Project featured in AUCC’s Uniworld Magazine

The Bolivia Community Economic Development project has been selected by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) as exemplary for its contributions to engaging marginalized populations in development.

The project was highlighted at a recent AUCC / CIDA workshop in Ottawa on November 24th, 2011. Gretchen Hernandez, project coordinator, spoke to a group of about 50 development professionals and academics about the unique curriculum and pedagogy.

“The CED program taught in Bolivia allows indigenous leaders co-create course content and to discuss real issues and ideas for their communities.”

An article about the project was published in the most recent issue of UniWorld, “Reaching Out to the Margins”:

http://www.aucc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/uniworld-winter-hiver-2012.pdf

Four SFU students in Bolivia

Four SFU students spent May to August 2011 in Bolivia through the project:

Ana Molina, 4th year Geography major won a CARE SFU travel award, and a grant from the project to work at COMAI-Pachamama on CED planning in Viacha, Bolivia.

Deborah Carvalho, a Latin American Studies grad student won C.A.R.E SFU travel awards and Students for Development funding to work on research on indigenous women’s access to land through the organization CECASEM in La Paz.

Isabel Bodrogi, an International Studies Masters student, received Students for Development funding to explore issues of climate change and impacts on indiggnos women with the orgganization ICO in the Santa Cruz region.

Francisco Gallegos, a graduate student in Public Policy received a grant from the project to work with IICCA in Tarija, Bolivia on research related to the implementation of Food Security policies in rural areas.

Their bios and research is available one the SFU Students page. 

New ‘In Situ’ Training for Indigenous Leaders

Three new CED training programs launched in 2011, specifically designed for traditional indigenous leaders and municipal officials. The programs are running in Viacha, Oruro, and Ocuri. Each program has about 35 participants, and will run for six months.

These programs were requested by leaders in these communities, as they are currently undergoing processes of becoming autonomous municipalities and territories, and need to plan for sustainable economic development and contribute to municipal development plans.

Travelling to major cities for training is costly and time consuming, so for these programs, the CED instructors will go to the communities to train ‘in situ’.

Viacha leaders ask for training

February 2011:

Gretchen Hernandez, project coordinator, is invited to speak at a meeting of traditional Aymara leaders (Mallkus) in Viacha, Bolivia. Twenty leaders from the area participated in the latest La Paz CED training program.  At this meeting, leaders asked SFU to run training programs directly in their community, explaining that it is difficult and costly to travel the two hours to La Paz for the classes.

2010 Training Programs

Santa Cruz training participants

December 2010: 

Joanna Ashworth of SFU visits with participants of the Santa Cruz CED program -  women leaders from a national indigenous organization.

 

 

 

Participants of CED training in La Paz, with visitor from CIDA

September 2010:

A representative from CIDA’s Partnership Branch, Education Division visits the participants of the La Paz II CED Training program on Septemeber 21, 2010.  Participants welcomed Annie D’Anjou with a traditional communal meal (aktapi).

August 2010: 

Two new training programs launched!!  The Sucre I program participants include staff from Bolivian development organizations who work with communities in the Chuquisaca Region.  The La Paz II program participants include our first group of traditional indigenous leaders – Mallkus and Mamatallas from the Marka Viacha, Tiawanaku, and Jesus de Machaca.

March 2010:

A new CED training program was launched in Santa Cruz, Bolivia! The participants include local NGO staff and indigenous women’s leaders.

Curriculum Design Workshop Video

This video describes the Bolivia CED Project and the workshop to design the program curriculum that brought together academic and practitioners from Bolivia, Canada and Mexico in 2008.

Project featured in SFU News

The new Bolivian Specialization in Community Economic Development program will be financed with a $990,000 grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).   It will be based on a proven curriculum developed by SFU’s Centre for Sustainable Community Development (CSCD) for a pilot project in Mexico, which the centre is adapting for Bolivia with an eye to using it in other Latin American countries. To read the full article, click here.