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OAS DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ANCD CULTURE LAUNCHES HORIZONTAL
CO-OPERATION FUND ON EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY

The Department of Education and Culture (DEC) of the Organization of American States (OAS) has launched a Cooperation Fund for Technical Assistance Missions between OAS Member States in education for democratic citizenship and related fields such as education on peace, democracy, diversity and human rights, among others.

The purpose of the Fund is to strengthen Member States’ ability to design and implement effective policies and programs that encourage the development of a culture of democracy and peace through education. The Fund, which will be allocated through a competitive process, will finance travel for technical assistance missions to enable a country with specific expertise in a particular topic to travel to or be visited by another country or countries which could benefit from that technical expertise.

The Fund promotes bilateral and multilateral cooperation among governmental institutions of the OAS Member States, such as among Ministries of Education, and also among governmental institutions from one country and other types of institutions from another country (non-governmental organizations, universities and private institutions, for instance). The need and characteristics of the cooperation must be identified and negotiated directly between the parties, who must sign a written agreement of commitment before submitting the proposal for consideration. The parties must also submit a request form, which includes a justification of need, a draft agenda for the mission, and a preliminary budget, among other documents.

The deadline to receive requests from interested parties is May 15, 2009, by emailing the required documentation to Adriana Cepeda ([email protected]) and Jorge Baxter ([email protected]). Successful applicants will be selected by June 5. The missions are expected to be carried out between July and October, 2009.

This Fund is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Permanent Mission of the United States to the OAS. The Fund is based on a similar successful model developed by the Cooperation Fund of the Inter-American Network for Labor Administration which is coordinated by the OAS Department of Social Development and Employment (www.sedi.oas.org/ddse/rial).

The Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices is an alliance officially adopted by the ministers of education of OAS member states through CIDI/RME/RES. 12 (IV-O/05) at the IV Meeting of the Ministers of Education held in Scarborough, Trinidad and Tobago on August 11th and 12th, 2005. The objective of the Program is to promote a democratic and peaceful culture through education. See more at: http://www.educadem.oas.org.

The call for requests is available at: http://www.educadem.oas.org.

Please direct any questions to the Fund Coordinator: Adriana Cepeda ([email protected])

Reference: E-124/09