International Student Summit

Crisis and Famine in the Horn of Africa:
How Should the World Respond?
Thursday, December 8, 9 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

With special videotaped welcome
by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

Students from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, PA, along with students from Pakistan, the Republic of Georgia, Slovenia and Tanzania, will join for a one-day summit focusing on the escalating crisis in the Horn of Africa, where severe and prolonged drought has affected 11 million people across Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. Bearing the brunt of this crisis is Somalia, which has been without a functioning central government for 20 years and where the vast majority of the country’s nine million people live in poverty, without food, water or political security. In late summer, the United Nations declared a state of famine in two southern regions of Somalia, the first time in 20 years the UN has issued such an official declaration.

Student participants will simulate an international emergency meeting of transnational organizations specially convened to address this crisis, including UN bodies and the African Union, along with cooperating actors from the global diplomatic community. The summit’s immediate focus is to mobilize international support to prevent further escalation of the crisis, particularly in southern Somalia, where relief efforts have been complicated by al-Shabaab’s resistance to international humanitarian relief efforts. Al-Shabaab is a group that now rules much of the southern region of Somalia and is designated a terrorist organization by several governments, including the United States.

Summit will include an expert panel discussion followed by student-led breakout committees addressing various aspects of this humanitarian crisis, including strategies to deliver immediate aid to those most affected by the famine; regional and global security threats arising from this crisis; and mass population displacement and migration.

The International Student Summit provides students an opportunity to work creatively and collaboratively with young people from across the state and around the globe, developing core knowledge, skills and sensibilities needed to work and problem solve in a complicated and interdependent global community.

International Student Summit Important Dates

Registration Information

Registration Deadline: Friday, November 4, 2011

Cost: $65 per student participant

Number of students per school: Each school may send up to 20 student participants. In the event that our maximum student number is not reached, we may be able to accept additional students.

Payment Information: Upon receipt of school registration forms and subsequent determination of assignments, the Council will send you an invoice. Please remit all payments to Kayla Haidara at World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, One South Broad St., 2M Philadelphia, PA 19107.

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