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2022-08-01
H&S Davidson Trust;
The International Development sector has already entered a period of major change. Who needs to change most? Major funders in the Global North, International organizations, local and national governments, INGO's – many of whom continue to have colonial attitudes to International Development.Encouragingly, this Survey suggests, on an illustrative sample, that there is strong majority support among funders for significant transfer of decision making from the Global North to local organizations in the Global South. For example, 83% of those interviewed in the Global North, a majority of them funders, agreed with the statement "Too many funders develop strategies & campaigns in offices in Global North, rather than starting on the front line, by understanding local communities in the Global South."The purpose of this Survey, to be enhanced by an organized program to involve the ideas and experiences of those involved in the International Development sector, was twofold: to identify how to raise the impact of International Development, and, in the process, to help H & S Davidson Trust (HSDT) develop a new 10 year strategy.
2022-09-15
Luleå University of Technology;
Small firms are regarded as the backbone of the Swedish economy, driving the creation of jobs, shaping economic growth, and fostering innovation. However, small firms are challenged by rapidly changing markets and competitive conditions where new technologies and digital business models are disrupting the established order. These firms must, therefore, undergo a fundamental transformation and become more efficient, responsive, and agile in order to remain competitive. Digital transformation poses unique challenges to small firms (over and above larger enterprises), due to the liability of smallness (e.g., size and access to resources) and the liability of newness (e.g., legitimacy in the value chain, bargaining power). This behooves small firms to draw on the support of a wide range of external relationships to exploit the benefits of the new digital economy. However, it has been reported that most small firms fail to gain support from the other actors in their ecosystems. Thus, to ensure successful digital transformation in small firms, there is a need to better understand the various influencing roles in the relationships that comprise the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Our findings focus on four main types of entrepreneurial ecosystem actors who have the greatest influence on the digital transformation of small firms in Sweden. Funding organizations, large firms, intermediaries, and universities are highlighted as the key actors providing small firms with the necessary resources, knowledge, technological capabilities, legitimacy, and business contacts. Key relation-specific challenges are identified, pointing to the needs and expectations of small firms to gain support from each of these actors. To conclude, recommendations are provided on how policy and industry decision-makers can act to mitigate such challenges. As a result, our contribution seeks to support and accelerate small Swedish firms in their endeavors to undertake digital transformation that is both sustainable and competitive.
2023-02-06
Rockefeller Archive Center;
Inspired by a Brazilian critique of overpopulation concerns emanating from the United States during the early 1950s, this project examines debates about the ethics of population control among staff of the Rockefeller Foundation and Population Council, from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s. The historical episodes highlighted include John D. Rockefeller, 3rd's establishment of the Population Council in 1952; the council's formation of an "ad hoc committee on policy" in the mid-1950s; reaction among population control advocates to the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae in 1968, after JDR 3rd and Population Council staff had worked to cultivate alliances with Catholic clergy, particularly Jesuits; and discussions surrounding the United Nations population conference and the simultaneous "population tribune" for representatives of non-governmental organizations, both held in Bucharest in 1974. There is brief discussion of the expansion of family planning initiatives within Latin America—often sponsored by the Population Council, the UN, and the Ford Foundation—during these decades. Among the figures discussed most frequently are John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, demographer Frank Notestein, and Population Council President Bernard Berelson. By the mid-1970s, there was a pronounced ideological split regarding population control between Population Council staff and the Vatican, as well as between advocates of population control measures in the industrialized world and representatives of developing nations who reframed concerns about poverty and resource scarcity to highlight other causes of global inequality. Feminist perspectives are largely absent or ignored early in the period analyzed but become much more evident by the 1970s.
2022-11-01
Candid;
Every year, Candid and Human Rights Funders Network's (HRFN's) Advancing Human Rights research reveals insights from the latest, most comprehensive data available for global human rights philanthropy. The goal of this study is to provide long-term evidence to understand gaps, changes, and new possibilities in resourcing human rights. In this year's analysis, the authors track the $4.1 billion that foundations granted in 2019 in support of human rights. This represents a 10% increase from the previous year and points to several hopeful and surprising trends.
2022-11-01
Candid;
Chaque année, la recherche Promotion des droits humains de Candid and Human Rights Funders Network (HRFN) révèle des informations tirées des données les plus récentes et les plus complètes disponibles pour la philanthropie en matière de droits humains dans le monde. Notre objectif est de fournir des preuves à long terme permettant de comprendre les lacunes, les changements et les nouvelles possibilités en matière de financement du secteur des droits humains.
2023-06-29
Bridgespan Group;
Global organizations are increasingly engaging in difficult conversations about shifting power and resourcing from capital-rich places like New York or London to local organizations and people, who hold a wealth of lived experience and cultural knowledge, along with deep relationships in communities. Some call this shift "localization." Others view it as "decolonizing" development. At the core, this is about yielding power to communities. And most agree that change, whatever it is called, has a long way to go.Those who recognize the need for change have more questions than answers. A growing number have come to The Bridgespan Group in search of practical advice about re-examining their cross-country operating models. From our interviews, we distilled five trends in practice that attempt to address these issues around power, resources, and equity. We describe each by drawing on the experiences of more than a dozen nonprofits and funders:Redefine the role of the "center" to shift power to local teamsMove central roles closer to the workElevate local voices in decision makingInvest in global and local equity capabilitiesBuild equitable employee experiences
2023-06-29
Atlantic Council Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab);
The prominence of West Africa, and Africa as a whole, within the global disinformation ecosystem cannot be ignored. A report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies released in April 2022 identified twenty-three disinformation campaigns targeting African countries dating back to 2014. Of these campaigns, sixteen are linked to Russia.This report examines several influence operation case studies from the West African region, with a particular emphasis on Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and Niger. The narratives, actors, and contexts supporting these influence operations are summarized alongside their impact on regional stability. Russian influence plays a significant role in these case studies, an unsurprising fact considering the geopolitical history of this region. This report also includes case studies from outside the Sahel region, consisting of thematically distinct but strategically noteworthy influence campaigns from elsewhere on the continent.
2023-05-15
Bridgespan Group;
The transition to a green economy offers a bright future for Southeast Asia. It's not only a US$1 trillion market opportunity by 2030 across the region's economies. It's also a pathway to a sustainable future, one that is resilient to the climate crisis, more secure for nations, healthier for residents, and inclusive for all.To guide this radical transformation, we studied employment markets across six countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—and conducted 80 interviews with employers, researchers, and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). This report, supported by J.P. Morgan, identifies steps that leaders across sectors— governments, funders, NGOs, investors, and employers—can take to ensure the emerging green economy achieves a "just transition" that leaves no one behind.
2023-07-11
Center for Strategic and International Studies;
The Issue:Environmental dialogue in the Gulf holds unique promise to test the potential for greater regional cooperation amidst widespread distrust.Environmental issues have not been as politicized as other regional issues; they are a growing priority, and cooperation on them would not be zero sum.Recent steps toward diplomatic normalization provide a ripe arena for exploration.A dialogue on environmental issues would build trust and normalize diplomatic contact.The United States should support regional environmental diplomacy indirectly.It should signal its support for environmental collaboration to its Arab Gulf partners, leverage its climate know-how, and ensure that sanctions on Iran do not undermine opportunities to bolster regional stability.
2023-03-16
Rockefeller Archive Center;
The following research is part of my ongoing dissertation project, which examines the planning, design, and construction of university campuses vis-à -vis the intensification of mining and oil extraction in South America between 1945 and 1975. In this report, I offer a brief overview of the technical and financial assistance that the Ford Foundation (FF), the Rockefeller Foundation (RF), and the UN Special Fund (UNSF) gave to one of my case studies, the Universidad de Concepción (UdeC), located in mineral-rich Chile. Multiple holdings at the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) reveal that these organizations provided significant aid to the UdeC between 1956 and 1968—a critical period during which the technical and financial assistance programs of the US became entangled with a national developmentalist agenda that tied scientific and engineering education to economic development. The RAC holdings I explore are extremely useful in understanding the geopolitical and economic context that shaped these aid programs, the UdeC's modernization efforts, and the agendas of the multiple actors involved in this process. The textual and visual documents I analyze also underscore the critical role that modern architecture played in all of this as an enabler of the academic reform and the economic transformation of the region, and as a persuasive signifier of "development."
2023-06-29
Atlantic Council South Asia Center;
Women as the Way Forward attempts to make sense of the mistakes and successes of the last several decades of policymaking, as well as what needs to be done now to prevent further disaster in Afghanistan. This is all examined through a lens of Afghan women's past and future centrality in sustainable and effective policymaking—from security to stability to economics to addressing humanitarian challenges. While the report's historical review aims to prevent the repetition of past mistakes, the core of the paper is its recommendations for the way forward. Clearly, Western governments have made assumptions about points of leverage with the Taliban that have been incorrect and overall failed to develop a coherent Afghanistan policy. Gaining a better understanding of the Taliban's ideology and goals, which I explore in this paper, is key to formulating more effective and grounded policy. Having completed high school in the same kind of extremist Pakistani madrassas that the Taliban were shaped in, I understand firsthand the extent of their radicalism.
2023-03-28
Atlantic Council Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security;
Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave is a joint project between the Atlantic Council and the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), aimed at catalyzing support for nonviolent pro-democracy movements fighting against authoritarian rule. The project recognizes that civil resistance movements—using tactics such as strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, and a range of other nonviolent tactics—are one of the most powerful forces for democracy worldwide and therefore central to reversing the last seventeen years of democratic recession.
