Social media masteclass @ NEDS

On 29 November, 2010, we facilitated a one-day masterclass on social media for the NEDS network. The session was organised with our colleagues at EADI and was hosted by the Graduate Institute in Geneva.

The Network of Swiss Development Documentation Centres (NEDS) comprises the 20 most important Swiss development cooperation libraries and documentation centres. It's an informal network. Its members meet twice a year to exchange professional and technical information and look for ways to improve development cooperation documentation. They also organise group trainings and awareness sessions on issues realated to information, knowledge sharing and communication.

All the participants already had a basic knowledge of social media and collaborative tools: what they felt they were missing was a wider perspective and knowledge of what others are doing. They wanted to compare notes and get some guidance in thinking about social media from a more strategic perspective.

A pre-workshop survey helped us in profiling the group, so we could tailor the session as well as try to match objectives and expectations in the limited time available.

In terms of session design, we divided the time available in 2 parts:

• The morning session provided users with background information on what social media means for an organisation, explored how you define a social media strategy and shared examples of success stories and case-studies. We then moved onto the tools, and had a conversation about how different tools have been introduced and are used in different organizational contexts, including small non profit organisations, research institutes, academia and international organisations. While we were providing examples of different business process and activities where social media can add value, participants presented their cases and experiences. Together we started surfacing challenges and opportunities that social media brings, in different organisational contexts.

• For the second part of the session, we identified different cases, or 'organisational problem examples': participants formed groups around the issue most relevant to them and together defined a social media strategy to tackle these issue. Taking this further, they looked at how to work with social media to reach a specific, defined outcome. The result of the 'think-labs' was then shared back in plenary, for a final round of feedback and discussion.

Even if the time available was limited for such an exercise, having different tables working on pre-defined, fictional but yet realistic scenarios, proved to be very engaging for participants. For us, the design and facilitation of the session was very different from workshops that we have been running for several years as introduction to web2.0 and social media. We'll probably be expanding the programme and developing two day master-classes, to be held in 2011.

Information, knowledge and communication – 3rd training on the social Web in Bonn

In a good tradition Euforic facilitated the third Web2Share Training in Bonn. The event took place from 19-20 November 2009 and was co-organized with EADI, the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes.

Like in the years before a diverse group of information and communication professionals from several countries, including Switzerland, Norway, Italy and Germany joined the training. Among other things they expected to learn how to work with social webtools such as wikis to cooperate and to share knowledge in open and closed networks. Furthermore they were looking for guidelines for social media usage in NGOs, good monitoring tools and podcasting.

The Euforic trainers provided an up-to-date overview of possibilities and advantages that web 2.0 tools and social media offer for their work. Popular buzzwords included “social bookmarking”, “RSS”, “wikis”, “blogs”, "Googling", and “podcasting”. Besides, we looked at how to connect and integrate these new tools into daily business processes across the organization, for communication, knowledge sharing and campaigning.

Since an increasing number of our participants have already some experience with the new Social Web, we spent more time on storytelling and discussion then in our first trainings. We compared experiences and explained new ways to apply tools strategically for different purposes. To name just a few, discussions touched upon issues like the pros and cons of social networking sites for organizational purposes, privacy and content ownership, or the use of internal micro-blogging tools.

Towards the end of the training participants were fascinated by the different possibilities the new Web provides but also called for more advanced training.

Some interesting quotes from the evaluation:

"I think I can teach the communication crowd how to work with some of the new tools but I'm afraid it won't go that well with the researchers, who are not always keen on sharing."

"I knew most of the tools already, but this workshop confirmed that you really need to look at the target group to know which tool or package to use. I feel that I don't have the time to use all this, but what is worse is that my colleagues think that everything connected to a computer is up to me, because I'm the IT person"

"The Web still very depends on written language but I'm sure that podcasts are the future."

"I heard what is going on on the Web before but now I'm not afraid anymore to try it out and use it for my organization"

Former Euforic associates and staff will look into possibilities to organize a Master Class in the first half of 2010 which will address the challenges participants face when they go back to their organizations.

See some pictures of the workshop

Explore the Euforic Web2Share Wiki

Find more information about Web 2.0 in our newsfeed

European Development Days 2009: the power of networking

Last week Stockholm hosted the European Development Days, a three day event involving a number of heads of State and thousands of development professionals and students from all over Europe, indeed the world. You can read it all on the official EDD-website.

Even though Euforic – as readers of this blog will know – is scaling down its operations, we were present in Stockholm to promote one of the many exciting projects Euforic has been involved in over the last few years: R4D, an information service providing free access to information on DFID (co)financed research for development programs and over 20,000 outputs of these research efforts.

Several Euforic members presented panel discussions at the European Development Days, or the Development D-days as Rajendra Pachauri, Director General of the Energy Resources Insitute in New Delhi and one of the keynote speakers, called them. CTA invited twelve partners from the South to have stands at the Development Village and organized an important event about land acquisition (also known as “land grabbing”). At an event co-organized by AFD, Koos Richelle, head of AIDCO and others examined aid practices. AFD also organized with DFID and DIE a debate about the evolving aid architecture. Concord co-organized an event about development education, sharing ideas and experiences around involving and mobilizing citizens for development. Citizens were also central to the ECDPM-organized event about the EU-Africa Partnership. EADI together with the Development Gateway Foundation looked at the future of European Development Cooperation: Development Beyond 2015 and APRODEV, CIDSE and Concord staged an event on Copenhagen, Climate Justice and the Right to Development. SNV had a session on Accountability and Transparency and cheered us all up with a musical spectacle at the end of the second day.

Most events attracted quite some interest. A crowd of EDD-visitors lined-up outside the forum on Media and Development. In the panel, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia, Raile Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya, blogger and digital activist Ndesanjo Macha and others discussed the role of media in development. Dominique Darmon of SNV was lucky to get in and reported that there was an extensive discussion around the role of new media. Nowadays in Africa over 17 million phones are in use ... or at least, in use when there is electricity, as Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf noted, underlining that energy and infrastructure are critical priorities for investment in this continent. Odinga explained how he used a blog to communicate with the electorate during the recent presidential election campaign in Kenya, but someone in the audience noted that comments from readers of the blog were screened and the comments criticizing Odinga actually never made it to his blog. So new media can promote interaction and participation but they do not eliminate exclusion, whether because of lack of electricity or because of censorship.

Written communication does not reach too many Africans because of the high illiteracy rates, television is important but technically much more demanding than radio which is the number one “old” means of communication in the continent. At the same time, mobile devices are changing the way the good old radio is operating, boosting its use through for example podcast. During the session several other examples of mobile phone use were highlighted for example how they were used to warn people during recent floodings in Burkina Faso. Phones can also be used to hold the government accountable as the HIVOS/SNV project Twaweza demonstrates.

Some participants in the audience felt that new media pose a greater risk of misinformation while others laud their potential to promote democracy. A BBC reporter asked the politicians in the panel what at the end of the day would make them more uncomfortable: a bad news paper story, or a critical blog ... thus showing that the good old newspaper remains critically important.

Having to attend my R4D stand in the Development Village I saw few live presentations. But I made an exception for the “testimonies” on climate change that were given in the morning of the last day, 25 October. Michelle Duvivier Pierre-Louis, Prime Minister of Haiti and former executive of the Soros-sponsored Knowledge and Freedom Foundation told about the seven (7) hurricanes that hit her country over the last few years and asked for fairness and just reparations as part of the strategy to confront the climate change crisis, “The market mechanism is not going to save the planet”, she insisted. Moderator Sackur, known from BBC’s “Hard Talk” highlighted her systematic emphasis on fairness and justice and he asked her whether – when talking with European leaders, she felt they actually “got it”. Very honestly she replied that her gut feeling was not very good, but she also made it clear she will not give up fighting for climate justice.

President Emanual Manny Mori of the Federated States of Micronesia explained how his country has been fighting for climate justice for quite some time already. The small islands state is very much exposed to the potentially disastrous effects of the sea level increase. To anyone who doubts whether this is a serious crisis he urged to reflect “Who are you fooling? Not the oceans and disappearing species”. Mori insisted that all nations will have to bite the bullet: “We will face a different world in our lifetime”

Mary Simon has been an activist for Inuit interests for decades. “My homeland is melting” she stated, “the situation is terrifying, villages just sink in the ground because of melting permafrost”. The changes may very well exceed the traditional capacities op her people to adapt. Simon concludes that previous efforts to reduce carbon emissions have not done the job, public policies have fallen short and emissions have continued to grow. Simon stressed the interrelation between economic and environmental security and calls for massive investments in clean technology. A Climate Change Adaptation Fund of 20 billion euro needs to become operational now, not by 2022 as current proposals suggest. Besides climate change, Simon also warned for what she labeled to be misguided policies that affect the Inuit people like the upgrade in CITES of the polar bear which makes them an endangered species, and the EU ban on seal products. It is climate change that endangers the polar bear, she said, Inuit hunting practices are sustainable. She felt that such policies negatively affect the Inuits capacity to adapt and preserve their livelihoods.

Back at my R4D stand, I listened to Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission, through a video live-stream. She said that the political realities will force the EU to be more ambitious about reduction of CO2 emission and deliver climate justice. With Michelle Duvivier and the others we continue to hope (but fear her gut feeling).

For more stories on the European Development Days, check the official EDD-site and sites of Euforic member organizations.

by Rosien Herweijer

See also Euforic's newsfeeds on Euforic cooperative life on European Development Days and on Information, knowledge, and communication

Putting web 2.0 to work - Training on the social web - Bonn, 19-20 November 2009

After the success of the last web 2.0 workshops and the positive feedback received from participants, the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) and Europe’s Forum on International Cooperation (Euforic) organise a new workshop: “Information, Knowledge and Communication - Putting web 2.0 to work: Training on the social web”.

As last year we intend to provide information and communication professionals in the development community with an up-to-date overview of possibilities and advantages that web 2.0 tools and social media offer for their work. Some of the buzzwords include “social bookmarking”, “RSS”, “wikis”, “blogs”, ‘Googling’, “podcasting” - all are free to use and they provide numerous flexible solutions to the challenges we face. Besides, we aim to look at how to connect and integrate them into daily business processes across the whole organisation, for communications, knowledge sharing and campaigning.

The workshop will equip participants with the skills to use and combine these tools into useful information sharing systems. We will be exploring and learning from a typical organisational toolkit 2.0. This might include blogging, the use of multi-media tools, wikis, custom searches and customised feeds for news or knowledge sharing as well as use of online social networks.
This course is designed for individuals and teams who are new to the tools, as well as currently exploring these tools and want to extend their use. It will also include “second wave” adopters, individuals and teams who are not web specialists but who want to extend their use of web 2.0 approaches into areas such as research and policy communications; collaborative working; publications, network and partnership relations and event management – bringing together participants, social reporting and documentation.

The workshop will combine presentations from people who use the web 2.0 in their everyday work, with intensive guided ‘hands-on’ training.

This workshop forms part of the Euforic web2share initiative that supports Euforic members in using the new web tools and services and working collectively.

Cost: 550€ EADI/Euforic members (650€ non-members) including 2 days training, materials, lunches, refreshments.

To register or get more information, please contact heil(AT)eadi.org

See Euforic newsfeed, dossier and wiki on web 2.0.

After 2015: promoting pro poor policy after the MDGs

On June 23, a High Level Policy Forum entitled 'After 2015: Promoting Pro-poor Policy after the MDGs' took place in Brussels. It was organised by DFID, ActionAid, DSA, EADI, and IDS, in partnership with The Broker.

The MDGs have played a major role in focusing development policy since their original incarnation in the 1990s. Some development agencies, notably DFID, have gone as far as to judge their activities on the contribution to achieving the MDGs. What happens when we no longer have the MDGs? How will we promote pro-poor policy after 2015?

The Forum debated these issues and addressed three questions:

• What has been the impact on poverty reduction of the MDG paradigm?
• What are the major global processes shaping development up to 2015 and beyond?
• How can we promote pro-poor policy after the MDGs and amid global changes?

The Broker has published a background article 'Beyond 2015: Rethinking development policy' by Andy Sumner (IDS).

To support the communication and outreach activities of the High Level Policy Forum, Euforic has published a dossier presenting a rich collection of background information plus reports and impressions of the event. We published blog stories, blips, presentations and pictures. You can follow the discussions by subscribing to the High Level Policy Forum newsfeed.

See also Euforic's newsfeeds about the MDGs and the activities of Euforic members

This project is co-financed by the European Union. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission

Towards an MDG plus agenda

At the After 2015 High Level Policy Forum, held in Brussels on June 23 2009, Andrew Steer (DFID) led through the third plenary session, which discussed the question ‘Towards an MDG plus agenda’?

Louis Kasekende, chief economist of the African Development Bank, called for a rethinking of pro-poor policies after the MDGs in Africa. Recent events have shown the fragility of Africa, reflected in the income inequality and the associated social tensions in Kenya or South Africa, the vulnerability to the food crisis, or the reversal of gains in just six months after the financial crisis on the entire continent. Consequently, Mr. Kasekende made three proposals on how to re-design the MDGs:

• Refocusing economic growth: MDG 1 could be split in two goals, namely economic wealth creation and reduced inequality;
• Focus on fragile states: Action may be needed beyond regional effort, because costs for the country and their neighbours are enormous once the country has fallen into fragility like Somalia, DRC or Zimbabwe;
• Broaden ecological sustainability: for example by recognizing the danger of external shocks.
  

Claire Melamed (ActionAid UK) put forward several points, which should be taken into account in the MDG plus agenda:

• Any new narrative has to increase the understanding of the realities of power and gender, which block poverty reduction;
• We need to move to a global welfare state, which is characterized by social justice and redistribution;
• We should stop looking at averages, but move forward to the individual level. Not the average national wealth counts, but we should commit to ensure every individual has access to basic minimum services and income;
• Funding mechanisms should shift from uncertain aid provision to more predictable, redistributive mechanisms, such as innovative taxing;
• The future MDGs should rather be based on rights instead of on charity.

Being the final speaker, Andreas Rechkemmer (UNU-IHDP) put the interrelations between environment and development to the fore. Ecosystems are the precondition for any human well-being, due to the provision of cultural, provisional and regulatory services. Therefore, development, climate change and ecosystem communities have to overcome fragmentation and instead join forces. Essentially, “it is all about resilience building at ecosystem and social system level”, Mr. Rechkemmer argued. We need innovation and social learning to design a transitionary regime which can address the MDG plus, global governance and climate agenda.

See also:

• Euforic dossier on the event
• 'Blips' recorded during the event
• Debate on The Broker
  
• Euforic's newsfeeds on the After 2015 High Level Policy Forum and the MDGs

This project is co-financed by the European Union. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission

Development 'game changers' and the MDG plus agenda

At the After 2015 High Level Policy Forum, held in Brussels on June 23 2009, Jean-Luc Maurer, president of EADI, introduced the second panel which aimed to identify the key meta-processes shaping development (game changers) over the next 10-15 years and their implications on the MDG plus agenda.

Charles Gore (UNCTAD) claimed that the financial crisis is not simply a failure of the financial system, but rooted in the weaknesses and contradictions of the global development paradigm. These shortcomings include market fundamentalism, radical global income inequality, global interdependence without global institutions, the socio-institutional mismatch with the emerging new technological paradigm, and the environmental limits to growth.



So how can the current economic and development downturn be understood? According to Mr. Gore, there are long-wave cycles in development, also known as the Kondratieff cycles, of which one can last between 50-60 years.

• The Kondratieff spring was experienced in the 1950s and 1960s, when national development and economic growth were predominant
• The 1970s coincided with the summer, when economic growth was accompanied by redistribution
• The autumn in the 1980s and 1990s was characterized by global integration and the Washington Consensus .
• Since 2007, we are in the Kondratieff winter period, the focus lying on the Washington Consensus plus poverty reduction. In this downturn period, the MDGs are crucial to fill the gap to the next spring, which can be expected to start in 2012-15.
  

For Mr. Gore the way forward is not to abandon the MDGs, but to develop a new consensus on global sustainable development. We should embed the MDGs in a different policy narrative around productive capacities. MDGs could become social and economic rights which are guaranteed at the global level. In the long-term, they would not be financed through aid, but through innovative global sources of finance, such as taxes on global transactions.



Alfred Nhema of the Pan African Development Center highlighted the African view on the MDGs. Acknowledging that most African countries fail to achieve main MDGs, Mr. Nhema pledges for a coherent assessment of the current situation. How can Africa learn from other regions, such as Asia? Why did the past policies did not push Africa substantially forward on the way to reach the MDGs? Moreover, universal indicators such as the MDGs should be buttressed by locally defined measures. Public involvement from Southern peoples would be essential in the designing of a post-2015 framework.

Richard Morgan (UNICEF) argued that we need to “seriously review or even junk the results-based management approach of the MDGs”, because it is too far away from people’s real life. The basic needs approach and the participatory development approach would be good ways forward.

See also:

• Euforic dossier on the event
• 'Blips' recorded during the event
• Debate on The Broker
  
• Euforic's newsfeeds on the After 2015 High Level Policy Forum and the MDGs

This project is co-financed by the European Union. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission

Impact of the MDG paradigm on poverty reduction

The first panel of the ‘MDGs After 2015’ event in Brussels on June 23, jointly organized by DFID, DSA, EADI, IDS, ActionAid and the Broker, focused on the impact of the MDG paradigm on poverty reduction.

Lawrence Haddad (IDS) introduced the topic by underlining that the preconditions for realizing the MDGs are very different from 2000, the year of their creation. Whereas the millennium year was characterized by growth and stability, our times today are marked by climate change, financial and economic crises, pandemics, and the rise of new economies. This triggers questions on the post-2015 MDG framework: “Should the MDGs focus on outcome or process, should they be global, national or local, should there be less or more accountability, and finally, should there be MDGs or not?”

Salil Shetty (United Nations Millennium Campaign) underlined the achievements of the MDGs from 2000 until 2009. We do not spend enough time on reviewing the successes, although “the MDGs help to make change happen!" Instead of being a 'straight jacket', they are a public good, which can be interpreted differently. However, he acknowledged weaknesses, such as the donor and state-driven and technocratic nature and the ignorance for processes of change and structural causes of poverty. As key challenges, he identified the economic, food and climate crises which create a 'cloud of uncertainties'. Successes have been the weakest in the areas of maternal health and child mortality, and the trade element of MDG 8. The action plan until 2015 should, according to Mr. Shetty, focus on the 'de-aiding' process of the MDGs, move action from the global to the local, and serious reporting.

Enrico Giovannini, the chief statistician of the OECD, clarified that the word ‘statistics’ actually comes from ‘science of the state’. What we need would be 'sotistics, statistics for the society. Further, confronted with multiple crises, he underlined that we need to develop a new narrative which goes beyond mere aid narratives. Equitable and sustainable well-being definitions should be participatory and decided on local levels. “We have to be careful in preparing the repeated game in 2015”, claimed Mr. Giovannini.

Sakiko Fukuda-Parr from the New School University, New York presented her analysis of how the MDGs have influenced policy priorities and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). On the one hand, the MDGs were created as a reaction to the Washington Consensus, instead embracing the idea of inclusive globalization. On the other hand, the strategies of the 22 researched countries focused on the Washington Consensus (liberalization and privatization with little government intervention) plus social investments. In this way, many PRSPs undercut inclusive globalization and counteract the driving motivation of the creation of the MDGs. Despite the lack of impact on policy and the development paradigm, the MDGs did have a huge impact at a normative level. They are a very powerful message, which succeeded to shift international norms, although in a truncated way. Finally, Mrs. Fukuda-Parr underlined that we have to recast the MDG agenda. Most importantly, we have to add a goal on reducing inequality.

See also:

• Euforic dossier on the event
• 'Blips' recorded during the event
• Debate on The Broker
  
• Euforic's newsfeeds on the After 2015 High Level Policy Forum and the MDGs

This project is co-financed by the European Union. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission

Robots to replace european librarians

Forget about web2 and social media, Google scholar and Google books!
The real threat to traditional libraries is a small robot in the shape of a rabbit named after a Children's fairytale - Kalle Kanin. So we saw at the European Association for Development Institutes Information Management Working Groups meeting hosted by NIAS in Copenhagen last week. Whilst primarily discussing key issues on communicating and managing information on development issues we took time out to hear from Kalle.


This wolf in rabbit's clothing can glance at a book, look up it's ISBN numbers, give you a summary and provide a review. As the latest member to join the EADI Information Management Working Group, the initial reception was welcoming. After all this skilled character, who works at NIAS, can speak over 20 languages,know instinctively when his websites are visited and is more popular on Facebook than most librarians could dream to be in a lifetime.

He was however not a big contributor to the open space sessions which discussed everything from Multiple Knowledge, Open Source, Storytelling, Bias in communication, reaching audiences , Information Managers vs Communication specialists, the use of podcasting to reach politicians and other Open Space discussions. See all the blog entries which summarise some of these discussions.

He missed the Euforic session hearing from members on how they are communicating climate change issues, the key note speech of Lea Santana from NEIM, and the peer assist session.
Neither did he see all the tweets, videos and presentations brought together at imwg2009.blogspot.com.


I hear that Kalle Kanin is staring in a remake of Fritz Lang's Metropolis .... Metropolib.

For the Information Management Working Group we're just planning a meeting next year in Brussels.

The results of the open space sessions helped us identifying the issues that we'll be discussing between now and then:

• Improving research communication;
• Making information managers and communicators work together;
• Information management versus creativity;
• Building innovation in our work;
• The importance of low bandwidth;
• Linking up with researchers?

by Chris Addison

See also Euforic newsfeeds on information, knowledge, communication, and from the IMWG 2009 workshop.

What our members are doing on climate change

Climate change is high on the international agenda these days. During the UN Climate Change Talks in Bonn (1 - 12 June) politicians, experts and activists aim to make progress in the preparation of a Post-2012 Climate Change Agreement. Obviously, the toughest task remains to find a compromise between industrialized countries, emerging economies and the developing world.

Within our diverse Euforic network several of our members are very active in the field of climate change. This is a good opportunity to present an overview of their activities.

Advocacy on climate change aims to influence the ongoing climate change negotiations on the regional and global level. Organisations involved wish to influence policy processes in a strategic way and make sure that the interests of the developing world are heard.






CIDSE is mainly engaged in the campaigning activities towards climate justice and a comprehensive new Climate Change Agreement. During the Bonn Climate Change Talks the network presents its report on the importance of adaptation technology for the Post-2012 Climate Agreement and - amongst other activities - organizes a video conference between Southern experts and conference participants on the issue of disaster risk reduction and adaptation.

APRODEVs Working Group on Climate Change and Concord are focusing on strategically influencing EU policies aiming to ensure that they are coherent with stated poverty eradication and development policies.

Research on climate change focuses on the impact of the phenomenon on the environment and livelihoods as well as on adaptation strategies to cope with these effects.





A research program of IDS is looking at cross-cutting issues between climate change and adaptation, policy, low carbon growth, building of networks and knowledge sharing as well as at training, teaching and mentoring. During the Bonn conference IDS organizes a panel discussion on 'Strengthening knowledge sharing on climate change adaptation in Africa'.

Also the Danish Development Research Network (DDRN) prioritizes climate change in its research. As well as the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) whose research activities focus on the issue of climate change from a number of different perspectives ranging from security and international politics to trade, development, and livelihood.

ISS looks at the effects of climate change on resources, the environment and livelihoods. And ODIs research is trying to identify how increasing knowledge of the science of climate change impacts can be used to understand potential implications for developing countries, particularly in social, economic and political terms. Secondly it looks at how to ensure that emerging climate change mitigation and adaptation policies work for the poor.

Training courses provide services for policy makers to increase their knowledge on climate change and the international policy processes and negotiations.




DIPLO, the training institute for diplomacy, recognizes the importance of climate change negotiations on the global and regional level and developed a training course for diplomats and government officials involved in climate change policy processes.

Latest news, research and policy documents on Climate Change and related topics are provided by several Euforic members:

• EADI - Information portal on climate change and energy
  
• ECDPM - Newsfeed on climate change and development
  
• IPS - News alert on climate change
  
• ILEIA - Dossier on climate change, rural development and agriculture
  

Policy perspectives are given by the public institutions among our membership.




FINNIDA focuses on the Clean Development Mechanism and its political dimension as well as on the nexus between gender and climate change.

The Annual General Meeting which Euforic organizes alongside the meeting of EADIs Information Management Working Group takes place in Copenhagen from the 10 - 12 June. The meeting will shed light on the challenges of climate change and communication. See Mike Shanahan (IIED) talk about this issue:

Click To Play

by Martin Behrens

See also Euforic newsfeeds on climate change; information/knowledge, and from the 2009 annual workshop

EDC2020 Policy Forum on the recession and development cooperation

On 27 May, the next edition of the EDC2020 Policy Forum will take place in Brussels, under the title 'Fighting the global recession's storm: Implications for European development co-operation'.

During this Forum, leading experts will analyze critical issues surrounding the global recession and developing countries. This analysis will include the implications of the decisions made by the G20 and those formulated in EU policies. It will also include an analysis of recent recommendations made by the European Commission under the Communication 'Supporting Developing Countries in Coping with the Crisis'.

For more information on the event, please check the EDC2020 website

Check also Euforic's newsfeeds on EU cooperation and on EADI research highlights

Call for submissions: EADI Prize for Development Studies 2009

The European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) announces the 2009 prize for excellence in development research. The prize, worth €1 000, will be awarded for an essay on an issue of development studies in any field of the social sciences submitted and written by a postgraduate student from an EADI member country or attending a programme at an institutional member of the Association.

Subjects may be chosen from any field of development studies, but contestants are asked to bear in mind that their work will be subject to scrutiny by one of the EADI Working Groups prior to being sent on to the jury. Entries coherent with Working Group themes will, therefore, clearly enjoy an advantage. A list of the Working Groups can be found on the Association’s web site.

All entries for the EADI Prize for Development Studies should reach the Association’s offices in Bonn no later than 31 May 2009 by e-mail.

The Jury for the 2009 EADI Prize for Development Studies will make its decision known in September 2009. The prize winner will be invited to the Association's Annual Directors' meeting in Copenhagen (Autumn 2009, date tbc) where the award ceremony will take place. Both the winning entry and other high quality entries might be considered for publication in the European Journal of Development Research (which is upon the decision of the Editors after a refereeing process).

For further information please visit the website or contact:
European Association of Development Research
and Training Institutes
Kaiser-Friedrich-Str. 11
53113 Bonn
Germany
Tel. +49-228-261 81 01
Fax +49-228-261 81 03
E-Mail: prize2009@eadi.org

See also Euforic's newsfeeds on research, and on EADI

Workshop: Web2.0 in development cooperation - Bonn, 27 and 28 November, 2008

After the success of last year's web 2.0 workshop and the positive feedback received from participants, the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) and Europe’s Forum on International Cooperation (Euforic) organised the second edition of the workshop 'Information, Knowledge and Communication - Web 2.0 in Development Co-operation'.

As last year we provided information and communication professionals in the development community with a up-to-date overview of the possibilities and the advantages that web 2.0 tools offer for their work.

Some of the buzzwords include “social bookmarking”, “RSS”, “wikis”, “blogs”, ‘Googling’ and “vlogging” - all are free to use and they provide numerous flexible solutions to the challenges we face.

This ‘web 2.0’ offers various ways to use these opportunities to improve and enhance the data and information management of your own organisation. Most of these offerings are completely free of charge. Used alone or in combinations, the new tools may revolutionize the way development information is created, accessed, shared, and used.

Our two-days workshop combined presentations from people who use the web 2.0 in their everyday work, with intensive guided ‘hands-on’ training.

Participants included both novices to the subject and more advanced users, who wanted to get more detailed know-how. Very interesting was the composition of the group, with a good mix of people coming from different development organisations, being research institutes like DIE and ZEF, development agencies like SDC, networks such as DDRN, and a various range of NGOs and civil society organisations.

The closing roundtable highlighted some of the lessons learned, and how participants started to think about possible use of different applications:

"Several of the tools we practiced with in the past two days seem ideal for running and supporting campaigning."

"I think that both blogs and wikis can offer a lot in terms of supporting our main website; I still need to figure out how exactly to proceed, but I really see potential."

"This training has been very useful, as it provided a broad overview of what's happening on the web and how development organisations are embracing these new tools. Personally, I'm not fully convinced that bloggging is effecient way to communicate, but all the other things we saw these days are very good for information and communication."

"Even if I was already familiar with some of the tools, this type of event allowed me to raise my level of confidence. It is important in fact to see how others are using the 'new' web in a professional way; in particular, I'm impress with the possibilities offered by wikis and RSS feeds. The difficult part will now be to get back to my organisation, and try to mobilize my colleagues!"

This workshop forms part of the Euforic web2share initiative that supports Euforic members in using the new web tools and services and working collectively.

See Euforic newsfeed, dossier and wiki on web 2.0.

The EU, Africa and China: Opportunities and challenges of a trilateral cooperation

The EDC2020 project coordinated by EADI aims to inform the public and policy-makers about future scenarios and their likely effects on European Development Cooperation to 2020. The project wants to encourage close collaboration between researchers and policy-making communities.

Dealing with "The EU, Africa and China: opportunities and challenges of trilateral cooperation" a Briefing Session for Parliamentarians and Policy Makers recently took place on 27 October 2008 in Brussels. The session was co-organized with Society for International Development Europe (SID Europe).

In light of a recently published communication of the European Commission entitled "The EU, Africa and China: Towards trilateral dialogue and cooperation" (pdf) a high-ranking panel chaired by Sven Grimm (DIE) including Xuewu Gu (Ruhr-University Bochum), Helmut Reisen (OECD Development Centre), Uwe Wissenbach (EU Commission), Rene van der Linden (Dutch Senate) discussed the opportunities and challenges for this ambitious plan.

Talking about the general idea of the EDC2020 project, Jos van Gennip (SID Europe) stressed in his opening speech the need for intense North-South dialogue between policy makers, researchers and politicians. Tha the African panel speaker, Olusanya Ajakaiye (African Economic Research Consortium), could not participate due to visa problems showed the difficulties facing us.

Sven Grimm (DIE) outlined the programme of the briefing, beginning with a close look into the EC Communication, as starting point for a discussion of the diverse interests and positions among the EU, Africa and China.

Uwe Wissenbach (European Commission) working on the African relations with non-European countries within DG DEV, was closely involved in the drafting process of the communication. He felt that different perceptions between the main actors and an emotional discussion within the European media about China's role in Africa had a negative impact on EU-China Relations. The communication attempts to build common ground for a close dialogue and practical cooperation with China in Africa.

Africa needs to realize that there is already a long relationship between the EU and China. A perspective which sees Chinese engagement only as an opportunity to increase negotiation leverage in the EU-Africa dialogue can be contra-productive. Nonetheless the EU needs to accept that China's engagement leads to a less exclusive relationship between the EU and Africa. Africa is more important for global governance and new actors are in Africa for resources, geopolitical interests and diplomatic concerns. Wissenbach stressed that the EU is not only cooperating with Africa because of charity but also for the same reasons.

The EC communication identifies key areas of cooperation including security, infrastructure and agriculture. Wissenbach sees it as a pragmatic approach that looks at the opportunities of cooperation, which is why critical issues discussed within the continuing EU-China dialogue are not included. Consultation on the paper took place since 2005 with China and with African representatives since 2007. The communication should be seen as a starting point for further dialogue with China and Africa.

Xuewu Gu, from the Institute of East Asian Politics at the Ruhr-University Bochum looked on the issue from China's perspective. He saw several challenges for a successful partnership with China. He sees China's actions in Africa as touch-stone for larger geopolitical ambitions. China's interests in closer cooperation with the EU are based on a wish to appease Europe and to improve China's international reputation - while the EU intends to integrate and direct China into a favourable direction.

A future cooperation needs to deal with the different philosophies on both sides. According to Gu, the EU believes it knows what is best for Africa and puts itself into a role of a protector of 'African interests'. China rejects the idea that it can teach new values, but wants to make pure business. This does lead to different crisis management approaches where Europe is ready to sanction African countries but China will not go beyond negotiation.

In practical terms, China focuses on infrastructure and the EU on institution building, good governance and a strong civil society. Gu concludes that due to these diversities a trilateral dialogue will become very difficult.

Helmut Reisen, Research Director of the OECD Development Centre looked at the economic aspects of Chinese cooperation in Africa, which he sees as mainly positive. As negative aspects, he named the resource trap African countries are put in and the insistence by China to implement its projects with Chinese workers. Furthermore, China faces strong criticism regarding its lending and debt policy in Africa.

Positive aspects are the new leverage for Africa in negotiation processes and the highly effective and efficient implementation of Chinese infrastructural projects. Reisen points out that Western protectionism regarding natural resources forced China to increase the supply side by investing in Africa. Finally, China has large financial resources to deploy and looks at Africa as a test ground for Chinese companies on their way to going global.

Europeans bring highly advanced technologies to Africa which will often lack sustenance in the long-term. On the other hand, China has a comparative advantage since it offers intermediary technologies which can easily be maintained. Reisen rejects the complaint that the Chinese only use Chinese labour, which is highly effective, fast and efficient. In fact, African governments often do not want to use African labor but prefer the fast results of the imported staff.

Looking at the EC communication, Reisen stressed the opportunity to engage more with Africa and China and to make more use of African institutions, such as the African Development Bank, since China is rather skeptical of Western dominated institutions like the World Bank and IMF.

Rene van der Linden spoke from the perspective of a EU Member State. He feared that public support for EU aid is under pressure, mainly because of doubts about its effectiveness. In his opinion, the EU-Africa Strategic Partnership as well as the EC Communication are defensive reactions of the EU to these circumstances. Van der Linden proposed that the communication should include other areas of cooperation, most importantly health and education.

The expert panel was followed by a lively discussion. Among other issues, this focused on the 'real' European interests in a dialogue with China on Africa. Wissenbach denied the standpoint that the EU strives to contain Chinese policy in Africa. He argued that China plays an important role on the continent which could be more effective with closer cooperation with European partners. China tends to see everything in terms of 'us and them' and that everybody is 'ganging up' against it and consequently looks for evidence for it.

Nonetheless, Wissenbach underlined that the EU has nothing to fear. Taking the example of Chinese investments, he pointed out that European companies are strong enough to choose other and more attractive regions for investment while Chinese companies need to go to Africa. The main aim of the EU is to take out the negative dynamics within the trilateral relations which is in the interest of all actors.

by Martin Behrens

Nadarajah Shanmugaratnam (NORAGRIC) comments on the discussion:

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More videos of the conference can be found here

Visite www.edc2020.eu for information about future events.

See also the Euforic newsfeed on EU-Africa relations.

IKM emerges at EADI Congress

At the recent EADI General Conference in Geneva, the IKM Emergent programme organized a session entitled "Recognising Multiple Knowledges for Better Governance and Sustainable Development."

IKM Emergent Director Mike Powell opened with a series of projects illustrating emerging methods to reflect on Information and knowledge for development. These ranged from land use planning using 3D models (www.ipad.org) through videos of policy opinion (http://euforic.blip.tv) to animated representations of statistics (www.gapminder.org).

Valerie Brown then presented a compelling model with which to consider multiple knowledges in a research project. Her example was the small town of Port Pirie in Australia where children suffered from lead poisoning as a result of a local industry. Multiple knowledges exist in every community, in this community there was a hierarchy of knowledge. The specialists came first, even though they were remote from the action, local and individual knowledges were considered at a lower level.

Valerie Brown reflects on the IKM Emergent Programme:

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The way that knowledge takes a central role in Namibia's national development plan was presented by Kingo Mchombu. He argued that development organizations operate in non hierarchical knowledge sharing systems, that commitment by policy makers is key to implementation in knowledge for development and that decentralisation is part of this process. If local knowledge is not considered, local people feel disempowered.

The final presentation by Wangui Wa Goro and Martha Chinouyas looked at knowledge dialogues and translations, introducing the concept of traducture. It particularly focuses on the mediation of translation space. This was symbolised in her dialogue with Martha Chinouyas which provided an example “under the tree of talking”. The key issue was the form research took within a community, expressed most vividly in the community's desire to conduct interviews under “the tree of talking” rather than in private offices provided for the purpose. Wangui expressed her fears that current methods often result in “Chinese whispers” through intermediaries, resulting in a message that is completely distorted from that of the source.

Wangui reflects on the IKM Emergent Programme:

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by Chris Addison

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Euforic newsfeed on information and knowledge

News from IKM Emergent

Read more stories from the conference and visit the conference blog.

Accessing research information: Views from the South

The EADI Information Management Working Group organised a session on research communication at the recent EADI General Conference in Geneva.

Pinkie Mekgwe of CODESRIA opened by suggesting that the Internet is becoming a place where only the knowledgeable meet, benefiting a select few. She went on to consider the implications for African scholarship.

Whilst many initiatives now put African academic materials online, she observes an increase of new types of publishing. Zeleza.com is an example where scholars set up their own blogs; the Pambazuka Newsletter is widely read, while Thoughtleader provides opinion from African academics. Some of the new technologies overcome traditional barriers. However, commercial pressures mean that scholars in the south are in danger of selling their copyright. Many web pages appear to be useful but can be asking for payment of research, for example sites like academia-research.com, writers.com (a private university) and gradesaver.com where students can buy answers to set tests. These ways of buying answers to exams and progressing by paying discriminate. She was further concerned that people currently using the Internet have no say in its development. Openness is not necessarily good for knowledge production and requires a special approach to interrogate the Internet to ensure more balanced results from the sources available.

Pinkie Mekgwe on communicating research:

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Vikas Nath began by explaining the special position of the South Centre in supporting the G77 countries in Geneva. The South Centre has embraced new media, it runs a digital tv channel and several blogs. But Vikas is concerned that knowledge portals still talk about the old development paradigms, and these ideas are still being reinforced. He wonders how much space there is in the public domain for alternative approaches. How independent can development research be when it is funded by the donors. Moreover, policymakers in the South continue to be educated in the North and have the viewpoint of North. The Internet appears to be used to reinforce paradigms. There is also the question of who speaks for the south? Are they in fact just voices of the south that the North wants to hear.

Vikas Nath on breaking Northern hegemonies on knowledge:

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by Chris Addison

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Euforic newsfeed on information and knowledge

Read more stories from the conference and visit the conference blog.

Development research: Interrogating open access

The mini symposium 'interrogating open access' at the EADI General Conference in Geneva brought together a publisher, a librarian, a nuclear researcher and an advocate for open access, all chaired by the director of a research institute.

The subsequent discussions resulted in 10 clear messages on the process, options and progress towards Open Access in development research.

1. Research backing: Over 800 research institutions have committed to Open Access. In particular the heads of research councils in Europe have signed up to a commitment to providing free access to research findings.
2. Policy backing: Policy makers are acting with the US senate and congress making statements, the EU council and OECD but to date there is very little comment from the South.
   
3. Peer reviewed journals: Peer reviewed research papers published in established journals remain the main indicator used to assess research organizations, but these journals now offer open access options. The reviewers follow the same procedure in accessing the article (being unaware whether it is open or closed access).
   
4. Hybrid Journals: A journal can provide open access to an article within such a journal for between 2-3000 Euros.
5. Citation advantage: There is a documented advantage to citation for open access articles vs closed articles.
6. Open Access Levels: There is a metallic rainbow of open access agreements. WHITE: Publishers require copyrights and allow nothing never; YELLOW: Publishers allow open preprints; BLUE: Publishers allow postprints; GREEN: Publishers allows pre and postprints, embargo periods and reuse changes and exceptions can be negotiated; GOLD: Publishers waive copyrights (open access journals).
7. Action: The suggestion was made that Universities and research institute members of EADI should sign the Berlin declaration followed by a policy to setup their own institutional OAI repository. (Ideally this would involve a distributed national service setup by the community with an OA project together with a group such as eIFL).
8. Initiatives: Some organizations are demonstrating the value of open access through innovative initiatives.
9. Concerns about cost and the politics of knowledge: Discussions focused on how the author can pay to ensure open access, how access in the south will be affected and what about print content. Does this activity privilege larger organizations and will the politics of northern knowledge become even more dominant.
10. To be successful and to drive down costs, the true impact factors of journals need to be published. If open access journals are cited more, they will be better value for money. This matches the research funders increasing requirement to see research outputs communicated successfully.

Leo Waaijers on open access and quality control:

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by Chris Addison

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Euforic newsfeed on information and knowledge

Read more stories from the conference and visit the conference blog.

EADI portal and research monitor

During the Euforic/EADI case study workshop ‘Showcasing knowledge and information services’ Can Akdeniz (EADI)presented the EADI portal and research monitor.

| View | Upload your own

The portal aims at providing better access to research and knowledge produced by EADI member organisations. It also wants to foster ad facilitate information sharing among the different institutes. The added value of the portal is to combine different types of information resources and present not only research results, but also ongoing research projects.



Read more stories from the workshop

See the Euforic dossier and the feed on Information, Knowledge and Communication.

Subscribe to the EADI newsfeed and the feed on EADI research highlights

EL@ND: "Unlocking Europe's Library and Information Resources for International Development"

During the Euforic/EADI case study workshop ‘Showcasing knowledge and information services’ Susanne von Itter (EADI)presented EL@ND, the European Libraries Network for Development.

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EL@ND is a search engine that harvests library catalogues of several EADI members organisations, together with other specialised search engines such as Focuss, Google Scholar and Books, Open Access Journals. The strength of this service is that its content has been selected by librarians, making the search results more relevant for development practitioners.

Listen to Susanne's introduction to EL@ND - video in German



Read more stories from the workshop

See the Euforic dossier and the feed on Information, Knowledge and Communication.

See also the newsfeed from EADI.

Earthland: Seeing the world as a nation

The pre-conference programme of the 2008 EADI General conference closed with the Dudley Seers public lecture by Tariq Banuri. He presented a view of the world as one country. He started his premise with the view that if the world were a country it would be considered an unstable state. If we wanted to seek the skills to formulate global policy, we would be best served by finding those with experience in developing countries, as the Earthland as he called it would be a developing country.



Mr. Banuri suggested that this global world was older than some might think. Whilst globalization had it’s roots in the 1990s, the collective view of the world first took hold in 1962. He argued that a community only strengthens when there is a death in the family, and Rachel Carsons book 'Silent Spring' was the first global best seller to show the fragility of the Earth and encourage a global solution to the threat caused to the planet. The visioning of this fragility was brought home with the publishing in 1972 of the blue planet photos emphasizing the eggshell fragility of the planet in space.

If the world was a nation, it would be one of the most unequal, with the ratios of wealth and space being as extreme as as South Africa in the 1970s at the height of apartheid. Whilst incomes in the North average 32,000 dollars per person, barely exceed one twentieth of this in the South.

A number of global regimes exist covering the areas of trade, finance and security and most recently global approaches to climate change, and the strength of these has grown in the last twenty years.

The inequalities were not changing 20% of the population of Earthland receive 82.7% of the income. Although there are many views that the operation of Earthland changes, with new technologies, communication and governance, the reality of the inequalities does not.

The key message was that we take responsibility for our planet, we understand better the skills needed to govern and we understand that inter country inequality has been increasing. He finished by suggesting that we approach one of the biggest threats to the planet, that of climate change, through development and support for growth in the South, rather than through global carbon taxes and restrictions on these countries. It was important to invest in the transition to renewable sources in the South and not just enforce unaffordable changes through legislation.

As an opening to the EADI General Conference on global governance, this lecture provided an image of an unjust badly governed world with many areas for improvement, and emphasized that many of the answers lay in understanding the developing world and addressing global challenges through tackling inequality and supporting development.

by Chris Addison

Read more stories from the conference and visit the conference blog.