John Hammock, who was teaching at the Fletcher School while on sabbatical as executive director of Oxfam America, was a serendipitous choice for the center’s first director. When the center’s collaboration with the University of Cork ended, Hammock was able to tap the insights of his many contacts at government agencies and NGOs as he began refining the identity and goals of the Tufts International Famine Center.

It became clear to Hammock that what was needed was an academic center focused on the humanitarian response in complex emergencies — and funding to launch the program. Serendipity stepped in again when a newspaper headline on Tufts’ plans to end world hunger caught the eye of Rhode Island philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein. The result was a landmark gift for what was renamed the Feinstein International Famine Center in 1997.

In the years that followed, the center combined research, field work, and education to fight famine and humanitarian crises. “We intentionally straddle the academic-practitioner divide,” says long-time Feinstein researcher Elizabeth Stites, a research associate professor at the Friedman School and the Fletcher School whose work involves conflict, violence, and gender roles. “Our strength is that none of us are afraid to get our hands dirty, literally, or hear about real lives that are often very difficult.”

An early milestone for the center was establishing protection of people’s livelihoods, as well as their lives, as a foundational strategy for confronting famine and humanitarian crises. A 1997 report by Famine Center Scholar Sue Lautze showed that working with local communities to implement long-term survival strategies was more effective than simply providing food and medicine.

A year later, in response to interest from the USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance in enhancing the skills and credibility of hands-on aid practitioners, the Masters of Arts in Humanitarian Assistance (MAHA) program launched. Its graduates have gone on to work at countless NGOs and government organizations in their home countries, armed with new analytical skills and best practices, vastly extending the center’s impact.

In 2002, the directorship passed to Peter Walker, the former Red Cross Director of Disaster Policy.  Walker secured significant funding for the center, including a major Leir Foundation donation that fully funded three endowed chairs and partially funded the Rosenberg professorship. The designation of the Rosenberg professorship in Nutrition and Human Security marked the center’s shift from nutrition to broader human rights issues.

In 2006, the center removed “Famine” from its name to reflect a broadening focus that included humanitarian crises and livelihoods more generally. Nevertheless, Feinstein researchers have continued to lead efforts to understand and prevent famine.

In 2013, UNICEF commissioned the center’s retrospective study on the 2011 famine in Somalia. Led by Daniel Maxwell, the research contributed to earlier, more successful interventions when famine threatened Somalia in 2017 and 2022.

Following the appointment of Gregory Gottlieb as the center’s third director in 2017, Feinstein continued to push into new arenas, highlighting the importance of gender, age, and disability in vulnerability to crises, and leading the development of global standards that have made humanitarian work more accountable and effective.

In 2018, Feinstein researchers studying the experiences of people affected by conflict in Uganda were the first to introduce academic research in a trial at the International Criminal Court. The ICC later cited the Feinstein report in its reparations order in the case of The Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen.

Addressing a major emerging driver of humanitarian crises and hunger, Feinstein began climatology-specific research under the leadership of Erin Coughlan de Perez in 2021. Climate-driven disasters such as hurricanes and heat waves are increasingly common around the globe, and de Perez’s work will enhance global ability to anticipate events and act before crises develop.

Down the road, current Director Paul Howe sees “exciting opportunities” to combine the center’s strength in local understanding with new advances in technology such as artificial intelligence, big data, and predictive analytics to better understand, prevent, and respond to humanitarian crises.

One thing Howe intends to remain unchanged is the center’s “special ethos” founded on deep listening and a commitment to informing policy and practice in a complex world. “We will remain committed to work in locations that are challenging, even dangerous, but have the populations that are in greatest need,” he says. “From the beginning that has been a hallmark of the Feinstein International Center.”

Adapted from A Quarter Century Tackling the World’s Toughest Problems/Tufts Now