NEW YORK, February 2012—The Institute of International Education (IIE) is administering the one-year, $5 million training and capacity building Training for Pakistan project in partnership with Creative Associates International and dTS. Training for Pakistan is a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded project that supports professionals in Pakistan by helping them build skills and knowledge in five distinct areas: education, health, agriculture, and democracy and governance.
Training for Pakistan also expands people-to-people engagement between Pakistan and the United States through increased educational, technical, and cultural exchanges while developing the capacity of Pakistan‘s public and private sectors. This initiative supports the Government of Pakistan’s vision for developing a prosperous and peaceful country by addressing the root causes of extremism in Pakistan: poverty, lack of social and economic opportunities, and weak public services. At the same time, the project demonstrates the United States’ commitment to supporting Pakistan’s efforts to transform its economy and society.
Based on a needs assessment, IIE and our partners have developed a mission-wide training plan to assist USAID/Pakistan in accomplishing its foreign assistance objectives in education, health, agriculture, and democracy and governance. Sample components include:
- Placing Pakistani education professionals in U.S. PhD programs in education-related fields: The ultimate objective is to enhance the quality of basic education in Pakistan through improved teacher training by strengthening the institutions that provide teacher education. Academic study in the U.S. will help Training for Pakistan scholars gain revised and upgraded teacher qualifications, which they will bring back to teacher training institutions in Pakistan. There, they will help develop, introduce, and implement effective curricula for a new 4-year bachelor degree in education and a 2-year associate degree in education. The long-term result will be teachers graduating from Pakistan’s colleges and universities with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required to be effective instructors and to meet Pakistan’s National Standards for Teachers.
- Building the capacity of core faculty from the University of Peshawar (UP) in Pakistan: UP’s Human Rights Studies Centre and Gender Studies Department are the first of their kind in Pakistan, but they face an institutional imperative to increase capacity in order to exist as full degree-granting departments. IIE will support UP faculty in earning PhDs from American University while receiving specialized training in the mainstreaming and integration of human rights and gender in their respective disciplines.
- Recognizing gender equality and fully including women across society: Understanding gender rights as human rights is imperative for the growth and stability of Pakistan. Through in-country training and third country study tours, Pakistani professionals will be exposed to the concept of gender awareness and advocacy while undergoing applied learning in gender mainstreaming, gender integration, and the creation of a national strategy on gender-based violence. In-depth international experience will endow participants with the skills to develop policies that promote gender equality, rights, and integration as well as policies that mainstream the gender perspective throughout Pakistan’s government and civil society
For additional information on the Training for Pakistan project, please contact:
Susan Fickling, Project Director
Institute of International Education
1400 K Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
Tel. 202-326-7813
E-mail: sfickling@iie.org
Marisa Rivero, Senior Program Officer
Institute of International Education
1400 K Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
Tel. 202-326-7781
E-mail: mrivero@iie.org
About the Institute of International Education
The Institute of International Education is a world leader in the international exchange of people and ideas. An independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1919, IIE has a network of over 20 offices worldwide and over 1,000 member institutions. IIE designs and implements programs of study and training for students, educators, young professionals and trainees from all sectors with funding from government agencies, foundations, and corporations. IIE also conducts policy research and program evaluations, and provides advising and counseling on international education and opportunities abroad.
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