Annual Progress Report 2015

The center's first year was marked by significant progress in planning, activities, travel, meetings, trainings, and more. The initial group of students completed their first semester, research proposals started coming in, and selected MUET faculty members were ready to participate in the inaugural round of exchange visits during the spring semester. Governance efforts helped establish the project management unit at MUET, a senior advisory board, structured committees for day-to-day workings of the center, establish monitoring and evaluation processes, and created multiple initial memorandums of understanding with partner institutions. Over the course of the year, many of these structures were reevaluated and revised to better suit the real-world operations of the center. Curriculum development was a major focus of the first year, with a concerted effort by faculty on all sides resulting in the launch of three degree programs in the fall. These programs offered both master's and PhD degrees, with faculty members from the U.S. providing hands-on advice, materials, and guidance to their counterparts in Pakistan. Almost 400 students applied to be a part of the offered programs of study, with 50 selected to begin coursework in the fall. Several meetings and workshops occurred around the area of research, leading to the creation of two flagship projects, a successful call for proposals, and work with faculty and stakeholders toward creating a research agenda that will improve water security in Pakistan. This framework will allow research projects to begin in year two, along with grants being funded and further consultations to ensure that USPCAS-W is conducting research that will benefit long-term water security in Pakistan. The center's approach to addressing water sustainability problems is based on a transdisciplinary approach, which brings together experts from various fields to design education and research programs around real-world problems. This approach recognizes the value of integrating different perspectives and skills to support the design of education and research programs that address the complex water sustainability problems in Pakistan. The USPCAS-W team includes experts from civil and environmental engineering, soil and crop sciences, geology and geophysics, family and preventive medicine, law, political science, city and metropolitan planning, economics, and anthropology. This diverse team supports the design of education and research programs that address the real-world problems that need solving in Pakistan. The center's approach is guided by a firm belief that Pakistan's water problems are not intractable, but they do require new ways of thinking about how to solve them. A key indicator of any applied program's efficacy is whether it can create lasting real-world change in the desired direction. The USPCAS-W is committed to creating integrated and sustainable solutions to Pakistan's water sustainability problems. The center's major victory in gender equity and diversity came from the signing of MUET's new gender policy statement, which was signed for the University as a whole and not just USPCAS-W. The Center has also begun work on bringing in more women both as faculty and as students. The numbers still have a long way to go, however the initial results are incredibly encouraging and have helped create excitement for pushing gender issues at MUET further in year two. Key challenges in the first year included the initial capacity at MUET both technically and in leadership, the difficulty in bringing on qualified faculty enhanced by the location of the school, and challenges around creating a cohesive faculty at MUET. Many of these issues were tackled over the course of year one, but some will remain throughout the life of the project, such as the difficulties in recruiting qualified faculty who wish to live in Jamshoro.