September 22, 1998 Volume 1, Issue 3
(Updated September 22)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
• So far, ten of the 15 Institutional Partnerships selected in the first competition have successfully completed the final round of the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development Institutional Partnerships competition for 1998 (details in next month's issue).
• USAID/Eritrea has offered to fund an additional Institutional Partnership.
• With signed subagreements in hand, the newest partners have begun rolling up their sleeves and digging into their projects.
See http://www.aascu.org/alo/proposals.htm in the coming months for profiles of these partnerships.•
Two of the 11 preliminary selections for the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Request for Proposals, "Building International Workforce Development Partnerships," target this important development challenge in South Africa.
AACC's solicitation, which ended in May, resulted in 40 high-impact proposals for projects not just in South Africa, but throughout Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and the New Independent States, and Asia and the Near East.
Through an agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development (ALO), AACC supports partnerships between community colleges and higher education institutions overseas, with cooperation from partners in business and industry.
The goal of these new Workforce Development Partnerships is to strengthen the capacities of cooperating country institutions to provide relevant marketable skills to the unemployed or underemployed in USAID-assisted countries.
Workforce Development Partnerships through community colleges have a proven track record of success in developing countries (see the July 1998 issue of News Briefs for one such story from Maricopa Community Colleges). The new ALO/AACC competition is creating an awareness of the strengths of partnerships for development and providing the necessary funding to get some of them started.
"We're excited about this new opportunity," said Audree Chase, AACC Coordinator of International/Intercultural Education. "Community colleges are in the forefront of training their local workforces. Applying this expertise to the developing world seems the logical next step."
To choose the 11 proposals, three teams of peer reviewers, made up of five practitioners in workforce development and international education, evaluated. The two most important factors considered, according to Ms. Chase, were that USAID goals and objectives were clearly addressed, and that strong evaluation and dissemination plans were outlined. AACC plans to announce its final selections once project agreements are signed.
Besides the South Africa proposals, there were a high number of projects in Mexico. Perhaps the biggest surprises were innovative and exciting partnerships in Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan.
AACC is planning a workshop to help interested community colleges learn how to apply for such grants at the Community Colleges for International Development meeting in January. Contingent upon USAID funding, the next Request for Proposals is planned for January 1999 at the same time as the proposed ALO Institutional Partnerships solicitation.
For information on the workshop, leave a message at (202) 728-0200, ext. 541.•
State University linkage in Jordan is working to rehabilitate the King Talal
reservoir, used for irrigation in the Jordan Valley.
University linkage programs are an important model for the types of new partnerships that USAID needs to develop," said Jill Buckley, USAID Assistant Administrator for Legislative and Public Affairs.
The University Development Linkages Program (UDLP) has set a high standard for long-term, mutually beneficial relationships between higher education institutions in the U.S. and developing countries to meet development goals.
Like the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development's Institutional Partnerships, UDLP partnerships are initiated by higher education and reflect the priorities both of the institutions and USAID missions. Through its Center for Human Capacity Development (HCD), USAID has supported 42 centrally and mission funded linkages under the UDLP in 29 countries. These linkages fall under the categories of health, population and nutrition, economic growth, environmental protection, democracy and governance, and education.
UDLP funding is "seed" money that is provided for up to five years and requires matching funds from the partners. Matches have averaged nearly $2 for every $1 of USAID contribution over the life of the program.
"This is an attractive return on USAID investment," said Gary Bittner, Team Leader for Higher Education Partnerships within USAID.
What is more, universities and colleges not only by definition are experienced in training, but they also have rich histories of research expertise and existing structures by which they can effectively administer projects.
Among the U.S. institutions that have established linkages in developing countries is Cornell University, which worked with the Escuela Agricola Panamerica at Zamorano in Honduras. The linkage activities addressed specific needs in Honduras and the Central American region, resulting in a joint Master of Professional Studies program, an intensive course on sustainable agriculture, teaching workshops, and rural schools and community-based development, and conflict management related to forest fires. The partnership is continuing, with the added expertise of Purdue University, through the Association Liaison Office's Institutional Partnership program.
An extension agent from the Escuela Agricola
Panamerica at Zamorano in Honduras interviews a villager to gather community
input as a part of the conflict management process in a water rights problem.
Cornell University helped train workers in Zamorano as part of its linkage
project.
A University of Florida and Makerere University partnership established the Human Rights and Peace Center (HURIPEC) in Uganda with a Makerere endowment and UDLP funds. Dedicated in 1997, HURIPEC is the first research and academic-based institution in the East African region and is devoted to teaching, researching, and compiling local/regional materials related to human rights.
Washington State University and the University of Jordan worked to design and construct the building for the Water and Environmental Research and Study Center in Jordan, inaugurated in April of 1997. USAID provided seed money for the partnership, but the two universities leveraged the funds on their own to build the Center. Other emerging projects in Jordan include determining optimal water use in agriculture and a workshop on using solar energy for wastewater treatment.
In an effort to continue promoting such higher education linkages and to broaden the range of their impact, HCD is currently organizing three regional UDLP conferences in the Latin America/Caribbean (LAC), Africa (AFR), and the Asia and the Near East (ANE) and Europe and the New Independent States (ENI) regions.
The LAC conference is scheduled for January 20-24, 1999, in Honduras, the AFR conference is February 8-10, 1999, in Ghana, and ANE/ENI conference is planned for Jordan in February. Institutions with successful UDLP partnerships in each region were identified to organize the conferences: in Honduras, Cornell University and Escuela Agricola Panamerica at Zamorano; in Ghana, Eastern Washington University and University of Cape Coast; and Jordan, Washington State University and the University of Jordan.
Higher education cooperation is the future of development. Jill Buckley notes, "By defining activities that target the intersection of higher education and USAID interests, these low-cost mechanisms are pioneering a new way to leverage resources and work cooperatively to the benefit of developing countries."
For more information on the UDLP program, see http://www.info.usaid.gov/educ_training/udlp.htm .•
(Excerpt reprinted with permission from NASULGC’s Newsline, July/August 1998)
Assisting higher education institutions in developing countries to serve a broader range of development goals is an appropriate goal of international development cooperation. This is consistent with the “land-grant” tradition in the U.S. which expects such institutions to be actively engaged with identifying and solving problems, undertaking public service activities, and preparing young people to contribute more effectively to economic and social progress in their communities and nation.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) can contribute to global peace and prosperity by promoting policies, investments and strategies that link higher-level human resource development with relevant knowledge generation that encourages active engagement of university institutions in developing countries with the problems and needs of society and makes this engagement more effective.
This is a vision for higher education that serves broad and multiple objectives. Although these are hard to quantify, they are nonetheless significant. Such a process produces not just “trained manpower,” but leadership that can chart new directions, manage complex operations, generate new ideas, and mobilize resources.
It is hard to imagine any society achieving these kinds of transformational changes without considerable leadership talent educated through the tertiary level.
One cannot have effective tertiary education if there is not a good and equitably apportioned input to universities and colleges from primary and secondary institutions.
But by the same token, primary and secondary institutions, to be more than custodial operations turning out targeted numbers of graduates rather than producing well educated and well motivated persons, need the vision and leadership that we must look to reoriented universities and colleges to provide.
USAID should recognize the importance of and invest in human capacity development as essential for social progress, accountable societies, and responsible global citizenship. Such a strategy will require gains in the cost-effectiveness of higher education in developing countries. At the same time, higher education institutions need to reorient their philosophy and approach so that they can demonstrate their relevance and value to society, to strengthen their case for receiving greater economic support from their own people and governments.
The Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development is working with universities in Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Speaking from personal experience, I believe there is a growing recognition within the leadership of these institutions that they need to become more engaged with their societies’ problems.
Such changes should be conceived and implemented to have considerable multiplier effects that will reverse the downward slide not just of higher education institutional capabilities in developing countries, but of societies and economies as well.•
Deadline: October 1
Visiting scholars are being sought as team members to implement collaborative international development activities involving higher education.
Selected scholars will spend one year at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington, D.C., as part of a team to conceptualize, plan and implement international development activities in which there is collaboration between USAID and the higher education community in the U.S. and abroad.
Scholars must have a minimum of five years experience in higher education international program administration and have a Ph.D. in any physical, biological or social science, or any field of engineering. The emphasis will be on selecting individuals who have substantial experience in achieving results in university-style international programming.
The program begins January 1, 1999, and includes a $75,000 stipend plus allowances for international travel, relocation to Washington, D.C., and health benefits. U.S. citizenship is required. Application information is available from the contact noted below.
Contact: AAAS Science Scholars in Higher Education for Development Program by phone at (202) 326-6700 or by e-mail: science_policy@aaas.org.
The Niger National Agricultural Research Institute (INRAN) is hosting a Hybrid Sorghum and Millet Seed Workshop in Niamey, Niger from September 28 through October 2. The workshop will bring together scientists, entrepreneurs, government and non-governmental organization representatives from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the U.S. for the development of the sorghum-and-millet hybrid seed industry in West Africa.
For information, contact Joan Frederick at the University of Nebraska at (402) 472-6032.
A University of Florida and Makerere University partnership was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education July 3, 1998. The partnership established the Human Rights and Peace Center (HURIPEC) in Uganda in 1993 with $400,000 in funding from USAID's University Development Linkages Program. Dedicated in 1997, HURIPEC is the first research and academic-based institution in the East African region and is devoted to teaching, researching, and compiling local/regional materials related to human rights.
The African Virtual University (AVU) might be able to help with your projects in Africa.
AVU is an interactive instructional telecommunications network established by the World Bank to serve the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.
A video conference studio and access to an on-line library are two of its services. See the Web site to learn more.
The U.S. Department of State issued a worldwide caution August 20, 1998, urging “U.S. citizens traveling or residing abroad to review their security practices, to remain alert to the changing situation, and to exercise much greater caution than usual.”
ALO asks its Institutional Partners to provide notice of program-related travel at least three weeks in advance.
See the Web site or call (202) 647-5225 for the most up-to-date information before making travel plans.
To find out about upcoming events relevant to higher education and international development, see the newest addition to the ALO Web site: the Calendar of Higher Education Events in International Development.
USAID will hold a workshop for Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs) at the Rosslyn Westpark Holiday Inn in Arlington, Virginia September 24 and 25.
The workshop offers SAID’s PVO partners essential information on the new fiscal year’s grant programs and provides a dynamic forum for the interchange of ideas. Contact Laurie Miller at (703) 741-0560 for details.
An exhibit highlighting the many development achievements of the Collaborative Research Support Programs will be on display at the USAID Information Center, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite M1, Washington, DC from September 21 through December 31, 1998, Monday through Friday.
For information, contact Howard Salter at (202) 712-4810 or by e-mail at pinquiries@usaid.gov.•
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.
|
||||||
Send comments and suggestions to webmaster.