Feinstein International Center

Last updated
Feinstein International Center
Formation1997 (1997)
TypePrivate Non-profit
FocusKnowledge production regarding marginalized populations in crises
Location
Area served
Worldwide
ProductResearch, knowledge, and teaching
Website fic.tufts.edu
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]

Contents

History and profile

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.

Research focus and publications

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.

Teaching at Tufts

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.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humanitarian aid</span> Material or logistical assistance for people in need

Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance, usually in the short-term, to people in need. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humanitarian crisis</span> Large threat to the health and safety of many people

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tufts University School of Medicine</span> Private medical school in Boston, Massachusetts, US

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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 Friedman School is one of the eight schools that currently comprise Tufts University. Although originally split between the university's Medford/Somerville campus and the health sciences campus in Boston, almost all of the school's facilities and programs now share the health sciences campus with the School of Medicine and the School of Dental Medicine. The Jaharis Family Center for Biomedical and Nutrition Research, which opened in 2002, houses most of the nutrition school. The school currently enrolls over 200 masters and doctoral students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Famine Early Warning Systems Network</span> USAID website

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".

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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.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Boothby</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Webb (nutritionist)</span> British nutritionist

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.

Simin Nikbin Meydani is an Iranian-American nutrition scientist and professor who is the Vice Provost of Research at Tufts University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sasha Chanoff</span> American aid organizer

Sasha Chanoff is an American humanitarian based in Somerville, Massachusetts who has worked for two decades in refugee rescue, relief, and resettlement operations in Africa and the United States.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald T. Keusch</span> American physician-scientist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johanna T. Dwyer</span> American nutrition scientist and dietician

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.

References

  1. "Tufts – Feinstein International Center Mission Statement". fic.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  2. Shoham, Interview by Jeremy (3 January 2004). "Feinstein International Famine Centre on ENN". Field Exchange 21: 25. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  3. "ICRC Protection Policy". www.icrc.org. 2008-09-30. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  4. "Research Themes: Tufts – Feinstein International Center". fic.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  5. "Publications:Tufts – Feinstein International Center". fic.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  6. Tufts University Feinstein International Center Publications | ReliefWeb. (2014). Retrieved January 31, 2014, from http://reliefweb.int/search/results?search=Tufts University