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Harvard Business School Students Volunteer at USAID
FrontLines - June 2009
By Sharon Hsu
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Students Marc Oman, Richard Chung, Marwan Chaar, Alla Jezmir, and Jon Doochin took their
business acumen to Morocco under a USAID-Harvard Business School initiative. Here they stand,
left to right, in front of the Hussein Mosque in Casablanca with two representatives (2nd and
4th from left) from private sector partner CETEMCO, a consortium of construction materials
manufacturing companies.
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Some Harvard Business
School students now have the
opportunity to volunteer as
unpaid consultants at USAID
offices around the world during
their winter break.
More than 100 Harvard students
applied for 11 available
slots in a program developed
by the Agency’s Bureau for
Economic Growth, Agriculture
and Trade.
“The enthusiasm for the program
shows the growing interest—
and the concern—amongst
business school students in
global development issues,” said
first-year student and program
coordinator Richard Chung. “It’s
an exciting time to be at this
intersection of the public-private
sectors and we hope to explore it
with more programs next year.”
Driven by their interest in
international development, the
students applied their business
knowledge and skills at Agency
offices in the Philippines,
Morocco, and Jordan to address
specific challenges in the clean
energy and water sectors.
USAID’s field offices benefited
from the students’ diverse
experiences and knowledge,
while the students gained firsthand
exposure to the opportunities
and challenges of using
business principles to support
development goals. |
Wind farms in Tetouan, Morocco. Harvard Business School students, working through a USAID
program, recently recommended ways for the Moroccan government to encourage private sector
development of wind energy.
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“Electrification is something
that most of us in America take
for granted,” said Sean Cameron,
a first-year HBS student and
program participant. “But think
of the meaningful advances that
electrification brings to the development
of emerging economies.”
In Baguio City, Philippines,
micro-hydro plants are in serious
need of rehabilitation and expansion.
To assist the city government,
Cameron and his two
teammates—Tara Reeves and
Erica Harris—developed a list
of management options for the
hydro plants and a framework
for analyzing these options that
included financial, technical, and
social considerations.
In a newspaper article, the
city’s mayor expressed his
appreciation for the students’
work, calling their study a “tool
to aid us in choosing the best
business deal for Baguio or to
measure our capability in handling
hydros on our own.”
The students also shared their
results with Energy Department
Secretary Angelo Reyes.
In Morocco, wind resources
are excellent and the government
has made renewable
energy a priority, but the private
sector has been slow to invest
in wind power. Five students
developed a financial model for
a wind farm, identified barriers
to investment, and recommended
ways the government
could encourage private sector
development of wind energy.
The financial model was presented
to the U.S. Ambassador
to Morocco and used by private
sector partners. Read about the Harvard Business School
students’ experiences by visiting the student
newspaper Harbus at www.harbus.org and
searching by article title, as provided below.
Morocco: “Immersion Experience—
USAID: Morocco Trip”
Jordan: “Immersion Experience—
USAID: Jordan Trip”
Philippines: “Immersion Experience—
Actualizing Dreams in the Developing World” |
In Jordan, three students
analyzed employee incentive
schemes to improve efficiency
and performance of the
Miyahuna water utility, which
provides water and sewage services
to more than 2.6 million
people in the greater Amman
area. The students’ proposal for
an annual bonus and incentive
plan was thoroughly debated at
the final meeting, and ultimately,
Miyahuna’s CEO and all seven
directors agreed to implement
the students’ proposal.
A member of the Jordan
project team, Ali Hashmi, said:
“So much of the learning in business
schools is based on certain
premises—availability of nearperfect
information, well-defined
legal and regulatory regimes,
predominance of the private
sector—many of which do not
hold in the developing world.
“As a result, one is forced
to truly think outside of the
box to assist local sponsors
devise workable solutions to
their most intractable development
challenges. I feel many of
us got a taste for this through
the USAID-Harvard Business
School initiative.”
EGAT intends to expand
the program in January.
Participating offices will be
asked to provide lodging and
airfare for the students. To sponsor
projects, e-mail Sharon Hsu
at shsu@usaid.gov.
★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
To have FrontLines delivered
to you via postal mail, please subscribe.
Material should be submitted
by mail to Editor, FrontLines, USAID,
RRB, Suite 6.10, Washington, DC 20523-6100;
by FAX to 202-216-3035; or by e-mail to frontlines@usaid.gov
To view PDF files, download
the Adobe
Acrobat Reader.
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