International Studies Institute

Upcoming Events                         

Academic Programs | Resources | Upcoming Events | Study Abroad  
 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

 

 

61st Japan-America Student Conference

 

Join 70 other students from the US and Japan for a month of cultural exchange, travel and fun!

 

Limited Space and Scholarships are still available.

Email jasc@iscdc.org Today for your chance for an awesome culture and career filled summer!

 

Meet leaders and students that will improve your career network in this unique student-led cultural and academic exchange which will host its 61st annual program this summer. Students will discuss their research on topics of bilateral and global interest and enjoy prominent speakers in the month-long conference. 

 

The theme for the 61st Japan-America Student Conference held July 24 - August 21, 2009, will be “Towards Global Awareness: Everyday Impact through Interactive Empowerment.” 

 

From its origin, JASC has been student-run, which fosters dynamic discussion focused on pressing current issues. The tradition of student leadership has endured more than 70 years.  Not only do conference participants learn about one of the world’s most strategic bilateral alliances, they also have the opportunity to directly help reinforce the bonds between countries by sharing knowledge and experiences while making memories and friendships with other future leaders, JASC will ensure students play an active role as they prepare to become the next generation of leaders.

 

2009 JASC Sites: Tokyo, Hakodate, Nagano, Kyoto

 

This year’s Roundtable topics include:

Educating Global Citizenry: What is the ideal education for a globalizing society?

Environment and Sustainable Environment

Food Security and the Future Accessibility of Edible Commodities

Globalizing Economies

International Development: Searching for Real Solutions

Modernized Technologies and Health Issues

Public Interest vs. Individual Rights

 

Although many participants will be Asian Studies and East Asian Studies majors, this is not a requirement.  All types of students from any field and level of study are welcome at the conference.  Knowledge of the Japanese language is not required.

 

For applications or more information, please visit www.iscdc.org or e-mail jasc@iscdc.org. 

JASC is a program of International Student Conferences, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting peace by furthering mutual understanding, friendship, and trust through international student interchange.

 

Apply today for a summer of study, travel, and fun!

 

The deadline is February 21st!

 

Japan-America Student Conference
Regina Dull, Executive Director
1150 18th St. NW, Suite LL2
Washington, DC 20036

202-289-9088

 

 

 

2nd Korea-America Student Conference

 

Join 50 other students from the US and Korea for a month of cultural exchange, travel and fun!

 

Limited Space and Scholarships are still available.

Email kasc@iscdc.org Today for your chance for an awesome culture and career filled summer!

 

Meet leaders and students that will improve your career network in this unique student-led cultural and academic exchange which will host its 2nd annual program this summer. Students will discuss their research on topics of bilateral and global interest and enjoy prominent speakers in the month-long conference. 

 

The theme for the second Korea-America Student Conference held July 12 - August 12, 2009, will be “Advancing US-Korea Cooperation on International Affairs.” 

 

Created due to military necessity, the U.S.-Korea alliance has grown and evolved over the last fifty years. Today, the Republic of Korea and the United States work as partners on issues ranging from trade agreements and nuclear threats to education and technology. Over the next year both Korea and the US will undergo changes in leadership which could significantly impact their policies and interactions worldwide. As this alliance continues to change, KASC will ensure students play an active role as they prepare to become the next generation of leaders.

 

2009 KASC Sites: Seoul, Gwangju, Jeju, and Busan

 

This year’s Roundtable topics include:

Going Green: Environmental Policy

Shared Defense: National Security

Larger than Life: Creating Global Citizens

Science and Technology: Innovative Solutions

Media and Culture: The Dynamic Duo and its Influence

 

Although many participants will be Asian Studies and East Asian Studies majors, this is not a requirement.  All types of students from any field and level of study are welcome at the conference.  Knowledge of the Korean language is not required.

 

For applications or more information, please visit www.iscdc.org or e-mail kasc@iscdc.org. 

KASC is a program of International Student Conferences, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting peace by furthering mutual understanding, friendship, and trust through international student interchange.

 

Apply today for a summer of study, travel, and fun!

 

The deadline is March 6th!

 

Korea-America Student Conference
Regina Dull, Executive Director
1150 18th St. NW, Suite LL2
Washington, DC 20036

202-289-9088

 

 

 


 

PAST EVENTS

 

FOREIGN POLICY CHALLENGES

IN THE

TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONSHIP

UNDER THE NEW

 ADMINISTRATION

 

A Seminar with

 

Thomas C. Eckert

Political Counselor

Embassy of the Federal German Republic

Washington, DC

 

Tuesday, December 16, 12:00 – 1:00 pm

Social Sciences Room 2069

 

 

In this informal seminar, Dr. Thomas C. Eckert will address a wide range of transatlantic foreign policy issues.  Dr. Eckert has served as a Political Counselor at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Washington, DC, since 2005.  He previously served as Head of the Western Balkans Section at the European Bureau at the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Special Adviser to EU High Representative Javier Solana in Belgrade, where he assisted with drafting the constitution of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro; Head of Press and Information of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Western European Union (WEU) in Paris; First Secretary in the Political Section of the German Delegation to NATO / WEU in Brussels; and Adviser to the Senior Management Review Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Dr. Eckert earned a doctorate and masters at Munich University and a masters from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

 

Sponsored by:

CSTP Center for Science, Technology, and Policy

ISI International Studies Institute

 

 

For additional information, contact Andrew L. Ross, Professor of Political Science and Director, CSTP, at aross@unm.edu or 277-7391, or Ms. Faith Brandt, Program Coordinator, CSTP, at faithann@unm.edu or 277-2839.

 

 


Speaker Bios PDF                                                                                  PDF POSTER

 

FEATURING LORETTA NAPOLEONI

 

Visit Her Web Site: http://www.lorettanapoleoni.org/

Rogue Economics » The Book

The Book

It was called "The Freedom Bug." In the early 1990's church bells rang while the Iron Curtain came down across Europe. In less than a decade the number of democratic countries went from 69 to 118. As democracy spread, so did slavery. Within two decades, politics lost control, and economics has become a dark force in the hands of ruthless new entrepreneurs. From the European sex trade to the Chinese counterfeit industries, from internet fraud to the fish pirates of the Baltic Sea, Rogue Economics is turning the global market into our worst nightmare.

Trapped inside the 'Market Matrix', a web of economic and commercial illusions, consumers are at the mercy of this new force. Shockingly, they are at the same time victims and unwilling partners of the rogue forces unleashed by globalization. The global subprime crisis, the swift rise of the super-rich, as well as the illegal businesses ranging on the Internet are all part of this phenomenon, but so is our daily shopping. The shelves of supermarkets are full of rogue products; some are produced by today's slaves.

As in the film The Matrix, the world we live in is an illusion. If we break through the Market Matrix we discover that our planet is being reshaped by dark economic forces creating victims out of millions of ordinary people whose lives have become trapped inside a fantasy world of consumerism. The world has been overrun by organizations, both private and public, that have accumulated vast fortunes and enormous political influence by regulating, containing, and manipulating the market to their own advantage. From Eastern Europe's booming sex trade industry to China's "online sweatshops," from al-Qaeda's underwriters to America's bankruptcy and lending scandals, Rogue Economics exposes the paradoxical economic connections of the new global marketplace.

But all of this has happened before. Rogue Economics is part of society's DNA, it lurks in the background wherever there is economic development, resurfacing during times of great transformation when politics looses control of economics. Rogue Economics flourished during the Gold Rush and the Industrial Revolution and it reigns again today. Rogue Economics is the engine of progress and today it exposes the paradoxical economic connections of the global market and the reveals the making of a new economic and political system.

Book Menu

Summary
Extract

 

Loretta Napoleoni's Interview with Amy Goodman

Also onYoutube!

 

Loretta Napoleoni's Interview with Greg Palast

 

 

The Myth of Zarqawi by Loretta Napoleoni

 

 PDF VERSION--> Upcoming_Events_files\HertzfeldFlyer.pdf


 

UNM Dept. of Political Science Presents

 

Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen,UN BIO

Permanent Mission of Denmark to the

United Nations.

 

"Why both big and small States need an

 

 effective United Nations"

 

Friday, February 1st 12:00

Social Sciences Room 2069

 

During the talk the ambassador will explore some of the advantages and limitations of the United Nations as a forum for international action in the field of peace and security as well as economic and social development. He will provide insights into the nature of the decision-making processes of the Security Council and the agendas of its key players and finally discuss some of the current proposals (and obstacles) for reform of the UN, including of the Security Council.


 

ALBUQUERQUE   INTERNATIONAL   ASSOCIATION
In collaboration with Santa Fe CIR
 
Foreign Policy Challenges For the New Administration
 
Join us starting in late January as we present three great lectures framing
the major challenges confronting the U.S. in 2009. The next US President
will face some very tough issues dealing with a drastically changed world
and our place in it. This series highlights the fundamental differences in
our rapidly changing world since 2001 and presents challenges in two global
areas: security and economy.  Understanding these issues will make us all
better-informed voters.
 
I. The U.S. Foreign Policy System: If It’s Broke, Fix It

Speaker: Adam Garfinkle, Editor, American Interest
Date: Friday, January 25, 2008
Time: 3:30 pm
Location: The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History
 
A lot has happened in the past eight years:  911, Iraq, the emergence of
China, and a host of events set the stage and define the challenges facing
our foreign policy strategy and decision-making.  What kind of character,
leadership and negotiating skills will we want to see in a new president? A
former member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff and Editor of
the new international journal: American Interest, Dr. Garfinkle brings
fresh insight to our current foreign affairs.
 
 
II. Global Security Challenges for the New Administration

Speaker: Thomas Mahnken, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Planning,
U.S. Dept of Defense
Date: Friday, February 1, 2008
Time: 3:30 pm
Location: NM Museum of Natural History
 
There is no shortage of security threats facing the President.  In addition
to Iraq, we face domestic terrorism, how to balance freedom and security,
radical Islam, the rise of China, the Middle East, nuclear proliferation,
emerging tensions rising from global competition for energy, climate
change, and the very real possibility of pandemic disease. Tom Mahnken’s
full time job is to assess these challenges and recommend strategically
constructive responses.
 
III. Global Economic Challenges

Speaker: Kimberly Ann Elliott, Senior Fellow at the Petersen Institute
Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: NM Museum of Natural History
 
We see the results of growing economic and financial imbalances in the
world. Whether it is the declining value of the $ or the rising price of
oil, the world is changing, and we need fresh policies that work abroad and
at home. Our speaker is well versed in the mechanics of international
trade, and has written extensively on globalization and related foreign
policy issues.
 
Cost:
AIA Members:  $15 each lecture or $40 for the series of 3 lectures
Non-Members:  $20 each lecture
Students:  FREE (with proper identification)
 
Please mail your check payable to Albuquerque International Association to
AIA, PO Box 92995, Albuquerque, NM 8719, or reserve individual lecture
tickets at 856-7277 and pay at the door.
 
For more information please visit www.abqinternational.org or e-mail:
info@abqinternational.org

Education for All Children in the World!

In 2003 the Kenyan Government abolished school fees for all children.

The next month over one million additional children arrived at school!

 

Mary W. Njoroge, former Kenyan Director of Basic Education, played a critical role in the development of Kenyan Educational Support overseeing the Abolition of School Fees Initiative. She retired in 2006 after 26 years at the Kenyan Ministry of Education.

“Kenya’s Model for Free Primary Education and

Ways that Education for All Children May Be Achieved”

Thursday, November 1, 7 – 9 PM

Fiesta A/B

Student Union Building (SUB)

University of New Mexico

Introduced Dr. Nancy Pauly, Associate Professor, Educational Specialities

Hosted by the Department of Educational Specialties, College of Education, UNM

 

 

As part of Kenya’s ‘Let’s Go to School’ campaign, two girls in Ruthimitu Primary School, Nairobi, complete a survey.

Now nearly 2 million more children attend primary school in Kenya, especially poor girls who are the least likely to receive an education yet the most likely to improve their family’s health and welfare. Kenya’s Free Primary School Education Program continues to be heralded internationally as an example of what is possible for all children in the world.

Mary W. Njoroge will discuss primary school education in Kenya and opportunities for US citizens to support the Education for All Act introduced in the US Congress by Reps. Lowey (D-NY) and Bachus (R-AL) (H.R. 2092) and Sens. Clinton (D-NY) and Smith (R-OR) (S. 1259) on May 1, 2007. The EFA Act calls for $1 billion for bilateral global basic education investment for RY 2008, scaling up to $3 billion by 2012. The EFA Act requires the President to develop a comprehensive integrated strategy for the United States government to follow in working to reach the 2015 goal of universal access to education.

Ms. Njoroge received an M.A. in Child Development and Early Childhood Education from the University of London, a Bachelor of Education from the University of Nairobi, and a Certificate in Early Childhood Education from the University of Leeds. Ms. Njoroge began her career as a secondary school teacher and later worked as child psychologist.  In addition, Ms. Njoroge has obtained certificates in Applied Market and Social Research (2007), Education Management (2004), Best Practice in Public Service Delivery (2005), Procurement – World Bank (1997), and Interpersonal Skills for Senior Women Managers in Public Service (1993).

Mary W. Njoroge is sponsored by RESULTS Educational Fund, a 501(c)(3), a tax-exempt nonprofit organization committed to educating the public, the media, and leaders about issues related to poverty and hunger in the United States and abroad. For more information contact: http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=2017

Jesse Dompreh 242-4422, Ubank- State Farm Insurance –Ghana Kenyans??

Shunkuri, Admasu, 277-0788 , Shunkuri

Jean and Joe Harris

http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=2566

2007 Basics: Global Education for All Campaign

The Abolition of School Fees

Hi everyone, this is Kolleen Bouchane, RESULTS Global Education for All Campaign Manager. Our final global campaign issue is Education For All, and more specifically, the abolition of school fees. In much of Africa and around the world, there is no such thing as a free public primary education. School fees keep children out of school and disproportionately impact girls, orphans, and other poor and vulnerable children. However, in countries that have already boldly abolished fees for primary public school, such as Kenya, millions more children have come to school, practically overnight.

RESULTS’ work to achieve Education for All is linked to Millennium Development Goal #2, Universal Primary Education, and Millennium Development Goal #3, promoting gender equality and empowering women. Like all eight of the Millennium Development Goals (or MDGs), the target date for their achievement is 2015. We have 9 years left and still more than 90 million primary school-age children out of school.

Let’s talk a little bit about what school fees are so we can get to work and reach these goals and get all children everywhere, access to at least a basic education.

What Are School Fees?

Many poor nations instituted school fees in the 1980s and ’90s at the behest of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as part of policies imposed to reduce debt and spending. This shortsighted policy, however, has forced nations to mortgage their future economic development and removed hope for a generation of children, especially those whose worlds are collapsing under the weight of HIV/AIDS.

Currently, there are over ninety million children between the ages of 6 and 11 who are not in school worldwide. Fifty percent of the world’s total number of children not attending school are in Africa. Primary school fees, which remain a significant barrier to school access, are still collected in more than 89 countries.[1]

The most important answer, however, to the question “What are school fees?” is: In countries where school fees are in place, they are the number one barrier for poor, orphaned and vulnerable children to getting an education and are often cited as the number one reason that families cannot adopt AIDS orphans; they simply cannot afford the out-of-pocket costs for these fees.

Why Is The Abolition of School Fees a Critical Poverty Reduction Strategy?

And how is the abolition of school fees linked to ending hunger and poverty? In terms of child and maternal mortality, economic growth and development, population control, fighting AIDS, increasing productivity and increasing access to basic health care, the education of girls and women is of paramount importance.

A mother’s level of education is the single most effective predictor of the health of her children, better even than the family’s socioeconomic status. For a mother who has only 5 years of primary education, her child is 40 percent more likely to live to the age of 5 than a mother with no education, in part because educated mothers are 50 percent more likely to immunize their children.

Moreover, free and compulsory education is an essential foundation for community security and development. In fact, in modern times, not a single country has achieved significant economic growth while requiring that people pay for basic primary education. Eliminating school fees will allow tens of millions more children to attend school and will also provide an economic stimulus, not unlike a tax break, freeing up family income to purchase other critical goods and services.

In newly developing societies, each additional year of schooling beyond grade three or four can lead to:

.        Up to 20% higher wages

0.        Up to 10% fewer births

0.        Up to 10% fewer child deaths

The abolition of school fees is also a catalyst for nationwide education sector reform. Abolishing school fees creates the demand for more teachers, more supplies, and more classrooms. In short, it spurs the mobilization of internal and external resources to serve millions of girls, orphans and other vulnerable children and it shifts the burden of paying for primary school from vulnerable children and poor families. The alternative — waiting for inadequate streams of funding, gradual scale-up and deepening of this regressive rationing system — is unacceptable. When Burundi abolished school fees they planned for an additional 250,000 children to come into the classroom, but more than half a million children came to school — and it is for these children — the quarter of a million children in one small country that are uncounted — that the abolition of school fees makes the most difference.

Reducing barriers to school and increasing the number of children who can enter and stay in school will help to eliminate a root cause of poverty and its ongoing cycle. Education, as we discussed, produces powerful and positive outcomes in economic productivity, health and social well-being, especially for girls, who represent the majority of the poor. One of the best ways to ensure a country’s future economic well-being is to raise the education level of its children.

It will be next to impossible to achieve Millennium Development Goal #2, to ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling, or Millennium Development Goal #3, to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, without removing school fees and other barriers so that all children have access to free public primary education.

What Are Some Examples of Success on School Fee Abolition?

Nations that have abolished school fees have seen dramatic increases in enrollment. As I mentioned before, Kenya has already abolished primary school fees. In January of 2003, when a plan for free primary education was adopted, over a million children came to school in Kenya and enrollment shot up from 5.9 to 7.2 million in one week. Not only that, gender disparities in primary education in Kenya practically disappeared. With families no longer forced to choose which children they can afford to educate, millions of girls now have access to an education in Kenya and other countries that have abolished fees.

The Kenyan ministry of education also reports that the elimination of school fees spurred increased investment from their own budget and other donors. Continued efforts to make education accessible to poor and vulnerable children has further increased primary school enrollment to 7.6 million children and is still rising. Other African nations have experienced similar leaps in enrollment since abolishing primary school fees:

.        Malawi’s enrollment grew from 1.9 million to 3 million.

0.        Tanzania’s enrollment doubled, from 1.4 million to 3 million.

Most significantly, the Kenyan Education Ministry has said that the “average household is living much better” because the money for fees can now be spent on other things such as food and that “awareness of HIV/AIDS and other issues is greater.” A study in Zambia found that HIV/AIDS spread twice as fast among uneducated girls as among educated girls. Education plays a key role in halting the AIDS pandemic and is often referred to as a “social vaccine” against HIV/AIDS.

What Has RESULTS Accomplished So Far on Education for All?

For the last several years, RESULTS has supported champions in Congress, in particular, the chair of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of Appropriations, Nita Lowey (D-NY), to increase basic education funding from only $103 million in 2001 to more than $460 million in 2006.

In 2005, RESULTS grassroots were instrumental in the Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act getting signed into law. RESULTS groups and activists around the country educated their members of Congress and the media about the need for the Orphans Act, which has been heralded as the first comprehensive response to the orphans crisis — in part because it included the abolition of school fees as a key component of the strategy. In 2006, RESULTS staff worked with our allies and the U.S. government to develop recommendations on the legislation as the U.S. government developed its plan for implementation. In 2007, RESULTS looks forward to continuing to press for a coordinated, comprehensive orphans response as outlined in the legislation, as well as the necessary funding to support this plan.

Since 2004, Congress has appropriated $15 million annually for a school fees incentive fund intended to go directly to a country or countries that have abolished, or are willing to abolish school fees to support countries to scale up and allow millions more children access to an education. RESULTS has been key in getting this funding and continues to press that this money be used in the most leveraged and effective way to ensure education for the most number of children.

RESULTS has sought not just to increase overall funding for Basic Education but also to ensure that money is effectively invested to impact the most children. Although overall funding for basic education for 2007 was not increased due to Congress passing a continuing resolution — where essentially 2006 funding levels were simply continued through 2007 — Congress again targeted $65 million of total Basic Education funding to a few key countries with strong national educational plans, as RESULTS had requested. RESULTS and allies in Congress are working to make sure that this money is spent as intended, to get many more children in school and to help a country realize the goals of progressive education policies that do not discriminate against poor and vulnerable children.

Related to ensuring the best use of Basic Education resources, in 2004, RESULTS Educational Fund commissioned a study of our aid agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development (or USAID)’s Strategy for Basic Education. The conclusion was that although champions in Congress have continued to increase funding for Basic Education, “USAID has not been able to come up with a straightforward strategy on how, where and why the money will be spent” and moreover how this money will lead to reaching the goal of universal access to education.

In March of 2007, the Government Accountability Office will release a new study of the effectiveness of USAID’s Basic Education program and RESULTS will use the outcomes of this study to further inform our advocacy and to help leverage urgently needed improvements to Basic Education programming.

In 2006, as part of the reorganization of USAID, Ambassador Randall Tobias, the first director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, instructed USAID to begin measuring the outcomes of U.S. basic education spending. This is a step in the right direction. The two key indicators chosen are how many more kids are in school (enrollment) and how many more stay in school (retention). These indicators are due in part to grassroots efforts to educate members of Congress to make these outcomes higher priorities.

What’s Next for Education for All in 2007?

To help ensure that all children, especially girls, AIDS orphans and other marginalized children attend and complete primary school, RESULTS will be pressing Congress for $1 billion for global basic education. That is an easy number to remember — $1 billion — but you might have to listen a couple of times to commit to memory the key ways in which we want these funds targeted, and the guiding language we want Congress to include with the funding to make sure the funds are well spent:

Of the $1 billion for global basic education for all, RESULTS will seek that $200 million of overall amount to go directly to the Catalytic Fund of the Fast Track Initiative (FTI) — the FTI is an important multi-donor mechanism that funds countries that develop, and are implementing, strong national education plans to get all kids in school. RESULTS will also request that not less than $15 million, as in previous years, continue to be spent for direct school fee abolition.

Getting language in the appropriations bill to guide how money will be spent on global basic education will also be important, and we will work to see that language is included that:

.        requires USAID to design and track its basic education programs to achieve specific targets related to increasing school enrollment, retaining children in school, and basic measures of educational attainment, in order to maximize the impact of U.S. education resources.

0.        ensures that the president’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (which provides significant resources to “good performing countries” for “reducing poverty through growth”) prioritizes basic education as a key piece of their strategy, ideally using not less than 20 percent of the resources appropriated for the MCC for basic education efforts.

Sample Laser Talk

That concludes the key points on the RESULTS Education for All Campaign. Now I’ll ask that you turn off the CD and create an EPIC laser talk about school fees, using the skills you learned in the laser talk basics. Before you do that though, I’ll read a sample laser talk for you to hear.

For E or Engage you might say something like:

“I was shocked to learn that more than 90 million children worldwide are out of school and that much of the poorest parts around the world, especially Africa there is no such thing as a free public primary school education.”

For the P or Problem you may say something like:

“The biggest barrier to education for many girls, orphans and other poor and vulnerable children is the continued charging of school fees, a policy originally instituted at the behest of the World Bank and IMF. Although these fees generate little revenue and add to the burden of poverty in already poor countries, they persist.”

For the I or Illustrate the solution you might say:

“Abolishing these school fees will eliminate a root cause of poverty. When Kenya eliminated school fees in 2003, over a million children came into school and gender disparities in primary school all but disappeared. In the long term, access to free education, especially for girls, produces powerful and positive outcomes. Each additional year of schooling is estimated to result in future reductions in child deaths of up to 10 percent. And in modern times, not a single country has achieved significant economic growth while requiring that people pay for basic education.”

For C or Call to action for your member of Congress you may say:

“Will you speak and write personally to the key decision makers on the subcommittee that oversees the foreign aid budget (the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee) to ask that they expand funding to $1 billion dollars for global basic education in 2007, with at least $200 million targeted to the Fast Track Initiative — so that these resources go directly to countries with strong national education plans to get all kids in school?”

OR

For a C or Call to action for a member of the media you may say:

“Would you consider writing an editorial about the need for more of a U.S. commitment to reaching Millennium Development Goal #2, Universal Primary Education and subsequently Millennium Development Goal #3 promoting gender equality and empowering women? I would be happy to provide you with more background information.”‹ 

More about RESULTS Global Education For All Campaign

 

________

[1] Out of 103 surveyed. 2007 EFA Global Monitoring Report

http://www.uis.unesco.org/TEMPLATE/pdf/EducGeneral/OOSC-FAQ.pdf)

2006 Basics: Global Education for All Campaign

Hi everyone, this is Kolleen Bouchane, global legislative associate for RESULTS. Our final global campaign issue is education for all and more specifically, the elimination of barriers to education for the poorest and most vulnerable children, especially school fees. In many countries and most of Africa there is no such thing as a free public primary education. School fees disproportionately impact girls, orphans and other poor and vulnerable children. However in countries that have already boldly eliminated fees for primary public school, such as Kenya, millions more of these children have come to school, practically overnight.

One of the best ways to predict and ensure a country’s future economic well-being is the education level of its children. Reducing barriers to school and increasing the number of children who can enter and stay in school will help to eliminate a root cause of poverty and its ongoing cycle. Education produces powerful and positive outcomes in economic productivity, health and social well-being, especially for girls, who represent the majority of the poor.

What Are School Fees?

Many poorer nations instituted school fees in the 1980s and 1990s at the behest of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as part policies imposed when those countries were pushed to reduce debt and spending. This shortsighted policy, however, has forced nations to mortgage their future economic development and removed hope for a generation of children, especially those whose worlds are collapsing under the weight of AIDS.

Currently there are over a hundred million children between the ages of 6 and 11 who are not in school worldwide. Forty-one percent of those children, over 40 million, live in sub-Saharan Africa. In South Asia more than one-third of the girls never receive any education and India alone has over 40 million children out of school.

The most important answer however to the question “What are school fees?” is: In countries where school fees are in place, they are the number one barrier for poor, orphaned and vulnerable children to getting an education and are often cited as the number one reason that families can not adopt AIDS orphans, they simply can not afford the out-of-pocket costs for these fees.

Why Is The Elimination of School Fees a Critical Poverty Reduction Strategy?

And how is the elimination of school fees linked to ending hunger and poverty? In terms of child and maternal mortality, economic growth and development, population control, fighting AIDS, increasing productivity and increasing access to basic health care, the education of girls and women is of paramount importance.

A mother’s level of education is the single most effective predictor of the health of her children, better even than the family’s socioeconomic status. For a mother who has just 5 years of primary education, her child is 40 percent more likely to make it to the age of 5 than a mother with no education, and educated mothers are 50 percent more likely to immunize their children.

Moreover, free and compulsory education is an essential foundation for community security and development. In fact, in modern times, not a single country has achieved significant economic growth while requiring that people pay for basic primary education. Eliminating school fees will allow tens of millions more children to attend school and will also provide an economic stimulus, not unlike a tax break, freeing up family income to purchase other critical goods and services.

In newly developing societies, each additional year of schooling beyond grade three or four can lead to:

.        Up to 20% higher wages

0.        Up to 10% fewer births

0.        Up to 10% fewer child deaths

The elimination of school fees is also a catalyst for nationwide education sector reform. Eliminating school fees creates the demand for more teachers, more supplies, and more classrooms. In short, it spurs the mobilization of internal and external resources to serve millions of girls, orphans and other vulnerable children and shift the burden of paying for primary school from vulnerable children and poor families. The alternative — waiting for inadequate streams of funding, gradual scale-up and the deepening of this regressive rationing system — is unacceptable.

It will be next to impossible to achieve Millennium Development Goals #2, to ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling or Millennium Development Goal #3 to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, without removing school fees and other barriers so that all children have access to free public primary education.

Examples of Success

Nations that have eliminated school fees have seen dramatic increases in enrollment. As I mentioned before, Kenya has already eliminated primary school fees. In January of 2003 when a plan for free primary education was adopted, over a million children came to school in Kenya and enrollment shot up from 5.9 to 7.2 million in one week. Not only that, gender disparities in primary education in Kenya practically disappeared. With families no longer forced to choose which children they can afford to educate, millions of girls now have access to an education in Kenya and other countries that have eliminated fees.

The Kenyan ministry of education also reports that the elimination of school fees spurred increased investment from their own budget and other donors. Continued efforts to make education accessible to poor and vulnerable children has further increased primary school enrollment to 7.6 million and is still rising. Other African nations have experienced similar leaps in enrollment since abolishing primary school fees:

.        Malawi’s enrollment grew from 1.9 million to 3 million.

0.        Tanzania’s enrollment doubled, from 1.4 million to 3 million.

Mostly significantly, the Kenyan Education Ministry has said that the “average household is living much better” because the money for fees can now be spent on other things such as food and that “awareness of HIV/AIDS and other issues is greater.” A study in Zambia found that HIV/AIDS spread twice as fast among uneducated girls as among educated girls. Education can play a key role in halting the AIDS pandemic.

What Have We Accomplished and What’s Next?

In 2004 RESULTS was very involved in developing and pushing the Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act. In 2005 RESULTS and key allies in the Global Action for Children Coalition continued to push for enactment of the Orphans Act and at the end of 2005 this legislation was passed by Congress and signed in law by the president! One of the reasons that this legislation has been heralded as the first comprehensive response to the orphans crisis, is that it includes the elimination of school fees as a key component of the strategy. As of January of 2006, RESULTS is working closely with these same allies and others to develop civil society recommendations on the legislation as the U.S. government develops its plan for implementation.

In addition, in 2005 as in 2004, Congress appropriated $15 million for a school fees incentive fund intended to go directly to a country or countries that have are or willing to eliminate school fees to help them scale up and allow millions more children access to an education. In addition, overall basic education funding was increased by $65 million to $465 million and this additional money is also being targeted to a few key countries to help achieve education for all children. RESULTS and allies in Congress are working to make sure that this money is spent as intended, to get many more children in school and to help a country realize the goals of progressive education policies that do not discriminate against poor and vulnerable children.

At the end of 2004, RESULTS commissioned of study of our aid agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development (or USAID)’s Strategy for Basic Education funding. The conclusion was that although champions in Congress such as Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee of Appropriations have continued to increase funding for Basic Education, “USAID has not been able to come up with a straight-forward strategy on how, where and why the money will be spent” and moreover how this money will lead to getting the over a hundred million children who are currently out school a place in the classroom.

At the end of 2005, the House subcommittee that oversees the annual foreign aid budget commissioned a Government Accountability Office study of the effectiveness of USAID’s Basic Education program. We will work to inform this study and use it to help leverage urgently needed improvements in this program.

Eliminating School Fees for a Global Education Revolution

Sample Laser Talk

Now I’ll ask that you turn off the tape and create an EPIC laser talk about school fees, using the skills you learned in the laser talk basics. Before you do that though, I’ll read a sample laser talk for you to hear.

 

Tuesday and Thursday September 11 & 13, 2007

and

Monday and Wednesday September 17 & 19, 2007

  

A week of lectures free and open to the public.

All lectures will be held in Education 103 at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque at 4 & 7 pm.

 

The International Studies Institute at the University of New Mexico will host its fifth public lecture series, on the topic of environment and sustainability. This lecture series will take an interdisciplinary look at various aspects of this issue Distinguished speakers from disciplines as diverse as geography, international relations, history, biology, earth and planetary sciences, and American Studies will examine how sustainability--the balance between environmental protection, economic vitality and social responsibility--operates across different locations and within different environmental, economic, social, cultural, technological and political contexts throughout the world.

 

Tuesday, September 11

 

4pm           "The Heat is On: Drivers, Consequences, and Salvation from Global Change,"  Bruce Milne, Professor, Department of Biology and Director of UNM's Environment and Sustainability Program
5:15-6:30pm Public Reception  in Fiesta A & B UNM SUB
7pm "Global Warming and the International Community," David Gutzler, Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, UNM

 

Thursday, September 13

 

4pm "Lady Bird Johnson's Wildflower Research Center: A Case Study in the Synergies Between Local and Global Environmentalism,"  Vera Norwood, Professor, Department of American Studies
7pm "Environment and Sustainability," Suedeen G. Kelly, Commissioner, United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

 

Monday, September 17

 

4pm "Environmental policies and their effects on the Tibetan Plateau." Emily T. Yeh, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder
7pm "Soviet and Post-Soviet Issues in Environment and Sustainability," Douglas Weiner, Professor, Department of History, University of Arizona

 

Wednesday, September 19

 

4pm "Greening Brazil: Environmental Activism and Politics" Kathryn Hochstetler, Professor of Political Science, University of New Mexico
7pm "Economic Globalization and the Environment: Compatible or Colliding?" Jennifer Clapp, CIGI Chair in International Governance and Associate Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo, Canada
   

 

Lecture Series Co-Sponsors: to be announced

 


 

2006 Fall Lecture Series

Globalization

September 11-14, 2006

Advertsiment

 

Monday, September 11

4 pm:   “Globalization and Gender.”  Susan Tiano, Professor of Sociology, University of New Mexico

7 pm:   “Globalization, Employment and Wages in the U.S.”  Robert Scott, Senior International Economist, Economic Policy Institute, Washington, DC

 

Tuesday, September 12

4 pm:   “Environmental Movements: The ‘Good’ Globalization?”  Kathryn Hochstetler, Professor of Political Science, University of New Mexico

7 pm:   “Pursuing Security through Trade Institutions in Africa.”  Kathy L. Powers, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Penn State University

 

Wednesday, September 13

4 pm:   Panel Discussion, World Affairs Delegation, University of New Mexico

7 pm:   “Can Africa Prosper in the Age of Globalization?”  Martin Brennan, Diplomat in Residence, University of New Mexico

 

Thursday, September 14

4 pm:   Panel Discussion: “Globalization and Global Health.”  Nina Wallerstein, Professor and Director, Masters in Public Health Program; Lyndon Haviland, Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine; Dale Alverson, Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Director, Center for Telehealth and Cybermedicine Research, Health Sciences Center, University of New Mexico

7 pm:   “The Impact of Globalization on Latin America.”  Werner Baer, Lemann Professor of Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 

 


 

2005-2006 Lectures and Events Co-Sponsored by ISI

 

 

  • “Hitler's Games: Politics and Race in the 1936 German Olympics.”  Dr. David Clay Large, Montana State University.  Monday, April 24, 2006, 3:00-4:00 pm, History Common Room, Mesa Vista Hall.

 

  •  â€œMedieval Innovations: How the Middle Ages Changed Western Culture.”  Spring Lecture Series, Institute of Medieval Studies.  April 3-6, 2006, Woodward Hall 101.

 

  • “Approaches to Studying Texts, Images, and Space.”  First Colloquium on Interdisciplinary Methods in Colonial Studies, LAII.  March 24-25, 2006, Ortega Reading Room.

 

  • “Relocations and Translated Identities: Migration, Exile, and Diaspora in the Spanish and Portuguese-Speaking Worlds.”  14th Annual UNM Conference on Ibero-American Culture and Society.  February 16-16, 2006.

 

  • “Islam in Indonesia: Radical or Not?”  Ambassador Al La Porta, President of the U.S.-Indonesia Society, Washington, D.C.  Tuesday, November 15, 2005, 12:30-1:45 pm, Woodward Hall 147.

 

  • “Redeeming Totality: Critical Reflections on the Levinas Renaissance.”  Dr. Richard Wolin, CUNY.  November 4, 2005.

 

  • “Nepal: Which Way from Here?  Democratic Experience, Insurgency, and the Prospects for Development.”  Dr. Ram S. Mahat, Former Finance Minister, Spokesperson of the Nepali Congress, and Author of “In Defense of Democracy: Dynamics and Fault Lines of Nepal’s Political Economy” (2005).  Thursday, October .27, 2005, 3:30-5:00 pm, Dane Smith Hall 123.

 

  • Concert and Lecture.  Latif Bolat, Turkish Musician.  October 11, 2005, Keller Hall.

 

  • “Iphegenia at Aulis.”  Play performed by the University of Utah Greek Players.  October 7, 2005.

 

  • “Poetry as Philosophy – On Wallace Stevens.”  Dr. Simon Critchley, New School University.  September 23, 2005.

 

 


 

 

International Studies Institute
Fall 2005 Lecture Series

September 12-15

“Human Rights in a Global Context”

Lecture Series Co-Sponsors:  College of Arts and Sciences, Office of International Programs and Studies, University Honors Program, Feminist Research Institute, Latin American and Iberian Institute, African American Studies, Medieval Studies, Peace Studies, Religious Studies, Departments of  Anthropology, Economics, Foreign Languages and Literatures, History, Political Science, and Sociology.

To see the program, click here. 

For a listing of related courses being offered Fall 2005, click here.
 

For a listing of related courses being offered Fall 2005, click here.
 

 

For a listing of related courses being offered Fall 2005, click here.