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LXXXI REGULAR MEETING OEA/Ser.W/IV
June 27, 2002 CEPCIDI/doc. 498/02
Washington, D.C. 24 June 2002
Original: English
Report on the implementation of the OAS agency-placed fellowships program
Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development (IACD)
Department of Information Technologies for Human Development
Division of Human Development
Washington D.C., June 27, 2002
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Overview
Since 1952, the Organization of American States (OAS) has administered one of the America’s largest multinational fellowship and training programs. Since its inception, the program it has provided thousands of scholarships to citizens of OAS member states to study at the undergraduate and graduate level at universities throughout the Americas. However, the need for more educational exchange resources is growing rapidly. This need was recognized in the historic 1998 Summit of the Americas, in which presidents of the countries of the Americas articulated the need to "further scholarship and exchange programs for students, teachers, researchers, and educational administrators."
The commitment made at the different Summits of Heads of State and of Government of the Americas to accelerate the development of the region has been reinforced by several resolutions of the General Assembly of the OAS, meetings of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development, Ministerial Meetings of Education. In response, the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development (IACD) has implemented a multi-focussed plan to increase fellowships and training opportunities centered on the Agency’s ongoing efforts to multiply the resources of the OAS to finance scholarship programs.
One mechanism is the program entitled the Americas Leadership Fellowship Program “Alberto Lleras”, named in honor of the first Secretary General of the OAS. The program aims to establish a partnership between the IACD and universities of the Hemisphere to co-finance scholarships and fellowships at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Its purpose is to promote student-centered cooperation between the Agency and the universities in order to provide more educational and training opportunities in a wide range of academic and professional disciplines within the eight priority areas identified in our Strategic Plan of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI).
Another mechanisms is the partnership established December 2001 with LASPAU: Academic and Professional Programs for the Americas. LASPAU, affiliated with Harvard University, has four decades of experience in designing and administering academic and professional exchange programs. The partnership—formed to increase the numbers of grants available as well as to expand access to these grants—will add new flexibility to the OAS fellowship program in its commitment to address OAS priority development areas through academic exchange.
IACD was formed in 2000 to tap the considerable capabilities of the member and observer states of the OAS and to forge new private/public-sector partnerships to help the people of the Americas overcome poverty, benefit from the digital revolution, and advance their economic and social development. The collaboration with LASPAU exemplifies IACD's strategy to promote new and more effective forms of cooperation between its member states and to enhance partnerships with the private sector and civil society.
Agency-placed fellowships program
Under the new arrangements, the IACD will continue to manage the dissemination and selection processes of the fellowship program. LASPAU will provide technical support for these areas and collaborate in the placement of fellows and administration of their programs. Under the partnership, LASPAU will also seek to place selected Americas Leadership Fellows in appropriate graduate programs throughout the hemisphere and seek tuition assistance on their behalf. Both IACD and LASPAU will work with their respective networks to develop new funding partnerships with universities, foundations, governments, and corporations throughout the Americas.
The partnership has already generated 31 agency-placed fellowships for the 2002-2003 academic year. The Fellows were selected from a pool of qualified alternate candidates from last year’s PRA and Fulbright–OAS competitions. They are from 21 OAS member States and have been admitted to institutions of excellence throughout the Americas, including Cornell University, Duke University, Georgia Institute of Technology, INCAE, ITESM, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, University of California, Berkeley, University of Illinois, University of Florida, and Yale University. Annex 1 presents details of candidates and programs of studies.
Although not all placements and tuition waivers have been finalized, it is estimated that the total value of the waivers negotiated by LASPAU for this first group of Fellows will be in the vicinity of $650,000 over a period of two years. As savings in expenditure in relation to direct fellowship costs, this represents an equivalent quantity leveraged as external resources additional to the regular fund allocation for the program of fellowships and training. This is significant and it is anticipated that the figure will at least have doubled with the more formal implementation of the second cycle of the program for placement in Academic Year 2003.
The potential savings and therefore the additional resources generated for the fellowships program are significant. There are also other very tangible benefits to be gained from LASPAU's experience in designing and administering academic and professional exchange programs. The technical support provided by LASPAU to the process of recruiting, evaluating, selecting and placement of candidates will lead to improved choices in the selection of universities and programs of studies. LASPAU's service in the administration of the fellowships will lead to greater efficiency and improved monitoring of grantees at universities.
The ability to properly execute this program of agency-placed fellowships require, however, the development and implementation of a separate and specific mechanism for the early recruitment and selection of candidates who meet the requirements for agency-placed fellowships. There are three major requirements of this mechanism. The first is that it must be done with sufficient lead-time to allow for the placement of fellows at institutions of excellence. The second is that the recruitment and selection process must identify candidates who possess the qualification and meet the requirements for admission to institutions of excellence. The third and perhaps most important in view of the objectives of the program is that the recruitment and selection process must identify candidates for whom LASPAU can negotiate tuition waiver or reduction or some form of financial assistance. For these reasons, the process of recruiting and selecting candidates must be on an accelerated schedule and both LASPAU and the OAS must be integrally involved in the recruitment and selection of candidates at the country level.
Other programs of collaboration
Through this latest program of collaboration with LASPAU, the IACD is seeking additional ways to increase educational opportunities in the Americas while multiplying the resources allocated for the program of fellowships and training. There are other programs of collaboration which also involve the technical support of LASPAU and its experience in designing and administering academic and professional exchange programs
The Fulbright–OAS Ecology Initiative, which began last year, greatly increases the number of scholarships in the field of ecology for individuals from Latin America and the Caribbean. This year, twenty graduate fellowships have been awarded under the Fulbright–OAS Ecology Initiative and a recent agreement with the Fulbright Program allows for the continuation of this initiative for at least one more fellowships cycle. Annex 2 presents the details of candidates and programs of studies.
A recent collaboration between LASPAU, the Leo S. Rowe Pan American Fund of the OAS, and Ecuador's Fundación para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (FUNDACYT) has expanded FUNDACYT's efforts to provide advanced training for Ecuadorians in areas of science and technology.
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