Dear Netizens,
Welcome to our world of news and views. The world of Wittenberg Academy. Before you start shooting your inquisition at us, let us introduce ourselves and showcase our cause very briefly. I'm sure you'd like to know who we are, what are our activities, our reasons for doing them and how you readers can help us in strengthening our organization and improving lives by traveling the kilobytes with us.
It is now universally acknowledged that nongovernmental organizations are important players in meeting the challenges of civic development. Based on this premise, we have ambitious, but realistic aims of catalyzing a more effective use of resources made available for societal development. Our foremost concern at Wittenberg Academy is to incorporate Synergic Resource Management approaches to the management of subsidies and development aid. And the special status accorded us by the German tax authorities ensures that we are non-profit in the true sense of the term.
Now what exactly do we mean by that? Let's go into this in a little more detail. We believe that the whole should be more than the sum of its parts. For example, if several development projects support the health or the education sector, they should complement each other in the best possible way. But, in our long and continuous experience, we've found much to our dismay that there is a major discrepancy between this ideal and the reality of its practice.
Very often, in the case of aid and subsidy management, for example in the health or education sector, the combined outcome of many projects is much less than the total of inputs would lead us to expect. Often, it even appears as if less would have been more - in spite of dire need and poverty! Maybe we can compare this to the watering of a garden - pouring buckets of water all at the same time and on the same spot is not always a solution, and especially if the soil is rock-hard with dryness.
This is nothing new, and some changes have been made in several countries in the way development aid is planned and administered. For example, attempts are being made to channel funds through "Sector Wide Approaches" for the health or education sector, rather than use a plethora of separate projects. As yet, little is known about the actual extent and effect of such changes. We are observing these developments, and will keep you informed through our own contributions and Internet links. And we are very interested in our readers´experiences with the management and effects of aid and subsidies worldwide.
What Wittenberg Academy aims at is to strengthen professional and institutional skills for the synergic management of aid and subsidies. The concept of synergic resource management is transferred from industrial management. We want to promote its application for societal goals, for example, in the areas of health, education, poverty reduction, environmental management and civil peace work.
In order to give concrete shape to our plans and realize our dreams, we offer training, consulting and other services for synergic resource management in our main focus areas. WA is coordinating an international network of well-known professionals and institutions capable of training, conducting applied research, consolidating public information and offering consulting services globally. As a logical sequence of this process, we have started to establish a data bank of cooperating professionals in the areas of development cooperation, synergy-oriented management strategies, and the specific subject areas where we want to put our focus.
This first issue of our Newsletter showcases an interview with our Founder-Director, Göran Airijoki. Happy reading about our past, present and future. We welcome your suggestions and ideas about our site, our projects and efforts, and our fledgling quarterly baby, your very own Wittenberg Academy Newsletter.
In case of queries and comments, feel free to address us. Do write in to us at info@wittenberg-academy.de. Looking forward to hearing from all of you out there.
Your Editor,
Amrita Ghosh
January 2001
India
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Your Partner in Synergic Resource Management for Societal Goals