From human to fossil energy

The dream of the boy who sells me slippers in the traffic jam, is to become a taxi driver. I wonder: is progress just a change in the energy we use? Immediately the street gives me the answer.

Leadership branding in Ghana

Even the district forestry manager has Obama and the Ghanese president on his T-shirt. Billboards along the roads branded the new leadership in the weekend Obama visited.

Milestones Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue

"A multi-styakeholder dialogue is a process, you cannot plan." I hear from the staff in the project, I have to evaluate. When I show them the milestones and policy life cycle, they recognize it and start giving examples from their experience. One project manager refects: "I wish we had seen this earlier, I could have planned my capacity building better. Now when the demand came for interest-based negotiations my training budget was used on less important topics."

New knowledge input into a project

Many project managers feel during the course of the project the need for external and new knowledge input. Every time a workshop is organized for such input, the project gets new perspectives and a new direction. Such changes often generate resistance from project staff as the ongoing work is disrupted and some activities have to be rethought or restarted. This model of knowledge input is called the relay model. More effcetive is the funnel model as right at the start of the project all knowledge areas are mapped and agreed upon, as are the procedures how to integrate new knowledge in the project. This model implies a feasibility study, an inception period or at least a well prepared kick off meeting.

Thoughts

A still life makes you think. How real is the image? When did I have such a feeling of mystery or nostalgy, the composition evokes in me? Sometimes it is the title that triggers and directs our perception. In our dicussion on his new catalogue, Marco Gasparri explains me that in his painting ‘Thoughts’ the penetration and complexity of an emerging idea is expressed through a small curling thread of rope at the edge of a marble table. The freshly picked orange refers to the spark of life. The combination of colours from orange to different degrees of amber of the glass bottle and the background supports the interconnectedness of an idea with the rest of the world. My thoughts change to beyond the painting: can we see reality without all these associations and thoughts?

Multi-stakeholder Dialogue: a panacea?

"Yes we support MSDs but we also know that they are not the panacea. I wonder if we should not add somewhere a ‘critical’ note, a reference to the challenges to MSDs to avoid being seen as overly optimistic." Says my client. We are making a video about a multi-stakeholder dialogue for a major policy change that affects a whole sector of society and even beyond. Such changes need some form of MSD. There are many different forms, ranging from one- or two-way information campaigns to joint policy planning and formulation exercises. A well tailored and managed MSD always helps, but no MSD can take over role of the government. In a policy process the decisions on technical, legal and economic measures are taken by the government. They are the different parts of the engine of the policy making. The MSD only provides the oil that makes that engine work.

Presentation: target groups and objectives

What does it take to do a good presentation during a conference? As part of my job to evaluate a multi-country project, my client takes me to a two-day Chatham House conference. His project is presented in the very last timeslot. Afterwards he is worried what the donors may think. He asks my opinion. My reaction: the good thing was to have a professional facilitator with a media back ground, short introductions from different countries, a panel discussion that included the donors and voting with a voting machine for the audience (200 participants). Form was OK, but the content can be improved a next time when you brief speakers to only make one point: lessons learned that are of interest to donors and participants in the international discourse. Even for a conference presentation: be clear on target groups and the KAP objectives for each of them.

Communication strategy in a simple drawing

A communication strategy basically focuses on the most effective way to realize the objectives to change, knowledge, attitudes, skills and practices. In Public participation in the conservation of the Sava River floodplains you find a useful educational graph positioning the communication strategy in the project.

The new face of Protected Areas

During the joint meeting of two IUCN Commissions (WCPA and CEC) a few weeks ago in Ecuador, we discussed the need to (re)brand protected areas. WCPA experts approached branding from the science perspective. IUCN had commissioned a study on the values of protected areas (PA) and my WCPA colleagues already came up with some slogans for us to comment on or to improve: “Benefits beyond boundaries”; “Parcs for life”; “A convenient solution to an inconvenient truth”. It almost made me also jump to conclusions. “Protected Areas: powering security, health, learning and employment” - crossed my mind. But from the communication perspective more homework needs to be done, before we talk slogans. We have to answer questions such as how do PA contribute to basic human needs; who are the clients; what really is the product or services; how do we position PA in the market; what are the core brand values etc. So I bit my tongue. We agreed that in July some CEC experts will look at the results of the WCPA study and start asking branding questions. I look forward to it.

Workshop as a mix of learning situations

To create optimal learning among professionals in a workshop a process is designed of individual assignments, working in pairs, in small groups and in the plenary group. Also a mix is created of timeslots that appeal to the rational parts of the brain and timeslots that focus on those parts of the brain that govern emotional intelligence and contain the brain's 'gatekeepers' that can open the doors to new ideas and approaches. Writing down one's learning at the end of the day helps to better remember.