The 2018 Beloved Community Initiative Humanities Summit (from 1:30-5:00pm on Tuesday, Nov 27) can now be watched live via Facebook and Zoom.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/184681032460304/

We would like to thank the Midshipmen in Bravo Company from Virginia Tech’s Navy ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) unit for helping us organize our second shipment of books to Mzuzu University. The video below provides some insight into what it takes to process over 100 boxes of books (weighing over 4,000 lbs) in 1.5 hours. We could not have done this so efficiently without the help of the NROTC. We plan to ship these books later this fall.

We are pleased to be able to release the final chapter of our new textbook which focuses on policy interventions to encourage a sustainable transformation in industrial and industrializing economies. We have also released the index to provide you with a sense of the issues that are covered throughout the textbook.

In the coming weeks, we will begin to release the presentations we use to teach the material in the textbook at MIT and Virginia Tech. These presentations will be shared via Google Slides. We hope that this additional material will hep others incorporate the textbook material into their courses. We would also be happy to work with anyone who is willing to take on the challenge of teaching the entire textbook as one course. If the scheduling works, we would be happy to provide a guest lecture or two on those subjects that fall outside of the instructor’s expertise. Both Nicholas and I support each…

This past week, a second delegation from Mzuzu University visited Virginia Tech to discuss the next phase of the library design project. After selecting a final conceptual design in February, this delegation focused on the next phase of the project – the development of detailed engineering designs for the new library.

During their time on campus, the delegation visited Virginia’s Tech’s Advance Research Computing facility to discuss the type of systems that could be installed in the new library’s planned data center. The video below provides a first person view of the their visit. Note how our architecture students, who have led the design of the new library, continue to be fully engaged with the design process.

This fall, Prof. Kris Wernstedt will be offering UAP 5524: International Development as a replacement course for UAP 5764G: International Development Policy and Planning. UAP 5524 will run on Friday’s from 8:00 to 10:30am and will be offered via Zoom (a web conferencing platform).

Course Description – UAP 5524: International Development

What challenges do developing countries face in the 21^st century as a legacy of past practices and histories and as globalization continues apace? How do these problems manifest themselves at global, trans-border, nation-state, and city scales? What policy responses and planning management practices have nations pursued to address their development challenges, and what solutions have appeared to create more livable environments in the face of them?

Through readings, lectures, interviews of practitioners from international NGOs and multi-lateral agencies, role-playing, simulations, and out-of-class assignments, this course examines major concepts of international development in countries of the Global South. Students will consider…

An article Ralph Hall, Eric Vance and Marcos Carzolio and I collaborated on has just been published in the Journal of Development Studies.  The article titled, “My Neighbour Drinks Clean Water, While I Continue To Suffer’: An Analysis of the Intra-Community Impacts of a Rural Water Supply Project in Mozambique,” uses mixed methods to reveal the intra-community impacts of a rural water project in northern Mozambique.  The article is relevant for anyone thinking about rural water decision making, the measurement of sub-national inequalities, the uneven impacts of rural water supply programs, and the unintended social consequences of development.

The abstract is copied below.

Rural water planners assume the positive impacts of community water projects are spread evenly across the population. We test this assumption by looking at the distribution of benefits within communities that received handpumps in rural Mozambique. Using survey and qualitative data we analyse the characteristics of those…

The Mzuni Library Initiative would like to extend many heartfelt thanks to Textbooks Africa for the generous donation of 75 boxes of books for the Mzuzu University Library. On August 29th, we were excited to welcome Francesco, a representative of Textbooks Africa, to Virginia Tech. Pictured below are volunteers Francesco and Kevin with the book donations.

One of the best parts of the day was getting to show Francesco the beautiful farmlands in Blacksburg while transporting the books. I was lucky to snap this picture in a peaceful moment before the team arrived and the fun began!

We are also grateful to Zach and Danny, engineers from the Unmanned Systems Lab, for continually being the “willing hands” of the initiative and assisting with moving heavy boxes of books. Thanks Zach and Danny!