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Strategies and Focus Areas
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Community Development Support – UNCFSP provides direct assistance to communities seeking to document their development needs via population surveys, focus groups, and other investigative methods. We also work with communities seeking to impact policies that affect them, thereby empowering them to identify problems, introduce their own solutions, and become more engaged in the policy-making process. Focus areas include documenting the presence of Afro-descended populations in nations outside of Africa and the diaspora, conducting needs assessments of marginalized populations, and identifying community concerns in order to convey those concerns to government and international organizations.
University Partnerships – UNCFSP works with international higher education to position institutions to respond to the needs of their respective populations. Higher education becomes the tool through which governments and international organizations can effectively outreach to and improve the lives of citizens. Examples include establishing community outreach programs at universities and creating certificate programs that meet the needs of community workers and government officials (i.e., workforce development). Focus areas include strengthening youth leadership, developing libraries and other community-use facilities, establishing and running technology training programs, providing capacity-building assistance to community-based organizations servicing HIV/AIDS victims, offering non-traditional educational training such as vocational education, retooling environmental managers, and expanding informational services.
University-to-University Partnerships – UNCFSP links higher education in the U.S. with higher education abroad to address development issues. U.S. involvement in development work increases our citizens’ awareness of international issues and challenges, thereby strengthening the global awareness of current and future generations. This awareness provides the foundation for citizens’ to understand U.S. foreign policy decisions and international responses to them. Focus areas include building capacity in war-torn countries, eradicating malaria, accessing clean water, retraining ex-child soldiers, disseminating HIV/AIDS education and prevention strategies, developing specialized civics education for populations in conflict, assisting in conflict resolution through the establishment of remediation, and developing small business.
Specialized Higher Education Capacity Building – UNCFSP builds the capacity of marginalized higher education institutions to offer academic instruction, workforce development training, and community rehabilitation services. For example, the UNCFSP-managed Tertiary Education Linkages Project (TELP) worked with Historically Disadvantaged Institutions and Technikons in South Africa in order to assist those institutions to meet the expectations of the South African government and citizens. TELP allowed these institutions to advance their role in society, introducing innovations in strategic planning and fundraising, increasing access to citizens, and offering new and challenging courses.
Training and Technical Assistance – UNCFSP delivers specialized training to individuals targeted to work in the public service sector and community- and faith-based organizations. The varying formats of training and technical assistance activities include workshops, extended on-site instruction, and placement in professional residencies. For example, UNCFSP has placed health-care and business professionals in organizations in the U.S. and other nations to learn innovative methods for capacity building in their home countries. Focus areas include empowering females, increasing bureaucratic accountability and transparency, retooling medical personnel and health care professionals, and strengthening institutional/organizational capacity in project management, evaluation, financial accountability, and monitoring/tracking performance.
Policy Support to Governments and to Organizations Working on National Policy – UNCFSP serves as advisors to government officials, assisting them in prioritizing policy initiatives and identifying alternative solutions to pressing issues. Focus areas include national malaria prevention policies, marginalization of vulnerable populations, higher education access, building technological capacity and providing access, and increasing strategic collaboration between higher education and government.
Engaging the Private Sector in International Collaboration – UNCFSP establishes strategic partnerships to accomplish development work. For example, UNCFSP has partnered with companies to offer African organizations specific training that will enhance their work with HIV/AIDS affected families and orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs), particularly as related to intake, monitoring of care, documentation of effort, and overall project management. With communications companies, we are seeking to coordinate regional meetings in Africa focused on Avian Flu and policymaking for short-and long-term effective response. Our collaboration offers coordination of all meetings, identification of participants and experts, and follow-up designed to support the efforts to respond appropriately to emerging issues.
Workforce Development Training – UNCFSP runs fellowship, internship, and study abroad programs designed to increase the number of U.S. professionals pursing careers in Foreign Service and other international-related fields. The Department of Education-sponsored Institute for International Public Policy (IIPP), for example, has been accredited by the Department of State as one of its prestigious diplomacy fellows programs. Initiatives such as the Training in International Affairs and Development (TIAD) program are also providing in-country academic instruction, critical language training with cultural immersion, internships, and/or residencies to professionals and students. These programs seek to increase the expertise and competitiveness of professionals and students from all nations.
Creating Teams of Experts – UNCFSP brings together teams of experts quickly who are able to intervene in times of emergency and when long-term planning is necessary. Areas of expertise include refugees and displaced persons, malaria prevention preparedness, conflict resolution in war-torn countries, democratization and women’s empowerment in countries experiencing civil strife, and demobilization of ex-combatants.
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