Population pressures and global health concerns are complex international challenges that call for multidisciplinary approaches designed to achieve long-term benefits. Recognizing the essential role of international education and capacity building in addressing these challenges, in 2002 IIE's West Coast Center established a new Population Programs division. We are currently implementing two major population programs: 1) Leadership Development Mechanism (LDM) for Population and Reproductive Health, funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and 2) Census of Human Capacity in Population Program, supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The overall goals of these programs are to foster leadership development among population leaders and to create a broad-based profile of the geographic distribution of population expertise in developing countries. Population Programs Summary		For more information about IIE's Population Programs, contact: Institute of International Education West Coast Regional Center 530 Bush Street, Suite 1000 San Francisco, CA 94108  USA Tel: (415) 362-6520 Fax: (415) 392-4667 poplead@iie.org Internship Opportunities
Leadership Development Mechanism (LDM) The Leadership Development Mechanism program is a unique population leadership program that supports training opportunities for population leaders who live and work in the poorest regions of eight focus countries: Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines and Sudan. Many of these population leaders work on such pressing global health issues as HIV/AIDS, adolescent reproductive health and gender-based violence. Through IIE's population leadership program, these leaders have the opportunity to study and examine population and global health issues by undergoing training and graduate study programs in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, Australia and the U.S. Placing priority on women, youth and media professionals, the program recognizes the need to balance global gender inequalities, train today's youth to lead tomorrow's population programs, and gain the commitment of media leaders to promote population issues and family planning.	Census of Human Capacity in Population Program The Census of Human Capacity in Population program is a new research project, a global census of human capacity in the fields of reproductive health and population in at least 50 developing countries. The goal of this project is to increase knowledge and understanding of human capacity in population/reproductive health in developing countries. The project will create a global profile of the geographic distribution of population expertise and thereby identify countries where targeted investments are most effectively increasing population expertise. The Census of Human Capacity in Population is a new program and we invite interested organizations to share their data on population expertise. We plan to widely disseminate the findings of the study to expand the existing base of knowledge and understanding of human capacity in population.