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Advance Notice: 
Seminar on
 North-South International Community Partnerships

Friday 20 July 2007, Media Resource Centre, Llandrindod Wells
(co-hosted with PAVO)

Speakers included:

Nick Maurice, UK One World Linking Association - on Best Practice in North-South Community Partnerships

Professor Hazel Johnson, Open University - on the Daventry-Iganga Link

Alan Thomas, Visiting Professor, Centre for Development Studies Swansea – on “Why Community Partnerships? Human Values and the Role of Civil Society in Development”

Craig Owen, Wales Civil Society MDGs Taskforce – on the Welsh Pilot of the UN “Gold Star Communities” Initiative

We are also inviting inputs from those directly involved in Wales-Africa Community Partnerships

For more information please contact Alan Thomas A.R.Thomas@swansea.ac.uk
To book a place please contact Ruth Middleton at PAVO ruth.middleton@pavo.org.uk Places are free, but please let us know if you are coming for catering purposes.

Somaliland, Diaspora and Development: a Seminar

Thursday 24 May 2007, School of City & Regional Planning

Glamorgan Building, Cardiff University, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff

Draft Programme

For queries please contact Alan Thomas A.R.Thomas@swansea.ac.uk, Huw Thomas ThomasH1@cardiff.ac.uk or Alison Brown BrownAM@cf.ac.uk. To book a place please contact Margaret Roberts RobertsM3@cardiff.ac.uk (Phone 029 208 74022). Places are free, but please let us know if you are coming for catering purposes.

Promoting links between International Development and the post-devolution agenda in Wales
NDR is a Study Group of the UK and Ireland Development Studies Association (DSA). For further information on NDR, please see http://www.devstud.org.uk/studygroups/wales-group.htm. This is one of a series of seminars on Wales-Africa links sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government as part of the “Wales for Africa” programme.

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Download the registration form and more information

Call for Papers:
Abstracts are invited for papers for the fourth colloquium of the Welsh Network of Development Researchers (NDR). The Network is an open, cross-disciplinary, group of academics and practitioners with a common interest in development wherever and however it is practised and in the links between international development issues and the post-devolution agenda in Wales.

The colloquium is aimed at experienced and new researchers, postgraduate students, activists and policy makers, from a diverse range of interests and disciplines, such as economics, sociology, planning, social policy, geography, health, education, product design and manufacture, human rights, child welfare, culture, the environment, tourism, labour and employment and journalism.

The format of the event is designed to mix disciplines, to share knowledge, and to debate issues. The environment at Gregynog encourages informal but concentrated and creative discourse. Papers are invited within the following areas, as well as those which link them

International Development

• media representation of development issues
• the role of small and medium enterprises
• local participation, community planning and regeneration
• local agriculture, international trade and rural development
• cultural identity and multi-culturalism

The Welsh experience

• The role of small and medium enterprises
• local participation, community planning and regeneration
• local agriculture, international trade and rural development
• cultural identity and multi-culturalism
• prospects for the Welsh International Sustainable Development Framework
• papers which place the Welsh experience in an international context or analyse the links between Wales and the developing world

Contributions from activists, policy makers and practitioners, as well as papers from established academics and from postgraduate research degree students, are all very welcome.

Abstracts

Abstracts of not more than 250 words should be sent as email (MS Word or RTF) attachments to:

David Smith (david.smith@newport.ac.uk) not later than 27th October 2006. Or by mail to:

David Smith, NDR Cymru
Newport School of Art, Media and Design
University of Wales, Newport
PO Box 179 Newport
NP18 3YG

Abstracts should identify the title of the proposed paper, the name(s) of the author(s), and their institutional affiliation (if applicable). They should state whether they are intended for full papers or papers in progress, and provide an email address, postal address, and day-time telephone number. The abstracts will be peer-reviewed and the outcome communicated by 20th November 2006.

Promoting links between International Development and the post-devolution agenda in Wales

Seminar 22 June 2006 at Cardiff University: Learning from North-South Links

There are many connections between international development issues and the post-devolution agenda in Wales. Wales has a constitutional duty towards sustainable development and is now developing the Welsh International Sustainable Development Framework (WISDF). Welsh regeneration and rural development projects use ideas of participation and partnership common to the developing world, and many issues around economic and cultural development are similar in small nations anywhere.

The Network of Development Researchers is a multi-disciplinary group of academic staff and postgraduate students mainly from Welsh universities, together with members of government and non-governmental agencies involved in all aspects of development in Wales. We aim to be an exciting and innovative network of socially committed academics and practitioners promoting an evidence-based approach to the theory and practice of development. So far we have run three highly successful annual colloquia and begun a series of local seminars, and have engaged with the Welsh Assembly’s consultation on the proposed WISDF (see response from Prof. Alan Thomas).

2005-06 Programme

Local seminar 5 October 2005 at University of Wales Institute Cardiff.
Local seminar 30 November 2005 at CDS Swansea.
Third Annual Colloquium 25-27 January 2006 at Gregynog, mid-Wales. List of papers and presenters are available to download, as well as the full set of abstracts.
Local seminar 22 March 2006 at Cardiff University: Cardiff as a Multi-Ethnic City and the Somali Diaspora. Pictorial record available here.
(Forthcoming) Day Seminar 22 June 2006 at Cardiff University: Learning from North-South Links. Details and invitation available here.

Plans for 2006-07

Our plans include:
· a fourth annual colloquium, on 24-26 January 2007 at Gregynog, mid-Wales
· continuation of local seminars in different institutions including in North Wales
· sharing information on research opportunities and potential research collaboration
· publication of papers from our events either as Proceedings, an edited collection in book form, a special section of an established journal, or our own new Journal.

Croeso

For those thinking of joining NDR, ‘croeso’ / ‘welcome’. For further information please contact one of:

Alan Thomas, Visiting Professor, Centre for Development Studies, Swansea University: A.R.Thomas@swan.ac.uk (Home Tel. 0845 458 2926)
Tim Coward, School of Art and Design, University of Wales Institute Cardiff: TCoward@uwic.ac.uk (029 2041 6969)
Angelique Chettiparamb, School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University: ChettiparambA@cf.ac.uk (029 2087 0281)
David Smith, Newport School of Art, Media and Design, University of Wales Newport: david.smith@newport.ac.uk [2007 colloquium]

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Download the Cardiff meeting 'in pictures' of the recent NDR meeting

Wednesday 25th - Friday 27th January, 2006
Gregynog Hall, Newtown, Powys, Wales, UK

Download the abstracts (Word File)

The Welsh Network of Development Researchers (NDR) is an open, cross-disciplinary, group of academics and practitioners with a common interest in development wherever and however it is practised and in the links between international development issues and the post-devolution agenda in Wales. Download the registration form here.

Since the NDR held its very successful 2005 colloquium on sustainability in development, we have entered a period of unprecedented public interest in international development and globalization. The Make Poverty History campaign and Live 8, the G8 Summit at Gleneagles, the London bombings and the continuing ‘war on terror’ all emphasise the interconnectedness of the local with the global. In response, the overarching theme of the 2006 colloquium will be Local Development and Reactions to Globalization.

We expect the 2006 colloquium to include both academic papers and contributions from activists or practitioners, some focusing on the Welsh experience and others reflecting the great range of international development research undertaken in Wales. Titles confirmed so far include:

• Food chains in the context of globalisation (Professor Kevin Morgan, Cardiff University)
• What is civil society for? Competing ideas on the role of NGOs and CSOs in development and poverty reduction (Professor Alan Thomas, CDS Swansea
• The Make Poverty History campaign: Reflections on civil society action and the wider global political context (James Maiden, Welsh Centre for International Affairs)
• Welsh Devolution and Globalization: a Small Fish in a big pond? (Richard Godfrey, University of Wales Institute,Cardiff)
• Other papers offered and accepted will report on research in progress in Swaziland, Kerala (India), Zimbabwe and West Bengal (India), with contributors from University of Wales, Newport and the University of the West of England as well as the institutions above.
• The format of the event is designed to mix disciplines, to share knowledge, and to debate issues. It will include special sessions for postgraduates and an opportunity for them to make presentations. The environment at Gregynog encourages informal but concentrated and creative discourse.

A full list of paper titles and presenters can be downloaded here.

A list of abstracts can be downloaded here

The colloquium is aimed at experienced and new researchers, as well as taught postgraduate and research degree students, from a diverse range of interests and disciplines, including development studies, planning, economics, sociology, social policy, geography, health, education, product design and manufacture, human rights, child welfare, culture, the environment, tourism, labour and employment and journalism.

Postgraduate Student Sessions

Groups of international taught masters students are expected to attend from City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University, and the Centre for Development Studies, Swansea University. Other taught masters students in subjects related to development are extremely welcome. Special sessions will be arranged for taught postgraduate students, including opportunities for them to make presentations based on their previous experience of development. Depending on numbers, these may be parallel sessions. Postgraduates are also invited to present full papers or papers in progress if appropriate.