I.
About AHED
1.
History
AHED is a bi-lingual NGO based in Montreal, incorporated in 2007 and granted Canadian and Quebec
charitable status in 2008. Its daily operations are run by an unpaid Executive Director and a part time staff.
The Executive Director is assisted by Supporters of the organization, Representatives at fifty-five Canadian
colleges and universities, a Board of Directors, and a distinguished Advisory Council. The list of Board and
Advisory Council members, Supporters and Representatives can be found on AHED’s web site at
www.ahed-upesed.org.
2.
Millennium Goals
In September 2000, 189 governments signed the Millennium Declaration committing themselves towards
the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The central objective of the Goals is to improve
levels of human development throughout the developing world, including improvements in nutrition,
health, the environment, universal primary education, and gender equity. If the Millennium Development
Goals are to be met, large numbers of citizens in the developing world need a university or college
education in many academic and professional disciplines.
3.
Mission
AHED’s mission is to support developing countries in building capacity in higher education. Strong
universities and colleges are key institutions needed to educate leaders and professionals to improve the
levels of human development, the central objective of the Millennium Development Goals. Ethiopia, a
country with 80 million citizens, has only 1500 doctors; Rwanda with 9 million inhabitants has only 250.
To ensure that capacity development is relevant and sustainable, AHED’s approach is to provide volunteers
to support projects initiated by colleges, universities, and ministries of higher education in developing
countries. AHED’s volunteers are working and retired professionals and faculty, staff, and administrators
from universities and colleges in developed countries, who offer developing world college and university
faculty, administrators, and staff expertise on matters relevant to improving the quality of their institutions.
II.
Partners
AHED has formed partnerships with several NGOs, including l’Agence universitaire de la Francophonie,
Association for Higher Education and Development, the Association of Registrars of the Universities and
Colleges of Canada, the Canadian Administrators of Volunteer Resources, the Canadian Association for
International Nursing, the College and University Retiree Associations of Canada, the Division on Higher
Education, UNESCO, and a number of Canadian universities and colleges and their constituent faculties,
schools, departments, centres, and institutes, including, the Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal,
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the Institute for Developing-area Studies, McGill University, the School of Nursing, University of British
Columbia, the School of Social Work, McGill University, St. Thomas University, the Society for Teaching
and Learning in Higher Education, the Teaching Support Centre, University of Western Ontario, University
of Prince Edward Island, University of Quebec at Montreal, and Vancouver Island University.
III.
Completed, Current, and Future Projects
Completed Projects
AHED has completed projects (3) in Liberia at the University of Liberia (UL), in Indonesia at the State
Islamic University in Yogyakarta, in Chile at Bio Bio University, and in Ghana at the University of Cape
Coast. The projects at UL were funded by the McCall – MacBain Foundation and AHED funded the other
projects out of donations from generous contributors.
Liberia
Liberia has gone through a devastating civil war during which the University was practically destroyed. It
now has a dynamic new president, Emmett Dennis, with whom we are working. We hope to be working
over a long period to help the University get back on its feet.
I. John Waterhouse, the former VP Academic at Simon Fraser University, and Michael Keating, the senior
fellow and associate director at the McCormack Graduate School’s Center for Democracy and
Development at the University of Massachusetts Boston, served as consultants to Dr. Dennis. John and
Michael provided Dr. Dennis with five year and senior management plans and a programme for visiting
academics for the University of Liberia.
II. James Cranston, the former Chief Information Officer at Simon Fraser University, did an assessment of
UL’s Information Technology needs, which has been submitted to Dr. Dennis.
III. In June of 2010, AHED mounted a Summer Workshop in science at UL, which involved upgrading the
teaching skills of the science faculty there. Many developing countries’ universities cannot afford to
purchase laboratory equipment, nor do they have the trained personnel to look after it. The project
demonstrated how interesting scientific experiments can be done using locally purchased chemicals and
equipment. The volunteers for the project were Adam Cohen, an assistant professor of chemistry at
Harvard, Ben Rapoport, a medical student at Harvard and a graduate student in the Computing Science
Department at MIT, and Elizabeth Wood, a graduate student in Environmental Engineering at MIT.
Indonesia
The State Islamic University in Yogyakarta has established a Centre for Disabilities Studies and Services.
It is the first university in Indonesia to provide services for disabled students. The Centre’s goals include
developing awareness of inclusive education both within and outside the university and implementing
changes in the university to accommodate disabled students. The AHED volunteer, Marion Steff, spent a
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year at the University (August 2009- July 2010) to assist in developing capacity in this area through
activities such as workshops, fundraising, lectures and research.
Chile
Bio Bio University (BBU) is in a poor part of Chile with 70% of its students coming from lower income
families, some of whom are disabled. Tara Flanagan, a professor in McGill`s Department of Educational
and Counselling Psychology spent several weeks at BBU advising it on how to upgrade its services for
disabled students.
Ghana
Ghana does not have a doctoral programme in computer science and information science. This means that
Ghana can only provide training in these disciplines at the undergraduate level and must send its students in
computer science and information technology abroad for more advanced education. The problem is that
many of them stay abroad. AHED sent two volunteers to the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Gena Hahn,
a professor of computing science at the University of Montreal, and Dominique Sotteau, the director of
international relations for the Research Institute for Computer Science and Automatic Control in France and with a
doctorate in computer science, to work with UCC`s Computer Science and Information Technology
Department to draw up a plan for a doctoral programme there.
Current Projects
Rwanda
AHED currently has a project at the National University of Rwanda to assist NUR in upgrading the quality
of its registrar’s office. Two volunteers, Gudrun Curri, who was a registrar at Dalhousie and Carole Dence,
who was a registrar at Carleton, will be spending six months at NUR spread over a year and a half.
Nigeria
Kwara State University (KWASU) in Nigeria is establishing a Center for Innovation and International
Studies which will coordinate international affairs, academics, and partnerships to strengthen the services
provided by the institution. Once established, the Center will be the focal point for all international services
at KWASU including; management of partnerships and projects, logistics and protocol for visiting
delegations and scholars, services and programs for international students, internships, research
collaborations, and study abroad opportunities for staff and students. Our volunteer, Nancy Hannemann, the
Director of Global Education at the University of Alberta, will spend one year (June 2010-May 2011) at
KWASU to assist in establishing the Center as the founding Director.
Future Projects
AHED is sending two volunteers to the Université d’Abomey-Calavi in Benin to assist it in setting up a
programme to train professional dieticians. It is also sending to the University of Namibia a team of
volunteers to up-grade its science education. In addition, it is working with the University of Toronto’s
Faculty of Medicine to support its work at the Addis Ababa University Faculty of Medicine to help it build
capacity in maternal, infant and child care. To this end, it is preparing, in partnership with the University of
Toronto`s Faculty of Medicine, an application to CIDA`s Voluntary Sector Fund.
For further information about AHED, contact Steven Davis, Executive Director, at sdavis@ahedupesed.org.
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