Blog

ESID Mid-Term Workshop: Live blogging from Cape Town

27 April 2014.
By Pablo Yanguas.
Over 40 ESID researchers have converged on Cape Town in the last 24 hours. They come from South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Malawi, India, Bangladesh, Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom. Their mission – should they choose to accept it – is to discuss what ESID has achieved so far in terms of research and how to ensure that we develop a powerful set of policy messages over the next two years. Between Monday 28  and Wednesday 30 April we are set to convene for 14 plenaries and break-out sessions dedicated to theoretical refinement, project planning and review, capacity strengthening, uptake, and key messages.

Our partners at the University of Cape Town have graciously helped to organise this complex event. All our research will come under scrutiny: NREGA, JNNURM, education, growth, natural resources, political economy analysis, gender, health, state-business relations, China in Africa, public sector reform, social movements, ethnicity and state capacity, spatial inequality…
I will be live blogging this event, sharing my personal take on this intensive calendar of events at the end of each day. ESID’s research network is wide, and this is the first time that I will meet many of our partners in person. By itself, the proximity and creativity of personal conversations should strengthen our intellectual and institutional ties; but if all goes well, this workshop also has the potential to strengthen both the quality of our research and the clarity of our message.
It is up to us to seize the chance to come out of this unusual gathering as a stronger, more focused research consortium.
Find out more about the expectations of bringing researchers together in this interview with Prof Kunal Sen.
[vimeo height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://vimeo.com/92233069[/vimeo]