Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa

Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa's Speech Descriptions

In his Healing Series, Dr. Rudasingwa discusses ways that his audiences can live purposefully and meaningfully in the 21st century. He shares lessons which we can learn from farmers, business people, soldiers, teachers, monks, children or princes, which can illuminate our lives and guide us towards a better life. He explains how individuals, families and communities can cope and begin to heal during and after difficult times.

HEALING SERIES

HEALING SERIES I: PURPOSE AND MEANING IN A TROUBLED WORLD

In his book, Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy said, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Our search for meaning, happiness, and a good life, last as long as we live. Uninterrupted happiness seems to be illusive, and “unhappiness” tends to punctuate the life of even the most well-lived life.

In history, across and within nations, at the individual, family, community, national and international levels, humankind does encounter difficult times. It may a challenge borne out of poverty, disease, climate change, the threat of weapons of mass destruction, war, genocide, hunger, slavery, refugees, narcotics trade and use, difficult relationships, isolation, financial and economic meltdown, or simply frustration that results from unfulfilled aspirations and expectations. Accumulation of wealth, wide-spread and fast technological change, access to the most advanced medicines, knowledge, religion, power and influence do not necessarily lead us to meaningful lives. Is the world half empty or half full?

• How do we ought to leave purposefully and meaningfully in the 21st Century?
• Is there something that we can learn from farmers, business people, soldiers, teachers, monks, children, or princes, that can illuminate our lives and guide us towards saintly, heroic, or ordinarily good, life?
• Is there something at the core of life that anchors everything else to make life worth living, especially in difficult times?
• How can individuals, families, and communities cope and begin to heal during and after difficult times?

HEALING SERIES VI: DOING BUSINESS AND DOING GOOD TO MAKE IMPACT

We now live in a world of crises: financial, climate change, and rising malnutrition, hunger, disease and poverty. It is also a world of countless opportunities. How do we respond? You are an individual, a not for profit or social enterprises, a foundation, business, international organization, or government interested in Africa and other developing or troubled spots.

• How can you give your time, knowledge or money in ways have impact?
• How can you do business profitably and do good at the same time?
• How can your organization learn and execute to make sustainable and high impact?
• Where are the opportunities in your own community and abroad to create or access mutual
  networks of support and collaboration?

• Where are the resources and how do you access them?
• How do you navigate the risky and uncertain environments in Africa, Latin America and Asia?

HEALING SERIES VII: VOLUNTEERING TO CHANGE THE WORLD

A Google search for the word “volunteer” returns 56,700,000 results! We see volunteers in communities, states, nations and global scene. Volunteers work in all sectors, in rich and poor nations. They come in all ages, gender, faiths, and ideologies. They work in peace time, and in man-made and natural
disasters: Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Asian Tsunami, Haiti, Chile, Hurricane Katrina, just to mention a few.

Connectedness, compassion, and the urge to collaborate on local and global challenges of poverty, climate change, disease, among others, are shared values and an opportunity to turn passion to serve, unemployment and retiring into a fruitful opportunity. With massive unemployment, limited job opportunities, career transitions in mid-life, a young generation yearning to serve, and a retiring generation still willing to serve:

• Why should you volunteer?
• What knowledge and skills do you need?
• How, when and where can you volunteer?
• How can your organization attract and deploy volunteer talent?
• Learn Seven Habits of Successful volunteers

OTHER SUGGESTED PROGRAMS IN THE HEALING SERIES:

• HEALING SERIES II: WHAT IS LOVE AND FORGIVENESS GOT TO DO WITH IT?
• HEALING SERIES III: THE GOOD LIFE IN SEVEN METAPHORS
• HEALING SERIES IV: NOURISHING THE SPIRIT IN A MATERIALISTIC WORLD
• HEALING SERIES V: CULTIVATING CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE IN IN A DIVERSE WORLD
• HEALING SERIES VIII: A COMPASSIONATE DIPLOMACY

OUR GLOBAL COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

OPPORTUNITIES IN GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

You may be one of the several millions unemployed in the United States and the rest of the world, or graduating from college without employment prospects, in a career transition, or simply interested in harnessing your skills as a global citizen by serving beyond the United States. Every year, the United States, European Countries, United Nations, Japan, Canada, Fortune 500 and philanthropic organizations spend trillions of dollars in their international business.

Since 1970, developing countries have received
$2.74 trillion US in official aid. The United Nations would like annual aid flows to developing countries to be $155 billion US per year in 2010. Overall global foreign direct investment declined due to the financial crisis, but still $1.4 trillion U.S foreign assistance in 2007 totaled $42 billion. The US has projected to spend $60 billion on HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria programs alone, mostly in Africa. This is a huge opportunity.

• Learn about who the main players are, what are they doing, and where
• What knowledge and skills do you need to access the employment opportunities in the international domain
• What international networks do you need to be plugged in?
• How do you learn sector specifics that are relevant to the employment you are looking for?
• How do you position yourself for such a job opportunity?

HIGH IMPACT PARTNERSHIPS IN LOCAL AND GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

There are alliances, mergers, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions in business. There are public private partnerships in all sectors and for all sorts of problems, national and international. In global health alone, there have been more than 70 types of partnerships in the last decade. These global partnerships have been structured around diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria, neglected diseases, as well as around other problems like health care workers, poverty and trade, etc.

Building partnerships across government, business and civil society has become one of the organizing principles of this century. Major 21st Century challenges are transnational, and they involve multitudes of stakeholders in government, business, and civil society. Even as they compete, they have to collaborate and co-ordinate their actions to make impact.

• Why you need to “think and act” partnership
• How do you initiate the building of a triangular partnership?
• How do you invent options for an appropriate structure for a partnership?
• How do you execute on the strategy and operations of a partnership
• How to manage and lead across sectors to make an impact

NATION-BUILDING IN POST-CONFLICT AND FRAGILE STATES

Libya. Tunisia. Egypt. Iran. Iraq. Syria. Yemen. Iraq. Afghanistan. Bosnia and Herzegovina. Kosovo. West Bank and Gaza. Somalia. Democratic Republic of Congo. Sudan. Burundi. Liberia. Sierra Leone. North Korea. Ethiopia. Eritrea. Mozambique. Angola. South Africa. Rwanda. Nigeria. Zimbabwe. Haiti. East Timor. Northern Ireland.

What do they have in common? On the one end of the spectrum are the current troubled hot spots. On the other end of the spectrum are countries that for over two decades have been emerging out of deadly conflict or genocide. The complex emergencies that arise out of these situations are man-made and have far-reaching health, security and human development consequences.

When natural disasters strike, as in Hurricane Katrina, the Asian Tsunami, and the earthquake in Haiti, the resulting complex emergency also has health, security and human development implications. How can communities, nations and the international community anticipate, prepare, prevent, manage, rebuild and heal in such states?

This inter-disciplinary and multi-sectoral course is taught to undergraduates, graduate students, and the general public as part of continuing education. The main takeaways from this course include:

• Knowing the nature of fragile, failed, failing and post-conflict states;
• Learning the health, security, and human development challenges in these states;
• Developing the skills and knowledge to work across sectors, cultures and boundaries;
• Learning how to build networks oriented towards actions for change;
• Gaining working knowledge to engage and partner with government, NGOs, religions, communities, academia, business and international organizations operating in these environments;
• Developing research interest in the interface between global health, global security and
  international development;

• Developing diplomatic skills to engage state, international, and non-state actors;
• Gaining perspectives on healing and finding meaning in difficult times;

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

• Knowledge and skills development;
• Building regional advantage;
• Sustainable value chains for natural resources;
• Building capacity to trade;
• Access to funding, inputs and markets;
• Building and operating community, national, and international networks;
• Organizing and managing sustainable supply chains for products and services;
• Small and Medium Enterprises in Development (The “Missing Middle”);
• The global and national companies: environmental, social and financial sustainability;
• Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship;
• Aid to end aid

PATHWAYS TO COMMUNITY AND GLOBAL HEALTH

• Antenatal, maternal, newborn, infant and pre-school services;
• Treatment of all the common minor illnesses;
• Preventive services like screenings, immunizations, and basic physical exams;
• School and community programs for orphans, adolescents and teens;
• Outreach and outpatient services;
• Patient education to self-manage chronic illnesses;
• Training of health workers;
• Nutrition, water, sanitation and environment protection services;
  comprehensive services in prevention, treatment, care and support for HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and other prevalent chronic conditions in the community;

• Community and national processes of healing and reconciliation;
• Preparedness and prevention for pandemics, man-made and natural disasters.

SECURITY SECTOR REFORM AND CONFLICT PREVENTION 2: THE GREAT
LAKES REGION OF AFRICA

• Defining "failed," "failing," "fragile," and "post-conflict" states;
• Complex emergency and crisis management;
• The United Nations and Peacekeeping Operations;
• Contextual Imperatives of Security Reform;
• Key elements of successful and sustainable security reforms;
• Deconstructing Security Assistance: Policies, Instruments, Patterns and Trends;
• Building consensus, coalitions and partnerships among and within governments, business, academia, civil society and international actors for security reform;
• Regional, sub-regional and international dimensions of security reform;
• Linking security reforms to the rule of law, social, political and economic development;
• Innovations in learning, early warning, and systems integration for Security.

PATHWAYS TO HEALTH , WEALTH AND WELL BEING OF COMMUNITIES 1:
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

• Talent Development, Retention and Re-Cycling;
• SITE (Science, Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship);
• Products, Logistics and Infrastructure;
• Sustainable financing for health, security and economic development;
• Building Partnerships;
• Systems Integration;
• Culture and Faith;
• Managing and Leading;
• Measuring, Monitoring, and Evaluating Performance;
• Institutionalizing Lessons Learned.

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT FOR SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

The purpose of this course is to introduce to participants the opportunities for
business and technology for sustainable development in sub-saharan Africa.

Key issues:

• an understanding of the key business and development challenges facing the developing regions in the 21st Century;
• an appreciation of the link between sustainable business and sustainable development
• an analysis, from theory and practice, of the link between technological innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainable business in the developing world;
• a spectrum of sectoral opportunities for sustainable business in developing countries
• insights into the policy and reform environment that shape business and technology development in the developing regions;
• an introduction to aid, trade and foreign direct investment as tools for developing the capacity to do business for sustainable development;
• knowledge about best practices in public sector-private sector partnerships for sustainable development; and
• insights into leadership and managerial challenges in developing sustainable
  business in the developing world.

OTHER SUGGESTED PROGRAMS ON OUR GLOBAL COMMUNITY:

• PATHWAYS TO HEALTH, WEALTH AND WELLBEING OF COMMUNITIES 2: STRATEGIES TO REBOOT DISTRESSED INNER CITIES AND RURAL COMMUNITIES IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• THE NEW DIPLOMACY OF GLOBAL BUSINESS
• THE NEW BUSINESS OF 21ST CENTURY DIPLOMACY
• THE DIPLOMACY OF GLOBAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT
• SECURITY SECTOR REFORM AND CONLICT PREVENTION 1: THE HORN OF AFRICA
• LEADING AND MANAGING FOR IMPACT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
• THE A-Z OF TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
• AFRICA-USA EDUTAINMENT & ECO-TOURISM BRIDGE
• USA-AFRICA INTERNSHIPS
• UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS SEEN FROM AFRICA
• AFRICA AS SEEN FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• THE CHINA-AFRICA-USA DIALOGUES