The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
Yelibenwork Ayele
15 December 2007
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) launched Wednesday a program that links a US university to an Ethiopian university in a partnership that will improve disaster risk management and reduce the vulnerability of millions.
"Our purpose is to provide support to the development of a graduate program in disaster risk management. I want to say that more important than this is the creation of this partnership and engagement in action research, problem-solving activity which makes this program so exiting to us," said Dr Timothy Finan, director, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona.
The three-year 200,000 USD grant will help Bahir Dar University create a regional institute of excellence on disaster risk management and sustainable development with support from the University of Arizona (UA). The new project is being implemented in partnership with the Higher Education for Development.
"USAID strongly believes that institutionalizing disaster risk management skills and capacity will in the end save millions of Ethiopian lives," Glenn Anders, USAID mission director said. Mr. Anders officially announced the partnership Wednesday alongside faculty from both universities.
The new partnership between the universities will provide graduate training for faculty at BDU through a combination of face-to-face interaction with UA counterpart faculty as well as distance-learning through a web-based portal, owned by USAID and co-managed by UA.
The partners will develop a graduate curriculum and establish a distance-learning platform that is complemented by faculty exchange between UA and BDU. The portal will be used to manage the knowledge resources needed for the completion of the graduate program.
UA will provide major capacity building support for the newly established department of disaster risk management and sustainable development at BDU. UA faculty will develop annual internships for the graduate faculty. In addition, the project will help develop the ability of the university to offer a range of short courses for community leaders and for disaster management specialists from government and NGOs. Ultimately, the department will become a core responsibility of information for research and analysis, which will better inform disaster management and development policy debates.
The project will culminate in a major national and international conference held at BDU, which will highlight the new department and provide an opportunity for faculty to present research.
The UA staff will travel to Bahir Dar for a needs assessment and collaborative talks.
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