Last month, a team of six staff from the Civic Initiative (a business group of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Donahue Institute) were in Islamabad. They held a three-day follow-up conference for alumni from recent cohorts of the Study of the U.S. Institutes Comparative Public Policymaking program that has been held annually by the Civic Initiative since 2010. The SUSI program is funded by the US Department of State Education and Cultural Affairs Office.
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Pakistan-U.S. Alumni Network Masterclass
Program Summary
AIPS facilitated workshops at the Pakistan-U.S. Alumni Network (PUAN) Masterclass program titled, “#PeaceLab: Promoting Regional Peace and Stability.” The two U.S. experts supported by AIPS, Dr. Audrey Iffert-Saleem and Dr. Hassan Abbas, were among other prominent practitioners from a variety of fields. PUAN organized two editions of the PUAN Masterclass – a 5-day flagship program to facilitate the creation of safer societies regionally and locally and connect young social entrepreneurs from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
This in-depth training workshop provided 100 alumni of U.S. government exchange programs from across Pakistan and Afghanistan with the tools and skills in technology, innovation, entrepreneurship strategies, and market linkages. This Masterclass program aimed to incubate their peace tech ideas and concepts into impactful profitable or non-profitable (social) businesses. To read more about PUAN and the #PeaceLab program, check out this link
Scholar Bios
Dr. Audrey Iffert-Saleem is Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives for Oregon State University (OSU) College of Business. Two critical initiatives in her portfolio include founding and leading the OSU Center for the Advancement of Women in Leadership and InnovationX, the OSU Center of Excellence for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Dr. Hassan Abbas is Distinguished Professor of International Relations at the Near East South Asia Strategic Studies Centre (NESA), National Defense University in Washington DC. He serves as a senior advisor at Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and a senior fellow at the Centre of Global Policy, a think tank focusing on intersection of U.S. foreign policy and Muslim geopolitics. His current research work focuses on building narratives for countering political and religious extremism & rule of law reforms in developing states.