PRIA

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• PRIA Partnerships with Academic / Research
  Institutions in India and Overseas
• Dr Mandakini Pant
• February 18, 2010

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Presentation Outline

• Introduction
• About PRIA
• Partnerships with Academia and Research
  Institutions
• Premise
• Historical background
• Cases
• Outcomes
• New Paradigms of Partnerships

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Introduction

• Why partnership?
• The concerns for sustainable development and
  inclusive citizenship therein
• The stakeholders in the development
  transformation realizing the significance of
  collaborative initiatives in encouraging
  pro-people change

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About PRIA

• International Centre for Learning and Promotion
  of Democratic Governance
• Three broad approaches
• field action
• to promote 'citizens collective voices'
• to make demands on governance institutions to
  claim their rights, access services and ensure
  accountable utilization of public resources in
  development programmes
• on-demand advisory and consultancy services
• to offer participatory and sustainable
  solutions' to improve supply sides of development
  and democracy
• educational programmes
• through open distance learning mode

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Partnerships with Academia and Research
Institutions

• Premise
• Commonality of purpose in effecting social
  development
• producing knowledge for practical purpose of
  policy change and developmental interventions and
  for contributing to the theoretical elaboration
  and
• Complimentarity in achieving that goal

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Partnerships with Academia and Research
Institutions

• Historical background
• Partnership with the academia confined primarily
  to the Schools of Social Work
• Research association with overseas institutions
  like IDS
• PCE, creating new relationships and synergies
  with higher education institutions
• Multipronged partnerships at the national, and
  international levels

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Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
Nature of Partnership

• Worlds largest university
• 59 Regional Centers, 5 sub-regional centers and
  about 1468 study centers all over the country
• promotes resource sharing, collaboration and
  networking with CSOs
• to offer need-based, socially and academically
  relevant, professional and vocational programmes

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Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
Nature of Partnership

• New educational course Masters in Participatory
  Development (MAPD)
• advertisements, learning material, prospectus,
  degree and certificates in the joint name of
  IGNOU and PRIA
• By PRIA
• Basic course material
• Minimum infrastructure and academic support for
  the IPFPCs
• PRIA to coordinate with IGNOU
• learners' engagement through web-enabled bulletin
  board service,
• tele-counseling, field placement activities and
  monitor learners' progress

• BY IGNOU
• convert PRIA's manuscripts into
  self-instructional material in print,
• audio and video,
• appoint academic counsellors, programme in
  charges,
• organize admission and
• evaluation processes for Degrees and Certificates
  through its standard tested network and systems

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University of Victoria, Canada

• Reputation for commitment to research,
  scholarship and co-op education
• Recognized for innovative and responsive
  programs, interdisciplinary and international
  initiatives
• A diverse learning community

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UVic Nature of Partnership

• Development of Courses
• Certificate courses
• International Perspectives in Participatory
  Research (IPPR), Sept. 2005
• International Perspectives in Participatory
  Monitoring and Evaluation (IPME), Oct. 2007
• International Dimensions of Adult and Lifelong
  Learning (IALL), Oct. 2007
• Master of Arts in Community Development-Internatio
  nal (MACD-I)

• Co-Teaching
• teaching of the courses by subject experts both
  from PRIA and UVic
• University
• Certificate courses
• MACD-I
• Internship
• exchange of interns
• To provide an opportunity to widen perspectives
• To expand professional and personal horizons

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UVic Nature of Partnership

• Research
• A study Womens Political Leadership and
  Educational Provisions in Canada and India
• Canadian team field visit to Rajasthan and
  Haryana
• PRIA team visited parts of Canada
• community-university research partnerships in
  poverty reduction and sustainable development
• Promotion of Community-Based Research
• promoting dissemination of Global Alliance on
  Community-Engaged Research (GACER) declaration

• Structured Events
• UVic supporting and participating PRIA
  International Conferences on Citizenship
  Participation
• Joint participation in International Conferences
• Publications
• UVic faculties contributing papers in PRIA
  Journal Participation and Governance

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Institute of Development Studies (IDS),
University of Sussex, UK

• A leading global organisation for research,
  teaching and communications on international
  development
• The research programmes organised in closely
  linked multidisciplinary teams
• Hosts a number of international, multi-partner
  research projects.  
• Citizenship Development Research centre (DRC) one
  such research partnership of research
  institutions and practice based civil society
  groups from India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico,
  and Nigeria from the south and U.K from the North
• DRC explores the issues of poverty, exclusion and
  marginalization within the framework of rights
  and citizenship
• Also aims at making rights real for people
  through research, dissemination, policy influence
  and capacity building

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IDS Nature of Partnership

• Research
• Citizenship DRC research
• generated field-based knowledge on issues of
  citizenship, development, participation, and
  governance
• elaborated conceptual frameworks and provided new
  perspectives on these issues
• highlighted policy gaps
• findings disseminated locally and globally
• through conferences, seminars, and publication of
  study findings

• Course Development, Course Delivery and
  Course Teaching IPCDA
• assistance in detailing out the course outline
• providing background material and suggestions
  on readings and references
• earmarked some financial resources for providing
  some fellowships for the first offering of the
  course
• course delivery as co-instructors and as guest
  faculty
• course marketing by disseminating information of
  the course through different communication
  channels- i.e. email, websites

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IDS Nature of Partnership

• Research publications
• Publication of research papers in Journals
  Participation and Governance (PRIA) and IDS
  Bulletin (IDS)
• books on various DRC research themes
• Structured Events
• Six International Conferences on the theme of
  Citizenship and Governance since 2003 with the
  support of Citizenship DRC

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Outcomes

• Joint collaboration in course development, course
  delivery and teaching
• harnessed and synergised the available capacities
• Joint organization and participation in
  structured events
• provided a common platform to discuss the
  contemporary issues on participation,
  citizenship, civil society, governance
• The collaboration with HEIs
• demonstrated their willingness to accept new
  ideas from the practice community, thereby,
  introduce new perspective in the university
  curriculum
• Collaborative publications
• disseminated the findings to a wider audience as
  well as serving as reading materials for future
  courses

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New Paradigms of Partnership

• Partnership to be anchored in the framework of
  life-long learning
• Collaborative knowledge production with
  Community-Based Participatory Research
  perspective to be gathered from multiple sites
  and institutions of society
• Innovative courses and curricula to respond
  /stimulate individuals to accept responsibility
  for and to meet societal challenges
• Objective to prepare active citizens and humble
  leaders