What we did in 2022
07-03-23
Together for impact – what we did in 2022
New partnerships, continued partnerships, potential partnerships, and training in partnerships characterised 2022.
In March, we entered a new partnership Together for Impact with MS Action Aid Denmark’s Training Centre for Development Cooperation, MS TCDC in Arusha, Tanzania. For over half a century, Danida Fellowship Centre has provided training for partners in Danida-funded development cooperation programmes in Africa and elsewhere. MS TCDC has done the same for their partners, primarily civil society organisations and youth movements in Africa. The partnership between the Fellowship Centre and MS TCDC will bring together the two institutions’ fields of expertise and strengthen the training we offer together and the training we do apart. We will learn from each other and co-create better learning methodologies that will ensure the knowledge we bring to our learning programme participants is transformed into action. We started up our collaboration in 2022 and the partnership was officially launched in December in the presence of the more than 500 African youths participating in the African YouLead summit at MS TCDC.
Partnerships are key to finding lasting solutions. In March, we collaborated with the Danish Embassy in South Africa to arrange a Water Engagement Seminar for key actors from the public sector, the private sector, and academia. The purpose was to put our minds together to search for lasting solutions to South Africa’s water challenges.
Partnership collaboration was also the theme of a newly created masterclass for Public Private Partnerships (PPP). In November, Danida Fellowship Centre held a 5-day “Masterclass on Public Private Partnerships” at MS TCDC with a focus on PPP opportunities and challenges in six Danida-funded sector projects in Africa. Inputs from experts, fellow participants and observations made on a field visit fed into the discussions. The masterclass provided key stakeholders with a unique space for conversations, relationship building and learning in action.
In August, we renamed and relaunched our alumni network. Our new Danida Fellows Network provides not only our learning programme alumni with opportunities to network but also other important partners such as the researchers working on Danida-funded research programmes, our study place partners, partners in universities, public and private institutions and civil society organisations. We strongly believe that the best solutions to challenges are those found in collaboration with partners across sectors, institutions, and across countries.
Building on the work we have done to help researchers engage with relevant stakeholders and transform research knowledge into action, we introduced the Science Engagement Journey for researchers working in Danida-funded research programmes. The Science Engagement Journey includes training in how to conduct a good stakeholder analysis and how to make a stakeholder engagement plan in order to get input to research and provide output back to the stakeholders in the form of research results. Training in communicating research results effectively and in collaborating with the media is another important element in the Science Engagement Journey.
Our learning programme Reporting from the African frontline of the global climate crisis facilitated work-based partnerships between journalists and climate experts, paving the way for knowledge-based climate news and feature stories in African media relevant to Africans. 24 journalists from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Egypt, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria took part in the programme. It started in Denmark where there were exposure visits to sustainable, climate-friendly enterprises and meetings with climate negotiators, media specialists, and private sector and civil society organisation representatives. The next part of the programme took place in Tanzania where the journalists collaborated with 22 climate change researchers from across Africa. Here the focus was on science journalism, constructive journalism, and Africa-based climate campaigning. Finally, the group of journalists took part in the first week of COP27 in Egypt.
Last but not least, just before the start of the holiday season in December, our workshop on Triple Helix and Just Green Transitions – overcoming silo barriers within and across organizations in the global supply chains on garment and leather in Bangladesh” inspired the private and public sectors and academia to establish partnerships. An output of the workshop was namely the formation of a Triple Helix Task Force in Bangladesh.
We have observed that, in all of the above-mentioned activities and in everything else we have done in 2022, the impact of our learning programmes and of the research we support is always best when different partners work together and complement and challenge each other’s ideas, experiences and competencies.
We thank all our Danida fellows, partners and friends for your partnership throughout the year.
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