My last posting was related to a meeting titled “Sustainable Development: A New Role for the American Engineering Community.” There were a lot of good ideas at the meeting about goals for the profession and first steps to improving the role of engineers in sustainable development. There follow a few thoughts on the subject.

I would love to see the engineering professions educating their members about sustainable development. Indeed I think the engineering professions should profess publicly on the importance of policies and institutions that enable them to engineer sustainable development! Advocacy for sustainable development seems to me a responsibility of the profession.

One of the suggestions made by Norm Neureiter, Science and Technology Advisor at the State Department, was that there be more engineering fellowships in the U.S. Government agencies dealing with foreign affairs. I observed first hand the effects of the AAAS International Diplomacy Fellowship program, and strongly endorse that idea. While the AAAS is not the home professional society for most engineers, the program was open to them. I would note that there seemed to be a limited demand for engineer fellows and for engineering fellowships.

I suppose the most important ways in which American engineers can contribute to sustainable development in the Third World is through those of their firms working in developing nations, or through engineering schools in colleges and universities.

USAID and multilateral agencies such as the World Bank are an obvious vehicle allowing American engineers to contribute, but I would guess that they are less important than private sector initiatives. The UN agencies will be the subject of a later blog entry.

There is also a role for private philanthropy. Corporations could play a more active role in building engineering capacity in developing nations through their corporate philanthropy programs. There are tens of thousands of US foundations, many founded by engineers, and many working internationally. The contributions of the foundation sector to building engineering capacity could be greatly enhanced.

New Internet approaches to financing small development projects, such as Development Space and the Virtual Foundation are extremely interesting, and warrant both the participation of engineers and consideration as a model for support of small engineering projects.

Some modest initiatives occurred to me as worthy of consideration:
· The African Virtual University is using the techniques of distance education to improve higher-educational opportunities in engineering and other fields for African students. Participation in this and similar initiatives would rank high on my list of priorities.
· CISCO Academies, Motorola University, and other private sector initiative in the area of information and communication technology education illustrate the role that the private sector can take in improving engineering education in developing nations.
· The U.S. Telecommunication Training Institute provides a model that could be emulated in other engineering fields. Its secretariat is supported by donations from private industry. Placements in short courses on telecommunications topics are offered (without charge) by corporate and governmental training programs. In some cases grants from governments are made to pay for transportation and expenses. As a result, thousands of telecommunications professionals from developing nations have received training in the U.S.
· The infoDev Conference Scholarship Fellowships provide another model that could be emulated. The program provides block grants for travel support for developing country information and communications technologies professionals to attend international professional conferences and meetings.
· Volunteer in Technical Assistance (VITA) and the Retired Executive Service Corps have established a distinguished record of providing technical advice on technical and managerial problems. Engineers could participate more vigorously in these organizations, or a new non-governmental organization could be developed focusing on allowing American engineers to volunteer service to worthy projects in developing nations.
· The Peace Corps remains a vehicle through which engineers can volunteer to work or teach in developing nations.
· The Development Gateway is currently establishing a Petersburg Prize for leadership in the application of ICTs to Development. Several other prizes are offered for developing country scientists, and an engineering prize could stimulate both better engineering and more public recognition of the role of engineering.
· There could be exchanges placing engineers from developing nations in US engineering firms and schools. I recall that B.J. Habibie, former President of Indonesia, early in his career lead a team of Indonesian engineers in a German aircraft company, forming a nucleus of leaders who later developed the Ministry of Science and Technology in Indonesia. U.S. companies could provide similar opportunities, probably enhancing their workforce and international programs while providing a valuable contribution to development.
· Habibie, while Minister of Science and Technology, invited the U.S. Government to place an American S&T advisor to join his staff. A similar arrangement was used with the National Research Center in Egypt, in both cases successfully.
· The University Linkages program managed by the Association Liaison Office might be used more by U.S. engineering colleges to build linkages with counterparts in developing nations.

There is no shortage of models by which engineers could participate in sustainable development. Lets see more participation!