Institutional Development
The institutionalization of evidence-informed decision-making is key to addressing the challenges of global environmental change. As an IAI program, STeP drives this process through transdisciplinary approaches that include participatory and solution-oriented methods for collaboration across disciplines and sectors. In addition, STeP promotes competitiveness, networks, and collaborations at the institutional level across sectors and countries in the Americas.
Each fellow develops and implements a work or research plan, defined together with supervisors at their host institution, that contributes to the policy-making or decision-making process and aligns with the objectives and priorities of national and regional agendas. The IAI accompanies and supports this work through its professional development program.
Professional Development: Building power skills in the next generation of science advisors in the Americas
STeP is the first Science, Technology, and Policy fellowship program implemented at the regional level in the Americas. The IAI Directorate offers a two-year professional development program through virtual and in-person training. The program focuses on three pillars of training: science diplomacy, communication, leadership, and transdisciplinary approaches.
Activities are carried out with experts from across the Americas and explore the diversity of opportunities and challenges facing the region.
STeP Training Pillars
- SCIENCE DIPLOMACY: Understand the connections between science, technology, and diplomacy, examining the power dynamics involved and the real-world applications of scientific diplomacy. Explain the role of science and technology in shaping public policy, highlighting the social impact of innovation initiatives and the geopolitical dimensions of innovation diplomacy in Latin America.
- COMMUNICATION: Synthesize scientific information to inform policy and practice on global environmental change. Develop techniques for credible, clear, and coherent communication that can be understood by a non-academic audience.
- LEADERSHIP: Foster skills for working collaboratively with diverse non-academic actors through transdisciplinary approaches in order to put scientific evidence at the service of informing decision-making processes and the development of more equitable and sustainable policies.
STeP Leadership Statement
Science Diplomacy Projects
STeP Science Diplomacy Group Projects 2023-2024
About Group Projects:
STeP Fellows get the unique opportunity to engage with the Inter-American network and apply concepts discussed in virtual science diplomacy and communication training sessions through group projects.
Fellows work in multi-country and multidisciplinary teams to:
- Practice communication, teamwork, and leadership skills and develop a product to help advance a science diplomacy topic/issue of shared concern in the Americas, aligned with the scientific agenda and priorities of the IAI and/or program partners including host institutions.
- Identify the challenges and areas of opportunity to improve the science-diplomacy interface from the perspective of the fellows’ countries and work.
- Develop context-relevant knowledge, tools, practical skills, and networks to tackle transboundary and regional issues of global change in the Americas.
2023-2024 Topics
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| Group 1: United Nations Oceans Conference (UNOC) Stakeholder Meeting. | Group 2: El Niño and Agriculture in the Caribbean and Central America: Exploring the Implications for Food Security. | Group 3: Analysis of committees of local communities and indigenous peoples in international/multilateral organizations. | Group 4: A Pan-American Science Diplomacy Framework on AI for Climate Change. |
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| Group 5: Limited Access to Health Care in Rural Indigenous Communities of Oaxaca: Recommendations from “Una Salud” to address non-economic loss and damage (Article). | Group 6: Urban Green Infrastructure for Climate Adaptation in LAC. | Group 7: Governance for the provision of evidence in climate action and its diversity. The cases of Chile and Bolivia. | Group 8: Impact of The Belem Declaration on Indigenous Communities and the Use of Natural Resources. |
For more details on each project, click here for the presentation at the 2024 STeP Leadership Conference at the Universidad del Valle Guatemala as part of the event “Strengthening the nexus of climate change, health, and public policy: Evidence from Lancet Countdown Latin America and the IAI”.
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Testimonials
