Formation | 1997 |
---|---|
Type | Private Non-profit |
Focus | Knowledge production regarding marginalized populations in crises |
Location |
|
Area served | Worldwide |
Product | Research, knowledge, and teaching |
Website | fic |
Formerly called | Feinstein International Famine Center |
The Feinstein International Center (FIC) is a research and teaching center based at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. The Center promotes the use of evidence and learning in operational and policy responses to protect and strengthen the lives, livelihoods, and dignity of people affected by humanitarian crises. [1]
The center was founded in 1997 as the Feinstein International Famine Center with an endowment from Alan Shawn Feinstein. The Center was originally set up as a tribute to the victims of the Irish famine (1840–1846) on its 150th anniversary. It was established as one of two centers of learning on famine, one at the Friedman School in Boston, US, a city that has a large Irish immigrant population, and one at Cork University in Ireland. [2] In 2006, the Center was renamed the Feinstein International Center (FIC).
Today, FIC has a research and teaching agenda that includes nutrition, food security, livelihoods, refugees, migration, urbanization, pastoralism, humanitarian systems and response, human rights, gender analysis, women's and children's right, protection, [3] war crimes, remedy and reparation. Faculty and staff conduct field-based research with conflict and crises affected populations, local and national leaders, humanitarian and development agencies, government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), International NGOs, and international organizations.
FIC faculty and staff are based around the world, including in Boston, Massachusetts, New York, New York, London, UK, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda.
FIC faculty and researchers work with local and international partners to conduct and share research on a variety of factors in humanitarian contexts. Its current research focuses within the following themes: [4]
FIC’s publications [5] are regularly made available to humanitarian actors through its own website and distribution network and a variety of partners, including ReliefWeb, [6] a UN website for humanitarian actors.
Feinstein faculty teach graduate level courses and advise Masters and Doctoral students primarily at two Tufts University schools:the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Courses are offered on the following areas:
FIC administers a Master of Arts in Humanitarian Assistance (MAHA) degree that is offered jointly by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The MAHA program is designed for mid-career professionals from government, international, national and private organizations and agencies who expect to continue working in related fields. The recruitment and admissions process seeks to attract a mix of people from different countries, backgrounds, and experiences to create an environment where participants learn from both the classroom experience and from each other. Additionally, FIC provides technical assistance and training globally.
A humanitarian crisis is defined as a singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well-being of a community or large group of people. It may be an internal or external conflict and usually occurs throughout a large land area. Local, national and international responses are necessary in such events.
Humanitarian assistance is aid and action designed to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity during and after man-made crises and disasters. It encompasses a wide range of activities, including providing food, water, shelter, medical care, and protection. Humanitarian assistance is grounded in the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence.
The Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University brings together biomedical, nutritional, clinical, social, and behavioral scientists to conduct research, educational, and community service programs in the field of human nutrition. Founded in 1981, the school's mission is to generate trusted science, educate future leaders, and produce real world impact in nutrition science and policy. The school has long billed itself as "only graduate school of nutrition in the United States".
Famine scales are metrics of food security going from entire populations with adequate food to full-scale famine. The word "famine" has highly emotive and political connotations and there has been extensive discussion among international relief agencies offering food aid as to its exact definition. For example, in 1998, although a full-scale famine had developed in southern Sudan, a disproportionate amount of donor food resources went to the Kosovo War. This ambiguity about whether or not a famine is occurring, and the lack of commonly agreed upon criteria by which to differentiate food insecurity has prompted renewed interest in offering precise definitions. As different levels of food insecurity demand different types of response, there have been various methods of famine measurement proposed to help agencies determine the appropriate response.
FEWS NET, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, is a website of information and analysis on food insecurity created in 1985 by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the US Department of State, after famines in East and West Africa. In 2008, Molly E. Brown argued that during its twenty years of activity, FEWS NET had been extremely successful. She said that it was widely viewed as "the most effective program in existence for providing information to governments about impending food crises".
The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is one of the eight schools that comprise Tufts University. The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) is located on the university's health sciences campus in the Chinatown district of Boston, Massachusetts. The school was previously named the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences but on December 5, 2019, the university announced it was removing the Sackler name from the school, because of the Sacklers' role in the opioid epidemic through their ownership of Purdue Pharma.
Catherine Bertini is an American public servant. She is the 2003 World Food Prize Laureate. She was the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program from 1992 to 2002. She served as the UN Under-Secretary for Management from 2003 to 2005. Currently she is a distinguished fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Chair of the Board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the Chair of the Executive Board of the Crop Trust.
The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) is a research unit of the University of Louvain (UCLouvain). It is part of the School of Public Health located on the UCLouvain Brussels Woluwe campus, in Brussels, Belgium.
The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit Organization (AREUO) is an independent research organization based in Kabul, Afghanistan. It aims to provide a firm basis for policy and practice in the country's rapidly changing environment by conducting in-depth, on-the-ground research. Funding is provided by a variety of governments and agencies.
Dr. Neil Boothby is a psychologist and former US Government special advisor and senior coordinator to the USAID administrator on Children in Adversity, and former director of the Program on Forced Migration and Health at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Currently, he is the founding Director of the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on the psychosocial consequences of organized violence on children. As a senior representative of UNICEF, UNHCR, and Save the Children, he has worked for more than 25 years with children in crises in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe and is an internationally recognized expert and advocate for children affected by war and displacement. He has received numerous awards for his work on behalf of war-affected children, including the Red Cross International Humanitarian of the Year Award, the Mickey Leland Award, the United Nation's Golden Achievement Award for Social Services, and Duke University's Humanitarian Service Award.
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. Fletcher is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations. As of 2017, the student body numbered around 230, of whom 36 percent were international students from 70 countries, and around a quarter were U.S. minorities.
Institute for the Study of International Migration is a private research institute located in Washington, DC. Founded in 1998 as part of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, it is associated with the Georgetown University Law Center. The Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) is an innovative multidisciplinary center that studies the social, economic, environmental, and political dimensions of international migration.
Rahul Chandran is the first Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Humanitarian Innovation. GAHI was a major outcome of the World Humanitarian Summit. He was previously a thought leader on United Nations reform, working across the fields of development, conflict and security, widely known for his work on resilience, statebuilding and humanitarian change.
Patrick Webb serves as Chief Nutritionist for the United States Agency for International Development USAID. He was Dean for Academic Affairs at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition from 2005 to 2014. In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious 'Jean-Pierre Habicht Lifetime Achievements in Global Nutrition Research' Award by the American Society for Nutrition. He was also listed among the top 2% of highly-cited scientists across all disciplines globally.
Simin Nikbin Meydani is an Iranian-American nutrition scientist and professor who is the Vice Provost of Research at Tufts University.
Dariush Mozaffarian is a cardiologist, Jean Mayer Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, Professor of Medicine at Tufts School of Medicine, and an attending physician at Tufts Medical Center. His work aims to create the science and translation for a food system that is nutritious, equitable, and sustainable. Dr. Mozaffarian has authored more than 500 scientific publications on dietary priorities for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, and on evidence-based policy approaches and innovations to reduce diet-related diseases and improve health equity in the US and globally. Some of his areas of interest include healthy diet patterns, nutritional biomarkers, Food is Medicine interventions in healthcare, nutrition innovation and entrepreneurship, and food policy. He is one of the top cited researchers in medicine globally, he has served in numerous advisory roles, and his work has been featured in an array of media outlets.
The Henry J. Leir Institute for Migration and Human Security, founded in 2001, is an interdisciplinary education and research organization within The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, at Tufts University. The Leir Institute's mission is to help policymakers and practitioners develop more equitable and sustainable responses to migration and its root causes by employing a human security approach. Leir's research and education also intersect with humanitarianism, development, human rights, and conflict resolution, and the Institute is recognized as a leading academic institution in its field.
Gerald T. Keusch is an American physician-scientist and academic administrator. Keusch is the associate provost for global health at Boston University Medical Campus and a professor of international health and medicine at Boston University School of Public Health. He was the director of John E. Fogarty International Center and the associate director of international research at the National Institutes of Health from 1998 to 2003.
William Alan Masters is an American economist, teaching and conducting research on agricultural economics and food policy in the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University, where he also has a secondary appointment in the Department of Economics.
Johanna T. Dwyer is an American nutrition scientist and dietitian. She is a senior scientist at the National Institutes of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements and director of the Frances Stern Nutrition Center at Tufts Medical Center. Dwyer is a professor of nutrition at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.