Profile
This section presents Supras’ understanding of and approach to various key issues in development cooperation. These should be understood as constituting Supras’ unique areas of competencies and approach to its engagement with key developmental issues.
The point of departure for Supras’ profile is its Vision and Strategy. In operational terms, the profile or/and areas of competencies translate into the core Service areas that Supras offers.
Three other pages in this section contains relevant information: (1) Background (expanding on the background below), (2) Tools (expanding on the approaches and tools below), and (3) Sources.
Background
To say that development cooperation is complex and complicated is a truism. Since the mid 1970s Lars T. Soeftestad, Supras’ Founder and President, has been involved in development work in various capacities, including as an NGO activist in Norway, a grassroots level project manager in Bangladesh, a Professor teaching applied anthropology and development cooperation at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, an Anthropologist with the World Bank working on project management and policy level work in South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Horn of Africa and West Africa, and a President of a consultancy company in Norway (section Library lists the output of this ongoing engagement) ... [more]
The profile
The only meaningful way to address these mounting complexities and challenges along a multi-dimensional set of variables, is to think complex. Economics-infused theoretical and practical stances, together with a search for the one elusive causal factor and, finally, single-variable modeling, simply will not do the trick anymore. The profile consists of the following foci, approaches, and tools:
Inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural foci
Supras’ mode of operation is summed up in two concepts: inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural focus. They are at the same time also approaches to how to work. The World Bank has spearheaded the evolution of the development cooperation field with its early emphasis on projects being owned by the recipient (and, increasingly, specific recipients or beneficiaries in the country). The growing acceptance of these principles has paved the way for increased emphasis on inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural approaches in conceptualizing projects. This emerging realization has come to be applied to virtually all aspects of the project cycle, including identification, preparation, appraisal, negotiations, approval, signing and loan effectiveness, implementation, and completion.
Key approaches and tools
Toward meeting the above realities and make them an ally instead of an issue of contention, the profile consists of a number of key approaches and tools. They reflect Supras’ concerns and capabilities within a comprehensive project team. Other stakeholders provide other and complementary concerns and capabilities. Furthermore, they constitute a natural or logical unit in that they guide work throughout the project cycle. At the same time they feed into as well as are informed by prioritized research activities. The approaches and tools (several are defined on CBNRM Net’s Terminology page), presented in a logical way starting with the environment, are (relevant sources are listed by number, and refer to the list of sources at the end):
- Natural resource management
- Supras works on natural resource management (NRM) in various ways, including operational work, training and capacity building, networking, publishing, and research. For management of natural resources, use of the practices, models, and approaches inherent in Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) has proven useful, and Supras is collaborating with CBNRM Net on applying CBNRM lessons and practices and disseminating them ... [more]
Sources: Kirsch-Jung and Soeftestad (2006); Soeftestad (1996b, 1999b). [access] - Civil society, culture, institutions, and social organization
- These are the broad facts, patterns of organization, and values that are necessary for conceptualizing and understanding livelihoods at various societal levels (institutions are here understood as values). Culture, civil society (including NGOs), and institutions have to be understood as positive aspects of the local setting that should be utilized ... [more]
Sources: Davis and Soeftestad (1995); Soeftestad (1996a, 1997, 1999a, 2001b, 2004); Soeftestad, Alanon, and Diz et al (2004). [access] - Social analysis
- Social analysis involves examination of the socio-cultural, institutional, cultural, historical, and political contexts of proposed development interventions. Furthermore, it means identifying and analyzing stakeholders’ views and priorities, with a view to involving as many as possible in the overall development process ... [more]
Sources: Mozammel and Zatlokal (2002); Soeftestad (2005); World Bank (n.d., 1995, 2003, 2005). [access] - Governance
- Governance is here understood as the process of decision-making and the processes by which decisions are implemented (or not). The ideal governance system is often referred to as good governance, and adheres to strict standards of abuse, corruption, and the rule of law. A practical approach to involving and relating stakeholders that are dissimilar in various respects, and that are located on different levels is co-management ... [more]
Sources: Borrini-Feyerabend (1996, 1997); Borrini-Feyerabend et al (2000); Soeftestad (2003); Wikipedia; Wikipedia. [access] - Networks and networking
- As the number of involved stakeholders increase the challenges to creating and maintaining communication also increase. While social networks that facilitate such communication is a part of social organization and everyday life, at higher levels they have to be created and managed. The advent of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has proved to be a watershed in networks and in networking. Networks in general are in the business of knowledge management. Networks contribute greatly to creating transparency ... [more]
Sources: Soeftestad (2002, 2003); Soeftestad and Kashwan (2003); van der Heijden, Pryor and Soeftestad (2006). [access] - Conflicts and conflict management
- In the context of NRM conflicts are to a large extent part of everyday life. This applies certainly to traditional cultures, but increasingly to cultures undergoing rapid social change, where values of different ethnic groups, often with differing livelihoods, are often pitted against each other. In situations of internal migration and population growth, with concomitant increasing competition over finite natural resources, this is occurring with often increasing frequency. Conflicts are appropriately addressed through governance, transparency, and networking ... [more]
Sources: Borrini-Feyerabend (1996, 1997); Impact Assessment Inc. and Supras Consult et al (2006); Soeftestad (2004); Soeftestad, Alanon and Diz et al (2004). [access] - Information and communication technologies
- The goal with the present focus on ICTs is to present a broad and result-oriented knowledge management approach that will enable a more realistic assessment of the incentives and constraints involved in using ICTs in development cooperation, thus aligning the needs at the local level with the ICT means at disposal ... [more]
Sources: Soeftestad (2001, 2006), Soeftestad and Maung (2003); Soeftestad and Wabnitz (2004). [access] - Knowledge management
- Public consultation and public involvement are key contributing factors to what has been referred to as a new mode of knowledge production. The emphasis on networks in NRM, backed by use of ICTs, is contributing in an important way to realizing the new mode of knowledge production. Knowledge Management is a broad and applied context for communication within development cooperation, understood as a structured approach to identifying, collecting, managing, producing, disseminating, and using appropriate knowledge about NRM and development ... [more]
Sources: Soeftestad (2000, 2001a, 2001b, 2002); Soeftestad, Alanon, Diz et al (2004); Soeftestad and Wabnitz (2004); van der Heijden, Pryor, and Soeftestad (2006). [access] - Strategic communication
- Strategic communication follows from the above approaches and tools, and guides the overall project and process. It implies thinking strategically about communication, it deals with effective communication. All communication situations are different. However, as an aid to understanding the essence of each communication situation, asking simple questions can be of help ... [more]
Sources: Hewawasam and Soeftestad et al (1997), Soeftestad (2000, 2001a, 2002); Soeftestad and Wabnitz (2004). [access]
Linking it all ...
These foci, approaches, and tools are linked in two fundamental ways: (1) During implementation they are connected, integrated and support each other and (2) They contribute to reaching the planned goals with an activity. On the latter, briefly, the overall goals with development activities in the area of NRM should be to achieve increased openness between key stakeholders, in terms of cultural understanding and utilizing local or traditional knowledge, public participation and co-management of natural resources, addressing the poverty-environment nexus, empowering communities, and achieving poverty reduction.
The disaggregation of Supras’ profile is necessary partly for heuristic purposes, and partly to weigh the relative importance, emphases, and applicability of an approach or tool in connection with a specific applied activity. To learn more about how the profile is applied and operationalized, see Supras’ core Service areas.
Sources: Borrini-Feyerabend (1997), Soeftestad (1997, 1999a). [access]
The above set of approaches and tools are, however, closely connected and indeed linked, so much so that it may seem difficult to describe and analyze each apart from the others. These linkages are of various types, ranging from overlaps, via one-way causal connections, and to various forms of feedback. As an integrated system this set of variables and their linkages models societies and cultures. In an applied sense, the overall goal is to achieve a balanced emphasis on both environmental and social sustainability.