Description
Program Description The Cochran Fellowship Program’s Latin America and Caribbean team is requesting the design and delivery of a Mexican alumni workshop in Mexico City. Also requested, is a monitoring and evaluation impact report of Cochran Fellowship Programs with Mexico. BACKGROUND Since 1984, the U.S. Congress has made funds available to the Cochran Fellowship Program for training agriculturalists from middle-income countries, emerging markets, and emerging democracies. Training opportunities are for senior and mid-level specialists and administrators working in agricultural trade and policy, agribusiness development, management, animal, plant, and food sciences, extension services, agricultural marketing, and many other areas. Individuals selected for Cochran trainings come from both the public and private sectors. All training occurs in the United States. Training programs are designed and organized in conjunction with U.S. universities, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and other government agencies, agribusinesses, and consultants. The Cochran Fellowship Program is part of the United States Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). Since its start in 1984, the Cochran Fellowship Program has provided U.S.-based training for over 19,250 international participants from 127 countries worldwide. SCOPE Since 1984, USDA FAS has trained over 1,000 Mexican agricultural professionals through the Cochran Fellowship Program (CFP). Fellows from 127 countries have participated in Cochran training programs, with Mexico being the first country in the program to reach 1,000 participants. Additionally, on December 12, 2022, the United States and Mexico celebrated the Bicentennial of the United States-Mexico Diplomatic Relations. In honor of both historic benchmarks, CFP is requesting the design and delivery of an alumni workshop in Mexico City along with a monitoring and evaluation report on the impact of Cochran programs in Mexico. The goal of the alumni workshop and impact report is to commemorate milestone of over 1,000 Mexican Cochran alumni and highlight CFP’s positive impact on U.S.-Mexico agricultural trade and agricultural capacity building. Alumni Workshop The alumni workshop should take place in Mexico City in August 2023. The workshop will consist of a large gathering in a hotel ballroom or other large venue. As many Cochran alumni as possible should be invited with the goal of having a maximum of 200 alumni in attendance to represent the vast range of CFP training topics, years of participation, and current career positions (including government, civil society, academia, and the private sector). The workshop should feature remarks from USDA leadership, including the Foreign Agricultural Service, a local Embassy representative, and one prominent alumnus. The workshop shall include food. U.S. food and agricultural industry representatives should also be invited to attend this event. The objective is to review the impact of CFP in Mexico and provide an opportunity for Cochran alumni to network with FAS officials, U.S. industry representatives, and each other. The recipient shall create a short video that highlights several of the alumni’s outstanding experiences and successes from CFP. FAS staff will help identify alumni to be included in the video. This video will be shown during the alumni workshop. Impact Report The recipient will closely coordinate with USDA FAS, which will provide the recipient with the data to be analyzed in the impact report. Once all required permissions are received, FAS staff will reach out to CFP Mexico alumni to survey them on their experience, the overall impact of their training program on trade, capacity building, and/or career goals, and recommendations to improve future programs. These surveys may occur before, during, and after the alumni workshop. Outreach will occur to as many alumni as possible for inclusion in this survey, which will be analyzed in the impact report. The objective of the impact report is to evaluate the successes and shortfalls of the Cochran Fellowship Program in Mexico and to develop recommendations to improve CFP Mexico efforts in the future. OBJECTIVES Alumni Workshop • Review CFP Mexico’s history and commemorate the milestone of training over 1000 Fellows. • Highlight CFP success stories through in-person presentations and a short video. • Provide an opportunity for CFP alumni to network with FAS, U.S. industry representatives, and each other through an organized workshop. Impact Report • Use surveys conducted by FAS to analyze short- and long-term impacts of CFP program in Mexico on trade, capacity-building, food security, and/or the careers of alumni. • Develop comprehensive report of survey results, including recommendations for improvement and future topics for Cochran Mexico programs.