University of California, San Diego/Universidad Autónoma de Baja California

The University of California-San Diego (UCSD), the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC), and Project Concern International have combined forces to address the health and development challenges facing the California-Baja border region by seeking to increase the number of health care practitioners, community health workers, and medical students trained in cross-border HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) issues. Since the start of the project, the partners have met regularly to jointly develop the curricula for the training courses, formulate an evaluation process, and strategize on information dissemination. In early 2002, the partners conducted two seminars at UABC’s School of Medicine: one on the diagnosis, treatment, and control of TB and one on the diagnosis, treatment, and control of HIV/AIDS. The partners also conducted a workshop for Mexican medical students on HIV/AIDS prevention, organized HIV/AIDS prevention programs for volunteers in the local communities, and aired a radio program to increase HIV/AIDS awareness among adolescents. The partners will organize and deliver four additional training courses in HIV/AIDS and TB before the project’s end in 2003. Thus far, the partnership has leveraged $88,000 in additional support for its activities.

Award Date: 2001
Award Amount: $99,782
Proposed Cost Share: $53,398
Other Partners: Project Concern International

Texas A&M/Technical Consortium from Northeast Mexico

Texas A&M University (TAMU) System’s Texas Agricultural Experiment Station (TAES) and the three member institutions of the Consorcio Técnico del Noreste de México (CTNM)—Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, and Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro—are collaborating to develop sustainable grazing land production systems in northeast Mexico and south Texas while con-serving the natural resources on which enterprises in these regions depend. The partners will address this goal primarily through faculty and student exchanges, most of which will occur during summer 2002. These exchanges are expected to bolster ongoing binational research, education, and development efforts. During a recent meeting of the Executive Committee representing TAMU and the consortium, preparations were made for the exchanges. By the end of the summer, the partners expect to produce several useful extension-type publications for producers in the target regions.

Award Date: 2001
Award Amount: $100,000
Proposed Cost Share: $25,000
Other Funds Leveraged: $3,000
Other Partners: Unión Ganadera Regional de Nuevo León, Unión Ganadera Regional de Tamaulipas, Unión Ganadera Regional de Coahuila, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias

University of Texas at Austin/Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, A.C.

This partnership between the University of Texas at Austin (UT) and the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey seeks to provide judicial training and promote judicial professionalism at the state court level in Mexico. The partners will work with newly appointed judges in three states (Nuevo León, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas) to identify priority areas for judicial training and develop and deliver four pilot training modules in the areas of judicial professionalism and court management and administration. As an initial step, the partners will convene a focus group meeting in 2002 of state judges and staff in Monterrey and subsequently develop a needs assessment survey for judicial training. They expect that this program will lay the foundation for a long-term judicial training program consisting of six additional training modules to be offered throughout Mexico using distance learning techniques.

Award Date: 2001
Award Amount: $259,189
Proposed Cost Share: $65,219
Other Partners: American Bar Association, National Judicial College

University of Wisconsin, Madison/University of Guadalajara-University Center for the South Coast

The collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) and the University Center for the South Coast of the Universidad de Guadalajara (UG) is developing a model for working with communities and their leaders on local watershed management. In November 2001, UW hosted eight municipal presidents from the Ayuquila River watershed and three UG professors to tour several types of wastewater treatment plants, recycling and solid waste disposal facilities, and community-based watershed management sites in southern Wisconsin. UG staff are developing a system to quantify the water quality problems of the Ayuquila. Two UW faculty traveled to Mexico to develop an ecological restoration program for critical stretches of the river and assess watershed forest conservation and fire prevention, with the goal of formulating an adaptive ecosystem management strategy. In the coming months, the partners will continue strengthening the managerial skills of the municipal presidents and the intermunicipal coordination of effective watershed management, exchange further information on waste-water treatment and solid waste management, complete the development of the water quality monitoring system, and establish an accessible database for local leaders. UW and UG scientists will work closely with local citizens and leaders to restore degraded ecosystems along the Ayuquila River.

Iowa State University/National Agrarian University "La Molina"

Iowa State University/Universidad Nacional Agraria “La Molina” Iowa State University (ISU) and the Universidad Nacional Agraria “La Molina” (UNALM) are working together to strengthen institutional capacity in sustainable agriculture and the building of sustainable rural communities. Faculty and student exchanges and other collaborations are focusing on two new graduate programs: the Master’s program in agricultural innovation and development at UNALM and the Master’s and Ph.D. programs in sustainable agriculture at ISU. During the first two quarters of the project, the partners developed plans for implementing the exchanges and designed a jointly taught course on leadership and rural social organization as part of UNALM’s Master’s program. The course, slated to begin in May 2002, will coincide with the first exchange visit to Peru by three ISU faculty and two ISU graduate students. The course also includes a one-and-a-half day workshop to be taught by Grupo Yanapai, a local NGO, and representatives from the nearby community of Quilcas. In the latter half of 2002, four faculty members from UNALM will travel to ISU to participate as both teachers and students in a field course on agroecosystems analysis and a course on ecologically based pest management strategies. Both are part of ISU’s graduate program in sustainable agriculture.

Johns Hopkins University/Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

The partnership between the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHBSPH) and the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia’s Facultad de Salud Pública y Administración (UPCH-FASPA) aims to increase Peruvian health professional capacity in HIV/AIDS prevention and control through training in new biostatistical and epidemiological methods. To date, the partners have fully developed and successfully pilot-tested the curriculum of a new biostatistics course at UPCH-FASPA, began training for two JHBSPH biostatisticians slated to become teaching assistants in the project’s intermediate and advanced courses, delivered two seminars for two of the Ministry of Health’s hospitals on effective proposal writing for grants from local and international funding agencies, formed a project advisory board consisting of five biostatisticians and epidemiologists, and began developing the partnership web site. The partners trained 23 students in the first biostatistics course, including five from the Ministry of Health. In the coming months, the partners expect to design and implement an intermediate biostatistics course, conduct five additional seminars for the Ministry of Health based on their specific needs, and launch the project web site.

University of Wisconsin, Madison/Universidad Nacional del Altiplano 

The overall goal of the partnership between the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) and the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano is to create a high altitude-adapted milking cow for the impoverished altiplano region of Peru by cross-breeding yaks with cows. To attain this goal, the partners are currently developing an effective in vitro embryo production and transfer protocol. Two veterinarians in Peru were recently trained in the procedures of recipient synchronization for the hybrid embryos being developed by UW. During the next phase of the project, the partners will, among other activities, continue pursuing an import permit to allow the shipment of the embryos to Peru. These embryos will ultimately be implanted in recipient local cows. If the resulting animals prove to be viable milk-producing cows, the partners expect that they can, among other benefits, create jobs for the local community.