Investing in the Immaterial

European Launch of CDRA's first Practice Digest

Tags: Worldwide , Civil Society Building

The heart of civil society work lies beyond what meets the eye, in the less visible qualitative dimensions of process, values and relationships. Yet, all over the world, practitioners find it increasingly difficult to secure the resources to honour the immaterial essence of development practice. ‘Investing in the immaterial’  is the central theme of CDRA’s first practice digest, a new platform for reflections on the practice of development. 

Building on CDRA’s long tradition of reflective annual reports, this first edition brings together the voices of community workers, NGO professionals, scholar-activists and donor officials to reflect on the resourcing of the 'real' transformative civil society work. The digest features contributions from a.o. Rajesh Tandon, Micheal Edwards, Rosalind Eyben, Sue Soal and Remko Berkhout from Hivos. Contrasting freshly with the latest buzz on multistakeholder processes, complexity and twitter-activism, the slow but deliberate pace of the snail is used as a the framing analogy. You can download a digital copy of the digest here

Interested to find out more? CDRA invites you to participate in the European launch of the digest in the Netherlands. The launch will take place on the 15th of June at the INTRAC M&E conference. After introductions by editors and contributors we will take the discussion to the conference delegates looking at this year’s digest theme: What is going on in the world of resourcing development and civil society? What impact is this having on the contribution of CSOs? And also looking at the digest itself: What can civil society actors and their supporters do to nurture the core of transformative development? And how can initiatives such as this practice digest help? If you want to participate in the discussion, check in at INTRAC and join on the 15th of June 17:30-18:30 in the KDK centre in Amersfoort, Netherlands. For venue details, click here.