HIID Hosts African, Ukrainian Officials

The Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) recently hosted two separate delegations of high-ranking Economics and Finance ministers from Africa and Ukraine.

The Ukrainian delegation, headed by the Vice Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Viktor Pynzenyk, discussed ways of promoting economic growth designed to liberalize Ukraine's economy. HIID Director Jeffrey Sachs and his colleagues reviewed the country's options regarding economic, tax, and budgetary reforms, and an active exchange of ideas took place.

Twenty African Finance Ministers and their deputies -- ranging from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe -- took part in lively discussions with Sachs and HIID staff on economic and financial reforms. The meetings, which were arranged by Robert Rotberg, who leads HIID's Southern Africa program, helped participants gain a deeper understanding of how research can help solve important policy reform problems.

KSG's Porter Receives Rolex Achievement Award

Kennedy School of Government Professor Roger Porter, director of the School's Center for Business and Government, recently received the 1996 Rolex Achievement Award. The award, presented in New York by tennis great Stan Smith, honors collegiate players who have gone on to achieve professional success and make significant contributions to society. Porter, a Rhodes Scholar, played on Brigham Young University's top 10 varsity tennis team, and later worked in three Republican White Houses. He served as chief domestic policy adviser during the Bush administration.

Yamaguchi Funds New Professorship at SPH

The School of Public Health will establish a new Professorship in Environmental Health and Human Habitation funded by Akira Yamaguchi, president of KST-Hokkaido and founder of the International Enviornmental Institute in Japan.

In addition, KST-Hokkaido and the School of Public Health will form a new partnership, the International Environmental Institute-Harvard Joint Program in Environmental Health and Human Habitation. The International Environmental Institute will assure their new partnership with $3.1 million in joint research funds over a nine-year period. The primary centers for the joint program will be the Department of Environmental Health, chaired by Joseph Brain at the School of Public Health, and the Environmental Institute in Japan.