Author: Susan M. Blaustein

Dr. Susan M. Blaustein is co-founder and Director of the Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI), a project of the Earth Institute at Columbia University established to assist sub-Saharan cities in their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Through a comprehensive combination of research, analysis, interventions and high-level advocacy, MCI identifies gaps in MDG-related areas, estimates the costs of filling those gaps and supports the Cities in designing integrated development strategies capable of accomplishing the Goals, thereby jumpstarting a period of fruitful social and economic development and making extreme poverty a thing of the past. Dr. Blaustein came to the sustainable development work of the Earth Institute out of her conflict prevention efforts with the International Crisis Group (ICG), her years as a foreign correspondent in Southeast Asia and her independent study of the roots of the Rwandan genocide. Prior to this, Dr. Blaustein was on the faculty of Columbia University, a Junior Fellow at Harvard University and a lecturer at Yale University, where she also earned her doctorate. The recipient of awards from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and the Guggenheim Foundation, Dr. Blaustein serves on the board of directors of the non-profit Millennium Promise, the lead UN partner in the Millennium Villages. She is completing a book about the Rwandan genocide and lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her journalist husband and 15-year-old daughter.

MCI’s Signature S2S Program Kicks Off its Third Year with a Series of Trainings

MCI’s signature School2School Connectivity Project (S2S), a partnership with global communications giants Ericsson and Airtel Ghana, the City of Kumasi, Ghana, the Kumasi Metropolitan Education Directorate, Columbia University Teachers College and selected New York City public and private schools to teach the uses of the computer and the Internet in the teaching of the STEM…
Millennium City and Millennium Village Students ‘Stand Up for Girls’ on International Day of the Girl

In sub-Saharan Africa, only 63 percent of girls complete their schooling, according to the World Bank. Yet our own research in the Millennium Cities indicates that girls who continue their education will have far greater opportunities, and they will be in a better position to care for themselves and their families. To celebrate the United…
MDP Students Map Kisumu Health Facilities

Two Masters in Development Practice students, Paloma Ruiz Gonzalez and Marianna Costa Checa, used their MDP practicum this past summer to assist the Millennium Cities Initiative in mapping and surveying all health facilities in the Millennium City of Kisumu, Kenya, at the request of the city government and local health officials.
Household Survey in Kenya Lays Groundwork for Fight Against Poverty

A new survey conducted in three informal settlements in Kisumu, Kenya, examined poverty at the household level, gleaning information on the quality of life experienced by individuals living in such settlements. A follow-up workshop gave researchers a chance to share the information with local residents and hear their thoughts on the needs of poor neighborhoods.
Building “Bloom & Bud,” An Educational Garden in Kisumu, Kenya

The following is a guest blog, authored by Meagan HoChing, a Harvard University student and volunteer with the Millennium Cities Initiative. I have recently had the absolute pleasure of spending two weeks in beautiful Kisumu, Kenya. I am working with two other students to perfect what we would like to call “Bloom and Bud,” which…
Making Sanitary Pads to Help Keep Girls in School

MCI is lucky enough to work with two amazing Ethiopian women from the region of Tigrai, in the north of the country where the Millennium City of Mekelle is located. Both women have gone abroad to become talented professionals and both have resolved to transform the lives of women and young girls in their native…
Architecture and Urban Design Students Present Innovative Upgrading Plans for a Millennium City

Graduate students in architecture and urban design recently presented their findings and design work issuing out of a collaboration between the Urban Design Lab (UDL) and MCI in the Millennium City of Kumasi, Ghana. At the city’s invitation, and with MCI’s facilitation, the UDL came to Kumasi in early February, to devise solutions to revitalize…
Regional Partnership Promotes Trade and Investment in Three Sub-Saharan Cities

MCI’s Regional Partnership to Promote Trade and Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa held its regional meeting May 7-9, in Mekelle, Ethiopia, where delegations from the three participating Millennium Cities were able to hold extended, frank discussions with their colleagues and with private sector investors, who did not hesitate to describe precisely what it is that local…
Making Connections and Celebrating Literacy, City to City

Across sub-Saharan Africa, where MCI is working to help selected secondary cities attain the Millennium Development Goals, more than 150 million adults, or 38% of the adult population, lack basic literacy skills. Fortunately, a number of organizations are working hard to change this. LitWorld, a NY-based NGO dedicated to improving global literacy and a long-time…

MCI’s Signature S2S Program Kicks Off its Third Year with a Series of Trainings

MCI’s signature School2School Connectivity Project (S2S), a partnership with global communications giants Ericsson and Airtel Ghana, the City of Kumasi, Ghana, the Kumasi Metropolitan Education Directorate, Columbia University Teachers College and selected New York City public and private schools to teach the uses of the computer and the Internet in the teaching of the STEM…
Millennium City and Millennium Village Students ‘Stand Up for Girls’ on International Day of the Girl

In sub-Saharan Africa, only 63 percent of girls complete their schooling, according to the World Bank. Yet our own research in the Millennium Cities indicates that girls who continue their education will have far greater opportunities, and they will be in a better position to care for themselves and their families. To celebrate the United…
MDP Students Map Kisumu Health Facilities

Two Masters in Development Practice students, Paloma Ruiz Gonzalez and Marianna Costa Checa, used their MDP practicum this past summer to assist the Millennium Cities Initiative in mapping and surveying all health facilities in the Millennium City of Kisumu, Kenya, at the request of the city government and local health officials.
Household Survey in Kenya Lays Groundwork for Fight Against Poverty

A new survey conducted in three informal settlements in Kisumu, Kenya, examined poverty at the household level, gleaning information on the quality of life experienced by individuals living in such settlements. A follow-up workshop gave researchers a chance to share the information with local residents and hear their thoughts on the needs of poor neighborhoods.
Building “Bloom & Bud,” An Educational Garden in Kisumu, Kenya

The following is a guest blog, authored by Meagan HoChing, a Harvard University student and volunteer with the Millennium Cities Initiative. I have recently had the absolute pleasure of spending two weeks in beautiful Kisumu, Kenya. I am working with two other students to perfect what we would like to call “Bloom and Bud,” which…
Making Sanitary Pads to Help Keep Girls in School

MCI is lucky enough to work with two amazing Ethiopian women from the region of Tigrai, in the north of the country where the Millennium City of Mekelle is located. Both women have gone abroad to become talented professionals and both have resolved to transform the lives of women and young girls in their native…
Architecture and Urban Design Students Present Innovative Upgrading Plans for a Millennium City

Graduate students in architecture and urban design recently presented their findings and design work issuing out of a collaboration between the Urban Design Lab (UDL) and MCI in the Millennium City of Kumasi, Ghana. At the city’s invitation, and with MCI’s facilitation, the UDL came to Kumasi in early February, to devise solutions to revitalize…
Regional Partnership Promotes Trade and Investment in Three Sub-Saharan Cities

MCI’s Regional Partnership to Promote Trade and Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa held its regional meeting May 7-9, in Mekelle, Ethiopia, where delegations from the three participating Millennium Cities were able to hold extended, frank discussions with their colleagues and with private sector investors, who did not hesitate to describe precisely what it is that local…
Making Connections and Celebrating Literacy, City to City

Across sub-Saharan Africa, where MCI is working to help selected secondary cities attain the Millennium Development Goals, more than 150 million adults, or 38% of the adult population, lack basic literacy skills. Fortunately, a number of organizations are working hard to change this. LitWorld, a NY-based NGO dedicated to improving global literacy and a long-time…