ITESM (Spring 2021)

Project Background:

Since its founding in 1943, Monterrey Tech has quickly become one of the most prestigious universities in Latin America.  With 36 campuses in Mexico, the Tech has stood out for training leaders through quality education, research and innovative educational models. In August 2019, as an initiative by the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the School of Government and Public Transformation, the Initiative for the Institute of Global Health Equity (IESG in Spanish) emerged. As the first global health institute in Mexico, it seeks to be a leader in training and education of change agents, through research, innovation and knowledge translation, addressing the health inequities in Mexico and the world, based on the belief that health is a fundamental human right.

The Institute of Global Health Equity aspires to partner and work with leading local, national,and global organizations, including Partners In Health (PIH) and its sister organization in Mexico, Compañeros en Salud (CES).  PIH has created an organization to work with community members and university students called PIH Engage to help build a global movement for the right to health,  as well as recruit, train, and equip dedicated teams of volunteer community leaders who mobilize their communities in the fight for health equity. 

The IGHE is launching the first PIH Engage community outside of the United States, and already 15-20 Monterrey Tech students (most medical school students) from Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City have indicated an interest in working together with PIH and CES as “CES Embajadores” (CES Ambassadors) in community building, fundraising, and advocacy on issues of health equity and social justice.

Opportunity:

IGHE is interested in partnering with this DAT and CES Embajadores to explore building new skills and capacities for advocacy on critical health care issues in Mexico. While PIH has built out PIH Engage Advocacy Resources resources in the US, there is nothing similar in Mexico. Our hope is to build these advocacy resources and capacity, sensitive to and adapted for the Mexican context.

 

Definition of Success:

Create and expand significantly the capacity of a student-led force for positively influencing health and equity policy in meaningful ways in Mexico. At the end of this collaboration we would like to have a solid and replicable framework for the rest of the teams that will emerge in the future, with strategies designed and adapted to the Mexican context.

Meet the Team:

Final Deliverables:

Advocacy Manuel

Fundraising Guide

Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Spring 2020)

Project Background:

The ​Tecnológico de Monterrey​ ​and its network of campuses throughout Mexico is committed to providing quality education, world-class research, and building innovative models for the benefit of society. With the leadership of ​ITESM’s School of Medicine and the School of Government​, the University is building a new interdisciplinary institute for global health training and research with strong links to practice. The fall 2018 DAT helped develop some of the foundational ideas for the new Institute for Global Health Equity (IESG).

The IESG aims to be a global center of excellence that generates health through training, research, innovation and knowledge translation, addressing in an interdisciplinary way the existing inequities in Mexico and the world, based on health as a human right. The IESG aspires to lead in training, research, implementation and public policy development in Global Health and Social Medicine in Latin America, through the creation of integral solutions to address social factors and strengthen health systems with an intersectoral approach, with a preferential option for poor and vulnerable populations.

Definition of Opportunity:

In August 2019, ITESM’s IESG created a partnership with Partner In Health’s sister organization, ​Compañeros en Salud​ in Chiapas, Mexico and the International Center for Social Innovation of Tec de Monterrey (Centro Internacional de Inovación Social, CIIS in Spanish) to generate collaborative projects. Compañeros en Salud works in rural Chiapas Mexico to provide quality health care to underserved communities and hopes to serve as an inspiring model to train and accompany health professionals and community health workers, and to deliver quality health care in low resource settings in Mexico and elsewhere. ​The International Center for Social Innovation (CIIS) is a world-class center that offers an ecosystem apt for social innovation. The CIIS focuses on research and the generation and validation of innovative solutions to social problems. Located in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, every year, during the summer and winter,  the CIIS receives dozens of students from various Tec campuses to work on the resolution of social problems in Chiapas communities. For a 5-week period, the students take various classes and work to generate solutions to social problems in a community. CIIS follows up on the work until the best solutions get implemented. IESG and PIH​ have deep ties to Notre Dame, and both IESG and PIH have served as clients on DAT projects in the past. 

In late November-early December 2019, IESG, CIIS, and CES offered the first-ever immersive global health course in rural Chiapas to Tec students from any discipline at any campus. The five-weeks course was aimed to initiate long-term partnerships with local communities where CES worked and collaboratively address local social issues while training Tec students in the philosophies of accompaniment, program implementation, and global health. Professors, administrators, and communities were excited to see this program unfold. After three weeks of advertising, however, the course offer had to be withdrawn due to lack of interest expressed -- only three students registered to the course.

What does success look like? 

1. That IESG, CIIS, and CES are able to use the lessons and recommendations by the Development Advisory Team to successfully attract talented students interested both in learning about global health and in making contributions to the 2020 summer immersive course in global health. 

2. That after using the partnership framework during the immersive experience in rural communities in Chiapas, a diverse group of stakeholders is satisfied by the experience and work and we can replicate and expand the model in the future. Such stakeholders include people in the villages, CES staff, students, CIIS and IESG administrators, and Tec professors.

Meet the Team: