Peer to Peer

Peer to Peer Series “Youth and partnerships in the fight against corruption: lessons from Colombia's experience” with Nicolas Hernandez, EMPA Candidate and 2010-2011 Humphrey Fellow Corruption strongly affects societies around the world, including most Latin American countries. In Colombia, there have been various initiatives to combat this problem although political and administrative corruption continues to grow at the subnational level. This poses a barrier to the country’s development. Civil society in developing countries requires new approaches in order to address the need for transparency and accountability. In response to this reality, a group of young professionals co-founded Ocasa, an NGO dedicated to reducing corruption through youth involvement in citizen participation and activism. During the last 8 years the NGO has worked with more than 3,000 young people in over 20 of the 32 Colombian states. It has been recognized both nationally and internationally as a pioneer in the mobilization of youth against corruption. Nicolas Hernandez is an EMPA candidate, a 2010-2011 Humphrey Fellow and co-founder and former director of Ocasa. He will share the main lessons drawn from his experience working with youth against corruption and ideas about the role of youth in promoting social change. Nicolas will also discuss Ocasa’s strategy, challenges and opportunities of its multi-sector collaboration with public, private and international organizations. While at Maxwell for his EMPA, Nicolas is focusing on nonprofit management, adding to his Humphrey Fellowship experience and eight years working in Colombian civil society. When: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 Where: 204 Maxwell Hall Time: 11:30 am – 12:30 pm Peer to peer is a series for Executive Masters in Public Administration students to share issues, problems or successes with their fellow students. Each student guest speaker will speak for about 20-30 minutes and then we will have a 20-30 minute discussion time. This event is open to all students. Lunch will be provided at the start of the event. Please RSVP to Kristina Donzella, kedonzel@maxwell.syr.edu by Monday, February 13th.