Report: The role of Intermediaries in Bridging Policy, Research and Practice

04/10/2011 Jon Gregson, Head of IDS Knowledge Services, opened the session by asking participants whether they worked for a knowledge intermediary organisation. Three quarters of the room raised their hands, which suggests in theory that the room was pretty knowledgeable about what an intermediary is.  It’s a term that’s very much open to different interpretations so I was interested to see where the session discussion would go. Ananya Raihan from the Development Research Network (D.Net) began...

Middle class activism in China, India and Brazil?

A gradually expanding wave of middle class activism is spreading across the emerging powers. Development organizations could do more with its transformative potential, argues Peter Konijn, director of the Emerging powers programme in this new column.

Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?

Hivos (The Hague) and The Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore)  consolidate their 3 year knowledge inquiry into the field of youth,  technology and change in the 4 book collective "Digital AlterNatives  with a cause?". This collaboratively produced collective, edited by  Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen,asks critical and pertinent questions  about theory and practice around 'digital revolutions' in a post MENA  (Middle East - North Africa) world. It...

A Global Learning Network at work

Globalisation and particularly the food crises of 2007- 2008 and 2010-11 have renewed interest in agriculture and small-scale producers. Much of this interest has focused on connecting producers to markets. Governments, donors and the development community at large, as well as many in the private sector, have embraced the “pro-poor market” concept with the expectation that, through market inclusion, small-scale producers can survive and even prosper in the face of the major changes in agricul...

Arab Spring, summer of protest. A next generation of social activism?

Andrew Makkinga, Radio DJ & Presenter at VPRO facilitated this very inspiring session, which was opened with a  Metropolis video on Armenia and Romania, where citizens also go to the  streets to fight for their rights! The Arab spring has spread also to  Eastern and Southern Europe!

Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?

Hivos (The Hague) and The Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore)  consolidate their 3 year knowledge inquiry into the field of youth,  technology and change in the 4 book collective "Digital AlterNatives  with a cause?". This collaboratively produced collective, edited by  Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen,asks critical and pertinent questions  about theory and practice around 'digital revolutions' in a post MENA  (Middle East - North Africa) world. It...

Public event: Arab spring, summer of protest: A next generation of social activism?

There is something brewing underneath the surface. Recent months have seen a surge of drastic forms of citizen action in various parts of the world. The 'Arab spring'  was followed by a summer of protest followed touching countries like Greece, Spain, Israel and other parts of Western  Europe. Are we witnessing the awakening of a new generation of social activism, and if so, what are the new strategies, agenda's, structures and emerging connections?

Digital AlterNatives book launch

On Friday the 16th of September Hivos will launch the Digital AlterNatives with a cause? book, which looks at the dynamics of a new generation that is growing up with digital technology. In 2011 the digital native generation has been all over the front pages off the mayor newspapers in the world. CNN, BBC, de Volkskrant and the NRC gave prominent coverage on the ‘digital’ revolutions in the Middle East and North  Africa and dubbed them as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ revolutions. However, th...

The Arab Spring: Common Roots, Common Challenges

Ongoing revolutions in the Arab world signify another iteration of a  process the world has witnessed before in various regions, including  Southern and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.  Observers were wondering why the cloud of democracy passed over the Arab  World without raining. This question led analysts to believe in what  was called “Arab exceptionalism,” or the alleged incompatibility of the  societies of the region with democratic de...

"MUSEVENOMICS" analyzed

Popular understanding as postulated by Ugandan President Museveni suggests that if the prices of commodity prices go up, farmers should benefit by way of higher income. Morrison Rwakakamba from Uganda, a practicing economist and an active member of the  Knowledge Programme on “Small Producers’ Agency in Globalised Markets” argues that while this might theoretically be true, the practice is a bit detached from the theory. He explains that certain structural factors inhibit the farmers fro...

The dictators' survival guide

Amidst growing protests in even the most repressive of regimes, the question arises what the do's and don'ts are for dictators trying to stay in charge. In Foreign Policy's dictator's survival guide Mica Zenko reflects on Ghadafi's downfall and offers strategic advice for all those remaining absolute rulers desperately clinging to their eroding power bases. 

The Egyptian Revolution and the Polish Experience in Democratic Transition

Political changes in the Arab world have begun for good. Tunisia and Egypt were the beacons of change on the Arab map injustice, authoritarianism and economic hardship. Similarly Poland in 1989 was the first country in the socialist bloc to have gone through revolutionary political, social and economic changes.   

Social Protest in Egypt

Social protest movements have unprecedentedly increased after the explosion of the 25th of January’s revolution. These protests have recorded, in some days, nearly 200 protests, they have ranged in the period from the 12th till the 14th of February from 40 to 60 protests per day in all sites, and included different geographical regions across the country to the point that has led the military council on the 14th of February 2011 to call in his fifth statement for “ending the protests and give...

Moving beyond the tool paradigm

All the website, campaign and tools that are developed in search of changing the world prove that this concept is a utopia. What I have realized in working in the field of digital activism is that when talking about digital technology and change, we always want to develop a new website, build a new tool or insert a fancy gadget. There are many examples that show that fancy tools do not work. Therefore I propose that we move beyond our tool obsession and focus on strategy, what is it that we w...

Framing the changing face of citizen action

When spring became summer, protests even landed in the UK. The British government responded predictably and was quick to frame  these protests acts of senseless violence and unnecessary destruction of  community property. Protestors were being portrayed as senseless  criminals, their acts clear examples of moral decline, ample rationale  for tighter security and heavy punishments. Yet, even the best of spin has not succeeded in smothering critical analyses suggesting that...

The future is now !

Foreign Policy asked a group of leading edge thinkers to consider the future beyond 2025. The result is a collection of mind boggling essays, carrying an interesting paradox.One the one hand, the future will surely deliver developments that no  one could have ever imagined. But on the other hand, much of the future  is already here, in spaces and places at 'cutting edge magins'.

The Changing Face of Citizen Action

Politicians and policy makers have turned the spotlight on the citizen. In the Global North we find Obama’s ‘yes we can’. The UK is at the forefront of an apparent ‘big society’ revival in Europe. In the Global South, citizens face the challenge to enforce good governance and to complement responsive service delivery. And at the international level, citizens are expected to preserve precious public goods, in the absence of effective global policies.On 15 and 16 September a selected group of 4...

Report of the fifth provocation online

The fifth provocation in the series of provocative seminars was held on Wednesday, June 22nd, in the European Parliament in Brussels and was hosted by Vredeseilanden, the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and Richard Howitt, Member of the European Parliament. The provocation dealt with the topic of pro-poor business, development and producer empowerment.

Is Social The New Personal?

This Mid Year edition of the Links in the Chain newsletter talks about the question if the ‘Social is the new Personal?’ This editions editor Nilofar Ansher talks in her introduction about the fact that the word ‘media’ has the ignominy of never being called by its first name. It’s always prefixed or suffixed into playing second fiddle. Evidence? Traditional media, mass media, new media, digital media, hypermedia, social media – the list could go on with subsets. What remains common and consi...

The future of development finance

Development finance is at a turning point, argues Nemat Shafik  in a new working paper of the centre for Global development on the future of development finance (download paper here). There is talk about a “triple revolution of goals, actors and tool. Aid will increasingly be focused on Africa and on countries plagued by instability, or with governments unable to meet the basic needs of their populations. A growing share of development finance will be directed to tackling global public g...

The Singer not the Song

Trench warfare probably best describes the quality of conversation in the results-measurement debate on development. On the one side of the trench line, we find the advocates of ‘hard’ quantative data as the final judge of efficiency, impact and effectiveness. Riding the waves of the neoliberal project, they argue that the social sectors need to get their act together and deliver ‘value for money’ or else. On the other side, we find those who persistently argue that the social realm demands a...

Short-sightedness

Gazing in the future becomes interesting when it provides you with inroads in another or different way forward. Especially the optimists, which most development workers are, long for new horizons. However, it is very difficult to look ahead when many things are blocking you’re sight. Short-sightedness, seeing close objects clearly whereas objects in the distance appear blurry, seems to become a larger and larger problem in our sector.