Global Spotlight is the Office of International Programs’ biennial focus on a region of the world and a pressing global issue. In 2009-2010, the focus will be on the continent of Africa and the issue of Water in the World.
Why Africa?
Africa, the second largest continent in the world, is home to 53 countries and more than 14 percent of the world’s population. It is widely regarded by scientists as the oldest inhabited territory on Earth. Yet little about the continent is known by many Americans, while misperceptions and stereotypes about Africa are numerous: that Africa is rife with violence, ignorance, corruption, AIDS, drought, genocide, and much more.
There is no question that Africa faces serious issues, but there are increasing reasons for optimism: the building of democratic and stable governments; use of abundant natural resources to build infrastructure, educational institutions, and develop better medical care; improvements to rural life; and protection of unique environments.
Over the past 20 years, the African presence in Minnesota has increased substantially. Currently, Minnesota has the ninth largest population of African immigrants in the U.S., and while most African immigrants have settled in the Twin Cities, an increasing number live in more rural areas of the state and work in the food-processing industry. Most African immigrants in Minnesota are refugees who have fled civil strife in Somalia, Liberia, and the Sudan. Other relatively large African populations in Minnesota are from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria.
The University of Minnesota has important connections to Africa and faculty are carrying out research and outreach in numerous African nations in areas such as wildlife preservation, public health, education, economic development, medicine, agriculture, and much more. In addition, the University of Minnesota is committed to developing new university-to-university partnerships, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, bringing a more coordinated strategy to the University’s international work. In the words of Senior Vice President Robert Jones, “These partnerships will not only benefit the African universities. They will offer our own students, faculty, and staff strategic opportunities for joint research and experiences that will add significant global capacity to our campuses."
- Watch a video about the University's visit to Africa in August 2008
Why Water?
Water is a truly global issue. As a source of life and livelihoods, it is a resource on which everyone depends and without which no society can exist.
The word for water, in virtually every language, is one of the first that children learn to say; its beauty has inspired art, architecture, and music across cultures. It has an important symbolic presence in the rituals and ceremonies of world religions. Its cycles and circulation serve as a link between times past, present, and future.
As a limited resource, water may become one of the defining issues of the 21st century. Access to sufficient safe water has been designated as a fundamental human right by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. It is estimated that three billion people across the world live in areas with unsafe drinking water, leading to the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery. Water-related diseases result in more than 3.4 million deaths per year—the primary cause of disease and death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Currently, every continent is affected by fresh water shortages and, according to the World Health Organization, four out of ten people experience a scarcity of fresh water. As a result of climate change, population growth, urban migration, and increasing demand for water, this situation is likely to worsen over the next 50 years.
The University of Minnesota is a sea grant as well as a land grant institution and as such is already “conducting scientific research, education, training, and extension projects designed to foster science-based decisions about the use and conservation of our aquatic resources” (National Sea Grant College Program). As home to the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory in Minneapolis and the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, with a location in the Land of 10,000 Lakes and with campuses near Lake Superior and the shores of the Mississippi River, the University of Minnesota is in a unique position to address the issue of Water in the World.