The Impact of COVID on Aid & Development in the MENA Region

Date and time: Tue, Nov 10, 2020 12 noon to 1 pm Eastern Standard Time

Register here.

Join us for this talk featuring M.A. in Arab Studies alumni who are working in development and aid in the MENA region and worldwide

Join us for a panel with MAAS alumni working in development and humanitarian aid in various parts of the MENA region to hear about how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting their work. Panelists will speak about how their organizations and the countries that they work in are adapting to new needs that have emerged during the pandemic. Speakers will also speak to how they have seen the development and humanitarian aid sector in the MENA region generally adapt to the new pandemic reality.

Featuring:

• Ghazi Bin Hamed is a researcher, ghostwriter and speechwriter in the Office of HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal as well as a Consultant for the West Asia-North Africa Institute (WANA) in Amman, Jordan. He received both a B.S. in Foreign Service and an M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown. Ghazi has several years of experience in intelligence and policy analysis and in speechwriting and communications. He is an advocate of social and ecological justice and a firm believer in the power of human solidarity to will into being a sustainable and just future for all. Ghazi was born in Amman, Jordan to a Jordanian father and mother of Palestinian origin. He is a 44th generation direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
• Dickie Fischer is a Program Officer with Jesuit Refugee Services. At JRS he manages the humanitarian assistance and emergency response program portfolio working on development projects in the Middle East as well as throughout the Americas, Africa, and East Asia. Prior to JRS, Dickie worked in policy development in the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services and did monitoring and evaluation work with the American Red Cross. He graduated from the M.A. in Arab Studies program in 2016, he was a research assistant for the International Organization for Migration project on IDPs in Iraq. At MAAS he concentrated on development and completed a certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies.
• Kari Jorgensen Diener is a humanitarian response and development leader with over 20 years of experience. She currently serves as the Country Director for Mercy Corps Jordan, and has previously been the Director of Programs for the Jordan office, as well as Deputy Director for Policy and Advocacy in Washington, DC. Prior to joining Mercy Corps, Kari worked with CHF International (now Global Communities), where she held a variety of positions including Deputy Chief of Party in Palestine and Regional Representative in Southern Sudan. Prior to her work in international development, Kari was a researcher on migration and refugee policy at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University and a Fulbright Research Fellow in Turkey. Kari received a BA in Political Science from Bates College and an MA in Arab Studies with a Certificate in Refugee and Humanitarian Emergencies from Georgetown University. Kari has published articles in The Christian Science Monitor and The Hill, among other publications. She is the co-author of The Uprooted, Improving Responses to Forced Migration.       Kari speaks Arabic and Turkish.

This event is made possible in part thanks to a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant for CCAS as a National Resource Center on the Middle East and North Africa. Please email mcf77@georgetown.edu with any questions or requests for accommodation.