CERLAC Supports Central American Womens’ Forum

An institutional development project started in 1997 ended this past June when members of the Central American  Women’s Forum spent two days at York as part of a week-long visit to Canada initiated and organized by CERLAC. The visit wrapped up the 18-month, $240,000 project “Leadership and Impact of Women in Central American Integration” implemented by the Women’s Forum for Central American Integration, with CERLAC as the Canadian partner, and funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) through its Program of Regional Support in Central America (PAR).

The Women’s Forum approached CERLAC in 1997 to be the Canadian partner when they prepared their project proposal for the PAR program. In June 1998 Epsy Campbell, from the Afro-Costa Rican Women’s Centre and coordinator of the Women’s Forum, visited Canada and gave a lecture at York University, cementing links with CERLAC. In her talk, she recounted the formation of the forum in 1996, as an umbrella association of more than 100 mixed-gender and all-women organizations in the seven countries of the Central American region—Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. These organizations reflect the diversity of women in the region, including cooperatives, peasants, labour unions, teachers, professors, health care professionals, indigenous peoples, Afro-Central American communities, human rights workers and others.
 

The Forum’s mission is to promote and assure the participation and political impact of women in the Central American integration process.  It strives to make women protagonists and to work in consensus with civil society sectors to construct an alternative model of development in the region.

CERLAC’s role in the project has been to provide support and Canadian input to the activities, under the direction of Ricardo Grinspun (Economics and director of CERLAC). Nadine Jubb (PhD, Political Science) is currently in Nicaragua doing her dissertation research on violence against women, and has served as the key CERLAC ollaborator. A main component was the development of an Agenda for Gender Equity in Central American Integration. This initiative includes a nine-year action plan developed in a participatory manner in the seven countries, containing concrete proposals for action in the short, medium and long term to improve women’s status. The document was brought for political endorsement to a workshop held in El Salvador in January 1999, by a group of high profile members of civil society and government. Rather than just a list of demands from governments, the agenda is also geared to civil society organizations themselves, to promote participation of women and democratization of these organizations.

CERLAC played a pivotal role in a second major component of the project, a week-long workshop in Nicaragua this past February on methodology for political organizing and lobbying. This participatory workshop for a group of Forum activists from the seven countries, centred on honing the skills for pursuing a political campaign to advance the Agenda for Gender Equity in each country and in the Central American region. The focus was on issues such as understanding political decision-making, identifying supporters and opponents, and campaign and negotiation strategies. CERLAC played a central role in developing the methodology for the workshop, and Nadine Jubb served as one of the facilitators for this intense activity. She also prepared the report that came out of this workshop, thus allowing for further diffusion of its results. Currently, she is coordinating the establishment of an electronic network for forum participants, as one of the last activities in the project.

The week-long June visit to Canada included seven different events for which CERLAC sought support from local organizations. CERLAC remained responsible for the overall logistics and coordination under the stewardship of Phillip Stuart, and Carlos Torres (MA, Political Science) accompanied the visitors. Toronto’s Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples organized a very well attended evening session with women from the Latin American community in Toronto, in which common challenges such as family violence, the status of women, and economic restructuring were discussed. The National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) organized a meeting with Toronto-based women activists who compared notes on women’s issues. The Americas Policy Group of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation organized a meeting with Canadian NGOs and policy makers in Ottawa to discuss the Canadian cooperation and its role in the reconstruction of Central America following last November’s Hurricane Mitch. A meeting at CIDA headquarters in Hull, Quebec, attended as well by a representative from IDRC, focused on future Canadian cooperation programs in Central America. Finally, Alternatives, a large NGO based in Montreal dedicated to North-South solidarity and community-based development, organized a meeting to discuss, among other things, the Quebec-based initiative for a World March of Women in 2000.

The focal events of the week, however, happened at York University, with two day-long seminars which brought distinct groups of scholars and activists together in a lively encounter with the leaders of the forum. The first workshop, held in Spanish, focused on globalization, regional integration, and civil society participation. Epsy Campbell, Women’s Forum coordinator, talked about civil society participation in Central American integration, and the role women are playing in that process. Ricardo Grinspun talked about globalization, structural adjustment and civil society responses in the North and the South, and Deborah Barndt (Environmental Studies) presented the experience of Canadian and Mexican women organizing around issues of food and economic integration. Other Central American participants talked about women influencing public policy in Panama, women’s participation in the reconstruction of  Nicaragua following Hurricane Mitch, women’s struggle to preserve health and the environment in Costa Rica, and a research project to study the impact of Central American integration on women’s employment. Canadian labour activist, Judith Marshall, talked about Canadian organizing around free trade. Much of the discussion centred around common concerns and agendas for social organizations in both parts of the world, Canada and Central America.

The second seminar was held in English and Spanish, bringing together the leaders of the forum with Canadian women activists. This seminar was organized by Lisa Kowalchuk (PhD, Sociology), whose doctoral research is on peasant movements in El Salvador. About 30 women had the opportunity to speak to each other about  their efforts to promote gender equity in their respective countries and regions.  Members of the forum presented their Agenda for Gender Equity in Central American Integration, and the process that brought it about. Central American presenters also focused on issues such as the role of women in Guatemalan politics, the women’s movement in Honduras, and violence against women in Belize. Barbara Cameron (Political Science, Atkinson) compared women’s political mobilization in Canada and Sweden. Joan Grant-Cummings, president of NAC, discussed the challenges of the women’s movement in Canada. Daina Green presented on pay equity and affirmative action programs in Canada. Activist Josephine Gray focused on the impact of economic integration and women’s efforts to build North-South solidarity. At the end of the day, both Canadian and Central American participants emphasized the need to link up women’s movements in the North and the South.

Adapted from a Gazette article, with kind permission of the Department of Communications, York University.
 

THE CARIBBEAN RELIGIONS PROJECT

With the theme, “Dialogues in the Spirit”, the Caribbean Religions Project under the auspices of CERLAC launched a three-day conference at Founders College, which attracted an enthusiastic audience of students and faculty from York University, the University of Toronto, and members of the general public. The conference, which was held from November 12 to l5 1998, consisted of an exciting mix of Caribbean scholars, spiritual practitioners from the Anglophone, Francophone, Hispanic and Dutch Caribbean, American and Canadian scholars and graduate students.

The conference was organized by the team of scholars engaged in research for the Caribbean Religions Project, an undertaking which is directed towards the production of an Encyclopaedia of Caribbean Religions and Spirituality.  The purpose of the meeting was to exchange ideas and share research among interested scholars and the wider community.  The project’s programme of publications will include occasional papers and journal articles, bibliographies and directories, and an edited volume of essays.  Apart from a print version, the Encyclopaedia will also be available in CD-ROM and will be edited by Frederick Case, Ramabai Espinet, Bernardo Garcia, Althea Prince and Patrick Taylor, with the assistance of Guerin Montilus of Wayne State University and consulting editors from across the Caribbean region.
 

Born out of the conflict and interplay on Indigenous, African, Indians, European and other religious traditions, Caribbean spirituality is a dynamic, creative force in the culture and society of the region. The Caribbean Religions Project seeks to tap into this cultural force through interdisciplinary, collaborative research which identifies, describes and analyzes Caribbean religious phenomena from a Caribbean perspective.

The conference highlighted a number of female Caribbean practioners who participated in the ongoing scholarly presentations as well as in ceremonial events such as the invocation (led by Pandita Indrani Rampersad), the first state recognized female Hindu pundit in Trinidad and Tobago, an unplanned closing ceremony (led by Winti elder Elly Purperhart) from Suriname, and an evening of healing (led by Desrey Fox from Guyana, Elly Purperhart and Pandita Rampersad).

Other international participants included: Jeannette Allsopp (Barbados), René Cárdenas-Medina (Cuba), Anny Dominique Curtius (Trinidad and Tobago), Emile Eadie (Martinique), Juliet Emanuel (United States), Robert Hill (United States), Jorge Luis Hernández (Cuba), Nancy Mikelsons (United States), Guerin Montilus (United States), Olivier Mounsamy (Guadeloupe), Nasser Mustapha (Trinidad and Tobago), Joseph O. Palacio (Belize), Myrna Peterkin (Guyana), Olga Portuondo (Cuba), Herman Snijders (Suriname), Judith Soares (Barbados), Noel Titus (Barbados), and  Ernesto Valdes Janet (Cuba).  Canadian presenters included: Yvonne Bobbsmith, Bernard Delpeche, Honour Ford-Smith, Abrahim H. Khan, Sean Lokaisingh-Meighoo, Michael Marcuzzi, Masani Montague, Nigel Thomas, Muriel Walker, and Carole Yawney.

The organizing committee members were: Maxine Bramble, Frederick Case, Bernard Delpeche, Ramabai Espinet, Bernardo García, Abrahim Khan, Sean Lokaisingh-Meighoo, Masani Montague, Althea Prince, Laura Suski, and Patrick Taylor.  The organizers acknowledge the generous support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; the Division of Humanities, the Office of the Vice-President (Academic Affairs), Founders College, Religious Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Women’s Studies and the Nigerian Hinterland project, York University; New College, University of Toronto; the United Church; the Anglican Foundation of Canada; the Consul General of Trinidad and Tobago; Program for the Analysis of Religion Among Latinos/as and the Office for Research of Religion in Society and Culture, Brooklyn College.

Salvadoreans and Guatemalans in Toronto (SAGIT)

International migration, immigrant settlement and the implications of migration for home countries in the Americas have all been changing in the 1990s.  To better understand particular cases,  Alan Simmons (York University) and Jean Turner (University of Guelph) have initiated a project to document the history and changing circumstances of Salvadorean and Guatemalan immigrants in Canada, with a particular focus on those in Toronto.  Other researchers involved in the project include PhD candidates Mirna Carranza (Family Studies, Guelph), Alison Crosby (Sociology, York),  Gabriela Torres (Anthropology, York), and Lydia Sawicki (Sociology, York).
 

A major objective of the project is to produce new knowledge about "families" and refugee/immigration process. The concept “family” is in quotes to draw attention to its fluid and changing forms in the international migration process.

The project (funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) began in June 1997 and will continue until June 1999. The main focus to date has been developing relationships with individuals and organizations within the Salvadorean and Guatemalan communities in Toronto. The researchers have met every four to six weeks with some fifteen members of these communities who are interested in the project and have agreed to serve as “consultants”. Their  role is to provide advice on project steps and to ensure that the project meets the needs of the families and communities under examination.  Through the meetings, the objectives, research methods and dissemination plans of the project have been clarified, and data collection and analysis are now underway.

A major objective of the project is to produce new knowledge about "families" and refugee/immigration process. The concept “family” is in quotes to draw attention to its fluid and changing forms in the international migration process.  A closely related objective is to focus on knowledge that will  benefit the research participants and their communities.  Themes include: immigration and refugee process, including return migration and contact with relatives at home; changes in family relationships;  identity transformations; skills and contributions of immigrants to  Canadian society; the institutional resources of the communities in Toronto; the “second generation” of youth raised in Canada; the impact of changes in immigration and refugee policy; and the implications of the peace accords and changing conditions in home countries.

The project will rely on various data sources: interviews with informed individuals in institutions within the communities and institutions working closely with these communities; a survey of households; in-depth interviews with select families; analysis of special tabulations of the 1996 census; and other secondary data.  Data gathering is currently in process and expected to be completed by the fall of 1998.  Reports based on preliminary analysis should begin to be available in early 1999.

URACCAN PROJECT UPDATE

This five-year CIDA-funded project, linking York University with the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua (URACCAN), was signed in July of 1997.  Its overall purpose is to strengthen the capacity of both universities to fulfil their mandates.  URACCAN, a relatively new institution, has been founded in order to educate and train residents so that they may work to promote the cultural, economic and social development of the Atlantic region of Nicaragua.  A more complete description of the project may be found in the 1997 CERLAC newsletter. Since September of 1997, there have been a number of new project inititiatives:
 

1) In 1997-98, five young Canadian interns worked on the three campuses with URACCAN faculty, staff and students, providing English as a Second Language and computer skills instruction (Tanya Chung, Roseanne Gasparelli, Timothy Hansell, Heidi Mehta, and Nady Weber).  Four of these interns were financed through a separate CIDA Internship Grant administered by the York-URACCAN project.

2) In December 1998 Diala López of Bluefields became the first Nicaraguan to obtain her Master’s Degree in Biology from our program at York University.  In  September 1999 three other Nicaraguans will begin full-time studies towards Master’s Degrees: Carlos Aléman (Political Science), and René Romero and Alicia Slate (Environmental Studies).

3) Eighteen new computers were purchased and installed in February 1998: six on each of the three campuses.

4) Liisa North taught a part-time Master’s course on Patterns of Latin American and Central American
Development in February 1998 in Nicaragua (see accompanying article).  In July of that year, Harry (Polo) Díaz taught a course on Selected Topics in Empirical Studies (Research Methodology).  In February of this year, María-Inés Arratia gave a course on Anthropology and Education.  These courses all took place at URACCAN's Bilwi campus.  In July 1999 two courses will be offered by the program: Race and Ethnic Relations by Patricia Tomic and Globalization and Integration by Ricardo Trumper.  URACCAN students enrolled in the Program have also benefitted from special ESL classes given by YUELI's Joan Harkness and Annemarie Gallaugher.

5) Dora María Téllez, a senior and respected Nicaraguan social scientist and public figure, has completed the  first stage of a research survey of a wide array of published materials relating to the Atlantic region of Nicaragua. These reports will be used to promote collaborative research projects between Nicaraguan and Canadian scholars and students.

6) In September 1999 the Project mounted its new website that, in addition to information about project activities and URACCAN, offers links to many sites related to Nicaragua and its Caribbean Coast.

Labour Mobility, Workers' Rights and Labour Standards in NAFTA

Alan Simmons and Lisa Kowalchuk of CERLAC and Jean Daudelin of the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL) jointly organized a one-day workshop on labour migration, circulation and labour rights in NAFTA. Held at Founders College, York University, on December 5, 1997, under the auspices of both CERLAC and FOCAL, participants included Affef Benassaieh, Micheline Labelle and René Laperriere (UQAM), Jeff Clark (HRRC), Christine Elwell (Queen’s University), John Foster (University of Manitoba), Luin Goldring, Ricardo Grinspun and Liisa North (CERLAC), Florencia Jubany (NPSIA), and Osay Mehmet of Carleton University.

The morning session centred on Alan Simmons’ presentation on labour mobility in North America, followed by Christine Elwell’s review of worker rights in NAFTA. The afternoon session gave particular attention to the implications of NAFTA for Central America, and made reference to questions of Canadian immigration, refugee, development and trade policies.
 Conclusions from the seminar addressed characteristics of the evolving hemispheric migration and political-economic systems, migration problems in the context of human rights issues and short-term labour and student visas.  Also addressed were the particular concerns of Canada in a system of labour movements, economic exchanges and refugee flows centred on the United States, but with extensive spill-over for other countries.

NAFTA is a convenient point of departure for understanding recent developments, but it is too narrow (in terms of historical and geographical coverage) to understand the broader policy issues which include globalization and hemispheric issues that began prior to NAFTA and extend well beyond it. Nevertheless, the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC), with its scope for dispute settlement and political negotiation between countries, should be further explored. Similarly Canadian development and human rights activities internationally as well as Canadian refugee and immigration policies are all very relevant to improving the mobility, rights and conditions of workers and their families. However, the prospects for policy reforms that will truly benefit workers are very much dependent on their involvement, along with broad sectors of civil society, in policy dialogue in these various areas.

This workshop was one of three organized by FOCAL on the topic of migration and labour rights in the Americas. The other two, held in Ottawa and Montreal, concerned the Caribbean and MERCOSUR respectively.

CERLAC Supports Civil Society Participation in Central American Integration

CERLAC is the Canadian partner in this $800,000 project funded by the Regional Initiatives Programme of CIDA in Central America, first reported in the 1997 newsletter. The Central American organizer of the SICA/CERLAC project is the General Secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SG-SICA).  Ricardo Grinspun is the CERLAC coordinator.

The objective of this two-year project is to strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations to participate in the regional (i.e. Central American) integration process, by enhancing their communication and networking capacities and engaging in a discussion of the context of participation. There are more than 20 regional civil society networks currently participating in the Consultative Council of the Central American Integration System (CC-SICA), encompassing labour unions, peasant organizations, coffee producers, teachers, universities, micro-enterprises, small and medium enterprises, women's organizations, municipalities, and others.

The project has three main objectives:

* to increase the capacity of targetted organizations to communicate effectively with other organizations and institutions through the provision of computer equipment, technical training, and the establishment of a website;

* to disseminate information about regional integration through publications and radio networks; and

* to discuss the context of civil society participation in regional integration by addressing key areas such as economic participation; poverty; gender; ethnicity; environment and sustainable development; human rights and democracy; corruption and governance; and the use of electronic networks as an organizing tool.

CERLAC's main contribution to the project focuses on the second and third objectives. In May 1997, Dean Hennessy (MA, Economics) and Ricardo Grinspun accompanied Jorge Calvo-Drago and Benjamin Cornejo of SG-SICA on a regional visit to engage key organizations in the implementation of the project. In July 1997 a meeting was held in San Salvador with the participation of 45 leaders of regional organizations. As a result of that meeting, ten contextual papers were commissioned from organizations and leaders, reflecting on the experience and the challenges of Central American integration. Each paper focused on a particular aspect of the role of civil society in the process of integration (see box below). These and other papers were presented in a regional three day workshop in November 1997 organized jointly by CERLAC, the National Development Foundation (FUNDE) in San Salvador, and SG-SICA. John Cameron (PhD, Political Science), Ricardo Grinspun, Liisa North, Chris Rosene (MES, Environmental Studies), and Carlos Torres (MA, Political Science) represented CERLAC at the workshop. These papers were revised based on feedback from the San Salvador workshop, and will serve as the basis for a book prepared with the assistance of Yasmine Shamsie (PhD, Political Science).

The next step in the project is to organize a national workshop in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. A broad spectrum of national and local organizations that have generally been disengaged from regional level activities will participate. The workshops will be designed by CERLAC in collaboration with SG-SICA and facilitators from CERLAC (Ricardo Grinspun and Lisa Kowalchuk (PhD, Sociology)) will work closely with Central American counterparts. Lisa Kowalchuk and Yasmine Shamsie prepared the materials that will be used in the workshops.

The theme of the all the workshops is “Civil Society and Central American Integration”. The objective is to engage the national leadership of civil society organizations to become influential actors at the regional level.  Leaders must identify key regional and global issues and understand the relation they bear to local and national problems. The purpose of the workshops is to define objectives; identify barriers and opportunities; discuss collective strategies; and articulate action at various levels (local, national, regional, and global) and in terms of various actors involved (NGOs, associations, labour unions, social movements, governments, and international organizations).

The SICA/CERLAC project has produced the following working papers (all in Spanish):

Luis Fernando Astorga Gatjens and Benjamín Hernández Domínguez, Violence, crime, and human insecurity in Central America.

Williams Barrigón Dogirama, Central American integration and its impact on indigenous peoples.

Jorge Calvo-Drago, Electronic networks and Central American integration.

Epsy Campbell Barr, Gender, women, and Central American integration.

Patrick Dumazert and Thelma Martínez Vega, Poverty, equity and economic rights: The participation of civil society in Central American integration.

Alberto Enríquez, Central American economic integration and participation of civil society.

Celina de Monterrosa, Civil society and the institutionality of the Central American Integration System.

Luis Segreda and Daniel Camacho, Integration, democracy, and human rights: The experience of the Confederation of Human Rights Organizations in Central America (CODEHUCA).

Jorge E. Vargas Roldán, Corruption, governance, and civil society in Central America.

Wilber Zabala G., Central American integration and participation of civil society: Impact on the environment  and sustainable development.

“Nigerian” Hinterland Project

The “Nigerian” Hinterland Project, directed by CERLAC fellow Paul Lovejoy, focuses on the development of the African diaspora of the "Nigerian" hinterland during the era of the slave trade between approximately 1650 and 1900.  The focus of the research is on the forced relocation of enslaved Africans from the interior of the Bights of Benin and Biafra, including the central Sudan, to various parts of the Americas and the Islamic world and the effects of this displacement on historical developments both in Africa itself and in the African diaspora.

The region identified here as the "Nigerian" hinterland today comprises modern Nigeria, the Republique du Benin and to a lesser extent neighbouring countries (Togo, Ghana, Niger, and Cameroon).  The project is affiliated with the United Nations Economic Social and Cultural Organization  (UNESCO) Slave Route Project of the Division for Intercultural Projects.  The research team consists of 23 scholars from ten countries.

The major activities of 1997 included a conference in Jamaica, a Summer Institute in Canada, and special sessions organized at the annual meetings of the Canadian Association of African Studies, and the African Studies Association (UK and USA).  The conference on "West Africa and the Americas: Repercussions of the Slave Trade," convened at the University of the West Indies (Mona), Jamaica in February 1997.  The SSHRC/UNESCO Summer Institute, "Identifying Enslaved Africans: The 'Nigerian' Hinterland and the African Diaspora,"  was held at York University, Toronto, Canada, from July 14 to August 1, 1997.  The Institute brought together over 60 specialists and advanced graduate students to present their research and to engage in lengthy discussion and explication. During the three weeks, 46 papers were presented.  Paul  Lovejoy will contribute to the editing of the Proceedings for both these events.  In addition, during the year as part of outreach activities, various  team  members  were  involved in the development of two television documentaries.  In November 1997, the Discovery Channel released a documentary, "Slave Ship", on the Amistad; while the BBC Timewatch Series presented another documentary in November on the "Slave Trade".
 

As a result of SSHRC funding, a Project Secretariat will be established at York University in 1998.  The Secretariat will coordinate the various data-based projects, as outlined in the SSHRCC proposal.  The Project secretariat includes Project Director, Professor Paul E. Lovejoy (York Univeristy) and an Executive Committee consisting of Professors Robin Law (University of Stirling), David Eltis (Queen's University), David Trotman (York University), Kristin Mann (Emory University), Elisee Soumoni (Universite Nationale de Benin), an administrative coordinator (to be appointed), and Yves Mougeot (SSHRC) (ex officio).

In 1998 a biographical data base was designed and the data collection was organized. Moreover, an inventory of  Caribbean  newspapers was undertaken in preparation for the consolidation of holdings and the dissemination of complete sets of newspapers to research libraries throughout the Diaspora. The project  began with the English-language newspapers of the Caribbean but will expand to include the whole of the Caribbean and Brazil. The thematic focus of research for the year will be on the coastal ports of the Bights of Benin and Biafra. In accordance, the following appointment will be made: 11 graduate assistantships, one post-doctoral fellowship and a network professorship.

In April 1998 a conference was held at Emory University, "Rethinking the African Diaspora: The Making of a Black Atlantic World in the Bight of Benin and Brazil."  As well, "The Ports of the Slave Trade" (Bights of Benin and Biafra) was held at the University of Stirling, Scotland, June 6-7, 1998.  Finally, "The Atlantic Slave Trade", launched the publication by Cambridge University Press of a CD-ROM slave trade database prepared by the W.E.B. Du Bois Transatlantic Slave Trade project, containing information on 27,205 slave trading  voyages.  The conference took place in Williamsburg, Virginia, September 11-13, 1998.  Moreover, in association with "Nigerian Hinterland Project," a Seminar and Lecture Series on the Yoruba Diaspora was launched at the University of Texas (Austin).  The two-year series began in the Fall of 1998.  Approximately 15-20 papers will be presented during the series, which is scheduled to be published in 2000.  As well there are scheduled forthcoming conferences in Barbados, Benin, Brazil and Costa Rica during the 1998-9 academic year.

This article was written in Fall 1998.

York University - Catholic University of Temuco
Linkage Project on Sustainable Rural Development

CERLAC was one of the winners in the recent AUCC/CIDA Tier II competition.  CERLAC will be the Canadian partner in a new project to promote sustainable rural development in Chile.  As reported in the April 1997 newsletter, in conjunction with partners in Chile, CERLAC submitted a proposal for a Tier II linkage project worth $750,000 to strengthen the recently created Center for Sustainable Development  at the Catholic University of Temuco as a teaching and research institution for sustainable rural development (SRD). This Center is establishing an innovative capacity in teaching methods and university research in order to develop human resources which can simultaneously alleviate rural poverty and gender inequity while ensuring environmental sustainability. Temuco is the capital of the predominantly rural IX Region in southern Chile. This region has the largest concentration of indigenous people in the country, one of the highest incidences of poverty, and severe environmental problems caused by a thriving forestry industry, land erosion and loss of biodiversity. Since the IX Region shares many haracteristics with rural areas elsewhere in Latin America, the implementation of an appropriate SRD strategy there would have direct implications for SRD in other countries of the hemisphere.

Unfortunately, university programs across Latin America are ill-prepared to provide the interdisciplinary tools required for such a comprehensive approach to help the rural poor. University-based interdisciplinary programs and centres focused on SRD such as the new Center are virtually non-existent in Chile and are rare elsewhere in Latin America. This innovative project links York University with the Center for Education and Technology (CET), a large Chilean NGO affiliated to the Latin American Consortium on Agroecology and Sustainable Rural Development (CLADES, a Latin American NGO network). Together, the Catholic University, CET and CLADES are working to develop viable solutions for impoverished rural sectors in Chile and elsewhere in Latin America.

Among its principal activities, the project proposes to:

• build a distance education Graduate Diploma Program in Rural Development and Sustainable Agriculture;
• establish an innovative distance education Master’s Program in Rural Development Policy;
• establish two new semester undergraduate courses in SRD;
• enhance the SRD curriculum and train faculty at the Catholic University of Temuco;
• and upgrade the qualifications of Catholic University faculty members through the pursuit of Master’s Degrees and short-term research and curriculum development projects in Canada.

The project will also construct three policy networks and one research network, with a variety of activities related to SRD issues: (1) women, the Mapuche people and rural development, (2) local government and SRD, (3) peasant participatory research, and (4) food security.

This linkage project is the outgrowth of expanding collaborative ties between CERLAC / York University and CET / CLADES which began in 1993. The president of CET, Andrés Yurjevic, has been a visiting scholar at York on two separate occasions in 1993 and 1995. These visits uncovered the institutions’ mutual interest in sustainable rural development. In 1995, CERLAC’s director, and Canadian coordinator of the new project, Ricardo Grinspun, also made an exploratory trip to CET in Chile. Grinspun subsequently taught alongside Yurjevic a course in a Master’s Program in Agroecology and Sustainable Rural Development in Latin America in August 1997 at the University of Andalucía in Spain.  Observing Latin American development practitioners studying in Spain strengthened their sense of the urgent need to train SRD professionals in the region. Following York University’s internal selection of the CERLAC linkage proposal for submission to CIDA Tier II in February 1998, close coordination began in earnest to articulate the project. During April and May 1998, Grinspun travelled to Chile to confer with the project’s Chilean counterparts. Tom Legler assisted in the preparations of the proposal, as well as some 20 York faculty members, graduate students, and staff who were involved to various degrees.  The project was announced in January 1999 and is slated to commence in early 2000.

Toward the Santiago Summit:
CERLAC & FOCAL Conduct A Consultation with Civil Society

CERLAC, in conjunction with the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL), organized a public policy workshop: Toward the Santiago Summit: A Consultation with Civil Society at York University.  Ricardo Grinspun, with the assistance of Tom Legler, were the organizers.  This initiative was to provide a forum for individuals and organizations from civil society in Ontario to express their views concerning the issues of democracy, human rights, and economic integration in the Americas and to furnish the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) with policy proposals in preparation for the Summit of the Americas planned for April 1998 in Santiago, Chile.  A diverse group of approximately 35 participants from the university sector, non-governmental organizations, Canadian churches, the private sector, the media and youth took part in the day’s proceedings. Emphasis was placed by the organizers on giving a voice to societal actors who have traditionally lacked access  to institutionalized or regular means of Canadian foreign policy.
 

The workshop provided a forum for individuals and organizations from civil society in Ontario to express their views on issues relating to democracy, human rights, and economic integration in the Americas.

A series of five presentations were made including: Ricardo Grinspun, CERLAC on “Economic Integration, Social Participation, and the Summit”; Ken Traynor, Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) on integration and sustainability; Sheila Katz, Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) from the perspective of workers and communities; Suzanne Rumsey, Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America (ICCHRLA), “Human Rights, Democratization, and the Summit”; and Joe Gunn, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. The following key recommendations were pooled from the discussion of the working groups, which were adopted by consensus by all the non-governmental participants in the consultation:

• Public policy consultations of this nature are very welcome. However, civil society participation in decision-making process is also crucial.
• Consultations should be interactive processes of exchange with elected officials and government  officers.
• Participation should be open to organizations of civil society—and not just to individuals.
• The CERLAC/FOCAL workshop participants expect to hear back from DFAIT regarding the use, impact, and follow-up to the recommendations arising from the discussions.  Finally, emphasis was also placed in expecting that the Government of Canada provide resources and spaces for participation by civil society organizations in the same way that it provides those for business and corporate organizations.

The Ethics of International Population Displacement

Under the direction of principal investigator Peter Penz (Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University), the project “International Development Ethics and Population Displacement: The Nature and Extent of Canada’s Obligations in Developing Countries” is investigating the aims and constraints of development policies and projects when they involve the displacement of people from their homes.  Currently in its second year, the policy areas addressed by the project consist primarily of (1) development policies and practices, and (2) international economic, development-assistance and environmental activities.

In the area of development-policy-making, one issue of particular concern is the extent to which the displacement of populations can be attributed to particular national-development choices in Third-World countries and of nternational-development choices in the global North.  A second area of concern involves the ethical justifiability of decisions leading to displacement and ethical requirements for remedial action.  The second policy area, international economic, development-assistance and environmental activities, concerns the ethical criteria applicable to development assistance and participation (through grants, credit, investment, and trade), with specific reference to the effect of such activities on displacement processes.

The three-year SSRHC-funded project has many ties to York University.  The four co-investigators, Wesley Cragg (Schulich School of Business and Philosophy); Luin Goldring (Sociology and CERLAC); Pablo Idahosa (Social Science) and Peter Vandergeest (Sociology) are all from York.  The project also has institutional links to the University as it is administered by York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies and sponsored by two research centres at York: CERLAC and the Centre for Practical Ethics.

The project is also concerned with the responsibilities of Canadian participants in the Third World development process.  More specifically, the project will review and propose ethical criteria for the participation in Third-World development by Canadian organizations.  It is thus relevant to Canadian development-assistance policy, the decisions of Canadian businesses regarding foreign ventures, and the assistance and advocacy activities of Canadian non-governmental organizations active in developing countries.

The core issue that initially gave rise to the project was the extensive development-induced evictions that have preceded or accompanied large development projects in the Third World such as dams and commercial forest concessions.  Since the majority of individuals evicted from their homes do not enjoy the benefits of these development projects, this issue gives rise to important ethical questions.  For instance, how are rich countries such as Canada that participate in the development process accountable for their actions?  Are these countries responsible only to the state, or do they extend some responsibility to those citizens who are eventually displaced?

Community participation is an important element of the project.  The project seeks to place an emphasis on establishing a dialogue not merely between the project investigators and assistants, but within a wider community.  For instance, efforts will be made to obtain both input and reactions to the project from development decision-makers, the affected communities, as well as interested advocates, activists and scholars.  Such a dialogue will occur during community fieldwork.

The project’s goal is to develop conclusions about the conditions under which development-induced displacement is justifiable and recommendations for policies and action norms to avoid unjustified displacement.

CERLAC-OAS Internships

CERLAC was chosen to administer a youth internship program that provided 15 Canadian university graduates with valuable work experience and knowledge of international issues affecting the Americas. The announcement for the Youth International Internship Program (YIIP) was made on March 6, 1998 by International Trade Minister Sergio Marchi who said, “Canada views Latin America as a priority for further economic, political and social links. Through this project we can offer young Canadians the opportunity to become familiar with issues of the Americas.” This initiative is particularly important as Canada prepares to host for the first time the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) in the year 2000.

CERLAC administered the recruitment and selection of interns, although the final selection was approved by the host organization, the OAS. The YIIP was sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and assigned 13 young Canadians to work at the OAS headquarters in Washington, DC for 5 months (two additional interns were sent to the Inter-American Children’s Institute in Montevideo, Uruguay). The primary purpose of the internships was to provide, among other things, recent unemployed or underemployed graduates with a first meaningful paid international experience. The internships were also designed to provide a deeper understanding of multilateral issues affecting the Western Hemisphere and to increase Canadian representation and participation at the OAS.

The internship program in Washington lasted from September 1998 until February 1999, with a two-week pre-internship workshop and a one-week post-internship debriefing session, both held at York University in Toronto. The pre-internship session was designed to familiarize the interns with the work of the OAS and some of the issues that affect the organization. The interns learned about the history and challenges of the OAS, the role of Canada in the organization, and a number of issues related to Latin American and Caribbean history and current conditions. Upon arrival in Washington, the 13 Canadian interns were assigned to various units of the Secretariat of the OAS in Washington including, but not limited to, the Unit for Social Development and Education, the Department of International Law, the Inter-American Commission of Women, and the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission. During their 5 month stay, the interns worked alongside OAS staff, learned about the Organization and the issues of hemispheric importance, and also had the opportunity to make specific contributions by researching and interacting with workplace counterparts.

The interns also participated in various extra-curricular activities that complemented their experience at the OAS. Activities ranged from volunteering to attending sporting events, events hosted by various Permanent Missions to the OAS, concerts, receptions, lectures, museums, and conferences. Living in Washington, DC for a few months allowed the interns the opportunity to experience the academic, international, and political dimensions of the city. The interns note that Washington’s intellectually stimulating environment also allowed them to develop a wide network of contacts, enhancing the educational and social component of their internship experience. In February 1999, the interns returned to York University for a one-week post-internship debriefing session in which they evaluated the program and provided recommendations.

The interns appreciated the background information that CERLAC provided and felt the pre-internship program was an excellent experience. Reflecting on their experience and acknowledging it was the first time that CERLAC organized such an event, the interns wrote a report in which they evaluated the program and provided suggestions for future programs and discussed the cross-cultural situations they faced in and out of the workplace during their internship experience.

Overall, the interns feel that the opportunities that have been provided to them have been highly beneficial. Many of them have been able to find work in Washington while others feel assured that their internships will more than definitely provide them with relevant job experience for the future.