Report of Activities 2001

EADI Information Management Working Group

The Information Management Working Group serves as a platform for reflection, discussion and action on development information across Europe. It is the only European meeting place for information professionals with a strong interest in international co-operation and development research. For the past 25 years, the working group has organised annual meetings in close collaboration with its members. New members are always welcome!

Activities

During the year we have been engaged in the following activities:

  • October 2000 / 1 day meeting of Eland core group members in Bonn (seeking finance and external IT-partners)
  • December 2000 / 3 convenors participating in the extended EADI Executive Committee meeting in Bonn
  • January 2001 / 1˝ days planning meeting in Bordeaux (2 convenors plus hosts of this year's Working Group meeting)
  • February 2001 / 1˝ days meeting of the Eland core group in Paris
  • June 2001 / short meeting of the Eland core group in Bonn
  • September 2001 / the Information Management Working Group Annual meeting in Bordeaux.

One of the ongoing projects of this working group is the El@nd project, the European Library Network for Development. This is a valuable resource of reference material for researchers and information professionals which allows multi-lingual searching of the nine library collections involved in this initiative. The core group of participants in this project met periodically throughout the past year to further develop this project.

The Information Management Working Group has just held its 26th annual meeting in Bordeaux, France, from 12-14 September 2001, with the theme "Values and Quality of Development Information". This event was attended by over 64 participants coming from Europe as well as a speaker from Benin, Africa. Some of the participants were attending this working group meeting for the first time and plan to join EADI.

We had a full programme over the 2 and a half days which covered:

  • the identity of information opening address;
  • quality assessment and control of information with case study examples from an internet service and a journal publisher, followed by discussion groups;
  • Knowledge management in co-operation with the South;
  • Capacity building for the South followed by discussion groups;
  • New initiatives and network activities in the wider world;
  • New services and initiatives of Working Group member organisations;
  • Business meeting of the working group.

This event was hosted and sponsored by RAFID (Reseau Aquitain Formation et Information pour le Developpement) with support from Pôle Universitaire de Bordeaux and CIFDI-INTIF of the Agence intergouvernementale de la Francophonie.

It is planned that the papers from this year's meeting be published next year in the journal Information Development.

Budget and Finance

The cost of our September 2001 Working Group conference was partly covered by participants conference fees. The hosting and sponsoring organisations in Bordeaux (RAFID, Intif, Pole Universitaire) covered more than half the budget. A breakdown of the this follows:
The approximate final budget amounted to 135,000 FF (20,600 Euros) out of which 60,000 FF (9,150 Euros, or 44.5%) were covered by participants registration fees, 60,000 FF supported by RAFID and the Pole Universitaire (9,150 Euros, or 44.5% , and 15,000 FF (2,300 Euros, or 11%) by INTIF / Agence de la Francophonie.
The costs for the WG meeting this year was higher than normal because French-English and English-French simultaneous translation was provided. The translation provided during the two and a half days was highly appreciated by all participants. It represented an extra cost of 26,000 FF (about 4,000 Euros or 19.5% of the total budget). For people who attended previous meetings without translation, it made an important difference as French non-English speakers (or with limited fluency in English) could really benefit fully from all the presentations and also contribute in the best conditions possible to the debates and group sessions. It should be also pointed out that this corresponds to EADI official practice.
The costs of the annual WG meetings are normally covered in full by the participants, although always with the very important exception of travel and accommodation of the occasional participation of speakers from the South. (e.g. the Bergen meeting 2000 saw a speaker coming from South Africa financed through a grant from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry). It should be noted that speakers are expected to pay for their own travel and accommodation. There was funding provided from (North Rhine Westphalia-NRW) for the 3 convenors to participate in the EADI Executive Meeting in held in Bonn on 1-2 Dec. 2000. Funding covered airfares and accommodation.

Publications

The papers presented at our Bergen 2000 conference entitled "Keeping Pace with Development Information" have been published during this year in the journal Information Development Vol 17 No. 1 & 2. See bibliographic list of papers at end of this document.

Convenors

At the Bordeaux meeting, two of the 3 convenors stood down. Svend Erik Lindberg-Hanson completed 5 years as a convenor for this working group. Daniel Baudin, who was elected last year in Bergen, also stood down due to a change in his work circumstances. June Stephen, who was elected last year in Bergen remains as a convenor. Unfortunately no one was able to come forward during the business meeting to stand as a convenor. However, within 2 weeks of the meeting's close, we have succeeded in selecting Danielle Bouhajeb - Responsable du Centre international francophone de Documentation et d'Information (CIFDI) of the Agence intergouvernementale de la Francophonie (INTIF) based in Bordeaux, France, as a convenor. Danielle was one of the people involved in planning this year's Working Group meeting i n Bordeaux, and her organisation was one of the sponsors providing financial and logistical support for this event. We welcome her as a convenor.

Members

Some 65 people participated in the recent Sept 2001 Working Group meeting from 14 European countries and 3 African countries. (See separate spreadsheet with names and contact addresses and email). A number of these participants are not actual members of EADI. This Working Group has operated a policy of inclusion through the years. No formal membership list has been maintained, but there has always been a critical mass of 'regulars' with a proper membership, and it is the feeling that the W.G. activities and potential growth of the group, and EADI in the longer run, benefit from this policy.

Papers from 2000 Bergen meeting published in Information Development:

Baudin, D. 2001, "Comment on Global Cooperation and Global Dialogue", Information Development, Vol. 17 No. 1, p.45.
Cummings,S. 2001, "Keeping Pace with Development Information: the 2000 meeting of the EADI Information Management Working Group", Information Development, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp.46-50.
Esterhuysen, A. 2001, "Global Cooperation and Global Dialogue in Develop Research and Information", Information Development, Vol. 17 No 1, pp.42-44.
Gidlof, H. 2001, "Africa-related Internet Resources", Information Development, Vol. 17, No.2, pp. 115-116.
Stephen, J. 2001, "Knowledge Management in Oxfam", Information Development, Vol. 17, No.2, pp.107-110.
Vogel, I. 2001, "An Online Impact Assessment Tool for Research Information: some preliminary concepts", Information Development, Vol. 17, No.2, pp.111-113.
[Report prepared by June Stephen (Oxfam) convenor of InfoMan Working Group, assisted by Svend Erik Lindberg-Hansen (CDR) and Daniel Baudin (IBISCUS) outgoing convenors.]