Abstract

Brazil has made a strategic decision and formal commitment to the International Community to invest in developing a post-graduate water education center to help train the next generation of water leaders in Latin America and Portuguese-speaking Africa in response to the demand of the UNESCO Member States. The International Centre for Education, Capacity Building and Applied Water Research – Hidroex will, overtime, greatly augment the work of the UNESCO Institute for Water Education (UNESCO-IHE) in Delft, the Netherlands as a member-institution of the proposed UNESCO Global Campus for Water Education. This center of excellence will also develop a new institutional model in two regards: first by implementing the concept of a “water condominium” which will attract scientists from around the world sharing a common research interest providing logistical support including laboratories, analytical capacity, video conference facilities and offices – all with the aim of addressing complex, priority water research issues, and resulting in new networks of collaborating scientists, and secondly by integrating the goals of eighth phase of the UNESCO International Hydrological Program into the education and research programs of Hidroex to develop the environmental conscience of all citizens – from young children to the highest level of technical knowledge – within an appropriate cultural context. This paper documents the institutional roadmap, logic and progress in realizing that ambitious goal.

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