The African Development Initiative is a development coordination and research group run by students and faculty at Harvard University. Through research, innovation, and collaboration, ADI promotes sustainable development at the community level. We hope to continuously improve the ways we use development to empower African communities to provide all of its members with basic human rights and the opportunity for change.
Students from ADI create sustainable development projects by partnering with local NGO's, governments, international development groups, and communities. Through these collaborations, ADI brings together the required resources to create long-lasting development. Along with implementing these projects, ADI focuses on researching the methods and results of our African Development Projects to continuously improve our efficiency, impact, and allocation of resources.
ADI is dedicated to research and financial responsibility. With all of our development projects, we aim to maximize the social returns on all of the resources we utilize. Financially, every donation goes directly to development as we have no overhead costs. Our research is designed to scrutinize all of our endeavors, working to make every project even more efficient and even more empowering than the last. By constantly improving our methods and creating innovative solutions, we strive to create development that is sustainable at both the community and donor levels.
ADI approaches development from the ground-up. Our projects work directly with communities in need, rather than on a grand-scale. While this limits the number of people involved in each individual project, we believe it greatly increases the effect and efficiency of development. By taking a grassroots approach, we have decided to work with people and communities rather than wide-scale projects. We understand that each community and village has its own needs and will require a unique solution.
ADI pairs undergraduates interested in African Development with various NGO's, government organizations, and development groups. Our mission is to increase development productiveness and we believe the best way to do this is through specialization. By bringing together various groups with different areas of expertise, we will ensure that each aspect of our projects is completed with the necessary levels of proficiency. As the organizers of our projects are undergraduates, they must collaborate with people experienced with development to provide the students with a learning opportunity while maintaining our standards of excellence with our African Development Projects.
