**3.3 Collaboration**

*Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development*

The students and faculty who conducted the field research were participants in a semester long Dickinson Global Mosaic Program [1], "Climate Change and Human Security in Nepal [2]." The program was 2 years in the making. As part of the building process, the Dickinson professor who initiated the program traveled to Nepal on two occasions and established a relationship with the Institute for Crisis Management Studies (ICMS), a master's program affiliated with Kathmandu-based Tribhuvan University. The director of the ICMS designated a project coordinator for

The professor and the project coordinator negotiated the activities, locations, and logistics. The Coordinator suggested four wards as the research sites: Hokse, Kharelthok, Koshidekha, and Sathighar Bhagawati. The wards, located to the east of Kathmandu, were part of Panchkhal Municipality of Kavrepalanchok District, located in Province 3 of Nepal. As well, the Coordinator agreed to recruit ICMS graduate students who would provide general assistance to the Dickinson students

Fourteen students enrolled in the program. It consisted of three phases. Phase one included 9 weeks of study in Carlisle that incorporated three courses each taught

Phase two consisted of 3 weeks of field research in Nepal that lasted from late October to mid-November. The advantage of the four-course structure was that there were no scheduling issues when faculty and students traveled to Nepal.3 During phase three, which lasted for 4 weeks, each team generated a 50-page

The United Nations Development Programme [3] offered the first generally accepted description of the term human security. Many alternatives have since been proposed. One schema, designed with Nepal in mind, illustrates interconnections among ecosystems and climate security; water and energy security; food and health security; environmental security; and nuclear and biological security ([4], p. 3).

Many definitions have also been proposed for resilience. Nevertheless, a description offered by Twigg [5] is helpful. Community resilience includes the capacities to: "anticipate, minimize and absorb potential stresses or destructive forces through adaptation or resistance"; "manage or maintain certain basic functions and structures during disastrous events"; and "recover or 'bounce back' after an event ([5], pp. 8-9)." A caveat he offers ([5], p. 10) is relevant to this chapter.

<sup>1</sup> "Global Environmental Change and Human Security"; "Climate Risks and Resilience in Nepal";

<sup>3</sup> Due to personal reasons, Professor Fratantuono and one student were unable to travel to Nepal.

Furthermore, in phase one, the students were assigned to one of four teams.

research report that summarized their findings. Those four written reports

**3. Important concepts incorporated in the on-campus courses**

plus one team-taught qualitative research methods course.2

and serve as guides and translators during the field-research.

provided the qualitative data for this chapter.

"Collaboration as a Vehicle for Creating Value." <sup>2</sup> "Climate Change and Human Security in Nepal."

**2. Program design**

the initiative.

by a different professor1

**3.1 Human security**

**3.2 Resilience**

**4**

In recent decades, the environments confronting citizens and professionals in all domestic and global settings have exhibited rapid change and increasing complexity [6]. Those developments have made collaboration among organizations an increasingly relevant way to achieve objectives beyond the reach of any single entity. For example, Goal 17 of *Sustainable Development Goals* [7] views multi-stakeholder partnerships as an "important vehicle" for making progress toward "the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, particularly developing countries."
