Country Strategy
Context
With the recent collaboration agreement between the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation (ACCD) and the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP) ACCD expresses its willingness to give new impetus to university development cooperation (CUD). To frame this cooperation CUD focuses the strategie with ACCD priority countries: Mozambique and Morocco. In order to ensure coherence and coordination of the activities of university cooperation of the Catalan university system and to exploit synergies and increase the impact of these activities from the Catalan public universities
Context
With the recent collaboration agreement between the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation (ACCD) and the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP) ACCD expresses its willingness to give new impetus to university development cooperation (CUD). To frame this cooperation CUD focuses the strategie with ACCD priority countries: Mozambique and Morocco. In order to ensure coherence and coordination of the activities of university cooperation of the Catalan university system and to exploit synergies and increase the impact of these activities from the Catalan public universities, the ACUP prepares a common university cooperation proposal with Morocco and Mozambique. The team of the secretariat of the ACUP has the support of the university cooperation and social involvement of the UOC.
Objective
The main objective is to produce an agreed document, based on previous experiences of Catalan public universities, with recommendations for ACCD to strengthen CUD between Catalan universities and the priority countries in the coming years. The document is the result of a process of identification, on the one hand, the interests of the academic community of Catalonia to work with the priority country and, on the other hand, on the needs (thematic, regional and institutional) the priority country. It will focus on the academic and social needs of the priority country corresponding to the interests and experience offered by the Catalan university system. The document will identify the main thematic areas and cross-cutting themes for future interventions. Similarly, the document will propose specific activities carried out during the coming years. The document should be allowed to make informed policy decisions and serve as a framework for the programming of the CUD with the priority country to facilitate the strategic impact based on consistency between projects and programs as well as the contextual relevance.
Methodologies and phases of development
The development of the country strategy is based on a participatory process of all stakeholders. It will be developed in three main phases: (i) study desktop (desktop research), (ii) consultacions stakeholders (stakeholder consultation) and (iii) development and adoption of the country strategy.
Phase 1 - Study Desk: The main objective of this first phase is to analyze the context of higher education in priority countries and the relations between the Catalan universities and institutions of higher education in it. As a result of this first phase, a draft of a sheet Morocco and Mozambique as well as a first map of actors will be obtained.
Phase 2 - Consultacions stakeholders: This second phase will identify the interests and academic and social needs of higher education institutions of Catalonia as a priority country. In the case of Catalonia a seminar of reflection for each of the priority countries will take place. This activity will prepare a summary of the main relationships and experiences between Catalan universities and the priority country and to identify the key players in the field. Once completed seminars in Catalonia will be organized a mission priority country in order to consult the local actors involved. The field mission will consist of (i) institutional visits and interviews with key players and - if the timetable and conditions on the ground permit - (ii) a seminar of reflection on the priority country. The result of the field mission will be a report of this mission.
Phase 3 - Development and approval of the country strategy: Based on all documents results of the first two phases, points and common interests between the academic community of Catalonia and Morocco and Mozambique will be identified and the draft was drawn up by the country strategy. This document will be discussed and approved in the framework of the Working Group of the ACUP CUD and submitted to the ACCD as a framework for programming in the field of CUD in the coming years.
Seminars:
As part of the phase Consultacions stakeholders are preparing two seminars for discussion and reflection for each of the priority countries, one for Morocco and one for Mozambique. For more information about the seminars, you can see:
