Author Penelope Chester

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Penelope Chester
Penelope is a strategy and communications professional, passionate about international affairs, human rights and democracy. With a wide range of experience in the non-profit, non-governmental and private sectors, Penelope has worked with organizations and supported projects in the United States, Canada, Latin America and Africa. She was previously Vice-President at Teneo, a consulting firm, after spending 4 years with an elections technology company. Penelope was also the Director of Communications and Fundraising for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and worked with the Clinton Foundation in Vancouver and New York. Born and raised in France, she earned a BA in international relations and political science from Tufts University in 2005, and a MA in international affairs with a focus on conflict and security from Sciences Po Paris in 2007.

“Congo on the Wire”

On Monday evening, about 70 people ensconced themselves in a windowless conference room on the 3rd floor of the CBC building in downtown Toronto for “Congo on the Wire”, an event that focused on the continuing humanitarian crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The event, sponsored by Médecins Sans Frontières and Reuters, offered an opportunity to hear from

Doing Food Aid Better (Part 1)

Food aid is contentious. It's a field that is rife with controversy because, even though it constitutes a major cornerstone of foreign aid, designing and implementing food aid initiatives without creating negative externalities is very difficult.

For decades, organizations such as the World Food Program (WFP) have been donating millions of tons of food to populations in need.

Extractive Industry Association Dismisses Equatorial Guinea

Last week, the board of the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) decided to remove Equatorial Guinea - still merely a candidate for full membership - from the group for failing to meet the deadline to have audits of their industries independently verified. The EITI, launched in 2003, is a joint effort by companies, governments and civil society to instill transparency and promote good governance in the extractive industries sector.

Inside the U.S.- Nigeria Bilateral

The Nuclear Security Summit currently underway in Washington represents more than just a chance for world leaders and their delegations to address pressing issues and concerns surrounding nuclear armaments. As with other high-level international conferences, it offers an opportunity for heads of state to schedule short, private meetings with each other, where they can discuss other, tangential political matters.

Inside the Nigerian Cabinet Shake-Up

Yesterday, in a bid to assert his authority, Nigeria’s acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, appointed a new cabinet. Jonathan officially replaced President Yar’Adua in February, after the latter fell ill and had been too sick to govern since last November.

Amid ongoing conflict, Somali refugees recruited to fight Al-Shabaab

With the security climate in Somalia showing no signs of improvement, hundreds of thousands of Somali citizens have been displaced since early 2010. The UNHCR estimates there are currently 1.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia, and this trend is on the increase. The ongoing fighting in Mogadishu and other locations has caused nearly 170,000 residents to flee since the beginning of the year, according to the UNHCR.