GPS students, working with the school’s SDG Policy Initiative, presented to officials in Baja California about progress on humanitarian and environmental issues in the Mexican state
At UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS), the curriculum doesn’t center on abstract modeling or theoretical problem-solving. Instead, students and faculty work on real-life material, often with implications beyond the United States.
Four GPS students leveraged their technical training to mount a data analysis tool for the state government of Baja California in Mexico, which lies directly across the border from San Diego.
They created a dashboard to track how Baja California’s various regions are progressing towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals that have been put forth by the United Nations. These goals, also called SDGs for short, are benchmarks to measure how well countries are improving living conditions for their populations in a way that also promotes the environment’s well-being.
“We demonstrated to lawmakers how key indicators across seven municipalities were projected to change by 2030, and we also highlighted areas that need targeted intervention,” said Roberto Hernández Rodríguez, a 2025 candidate for the Master of International Affairs (MIA) degree.
“This was a fantastic example of how GPS prepares students to add value in public policy both domestically and internationally, and how ongoing work by faculty can create opportunities that launch future student careers,” said Gordon McCord, a GPS professor and the director of the SDG Policy Initiative.
The SDG Policy Initiative got involved in the work with Baja California by way of another GPS student, Benjamín Castro-Martinez, MIA ’25, who worked at Baja California’s Department of Economy and Innovation before coming to UC San Diego. Previously, the SDG Policy Initiative had launched a similar dashboard for the San Diego region.
“It felt like a culmination of the work I’ve been doing at GPS,” said Teresa Yacamán, also a 2025 MIA candidate, who presented the findings with Hernández Rodríguez. “I got to combine my training as an economist and a development student to support data-driven policymaking in a real-world setting.”
GPS alumni Minh-Nam Pham, MIA ’24, and Daniel Gomar, Master of Public Policy ’24, were also part of the team. Read more and explore the dashboard on the SDG Policy Initiative blog.
