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Conference Overview
The highly successful United States-Mexico: University Partnerships for
Prosperity Conference was held June 29-July 1, 2005 at the Hotel Presidente
Intercontinental in Guadalajara, Mexico. Sponsored by the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) and hosted by
the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara
and the Universidad de Guadalajara, the
conference brought together for the first time the university partners
participating in the United States-Mexico Training, Internships, Exchanges
and Scholarships (TIES) University Partnerships program. Begun in 2002,
TIES is administered by the Association
Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development (ALO), and
funded by USAID.
More than 260 participants and dignitaries,
including U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Antonio O. Garza; Governor of the
State of Jalisco, Francisco Ramirez Acuña; and Adolfo Franco, Assistant
Administrator for USAID’s Latin America and Caribbean Bureau, met
to celebrate and examine the achievements of the 37
current TIES partnerships and to seek ways to further the development
of human capacity for economic growth, which is the purpose of the TIES
program. A highlight of the conference was the announcement
of nine new TIES partnerships that will focus on rural and micro-finance,
democracy, environment, health and rural prosperity for small-scale producers.
Christine Morfit, ALO Executive Director, recognized former USAID-Mexico
Mission Director, Paul White, for his vision in conceiving the TIES program
and current USAID-Mexico Mission Director, Edward Kadunc, for his leadership
in expanding TIES into new fields. She challenged conference participants
in their discussions to think beyond current partnerships and to identify
approaches critical to the success of TIES linkages to ensure the future
economic growth and development that TIES was designed to promote. After
three days of plenaries, panel presentations, and facilitated discussions,
it was clear that the TIES program had created a critical mass of institutions
deeply committed to social and economic change. Participants issued a
call to build an association of TIES institutions and to use lessons learned
to create networks so that higher education can speak with a louder voice
to advocate for continuation of support from key stakeholders, particularly
government agencies. The conference closed with a commitment from ALO
and USAID to continue to draw attention at the national level to the role
of higher education in national development.
The information on this web site is designed to provide a conference report
that is not only a record of the gathering but that can also be used by
conference participants and sponsors to advocate for continuation of support
for the invaluable partnerships established through programs such as TIES.
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