Presentation by Neil Pakenham-Walsh and Rob Witte at the Dgroups Annual Partners Meeting - Utrecht, 16 January 2014

1. Dgroups: (Draft) Action Plan 2014
Neil, Rob, Kristin
16 January 2014

2. High-level Priorities
1.
Strengthen partnership
2.
Improve the platform
3.
Improve our marketing and
outreach

3. Strengthening the Partnership

Alfa Redi

CIDSE

Department for International Development (DFID), UK

ECDPM

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)

(Helvetas)

Humanist Institute for Co-operation with Developing Countries (Hivos)

ICCO

International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD)

International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP)

Natural Resources Institute (NRI)

RWSN – Rural Water Supply Network

SAP International

SDC

Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)

UNECA
New partners 0
Leavers 1 (KIT)

4. Strengthening the Partnership
Shared vision
2. Promote connections among the
Partners and among individual
Dgroups
3. Promote connections with other
CoPs
1.

5. Shared vision
(= how we want the world to be)
What is our vision? Suggestions for
discussion…
1. “A world where every individual can
contribute constructively to dialogue
and decision-making for international
development and social justice”
2. ???
3. ???

6. Promote connections among the
Partners
 ↑ Knowledge sharing among Dgroups
partners (?KM4Dev)
 ↑ Visibility of individual Dgroups and how
they relate to each other, by theme, geo, lang.
visualisation tool, eg DebateGraph
 Mapping of Dgroups 
 INCREASED COLLECTIVE IMPACT
OF DGROUPS

7. Promote connections with other
CoPs
Mapping of Dgroups 
Progressive mapping of Global CoP
ecosystem
↑Navigability ↑Alignment ↓Duplication
 ↑ collective impact of all CoPs
(Dgroups + non-Dgroups) working in
international development

8. 2020 Goals
By 2020:
• All (open) Communities of Practice will be
readily visible and searchable by moderators
and users.
 All (open) CoPs will be able to connect and
share seamlessly with one another
 All (open) CoPs will be able to harness the
collective intelligence of their members (multistakeholder input into policy and practice)

9. Work area 1: Platform
improvement
2014 Objectives
We shall continue to
 improve the platform through a user-driven process.
 ensure that all requests and ideas for functionality
improvements raised through the [redesign] discussion group
are monitored and made freely available to all users
 assess the feasibility (or otherwise) and provide progress
updates on each request.
 explore how Dgroups can take advantage of mobile
opportunities
 Other??

10. User-driven functionality
improvement
[redesign] Dgroup – Kristin & Damir
 Viewing the web archive (6)
 Delivery of email messages, formatting and
content (5)
 Moderation (4)
 Visual design (1)
 Monitoring and evaluation (1)
 Terminology (2)

11. Work area 2: Service reliability
2014 Objectives
Working with WA-Research:
 We shall maintain service reliability at or
very near to 100%.
 We shall increase our disaster
preparedness, so that normal service is
maintained in the event of disaster (eg
technical breakdown, illness, injury).
 Other??

12. Work area 3:
Training & Peer Exchange
2014 Objectives
We shall:
 introduce a peer support / training programme
(Dgroups Training module – ECDP)
 organize regular online peer exchange sessions (1
each quarter)
 continue to publish regular blog
posts, presentations etc on Dgroups Foundation
website (www.dgroups.info)
 other??

13. Work area 4:
Engagement with current partners
2014 Objectives
 We shall regular communications with all
our Partners, through 1-to-1 calls (at least 2
times per year).
 We shall promote knowledge sharing among
Partners, especially around C4D issues
 We shall build a basic visual representation of
the Dgroups CoP ecosystem
 Other??

14. Work area 5: Marketing and
outreach
2014 Objectives
We shall:
 continue to develop and improve the Dgroups
Foundation website (www.dgroups.info)
 recruit 6 new paying members
 produce leaflet in different languages
 coordinate and provide support to at least 6
Partners to promote Dgroups (conference
calendar, leaflets, PPT)
 other??

15. Work area 6: Governance and
administration
2014 Objectives
 We shall seek to expand the
number, skills and influence of the
Board
 We shall improve Board
representation –gender and
geographical location
 Other??

16. M&E
Stats
Impact
IDS Linked Open Data

17. Fees: Way forward
 With present membership, an increase in partnership
contribution to E 5.000 is needed to cover costs.
Therefore:
 Dgroups Board proposes to increase fees to E. 5000
starting 2015, for organizations with turnover of over 5
million Euro.
 From now on, for new small organizations with turnover
below 5ME, a reduction of fees is offered, calculated at
0.1% of turnover, limiting the number of Dgroups to a
maximum of 12
 Below E 150.000 we do not charge, but ask for a
formalized "sponsorship" by one of the large members