Kahane Annual Report - 2018-19

WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE Report of Academic Year 2018-19

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We are grateful for the remarkable learning opportunities and experiences that the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College provides to our aspiring leaders. The skills and knowledge our students are able to acquire through their time at the U.N. are a testament to the value of this international order and its ability to be an impetus for change in the world. Both the Kahane U.N. Program and corresponding U.N. Week on campus continue to inspire innovation, new partnerships and ways of thinking among our students and community partners, and action on behalf of human rights, global peace and security on a local, national and global scale. Thank you for your support and for equipping our students with the tools to become the next generation of change-makers.

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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

About Us The William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College is a flagship program for the College, one that further confirms Occidental’s position as a leader among liberal arts colleges and serves as a catalyst for change.

Monies from the Kahane United Nations Program Endowment and the Kahane Scholars Endowment work together to enhance the excellence of this distinctive program and ensure access for Oxy’s most talented students regardless of their financial circumstances. Thank you for supporting their work and the efforts of Director Doug Gardner and Kahane U.N. Program at Occidental College Committee Co-Chair Laura Hebert as well as faculty and students on campus as they seek to uphold the U.N.’s mission and engage in collective action in our communities.

As the training ground for some of our most successful and globally minded graduates, participants in the Kahane U.N. Program are exposed to a broad range of intellectual, social and cultural viewpoints – the essence of a liberal arts education – while learning firsthand how to put theory and ideas into action on a global stage. Through their internships, work with faculty in their rigorous courses, field visits and more, students are not only able to engage in but lead efforts toward inclusive, sustainable and equitable development.

The tremendous impact of the Kahane U.N. Program extends beyond the annual cohort of U.N. participants and back to Occidental’s campus. Through our slate of U.N. Week events and programs, a wider range of students becomes immersed and equipped with the intellectual understanding and tools to better address a broad array of our society’s critical challenges. The work on campus meaningfully complements and reflects the work being done in New York while also bringing timely discussions onto campus and to the Los Angeles community.

We remain grateful for the transformative support that the Kahane United Nations Program Endowment and the Kahane Scholars Endowment provide.

The impact is not only formative but also often life-changing for our students as they prepare to be innovators, problem solvers and leaders who will work to address our most complex global challenges.

Thank you for your significant investment – we are thrilled and humbled as we reflect upon what our graduates can and will accomplish through your generosity and partnership.

Year in Review

by Doug Gardner Faculty Director of the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College

FALL 2018 SEMESTER HIGHLIGHTS The William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College continues to equip our students with a range of tools to participate in and lead efforts that are deeply rooted within the central mission and work of the U.N. With your support, the core elements of Oxy’s Kahane Program at the U.N. remained strong, with some special features to expound upon in 2018: • Notably, this year’s cohort consisted of 18 students, an increase from last year. The diverse 2018 cohort of 15 women and three men included seven students of color. Participants successfully completed demanding internships in the U.N. system in addition to a rigorous academic program.

• The one-week field visit to Costa Rica in October 2018 proved to be of important value to the program, providing an opportunity for students to get a firsthand view of how the U.N. works at the field level and to undertake practical, field-based research on gender issues in the tropical crop industry.

• The annual two-day Washington, D.C., visit in November remains a highly valued part of the program. Students engage with various interlocutors in government and think tanks to consider how the U.S. leverages the U.N. to advance U.S. foreign policy. Students also had the chance to significantly network with professionals in D.C. regarding future career opportunities.

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• Guest speakers from the U.N. who are knowledge leaders in their fields brought additional perspectives and cutting-edge insight to the program. For the first time two Oxy professors were guest lecturers in the program: Professor Thalia Gonzalez on restorative justice at the U.N. and Professor Jennifer Piscopo (via Skype from L.A.) on refining the gender analytic lens in the context of the task force.

• Furthermore, there were two notable additions to the external outreach of the program in New York: a briefing at the U.S. Mission to the U.N. in December and an October lunch at the Council on Foreign Relations hosted by Oxy alumnus Richard Falkenrath ’91.

WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

INTERNSHIPS The fall of 2018 was a somewhat turbulent time at the U.N., with ever-shifting positions from the leading funder and former champion of the U.N.’s multilateral approach to global issues ... i.e., changes from the U.S. government. Nevertheless, the U.N. Secretary General, other member states and U.N. agencies moved forward in 2018 on the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the Global Compact on Migration, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) implementation and some high-profile reforms related to peacekeeping and development. Through their internships, students had the opportunity to keep their fingers directly on the pulse of these daily developments at the U.N. Internships remain the central pillar of the Kahane Program at the U.N. and provide Oxy students with a unique opportunity for experiential learning as they contribute to the global problem-solving of the U.N. system.

A rewarding indicator of our students’ contributions is the near-unanimous satisfaction of supervisors in each internship location. Thus, most of the internships from 2017 were carried forward into 2018. There was one new internship slot in 2018 at the United Nations Development Programme’s Gender Team within its Bureau for Policy and Program Support (BPPS). This additional internship seemed opportune in light of the focus of academic classes on gender as well as the central theme of the 2019 U.N. Week back on campus.

The feedback from students on the 2018 semester indicated that they enjoyed rich and meaningful internships in the following locations.

DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS U.K. Mission (three interns)

The U.K. Mission continues to be a superb internship location with broad exposure for students to the dynamics of a P-5 member of the Security Council and a traditionally active EU member, albeit with uncertainty as Brexit was/is being negotiated. This is a large and important mission at the U.N. that tremendously values Oxy’s contribution to its work.

Rwanda Mission (two interns)

This has been an important location for interns to get a perspective on the G-77 and to delve into issues on peacekeeping and development.

Costa Rica Mission (two interns – both of whom were Spanish speakers)

Costa Rica continues to be a quality internship host with important responsibilities provided to our Oxy interns in committee meetings, G-77 gatherings and daily mission happenings.

Guatemala Mission (one intern – a Spanish speaker)

The Oxy intern at the Guatemala Mission was given tremendous windows of opportunity to support the mission in committee meetings in addition to G-77 events. She was able to share during various Oxy seminars some great insights from her internship on how the “rest of the world” perceives the U.S. during the Trump administration.

U.N. AGENCIES UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund (one intern)

The internship in UNICEF’s Communications for Development (C4D) Team provided special insight for our student to delve into the depth of research and planning behind UNICEF’s methods and tools in communication.

UNDP – United Nations Development Programme (three interns)

Oxy interns served on three distinct teams that focused on priority development matters: gender issues, HIV/ AIDS and SDG implementation. Oxy interns distinguished themselves at UNDP in the mold of energetic young professionals with important responsibilities.

UNHCR – The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (two interns)

Our interns excelled in an office environment, where interns are typically given minimal instruction yet maximum windows of opportunity to contribute. Their responsibilities included coverage of refugee issues in the General Assembly, various committees, the Security Council, interagency meetings and panel discussions.

UNFPA – United Nations Population Fund (one intern)

In a short-handed office, our Oxy intern played a key role in event management for several important UNFPA events and daily issues related to the role of men and boys in UNFPA’s gender equality efforts.

UNITAR – United Nations Institute for Training and Research (one intern)

In this relatively small office, our student maintained significant responsibilities in event management. He also researched and wrote a chapter on SDGs and public policy for a central UNITAR publication on the 2030 Agenda.

UNRWA – United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (one intern)

This U.N. agency that focuses on Palestinian refugees gave our intern the opportunity to support UNRWA in the General Assembly and Security Council, write briefs, prepare input for internal and external newsletters, and organize the visits of senior officials.

U.N. Foundation (one intern)

The U.N. Foundation gave our student a unique opportunity to focus on SDGs in China.

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THE ACADEMIC COMPONENT The internships and the lunchtime classes led by Professors Fomerand and Gardner are closely intertwined and designed to be mutually reinforcing. As in years past, there were two classes, one on Conflict Prevention and the other a practical Task Force in Human Development. There was also a seminar titled The U.N. Experience to process students’ internship experiences, review select pieces related to leadership at the U.N., and hear from guest speakers.

• DWA 401, the Task Force class, gave students a unique understanding of the role of Costa Rican women in the production of tropical crops. This occurred in particular during the one-week field trip as well as during research throughout the semester. Students’ practical presentation and written report to the U.N. in Costa Rica was valued for its helpful research on migrant women and is now being used for advocacy on gender issues by the U.N. There were some initial challenges related to pulling together a complex report in a short amount of time, but our students rose to the challenge.

• In DWA 402, we endeavored to show the complexity and importance of conflict prevention that has now become a major focus of the U.N. One underlying and recurrent theme of this course is to connect gender concerns to the multifaceted dimensions of prevention. Additionally, and building upon the experience of previous semesters promoting student ownership, the course relied extensively on participatory learning through the use of simulation games and student-led discussions of the assigned readings.

• DWA 403, The U.N. Experience, focuses specifically on leaders and leadership in the U.N., and in 2018 we expanded our studies to examine leadership through a gender lens. This proved to be a useful emphasis that brought together scholarly research, the internship experiences, the trip to Costa Rica and other academic classes. It also was a good precursor for the subsequent gender discussions on campus that happened in 2019 during U.N. Week.

The guest speakers in 2018 were once again thought leaders in their fields and complemented the internships, readings and input from professors. The speakers came primarily from various U.N. agencies and they covered relevant and timely topics of the day. Some examples include Rosemary Kalapurakal from UNDP on the SDGs; Stephane Dujarric on his experience as the U.N. secretary general’s spokesman; and UNEP’s (United Nations Environment Programme) Charles McNeill on sustainability.

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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

SUPPORT FROM THE KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM ENDOWMENT AND THE KAHANE SCHOLARS ENDOWMENT Thank you – your support has allowed the program to grow even deeper and wider. The chance to see the U.N. in action in Costa Rica has been a valuable addition to our students’ learning. Likewise, the significant programming and efforts around U.N. Week have deepened the bond between the Occidental campus and New York.

Expenditures in New York from the director’s discretionary funds during the fall of 2018 amounted to $25,306 and related to: • The Costa Rica trip (primarily to support students on financial aid plus the travel expenses of all students and professors) • The summer researcher in Costa Rica for the Task Force • Support for the D.C. trip

We also remain grateful for the lovely evening you organized at your residence in December. This event truly is one of the highlights of the semester for our students. Your support gives our students a chance to unwind in a family setting, to tell their stories from the semester, and to see what living in the great city of New York looks like in a warm and welcoming home.

LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FALL OF 2019 After 34 years of operation of the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College, there is a solid base and established traditions to build upon, with your endowments providing welcome financial support. The subject matter and issues at the U.N. are shifting every fall, so the ongoing challenge for the program is to stay connected with cutting-edge trends and to seize opportunities as change occurs. Likewise, each year the student composition shifts and the program needs to adjust to their unique characteristics and needs.

Some new elements to mention concerning the fall of 2019: • There will be a pause on the Costa Rica trip in 2019, though a two-day visit to Harvard University (Kennedy School of Government) will be added to allow students to work with thought leaders at KSG on two case studies of Asian countries: Vietnam and Myanmar. The focus will be on the political, economic and social roles of the U.N. in those two countries over the past four decades, each with its own unique path and history, containing both successes and failures. This will continue to broaden students’ understanding of U.N. work at the field level.

• The Task Force research will shift from the previous U.N. “client” in Costa Rica to work with a new “client” in 2019 – the UNICEF Policy Lab in New York. The topic will revolve around the type of youth skills that will be needed for the green economy and how digital tools can be optimally used for youth employment. UNICEF will be an exciting partner for this work and will use the research and ideas of our Oxy students to assist in determining its future direction within these domains. Having the “client” in New York rather than Costa Rica no doubt also will facilitate more regular contact with our students.

• Most internships from 2018 will continue into 2019, although with a slightly smaller cohort (15 students).

Classes will be tweaked based on input from previous years and they also will respond to dynamic issues that emerge during the semester.

• The traditional annual reception that is held in October for Kahane U.N. Program alumni and internship hosts will be expanded in the fall of 2019 and serve as a launch pad for the College’s Campaign For Good in New York and surrounding areas.

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Summary Remarks from Laura Hebert Kahane U.N. Program at Occidental College Committee Co-Chair Thank you – your generosity has allowed Occidental College to ensure the sustainability and expansion of the Kahane United Nations internship program in New York, which offers our students unparalleled opportunities to become participants in global diplomacy, to learn from leading international experts and practitioners, and to hone valuable professional skills. The impact of your gifts, however, is also felt across the Occidental campus. Your support has considerably expanded the College’s ability to bring to campus distinguished guests who have played an instrumental role in translating U.N. ideals into practical action and to create opportunities for our students, faculty and staff to consider how the ideas, norms and values of the U.N. matter to our campus and the Los Angeles community.

This year, many of the on-campus activities of the Kahane U.N. Program centered on the theme of “Gender, Sexuality & Collective Action,” with the objective of generating conversation about gender discrimination and sexual violence sparked by the #MeToo movement. The highlight of the year was U.N. Week, the organizing of which was led by faculty affiliated with the Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies (GWSS) Program, with support from the John Parke Young Initiative and an enthusiastic team of student volunteers. Last year’s U.N. Week centered on the launch of a partnership with the City of Los Angeles to implement the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the local level.

This year’s U.N. Week was intended to build on last year’s discussions about the relevance of the SDGs to the local and national context, while placing particular emphasis on inequalities – of gender, sex, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, class and migration status, among others – that are to varying degrees targeted by the SDGs but also serve to obstruct the SDGs’ intended implementation.

U.N. Week in February was packed with daily events, including a keynote address by Ambassador Melanne Verveer on “The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals: A Gender Perspective and Call to Action.” Ambassador Verveer’s lecture built on her decades of experience as a national and global champion of women’s rights. Her career has been distinguished by her service as chief of staff for First Lady Hillary Clinton, as the first U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues under President Obama, U.S. Representative to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women and, currently, executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.

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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

In addition to Ambassador Verveer’s keynote lecture, U.N. Week activities included: • A student-organized photo exhibit titled “Taking Up Space: A Photo Collection Celebrating Resiliency,” which aimed to celebrate the diversity of the Oxy community and to offer an opportunity for participants to reflect on what it means to engage in collective action across differences.

• A panel featuring alumni of the 2018 Kahane U.N. Program, which centered on their task force work on gender and sustainable development with the U.N. Development Programme in Costa Rica.

• A panel on “Intersectionality, Inequality and Collective Action,” organized as an interactive conversation among distinguished participants working in distinctive ways to promote social change related to gender and sexuality. Panelists included Alia Ali, a Yemeni-Bosnian-American multimedia artist and visual storyteller; Jeanne Holm, the deputy CIO for the City of Los Angeles and a leader in L.A.’s Time’s Up movement; Malliga Och, assistant professor in the global studies and languages department at Idaho State University and an expert on the CEDAW Cities (C4C) movement in the U.S.; and Funmilola Fagbamila, a Nigerian-American scholar, activist, playwright and artist.

• A student-organized information fair that brought together 16 campus clubs and community organizations that focus on themes related to gender and sexuality, including Sexuality and Gender Acceptance (SAGA), Project Safe, #MeToo International, Planned Parenthood and the League of Women Voters.

• A panel focusing on Occidental faculty’s work to promote gender equality, featuring Jennifer Piscopo, Assistant Professor of Politics; Erica Preston-Roedder, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy; and Vicki Ruiz, Distinguished Professor at UC Irvine and Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the Study of Los Angeles (ISLA).

• A panel that spotlighted the efforts of student community leaders to promote positive social change related to gender and sexuality on campus and in the L.A. community, featuring Roz Jones (DWA ’18) of #MeToo International and A Band of Voters; Rachel Hayes ’21, a co-founder of the Sexuality and Gender Acceptance Club (SAGA); Sandy Pattison ’19 of Project SAFE and AWARE-LA; and Waruguru Waithira ’19 of the Oxy Arts Initiate!

• “Data Science Day,” organized by the Center for Digital Liberal Arts, which combined a panel on careers in data science with break-out, hands-on workshops led by local experts that introduced students to the kinds of humanist and social questions that can be answered with data science.

Experts included Hunter Owens, senior data scientist for the City of Los Angeles; Umi Hsu, senior project manager for the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs; and Lauren Steely, associate resource specialist for the Metropolitan Water District.

U.N. Week this year was notable for the effort by its organizers to build relationships with community partners and make connections to the U.N. meaningful to departments across campus while harnessing the energy and creativity of Oxy students. The events together opened up important opportunities for community dialogue on how the building of inclusive collective action aimed at realizing the human rights of all can best be supported at a time of considerable political turmoil in the U.S.

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Directly connecting to the year’s theme of “Gender, Sexuality & Collective Action,” the Kahane U.N. Program and the Young Initiative also co-sponsored a two-part event on “Complexities of Human Trafficking in the Global/Local Context.” The event included two interactive panel discussions. The first focused on critically evaluating the anti-trafficking efforts of the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP) and included the participation of two Oxy DWA alumni employed by J/TIP, Kyle Ballard ’04 and Katie Wiese ’15, as well as DWA Professor Laura Hebert. The afternoon panel brought together individuals working in L.A. to support survivors of human trafficking, including Paula Tobler, the emergency response staff attorney for the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST); Ima Matul, a survivor of human trafficking and the survivor leadership program coordinator for CAST; Panida Rzonca, the directing attorney for the Thai Community Development Center; Christopher Lapinig, Skadden Fellow with Asian Americans Advancing Justice; and Daliah Setareh, senior attorney for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

In addition to U.N. Week and the “Complexities of Human Trafficking” event, the Kahane U.N. Program hosted a number of other distinguished guests and speakers throughout the year, including Ambassador Kai Sauer, Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations; Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi, Ambassador of Finland to the U.S.; Stefan Lindstrom, Consul General of Finland in Los Angeles; and David Frasen, Consul General of Canada in Los Angeles. The Kahane U.N. Program also sponsored a New Zealand Diplomat Track II working lunch, participation in the Model U.N. competition at UCLA, and a “Conflict Cuisine” dinner for faculty and students focusing on the “Political Economy of Genocide” to mark Genocide Awareness Month.

The Kahane U.N. Program has thus, in summary, had a far-reaching impact on Occidental College well beyond our flagship internship program, through contributing to intellectual life on campus, deepening our students’ understanding of the complexities of global diplomatic relations, and creating spaces for dialogue and collaboration aimed at addressing the most pressing global challenges of the 21st century.

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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE