How MPA Programs Can Help Build Town and Gowns: US Perspective

Courtesy : http://patimes.org/mpa-programs-build-town-gowns/

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By William Hatcher
November 10, 2015

Colleges and universities are key economic, social and political assets for communities. The relationship between communities and institutions of higher learning, what has been termed town and gown, is vital to local public administration. However, many communities struggle to build and maintain effective town-and-gown partnerships.

Previously, I have discussed the reasons why town-and-gown partnerships are difficult to sustain.Conflicts arising due to taxation issues, land-use decisions and traffic congestion are just a few reasons. In the area of economic development, local communities often do not partner with their colleges or universities, which in many areas are the largest employers. In a recent ICMA survey of local economic developers, a majority of communities reported having a college or university in their jurisdiction. However, only 25 percent of the communities claimed to have a partnership with an institution of higher learning. This shocking percentage needs to be changed for local governance.

Public administration should be concerned with fostering strong town and gowns because the partnerships have the potential to strengthen the local economy and administrative decisions. Members of the local college or university can offer their expertise to local economic and political decisions, which can mean policy will be based more on evidence. By helping communities make sound administrative decisions, town-and-gown relationships build local policy capacity. Given this, public administration as a field should help foster effective town-and-gown partnerships.

Master of public administration (MPA) programs are well-suited to take a leading role in helping cultivate town and gowns in our communities. They have expertise from their faculty and can also access students, who can be incorporated into meaningful service learning projects in the community.

MPA faculty can offer local communities a wealth of administrative expertise. First, faculty members can build local capacity and strengthen town-and-gown partnerships by conducting meaningful applied research for local communities.

Second, faculty members can construct beneficial service learning projects for their students to work with local partners. Past work on fostering town and gowns has discussed the effectiveness of meaningful service learning projects.Here are just a few examples of potential project areas:

• Faculty and students can help communities construct effective local budgets by offering training seminars to officials and citizens.
• Faculty and students can help communities construct performance measures and implement those strategies.
• Faculty and students can help communities conduct comprehensive planning by coordinating public participation meetings that build a local vision for development. 

Finally, MPA faculty can serve as formal and informal advisors to local officials. By being “go to” advisors, MPA faculty can help build the reputation of their programs in the community, which in turn helps students obtain internships and employment.

In other words, MPA programs can help strengthen town-and-gown relationships by helping build local administrative capacity by linking their institutions with the organizations in the community, in particular local governments and nonprofits.

The literature on MPA programs shows this may be difficult. For instance, Wodicka, Swatz and Peaslee detailed the successes and challenges of partnering with local governments on service learning projects. Turnover in local government can affect service learning. When there are changes in leadership on both sides, it is difficult to maintain such partnerships.Nonprofits, at times, may be more willing to involve students in service learning projects.

Organizations outside the community can also help build local town-and-gown partnerships. In these cases, MPA programs can play a role by working with regional and national associations to promote town-and-gown relationships. For instance, the International Town & Gown Association (ITGA) has helped local governments realize the importance of collaborating with institutions of higher learning. Here are a few examples:

• The City of Fairfax, Va., and George Mason University are working together to build a sustainable downtown.
• The City of Greensboro, S.C., is working with its local colleges and universities to draft effective transportation policies.
• Lastly, many communities and universities are partnering to address the problem of binge drinking on college campuses. 

The literature on public administration has paid little attention to the topic of town and gowns. Nevertheless, as discussed, there is a wealth of literature on how to build local administrative capacity. We need to use this knowledge to help our local communities and universities build closer ties.

By doing so, we help strengthen local capacity. We serve our students. We demonstrate our worth to not just our home institutions but also our local communities.

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Author: William Hatcher, Ph.D. is an associate professor and director of the Master of Public Administration program at Georgia Regents University (soon to be renamed Augusta University). He can be reached atwihatcher@gru.edu.  (His opinions are his own and do not necessarily represent those of his employer.)

Courtesy : http://patimes.org/mpa-programs-build-town-gowns/

How we helped women become agents of change for urban development in India

Article courtesy - How we helped women become agents of change for urban development in India - See more at: http://blogs.adb.org/blog/how-we-helped-women-become-agents-change-urban-development-india#sthash.cNRhJzNq.dpuf

By Prabhjot R. Khan on Fri, 16 October 2015

A female community leader in Bhopal, India.

Sixty-year-old Iqbal Bano heaved a sigh of relief when her slum was finally upgraded after 30 years in the sprawling Indian city of Bhopal.

Iqbal is one of several women who decided to defy their traditional role as water and garbage collectors and became involved as community leaders in an ADB-supported urban development project covering four large cities (Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore, and Jabalpurin) in Madhya Pradesh, one of the country’s poorest states.

The 10-year project rehabilitated and expanded the water supply systems, and improved wastewater collection and treatment systems so for instance women would have more time to perform tasks other than just fetching water. It also included a number of special features that helped mobilize women’s participation in the development and upgrading of their own communities:

• We developed guides for mainstreaming gender in the project, including an overall gender mainstreaming strategy that was drafted in collaboration with the Water for Asian Cities Program of UN Habitat, a gender action plan to ensure responsiveness to women’s needs, and a gender field manual that spells out how to integrate gender in the Municipal Action Plan for Poverty Reduction.
• Community mobilization focused on women with assistance from NGOs, and community group committees—73% of whose members are women—were trained in pro-poor governance and collecting baseline information for planning and preparation of project reports.
• The project converged with other slum improvement platforms such as the Madhya Pradesh Urban Services for the Poor Program by giving priority to the slum areas it covered.
• We secured a commitment from the municipal government to implement the gender action plan by mainstreaming gender across project initiatives and providing community organizers and sociologists with gender expertise.

Participating in the urban development project, we learned from the beneficiaries, helped women like Iqbal build their self-esteem and self-determination in the face of challenges from their husbands, and other men in their communities.

“Initially we faced a lot resistance from men, who told us to better stay at home,” recalled Nai Basti-Ranjhi, another community leader. “But we were determined because we were the ones facing the hardships in that we had to leave our small children every day without care and hence risk their lives to collect water.”

The efforts of the women—and collaborating men—paid off. Since women were the ones that really knew what the community needed and which solutions would work, project implementers were able to incorporate their feedback into the design, and soon water, sanitation practices and environmental conditions, as well as in hygiene practices at the household and community levels, all improved.

Better access to reliable and quality water services has significantly reduced the workloads of women, who now have more time to attend to other tasks. Safety and health risks stemming from practices such as bathing, washing clothes and defecating far away from home have also been reduced, if not eliminated.

Likewise, participation in the project transformed the role of women from just beneficiaries to becoming true agents of change to help increased understanding of gender issues in water and sanitation, and strengthened institutional capacity in ensuring that men and women could benefit equally from water and sanitation investments.

- See more at: http://blogs.adb.org/blog/how-we-helped-women-become-agents-change-urban-development-india#sthash.cNRhJzNq.dpuf