International Visit Strengthens Virginia Tech Collaboration with Haiti’s Rural University

Publication Date: Oct. 6, 2022

Leaders of Haiti’s only rural university recently took an important field trip.

In early October, Virginia Tech’s Institute for Policy and Governance and Department of Political Science welcomed leaders from the University of Fondwa (UNIF) to Blacksburg to discuss that university’s curricular needs in agronomy with relevant Virginia Tech faculty and officials.

The visitors — Lesly Joseph, dean of agronomy, and Thomas Moteler, vice rector for university affairs — also participated in capacity-building workshops on leadership strategies and fiscal administrative systems and practices.

Max Stephenson Jr, director of the Institute for Policy and Governance and a professor in the School of Public and International Affairs, and Laura Zanotti, a professor of political science, served as hosts for the visit. The pair had visited UNIF in 2012 and 2017 to build relationships with colleagues there and to understand how to help them develop their institution.

Zanotti serves on the U.S. governing board of UNIF, which raises funds for the Haitian university. Her ties to Haiti go back decades, as she was deployed there as a United Nations peacekeeper twice in the 1990s.

UNIF currently has 120 students organized into schools of agronomy, business, and veterinary medicine. As more than half of Haiti’s population live in rural areas, where they depend disproportionately on subsistence farming, the university’s leaders hope to increase enrollment to 1,000 students during the next decade, with the goal of creating more capacity in rural Haiti.

Zanotti noted that UNIF seeks to equip its graduates with the knowledge and skills to help Haiti address its many challenges.

“It’s difficult to build social capital if you have very little to pay with,” Zanotti said. “UNIF leaders hope that students who attend school with the support of their communities can reinvest in those same communities when they graduate.”

Stephenson took the lead in organizing meetings with campus officials, including university fiscal experts and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences professors. During those sessions, Joseph and Moteler learned about Virginia Tech’s agricultural technology program, food security and food system research, library management, fiscal accountability systems, and budget and funds allocation model.

Stephenson and Zanotti also hosted roundtable discussions on the structure of nonprofit university governance and leadership.

“It was truly a pleasure to host our guests from Fondwa and assist them with developmental strategies for their growing university,” Stephenson said. “Such collaborations also enhance our students’ cultural awareness and contribute to Virginia Tech’s diversity of voices. I look forward to our future collaborations.”

In fact, Zanotti, Stephenson, and Joseph are already working together on an academic article that examines the ways in which Haitian subsistence farmers have innovated in their local food system and created agricultural models that can assist growers in other contexts.

Joseph noted that he is grateful for the opportunity to interact with a range of Virginia Tech experts.

“The insights we obtained will make it possible to improve multiple aspects of our small, highly centralized system as we develop and expand UNIF,” Joseph said. “We extend our thanks to all the Virginia Tech employees who opened their doors to share their knowledge and offer us their support.”

As for next steps, Joseph and Moteler plan to engage with students in Dr. Stephenson’s, Dr. Zanotti’s and Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation Director Dr. Kim Niewolny’s graduate classes on non-governmental organizations and development, food security/justice/sovereignty and world politics. This group of faculty will also discuss longer-term engagement between Virginia Tech and UNIF.