Rabia J. Ahmad

Details of fellowship

Title International Trade and Development Graduate Fellowship

This fellowship is supported by an endowment to the Oregon University System that established the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund. Related programs have been established in 65 institutions or consortia in 43 countries. The intentionally-broad purpose of this fellowship program is to educate graduate students with high potential for future leadership in international affairs, in public life as well as in private endeavor.

Fellowship stipends are awarded for one year of full-time graduate work. Students in the social/behavioral sciences, arts and humanities, and directly-related professional fields (e.g., public policy, business, law, and communications) may be considered through nomination by their graduate program.

Profile

Rabia Ahmed is a graduate student in the Masters program of Economics at Portland State University. She graduated with a Masters degree in Economics from Quaid-i- Azam University in Pakistan and started her career with a local Non Governmental Organization (NGO) working for poverty eradication at the grassroots level. This NGO (SUNGI) worked for social uplift in the foothills of the Himalaya and Karakoram mountain ranges. She was responsible for research, monitoring and evaluation of projects.

She later moved to another International NGO called Action-Aid that focuses on poverty eradication, rural uplift and rights-based work both locally and globally. During her three years of work there, she carried out analysis at micro and macro levels. She also traveled extensively both within Pakistan and some countries in the developing world and was startled to find a common thread of problems that plagued these societies that were, in some cases, geographically worlds apart. During 2000 and 2001, she focused her efforts on labor rights issues like sexual harassment in the workplace, discriminatory labor laws, etc. In December 2001, she organized a conference on sexual harassment in Pakistan, in which a nationwide campaign was launched to raise awareness and to motivate organizations to develop sexual harassment policies.

In order to develop better insight into economic issues and expand her understanding of the subject, Rabia decided to come to the U.S. She chose to study at Portland State University because of the reputation the university and Oregon enjoy as world leaders in the study and practice of sustainable development and environmental conservation. The heterogeneous society here has exposed her to new ideas and perspectives thatare hard to find anywhere else in the world. She feels that there is still much she needs to learn but is definitely well on the way.