IBSG Opportunity
3 projects with US
State Department Open Delegation Visitors
Republic of Tajikistan
On October 10th, 2013, IBSG hosted an event to
welcome visitors from the Republic of Tajikistan to ASM and UNM. Our purpose was to have a discussion on the
status of youth development and its relationship to emerging forms of global
citizenship. Following this discussion,
several opportunities made themselves available to us from our partners and
attendees. Below is a list of several of
these opportunities. Rikki Quintana and
Karen Shaffer, our partners in this event, have continued dialogue with our
visitors and they are excited to have students provide assistance in working on
any of these projects.
Opportunity 1: Assist
in the provision of English language books to our visitors through their
educational and youth service non-profits.
Description: Sharing
English language books is a large part of the agenda for addressing educational
opportunities within the greater Tajik region.
As they address brain drain issues (young people moving to Russia for
short-term economic opportunities) they must also address the need for basic
books that provide youth and children exposure to English-language training.
Type of work: Help
these non-profits figure out the most effective way to receive and ship books
from the USA to Tajikistan. Assist in
creating a book fundraising and logistics strategy. Assist also in the development of a real-time
Distance Learning module for youth that is either Skype-based or uses some
other type of online interface.
Opportunity 2: Create
a strategy for creating internet access to remote parts of Tajikistan.
Description:
Providing low-cost internet access is essential to Tajikistan’s economic
development. With little support from
its government, remote parts of the country, particularly near Garm are eager
to develop some form of low-cost tech that can provide the demand needed to
institutionalize internet communication as essential to the region’s
infrastructure.
Type of work: Create
a strategic plan that will help encourage larger internet companies to provide
low-cost opportunities in that part of the world. Incorporate a PR and Diplomacy effort as part
of the pitch to these companies.
Opportunity 3:
Encourage the development of handcrafts.
Help design a handcrafts business incubator that can create
international trade opportunities.
Description:
Handcrafts are still an important part of the Tajik economy. Given strong gender disparity, this becomes
one way for women to develop entrepreneurial opportunities that can grow into
future forms of economic empowerment.
Type of work: Develop
a plan for a handcrafts business incubator.
Provide tips for potential partners and outlets for this work, including
the American Chamber of Commerce, the Eurasia Foundation, etc.
All three opportunities are excellent chances to develop a
strong set of experiences in international business and truly impactful public
service. If interested, please contact mrmonto@unm.edu for more information.
