November 23, 1998 Volume
1, Issue 4
In this issue...
Two Purdue graduate students are using their linkage with Zamorano University in Honduras to help in relief efforts following Hurricane Mitch.
The students, Tim Longwell and Tamara Benjamin, write, “Purdue and many other U.S. universities and institutions have many ties in this area and our friends need our help.” They organized a relief drive to assist the people in the Yeguare region of central Honduras, collecting goods on their campus in Indiana for shipment to Honduras. Longwellwas formerly an assistant professor at Zamorano.
They planned to gather around 400 boxes of food, clothing and medicines, but the Purdue community donated over 1,500.
With their friends in Zamorano, the Purdue students are working to insure that once goods are delivered to Honduras, they are transported directly to the most needy local communities. Purdue, Cornell and Zamorano Universities are exploring other ways to draw on their Institutional Partnership through ALO and its agreement with USAID to help in the recovery.
Damage done in Honduras and Nicaragua includes thousands killed, tens of thousands homeless, many bridges and roads destroyed, extensive crop damage, and serious disruption/destruction of water and electricity supplies.
USAID has assembled a list of organizations collecting monetary or other donations at http://www.interaction.org/pressrel/mitch.html. The list includes World Vision at 1-888-511-6565.•
Until it gained independence in 1990, Namibia suffered numerous obstacles to development. Among these, apartheid shaped the country’s educational system. Today, a post-apartheid assessment of Namibia’s education sector has resulted in a school reform mandate.
One of the significant challenges was to enhance Ministry of Education officials’ professional skills without removing them from their important tasks in implementing Namibia’s education reform.
USAID/Namibia is addressing the problem through a distance education solution called the Professional Enhancement Program (PEP). USAID sponsors PEP under a Cooperative Agreement with the University of Montana and a consortium of other higher education institutions, including the University of Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa, the University of Namibia (UNAM) (created in 1992) and the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID).
PEP was born out of USAID’s Basic Education Support (BES) Project and the need to sustain the technical inputs USAID has been providing Namibia through BES over the past four years. With the Ministry’s need in mind and the goal of sustaining BES’s impact, a committee was formed (with MBEC, USAID, UNAM and the BES technical team) to look into alternatives to traditional residential Masters Degree Programs. PEP was launched in March of this year.
Funds were initially set aside under BES to offer five Ministry officials Masters Degrees in the U.S. in the areas which the project supports: Curriculum Development, Educational Research, and Education Management/ Policy and Planning.
With the distance education program, the agreement provides for 29 Masters and five Doctoral Degrees to be offered to 34 Namibian Ministry of Education officials in a three-year program.
“PEP represents a new and innovative approach towards building capacity not only at the Ministry of Education but also at UNAM’s faculty of Education,” said BES Project Manager Catherine Powell Miles. Through PEP, higher education linkages are being strengthened between UNAM and UWC, as well as internationally with the University of Montana and HIID’s participation.•
In July 1997, USAID Administrator Brian Atwood announced the approval of the Agency’s new goal, “Building Human Capacity through Education and Training.” This fall, the Global Bureau Center for Human Capacity Development gathered mission staff, local contractors and others to consider how to increase awareness of the new goal, showcase lessons learned, and provide technical training and new mechanisms to help achieve the goal.
G/HCD held workshops at three regional sites: Kingston, Jamaica (Latin America and the Caribbean); Bamako, Mali (Africa); and Warsaw, Poland (Europe and the NIS, and Asia and the Near East). ALO was represented by a staff member at each workshop and by the following higher education representatives:
In Jamaica: Richard Bortz, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; Daphne Comrie, University of Technology in Jamaica; and Bertha Landrum, Maricopa Community Colleges District.
In Mali: Richard Cook, Washington State University; David Hansen, Ohio State University; and Ally Mack, Mississippi Consortium for International Development.
In Poland: Zina Breschinsky, Purdue University; Eamon Kelly, President Emeritus of Tulane University; Tomas Sabol, Association of Carpathian Region Universities; and Michael Stitsworth, Purdue University.
The higher education teams not only presented examples of successful partnerships but also heard about mission experiences with colleges and universities (see cover story, “Basic Ed. Benefits from Higher Ed. Distance Link”).
Strategy sessions included how higher education partnerships can be used to address cross-cutting challenges, to tap funding sources, and to access expertise available through these institutions.•
Ghana and the Republic of Korea had essentially the same income per capita forty years ago, but somehow South Korea’s was six times higher than Ghana’s by the early 1990s. Some attribute half of the difference to South Korea’s greater success in acquiring and applying knowledge, according to the World Bank Report, Knowledge for Development.
South Korea had achieved universal primary education by 1960. Basic education was the foundation for its well-educated labor force, which fueled the country’s economic needs as it industrialized. To sustain a burst of economic growth and to compete in the global economy, the report says that analysts agree that all countries must go beyond basic education, which South Korea did. Incentives were put in place for broad private investment in tertiary education.
By 1995, more than half of college-age adults were enrolled in a college or university, and of these, more than 80 percent were enrolled in private institutions, and private spending on tertiary education exceeded public spending.
South Korea’s story is one of many examples the report uses to illustrate the relationship between knowledge gaps and information problems, their impact on development, and ways to address them.
To order a copy of the report, contact the World Bank at (202) 477-1234, or see the Web site at http://www.worldbank.org.•
This past summer, Dr. David Hansen, Director of the Office of International Programs in Agriculture at Ohio State University (OSU), attended the Ohio State Fair’s Agricultural Hall of Fame breakfast, where inductees included the retired Chair of Ohio State’s Department of Animal Science and a retired leader of Select Sires who internationalized the business.
“Everybody who is anybody in Ohio agriculture was present in the audience,” said Hansen, noting OSU Dean Bob Moser and President Brit Kirwan, Governor George Voinovich, and Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture Fred Dailey. “It made me realize that, indeed, our college and the agriculture community in Ohio are one.”
“It was interesting to listen to the speeches and to the conversation at our table,” Hansen said, but noted that the occasion gave him an opportunity to reflect on challenges that still face development cooperation. “We seem to have missed the boat in regard to institution building in other nations, particularly as it relates to agricultural universities. We worked on curriculum and we worked on research. We failed to attempt to link those institutions with their private sectors.”
“From my vantage point, this is one of the great challenges that remain; and it would not take great sums of money to promote it.”•
Dr. Hiram Larew recently presented USAID’s Disability Policy Paper and Plan of Action at a conference in Hong Kong on people with disabilities, attended by almost 500 individuals from about 25 countries. He highlighted USAID’s work through the War Victims Fund in Asia, and suggested that opportunities abound for low-cost, but high-impact programs that build upon and are integrated into ongoing activities. He brings back three messages from the conference:
First, the capabilities of disabled persons – regardless of nationality, age or gender – are impressive and poorly appreciated. If given a chance, many go well beyond surmounting their disability to become leaders of the first order.
Many, many examples were given of individuals (or groups) who, when given a chance, contributed to the economic and social well-being of their families, communities and countries. The message that “We are a resource, not an embarrassment!” came through loud and clear – as did the need to convince the unconvinced.
Second, the overall commitment of many in the community – those who are disabled and those who work with them – is more and more based on a solid foundation of programs that work.
Everyone admitted that much more needs to be done, and that improvements are desperately required. But clearly, the starting assumption at the meeting was that we are learning about what works, and now we need to scale up and build upon what we know. The claim that little or nothing works is no longer operative.
Lastly, a colleague from the United Nations emphasized (and several others echoed his thoughts) the increasing importance of disability groups that are organized and run by the disabled. While often overlooked by donors, these groups are helping to establish community norms; with modest investments by donors, they can have wide-ranging local impacts.
The USAID Policy Paper on Disabilities can be downloaded from http://www.info.usaid.gov/about/disabpol.htm. The National Council for the Disabled lists more resources at http://www.ncd.gov/links.html.
Dr. Hiram Larew is the Director of International Programs, Science and Education Resources Development with the Cooperative State, Research, Education and Economic Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and formerly was a Science/Technology Specialist at USAID.•
Injury is the number one cause of death for South Africans under the age of 40. Umtata General Hospital in South Africa sees over 300 patients every day in its emergency rooms, half of whom are there because of injuries, but there are currently no physicians or nurses on the staff with formalized training in emergency or trauma medicine.
Howard University School of Medicine and the University of the Transkei (UNITRA) are joining efforts to produce an Internet educational package in emergency and trauma medicine for health care providers in South Africa. Through an Institutional Partnership, sponsored by ALO and USAID, the universities hope to address the acute need at rural health facilities like Umtata for personnel with knowledge and practice in emergency and trauma medicine.
The ALO grant of $99,923 will be complemented by approximately $131,058 from Howard University and $70,134 from UNITRA in matching funds. The total estimated cost of this partnership is $301,115. Watch for new developments on this story and others on the ALO Web site, http://www.aascu.org/alo/1998A46.html.•
Established in 1992, ALO coordinates the efforts of the nation's six major higher education associations to build their partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and to help their member institutions plan and implement development programs with colleges and universities abroad. Copyright 1998 by the Association Liaison Office. All rights reserved. Use of this publication in full or partial form is encouraged, but requires the permission of the publisher. Send comments, requests for addition to list, questions, and ideas for stories to ALO.
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