Knowledge on the move
Mariëtte Heres, Frans Bieckmann | April 07, 2025The traditional focus of development research on local and national processes has been rendered obsolete by the new global power relations. Researchers must be more concerned about relevance than academic excellence. And open knowledge networks ar...
▶Aid is a knowledge industry
Mariëtte Heres | November 28, 2024In the complex field of development cooperation, where there are no silver bullets, knowledge is essential. Although NGOs are taking more interest in knowledge management, they have so far failed to recognize that they are part of a knowledge indu...
▶More than saving lives
Mariëtte Heres | September 26, 2024‘Humanitarian aid has moved to the heart of the political debate’, according to Thea Hilhorst, professor of humanitarian aid and reconstruction at Wageningen University. ‘Discussions on humanitarian aid are always centred on the latest crisis. I w...
▶Oiling the wheels of change
Mariëtte Heres, Frans Bieckmann | July 25, 2025In the previous issue of The Broker we described the knowledge policy of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We invited Rob de Vos, who has been responsible for knowledge management at the ministry since 2003, and Louk Box, rector of the...
▶In search of a strategy
Frans Bieckmann, Mariëtte Heres | May 29, 2025The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working to create a more knowledge-oriented organizational culture. But at the same time it is losing its internal capacity for strategic thinking, a crucial attribute in an era of globalization, inte...
▶Mariëtte Heres
Mariëtte Heres studied sociology at the University of Amsterdam, specializing in international development studies. She has worked as a journalist since 2003 and has made two films about the protests against gas privatization in Bolivia. She is a partner in the research bureau Wereld in Woorden, which specializes in international relations, globalization and development cooperation.







