Indiana University , with a grant from the Association Liaison Office (ALO) / United States Agency for International Development (USAID), will establish at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA) in Kyrgyzstan a basic undergraduate minor in Public Administration. The AUCA Public Administration minor would enhance the capacity of AUCA to prepare leaders and administrators for regional and local government service as well as to train future NGO managers. By providing a long-term, sustainable curriculum for training the next generation of government and NGO managers the public administration minor would help to create improved local government and “stronger and more sustainable civic organizations”. While the primary audience for an AUCA Public Administration Minor are AUCA undergraduates, the availability of courses and trained faculty also will provide AUCA with the resources necessary for conducting in-service training programs for local government and NGO leaders. The project has the following goals:

• Improve the capabilities of AUCA's undergraduate curriculum in public administration by focusing on the development of a public administration minor comprised of 15 credit hours of course-work (5 courses) selected from among seven new courses to be developed and introduced at AUCA.

• Adapt generally recognized principles of public administration education and research in the US to the needs of Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia ;

• Provide staff training and course development assistance to three AUCA faculty members including one who will receive two years of advanced degree work at Indiana University ;

• Develop a Service Learning plan for AUCA for students selecting the Public Administration minor; and

• Evaluate AUCA's Library for Public Administration acquisition needs and assist in acquiring a collection of relevant PA texts and reference works through donations and gifts by IU SPEA faculty and the IU SPEA library.

For more information, please contact Shawn Reynolds.