NAI Launches Policy Forum Online

The Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) today opens the Nordic Africa Development Policy Forum online, taking advantage of the potential of the web for stimulating lively exchange in real time. The Forum aims to promote a well informed, evidence-based policy debate across the Nordic countries, with participation from researchers and policy makers, as well as from civil society and members of the public. NAI invites everyone with an interest in African development issues to participate.

On the theme Millennium Development Goals under Review, Norway’s Minister for the Environment and International Development Erik Solheim contributes an article on critical issues for the MDGs beyond 2015, while Swedish economist Stefan de Vylder proposes a revised set of MDGs that focus on structural causes instead of symptoms.

On the theme Peace and Conflict, President Martti Ahtisaari of the Crisis Management Initiative shares his wide experience of mediation and peacekeeping in Africa and elsewhere.

Web-based discussion forums are rapidly increasing in importance in policy debates, in the Nordic countries and across the world. The NAI Forum can contribute to an enhanced policy debate in at least four ways:

• catalyzing public debate,
• connecting researchers, civil society, practitioners and policy makers,
• convening targeted policy dialogues, and
• disseminating research findings to a wider audience.

A common Nordic platform for development policy debate will, through cross-border interaction, add value over and above that of the ongoing development policy debates within the Nordic countries. Among topics expected to be debated in the Forum are:

-          Towards Nordic policy coherence for African development?

- African perspectives on Nordic aid and development policies,

- Changing perspectives and priorities in Nordic development policies,

- How effective is aid and how effective can it be?

-          Nordic social policies – a focus area for development cooperation with Africa?

-          The Nordic role in international development cooperation; how to influence international policies and guidelines in areas of great poverty impact

Visit the Nordic Africa Development Policy Forum at www.nai.uu.se/forum

NAI Forum Contact: Dag.Ehrenpreis@nai.uu.se

The Nordic Africa Institute (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet) is a centre in the Nordic region for research, documentation and information on modern Africa. Based in Uppsala, Sweden, the institute is dedicated to providing timely, critical and alternative research on and analysis of Africa in the Nordic countries, and to cooperate between African and Nordic researchers. As a hub and a meeting place in the Nordic region for a growing field of research and analysis, the institute strives to place knowledge of African issues within the reach of scholars, policymakers, politicians, media, students and the general public. The institute is jointly financed by the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden).