Strategic Plan of the Patel Center for Global Solutions
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Rationale for the Proposed 2006-2010 Strategic Research Plan
Vision and Mission
Vision Statement
The Patel Center will be known for its support of distinguished research and educational programs that promote sustainable, healthy communities in a globalizing world.
This vision will be reached by focusing on the social, natural and economic environments. As Diagram 1 illustrates, we believe that the social environment, the natural environment, and the economic environment influence one another and work in concert to affect peoples around the world. By supporting applied research and education in these three selected areas, independently and in combination with each other, the Patel Center will contribute to the sustainability and health of communities impacted by globalization. We are committed to the discovery of solutions to problems in these research areas that simultaneously ensure the community's future, advance its health care needs, enhance its human security, and support its cultural and artistic practices: essential elements of what we mean by “healthy communities."
Diagram 1: Patel Center Vision
Mission Statement
The Patel Center promotes and supports:
- nonpartisan, independent applied research that leads to the discovery, dissemination, and application of new knowledge about the sources of, and solutions to problems of global concern; and
- educational programs for training future leaders and for expanding public awareness about global concerns.
Each research area (social environment, natural environment and economic environment) will contain plans for applied research and educational programs.
These research and education activities will attract the interest and support of:
- international, regional, national, and sub-national policy makers
- current and future leaders in the public and private sectors (and non-profit sectors, e.g. NGOs)
- top-ranked universities and researchers throughout the world
- leading independent research institutes and centers
- private foundations whose interests align with those of the Patel Center
Rationale for the Proposed 2006-2010 Strategic Research Plan
Over the last three decades, advances in transportation and communication technology have increased connectivity among people throughout the world. Consequently, more people are now aware of both long-standing and new global problems and the need to solve these problems with the involvement of those individuals and communities most at risk (e.g., women and children, less developed communities). Solutions must engage partners through existing (e.g., international governmental organizations, development agencies, nation-states) and innovative mechanisms (e.g., the Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy, World Social Forum) that promote cooperation among applied research centers, governments, civil society organizations, and the corporate sector.
The Patel Center's networks of research expertise – both within and outside the University of South Florida– will contribute solutions to problems that stem from the natural environment, the social environment and the economic environment. We have unique applied research strengths in each of these environments and they are depicted in Diagram 2 below. Within the Natural Environment, the Patel Center's networks have strengths in water and sanitation; energy; and coastal and marine sciences. Within Social Environment, our strengths are in urbanization, migration, security, cultures and the arts, mass media, political institutions, education, and justice/legal systems. Within Economic Environment, our research expertise is in issues of trade, structural changes, poverty, labor, and land use.
Diagram 2. Research Strengths
The Patel Center has chosen priority research activities within each research area for the Strategic Plan. Within the Natural Environment area, we will initially focus on water, specifically potable water and sanitation systems. Within the Social Environment area, we will focus on urbanization, further described below. Finally, the Patel Center will focus on regional trade as its Economic Environment research activity during the Strategic Plan period.
Diagram 3 illustrates these priority areas.
Diagram 3: Strategic Plan Research Agenda
The Patel Center will continue to encourage research in the other research activities not defined as priorities through facilitating collaboration among researchers in its networks and identifying external grant opportunities where possible.
The following sections outline the rationale for the research areas and priority research activities within them.
Natural Environment
The Patel Center will initially contribute towards solutions to problems in the natural environment related to potable water and sanitation systems.
The increased flow of goods and services across the world and expansion of the built-environment that comes with urbanization and population growth present further challenges to meeting the United Nations' Millennium Development goal of ensuring environmental sustainability. Sustainable development, as defined by the 1987 Brundtland Report for the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Many environmental problems confront the world today: global warming, degradation of the world's oceans, depletion of non-renewable natural resources and pollution of otherwise renewable resources. Access to fresh water as a renewable resource is of particular concern to all humans. With over 1 billion people in the world lacking access to safe drinking water and 2.5 billion people lacking adequate sanitation facilities (United Nations 2005 Millennium Development Goals Report PDF), the growing shortage of fresh water impacts human health and security, economic development, and food security and safety. Though sophisticated scientific breakthroughs are imperative, appropriate solutions to water and sanitation issues must also rely on the introduction of a range of technology applications that accommodate economic, geopolitical, and cultural considerations that differ between and within the developed and developing worlds.
Social Environment
The Patel Center will contribute solutions to problems in the social environment through its research networks of expertise related to urbanization and migration.
The response of many people to changes in economic opportunities and poverty has resulted in increased rural-to-urban and cross-border migration and the urbanization of the world's population. Nearly half of the world's population now lives in urban areas. According to the non-profit research organization, Population Reference Bureau, most of the growth in urbanization is expected to occur in developing countries in the coming decades. Greater populations in cities increase stresses on water and sanitation systems, increases traffic congestion and pollution, results in a loss of habitat as urban areas expand outward, increases pressure on infrastructure, transportation and education systems; increases unemployment, crime, and slum areas; and adds to already existing health care problems.
Globalization has impacted all aspects of the social environment, particularly those associated with urbanization. It challenges the cultural and artistic traditions of local and migrant communities and puts at risk the community's security. Urban communities encounter many problems that result from rapid expansion that impact their health and sustainability: rising poverty rates and increased populations lead to inadequate health care systems, with resulting increases in malnutrition, infant and maternal mortality rates and spread of disease. Similarly, overtaxed and inadequate water and sanitation systems cause health problems. Poor transportation systems, undemocratic land tenure systems, poorly planned built environments and inadequate housing imply that natural resources will be abused. Underdeveloped education systems, ineffective and corrupt governance structures, lack of opportunities for women, and a disenfranchised migrant community add to the cycle of disregard for both human and natural resources.
Economic Environment
The Patel Center will contribute solutions to problems related to the economic environment by relying on and developing its research networks on sustainable economic activities.
Globalization has had its greatest impact on people's lives through the emergence of a global economy. This development has made us more aware of how widespread are poverty and hunger, the first of the eight Millennium Goals set out by the United Nations. The new financial and production structures associated with this global economy (e.g., increasing unregulated flows of capital, goods, and services across political borders) allow for more world-wide integration of markets for investment, production, distribution, and consumption. This integration has resulted in shifts in production patterns and methods, changes in ownership and structure, and changes in national economic priorities. Economic opportunities have changed for different segments of society (i.e., urban versus rural, workers, one region versus another region).
Many problems from this global economy impact the health and sustainability of communities. Income disparities, rising poverty, gender inequities, and unemployment leave individual citizens unable to tend to natural resources or promote innate cultural and artistic practices; to the contrary, poorer people may resort to exploiting natural resources in order to make a living in the present, at the expense of future income streams. Others may abandon local practices for commercial reasons. Similarly, these negative impacts of the global economy leave individuals with few means to care for their own health, in terms of health care, food security, and other measures to protect health. Poverty even leads to risky health behaviors that increase the spread of disease. At the macro level, insurmountable external debt, lack of investment capital, and the resulting inadequate infrastructures imply that some countries are unable to make the investments necessary to protect their human or natural resources. Pressure to earn foreign exchange may lead to poor land-use decisions, including over-built environments, use of fragile lands for farming, or deforestation. In this scenario, governments also lack funds to provide adequate health care systems, education systems (which, in turn, have adverse economic and health consequences) and transportation systems.