Dear Members
Greetings from all of us at DSAI. I write to update you on recent and upcoming DSAI activities. and to encourage you all to join us and contribute to our discussions and debates.
Firstly, thanks to all of you who participated in our recent questionnaire, giving great feedback on strategic priorities for DSAI and our work programme. We are progressing with a number of events that are set out in the May newsletter, including exciting initiatives by our Humanitarian Action Study Group, the Civil Society group and the launch of an important new volume by two of study group convenors.
DSAI was pleased to host an informal consultation with Irish Aid on the upcoming White Paper. A number of our Study Group convenors met with Mary McCarthy, Development Specialist in Irish Aid’s Policy Unit and we had broad discussion spanning adaptive programming, results based management, definition and measurement of impact, modalities of achieving same and more. It was a rich and fruitful engagement and we’ll be following up with a written DSAI submission.
I also want to highlight the upcoming Research Methods Summer School. The two day event takes place at Trinity College and is focused on “Using ICT to Strengthen Research Methods to Advance Global Development.” Join us on the 27th and 28th of June for an exploration of how technology is changing research methods in the field, and the potential of ICT for advancing global development and justice. The summer school has been designed to follow the DSAI Research Methods Summer Schools in 2016 and 2017 with a good mix of practitioners and researchers. We’ll look at methodology and methods in both quantitative and qualitative projects, and monitoring and evaluation with a number of case studies for practical review.
Finally, I hope you’ve seen our Call for Papers for our Annual Conference, now scheduled for the 23rd and 24th of October. The title of the conference is THE DEVELOPMENT, CONFLICT AND SECURITY NEXUS: THEORY AND PRACTICE with a Key Note Address by Prof Nic Cheeseman, author of ‘How to Rig an Election’ at the Royal Irish Academy on the 23rd. We’ll consider the high numbers of conflict and violent situations, its effects on society, people, democracy and world stability as well as the existing mechanisms to address this such as the Sustaining Peace Agenda, Inclusive Peace, SDG16, etc. We’re calling for papers which explore development practice and theory within the context of fragility and conflict, and how we can ensure sustainable achievements. The conference is a great opportunity to connect, disrupt, challenge and learn - we promise an enriching and stimulating two days for the whole sector! Note the submission deadline is 6 Sept, and guidelines for papers are on the DSAI website.
As the summer comes into swing, I hope you get some much needed time off to achieve work life sunshine balance. But don’t delay to sign up for any number of exciting DSAI initiatives before you go. Better yet, propose an event to or through one of our study groups and keep DSAI great!
Mary Van Lieshout
Chairperson