America in Transition
It was a year of hope and worry. A new President was elected, promising “change we can believe in.” MacArthur launched several new initiatives in the United States and around the world. And the global economic crisis eroded the value of our endowment while it increased the needs of people and organizations we serve. As we set the course for the period ahead, all three of these developments come into play.
Let me begin with the positive. 2008 was an extraordinary year for MacArthur as a record number of initiatives came to fruition. MacArthur also deepened its work in longstanding domestic programs like housing and juvenile justice. Outside the United States, 2008 saw a rebalancing of our geographic priorities with more attention to Asia and Africa.
Here are some examples:
- MacArthur launched a $68 million Asia Security Initiative. It will support a network of 27 policy research institutions from across the Asia-Pacific, including Peking University and Seoul’s East Asia Institute, and nurture a new generation of scholars and practitioners through the Asia Security Emerging Leaders Program. The Initiative will support research on ways to resolve regional tensions — including urgent challenges over North Korea, Taiwan, and Sino-Japanese relations — and work toward a new framework for security in the Asia region.
- We developed a $50 million commitment to help reduce maternal mortality, the fifth of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. Working with Pathfinder International and others, our focus is on treating eclampsia and postpartum hemorrhage (the most common causes of death for mothers in childbirth) in Nigeria and India. These countries, together, account for one-third of maternal deaths worldwide.
- We announced a worldwide competition to select 12 universities as pioneers in a new master’s degree to train professionals in development. The new degree will emphasize science, engineering, management, and health and will include a deep clinical experience in the developing world. The curriculum was developed by a MacArthur-supported International Commission on Education for Sustainable Development Practice, chaired by Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University.
- We created a climate change adaptation initiative within our Conservation and Sustainable Development program. A $50 million commitment will support scientific assessments of the threat climate change poses to eight biodiversity hotspots where MacArthur is working, from the Andes to Africa’s Albertine Rift, from the eastern Himalayas to Melanesia. Adaptation plans will be crafted that, for example, create corridors from existing protected areas to new ones at higher elevations or with access to water. And best practices will be shared around the world through a new Ecosystems and Livelihoods Adaptation Network being developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with MacArthur support.