Budd and Rajesh, Co-Chairs of the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education have just finished a first year supporting the enhancement of community-based research capacities at the University of Ibague in Tolima Department in Colombia. The University of Ibague, under the leadership of the visionary Rector Alfonso Reyes, has made a decision to transform itself into what they call the ‘Necessary University’ by which they mean a university fully engaged in the Tolima region, with research, teaching and outreach all engaged with community partners. All students spend their last six months working in community. Disciplinary faculties are being replaced by schools, Institutes and Centres with all faculty members engaged in co-constructing research with community partners.
Our UNESCO Chair has been invited to work with the University of Ibague for two years to help enhance faculty capacities in community-based participatory research. ‘Ambassadors’ for CBPR have been chosen by the university to undertake year-long on-line, face-to-face and field work learning. Working with Prof Irma Flores of the University of the Andes in Bogota and Monica Alvarez at University of Ibague, we have just finished the first year with 25 faculty completing the programme. In January 2024, the second cohort will begin.
In early December 2023, the final residency was held where the faculty members presented the results of their field work. Faculty members and their community partners presented their results. Field work was diverse covering such themes as urban water systems, mental health and nutrition of children, empowerment of rural women, BMX Freestyle bicycle young people as spaces for citizenship and learning, strengthening associations of waste pickers, learning from small holder farmers, and Building youth involvement in communities of traditional craft production.
Budd Hall, Irma Flores, Alfonso Reyes (Rector), Rajesh Tandon