Innovations in Post-Conflict Reconstruction with Evariste Habiyambere and Rahmatullah Oryakhel :: Graduate Student Lunch Seminar :: Events :: Center for International Development at Harvard University (CID)

CID Graduate Student Lunch Seminar
with the 2008 Bridge Builders Conference

"Innovations in Post-Conflict Reconstruction"

Speakers: Evariste Habiyambere, Rwanda; and Rahmatullah Oryakhel, Afghanistan
Moderator: Claude Bruderlein, Harvard School of Public Health

Friday, 29 February 2008
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM, Lunch served
Perkins Room, 4th Floor, Rubenstein Building, HKS

Panel Abstract:

This panel will address the types of interventions that are needed at the local and national level to begin reconstructing social and economic life under conditions of unstable peace. What services and projects are most valued by people, and what are their main concerns and priorities? How are individual interests balanced with fulfilling community needs in an environment with limited resources? How can you build trust between your organization and the community it works with, as well as within the community itself?

Biographies:

Evariste Habiyambere, Rwanda:
Mr. Habiyambere’s work in community development with Food for the Hungry (FHI) is particularly challenging in the context of post-genocide Rwanda . For peace to be maintained there must be economic development and there must be opportunity for survivors, returnees from the Diaspora, families of perpetrators, and even the perpetrators, themselves to find justice and reconciliation. Mr. Habiyambere has been successful in helping FHI to obtain grants from donors outside of Rwanda and from the Rwandan government. These grants are helping to create associations and cooperatives that span religious (Protestant, Catholic, Muslim), familial, and clan categories. In addition, his work to evaluate and research these associations is uncovering the processes whereby these associations develop the necessary norms, networks, mutual support processes, and business skills to both improve the economies of their households and villages and establish the trust necessary for these burgeoning development efforts to flourish.

Rahmatullah Oryakhel, Afghanistan:
Having studied in Pakistan, Oryakhel returned to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban to complete his education in Afghanistan and work to directly toward rebuilding the country along with the small group of educated Afghans who did not choose to stay abroad. Oryakhel works with the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Murad Khan, Kabul, a small community with members of extremely mixed ethnic and religious backgrounds, at the intersection of traditional power structures, new government laws and influence, and international development money and priorities, The restoration projects that Oryakhel supervises in Kabul are highly visible ones that aim to restore a central part of the capital city as a hub of commerce and culture, from an area that currently sits under seven feet of garbage, has no functioning sewage system or electricity, and has been seriously neglected by the central government. He works with residents and landowners to clear the garbage, pave and level the streets, connect residential toilets to central drainage systems, and restore historic buildings and the vibrant but under serviced bazaar street to their previous beauty.

For a complete schedule of Bridge Builders events, please visit http://www.harvardbridgebuilders.org