31 March 2004

Mexico City, Mexico: Mexico’s Universidad de Colima and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) establishing the first regional network of universities in Latin America to participate under the United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS) university network.

Under the agreement, the university’s Department for Coordination of Technologies and Information and the UNESCO Chair in Information Communication Technology, will send 25 volunteers in 2004 to assist various development projects, primarily in Latin and South America. The first students are to be mobilized in April 2004, and will be an integral part of the effort to implement information and communication technology (ICT) in various youth projects such as training young people on the efficient use of ICT to create and maintain websites and databases throughout Ecuador and Colombia.

Dr. Carlos Salazar, Rector of the Universidad de Colima, welcomed the new collaboration with the UN Volunteers programme. “The motto of the university: to study, to struggle and to work, and to be better today than yesterday, and tomorrow better that today, illustrates how UNV and the Universidad de Colima are a perfect match. The university made a social commitment 25 years ago, and has participated in several projects that have been funded by the Kellogg Foundation.” He added, “the social engagement of our students and alumni is also a key component to being able to change attitudes among young people and at the same time foster a culture of shared responsibility for a better tomorrow.”

Prof. Lourdes Feria, coordinator of the Department for Coordination of Technologies and Information said, “the mission today is to shape better citizens, and in this sense, Universidad de Colima has gone a step further than other local and regional institutions by including an international perspective.”

One of the UNITeS objectives is to create a global network of universities from industrial and developing countries that also promotes South-South cooperation. The university network seeks to expand volunteer resources and knowledge, by mobilizing young people, faculty members on sabbatical and staff members possessing strong ICT skills, who can contribute to building ICT capacity in developing countries. To date, UNITeS has mobilized volunteers from universities in ICT-related assignments in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Ecuador, Honduras, India, Jordan, Kosovo, Mongolia, Senegal and Trinidad and Tobago.

In 2001, George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia (USA) was the first institution to join UNITeS. Since then, the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, (Spain) and Japan's Kwansei Gakuin University in Kobe, have joined the UNITeS university network.