A Funder Journey: Scaling Up the Stone Family Foundation

This report follows the journey of one foundation from its inception to the present day. It highlights the work of an effective funder, and shares lessons that can be applied to funding more widely. The Stone Family Foundation is an example of how a relatively new and mid-sized foundation has looked to scale up and develop how it works and what it funds. The lessons learned from implementing the major grants program influenced the shape of its subsequent WASH funding. While this exact journey may be specific to the Stone Family Foundation, the general process -- starting out, planning, delivering, learning and then adapting -- will be relevant to other funders grappling with the same questions about how to become an effective funder

Social Entrepreneurship Collaboratory: (SE Lab): A University Incubator for a Rising Generation of Leading Social Entrepreneurs

How can universities help create, develop and sustain a rising generation of social entrepreneurs and their ideas? What new forms of learning environments successfully integrate theory and practice? What conditions best support university students interested in studying, participating in, creating and developing social change organizations, thinking through their ideas, and connecting with their inspiration? What is the intellectual content and the rationale for a curriculum addressing this at a university

Briefing paper 'On the European workforce for health'

A critique of the EC report 'On the European Workforce for Health', together with workshop conclusions

Designing for e-Social Action An Application Taxonomy

In this paper, we present a taxonomy for understanding designs and designing of Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) in the field of ‘Social Action’. We use the term ‘Social Action’ to refer to activities of individuals and organisations in civil society, which are oriented towards social (rather than primarily economic) goals. We then apply the term e-Social Action to refer to the application of ICT in these activities. This definition incorporates a wide range of initiatives, varying from: trade-unions logging safety inspections on ships, Age Concern York organising volunteers to place on-line supermarket orders on behalf of housebound elderly people; the International Red Cross using logistics software to deliver emergency aid; and Martus.org providing technology to enable victims of human-rights abuse to report their experience whilst protecting their anonymity and thus avoiding reprisals. To study designing in this broad space, it is necessary to understand key dimensions of the settings where designing takes place. The aim of this paper is to examine how information and communication technologies in social action can be understood, classified and distinguished, to allow for more refined explorations of designing in this space. Keywords: e-SocialAction, Taxonomy, design and society</p

Harmonisation, decentralisation and local governance: Enhancing aid effectiveness

During the last decades, international development assistance was often marked by overlaps, duplication of efforts and rivalry between multitudes of donor organisations. In order to translate the principles of the Paris Declaration into practice in the field of Local Governance and Decentralisation (LGD), different donor organisations have joined forces on headquarter level and formed a working group, the Development Partners Working Group for Local Governance and Decentralisation (DPWG-LGD), which is operating since 2006. InWEnt is hosting the secretariat of the group since 2008 and assigned Wageningen International to organise two lead donor workshops. The workshop drew a cross section of delegates who comprised development partners, consultants, academicians, members of parliament and local governance practitioners. The partner countries included Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda whose experiences were mutually re-enforcing and beneficial

Assessing Destination Competitiveness: An Application to the Hot Springs Tourism Sector

This paper proposes a model to identify the factors determining the competitiveness of the hot springs tourism sector, with particular application to Taiwan. The proposed conceptual framework brings together two approaches, namely the theories of industry organization (10) and the resource-based view (RBV). The proposition underlying this framework is that destination competitiveness is achieved by the adoption of policies and strategies aligned with market opportunities, drawing upon the unique or distinctive tourism features offered by the destination. It is proposed that three major influences are evident in the case of hot springs tourism, namely Tourism Destination Resources and Attractors, Tourism Destination Strategies and Tourism Destination Environments. An evaluation is provided of the administration of a three-round Delphi survey, which was intended to validate the determinants of destination competitiveness that were derived from the literature. Drawing upon the results of the pilot study it is concluded that the development of a sector-specific model of destination competitiveness is capable of capturing the nature and characteristics of the hot springs tourism sector

University strategic planning in Cameroon: what lessons for sub-Saharan Africa?

This article argues that the global, regional, and local realities can complement rather than contradict each other in the process of strategic planning for universities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using the case of the University of Buea in Cameroon, it attempts to use the global trends of polarisation in knowledge production capacity as an input or tool for identifying strategic choice in the process of strategic planning in institutions. The national policy background is used to highlight the context and inherent role of the central government in the process of institutional strategic planning

Joint Learning Update

Over the past three years, the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN) has become a well-established practitioner-to-practitioner network of countries at the forefront of the global movement toward universal health coverage (UHC) . Now that the JLN has been active for a few years, many involved in the JLN felt that it was an appropriate time to assess what has been achieved to date and develop a roadmap for the future.In December 2012, the Rockefeller Foundation engaged Pact, an independent NGO that specializes in community engagement and networks, to conduct an independent strategic review of the JLN's value proposition, mechanisms for engaging members, and decision-making structures. Pact sampled each stakeholder group in the JLN by administering an online member survey and conducting a series of in-person interviews to gather perspectives from across the community and gain a deeper understanding of how each group contributes to the JLN's goals.One hundred and four JLN members -- a 45 percent response rate -- responded to the member survey and 27 stakeholders participated in semi-structured interviews. The results provided useful information about JLN members and how they are applying knowledge acquired through network activities in their own context