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OAS and the Coimbra Group of Brazilian Universities Promote Internationalization of Education at the Regional Level

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Coimbra Group of Brazilian Universities (GCUB) inaugurated yesterday in Washington, DC the Second Seminar on Internationalization for Program Coordinators of the Partnerships for Education and Training (PAEC) 2014, that seeks to provide updated information on the PAEC-OAS-GCUB scholarship program and on the socio-economic, scientific and technological development of the region as well as the trends and challenges in higher education.

The event was opened by the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, who said that "this program is part of our efforts to promote one of the cornerstones of the Organization, human development," and stressed the importance of the issue in the context of the promotion of democracy in the region. "We consider the issue of equitable development to be fundamental to democracy. A democracy with the levels of inequality and poverty of the countries in the region cannot be accepted," he added.

Secretary General Insulza referred to the efforts of the Organization to expand the coverage of its scholarship program through partnerships and cooperation with other countries. "Last year alone we offered more than 1800 scholarships, and the generosity of the member states played a key role in this achievement. This is an important program not only for its academic content, but also for the contribution it makes to south-south cooperation, which brings together our peoples from a cultural and political perspective and contributes to the collective development of the region."

In this regard, Secretary General Insulza said that "to claim that a country can fully develop while its neighbors do not is like aspiring to have a good house in a bad neighborhood." This, he said, is reflected at the state level because "there cannot be a country that does not pay the cost of being part of a set of countries that do not have similar levels of development; therefore a policy of cooperation in an area as fundamental as education is not only a generous, altruistic and important contribution, but also an initiative that benefits everyone. We have here, in collaboration with GCUB, an example of solidarity and cooperation that we must draw attention to," he concluded.

The opening of the seminar was also attended by the Acting Representative of the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the OAS, Minister Breno de Souza Dias Da Costa; the Rector of the Universidad Federal de Pernambuco, Anísio Brasileiro de Freitas Dourado; and the Executive Director of the Coimbra Group of Brazilian Universities and General Coordinator of the PARC-OAS-GCUB program in Brazil, Rossana Valéria de Souza e Silva. In their addresses, the authorities agreed on the importance of the PAEC Partnerships Program and the opportunity it provides for the exchange of experiences and knowledge that benefits the economic and social growth of the region.

Similarly, the panelists highlighted the role of the Alliance between the OAS and the Coimbra Group to promote research and human development and to contribute to regional integration and the strengthening of the Americas, through professional training. They stressed the importance of education as an engine for the construction of an agenda of knowledge promotion, international mobility, research and excellence in the training of university students.

The Partnerships Program for Education and Training is the result of a partnership between the OAS and GCUB and constitutes the largest scholarship program in Latin America and the Caribbean to pursue master's and doctoral programs offered by Brazilian universities. The program is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Brazil. In its latest edition, the program delivered more than 300 scholarships to candidates from 20 OAS member states.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-041/14