Network Partners

The George Washington University (Resilience)

The George Washington University, founded in 1821, is one of the most highly regarded and selective, private research universities in the United States. It is located in Washington, D.C., USA and offers programs in fields such as public affairs, government, political communication, public health, science and engineering. RAN is hosted at the Initiative for Disaster Resilience and Humanitarian Affairs, in the Elliott School of International Affairs. 

The Initiative for Disaster Resilience and Humanitarian Affairs (IDRHA) is an interdisciplinary effort that seeks to expand efforts to educate, train and equip leaders worldwide to prevent, prepare and respond to disasters. Disaster resilience addresses immediate needs in an area and provides a plan for how local leaders will learn and respond to future disasters and improve capacity to support themselves. Also, a large part of the initiative’s work involves research to better understand the social, economic, environmental and infrastructure factors that enable communities to withstand and adapt to disasters such as droughts, floods, hurricanes and conflicts. GW/IDRHA aims to improve the science and practice of disaster resilience leadership through an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on understanding and promoting leadership approaches to risk reduction across the disaster life cycle in addition to planning, implementing response measures and post-disaster management. 

GW/IDRHA works with all partners and other stakeholders to develop the Resilience Framework; train RILabs on multiple methods of research techniques, support analysis and measurement of resilience data sets, support development of the State of sub-Saharan Resilience Annual Report and coordinate activities of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Prof. Ky Luu, JD Executive Director, Research Professor Initiative for Disaster Resilience and Humanitarian Affairs Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University Email: kyluu [at] gwu [dot] edu

Deborah Elzie Program Director Initiative for Disaster Resilience and Humanitarian Affairs Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University Email: debelzie [at] gwu [dot] edu

Stanford University (Technology)

Stanford University, founded in 1891, is recognized as one of the world’s leading universities. ResilientAfrica Network is a joint program of the Stanford Center for Deliberative Democracy (CDD), housed in the Department of Communication, which is devoted to research about democracy and public opinion obtained through Deliberative Polling, and the Human Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute (H-STAR), an interdisciplinary research center of innovative research groups focusing on people and technology. H-STAR focuses on a diversity of issues around technology and people (hstar.stanford.edu/). Within H-STAR, the ResilientAfrica Network will be housed in Stanford’s Peace Innovation Lab (Stanford PIL, peaceinnovation.stanford.edu/). The Stanford PIL is a magnet attracting multidisciplinary scholars globally to generate approaches, methodologies, and solutions to complex global problems. The Stanford PIL is also an offshoot of Persuasive Tech which designs machines to change humans, and believes that new advances in technology can help promote world peace in 30 years.

Stanford University will, train the staff, faculty and students at RILab on innovation methods, train staff, faculty and students at RILab in Deliberative Polling methodology in a train the trainers process; and pilot massive online courses with RILab working within existing Stanford courses.

Human Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute (HSTAR) Team:

Centre for Deliberative Democracy (CDD) Team:

Dr. James Fishkin Professor of Communication and Political Science, Stanford University

Alice Siu Chao Associate Director of the CDD

Kathleen Giles Manager CDD

Lillian Kamal Associate Director, Administration & Finance, Human-Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute, (HSTAR)

Stanford ChangeLabs Team:

Prof. Banny Banerjee Director of Stanford University ChangeLabs Email: banny [at] stanford [dot] edu, changelabs [dot] banny [at] gmail [dot] com

James Stewart Norris ‎Consultant in Behavioural Science, Emerging Technology and Social Change at Stanford ChangeLabs Email: jsnorris [at] stanford [dot] edu

June Flora Senior Research Scholar at the Graduate School of Education Stanford University Email: jflora [at] stanford [dot] edu

Aishwarya Natarajan Innovator Email: aish [at] stanford [dot] edu

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a bipartisan policy institution of 200 scholars and staff who conduct research, writing, outreach and policy discussions on key U.S. security and foreign policy issues.  Among CSIS core areas of competence are Sub-Saharan Africa, food security, global development, global health, post-conflict reconstruction and disaster response. CSIS is recognized for balanced, forward-looking, and policy-relevant analysis as well as for its role in convening a diverse range of interests from both the public and private sector.

Jennifer Cooke Director of the CSIS Africa Program, Centre for Strategic and International Studies

Benjamin Hubner Africa Program Coordinator and Research Associate, Centre for Strategic and International Studies