enabling environment. She has managed projects and implemented reform efforts across twenty countries in Africa and Asia. She oversees all operations and finances of Integra’s flagship contracts: USAID’s Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis Project III (LEAP III) and USAID’s Asia Emerging Opportunities (AEO). Under both contracts, she ensures rapid responses to rigorous, independent, and high-quality analytical services to USAID.
In just three years of LEAP III, Pin has managed over 50 activities across 30 countries and multiple sectors. In addition to project management, she also provides technical support on activities—most recently, serving as the Policy Expert for USAID’s Bangladesh Agriculture Policy Assessment, as well as the Evaluation Expert conducting an ex-post evaluation of USAID/Zambia’s Production, Finance, and Improved Technology Plus (PROFIT+) program and a mid-term evaluation of USAID/Belarus’ I3 program.
Prior to joining Integra, Ms. Thanesnant worked with Heifer International, managing all funding efforts in East Asia and Southern/East African countries through donor relations, contractual negotiations, and development and review of technical and cost proposals. Prior to this, she worked at Fintrac, Inc., where she was responsible for providing analytical services under USAID’s EAT Project. Pin holds an MA in Public Anthropology and International Development from American University and a BA in International Studies from the University of Richmond.
Brenna Casey
Operations Specialist
Brenna Casey joined Integra as an Associate in November 2018. She performs project backstopping for USAID and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) projects, including but not limited to development of SOWs/concept notes; consultant recruitment and contracting; budget development, reporting and analysis; quality assurance and contractual compliance; travel coordination and logistics; project reporting; and project launch and close out activities. Other responsibilities include contributing to technical desk research and report writing. She also supports new business development, including responding to SSNs and RFIs, and past performance write ups, RFP/RFQ compliance, recruiting and personnel matrices, and coordination with partners and preparation of teaming agreements and cost information for proposals.
Brenna also currently serves as Private Sector Engagement (PSE) Specialist under Integra’s PSE practice area. She serves as Operations Lead for a $1.5M+ PSE Activity under the USAID LEAP III contract, where she works with a team of 12+ consultants in the co-creation and implementation of PSE Action Plans for the Middle East Bureau and nine Operating Units in the region. Activities include Bureau and Mission workshops and trainings, a listening tour, development of Mission PSE portfolio reviews and integration analyses, a PSE thought piece, and remote and in-person private sector outreach. Under this activity, she participated in a 2-week field visit across four cities in Morocco and interviewed private sector actors representing five key sectors, as well as 1-week of PSE brainstorming sessions with USAID/Egypt staff in Cairo for their PSE Action Plan and CDCS. Her favorite experience to date was leading the PSE brainstorming session with the Basic Education technical team in Cairo. As PSE Specialist, Ms. Casey has also provided technical support to the USAID/Egypt 2020 Private Sector Landscape Assessment (PSLA).
Ms. Casey holds a BA in Foreign Affairs and Psychology and a minor in Religous Studies (Islam) from the University of Virginia. She is professionally certified in Project Management from the University of Virginia and the Project Management Institute. She is currently applying to pursue her graduate studies in Washington, D.C. In her free time she loves reading a good book on the Rappahannock River in Urbanna, Virginia.
Ms. Cazier serves as an Associate at Integra, providing project management support for the USAID LEAP III and AEO projects, as well as business development support for new opportunities. Prior to joining Integra, Isabella worked on the Programs team at World Learning, managing international youth exchange programs across the Americas. She has worked extensively in Latin America on youth development programs, and credits this opportunity with shaping her interest in international affairs. Isabella is PMI certified, and holds an MA in International Affairs and Development from The George Washington University, and a BA in Anthropology and Russian Literature from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
Isabella started at Integra in February 2020, and has worked on a range of projects, including the Tiger Matters Knowledge Management events which coincided with World Wildlife Day, the assessment of Democracy, Rights and Governance in the Pacific Islands region and the Mid-Term Evaluation of USAID/Rwanda’s Hinga Weze program. Working at a small business like Integra means that employees have the opportunity to develop professional skills very quickly, and the expertise on the team always leads to fascinating conversations around the virtual lunch table.
Isabella moved around a lot growing up, living in four countries before moving to the United States for college.
Ganyapak (Pin) Thanesnant Director of Operations
Ms. Ganyapak (Pin) Thanesnant currently serves as the Director of Operations for Integra’s USAID portfolio. She brings ten years of experience in project management and operations, resource mobilization, and policy and market assessments, specifically in areas of food security and the business enabling environment. She has managed projects and implemented reform efforts across twenty countries in Africa and Asia. She oversees all operations and finances of Integra’s flagship contracts: USAID’s Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis Project III (LEAP III) and USAID’s Asia Emerging Opportunities (AEO). Under both contracts, she ensures rapid responses to rigorous, independent, and high-quality analytical services to USAID.
In just three years of LEAP III, Pin has managed over 50 activities across 30 countries and multiple sectors. In addition to project management, she also provides technical support on activities—most recently, serving as the Policy Expert for USAID’s Bangladesh Agriculture Policy Assessment, as well as the Evaluation Expert conducting an ex-post evaluation of USAID/Zambia’s Production, Finance, and Improved Technology Plus (PROFIT+) program and a mid-term evaluation of USAID/Belarus’ I3 program.
Prior to joining Integra, Ms. Thanesnant worked with Heifer International, managing all funding efforts in East Asia and Southern/East African countries through donor relations, contractual negotiations, and development and review of technical and cost proposals. Prior to this, she worked at Fintrac, Inc., where she was responsible for providing analytical services under USAID’s EAT Project.
Pin holds an MA in Public Anthropology and International Development from American University and a BA in International Studies from the University of Richmond. While Ms. Thanesnant has spent over eight years in Washington, D.C., she was raised in six countries before coming to the United States to pursue her undergraduate degree. She is fluent in Thai and English, and conversational in French. She enjoys cooking, swimming, and going on hikes with her German Shepherd, Havana. More details can be found here.
