Jean-Luc Maurer, EADI President 2005 - 2008
Outgoing President Louk de la Rive Box (on left) and Incoming President Jean-Luc Maurer
Click here for EADI Vision and Work Programm 2005 - 2008
EADI Work Programme 2005 - 2008 (by Jean-Luc Maurer)
My vision is that both development studies and EADI have a promising future. On the basis of their legacy since half a century, development studies will play again a crucial role when our humanity will shift away from the excesses and blindness of the present day dogmatic neo-liberal globalisation trend. Then, it will be left to our field of specialization to repair the damages and really define and help implementing a global development model for our planet that can be both socially equitable and ecologically sustainable. In spite of its current divisions and problems, I am also convinced that Europe is best prepared to face this crucial challenge, thanks to its traditions and its convictions. In this context, I think that our association could play a key role. Celebrating this year its 30th anniversary, it has always defended the scientific principles and humanistic values of our academic field with a quite a remarkable success. However, since about 10 years, it has been the object of strong criticisms coming from a purely "economicist" conception of development which challenges its interdisciplinary approach in the name of a so-called "academic excellence". Confronted to this difficult situation, EADI has been able in the last few years to adapt to a changing environment without abandoning its basic principles and values. Under the leadership of its outgoing President, it has started to undertake the necessary reforms aiming at more rigor and better visibility to promote a humanistic and social conception of development. My ambition is simply to continue in this direction for my conviction is that development studies and EADI constitute a very valuable "tradition for tomorrow".
On this basis, I propose a shortened programme of action in five points with the following priorities:
1. Re-positioning
Through its research and training activity, I think EADI should position itself slightly differently and more evenly on the "market" of development ideas than it is the case nowadays. To put it simply, I would like our association to be located somewhere in between The World Bank and UNDP (as well as other UN agencies doing creative and substantive research like ILO, UNU, WIDER, UNRISD, etc.), to continue its distant collaboration with the GDN but also start to work more closely with the World Social Forum (WSF), in order to position itself at the crossroads of the debates which will largely determine the future of our planet. Having myself led IUED, when I was its Director, to participate actively to the WSF, being a close personal friend of the newly appointed Director of UNDP and living in Geneva, one of the most important hub in the world as far as the UN social development and humanitarian action agenda is concerned, I am probably in a rather good position to help EADI to travel some way in this direction.
2. Membership drive
Our membership is our constituency, our legitimacy and a substantial part of our financing. We all agree that it must be reinforced and widened. Therefore, the new membership drive launched recently and discussed at the Antwerp ExCo Meeting is very important. In my view, it should be accelerated, both directly from the ExCo and the Secretariat, but also indirectly through the members of the new planned Assembly of National Delegates. It should also aim at recruiting not only new institutional members, but individual and associate members as well, with a special focus on NGO's, students and private consultant firms sharing our goals and principles. I am ready to put some time and be personally involved in this recruitment campaign.
3. Research streamlining
The old Working Group system of EADI has already been reformed, but is not yet functioning in a fully satisfactory manner. We have to work together to find ways and means to boost it and/or further reform it. For that, it is probably necessary that the President, the EC and the Secretariat contribute more time to discuss with our institutional members and convince them to join forces to elaborate joint research projects with a value added on cutting-edge themes and help them raise funding for it. In this perspective, I am personally ready to put the time needed and play a role of "go-between" and "federation-builder". However, the yearly Director's Meeting, which is a very good innovation and should be continued, is probably an important place to discuss such matters of "collaborative competition". I also think that the redefinition and reinforcement of the declining relations with our sisters ICCDA associations could help find a renewal of our approach of the problem. As far as the publication of research outcome is concerned, we are on the right track, the work done lately is very good and should be continued, EJDR seeming in particular to have found its niche and a satisfactory cruising speed.
4. Training expansion
Things are less complicated for training, thanks to the real breakthrough registered during the last three years in organising a regular EADI Summer School, but also the fact that such activities can be more easily self-financed than research. The objective would simply be to do more of the same by multiplying such Summer Schools in the North and studying the possibility to organize it jointly in the South with our ICCDA sister associations. Now that the Bologna Declaration system is in place among most of our institutional members, cross-certification is made easier and joint programs are less complicated to establish than in the past. In our view, the main objective with regards to education would be to launch at least one MA in Development Studies under the umbrella of EADI in the next three years.
5. Fundraising efforts
It appears clearly from the minutes of the Antwerp ExCo meeting that financial issues remain a permanent problem for EADI. The basic subvention seems to be guaranteed for the next three years by BMZ, thanks to the excellent contact and lobby work of our German colleagues in the Secretariat and the ExCo, which should be pursued. But we ought definitely find additional funds in the short term. Widening membership and raising some of its fees can constitute part of the answer. However, additional efforts along the lines defined at the Paris ExCo Meeting should really be undertaken in a systematic manner by approaching other multilateral and bilateral funding agencies in order to cover specific targeted activities of EADI. Though it has been tried many times in the past, one should also explore once again the possibility to obtain specific targeted funding from the EU and by approaching private foundations in the European countries where they traditionally play an important role for research and education. Anyhow, fundraising should continue to constitute a strong priority for the next EADI President, the new ExCo and the Secretariat.
As can be seen, this program is the direct continuation of the work done since three years. Nothing really new, except for the proposal of slightly re-positioning our association, but simply additional rigor and perseverance to pursue the goals set in 2002 and only partly reached by 2005. Three more years of efforts in the direction set above should allow EADI to get closer to them by 2008 and reinforce its position for the future. Again, we should really be convinced that our association represents a unique and valuable "tradition pour demain". After all, EADI is still a young lady and it is well known that "la vie commence à trente ans".
Jean-Luc MAURER, a short CV
Born June 17, 1948 in Paris (France).
Dual citizenship: Swiss and French.
Married since 1970, two children born in 1970 and 1973, two grandchildren born 1998 and 1999.
Foreign languages: fluent in English and Indonesian, some Spanish, German, Javanese and Tahitian.
Studies: French Baccalaureate (1967), Licence (1971) and Doctorate (1983) in Political Sciences from the Graduate Institute of International Studies (IUHEI), Geneva University.
Academic career: Assistant (1975-78), Lecturer (1978-89) and Professor (since 1989) in Development policies of the Asia-Pacific region at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IUED), Geneva.
Successive institutional positions of responsibility: Director (1986-1992) of MARC (Modern Asia Research Centre), a joint IUHEI-IUED unit; Deputy director of IUED (1988-1992) in charge of research programmes and publications; Director of IUED from 15 July 1992 to 14 July 2004, elected for three successive 4-year terms.
Main other institutional involvements: Board member (1993-2002) and Vice-president (1996-1999) of EADI.
Board member (1992-1998) and Vice-president (2001-2004) of EUROSEAS, the European Association of Southeast Asian Studies.
Co-founder (in 1987), together with other European specialists of Indonesia of ESSJN, the European Social Sciences Java Network.
President (1998-2002) of REGARDS, a joint CNRS-IRD (ex-ORSTOM) research unit (UMR 9937) based in Bordeaux. Board member (1995-1998) of SUD (Sociétés-Urbanisation-Développement), then one of the departments of ORSTOM, Paris.
Board member (1995-2004) of KFPE, the Swiss Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries, Bern; Board member (1998-2004) of Intercooperation, one of the leading Swiss NGO based in Bern.
Board member (2000-2004) of the Kuratorium of the Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel.
President (since its foundation in 1996) of Krousar Thmey Switzerland, the local branch of a Cambodian NGO based in Phnom Penh, dealing with handicaped and disadvantaged children.
Author of about 70 publications, including several books as sole or co-author and a large number of articles in scientific journals focusing on economic, social and political development issues in Indonesia, Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region in general (see list of main publications attached). Regular contributor to the Swiss and French medias on development issues.
Consultant, mainly for the account of the Swiss Development Cooperation Agency (DDC), but occasionally also for several other major international development institutions like OECD, ILO, ADB and the World Bank. More than 20 projects identification, follow-up or evaluation missions and reports since 1975, mostly in Indonesia, but also in other countries of Southeast Asia as well as Africa (see list of main reports attached).
Professional address
Institut universitaire d'études du développement
20, rue Rothschild
1211 GENEVA 21
Switzerland
Tel.: (41+22) 906 59 40
Fax.: (41+22) 906 59 47
E-Mail: Jean-Luc.Maurer@iued.unige.ch
