THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING NOTRE DAME, SAINT MARY’S AND HOLY CROSS ESTABLISHED 1966
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2025 | VOL. LX, NO. 22
NDSMCOBSERVER.COM
ND to help fund democracy survey
Keough dean’s forum dissects global aid system
By Mara Hall and Emily Barlett
By Ada Duru Ak
News Writers
The Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame has partnered with the Center for Global Democracy at Vanderbilt University to fund the 202526 AmericasBarometer Survey after a loss of funding from the United States Agency for International Development. AmericasBarometer is a project under the Latin American Public Opinion Project. “[LAPOP] was designed as a series of surveys that would provide essential data on people’s support of democracy, but not only democracy, also institutions. It is broadly used by academics and practitioners, as a unique source of information about public opinion in Latin America,” global affairs professor Laura Gamboa said. Political science professor and director of the Kellogg Institute Aníbal Pérez-Liñán shared that about 70% of funding for
AmericasBarometer came from USAID. After the loss of this funding, the Center for Global Democracy and the Kellogg Institute have come together and agreed to each pay for half of the cost of conducting the survey for this year. Vanderbilt’s contribution is expected to go toward the researchers and Notre Dame’s contribution is expected to go toward the fieldwork. “The hope for future years is that Vanderbilt and Notre Dame will continue to collaborate in supporting AmericasBarometer, but, eventually, we are hoping that we will be able to find new sources of funding,” Pérez-Liñán said. In discussing the funding arrangement for this year, Gamboa was supportive. “It is a far cry from a definite solution to the main problem, but it will certainly help and save LAPOP in the long term,” Gamboa said. see “Survey” on page 2
News Writer
As part of the Dean’s Forum, the Keough School of Global Affairs hosted a conversation titled “The Future of International Aid: Reforming a System Under Strain” in the Hesburgh Center auditorium on Oct. 14. David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee and a former British Labour Party politician, delivered the lecture. Miliband was the foreign secretary of the United Kingdom from 20072010 and the Member of Parliament for South Shields in North East England from 2001-2013. He argued that while aid “has been, and continues to be helpful to the poor,” it has not been the main driver of development and must now be redesigned for a world where poverty is increasingly concentrated
in places affected by conf lict and climate stress. According to Miliband, the geography of extreme poverty has shifted dramatically in recent decades. “In 1990, less than one in 10 of the extreme poor lived in conf lictaffected countries. Today, over 50% do, and the figure is expected to rise to two-thirds by 2030,” he said. He shared that 40% of people in fragile or conf lict-affected states live on less than three dollars a day, compared with roughly 6% in other developing economies. Climate vulnerability overlaps with fragility, he added, noting that “19 of the 25 countries at the bottom of the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative Index fall into this fragile, conf lict-affected group.” Despite this concentration of need, Miliband said global aid f lows are not aligned with poverty patterns. Spending on cross-border “global public goods” such as climate
mitigation, biodiversity and pandemic prevention has increased, often in middle-income countries. “Forty-five percent of aid f lows go to lower- and upper-middle-income countries, not the poorest,” he said. Miliband also pointed to the classification of domestic refugee integration expenses as overseas aid, arguing that this practice diverts funds away from fragile states. “Now is the time for a rethink about the future of international aid, what it is for, how it is delivered and how it is paid for,” he said. He outlined five priorities for reforming the aid system. First, he called for targeting grant money, which represents over 90% of the global aid budget, to the poorest people in the poorest places. He identified 13 countries where need is most acute, see “Forum” on page 4
Korea Week celebrates tradition and culture By Claire Lee News Writer
Last week, the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies and the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures hosted Korea Week on campus. According to the Liu Institute website, the theme, “Crafting Korean Excellence and Celebrating Hangul (the Korean Language),” aimed to showcase “the beauty and excellence of traditional arts and culture,” and celebrate the 579th anniversary of Hangulnal (Korean alphabet day). Professor Yeonhee Yoon, who coordinates the Korean language program and teaches Korean language and culture courses, shared that the intention behind the theme was to exhibit “the underlying structure, the intellectual, aesthetic and philosophical approach to art and life, that allows modern Korean culture
Courtesy of the Liu Institute for Asian Studies
Participants at a Korean knot art workshop taught by artist Karen Ahn. The four-day celebration honored Hangul Day and invited community members to engage with Korean food, art, music and traditions
also other handcrafted arts from her mother, and just the history and importance that that artistry has from one generation and being able to share it with others.” Later that evening, the Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago and ASCEND, Notre Dame’s K-pop dance team, performed a traditional Korean music concert. Taihiro Thompson, a student assistant at the Liu Institute, emceed the concert and shared that fellow students who attended the show described the experience as emotional and impactful. “Being able to see that all live in person was just such a crazy experience because I can literally still feel like the beating in my heart with the drums when they were performing in front of me,” Thompson said, referring to a performance of Samulnori,
to f lourish globally.” Korea Week events began on Wednesday with a Korean food feast where students, faculty and staff gathered in the Jenkins Nanovic Hall atrium to taste traditional dishes. “I think [a] moment of delight
was how many people showed up for our food tasting. We underestimated the power of food,” senior communications specialist at the Liu Institute Jennifer Lechtanski said. Following the feast, artist Karen Ahn led a “maedeup”
workshop, teaching attendees the traditional Korean knot art form. Lechtanski, who attended the session, said a personal highlight was “to see everything, the display that Karen brought in, not only her personal collection, but
NEWS | PAGE 2
OPINION | PAGE 4
SCENE | PAGE 7
SPORTS | PAGE 8
SPORTS | PAGE 12
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