International partnership for a joint educational programme in a developing country in South America, case of Bolivia

Abstract

Recursos Naturales (CLAS) from Bolivia have been running joint masters courses in water resources, soils and natural resources. With the assistance of the Dutch Government, in the first stage of the co-operation, three separate but parallel eleven-month Masters Programs have been established in Cochabamba, and these are largely modelled on those offered by ITC in Holland, The programs have been highly successful in training a large number of young Bolivians professionals for careers in various Earth Sciences disciplines. The “Soil Information For Land Use Planning ” and “Watershed conservation and management ” courses have now been running for nine years and the course “Irrigation & Drainage ” for six years already. The first two of these Masters courses started in 1998 and the third one started in 2000 with the additional support of UNESCO-IHE, also from The Netherlands.