Implications for international institutions

Subject: Re: [IKD] WHAT IS NEXT?

Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 19:15:31 -0400 (EDT)

From: "Scott S. Robinson" <ssr@laneta.apc.org>

Reply-To: ikd@jazz.worldbank.org

To: ikd@jazz.worldbank.org

 

I would like to add to the current thrust of this discussion, seconding

Alfonso Gumucio's main point.  It's time for some action, both on and off

this screen.  How about a World Bank initiated pilot project that creates

an innovative website on the Bank's set of servers wherein, during phase

one, all public domain information re: development loans, projects,

consultancies, et al for country X is presented in a

graphically amenable format for a lay audience.  To be honest, the Bank

should indicate on the website the existence and title of confidential

documents in the possession of the Bank.  Phase two would ask for comment

about the quality, usefulness, and relevance for planning of the information

and documents displayed among civil society organizations in country X.

 

There is a pressing need for an iconoclastic step forward in information

offerings in generic and didactic formats.  Phase three of this project

would

be a series of workshops at the high school and university undergradate

level

with students in country X who would have a predetermined incentive to use

and apply the information in their local and regional context.  And so on.

 

Saludos,

 

Scott Robinson

Mexico DF

 

Subject: [IKD] RE: Implications for international institutions; reply

     to Paul Mundy

Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 09:13:15 +0100

From: SJH@ramboll.dk

Reply-To: ikd@jazz.worldbank.org

To: ikd@jazz.worldbank.org

 

Dear Colleagues and friends.

 

I have been following this conference on and off and feel deeply involved in

the subject.

 

I have a thought, that may be totally off the wall, but maybe not:

 

1)      Industry is increasingly using so-called 'evolutionary algorithms'

in design of very complicated engineering objects such as jet-planes,

engine-rooms of trucks etc.

2)      These algorithms mimic the working of biological evolution.

3)      Therefore it is not easily traceable how a particular design has

come to be. It is not an invention in traditional meaning.

4)      This in many ways is similar to the dynamics of indigenous, 'slow'

knowledge.

5)      Maybe there is scope here to create a link in terms of property

rights? I'm sure some of the engineering designs developed in this way may

be or already has been patented or otherwise commercially protected. Could

this help build cases for protection of IKD?

 

Was I off the wall? Or is there something to it?

 

Steffen

 

Steffen Johnsen, Ph.D.

Natural Resources Management - RAMBOLL

31 Teknikerbyen, DK-2830 Virum, Denmark

Phone: (45) 4598 8892, Fax: (45) 4598 8510

 

Subject: Re: [IKD] International Institutions

Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 22:00:54 -0400 (EDT)

From: P J Dixon <P.J.Dixon@durham.ac.uk>

Reply-To: ikd@jazz.worldbank.org

To: ikd@jazz.worldbank.org

 

If the debate hasn't ended it is worth pointing out to Michael Benfield

and others that the World Bank and other international institutions are

changing. Their culture is not the same as when they were set up, and

they are more aware of the environment, of sustainability issues, and so

on. The Bank was 'technology' and 'disbursement' driven; it has now

embraced a 'people-first' approach with social development a priority.

The clearest statement of this is the address by Koch-Veser, the managing

director of the World Bank, to the Social Development Forum, Washington

D.C. 3 June 1998 (His address is posted on the internet

(www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/extme/ckwsp060398.htm)

 

Koch-Veser states that the Banks development paradigm has changed 'from a

bricks and mortar approach to a more people-centered approach', and

now 'see human, social, and institutional capital as the main limiting

factors'. He also stresses that there is 'the difficult task of changing

Bank culture'.

 

I guess the message is that the Bank is trying. It may not be there yet -

culture change takes some time - but it is not the old animal we love to

hate and berate. What we need is to assist them in this culture change in

order to bring about a real and sustainable difference in peoples' lives.

 

P-J.Dixon

 

Subject: [IKD] A Guide for improving transfer and access to research knowledge

Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 22:05:52 -0400 (EDT)

From: Ripin Kalra <R.Kalra@westminster.ac.uk>

Reply-To: ikd@jazz.worldbank.org

 

The Max Lock Centre at the University of Westminster, London has been

conducting research on 'improving the transfer of research knowledge'

especially research funded through international donors like the UK

Department for international Development. Having followed this discussion

for 8 weeks now this seemed to be the appropriate time to suggest that the

role of International funders is to contribute towards 'inclusive

processes' in research and projects:

 

At this stage of research we are working on an 'OUTPUT GUIDE' for Donor

funded researchers so that they can make their research more inclusive of

the expected users. Not all the problems of easy availability can be solved

within the time frame of a research contract so we are attempting to show

that researchers can benefit from associated interventions towards the

IDENTIFICATION of existing 'local processes' and 'places' where learning

takes place. The tool that we have developed is one called 'MAPPING LOCAL

CULTURAL RESOURCES' through which Processes aiding health, learning and

interactivity can be identified in any geographical location through Common

sense and Common science.

 

The principal of our work rests on that a large amount of knowledge

required for development is present in various geographical locations but

not accessible or usable for the field worker. Based on commissioned papers

and experiences of development practitioners in the UK the 'concept' that

we are working on since May 1998 may be summarised as follows:

 

A. Making the process and outcome of Urban research more open to the end

users. A knowledge transfer strategy needs to be created right from the

outset of the research.

 

B. Ways to encourage Users to put forward proposals for research to

researchers and donors.

 

C. Ways to measure the transfer and use of research produced so demand can

be better understood

 

D. How to make research knowledge easily available when needed.

 

E. Understanding the better use of media and methods of communication in

terms of cost and impact.

 

F. How to make the best use of electronic technology in improving the

transfer of research knowledge.

 

Please let us know if this interests you so we can share more details on

our experience (its not a formulae!!! as you are all so aware)

 

regards

 

Ripin Kalra

kalrar@wmin.ac.uk

The Max Lock Centre

University of Westminster

35 Marylebone Road London NW15LS

UK.

Telephone:

uk-0171 9115000 ext 3120

Fax:

uk-0171 9115171/68

 

Subject: Re: [IKD] WHAT IS NEXT?

Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 22:26:24 -0400 (EDT)

From: Helmut Lubbers <edfnz@clear.net.nz>

Reply-To: ikd@jazz.worldbank.org

 

Dear IKD list participants.

 

I have refrained from participating and even reading part of the posts. I

simply had no time to read all the contributions, some of them quite

"wordy" and academic.

 

If I may refer to what Elisabeth A. Graffy <egraffy@usgs.gov> wrote 14

April on the subject of "SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT DOES EXIST!" (header from

Warren Flint 8 Apr 1999 13:18:15 EDT VACOASTIST@aol.com):

 

"I am dismayed that debates about "sustainable development" devolve so

quickly into disputes about whether or not continued material aggrandizement

is feasible in a world with limited resources.  That is barely scratching

the surface of what sustainable development debates and discussions ought to

cover and, I am convinced, what they often DO cover when discussed around

our own tables."

 

I understand her feelings of frustration.

 

As an ecological psychologist I have not found the solution to the

challenge of paradigm change. People are very entrenched in their usual

ways of thinking in everyday work and private activities. It is very

difficult to look beyond the fence of one's own specialty and consider the

whole picture.

 

Yet, physical realities are simple:

- a finite earth,

- an ideology of growth,

- a reality of continued resource depletion and growth of consumption and

exploitation,

- scientifically indefensible hopes on "future solutions",

- "opinion leaders" with a narrow specialist focus but lacking

understanding of the whole system,

- a population who is taught to folow the "leaders",

- a host of socio-economic problems to which current ideology offers only

one answer: "the market" and privatisation,

- environmental trends that point a a disastrous climax within one to two

generations,

- academic and business denials and refusal to deal with the real issue of

sustainability.

 

As much as I agree with the need to provide better standards of living for

the poor, both in the rich and the poor countries, it is clear that the

past fifty years of white/male/upper class "development did not work.

On the contrary, it has led to and it is still creating havoc for the poor

and for the environment.

 

Knowledge transfer must be environmental sustainability knowledge in the

first place. Opinion leaders must realise that the environment does not

distinguish between rich and poor, intellectual or working class.

 

We can "develop" as long as the environment sustains us. Thereafter,

resources depleted and the planet's biosphere toxified, humans on all

continents will succumb to realities harsher than those of the starving

poor in the "South" at present.

 

Frustration or desperation is understandable but does not help.

 

What is needed is courage and the will to accept realities as they are,

work with the means we have.

 

That is what I would expect from the people who hold the power positions in

the World Bank and elsewhere.

 

That must be NEXT - fostering knowledge for human survival.

 

Kia kaha - be strong.

 

Helmut E. Lubbers

BE MSocSc DipEcol

trustee edfnz(ct)

 

*** ecology discovery foundation new zealand (charitable trust)

*** P.O. Box 24184, Wellington, New Zealand

*** Telephone: ++64 - 4 - 3843269  - Fax: ++64 - 4 - 3898922

*** Email: welcome@ecoglobe.org.nz - http://www.ecoglobe.org.nz

*** edfnz(ct) is an independent Ecology Advocacy Organisation

************** ecoglobe - for better answers ****************

 

Subject: [IKD] Suggestions to the World Bank and United Nations

Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 13:27:18 -0400 (EDT)

From: Dr Michel Loots <mloots@globalprojects.org>

Reply-To: ikd@jazz.worldbank.org

 

Dear List members,

 

1. I am a Medical Doctor by training and presently a humanitarian

entrepreneur creating and managing a humanitarian information initiative,

the Humanity Libraries Project

(http://www.oneworld.org/globalprojects/humcdrom). We also offer a "basic

needs library" with 1.240 publications, free online

(http://payson.tulane.edu:8888/) and soon on many servers in developed and

developing countries (we provide CD-ROMs at a price of 2.5 Us$ to 6 Us$; we

can also arrange for you to become a server; simply contact us to become a

partner and to upload it freely on your server)

 

2. The best description of the Humanity Libraries Project is : a low cost

vaccination campaign against lack of knowledge similar to a universal polio

vaccination.

 

The Humanity Libraries Project offers a model for an information resource

developed at low cost and made available to all for free or very low cost.

This model is important because a huge "base" of essential knowledge has

already been gathered and produced by the UN and World Bank, and other

publicly funded agencies at very high subsidized cost by the international

taxpayers, yet this knowledge is not being disseminated and combined as it

should be. There are several reasons:

 

* insufficient publicity and dissemination efforts compared to what "free"

flow could achieve

* tight , defensive copyright restrictions.

* practical difficulties that most NGOs or catalyst humanitarian

entrepreneurs face in getting permission to use the information.

* higher prices charged by UN (we mean by UN the 20 major UN

organizations)/World Bank than developing countries can pay.

 

In contrast to the problems posed by obtaining documents from UN/World

Bank, the Humanity Libraries Project (funded primarily from my own funds

and some grants), staffed with a team of 26 collaborators in Romania, has

put 200.000 pages of material from 70 NGOs and development organizations on

one CD-ROM. We already have 15.000 users and this alone we expect to gain

60.000 to 80.000 users in developing countries. We happily invited and

invite many organizations to copy our concept as it is feasible.

 

3. THE TRANSLATION ISSUE. English, Spanish and French are only understood

by 25% of the World population. There are in fact 100 top main languages in

which basic needs info should be translated to reach 95% of the world

population (http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/top100.html) .

 

4. It can be fairly estimated that 1/3, or about 20 million pages of UN

material are very useful, and probably as much university and NGO material.

Currently UN/World Bank information is copyrighted - and is either too

expensive for developing countries, or, if free, requires request or

download processes that are too cumbersome for developing countries or

anyone interested to participate..

 

We propose that core UN knowledge should be released in public domain in

standard formats like RTF and bundled on low cost cd-roms or central

servers in each country. 1200 publication per cd-rom of a few US$ is

possible. Once a critical distribution mass is reached and copyright

bottlenecks are abolished, this knowledge can be partially translated,

reviewed, transformed and complemented freely by local universities and

"local culture-interpreters without ANY further permission need."

Ultimately, information from UN, World Bank, NGOs, and universities could

be recompiled in thematic libraries and widely distributed. The role of UN

agencies would be to act as catalysts and quality monitors, not that of

"owners" who create bottlenecks to have access to this information..

 

5. Such a project would train a whole new generation of students to work

with information, and to integrate or transform information for local use

by less educated people. This would be true capacity building, instead of

making people dependent of the knowledge of a few "experts" or making the

knowledge much too expensive to buy or access.

 

6. To prove it this model of "free information" is possible we offer one

Humanity Development Library 2.0 free to each listmember. To obtain a

copy, simply send an e-mail with subject line: "complimentary HDL." In the

body of the message, type your address. Send to humanity@globalprojects.org

Please allow 10 days for delivery.

 

7. Our specific recommendations include:

 

* Immediately remove copyright notices from all UN/World Bank documents. We

urge you to notify your government representative and insist on this

freedom of access to UN orgs/World Bank information and that this

information should come into public domain. Please help in this.

 

· Replace copyright managers with information dissemination managers

 

· Digitize the most useful UN publications (probably 20 million pages

fitting on 100 cd-roms which would cost 150 Us$ to reproduce per complete

set ) at the highest quality and make them available free in two or three

simple standard electronic formats on server locations in each developing

country or even better in each university of the world.

 

* publicize the availability of the free material via a mass e-mailing to 2

to 3 million people over the Internet, including faculty, students, etc. in

developing countries. Urge faculty, and Ministries of Education, to

organize the ("non-UN-official" but informally authorized) translation by

students into local languages and free redistribution via the Internet in

each country. A kind of "Marshall" information and translation Plan in

which for one year most students of that country or state (eg in India) are

involved in this assignment

 

* Provide indexing software (e.g., like ours which was developed on a

non-profit basis in a university network), which will work with Unicode, to

integrate the material into the 100 local languages. For less than 50 to

100 books indexing is even not needed, faculties can combine any books into

HTML formats

 

* Move quickly. If UN organizations cannot finish the job in two years, put

out a bid for a non-profit to take over. Delaying this concept is like

delaying the vaccination of an entire cohort in a population.

 

8· A basic needs industry. Information in itself is not enough. There is

also a need to combine information of UN publications, technical and

commercial information and local knowledge concerning all basic needs in

that country. Followed by a kind of basic needs industry movement. - The

latest technology and creativity of international and local humanitarian

entrepreneurs could produce the basic production tools for basic needs

provision. Grameen excellence can be attained by millions of other

humanitarian and social entrepreneurs in this world if they get access to

information scattered around the UN and other systems.

 

9. Unfortunately I already posted aspects of what I describe here on this

list 16 months ago and submitted the project described above, with the

support of 50 organizations, to the fast track Infodev program two years

ago.  It was not approved by Infodev or at least still remains in a

bureaucratic situation because it is, against all facts, assumed by

"experts" that this project would not succeed and be sustainable if their

ideas and conditions are not followed.

 

My point of view is:  our project has a better quality/cost/effectiveness

ratio than any existing  UN or WB electronic compilation and we invite

everyone to copy us (we are already providing services to  6 UN

organizations ). Forcing entrepreneurial, creative and outcome driven

projects into the procedural linear paradigm of the WB and "conditions" of

its experts kills. This leads me to conclude that the WB is unable to

sufficiently understand or support humanitarian and social entrepreneurs in

this world and that an alternative must be created.

 

And from copyrights point of view, for clarity: we do not need UN

publications for us. The world has paid for them and urgently needs them in

public domain as a fundamental right to achieve basic needs and free

limitless access to information.  Centralised copyright control simply does

not deliver that.

 

10.  The equivalent of private enterprise for poverty reduction are

millions of humanitarian and social entrepreneurs and innovators around the

world. Today, the WB actually monopolizes enormous resources into its own

structure, which is relatively inefficient compared to humanitarian

entrepreneurs for certain goals. This WB monopoly must be replaced by

something more dynamic and innovative. There is a need to create a

competition for the World Bank for the 21st century.

 

Thus a small but competitive or alternative caring counterpart - "feminine

soulmate"- to the patriarchical World Bank paradigm should be created to

help humanitarian entrepreneurs. A "Humanity Bank" that, once established,

would try to work in harmony and synchronicity in order to help solve

poverty in caring networks. The WB should return to its core businesses of

providing a matrix in which free market and humanitarian poverty relief can

thrive.

 

- allocate 10% of the international donor WB capacity to developing this

new humanitarian bank network, to include 200 - 400 best humanitarian and

social entrepreneurs in each country interconnected in giant networks via

Internet and e-mail and each in turn in small networks with local

humanitarian entrepreneurs and their factories. The management board

concept is to link the 500 best Muhamed Yunus style humanitarian

meta-entrepreneurs in this world. But first basic information must be

made available.

 

* Provide World Bank grants and loans to digitize and release the 20 to 40

million pages as an urgent task and to start basic needs industry projects

in peer review and peer management settings with humanitarian entrepreneurs

and also through Internet banking systems.

 

Thank you for your attention and action.

 

Most Sincerely

 

Dr Michel Loots, MD

Director