Yemen needs ‘resilience’ approach, writes Diener ’99 in Christian Science Monitor
In the wake of anti-American protests in the Middle East, Kari Jorgensen Diener ’99 and co-author Victoria Stanski tell Christian Science Monitor readers that these countries, especially Yemen, need foreign aid more than ever.
This family in Yemen’s Mawza District received vouchers to buy food as part of Mercy Corps’ emergency response to Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. Photograph by Cassandra Nelson / Mercy Corps.
In their Sept. 25 op-ed they write:
“Simply increasing short-term relief aid — although an important stopgap measure — is not a durable solution. What Yemen needs are simultaneous initiatives to build a more dynamic private sector, while supporting market development, job training, and youth employment programs to address systemic issues.
“In other parts of the world — notably the nearby Horn of Africa — the United States Agency for International Development is piloting a ‘resilience’ approach to aid. That multi-pronged approach addresses immediate needs while also focusing on the underlying factors that make a population vulnerable to recurring humanitarian crises.”
Diener, a magna cum laude graduate in political science who earned a master’s at Georgetown, is a senior policy adviser on the Middle East with Mercy Corps. She reports that her editor at The Christian Science Monitor was a fellow alumna: Cricket Alioto Fuller ’05.
