Mortara Center for International Studies

Half the world's population lives in poverty, and lacks adequate nutrition, clean water, education, health services, shelter, jobs, physical security, and hope for the future. The faculty and students of Georgetown University are blessed with vast opportunities for developing our capacities and realizing our dreams. These blessings bring the obligation to help the less fortunate in our communities, our countries, and the world. In addition to humanitarian and moral concerns, there are other important reasons to help reduce poverty and deprivation -- to strengthen our security and well-being in a world where despair and conflict can lead to crime and terrorism as well as international health and environmental problems, and to expand our economic opportunities as developing countries grow and prosper. Nevertheless, the core of the Initiative on International Development is a moral imperative to share our blessings, and to better the human condition of those less fortunate. There are few causes more important.

» Read more about the initiative.