Indigenous Knowledge and Development
Monitor, November 2000 Indigenous Knowledge and Development
Monitor, November 2000
Contents IK Monitor (8-3) | IKDM Homepage | Suggestions to: ikdm@nuffic.nl | © copyright Nuffic-CIRAN and contributors 2000.
Calls
Best Practices
In the summer of 1998, UNESCO and Nuffic-CIRAN called for descriptions of best
practices related to indigenous knowledge (IK). Best practices are 'successful
projects or policies aimed at improving the quality of life of individuals or
groups suffering from poverty or social exclusion', according to the current
definition. The best practices were to be included in an online database
maintained by UNESCO's MOST programme (Management of Social Transformations).
The response was very encouraging: a total of 27 best practices were selected
for publication both online (see http://www.unesco.org/most/bpikreg.htm)
and in print (no longer available).
The MOST Best Practices database is full of examples of how indigenous
knowledge can be put to good use to develop cost-effective and sustainable
strategies for poverty alleviation and income generation - in Africa, Asia,
Europe and Latin America. One aim of the database is to make it easier for
researchers and the international development community to incorporate IK into
their work - in project proposals, feasibility studies, implementation plans and
project assessments - and to take indigenous knowledge and practices into
account in all activities affecting communities.
Today, we are seeing a growing demand for information and examples that can
serve as models for further project development. There is a need for more
content, for more cases. CIRAN and MOST would like to address this demand and
enlarge the database with the addition of newly selected best practices. This is
why we are asking for your help.
Please send us information about any projects or activities you know of where indigenous knowledge has been put to good use to help to alleviate poverty in a cost-effective way. We ask you please to send this information on a form that has been designed for this purpose. It is available on the Internet at http://www.nuffic.nl/ciran/question.html or http://www.unesco.org/most/bpikques.htm. Or you can request a printed copy of the form by writing to the address below. When we receive your completed form and the required information, we will review the case. If it meets the criteria for Best Practices, we will send it to an external referee. These referees will be recruited from the international IK network. You will be informed as soon as possible of the final decision as to whether or not the case you submitted will be included in UNESCO's MOST Best Practices database.
Deadline for the submission of new cases is 5 February 2001.
For more information, please contact:
Karen Bakhuisen, Nuffic-CIRAN, P.O. Box 29777, 2502 LT The Hague, The
Netherlands.
Tel.: +31-70-4260 302.
Fax: +31-70-4260 329.
E-mail: kbakhuis@nuffic.nl
For more information on MOST Best Practices and the criteria and selection procedure: http://www.unesco.org/most/bpindi.htm
National Biodiversity Strategy and Action
The Government of India has commissioned the development of a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP). India harbours an enormous diversity of plants and animals and an impressive variety of habitats and ecosystems. This biological diversity offers the means for meeting the basic requirements of most of India's population. It is the treasure-house from which future needs will be met and where elements will be found that will form the basis of new knowledge and technology. But this diversity is seriously threatened by human activities and natural disasters. Upon analysis, it is at the local level that both the wealth of biodiversity and the threats to it are most tangible. That is why the development of a national strategy and action plan should start at the local level. The participation of women and men from all walks of life, living in rural and urban communities, and working both within and outside government, is essential to ensure the wide ownership of the process which in turn will ensure the conservation of India's biodiversity.
The goals of the NBSAP are to draft biodiversity action plans at all levels by early 2002 - local, regional, state, inter-state and national - and to empower local communities through the sustainable use of resources and the equitable sharing of benefits. Government agencies, NGOs and village communities are already contributing to conservation. But there is a need to consolidate and coordinate these efforts and to launch new initiatives. If you have information on biodiversity in India, if you have ideas for workshops or public hearings, or if you would like to develop a local-level action plan or contribute in any other way to the NBSAP process, please contact us now.
Contact address: Ashish Kothari, Kalpavriksh, Coordinator, NBSAP
Technical and Policy Core Group, c/o C. Renuka, Biotech Consortium India Ltd.,
Kundan House, 4th Floor, 16 Nehru Place, New Delhi - 110 019, India.
Fax: +91-11621 9541.
E-mail: bcil@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in
Volunteer teaching in IKS
The University of North-West, Mafikeng, South Africa, is one of the historically
black and disadvantaged universities from the apartheid system. The university
is launching a new accredited undergraduate and postgraduate degree programme in
Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) from the year 2001.
The programme is inter-disciplinary, involving modules from different disciplines such as sociology, information systems, statistics, agriculture, political science, education, communication, geography, history, development studies, etc. The IKS programme at the University of North-West is the only accredited IKS programme by the government in South Africa.
The Faculty of Human and Social Sciences of the university would like to establish a centre of excellence in IKS. However, the university needs to build human resource capacity in teaching and research in some of the modules in this new programme. Therefore, the coordinators of the programme would like to request interested academics, researchers and post-graduate students (at least masters level) in related disciplines, who would like to spend at least a semester (12 weeks) at the University of North-West, assisting the staff in the teaching any of the modules listed below. The university offers accommodation, office and research facilities to volunteer teachers.
For more information, please contact: Professor H.O. Kaya, Programmes
Coordinator, University of North-West, Private Bag X2046, Mmabatho, 2735 South
Africa.
Tel.: +27-18-389 2453
Fax: +27-18-392 5775 or +27-18-381 5817
E-mail: hoksoc@unibo.uniwest.ac.za
Globalization and local culture
The Jurnal Antropologi Indonesia is published by the Department of
Anthropology, University of Indonesia, in collaboration with three partners: the
Department of Anthropology, University of Andalas; and the Center for South East
Asian Studies, Kyoto University. The journal's editors invite researchers,
scholars, practitioners, observers, businessmen, policy-makers, donor agencies,
and others to share their experiences and present the results of their studies,
facilitative actions, policy implementations or programmes at an international
symposium entitled Globalization and local culture: a dialectic towards the
New Indonesia.
The symposium will be held on 18-21 July 2001 in Padang, the Province of West Sumatera, Indonesia. Its host will be the Department of Anthropology, of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, at Andalas University in Padang.
The symposium will work further on the conclusions of a workshop held in Makassar on 1-4 August 2000, where participants analyzed the current crisis in Indonesia. It was found to be high time that the multicultural features of the Indonesian nation are recognized and appreciated and that the rights and needs of the hundreds of local communities in the island state are acknowledged. However, the recent turmoil in Indonesia indicates a tendency towards separatism. The challenges Indonesia needs to deal with now are how to maintain the existence and rights of local cultures while the country is developing towards a New Indonesia, how to improve local communities in the context of a changing and developing society, and how to keep up with developments in neighbouring countries and global cultures.
The symposium will feature several panels focusing on specific themes. One of the panels will examine the issue 'Local and global knowledge: its implications for natural resource management', particularly the dialectic relationships between the various domains of knowledge and the consequences these relationships have for people's strategies. The organizers expect that most of the cases presented at the symposium will be from Sumatera and Kalimantan, but other parts of Indonesia will be represented as well. For purposes of further analysis and discussion, the organizers are seeking more cases for presentation. These will help to deepen insights and understanding of how the dialectic relationships between the two domains of knowledge can be improved for the benefit of local people and the environment. It is hoped that new ideas and recommendations will be the result.
The symposium's main language will be Indonesian, but contributions in English are also welcome as both languages will be used. The deadline for submitting abstracts is 28 February 2001. Selected papers will be published - with the authors' permission - in a special edition of Jurnal Antropologi Indonesia (vol. 26, 2002) and in a book with the title 'Local and global knowledge: its implications for natural resource management'.
For more information please contact: Steering/Organizing Committee of
the University of Indonesia, Jurnal Antropologi Indonesia, Building B -
Fl. 3, FISIP, University of Indonesia , Kampus UI - Depok, Depok 16424,
Indonesia.
Tel.: +62-21-7888 1032.
Fax: +62-21-7888 7749.
E-mail: antrop@centrin.net.id; ruslic@cbn.net.id
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