North American Integration and Development Center

The North American Integration and Development (NAID) Center was created to conduct ongoing research concerning North American integration and to assist communities and governments with policies and investment projects for sustainable and equitable development across borders. Towards this goal, the NAID Center seeks to build linkages among a wide variety of institutions and organizations in North America, including the North American Development Bank (NADBank) and the Community Adjustment and Investment Technical Assistance Consortium.

The NAID Center's activities which are overseen by Dr. Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda are divided into three main areas: research, technical assistance, and internet connectivity/telecommunications.

1. Transnational Research. The research mission of the NAID Center focuses on the dynamics and impacts of economic, social, and environmental interdependence between the United States and Mexico. The NAID Center's interdisciplinary staff conducts both macro research, including the development of large scale databases and modeling capacity, as well as micro level research on sectoral and regional dynamics needed for the reliable tracking of broader economic, social, and environmental trends in North America.

Researchers at the NAID Center are developing a unique capacity to monitor and model the impacts of North American integration and the adjustment process. Among the trends that are monitored are trade, capital flows, and migration effects on employment and income throughout the United States and Mexico. The NAID Center utilizes a multi-country, sectoral-regional approach which includes CGE (Computable General Equilibrium) modeling and the creation and maintenance of on-line relational databases that include information on trade, investment, migration, agricultural and industrial production, employment, income demographics, and environmental resources. Current sectoral and regional cases studies include: the frozen vegetable industry in Watsonville, California and in the Mexican Bajio; glass and garment industries in Los Angeles; sustainable agriculture along the Sonora and Arizona border; and forestry in Southern Mexico, and along the U.S.-Canadian border.

2. Technical assistance. Center staff works directly with local communities that have been experiencing adverse economic effects due to NAFTA and helps them to identify solutions at the regional and sectoral level. The staff also assists local partnerships to prepare requests for funding these measures. In communities and sectors where integration leads to industrial restructuring and job loss, such as assembly production on the California border, corn farming in Southern Mexico, and light manufacturing in the Southeastern U.S., Center staff assists in planning, implementing and evaluating economic and social development projects.
3. The NAID Center supplies internet connectivity/telecommunications capacities. The research and technical assistance missions of the NAID Center are further enhanced by an ambitious program to provide Internet connectivity to a wide range of Consortium partners and to develop advanced tools for wide-area database management and interactive communication. The NAID Center is assembling a wide variety of relevant economic data that will be made accessible via the NAFTA Tracking Database on the NAID World Wide Web Site.

Projects for the future include providing Internet access to local communities along the U.S.-Mexico border in order to access institutions like the North American Development Bank and the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission for sustainable development efforts.