Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor, July 1998

Contents IK Monitor 6(2) | IKDM Homepage | Suggestions to: ikdm@nuffic.nl | (c) copyright Nuffic-CIRAN and contributors 1998.

Indigenous Knowledge Resource Centres

CIRAN
Centre for International Research and Advisory Networks
Mr G.W. von Liebenstein, Director
Nuffic-CIRAN
P.O. Box 29777, 2502 LT The Hague
The Netherlands.
Tel.: +31-70-4260321
Fax: +31-70-4260329
E-mail: ciran@nuffic.nl or ikdm@nuffic.nl

CIRAN’s major responsibility in supporting the international IK network is to facilitate the exchange of information and to disseminate as widely as possible any relevant information on indigenous knowledge (IK) that is known to the centre.
Mr Guus von Liebenstein, director of CIRAN, was invited by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to attend the meeting in Geneva (Switzerland) in March where the new ILO-INDISCO proposal for a programme of support for IK was discussed. Establishing such a programme was one of the recommendations of the ILO-INDISCO donor consultation workshop which was held in New Delhi (India) in November 1997. (See IK&DM 5(3).)
In May the CIRAN director visited Canada to meet with staff of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the Intercultural Institute of Montreal, in order to discuss strategies for increasing donor support for the effort to promote the use of indigenous knowledge for sustainable development.
CIRAN has been asked by UNESCO to help compile cases that illustrate best practices by which indigenous knowledge can contribute to sustainable development. The cases will be included in the database of UNESCO’s MOST programme (Management of Social Transformation). This UNESCO initiative offers the global IK network and the IK resource centres an opportunity to participate actively in the definition and presentation of best practices for IK. (For further information, see under Calls.)
We are happy to be able to report that the Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor seems to be playing a widely appreciated role in promoting the use of IK for sustainable development. We are grateful for the many communications of CIRAN’s participation, as discussed at the international conference Indigenous knowledge and sustainable development, which was held in Silang (the Philippines) in September 1992, has been reached. This encourages us to continue publishing information that is so widely used in education, training and research. It also supports our efforts to raise the money we need to continue distributing the Monitor free of charge among our readers in developing countries.
There are other indications that the Monitor is fulfilling the need for information on indigenous knowledge systems and practices. IDRC recently published Working with indigenous knowledge: a guide for researchers (Ottawa, 1998). The first draft of this guide was compiled for a workshop on indigenous and technical knowledge funded by IDRC and held in Hanoi (North Vietnam) in November 1996. A rough scan of the references revealed that approximately 25% of them were from the Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor. (For more information on this guide, see Preview.)
The Monitor on line is also widely read, albeit that the majority of these readers–or rather visitors to the website–are in the North. A visit to the website recently inspired a researcher who is doing a study for the World Bank to contact all the IK resource centres in Africa and ask for their help. The study is aimed at learning how transfers of knowledge occur within communities and cultures. The sectors it deals with include agriculture, the environmemt, health and education. Indigenous knowledge is taken in this study to cover not only technology, but also broader problem-solving strategies in communities. Once again, it seems that the efforts to draw the resource centres into active networking circles are paying off. This encourages me once again to invite the readers of the Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor to send us any information they consider worth sharing on a global scale.

CIKARD
Center for Indigenous Knowledge for Agriculture and Rural Development
Dr Norma Wolff, Associate Director
319 Curtiss Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011, USA.
Tel.: +1-515-294 9503.
Fax: +1-515-294 1708.
E-mail: nhwolff@iastate.edu

Please note CIKARD’s new telephone number: +1-515-294 9503.
The fax number is now +1-515-294 1708.
In the coming year CIKARD will be limiting its services, due to the death of our director, Dr D. Mike Warren. We will continue to collect and make accessible the articles, pamphlets, books and documents on indigenous knowledge and agricultural rural development that are sent to the centre. We will maintain the CIKARD Internet site, and update it regularly. By using the keyword search feature, individuals will still be able to locate material which is important for their research.
Research Associate Ms Pernell Plath, who earned her baccalaureate degree in anthropology and environmental studies in May 1998, will leave CIKARD as a paid employee but will stay on as a volunteer until the end of the year.
Research Associate Ms Tracey Eccles will continue to manage the day-to-day operations of CIKARD throughout the summer. Enquiries about CIKARD may be directed to Dr Norma H. Wolff, Interim Director, Department of Anthropology, 319 Curtiss Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA. Direct dial: +1-515-294 5599.

LEAD
Leiden Ethnosystems And Development Programme
Dr L. Jan Slikkerveer, Director
Institute of Cultural and Social Studies
University of Leiden
P.O. Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden
The Netherlands.
Tel.: +31-71-527 3469.
Fax: +31-71-527 3619
E-mail: slikkerveer@rulfsw.leidenUniv.nl

In March 1998, Dr Paul Sillitoe from the Anthropology Department of the University of Durham (UK) visited LEAD to talk about the 5th biennial conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, scheduled for September in Frankfurt (Germany), and especially about the conference workshop entitled Development’s demand for indigenous knowledge (see IK&DM 6(1)). At the suggestion of
Dr David Brokensha (UK), plans are being made to dedicate the workshop to the memory of Dr D. Michael Warren, the late director of CIKARD (USA).
On 24 and 25 April 1998, LEAD’s director Dr L.J. Slikkerveer presented a paper at the first international meeting on aromatic and medicinal Mediterranean plants, which was held in Anciau (Portugal). The paper was entitled ‘Traditional knowledge and practice of aromatic and medicinal plants for improved health promotion and care in the Mediterranean region’. While in Portugal, Dr Slikkerveer participated in the third regional workshop of the MEDUSA Network on Wild Food and Non-food Plants of the Mediterranean Region, which was held in Coimbra on 27-28 April 1998. Again, he presented a paper: ‘Ethnobotanical knowledge and practice: the need for future extension of the MEDUSA Priority Species Database’.
LEAD’s director had submitted to the European Union the terms of reference for a new project known as AGROPAS (Indigenous knowledge systems for sustainable agropastoral development in the Horn of Africa: towards integrated food security and natural resources management in Ethiopia and Kenya).
A full proposal is now being prepared in consultation with counterpart institutions in Kenya, Ethiopia and Greece. It will be submitted by the end of June 1998.
Ms W. Erwina from Universitas Padjadjaran (Indonesia), who joined LEAD as a visiting research fellow in 1994, completed work for her master’s degree in anthropology and development sociology. Her fieldwork in the Mount Halimun region of West Java was supplemented by a video documentary on traditional agriculture in the area. Ms Erwina returned to Bandung to join INRIK at Padjadjaran University. Meanwhile, Ms M. Starkenburg of LEAD has submitted a proposal for PhD research on the role of cosmology in sustainable development in the Third World.
Dr Gerda Rossel, who just received her PhD from Wageningen Agricultural University (the Netherlands) for her excellent work on plantains (Musa), is joining the LEAD programme. She will study indigenous knowledge and practices in relation to the plantain in Africa and elsewhere.

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