Specific Case of Zika Outbreak in the United States and South America years 2015-2019 Cooperative Online International Learning project (COIL).
The purpose of this research was to obtain data from three major fields: Medicine, Mass Media/ Communication, and International Relations to explore the repercussions, develop popular consciousness, and provide possible policy proposals to prevent further virus spread This research/project has helped us to visualize and think how difficult and complicated it is to face problems of such magnitude when there are so many actors that are involved such as NGOs, non- state actors and government. We saw from the beginning that complex problems, with multiple actors and with a diversity of social and political interests require a level of coordination and collaboration among the actors that, even in the best cases, is very difficult to achieve. All of us as participants saw how difficult this coordination is and that we have not even begun to think about measuring the impact of the policies implemented. This project was a great experience for all of us because we were doing real diplomacy work which takes understanding different points of view, work with people from other countries with a different culture, religion, history and the most important understand that Zika is a wicked problem because there are some many actors involved to solve a problem that is affecting everyone around the world. Also, we developed skills such as public speaking in two languages and work in verbal behavior when a cross-cultural interaction requires it. |