Paying It Forward: Lessons Learned from My IVLP

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IVLP participants Asim Ayub and Sadaf Usman enjoying a lovely meal at Home hospitality in Portland Oregon with MP Mills and Amie Abbot

In July 2018, Ms. Sadaf Usman, Director of For a Cause, participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program project for Pakistan: “Strengthening Civil Society- Building Community Resilience Against Violent Extremism'”. She and her colleagues visited Washington, DC; Baltimore, MD; Pittsburgh, PA; Portland, OR; Kalamazoo, MI; and Detroit, MI to connect with organizations working to prevent and counter violence through community-focused programs. Below she reflects on her experience. As part of the IVLP on “Strengthening Civil Society- Building Community Resilience against Violent Extremism,” I found the 3-week experience to be quite enlightening and educational. The rise of conflict based on race,...

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IVLP Alumni Among Fortune Magazine’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, joined by Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump, presents a certificate to 2018 'TIP Report Hero' Sunita Danuwar of Nepal. (Photo Credit: U.S. Department of State)

Sunita Danuwar, 2018 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report Hero, was honored this week as one of Fortune Magazine’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. Sunita is the Executive Director of Shakti Samuha, an organization that provides shelter and support to victims of trafficking in persons in Nepal. A trafficking survivor herself, Sunita now serves as an advocate for other victims. She has played a key role in expanding her organization’s victim-support services to include education and skills training, repatriation services, and legal assistance to survivors and girls at risk of trafficking. In 2018, the US Department of State recognized Sunita and...

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Program Theme Spotlight: Transparency & Accountability

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Transparency and accountability, whether in government, business, or other spheres of public life, ensures public trust in the integrity and fairness of leaders, elected officials and public servants.  International exchange programs on transparency and accountability typically highlight the roles of civil society and the media as watchdogs and catalysts for the creation and maintenance of transparent and accountable government and organizations. The importance of protecting these two concepts is recognized by civil societies and such protective efforts form the bases of numerous international exchange programs. Transparency and accountability can both be applied to a broad range of concerns in...

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From Participant to Programmer: Meridian IVLP Alumnus on Exchanges with Meridian

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Manuel Comeron (bottom) pictured with the American delegation meeting with the Liège Police Force during the Community Connections program

In the fall of 2018, Mr. Manuel Comeron, an alumnus of the 2017 Meridian International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) entitled “Strong Cities: Building Community Resilience to Radicalization and Violent Extremism,” was a programming partner for the Community Connections program. This iteration of Community Connections is a two-part international exchange program between Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee and Liège and Verviers, Belgium during which rising American and Belgian leaders in violence prevention exchange best practices in countering violent extremism. In the first part of the program, Mr. Comeron organized a one-week program in Liège for 8 American NGO leaders, government officials,...

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Program Theme Spotlight: Women’s Empowerment

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Participants from the

Women’s empowerment has long  been recognized as a pillar of successful economic, social and community development.  Since the 1946 U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, the international development community has focused research and attention on women’s rights in political, economic, social and educational fields, and one of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals focuses on Gender equality and women’s empowerment.

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