Graham Dilworth

Age: 24

Home Town: Woodbine, Maryland

Education: Master of Public Policy, University of Maryland

Specific Field Interests: Economic Empowerment, Youth Development, Post-Conflict Transitions

Placement: SAFA, Hyderabad

Area of Focus: Female Economic Empowerment

Fellowship Project: Microbusiness Scaling

Highlights: Graham is working with SAFA in Hyderabad, an organization that focuses on economic empowerment of women from disenfranchised groups. For his fellowship project, he will be working to develop a replicable model for scaling successful microbusinesses. This past year, Graham lived in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he was working as an International Development Fellow through Catholic Relief Services. In this role, he helped implement development projects focused on disaster risk reduction, refugee resettlement, and social housing. Prior to his work in Bosnia, Graham spent a year in Rwanda with the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village. There, he assisted Rwandan youth from vulnerable backgrounds as they integrated into the formal education and job markets. Graham earned his Master of Public Policy from the University of Maryland where he focused on post-conflict transitions, disaster preparedness for countries in the Indian Ocean, and factors that undermine micro-loan performance. He was also an Employment Specialist at the International Rescue Committee, assisting South Asian migrants to integrate into the American economy. He also worked for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research in Geneva, Switzerland, an independent UN body dedicated to capacity building in the public and private sectors of middle and low-income countries. Graham is excited to join SAFA and to bring the lessons that he has learned from working in economic empowerment in different cultural contexts.