International Policy
The U.S. Department of State
The U.S. Department of Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) facilitates many partnerships and initiatives that advance our broad development goals of promoting economic growth, social development and environmental stewardship in such areas as forest, water, energy, climate, fisheries, and oceans management. These efforts provide a means by which the U.S. government (USG) can reach out to the private sector, civil society, other governments, and multilateral organizations to find common ground with a focus on producing results.
Partnerships are one of the main means through which OES seeks to achieve concrete results. For example, our energy partnerships have hooked up 13 million people with access to energy. Our water partnerships have provided 19 million people with better access to safe drinking water.
U.S. Agency for International Aid
There are three important organizational vehicles for conducting global, international and regional research in the agricultural and environmental sciences. These include:
- Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
The CGIAR is an informal group of donors (about 60 at present) which has its headquarters at the World Bank in Washington. It sponsors 16 international research centers distributed throughout the world (13 in developing countries) which cover a wide array of basic food commodities and natural resource issues. The CGIAR goal is to produce public goods that are freely available to all. - Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSP)
The CRSPs harness the expertise of U.S. universities in low-cost, high-impact programs that contribute knowledge, trained personnel, and technology to agriculture worldwide in the fight against hunger and poverty. CRSP programs help build national agricultural research capacity in developing countries as well as benefit American agriculture. CRSP programs embody the mutual dependence of research, outreach, and training, in which training is integrated with research, and applied solutions require outreach. - Middle East Regional Cooperation (MERC) Program and the U.S.-Israel Cooperative Development Research (CDR) Program
Both CDR and MERC fund competitively reviewed, applied research projects. CDR supports joint research projects involving U.S. and Israeli scientists working with counterparts in developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America on topics relevant to the needs of the developing-country partners. MERC supports development in the Middle East via projects that involve direct Arab-Israeli cooperation.
U.S. Government's (USG) Sustainable Development Partnerships
The USG partnerships operate under the Global Development Alliance (GDA) business model: USAID is currently participating in more than three hundred active partnerships. Additional information regarding these partnership efforts may be found on the United Nations (UN) Commission on Sustainable Development's website at www.un.org/esa/sustdev/partnerships. For more information about the USG's partnership activities, please visit www.SDP.gov. The Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) works bilaterally and multilaterally to promote the U.S. government's sustainable development agenda. For example, within the UN context, OES leads the Department of State’s efforts with the UN Commission on Sustainable Development .
International Crop Science Society (ICSS)
The mission of ICSS is to facilitate research, education and information exchange on the sustainable production of sufficient quality and quantity of crop products to meet the food and industrial feedstock needs of humankind. With the help of $25,000 of in-kind support from the Crop Science Society of America in 2000, ICSS operational procedures, website, and communication mechanisms have been set up. Multi-country support from around the world testifies to the need and significance of an International Crop Science Society and its series of Congresses. The goal of ICSS is to provide an effective and efficient communication mechanism and coordinating role among societies and crop scientists.
International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS)
The International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) is the global union of soil scientists. The international society was founded as the International Society of Soil Science (ISSS) on May 19th, 1924. The objectives of the IUSS are to foster all branches of the soil sciences and their applications, and to give support to soil scientists in the pursuit of their activities. This website provides information for IUSS members and those interested in soil science. The scientific activities of IUSS are undertaken through four Divisions and each Division has four to six Commissions. Click here for the IUSS Powerpoint (7 Mb) which includes a brief explanation of the Union structure and function. The IUSS is a scientific union member of International Council for Science (ICSU) since 1993. The IUSS has consultative status to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development due to its membership to ICSU. The National Academy of Sciences U.S. National Committee for Soil Science represents the interests of the U.S. soil science community in the IUSS.
The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) is an association of twelve Agricultural Universities in Eastern and Southern Africa organized to develop and strengthen human resource capacity for inter-disciplinary problem-solving. RUFORUM recognizes the importance of the University as a source of outreach and technology transfer to small-scale farmers throughout the Eastern and Southern Africa Sub-regions.
In order to be a source of this information, the University needs to conduct relevant, development-oriented research that links high-quality graduates directly to participatory rural development and outreach programs. Such research allows graduates the experience they need to be effective in rural Africa. RUFORUM’s 5 Strategic Goals are to develop:
- Masters and PhD programs that are responsive to stakeholder needs and national/regional development goals
- Shared research and training facilities and capacities for enhanced economies of scope and scale
- Innovative training, research and outreach activities supported by adaptive management structures in universities contributing to policy and development practice
- Operational capacity and approaches for innovative quality and impact-oriented research for development mainstreamed in universities
- A dynamic regional platform for policy advocacy, lobbying, coordination and resource mobilization for improved training, research and outreach by universities
To see more about RUFORUM and the opportunities that it has for study, please view http://www.ruforum.org/.
Student, Work, and Visitor Visa Information
Here you can find information on host-company exchange programs for our sciences, networking websites, and all visa information for study, work, or meeting attendance.
- Please note this new requirement: Visitors from visa waiver program countries must have machine-readable passports, or they will need to obtain a visa.
- International attendees to our Annual Meetings, Oct. 5-9, 2008, apply for your visa no later than 8 months in advance.
- Click here for visa info, and Contact Us if you need a letter of invitation for your visa application.
- The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has developed a page on its web site to collect detailed information about international scientists experiencing significant visa delays. This could prove useful to staff still trying to cope with the many changes in protocol brought on by the SEVIS student-tracking system and the enhanced security of the US VISIT program. NAS says it will transmit the information it receives to the State Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). OSTP plans on using this information as an informal tracking system in order to help eliminate backlogged cases. The NAS web site is http://www7.nationalacademies.org/visas/Visa_Questionnaire.html