Exciting Things Are On The Horizon
Spring is finally here, and although the weather in Chicago is still trying to sort itself out, there is evidence that new growth, greener scenery, and warmer days are upon us. Something similar is happening here at IDP Foundation as well, with lots of new projects, opportunities, and tools pushing us into the second quarter of 2015.
Last week, we announced our partnership with Eneza Education, and mentioned a scoping trip that was taken in February of this year. Prior to that, we made the decision to begin working on a mapping project utilizing the amazing software that is offered by software company, ESRI. We hope to begin mapping our schools across Ghana, and sharing that data as it becomes available, but in the meantime we are excited to be utilizing the mobile map application, and want to share our first map attempt from our scoping trip to Ghana can be found here.
IDPF President, Irene Pritzker, is slated to speak at two upcoming conferences this month, focusing on the role and operations of family foundations. April 22, 2015 she will be participating on the Impact Capitalism Summit’s Family Office Panel, followed by offering her expertise on the Nuts and Bolts of Impact Investing on April 26, 2015 at the Council on Foundation’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Looking forward into fall, the Sustainable Development Goals are keeping everyone busy, with a slew of conferences and meetings taking place to help develop those ideas further. This May, Irene, and IDPRS Executive Director Allison Rohner, will be heading to Incheon, South Korea to participate in the World Education Forum hosted by UNESCO. Here they will hear how UNESCO and UNICEF have been working with a wide array of stakeholders to shape education beyond 2015.
At the same time in May, IDPRS Program Associate, Jenna O’Brien, will be heading to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to attend the eLerning Africa’s 10thInternational Conference on ICT for Development, Education, and Training. With the IDPRS program venturing into the mobile learning technology, we are excited to learn more about technology’s role in expanding and transforming education across the continent of Africa. Additionally, she will also be making a trip to Northern Ethiopia, to stop by Mekelle University and get an update on our grantee, the Mela Project.