Ibrahim M. Shaqir

Interagency Professionals-in-Residence

Contact

Please submit all media inquiries to interviews@usip.org or call 202.429.3869.

For all other inquiries, please call 202.457.1700.

Ibrahim M. Shaqir came to the U.S. Institute of Peace as an interagency professional-in-residence from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). During his assignment, he will work with the Institute’s Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding on a National Academy-USIP Roundtable project to adapt agricultural extension systems to peacebuilding and conflict management.

He is currently the director of the Office of International Research Programs (OIRP) within the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of USDA. This head-of-office responsibility involves strategy development and implementation with the Administrators Council of the ARS leadership as well as in interagency forums. From 2001-2008, he served as the senior international affairs specialist in OIRP, with primary responsibility for ARS international activities. Prior to that, Shaqir served as an international affairs specialist with responsibility for ARS activities in the Middle East and North Africa. This included coordinating ARS programs, acting as the agency point-of-contact for the region to engage ARS researchers in bilateral multilateral science and diplomacy efforts, and serving as a liaison with the U.S.-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD). In the summer of 2007, Shaqir was selected as a Department of State embassy science fellow, where he served as the acting environment, science, technology and health (ESTH) officer for the U.S. Embassy, Tel Aviv. Prior to coming to ARS, he worked at the University of Maryland, College Park, and as a consultant with the Research and Scientific Exchanges Division of the USDA-Foreign Agricultural Service where he managed cooperative multilateral agricultural research projects in the Middle East.

Shaqir received his B.S. degree from Rutgers University and his Master's degree from the University of Maryland. He is a graduate of the 2011 Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executive Fellows Program and is fluent in Arabic and Hebrew. Shaqir is also a trainee in the USDA-Senior Executive Service (SES) Candidate Development Program, and his detail to USIP is intended to satisfy his requirement of a SES-CDP Development Assignment.

Publications & Tools

	USIP Deepening Connections to U.S. Agencies with Professional-in-Residence Program June 2012 The U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) has launched an Interagency Professional in Residence (IPR) initiative that is bringing practitioners in peacebuilding to the Institute and at the same time strengthening its ties to a variety of U.S. government agencies.
	G-8 Summit Focuses on Food Security May 2012 \| On the Issues by Ibrahim Shaqir As leaders at the G-8 summit highlight the importance of food security for global stability, Ibrahim Shaqir, an interagency professional in residence at USIP, in an interview examines this issue in the contexts of Afghanistan and Pakistan and how agricultural systems might contribute to peacebuilding. Countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan \| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Economics and Conflict, Health and Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict and Peacekeeping Activities, Rule of Law
	USIP, National Academy of Engineering Examine Agricultural Extension and Peacebuilding May 2012 With the National Academy of Engineering, the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) on May 1 hosted a workshop with specialists in and out of government on “Adapting Agricultural Extension to Peacebuilding.” Countries: Afghanistan, The Two Sudans \| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Economics and Conflict, Health and Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict and Peacekeeping Activities, Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding

Events

	May 1, 2012 Adapting Agricultural Extension to Peacebuilding This Workshop brought together experts in peacebuilding, agricultural extension, and information technology to determine how peacebuilding activities could be delivered as components of existing extension services in conflict and post-conflict zones. Participants investigated how conflict manifests in rural communities and the specific ways in which extension and advisory services could be used to affect such problems. In three breakout sessions, participants brainstormed what new skills, organization, and technologies might be required to integrate peacebuilding into extension activities. Issue Areas: Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding