“The largest threat to our world today is not the issues that are causing the problems, but our ignorance and naivety,” said Asif Farooq, director-general of U of T campus group, the Humanitarian Response Council (HRC).
That’s why the HRC has teamed up with leading U of T academics to spearhead a proposal to create an institute for global sustainable development at the university. The proposed institute would address issues such as urbanization, environmental maintenance, and poverty reduction.
Farooq, a 23-year-old undergraduate economics student, has been consulting with Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon, director of the Trudeau Centre, and Dr. Prabhat Jha, director of the Centre for Global Health Research, among others.
“If you have noticed, most of the [humanitarian campus groups at U of T] die out in a year or two because there is a lack of active support among students collectively,” said Farooq. “It is only through rigorous academic involvement that we can make the students in general have a better understanding.”
Farooq said that U of T is lagging behind schools such as Harvard, Columbia, and the London School of Economics, all of which have institutions dedicated to development studies. While he admired the work being undertaken at the Centres for International Health and for Global Health Research, he argued that the university must widen its scope.
“U of T, because of its good reputation, its diverse faculty and population, has a special opportunity” to address global issues, said Jha. “It’s important for Toronto to step up to some big global challenges, and that involves having a broader outlook than any one single department or program can offer.”
The proposed institute would coordinate research between the university’s existing departments and centres, such as the faculty of law, the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, and the Institute of Medical Science. It would offer a master’s in international policy and development, as well as a post-doctoral program.
It is hoped that research produced at the institute would make direct contributions towards solving some of the developing world’s gravest problems, as well as elevate U of T’s status as an internationally influential university.
While funding issues would likely be the biggest obstacle to implementing the HCR’s plan, Jha envisions an institute that would not, at least initially, require a huge investment from the administration.
“I think the thing that is exciting is that you don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money on bricks and mortar,” he said. Existing university buildings could house the institute. “A virtual program that is very light is possible,” he said.
The proposal has not yet been formally presented to the university, but Farooq hoped that Jeffrey Sachs, special advisor to the U.N. and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, may come to U of T in the coming months, which might help sell the administration on the plan. He said that Sachs has been aiding him in developing the proposal.
