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

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Can economic growth be reconciled with sustainable development?

The second plenary session of the EADI General Conference in Geneva brought together speakers on the "knife-edge between climate change and Millennium Development Goals", as the session was subtitled.

Jean-Louis Arcand from the Center for Studies and Research on International Development in France had a very pessimistic view, explaining that from an economic perspective, he feels helpless to contribute to the title question because of the lack of macro economic data. There are thousands of household surveys and a lot of good analysis around the world, but the long-term view is missing: Continuity in local teams involved in routine data collection is missing, and local policy-makers do not have any interest in the long-term view. Often, government ministries and statistical agencies retain data.

Charles Gore from UNCTAD focused the first part of his intervention on the need for a new way of thinking, a "new paradigm" that marks the end of twenty-five years of structural adjustment programmes and policies of global integration. According to Mr. Gore, five elements need to be taken into consideration to define this new way of thinking: resource scarcity; radical global inequality and radical global interdependence; emergence of the BRICS+; globalisation of expectations without globalisation of opportunities; conceptual confusion, where global issues are still addressed with national frames of references.

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He also argued that "MDGs are a muddle", which is why "we have to place them in an economic framework". According to him, productive capacities are the key to reconcile economic growth and sustainable development. If a country can increase productive capacities (for example natural assets and labour productivity), the economy will grow and poverty will be reduced. As policy implications, Gore recommended to focus on the utilization of productive capacities, and industrial policies to promote structural change towards lower energy use on the national level. On the international level, rich countries "must cut emissions more deeply to support low-carbon transitions in developing countries", Gore concluded.

Wolfgang Sachs (Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy) presented several main arguments. First, the Euro-Atlantic civilisation was based on carbon and colonies, and only managed to grow because it could expand acres overseas and under the soil. Second, monetary growth implies a certain degree of material growth. The ecological footprint of people rises along side the growth of GDP, which constitutes "uneconomic growth". Third, he argued that "monetary growth is an inefficient way to reduce poverty", and from 100 $ GDP growth, only 4$ are reaching the poor. Tackling income distribution would be a much more efficient way to eradicate poverty.

Moreover, energy efficiency measures will not be enough to reach the necessary CO2 reduction of about 80-90% in 2050, because rebound effects surpass efficiency gains. "How much is enough?", would be a more appropriate question. Fourth, Sachs argued that there is not enough carbon left for newly industrializing countries to follow the Euro-Atlantic path for decades. We have to face "another inconvenient truth": The South cannot wait for the North to mitigate, but has to reduce emissions now. This is why ecological leapfrogging, not industrial growth, is the way for industrializing countries to go. It constitutes a chance for poorer countries, because they can still take decisive decisions about infrastructure, agriculture, construction etc.

Last, Sachs claimed that "there is no sustainable development unless the growth in commercial goods is constrained by a growth in common goods." Concluding, it is essential "to put economic growth on the back seat". It should not be a policy priority, but emphasis should lie instead on common goods such as health, education and ecosystem services.

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by Birthe Paul

See the Euforic newsfeeds on agriculture and environment.
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Certified organics as institutional vehicle of sustainable development

During the first session of the EADI Environment and Development Working Group on the EADI General Conference 2008, Henrik Egelyng from the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) presented a paper on the strengths and weaknesses of Certified Organics as a governance instrument to promote sustainable agriculture globally.

Firstly, it is peculiar that Europe and the USA pull 97% of revenue from organic agriculture. Africa has very little certified organic agriculture, while Europe has a lot. Although African farmers use little pesticides, and farm with very little carbon emissions, the reason for this North-South divide can be seen in the lack of certification. Southern smallholders face weaker options than farmers in the North, because their national economies cannot financially support certification.

Only recently have the "the giants moved to be organic". Brazil and China developed national level policies to promote and facilitate certified organic agriculture. Organic food is only produced for the export market, where Walmart is one of the major driving forces.

In his conclusions, Egelyng argued that organic certification is a success story in so far that the global consumer movement reacted more directly to governance failures than citizens did. However, the trade-off is that governments now tend to lean back, because "the market regulates it". Market driven organic agriculture may be unable to change global agriculture towards higher overall levels of sustainability.

by Birthe Paul

See Euforic newsfeeds on agriculture and environment.

Subscribe to DIIS newsfeed.

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Euforic: Providing other perspectives for the research community

In June 2008, Euforic held its Annual Meeting in Geneva, joining EADI's General Conference on "Global Governance for Sustainable Development".

At last year's AGM we met up with the NGO community; this year we joined a vivid conference of the development research community.

Within this development research community, information resources are still very much centered around book publications and academic journals. Nevertheless there is a strong need to look beyond these traditional formats - especially in development research - to get a broader view including discussions in the NGO community, think tanks and the media.

We met Maurizio Carbone (Glasgow University), who was really euphoric about Euforic's information services:



See Euforic newsfeeds on various areas of international cooperation and development.

Read more on our AGM

R4D in plain English

During the Euforic/EADI case study workshop ‘Showcasing knowledge and information services’ Chris Addison (Euforic) presented the Research for Development portal - R4D. R4D is an database containing information about research programmes supported by the British Department for International Development (DFID). The portal contains an elaborated search engine to find information about projects and partner organisations, it offers thematic rss-feeds, e-mail alerts and video messages.

See Mr Addison's presentation:

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Read more stories from the workshop

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

Subscribe toR4D newsfeeds and visit the R4D portal

Global governance for sustainable development

The first plenary session which took place during the EADI General Annual Conference (24-28 June, Geneva) was dedicated to

"Global Governance for Sustainable Development: the Challenge of Policy Coherence among International Organizations"

Chaired by Desmond McNeill (EADI) the panel was composed by Kermal Dervis (UNDP), Juan Somavia (ILO), Bertrand Ramcharan (Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Geneva) and Ngaire Woods (Global Economic Governance Programme, Oxford).

Kemal Dervis described the world economy being in a state of crisis with rapid growth rates and a power shift towards emerging economies. He predicted that the raise of global commodity prices including food and energy will set back the global fight against poverty. However, this could have been avoided with an attempt towards global policy coordination, which would be more useful for developing countries than increased aid funds.

Juan Somavia focused on the social dimension of a sustainable economic development. He underlined that it is necessary to replace the neo-liberal discours by a vision focusing on sustainable development. Somavia was convinced that political leadership towards such an economic model will not appear without a strong civil society movement pushing governments into the right direction.

Listen to Mr. Somavias plea in his own words:




Complementing Mr. Somavias remarks, Bertrand Ramcharan, former Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stressed the importance of a global human rights protection system to achieve global justice and equality. Nevertheless most nations are very reluctant since such an institution directly concerns internal aspects of governance. Furthermore he called on the UN to enforce crimes against humanity also in peace situations, which would apply for countries like Zimbabwe or Myanmar.

Ngaire Wood presented some lessons learned from the earlier global economic crisis in the 1980s in order to draw conclusions for the current situation. She promoted the concept of subsidiarity to face future challenges. However there is a tendency to either see all solutions on a national level or to overcharge global institutions by trying to solve everything internationally.

Ms Woods concluded that the global economy has become more unequal, more insecure and less governed than some years before. Former world powers do no longer have the right to sit at the top table but need to share the control of the leadership and decision-making.

Desmond McNeill reflected on the discussions after the presentations of the keynote speakers. Listen to his words:



by Martin Behrens

See the Euforic dossier and newsfeed on governance, as well as the newsfeed on trade.

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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

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Showcasing Information Services: Euforic 2008 annual meeting in Geneva

The 2008 annual meeting of members was held in Geneva on 24 June, alongside the EADI General Conference "Global Governance for Sustainable Development"

From 14:30 - 17:00, Euforic joined with the EADI Information Management Working Group in a workshop 'Showcasing Knowledge and Information Services.'

The session was meant for people working with information and knowledge in development. It showcased diverse information and communication services, allowing participants to learn about the various initiatives, comparing and contrasting their approaches, and assessing their usefulness to their own efforts. Among the services introduced: R4D, Hinari, Reliefweb, Newsfordev, focuss.info, El@nd, ComPart Flowers, LEISA, InfoResources, EADI, IDS Knowledge Services, and KIT.

You can read a report of the session on the EADI Conference Blog.

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