The People, The Planet, The Can: Emerging lessons from policymakers’ perspective

April 24, 2013 by Leave a comment

[This post is part of an ongoing project of a book on project to study the challenges involved in communicating complex ideas. The objective of this project is to gain a greater and more nuanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities for research uptake among think tanks and policy research institutes in developing countries. This blog is the second from Shannon Kenny on “The People, The Planet, The Can: The social marketing and re-branding of breastmilk in South Africa” chapter.]

By Flickr user Gates Foundation (CC).

This post conveys one government Health policy maker’s insights on the relationship between policy-makers, researchers, communicators, media, and civil society. It reflects their opinion, rather than an official statement, on the government’s approaches to research uptake, policy implementation, and communication out of their own experience from working closely with researchers and introducing a number of policy reforms in the public sector.

Political support and commitment is not just helpful but vitally important for effective and timely policy implementation. That said, change does not happen over-night and wisely navigating the political landscape was a key strategy for the championing of specific research ideas that they felt needed to be implemented into policy. Working in a province such as the one in which they operate requires a steely resolve on the part of them and their colleagues, since there are no ‘small issues’ in an area with high levels of poverty and disease that ultimately affect the population as a whole.

On the other hand, the great need to improve the health and decrease the mortality and morbidity of a poverty-stricken population, they believe, has provided an opportunity for innovation and faster implementation of better policy. And where traditional approaches have been less effective or failed, they have had the opportunity to operate with more latitude and flexibility to take calculated risks.

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The Future of the “Arab Spring”: Between Islamist and Secular forces

April 16, 2013 by Leave a comment

Marwan Muasher (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

Marwan Muasher (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

“This is not an Arab spring, in my view, nor is it an Arab inferno. It is a process of change that was bound to happen, but one has to be realistic about its chances.”

These are the words of Marwan Muasher, currently VP for studies at Carnegie Endowment, summing up his views of the emerging events in the Arab world and whether they can lead to any lasting outcomes. His speech was part of the third plenary session of the Economic Research Forum (ERF)’s 19th annual conference, providing an outlook for possible scenarios that could result from the rise of Islamist parties to power.

The Battle between Islamist Forces & Secular Elements

Following the overthrow of autocratic regimes, the uprisings started shaping up into a battle between political segments -namely Islamic forces and secular elements- that have surfaced after years of being kept under the lid. However this battle disregards the very essence of the revolutions, which originally set off as battles for pluralism; to consolidate democracy and solidify everybody’s right to be included.

One promising outcome of the revolutions, however, is that the people now have developed the savvy to question, criticize and claim power. Bringing down regimes that have been around for decades in a mere two-week time is an unmistakable threat to the “Holiness” of the rising political forces, especially the religious ones such as the Muslim Brotherhood. The problem with these political forces, Muasher explains, is that their ideologies and slogans have never been put to the test during the previous regimes. Now that they’re in the spot light, promises of reform and slogans like “Islam Is the Solution” must be translated into detailed programs of action in order to gain credibility.

The Economy: Beyond “Bread before Freedom”

Muasher argues that the old regimes’ economic reform programs weren’t wrong, but were incomplete. The problem with the “Bread before Freedom” argument is that it makes way for corruption; they weren’t supported with a proper political system, represented in a strong parliament that works in parallel with the government to address problems and abuses when they arise.

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Islamism and Islamist Movement into a Historical Perspective

April 11, 2013 by Leave a comment

(This is a cross-post based on a blog post, “Islamism and Islamist Movement into a Historical Perspective“, published on the ERF Blog by Zeinab Sabet, Research Communication Capacity Building Manager at GDNet. The post is based on video from the first plenary session at the 2013 ERF Annual Conference, speaker Jean-Philippe Platteau, (University of Namur and University of Oxford), addressed the origins and roles of Islamist movements)

Mosquee by Huge Hugo, on Flickr (CC)

Mosquee by Huge Hugo, on Flickr (CC)

Islamism is an ideology that guides people’s daily social, political and personal lives based on the Islam religion. After the recent uprisings in the MENA region, Islamism has become a dominating governing body in the Arab World. In a paper titled The Roots of Islamic Movements in the Muslim World, the author discusses how recent Islamic movements are a way in which Muslim countries are trying to get rid of western ways that they believe do not alleviate exploitation, poverty and social injustice, in order to create their own system based on their religious values.

In an interview with Jean-Philippe Platteau, (University of Namur and University of Oxford), at the 2013 ERF Annual Conference, he addresses the origins and roles of these Islamist movements. According to him, a glimpse into the historical perspective is essential in order to assess Islamism, the emergence of Islamist movements, their role and their future.

Platteau states that three main aspects characterize Islamist movements. Looking at the definition of a reformist movement, the scripturalist approach to the holy text seems to be the major landmark; there is no freedom in text interpretation. The second characteristic is the puritanical dimension, or the idea that a moral decline is the source of social disorder. Thirdly discussed is the millenarian and messianic aspect of being the source of a big change in the society bringing happiness and harmony to the society.

Taking a glimpse into Islamic history, one realizes that many of puritanical movements have arisen in attempts to consolidate power, to unify territories or to build-up nations. A modern example proving this point is Saudi Arabia, united by the Wahhabi puritanical ideology.

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Inequality of Access to Information: Can Information Sharing be universalized?

March 26, 2013 by Leave a comment

Access to information has long been established as one of the major problems faced by southern researchers. Enhancing information accessibility and use helps to better understand, analyze and research ongoing development challenges so that practical solutions can originate from those directly affected by them. This cause is supported by the Connect South Campaign that has pledged to promote sharing knowledge and fostering connections between researchers and decision-makers in the global south, supported by GDNet, GDN’s Knowledge services.

Building on the World Bank’s “Mobilizing Knowledge Networks for Development” conference, Alex Bielak, Senior Fellow and Knowledge Broker (UNU-INWEH) and Louise Shaxon, Research Fellow (ODI), tackle the issue of access to information & the equality of access to information from the perspective of internet access. However Bielak argues the importance of communications infrastructure and how everyone should be connected through information sharing backbone networks that facilitates high-definition data transfer. He raises two interesting questions regarding the current global potential of information access, especially in the south; as to who can afford it, and the sufficiency and quality of this access to knowledge. He emphasizes on accessibility granting and whether it is in fact universal.

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The GDN Community shares its views on the post-MDG development agenda

March 17, 2013 by 4 Comments

By Sherine Ghoneim and Cheryl Brown

On March 19th, 2013, Global Development Network (GDN) is hosting a High Level Panel Seminar on the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals, in New Delhi. A survey was conducted to give the GDN Community the chance to contribute to this and other forums by sharing its views on five key issues facing the panellists.

Over 160 development professionals working in academia, government, civil society and aid organisations around the world took up the opportunity to share their advice and experience on issues such as the implications of combining the environmental and anti-poverty agendas, and the challenges facing poverty eradication. The survey participants responded with a variety of examples of successful interventions and lessons learned about development policy planning and implementation.

A synthesis of the survey responses is available online. Despite the diversity of answers and contexts, the synthesis highlights some common themes cutting across the topics, such as the importance of empowering individuals and communities to develop their own livelihoods and giving them a greater say in how programs are designed and implemented. In the coming weeks we will be using this blog to look in-depth at some of the ideas and lessons that emerged from the survey and hope you will share your reactions and insights.

More about the Post MDGs Consultation

Join live webcast of ‘High Level Policy Dialogue’ event from 2.30-6.30 pm IST

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Corruption: A “plague” to the Nigerian economy

March 15, 2013 by Leave a comment

Why aid is bad for Africa - Cartoon Movement

Why aid is bad for Africa – Cartoon Movement

Corruption is a global phenomenon and its adverse effect on economic development has been a problem facing countries worldwide. Africa is one of the continents that are deeply implicated by corruption and one of the countries that suffer the most is Nigeria. Nigeria is rated amongst the most corrupt nations of the world, and as one of the top most failing countries in Africa. Transparency, accountability and proper political leadership are all factors that should be discussed in order to lead to good governance and less corruption.

I came across a stimulating paper on the GDNet knowledge-base by Samson A. Adesote and John O. Abimbola titled “Corruption and national development in Nigeria’s forth republic: a historical discourse,” that debates and analyzes recommendations to the above factors.

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Collaborated ‘Open Data’ and research uptake

March 5, 2013 by Leave a comment

(This is a cross post base on a blog post I wrote published at the erf blog , during ERF’s 19th annual conference)

Huge progress has been achieved to make data available and accessible to the public. This is considered a huge opportunity for researchers to make use of this data to analyze questions, provide evidence and come up with solutions to current issues of our time; argues Nemat Shafik, International Monetary Fund (IMF). ERF took the opportunity to launch one of its most important projects at the Annual Conference: its Open Access Micro Data project. This is an interesting segment to GDNet- GDN Knowledge service- since GDNet is planning to launch a beta version of its dataset as Linked Open Data (LOD) later this year.

In my previous post I noted the importance of partnership, collaboration and a joint multiple effort between big international, regional and local catalysts for development. With WBI pioneered the open data initiative, ERF about to launch their dataset, and IFPRI’s recently launched ArabSpatial initiative the question of cooperation cannot be more important. Individual efforts are all very well but the results would be multiplied through cooperation. Various institutions need to syndicate datasets and enhance good relationships with country statistic bureaus to make sure that the data is properly maintained, updated, reliable and robust.

It is indeed impossible to do state of the art research without access to data. However, the more open the datasets are the less information about research uptake there is to monitor. This is a balance worth thinking about and a challenge to knowledge intermediaries to think about new innovative ways to measure research impact and uptake.

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ERF 2013 Annual Conference – Highlights Day 1

March 4, 2013 by Leave a comment

Economic Research Forum (ERF)’s  19th Annual Conference kicked-off yesterday. Interesting and  fruitful discussions are be

ing held

 on

 the controversial issue of

 Economic Development and the Rise of Islamist Parties.

 Amongst others, the following are the main topics that are being addressed:

ERF2013 Storify Highlights Day 1

The GDNet team, in collaboration with Pier Andrea Pirani from Euforic Services, is supporting the social reporting of the event.

You can see updates from the conference on the ERF Blog, or follow  the twitter feed of @ERFlatest and @Connect2GDNet. The hashtag for the event is #erf2013.

We put together yesterday’s highlights with Storify. You can see the curated outputs clicking on the image above.

Stay tuned for more update and join in the conversation online!

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Economic Development and the Rise of Islamist Parties

March 2, 2013 by Leave a comment

(This is a cross-post based on a blog published by Salma el Meliegy ,  Communications Assistant at ERF )

The political upheavals, which swept the Arab World in early 2011 ushered in Islamist political parties in Egypt, Tunisia, and potentially elsewhere in the region. The rise of political Islam in the Middle East is contended by some to be the consequence of multidimensional crises experienced by the region. Economists and political analysts argue that some of these explanations may include failed economic policies, widespread authoritarianism, increasing unemployment, corruption and rapid urbanization.

The Rise of Political Islam

19th annual conference: The rise of political Islam

Economic Research Forum’s (ERF) 19th annual upcoming conference on ‘Economic Development and the Rise of Islamist Parties’ aims to these issues and the main economic policies aims to understand the causes behind the rise of Islamist parties, the conditions under which they succeed and the likely outcome in Arab Spring countries. The conference, to be held March 3-5th 2013, will be hosted by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) in Kuwait.

Don’t miss any discussions and stay up to date with conference proceedings and messages. The conference will be covered using social media by a dedicated team. Follow the ERF and GDNet blogs for posts and stories resulting from main sessions. And for quick and fast message follow @ERFLatest and @connect2gdnet on twitter.

Conference hash tag #ERF2013

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GDN launches a High Level Panel Seminar and open consultation on the post-2015 development agenda

March 1, 2013 by Leave a comment

By Sherine Ghoneim, Director, GDN Cairo

The Millennium Development Goals reach their deadline in 2015, but what should the next set of global development priorities be? The UN Secretary General has appointed a High Level Panel to provide guidance and recommendations on the post-2015 development agenda and a number of open, inclusive consultations are taking place during the year to increase understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing development after 2015.

The Global Development Network (GDN) is keen to enable researchers from the South to contribute to the debate and is beginning this process with a seminar involving senior researchers and key stakeholders from Asia and around the globe. The seminar, which takes place in New Delhi later this month, will connect members of the UN High Level Panel with the academic community of economists and other social scientists from developing countries.

In parallel, we are running an open consultation online (survey) to enable you to share your opinions on the future of development with the participants of the GDN seminar and other forums where the post-2015 development agenda is being discussed. The survey runs until March 11th, 2013 and gives you the opportunity to share your views on five of the most pressing questions facing the panellists:

  1. What do you think are the hardest challenges facing poverty eradication at the regional or country level?
  2. Can you give any examples of instruments or interventions that have been proven to be particularly effective at reducing poverty at the local, country or region levels?
  3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of combining the environmental and anti-poverty agendas?
  4. Are there new policies that should be tried to respond to rising global inequality?
  5. What are the lessons for economic development from the global financial crisis and its impacts?

The survey can be accessed here and the responses will be synthesised and shared with the panellists at the seminar. The synthesis document will also be published online and we will look for opportunities to feed the findings into other related online and face-to-face discussions.

What do you think the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals should be focusing on? Don’t miss your chance to have your voice heard. Follow the discussion here.

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