A partnership of global proportions

Portland State beat out several big-name schools for the grant of a lifetime, a chance to build the Leadership for Sustainable Development program in Vietnam, a country that has experienced unprecedented growth over the last 20 years, averaging 8 percent annually from 2000 onward.

The $200,000 grant from the Ford Foundation went to Dr. Marcus Ingle, Dr. Douglas Morgan and Dr. Yoici Sato of the Executive Leadership Institute at Portland State’s Hatfield School of Government.

The three have spearheaded the cooperative effort to establish a Leadership for Sustainable Development program at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The university in Hanoi is aware of the pressing need for ecological stewardship, and wants to develop the policy tools they need to make a change, said Ingle, a key project coordinator.

Ingle, Morgan, Sato and their colleagues convinced National Academy administrators to work with Portland State over the prestigious Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and the Maxwell School at Syracuse.

“We had the most interesting curriculum for them in sustainable development,” Ingle said. This was despite the academy’s initial interest in the Harvard and Syracuse programs.

The partnership is years in the making. Cooperation between Portland State and the Ho Chi Minh Academy goes back at to least 2006, when the Hatfield School of Government first made contact with the academy.

Since then, administrators have participated in study exchanges, the president of the academy has visited Portland State and students from Portland State have traveled to Vietnam every December to work on development management and leadership issues, among other issues.

The grant funds only phase I of the project, which spans from March 2009 through August of 2010. This portion of the project includes the basics, such as curriculum, organization, the establishment of Portland State’s “active learning” pedagogy and teaching capacity, according to the Hatfield School of Government.

The partnership provides an unprecedented opportunity to promote sustainability in the top echelons of the government.

“Every politician in the country has to study at this academy,” said Ingle. “It’s the biggest opportunity I’ve ever sat on … It’s like being asked to work directly with Obama.”

He said the government tries to take the best ideas and theories from around the globe and put them into practice. Portland State, it seems, lives up to this standard.

According to Ingle, the $40,000 in James F. Miller Grant money the department received to develop Portland State’s new Sustainability Leadership curriculum opened the door for the opportunity.

The Miller grant will also be used to train local and state administrators. The advantages of a stronger program will sweep from Portland State to Hanoi, Ingle said.

Ingle pointed out, though, that the Hanoi program is being built from the ground up, and it will take years to render the full effects. The most immediate impact will be on the program here at Portland State and locally in Oregon, he said.

Transnational partnerships build trust and community across borders, even in tense times. The academy is looking for “cooperation, not imposition” says Ingle, and in this case, it looks like it will benefit everyone involved.