Universities in El Salvador Focus on Risk Management
(English * Español)
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USAID/OFDA Regional Consultant Sergio David
Gutiérrez addresses university representatives during
the October signing ceremony in San Salvador. |
November 2007
Eight universities in El Salvador, along with
the Education Ministry and the U.S. Agency
for International Development’s Office of
U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA), have signed a letter of understanding
and mutual cooperation to adopt risk management
strategies and incorporate
them into their curricula.
The letter, signed on October 9, 2007, at a
ceremony in San Salvador, lists 12 actions
the universities agree to pursue in an overall
effort to reduce the risk of disaster by incorporating
awareness of the subject into education
programs. Examples of these actions
include training university professors on the
topic of risk, incorporating risk management
issues into the study programs of future
teachers, strengthening teacher internship
programs by including the element of risk
reduction and coordinating interinstitutional
strategies for early recovery following
emergency situations.
The letter represents a big step forward in
an ongoing process of incorporating the concept
of risk reduction and management into
educational programs throughout Latin
America, a process that USAID/OFDA has
promoted in the region for years.
The agreement with the eight Salvadoran
universities has its roots in a December
2006 workshop that USAID/OFDA and the
Ministry of Education organized for university
instructors of future school teachers, to
discuss basic concepts of risk management
and the role of education in the framework
of risk management. Approximately 50 university
professors participated in the December
4-7 workshop, held at the National
University of El Salvador.
“Participants learned the basic concepts of
disaster risk reduction and management,
gained insight into the role of education in
risk management and became familiar with
the terminology so that we could all speak
the same language,” explained Manuel
Ramírez, a USAID/OFDA Latin American
education specialist who helped organize the
event. “The goal was to show how it doesn’t
matter what subject is being taught – music,
art, mathematics, science, physics – because
all subjects can contribute to risk reduction
efforts. What better way to reduce
the risk of disaster than to incorporate
awareness of it into education?”
At the workshop, university coordinators
formed a group to plan collaborative work
and interinstitutional planning in this area,
specifically to stimulate the inclusion of the
subject in the different universities’ study
programs and other activities such as investigation
and community extension.
“Basically, university-educated professionals
can create more risk than there is or, to the
contrary, they can contribute to reducing
the risk of disasters,” Ramírez explained.
“That’s the basic idea behind incorporating
risk management into education.”
Through its regional Training and Technical
Assistance Program, coordinated by
the International Resources Group (IRG),
USAID/OFDA has worked with universities
throughout Latin America and the
Caribbean on initiatives related to the
education component: curricula development,
emergency preparedness in educational
institutions, and community outreach
and teacher training using USAID/OFDA
courses.
Simultaneously, universities and research
institutes have become key partners in the
exploration of new topics in risk reduction
such as land use management, environmental
management and public investment,
as well as networking among university
staff in partnership with Florida
International University and the Paul C.
Bell, Jr. Risk Management Initiative.
The letter signed by the Salvadoran universities,
however, is the first time a country’s
leading universities have joined
forces in a more formal manner to insert
risk reduction into educational content.
This type of interinstitutional cooperation
to improve content has come to be known
as “tuning.” First popularized in Europe, it
is now being put into practice in general
terms among more than a hundred universities
in Latin America, according to
Ramírez.
“Inspired by this, it was logical for the universities
of El Salvador to join forces under
the National Directorate of Higher
Education for the Ministry of Education of
El Salvador, the agency responsible for determining
national policies pertaining to
the formation of teachers, to focus on reducing
the risk of disasters,” Ramírez
said.
The eight universities, working under an
umbrella organization called the Inter-University Forum of El Salvador, founded
to improve the processes of forming elementary
school teachers, planned a follow-up workshop to the one held in
December 2006.
The second workshop, held in El Salvador from
July 2 to 6, 2007, attracted nearly 60 participants
to share information about institutional
experiences on the subject of risk
management, define a strategy for the design
of risk analyses and outline general
considerations for the design of risk management
plans for each institution as well
as on an interinstitutional level.
The event strengthened efforts begun at
the first workshop, Ramírez explained.
The recently signed letter is merely the
formalization of this work, he added.
René Carrillo, USAID/OFDA Regional Advisor
for Latin America, said the letter
strengthens the hope that universities will
institutionalize the office’s risk reduction
training and technical assistance work.
“This agreement came from the universities
themselves. It is an example of something
that goes above and beyond the
original program,” he pointed out. “It gives
our efforts a certain permanence.”
The letter of understanding was signed by
Isaura Arauz, National Director of Higher
Education for the Ministry of Education of
El Salvador, Tim Callaghan, USAID/OFDA
Senior Regional Advisor for Latin America
and the Caribbean, Elsa América Mendoza,
rector of El Espíritu Santo Specialized
Institute for Higher Education,
Fernando Rodríguez, of the Sonsonate
University, Federico Miguel Huguet, a representative
of the Don Bosco University,
José María Tojeira, rector of the Central
American University, Mario Antonio Ruiz,
a representative of the Francisco Gavidia
University, Luis Mario Aparicio, a representative
of the Pedagogic University, and
Romeo Tobar, rector of the Western
Catholic University. The new rector of the
University of El Salvador will sign the
document once the position has been
filled.
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