More than 14 million children under the age of 5 die each year in nations around the world, with 10 million dying from maladies easily preventable by low-cost methods. Volunteers continue to focus on maternal and child health care, water and sanitation projects, and nutrition and health education. The Peace Corps is expanding its health program activities to include AIDS prevention and the projected eradication of the Guinea worm by the year 2000. Urban Development—Almost half of the people in developing nations now live in urban areas. By the year 2025, the number of urban residents throughout the world is expected to increase fivefold, with two-thirds of this growth occurring in cities of the developing world. Rapid urbanization has brought increasing health problems, unemployment, lack of education, and a host of other difficulties. As part of its new urban initiative, Peace Corps volunteers will expand their efforts in community planning and services and improving urban infrastructure. The Peace Corps has joined forces with AID and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in this effort. Youth Development-Young people are the fastest growing contingent in developing nations, with half of all individuals under the age of 18. The Peace Corps has begun a program to address the many needs of youth in developing countries, such as education, recreation, and vocational training. Volunteers will work with young people and provide positive role models. Initiatives at Home Minority Outreach—In an age of increasing multicultural awareness and interdependence among nations, being a volunteer in the Peace Corps provides tremendous benefits to those who serve as well as to those who are served. Ensuring that Americans of all racial and ethnic groups have an opportunity to serve as Peace Corps volunteers meets the twin goals of showing a broad spectrum of American life to peoples around the world and extending the benefits of Peace Corps service to all. In the past year, the Peace Corps has raised the minority participation rate to its highest level ever. Education-During their assignments overseas, Peace Corps volunteers gain invaluable international knowledge, skills, and multicultural awareness. Three thousand of these trained internationalists come home to America annually, and the Peace Corps has developed initiatives to put returning volunteers and their skills to work on some of America's toughest problems. The Peace Corps Fellows/USA program provides first-rate, full-time teachers to some of America's most challenging schools in inner cities, rural mill towns, and Native American reservations. The Peace Corps is literally the world's largest international university. Peace Corps volunteers and returned volunteers speak a total of 200 languages and dialects and have an understanding of the cultures in more than 100 countries. Private Sector Involvement-In an era when all Americans are becoming more concerned and involved with environmental destruction and other international problems, America's private sector is playing an increasingly important role in the international arena. In addition to funding the Fellows/USA program, the private sector is involved with the Peace Corps' Office of Private Sector Relations in a wide range of partnerships to support a variety of Peace Corps activities overseas. The Peace Corps Partnership program, the Farmers for Peace program, and the Gifts-in-Kind program offer private sector foundations, corporations, service organizations, school groups, and individuals the opportunity to contribute to development needs overseas. Volunteer Support-The Programming and Training System (PATS) is the cornerstone of Peace Corps efforts to improve the effectiveness of projects in which volunteers serve. PATS requires that every Peace Corps project be based on a set of project documents that include a statement of project purpose, a problem statement, project goals, objectives and milestones, a monitoring and evaluation plan, and a written request for volunteers from the sponsoring host country agency. The Peace Corps is convinced that the rigorous approach to programming that PATS represents will lead to increased levels of volunteer effectiveness, greater support from Congress, and enhanced credibility with the organizations with which it collaborates in the field. After 30 years of service, the Peace Corps, through the PATS initiative, is taking steps to safeguard and strengthen its reputation as an effective development assistance institution. Effective Recruitment-The Volunteer Recruitment and Selection division of the Peace Corps reviews worldwide projected requests and develops national and local recruiting strategies based on the projected scarce skill needs. For example, careful projections of requests from Tunisia through the Quarterly Trainee Request System will enable recruitment efforts to be targeted toward the skills that projects need. The Peace Corps filled 95 percent of the requests for trainees worldwide in FY 1991, including 91 percent of the requested trainees in "scarce skill" categories. This figure represents a steady improvement over FY 1990 and FY 1989 and indicates that the Peace Corps is successfully meeting the increasing need for trainees with specialized education or experience. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) administers the U.S. foreign assistance program. The Agency assists developing countries in improving the quality of human life and in expanding the range of individual opportunities by reducing hunger, ignorance, disease, and oppression. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 authorizes the Agency to administer two major kinds of foreign assistance: development assistance and economic support funds. Training/educational services are provided in the United States to approximately 20,000 foreign nationals from USAID-assisted countries throughout the world. Legislative Mandate USAID's Thomas Jefferson Fellowship Program, funded under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 as amended, provides for technical and academic training in the United States for foreign nationals participating in USAID economic assistance projects in developing countries. Program Description The Thomas Jefferson Fellowship Program assists in upgrading the educational and human resources of less-developed countries that are assisted by USAID programs, with particular emphasis on skills related to economic development. Participants generally come from government, industry, or the academic world, and most are already skilled in their professions. Participant training arises out of projects agreed upon by the host government and the USAID ntission in that country. In some cases, projects cover broad development objectives with training included as only a single element. Increasingly, however, major projects are being designed to upgrade human resources through general manpower development activities where participant training is the only program objective. Participants are selected jointly by officials of their own government and by USAID personnel in the country. They receive academic or technical training in the United States or, less often, in third countries (statistics here are for U.S. training only). Participants agree to return to their own country to work in their specified field and to share their education and training to develop and implement new programs for their country. Participants' training is divided into "academic" and "technical" training, with academic training defined as that which takes place in an accredited institution of higher learning and leads to a degree. Where long-term academic training is provided, concentration is on graduate training. Support for nonspecialized undergraduate training is provided only as a limited and interim response for countries that have not yet developed local training capacity at this level. AID's policy is to fund a participant through only one degree. Training not leading to an academic degree is classified as technical. Technical training includes observational visits, on-the-job training, special programs and seminars, and training in an academic institution for specialized courses or a certificate. Major fields of training, both academic and technical, include agriculture, industry/energy, public and business administration, health, and nutrition. The placement and oversight of participants during their training programs are largely performed by private sector firms and nonprofit organizations and institutions under contract with USAID. These contractors usually assume full responsibility for the management of participants in accordance with USAID training regulations and procedures. The Office of International Training is responsible for participant training policy and procedures, oversight of the Thomas Jefferson Fellowship Program, direct management of several participant training contractors and U.S. Government offices that provide training, and the provision, primarily through contract or cooperative agreements, of a broad array of support services to all USAID participants. Support services include academic credentials evaluation, reception at ports of entry, orientation, English language programs, escorts and interpreters, health insurance, counseling, community and home hospitality, and other enrichment programs. The following statistics include the most current available figures for all categories of participants in training in the United States for FY 1991. |