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CETRAD
CETRAD
Center for Training and Integrated Research In ASAL Development
CDE’s Transformation Streams
April 25, 2022
Current Projects Projects
Author: CETRAD

The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) launched several Transformation Streams (TS). Three of the streams that CETRAD was involved in were approved for implementation as follows: Community-based initiatives and sustainable development around mega infrastructure projects. This TS departs from the premise that visions for ‘green energy, economic development, and global connectivity drive an ongoing boom in mega infrastructure projects (MIP), but the landscapes in which MIPs unfold constitute hotspots of sustainable development. The communities who reside around MIPs or are otherwise attached emotionally or economically to the places of MIPs are caught between hopes and aspirations, pressures and threats. This proposed Stream will enable to generate transformative research programs on community-based initiatives and sustainable development around MIPs.

  • Generate learning processes and practical solutions enabling communities to harness potentials in MIP regions
  • Generate broader and in-depth understanding and evidence of the multiple interactions of MIPs and sustainable development; the roles of community-based action and enabling environments; and to explain how these dynamics evolve, and how enabling environments look like
  • Develop conclusions and practical recommendations for enabling policy environments in Switzerland, selected countries in Asia, Africa, and South America, and in global debates.

The TS is a three years project organized in 3 phases each running for one year: Phase (Year) 1: Inception; Phase (Year) 2: Emergence Phase (Year) 3+: Evolution (continuous shift to being a programme with third-party funding). During the inception phase, the TS will aim to achieve four broad objectives that include:

  • Programme development whereby the project team will elaborate and agree on a set of strategic understandings and
  • Learning objective to create cross-regional learning about good practices of community-based action and sustainable development around MIPs; to conduct two Stream Forums (SF) to foster exchange among the stream members and partners (in collaboration with the IGS North-South), to gain in-depth understanding of leveraging transformation around MIPs and how to engage with MIPs from the perspective of communities; and to explore a methodology innovations lab in 1 pilot Real World Labs
  • Co-creation to set up one pilot Real-World Lab (RWL) each in 2-5 “stream countries” and start engaging with 1-3 communities per RWL, in order to prepare co-creation activities
  • Policy engagement and outreach to conduct at least one policy engagement per “stream country” (incl. Switzerland); to seek first media coverage in CH and the “stream countries”; to prepare one publication (format to be defined) on community-based initiatives and sustainable development around MIPs.

The proposed TS seeks to contribute to ongoing transformations in agricultural landscapes and the connecting value chains in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia led through private sector initiatives. The TS will amplify and scale out such initiatives by sciencebased activities and activating three levers for change

  • Governance innovations in organizations of the private sector,
  • Methodological innovations for landscape initiatives
  • Targeted policy engagement - enabling policy and legal environments.

In particular, the TS strives to support transformative literacy and leadership skills of researchers as change agents by strengthening their respective awareness, reflection, knowledge, and competences. It thereby seeks to foster a fair and conflict sensitive cocreation of knowledge and actions with partners in Switzerland and throughout the world. This overall goal encompasses the following overall objectives:

  • Foundations and approaches
  • Training and education
  • Project support and assistance in acute situations
  • Institutional anchoring:
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