News Briefs Online

The Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development

Vol. II ~ No. 5 ~ Sept/Oct 2001

New ALO Partnership Awards

Cycle 2001 Higher Education Development Partnerships

Special Initiatives in Ethiopia Awarded
to the Universities of Alabama and Georgia

Special Initiative in Macedonia:
$2.325 Million Pending to Indiana University Consortium


ALO Awards 15 New Higher Education Partnerships
for International Development

The Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development (ALO) announces $1.5 million in awards under its 2001 Institutional Partnerships competition. Fifteen lead colleges and universities received the awards for projects with colleges and universities in U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) assisted countries.

The collaborations concern USAID sectors including economic growth, agriculture, trade, global health, democracy, conflict, and health. Partnerships address one or more of the strategic objectives of the USAID Missions in the host country. The 15 new partnerships outlined below join ALO's 1998-2000 partnerships, Workforce Development partnerships, and Special Initiatives for an all-time high of 105 active higher education partnerships for development around the world

The 2001 Partnerships:


Croatia

Montana State University-Bozeman/University of Zagreb
Building and Sustaining Croatian Cooperative Business Leadership for the 21st Century: To institutionalize and increase community capacity for sustained cooperative business leadership development in Croatia.

Jordan

University of Arkansas/Yarmouk University
Applying the Principles of Cultural Resource Management to Economic Development through Sustainable Tourism: To develop small businesses near heritage sites applying principles of cultural resource management to foster eco-tourism and economic growth.

India

Eastern Iowa Community College District/Vasavi College of Engineering
Indo-US Collaboration for the Development of Educational Infrastucture to Promote and Community College System in India: To establish pilot community colleges in South India.

Kenya

American Association for the Advancement of Science/Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology
Women in Higher Education and Science: African Universities Responding to HIV/AIDS: To develop campus and community-based programs for women on civic engagement to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Indiana University/Moi University
A Comprehensive Approach to the Management of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Kenya: To implement a comprehensive health plan for the management of HIV/AIDS.

Mexico

Texas A&M University/Technical Consortium from Northeast Mexico
Student and Faculty Exchange for Institutional Development and Sustainability: To increase research, education, and extension capacities of students and faculty toward the development of sustainable grazing land production systems.
University of Texas at Austin/Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
Strengthening Justice Through Judicial Training Program: To provide judicial training and promote judicial professionalism at the state court level locally and through distance learning.
University of California-San Diego/Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
Partnership for Cross-Border Human Capacity Training in HIV and Tuberculosis: To increase the number of health care practitioners, community health workers, and medical students trained in binational HIV/AIDS and TB issues.
University of Wisconsin-Madison/University of Guadalajara-University Center for the South Coast
Local Initiatives for Watershed Management: To enhance partner and local government capacity in community- based development education and service through watershed management.

Mozambique

West Virginia University/Catholic University of Mozambique (CUM)
Partnership for Rural Health Education in Central Mozambique: To develop public health programs in maternal/ child health and HIV/AIDS education and a rural health curriculum at the new CUM Faculty of Medicine.

Nepal

Michigan State University/Institute of Forestry
Building the Capacity of Nepal’s Institute of Forestry to Support a New Masters of Forestry Degree Program: To establish the first-ever graduate degree program in forestry in Nepal.

Peru

Iowa State University/National Agrarian University "La Molina"
Strengthening Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University and the National Agricultural University at La Molina Through Faculty and Graduate Student Exchanges and Collaboration: To strengthen institutional capacity in sustainable agriculture and in the building of sustainable rural communities.
Johns Hopkins University/Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

Building Capacities for Applied Biostatistical and Epidemiological Methods in HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control in Peru: To build capacity in applied quantitative methods for use in HIV/AIDS prevention and control strategies.
University of Wisconsin-Madison/Universidad Nacional del Antiplano Puno
Evaluation of Yak Crossbreds as High Altitude Milk Cows on the Altiplano: To research the introduction of yak crossbreds as high altitude milk cows to the Peruvian Altiplano.

Russia

Harford Community College/Moscow Medical College #1
Designing and Implementing a Nursing Continuing Education Program to Promote Russian Nursing Reform: To develop and implement a continuing education system in nursing and establish nursing staff education depart ments in hospitals.

ALO coordinates the efforts of the nation's six major higher education associations to build their partnership with USAID and to help their member institutions plan and implement development programs with colleges and universities abroad. For more information about ALO and its programs, see the Web site at http://www.aascu.org/alo. For information on other international higher education partnerships, see the International Higher Education Linkages Projects database at http://www.aascu.org/alo/ihelp.


The University of Alabama and the University of Georgia
to Work in Ethiopia

ALO is pleased to announce the awardees of two Special Initiative Partnerships in Ethiopia.

The University of Georgia has received a two-year, $97,859 award for its project, "Expanding and Strengthening Journalism Education at Unity College," which will bring together the resources and expertise of UGA's James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research and Unity College to improve Unity's journalism curriculum. The goal is to help Ethiopia develop an independent and responsible media.

The specific objectives of this partnership are to expand the Unity curriculum, teach instructional techniques to Unity faculty members, and provide design and technical support that will allow the journalism faculty to build its own web site. The web site will be used to provide Unity's journalism program a window to the outside world and to offer students an opportunity to develop journalism skills in the context of web-delivered journalism.

The University of Alabama and Mekelle University Law Faculty (MULF) have received a two-year, $150,000 award to work on human capacity in the Ethiopian legal sector.

This program of cooperation is designed to assist the newly-established MULF to effectively deliver degree, diploma, and continuing education programs and to provide legal research and services to the surrounding community. There are four specific areas in which the partnership will focus: short- and long-term visits by U.S. law lecturers to assist in curriculum development and joint research; visits by UA professors to focus on faculty development, including the development of course syllabi and teaching methods; graduate LL.M. training for MULF instructors at UA to upgrade their skills and knowledge; and the provision and development of paper-based and electronic resources and research capacities at the MULF library.

The partnership is designed to take advantage of the long-standing relationship between the UA School of Law and the institutions of legal education in Ethiopia.


$2.325 Million Award to Indiana University Consortium
to Support New University in Macedonia

ALO has announced its intention to provide a three-year, $2,325,000 partnership grant to an Indiana University-led consortium to support institutional capacity building at the new Southeast Europe University (SEEU) in Tetovo, Macedonia.

Known as the “U.S.-Macedonia Linkage Program,” this partnership will draw on the resources and expertise of the Indiana Consortium for International Programs (ICIP), in particular Indiana University-Bloomington (IUB); Ball State University; Butler University; Indiana University-Southeast; and Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. As the lead consortium institution, IUB will work in close collaboration with SEEU, receiving additional support from the Sabre Foundation in Cambridge, MA.

The partnership is part of an overarching multi-million dollar Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe initiative to establish a new private, multi-lingual, multi-cultural university in Tetovo, a predominantly ethnic Albanian community in northwest Macedonia. For its part, ICIP is designing and implementing undergraduate departments - and accompanying administrative structures - in law, business, public administration, education, and computer information science.

The overall aim of the partners will be to build and sustain the capacity at SEEU for high-quality teaching, applied research, and community outreach. The hope is that the establishment of SEEU will help to reduce ethnic tensions and foster national unity based on full-fledged participatory citizenship.

Go to ALO home