The Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP), part of the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, received a $245,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation that will support research on global development goals and women’s economic empowerment.
IIEP is directed by James Foster, professor of economics and international affairs. He explained the goal of the institute is to research and examine “critical issues facing the global economy, such as poverty, sustainable development and global governance.”
Since 1967, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has granted funds to organizations dedicated to solving social and environmental problems at home and abroad. The foundation's goals are in line with those of the IIEP, and include helping to reduce global poverty and limiting the risk of climate change.
With the Hewlett grant, IIEP will create new ways to evaluate the economic empowerment of women using the Alkire Foster method, a measurement developed by Dr. Foster and Sabina Alkire, director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, to calculate multidimensional poverty. The issue of women’s economic empowerment is critically linked to the outcome of global development and poverty reduction, but ways to measure its impact have been limited.
Additionally, the grant supports the IIEP’s continued multidisciplinary research on policy issues surrounding economic globalization. The institute’s research program develops policy options and academic analysis about international economic integration in many countries around the world.
The IIEP will also work on new priorities for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. There are currently eight development goals, ranging from halving poverty to reducing child mortality, which the U.N. has set out to accomplish by 2015. The IIEP will address the global post-2015 agenda to track and inform global development efforts.
"The generous grant from the Hewlett Foundation supports IIEP's contributions to the ongoing conversation about the post-2015, sustainable development goals, the global framework for reducing poverty and enhancing human development,” Dr. Foster said. “We are very pleased to be working with the foundation on these important issues."