Synthesis and outcome of the Directors' Meeting held in Geneva
by Louk de la Rive Box, EADI President
Dear Colleagues,
The EADI Directors meeting in Geneva was a success: some forty colleagues from all over Europe had taken time off to join a reflection on where we stand and what we need to do to strengthen our 'industry' as Simon Maxwell teasingly calls us. Thanks to all those who came and participated in a frank exchange! Welcome to those who could not be there, but wish to be informed before our next September meeting in Bonn. In this letter I reflect on some of the points raised. First, let me mention some of the conclusions; then, some observations.
1. Quality assessment and accreditation: a vision paper is needed for the September EADI General Assembly
In line with the Pavia EADI-Directors' decisions, a small group was formed of three 'wise men' who can help us in formulating a vision on where we wish to go with quality management and accreditation guidelines. In 2004 the EADI Executive Committee approved terms of reference for this activity, which were circulated; a proposal was made for the composition of the Committee and funding sought. The latter proved to be difficult, since no EADI budget was available and donor support was not forthcoming. Iued and ISS were willing to pull the cart and each contribute a first instalment of € 5.000 to a special EADI project for this purpose, which will be enough to have a committee of 3, plus a simple secretariat meet at least 3 times and prepare a report. Although it would be preferable to have a larger committee, this can only be realised if others wish to contribute. I am very happy to announce that three eminent professionals in development studies have accepted the invitation to join the Committee: Prof. Jacques Forster, Sir Richard Jolly, and Prof. Hans Opschoor. Forster is former director and currently part-time professor of development studies at Iued, Geneva; presently he is Vice President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Jolly is professor at the Institute of Development Studies, at the University of Sussex and has a distinguished career in international cooperation. Opschoor is a former rector of ISS The Hague, and a professor of Development Studies there. Neither of them has management responsibilities for the mentioned institutions; all have accepted to join the committee on personal title. They have been asked to provide EADI with recommendations on how best to cope with the present trend in Europe for accreditation and quality management, especially with a view to the need of criteria for evaluating transdisciplinary programmes in development studies.
The Directors meeting agreed with the need for such recommendations but added the following points:
* Given present national efforts, and their tendency for mono-disciplinary criteria, the urgency for transdisciplinary and transnational approaches is evident. EADI has a role to play as the major European professional association in development studies.
* Recent debates in the UK Development Studies Association indicate that no consensus exists on the nature of the field of Development Studies: different approaches are therefore likely to exist in Europe, and a clear vision on the demarcation of the field is welcome.
* The Committee is requested to focus on accreditation of masters' programmes; although research programmes are important as well (for M-Phil, M.Res and Doctoral programmes), a vision on accreditation criteria for general masters programmes is urgently required.
* Before the September General Assembly, we cannot expect more than a first Vision from the Committee of three: this can be discussed at a Directors Meeting on Saturday 24 September 2005, during the EADI General Conference.
Please direct any questions or suggestions to Michel Carton (michel.carton@iued.unige.ch) or Louk Box (president@eadi.org).
2. Publications ranking: a draft list with criteria and publications classification will be discussed at the EADI General Assembly
Filip Reyntjens followed up the Pavia recommendations and worked with Ton Dietz and others to convert the so-called Ceres-list of the Dutch Research School for development studies into a European list. Progress is being made, and the same problems are faced as with regard to accreditation: interdisciplinary publications, especially journals, are not recognised by dominant instruments like the Social Science Citation Index.
A credible alternative is therefore urgently needed; this might pre-empt the need for national decision-makers to follow the easy path and simple depend on mono-disciplinary evaluation criteria. The alternative needs to be more than a simple mathematical instrument, which can be misused by managers to evaluate individual contributions to the field. Therefore, the instrument is more likely to fit comparisons across institutions, than among individual researchers. The alternative needs to be based on a broad consensus among professionals, therefore a process approach is followed by Reyntjens which allows for continuous adaptation and improvement. A first draft will be presented on the EADI web-site before the General Assembly and a discussion among Directors will be held on Saturday. A special meeting of the Committee could be held on another day during the General Conference, with participants from countries which are not yet represented and from ICCDA colleagues representing sister-associations from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The Committee urgently requests participation from countries in Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe. Please contact Filip Reyntjens (Filip.Reyntjens@ua.ac.be) or Ton Dietz (A.J.Dietz@fss.uu.nl).
3. EDC 2010: public debate was a success - now more research networking is needed
Simon Maxwell called our attention to the situation in EDC 2010, the EADI programme on European Development Cooperation. The public debates sponsored through many of our members have been quite successful: from Finland to Italy and from Ireland to Hungary debates are or have been taking place. This was largely sponsored through national agencies; the European Commission unfortunately has not found a possibility to co-sponsor the programme even though a proposal was presented three times in different formats. This is regrettable, but apparently we need to count on national agencies to continue the success-formula.
A first round of public debates has now taken place - it is high time for the second round, dealing with research. The Commission will be even less likely to fund this, given the low priority for research in the development directorate. So we shall have to submit proposals to national agencies or foundations.
Simon Maxwell stimulates us to form research alliances to tackle particular themes. Such alliances or networks can be small (like the co-operation between Iued and ISS on quality criteria) or larger (like the cooperation between five Institutes in the preparation of a European Master in Development Studies), or much larger (as in the EDC 2010 public debates).
We agreed that before the September General Conference themes will be developed by interested institutes. One example is the suggestion by Pavia's Gianni Viaggi to take a critical look at the phenomenon of Millennium Development Goals, their history, methodology and impact.
Please inform Thomas Lawo (lawo@eadi.org) of any research theme you would wish to propose, and what type of collaboration you are looking for.
And what did you miss more if you could not join us in Geneva?
- Jacques Forster's lessons learned from many years of work in both humanitarian aid (ICRC) and development cooperation (Iuéd): the first lesson was (in my words) Forget about the OECD-DAC distinction between emergency relief, rehabilitation support and development aid - we have moved beyond the simple classifications because they don't work
- Jean Ziegler's conclusions about applying the human right to food. Never heard of it? Then realise that a South African court just upheld this Human Right and forced the government to respect it. So did a Brazilian court when faced with support for export commodities in a country with rampant undernourishment. Ziegler is Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food to the UN Commission on Human Rights.
- Charles Kleiber, Swiss minister for education and research: he argued that new forms of academic organisation are needed, involving new forms of quality management. The warning to the assembled Swiss researchers was clear: things are about to change, if it is up to him. The profession needs to be prepared for quality management, resulting in accreditation and output-funding; peer review systems are needed, if possible at transnational level; personnel selection becomes ever more critical and an exchange of good practices in Europe is needed.
Thanks to Michel Carton and his colleagues, and to the EADI Secretariat, for organising a good meeting.
I do hope to see you in our September General Conference, especially on the Saturday morning - please note this in your diary now.
Best regards,
Louk Box
PS Did you submit already a doctoral manuscript to Isa Baud (i.s.a.baud@uva.nl ) to be included in the special EADI Book series she has started?
Or did you encourage a postgraduate student to submit an essay for the EADI Prize for Development Studies? If not - this is your last chance...
