(AFTERNOON SESSION, 2:10 O'CLOCK, APRIL 6, 1977)

NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES

Senator INOUYE. Once again we come to that point in our regular fiscal year 1978 hearings when citizens and interested organizations can present to this subcommittee their views concerning pending budget estimates and the policies and programs which these funds finance.

On behalf of the committee, I would like to welcome all of you.

This morning we had our first witnesses, and this afternoon we will continue receiving testimony.

As is our custom, we have scheduled you in the order in which your requests were received, except those whose prepared statements were not received until after the subcommittee's deadline. In those instances the witnesses are shifted to the bottom of the list.

In case you wish to review the transcript of today's hearings, it will be available for correction next Tuesday morning, April 12, in room 1208 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Our first witness this afternoon is Father T. Byron Collins, special assistant for Federal relations, Georgetown University.

Reverend GEORGE. Senator Inouye, Father Collins couldn't be here. I am Father George, one of the other assistants to the president of Georgetown University.

INDIGENOUS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CORPS

STATEMENT OF REV. WILLIAM L. GEORGE, S.J., SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT OF GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ACCOMPANIED BY REV. HAROLD BRADLEY, S.J., DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS

PREPARED STATEMENT

Reverend GEORGE. I know you are usually pressed for time, as these discussions proceed, so I will excerpt just a couple of paragraphs and ask that the rest be submitted.

Senator INOUYE. Without objection, Father, your statement will be inserted in the record in total at this point.

[The statement follows:]

(929)

STATEMENT OF REV. WILLIAM L. GEORGE, S.J.

We are Revs. T. Byron Collins, S.J. and William L. George, S.J., special assistants to President Timothy S. Healy, S.J., President of Georgetown University. With us is Rev. Harold Bradley, S.J., Director of the Office of International Programs, who will explain the proposal.

We deeply appreciate the continued interest and support of the committee in our work in international development.

Since our last appearance before this committee we have begun to formalize our proposal to establish a North-South Center, one of whose aims is to set up the Indigenous Technical Assistance Corps. This center at Georgetown University will draw upon the resources of the other universities in the District of Columbia and the Division of Agriculture and Life Sciences of the University of Maryland at College Park. We have identified various universities in several Latin American nations which are interested in establishing a counterpart Indigenous Technical Assistance Center at their institutions. These centers will address the local problems of education, agriculture and health of the poor majorities, especially in rural areas, and will be particularly concerned with the application of appropriate technology to these problems.

Our discussion with Mr. Robert W. Schmeding, Director, Office of Education and Human Resources, Bureau for Technical Assistance, Agency for International Development, has been most helpful in clarifying the steps which have to be taken to establish this cooperation with universities. According to Dr. Schmeding, once the initial step has been completed, namely, the organization of the universities in the United States and Latin America for the collaboration, he would consider assisting in the second step, the design of the program for participation by the Agency for International Development.

For this reason we are requesting the support of the committee for the idea of a group of universities in the United States providing assistance to various universities in Latin America so that they, in cooperation with local voluntary agencies, can develop an Indigenous Technical Assistance Corps, that is, a group of individuals trained to assist representatives of grass roots communities in the assessment and application of appropriate technology for the solution of these problems. This will be a pilot program.

Georgetown University and other collaborating institutions plan, for various reasons, to fund this program through a mixture of public and private funds. The Indigenous Technical Assistance Centers are expected to become self-sufficient within five years.

Attached is the Proposal for Educational Assistance Programs in Latin America which elaborates this proposal of ours.

We thank the committee for the opportunity to make this presentation.

Georgetown University

Proposal for Educational Development Assistance

Programs in Latin America

Contents: Proposal

History

Recent U.S. legislation

Georgetown University efforts

Aims

Means

Choice of countries

Proposal: The Proposal is that Georgetown University, in association with other D.C. universities, and the School of Agriculture at the University of Maryland, collaborate with universities in selected Latin America countries and with private voluntary organizations associated with these Latin American universities to engage through Georgetown University's proposed North-South Center in multi-impact educational projects which would benefit the poor majorities of these countries and involve the participation of the poor in their own development.

History:

Recent U.S. Legislation: "New Directions" Congress has recently, 1973-75, legislated some extraordinary changes in overseas development assistance (called "New Directions") (PL 93-189, S. 1443; PL 93-559, S. 3394; PL 94-161, HR 9005) In these laws Congress has enacted that bilateral development assistance programs should be more directly responsive to the most pervasive problems of the poor people in the less developed countries, especially in rural areas, and should actively involve the participation of the poor in decisions affecting their own development. Key problem areas include: agriculture, rural development and nutrition; population planning; health; and education. Provision was made for an expanded role for private entities, such as cooperatives, voluntary organizations, and land-grant and other universities. (Cf New Direction in Development Aid; Excerpts from the Legislation. Prepared by the Committee on International Relations, committee print dated June 1976) A specific and pertinent example of congressional encouragement to American university participation in development programs overseas and especially programs involving the participation of the poor who are involved is contained in the Senate Appropriations Committee (Foreign Assistance) Report No. 94-1009 (to accompany H.R. 14260) which stated:

"The Committee was interested to leam of proposals that have been made to the Agency for International Development regarding the establishment of an Indigenous Technical Assistance Corps under the sponsorship of universities in selected countries in Latin America and the Middle East. We urge that a pilot project of this nature be initiated in fiscal year 1977. Such a project, when designed, should be submitted to the Committee for its approval."

Α

For AID's development assistance plans and budget for FY 1978, see its Submission (Feb. 1977) to the Congress, Fiscal Year 1978 Latin American programs. brief excerpt is attached.

Not only the U.S. government, but other international agencies as well are reexamining their policies and are accepting the same kind of emphases.

For example, the World Employment Conference, held in Geneva, June 4-17, 1976 and sponsored by the International Labor Organization, adopted a strategy for development that was accepted by governments of developed and developing countries alike. The Conference proposals, aimed at satisfying the basic human needs of the poorest of these countries, contain essential elements in common with the 1973 and 1975 U.S. congressional legislation. (Cf A Basic Human Needs Strategy of Development, Staff Report on the World Employment Conference, for use of the Committee on International Relations, September 1976)

Georgetown University: Georgetown University has been preparing a project in which it would join with other universities in work of development assistance overseas along the lines of the "New Direction".

For example, at the Conference on New Forms of Post-Secondary Education, sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank and held in Caracas, Venezuela, September 25 to October 2, 1976, a Georgetown University proposal, circulated among some of the Latin American delegates for their examination and comment, was warmly received by several Latin American university officials, e.g. of the Andean University Consortium. The proposal envisages an indigenous development assistance corps in selected Latin American countries. The corps would be involved with local universities in rural development education projects that would be planned and executed in collaboration with rural leaders. Through its proposed North-South Center, Georgetown would assist in the setting up of these indigenous corps in view of their early becoming self-sufficient.

In connection with its proposal, Georgetown University has had extensive contacts with State Department and AID officials. There has been correspondence with the State Department in the fall of 1976 and in 1977, e.g., with Mr. Roth of Policy and Plans, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Exchange and Mr. Chapman, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Education and Cultural Affairs. On November 23, 1976 a meeting with Mr. Schmeding of the Office of Education and Human Resources of AID took place.

Aims: The work of these indigenous technical assistance corps would be to assist the very poor in multiple impact educational projects, that is, in projects which attempt to address, if possible together, several of the outstanding development problems of the area, and particularly education, agriculture (rural development, food, nutrition), and health.

Means:

Universities: In Latin America the universities, being as they are permanent and recognized centers for teaching, research and service, are the natural focuses of such educational development activity, to be supplemented, where necessary by private and voluntary organizations suited to special conditions. In the U.S.: Georgetown University, in association with other universities, e.g. the other participating D.C. universities and the School of Agriculture of Maryland University, would play an assisting role, that is, of aiding Latin American universities to plan, begin and solidify the programs and entities which these Latin American universities consider suitable for the purposes of educational development. The local technical assistance corps would become self-sufficient in five years.

A variety of concrete ways in which Latin American universities, by teaching, research and service, can contribute to technical assistance projects are being considered. Of course the suitability of any of these proposals would become clear only after the most careful consideration and the intimate participation of the Latin American universities themselves and groups directly involved in the rural areas. It is the indigenous groups who are to make the fundamental judgments and decisions.

We are aware of the study being made by AID International Linkages in Higher Education. We are informed that our project, as a pilot project, would be consonant with this massive study.

We thank the Committee for its continued interest.