Environment for Development Making a difference with research

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Environment for Development Making a
difference with research

• First EfD Annual Meeting
• Monkey Valley, Cape Town
• November 5, 2007

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Identified gaps gt EfD

• A capacity gap there are not enough trained
  environmental economists in poor countries
• An analytical gap there is not enough research
  on poverty and environment
• A communication gap existing academic knowledge
  is not communicated to policy
• An institutional gap there is no platform to
  ensure that resources reach the academic
  capacity to analyze pressing environmental and
  poverty concerns.

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Building social capital for research

• An excellent opportunity to meet, interact and
  start to like each other.
• Venue chosen for maximum interaction.
• Expect collaborative research from everyone at
  the meeting.
• Center and research presentations should be seen
  as building blocks to enable collaborate
  research.

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Preparing a policy plan

• Anders and Daniel will have meetings with the
  separate center groups.
• The analysis of the policy processes will be
  essential for
• the development of research projects
• the implementation and outreach of the research
• the core support plans (particularly the policy
  outreach activities)
• Key ingredient for IMPACT!

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Preparation of next years research agreements

• The research sessions will enable the researchers
  to present and improve on existing work.
• However, a lot of the informal discussion
  sessions will be forward looking.
• Cut the lead time for next round of research
  proposals. (internal reviewing)
• Prepare and present what you think will be your
  next wave of research.

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Preparation of the web site

• The website will be an important component of the
  whole EfD initiative.
• Present researchers, articles, discussion papers,
  research themes, outreach activities etc.
• You have to learn the tools to actually make use
  of its potential.
• Appoint at least one research fellow for the
  website training session on Wednesday afternoon
  when we visit UCT.
• Karin Backteman will also solicit more
  contributions to the website during the week, eg
  theme leaders will develop the thematic
  presentations for the site.

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Preparing next years core support

• Karin Jonson and I will have discussions with
  each coordinator regarding your plans for 2008.
• Agree on the general content, then the
  formalities can run smoothly afterwards.
• Each center would need to think about what their
  objectives are for 2008 and how the core support
  could be best used to achieve these objectives.
• Remaining money in the initiative would be
  available for research grants, research
  workshops, policy outreach and reimbursable
  activities (conference participation etc).

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Roles of themes/theme leaders

• Bundling research to reach the research frontier
• Facilitate grouping of research presentation to
  maximize positive interaction
• Facilitate outreach of research including
  thematic presentation on website.
• Prepare next round of thematic research proposals
  to be presented on Friday.