WOTRO Science for Global Development 2011-2014 Comments Ton Dietz on Objective 1/Action Line 1 WOTRO Strategy Day 23.03.2010

WOTRO: Knowledge for sustainable development Action line 4 Action line 1 Action line 3 Action line 2 Strengthened research capacity stakeholder

WOTRO’S AMBITION Total ambition: 4 years x 37.5m € = 2-3 x current level of funding 5 objectives; 4 action lines Action line 1 ‘Funding Embedded Research’: “WOTRO’s Flagship”: 4 years x 23.85m € = 70% of total budget

IS THE AMBITION AMBITIOUS ENOUGH? WRR Report: “major increase needed in knowledge intensity and knowledge coherence of Dutch international development agenda” WRR Report: “At least comparable knowledge/policy density as in sectors like health, environment, infrastructure = > 6% of Dutch government budget” Current knowledge budget DGIS: 120 m €/yr 6% of Dutch (current) ODA money would be 300 m €/yr 6% of Dutch (current) HGIS money would be 500 m €/yr DGIS Core money request by WOTRO: from 5 to 6 m€/yr + additional thematic funding: 15 m€/yr (?) WOTRO SHOULD AIM MUCH HIGHER AND SHOULD AT LEAST CLAIM A MAJOR SYNTHESIS ROLE FOR ALL DUTCH HGIS KNOWLEDGE FUNDS + A ROLE IN ORGANISING THE TENDERS FOR ALL HGIS KNOWLEDGE FUNDING

COMPOSITION OF ACTION LINE 1 Strategic thematic partnerships core fund: 4.5 m/yr additional fund: 13.4 m/yr Integrated programmes: 4.3 m/yr Fast track research: 1.65 m/yr (new) Total: 23.85 m/yr

Thematic mainstreaming In the past: major debates about the ‘core themes’ of WOTRO for the next strategy period. Now: complete mainstreaming with NWO central themes: Health Water/climate Sustainable energy Sustainable cities/mobility Transitions/cultural dynamics

Can I live with that? YES: as long as WOTRO indeed forces upon the rest of NWO a much larger emphasis on ‘global outlook’, ‘development/developing country orientation’, ‘attention for poverty reduction’, ‘more input from the South’, ‘more efforts for capacity development in the South and at global levels’, and more G&D sensitive NO: as it does not adequately cover the new agendas as given in the introduction of the strategy paper: enough on global and regional scarcities? (where is food? where are natural resources other than water and energy?) enough on international public goods? (where is financial stability?) And: what are - for WOTRO - financial targets for each of the five NWO themes?

Philosophy behind OBJECTIVE 1 Increased generation and use of high-quality knowledge if: “research is geared towards the development problems and meets with the knowledge demands from society” By: co-creation of strategy, programmes and individual research proposals: scientists + societal stakeholders “Stakeholder engagement..in all phases of the research” And complete open access to research findings High quality means: BOTH high scientific excellence AND high societal relevance

I agree, but…. WHO are those ‘stakeholders’? North, South, and Global: but who? And who selects? Society has many anchor points: government? civil society? business? And at what levels of scale? In practice: WOTRO Board decides, but who is in that Board? And HOW do you create synergy between stakeholders, particularly when stakeholders are clashing and have very different power positions in the knowledge arena? WOTRO as brokering knowledge diplomacy but what skills are needed to do that properly?

Action line 1: “Funding research that is integrated in society” “Integrating different research types along the knowledge chain” Upward and downward linkages of all research endeavours Horizontal integration in networks of innovation Not only NWO linkages, also: European funding agencies; and collaboration with research councils in developing countries And recruit “outsourced knowledge and research oriented programmes from DGIS ‘and other development donors’”.

Would be nice, but: Outsourcing from DGIS and ‘other development donors’ only? Global problems to be addressed by WOTRO go much beyond DGIS and the current Ministry of Foreign Affairs Also engage with internationally oriented knowledge/research programmes of other Ministries in the Netherlands (and Europe) With a wide array of civil society organisations, beyond the classical development organisations in the Netherlands, Europe and the South And with the enlightened part of the globally oriented business community in the Netherlands and elsewhere

In the Dutch arena of fragmented cut-throat competition between a splintered knowledge community this means: Seek a leading role as THE knowledge broker in international development issues in the Netherlands and create synergy by forging alliances with: NCDO; PSO; SNV; KIT; Partos and their members DGIS’s IS Academies and Knowledge Platforms NUFFIC and PIE CERES and other (surviving) national research schools MDG Profs; DPRN; the Broker; Worldconnectors; SID Not only NWO, but also KNAW and VSNU EADI at the European level

Finally: Indeed (and at last) use the instrument of ‘integrated programmes’ to create opportunities for truly longitudinal research in key regions with a major Dutch ‘development and knowledge history’ But also: make much better use of the wealth of alumni of Dutch knowledge centres and of the wealth of contacts of Dutch public, civil and private agencies by creating ‘follow-up’ funding windows. And select a number of key ‘knowledge nodes’ with high prestige in the South for co-capacity development of emerging centres of research capacity development in their macro-regions. Do so together with allies in Europe.

concur with the last speaker, For those who come next: “The best you can do is: concur with the last speaker, whoever it is”… (in yesterday’s paper)