Skip to main content
Support
Article

Wilson Center Awards 2007-08 Pakistan Scholarship

WILSON CENTER AWARDS 2007-08 PAKISTAN SCHOLARSHIP

WASHINGTON -- The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in collaboration with the Fellowship Fund for Pakistan (FFFP), a charitable trust based in Karachi, today announced the appointment of Dr. Samia Altaf as the Wilson Center's 2007-08 Pakistan scholar. Altaf will spend nine months in residence at the Wilson Center, beginning in September 2007, carrying out research and writing on a project titled Improving Aid Effectiveness: A Case Study of the Health and Population Sectors in Pakistan.

Dr. Altaf is a public health physician whose career has focused on the management and coordination of complex health delivery systems for low-income populations. She has worked in Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and the United States. In Pakistan she has been on the faculty at Aga Khan University Medical College, served as a primary health care program officer for UNICEF, and consulted for international aid agencies. She recently finished a four-year assignment with the USAID mission in Islamabad, working as acting director and subsequently as senior advisor, Office of Health. She graduated from the University of Punjab's Fatima Jinnah Medical College and the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Her manuscript Aid Without Development has been submitted for review to a publisher.

Altaf succeeds Khaled Ahmed, the Wilson Center's 2006-07 Pakistan Scholar, who during his stay at the Center worked on a project titled Sectarian Violence in Pakistan and Its Linkages to Iran, Saudi, and the Gulf States.

The Pakistan Scholar Program is the centerpoint of the Wilson Center's Pakistan initiative. The fellowship competition is open to men and women from Pakistan or of Pakistani-origin. Applications are accepted from individuals in academia, business, journalism, government, law, and related professions. Candidates must be currently pursuing research on key public policy issues facing Pakistan, research designed to bridge the gap between the academic and the policymaking worlds. The selection process is a two-tier process, consisting of application evaluation and personal interviews conducted by an independent, international Advisory Council of the FFFP, composed of eminent individuals from the fields of politics, diplomacy, business, economics, academia, and journalism, and followed by final selection by a Wilson Center selection panel.

The Fellowship Fund for Pakistan was established in 2003 to provide Pakistan's most eminent thinkers with opportunities to participate in international deliberations on current and future issues facing Pakistan through dialogue with global opinion leaders and policymakers, scholars, and other experts. FFFP seeks to promote non-partisan scholarship at international forums in order to encourage free, informed and serious dialogue on issues of public interest to Pakistan and the United States.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is the living, national memorial to President Wilson established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Center establishes and maintains a neutral forum for free, open, and informed dialogue. It is a nonpartisan institution, supported by public and private funds and engaged in the study of national and world affairs.

# # #

Related Program

Indo-Pacific Program

The Indo-Pacific Program promotes policy debate and intellectual discussions on US interests in the Asia-Pacific as well as political, economic, security, and social issues relating to the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region.   Read more