In 2022, the Feinstein International Center celebrated 25 years of partnership and transformational research, education, and impact. Learn about our history through this short video.
OUR STORY
The idea for a famine center emerged from the fertile mind of Jean Mayer, Tufts University’s tenth president, a renowned nutritionist with a lifelong interest in combatting world hunger. Mayer died in 1993 before his vision became reality, and it was his long-time colleague, Irwin Rosenberg, who shepherded the launch of an International Famine Center at Tufts as a joint effort with the University of Cork in 1995, 150 years after the Irish Potato Famine began.
“As dean of the Friedman School, I felt the new center should go forward,” recalls Rosenberg, Jean Mayer University Professor Emeritus. “I had experience in this area from working in Bangladesh and had seen the lasting effects of the great Bengali famine of 1943. While famine has often been regarded as an ‘act of God’ caused by drought or flood, I believe you don’t have famine without acts of man, sometimes in malevolent ways.”
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.
The center removed “Famine” from its name in 2006 to better reflect the expanding range of its work. At the same time, by examining the intersection of world hunger and humanitarian crises, where famine and other food and nutrition emergencies arise, Feinstein researchers have been thought leaders in 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
TIMELINE
1995
The Tufts International Famine Center is founded on the 150th anniversary of the Irish Potato Famine. John Hammock is the center’s first director.
1997
The center receives a landmark gift from Rhode Island philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein and is renamed the Feinstein International Famine Center.
Sue Lautze publishes Saving Lives and Livelihoods: The Fundamentals of a Livelihoods Strategy. The report influences the creation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and broadens the focus of humanitarian response to include livelihoods.
1998
The center establishes the Masters of Arts in Humanitarian Assistance (MAHA) program, a joint degree offered by the Friedman and Fletcher Schools at Tufts University.
2002
Peter Walker becomes the center’s second director.
USAID commissions the center’s report, Risk and Vulnerability in Ethiopia. The report’s findings influence how major humanitarian organizations monitor early signs of famine.
2005
Helen Young publishes Darfur: Livelihoods Under Siege, which helps bring livelihood support and interventions to the forefront of humanitarian response.
2006
The center changes its name to the Feinstein International Center, to better reflect the broad and expanding range of its work.
2009
The first edition of the Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) Handbook is published, setting the international standard for livestock interventions. The center initiated the LEGS project in 2006.
2011
The World Organization for Animal Health declares the rinderpest virus eradicated. Berhanu Admassu, Darlington Akabwai, and Andy Catley played a key role in distributing the thermostable vaccine.
2013
UNICEF commissions the center’s retrospective study on the 2011 famine in Somalia. The research, led by Daniel Maxwell, contributes to earlier, more successful interventions when famine threatens Somalia in 2017 and 2022.
2015
The U.S. Department of State commissions the center’s report on Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan for recommendations on how local partnerships can better enable humanitarian assistance to conflict-affected populations.
2017
Gregory Gottlieb becomes the center’s third director.
Dyan Mazurana publishes STOP the Sexual Assault Against Humanitarian and Development Aid Workers, one of the first scholarly, in-depth studies on the topic.
2018
Teddy Atim appears before the International Criminal Court as an expert witness in the trial of Dominic Ongwen, presenting findings from her report on victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda.
2021
Paul Howe becomes the center’s fourth director.
Supported by USAID, the center launches a consortium of seven universities around the world researching early actions that save lives before climate disasters strike. Erin Coughlan de Perez leads the project.
2022
We celebrate our 25th anniversary as the Feinstein International Center.
At the dedication of the Alan Shawn Feinstein International Famine Center are, from left to right, Feinstein, John Hammock, and Irwin H. Rosenberg. Photo by Mark Morelli/Tufts Journal.
SUPPORT US
In a complex and changing world, hope begins with understanding. Since 1997, the Feinstein International Center has been engaged in transformational research, education, and impact. Today, we continue to work towards a better world where no one is hungry and humanity is resilient in the face of crises.
Please support us in reaching our goals by designating your gift to the Friedman School: Other: Feinstein International Center.