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Kendra Park Pasztor

Kendra Park Pasztor
Fall 2001 Fellow
Citizens for Global Solutions
Kendra Park Pasztor
Fall 2001 Fellow
Citizens for Global Solutions

Major Fellowship Activities: Park worked on the International Criminal Court and on globalization and its effect on peace and security.  She researched different treaties on terrorism that the U.S. could ratify to help deal with future problems.  She helped write talking points on the War on Terrorism that was sent to WFA’s Partnership Program members, and updated WFA’s Campaign to End Genocide website with the latest legislative information.  She researched the International Criminal Court and the role the UN should play.  She compiled material and wrote web pages for the USA for ICC website and specifically the “Get the Facts” page.   She wrote background material on legislative actions regarding the ICC for WFA’s March Activist action packet.  She worked on a new WFA project focused on grassroots advocacy in favor of the democratization of global institutions.  She researched the work of other NGOs on this topic and gave updates to the WFA staff on this information.   She prepared materials for WFA’s January Activists packet mailing, whose topic was globalization, and specifically how economics, the environment, and international security affect each other.  She attended an issue briefing at the United States Institute of Peace, given by the head international prosecutor in Kosovo, about lessons learned about arms trafficking and international organized crime and how they can be applied in Afghanistan.  She attended a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Bioterrorism and also attended the Monday Lobby meetings, and the working group on the International Criminal Court.  She also attended a meeting of the Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping, an initiative by WFA to establish a coalition that analyzes, and works toward improving UN Peacekeeping, and a conference by the Society for International Development to make contacts for WFA.  She spoke to two classes at Sherwood High School during their “Peace and Human Rights Day” about the International Criminal Court, genocide, and the importance of international treaties. She attended meetings for Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping; Washington Working Group on the ICC; and a program at the Holocaust Museum on “Justice after Genocide in Rwanda” which looked at the roles national and international law can play in peace building after war and atrocity occur.

Current Activities: Pasztor is Monitoring and Evaluation Manager at the Better Cotton Initiative (bettercotton.org) in Geneva, Switzerland. The Better Cotton Initiative exists to make global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future,  by developing Better Cotton as a sustainable mainstream commodity. Kendra manages the collection, analysis, and presentation of Better Cotton results data and coordinates research and evaluation in collaboration with partners to measure the environmental and social impact of Better Cotton.

She previously worked on sexual and gender-based violence issues. She  worked with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees focusing on strengthening their use, and that of their implementing partners, of an information management system for gender-based violence (GBVIMS). The system, which was jointly developed by UNHCR, UNFPA, and the International Rescue Committee, is designed to record standardized information about reported incidents of gender-based violence. As a consultant for the International Rescue Committee she has written implementation guidelines and a training manual to respond to increased interest from organizations and agencies looking to implement the GBVIMS in humanitarian settings. Previously she lived in Norway and consulted IRC’s Women’s Protection and Empowerment Technical Unit on gender-based violence issues. She previously worked as Information Manager of the Gender-Based Violence Program with the International Rescue Committee in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She oversaw monitoring and evaluation and data management for IRC’s gender-based violence programming in the DRC. The IRC provides holistic case management services to survivors of sexual and other gender-based violence against women and girls, primarily in the conflict-affected east of the country, specifically in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. She was formerly a Grants Coordinator with the IRC in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. where she managed a multi-year grant portfolio of $22 million. She monitored project progress, both financially and technically, across an array of sectors – return of internally displaced persons, water and sanitation, fighting gender-based violence, economic recovery, education, child and maternal health, and governance.  In 2007 she received a Master of International Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She completed a concentration in Economic and Political Development with a focus on post-conflict situations. In summer 2006 she was an Evaluation Assistant at the United Nations Development Program’s Evaluation Office. In summer 2005 she worked on education issues in rural Senegal. Previously she was a Program Officer for Sub-Saharan Africa at Search for Common Ground, an organization conducting long term conflict resolution, community development, and peacebuilding programs around the world. There she co-wrote an article about conflict media and peacebuilding in Burundi titled “The Heroes Summit” published in June 2004 in Demain le Monde, an international development magazine produced under the auspices of Belgium’s National Centre for Development Cooperation. She was formerly the Director of the Africa Committee of the United Nations Association National Capital Area Young Professionals Group.