KiP-UN.org / Univesitas

Innovations for human development

The IDEASS programme is one of the working tools of the preparatory phase of the International School. Set up in 2001 by ILO, UNIFEM, UNDP, and UNOPS, the programme seeks to enhance the capacity of public and private territorial actors to meet the needs of the local population by using innovative working methods and tools that have been effectively used both at the national level and in other countries. In order to reach this objectif, the programme facilitates the identification, promotion, and transfer of the innovations which have demonstrated their contribution to human development, the enhancement of environmental resources and the reduction of poverty and social exclusion.

The Programme involves the competent national institutions in the realization of the projects for the transfer of innovative methodologies and technologies, in order to guarantee the innovations’ potential national impact. These activities are realized in collaboration with the authors of the innovations, coming from countries of the north and south, through specific projects of technical assistance.

IDEASS also supports national institutions in charge of promoting science and technology in elaborating strategies and instruments for the benefit of territorial development actors. These activities are carried out through south-south cooperation, valorizing those countries that already have established decentralized national science and technology systems oriented towards solving overriding problems in their own country.

The framework of IDEASS is the commitment of the main international summits of the ‘90s and the Millennium Assembly, with priority given to cooperation among Southern actors, and with the support of the more industrialized countries.

As remarked by Edgar Morin in his book The Way, published in 2011, in all countries there are already many experiences of change that are little known and valorised at international level. Morin suggests carrying out a specific work to promote and disseminate the innovative know how of these experiences. IDEASS colaborate in the framework of the International School to reach this objective. The IDEASS web site, with visitors from over 130 countries, is an important instrument of the International School’s permanent cultural campaign.

Universitas

The Universitas Programme is one of the working tools of the KIP International School. Originally set up in 2001 by ILO, UNDP, and UNOPS, Universitas is based on the premise that universities and research centres have an important role to play in taking forward the commitments of the main international summits of the ‘90s and the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

Universitas works with universities and research institutes of the south and north to design and realize professional development activities, higher education programmes and action-oriented research to meet the development priorities of their territories in line with the UN 2030 Agenda. In doing this, it brings together academics and researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students and engages them directly in concrete development practices: the programme organizes intensive short courses (summer schools) and post-graduate diploma courses, and provides technical assistance for setting up local human development laboratories that encourage the systematization of practice, action research for innovation and international exchanges among researchers, practitioners and students. In interested countries, these activities are guided, at national level, by a steering committee with pertinent national institutions. Where interest exists, the programme facilitates the establishment of international university and decentralized cooperation partnerships for the implementation of these activities.

Universitas also manages a peer-reviewed open-access electronic journal, Universitas Forum (www.universitasforum.org), that publishes material in four languages and in various formats related to local human development and the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, giving priority to knowledge and know-how coming from southern contexts that may not be well-known internationally but could be pertinent in other realities. Where possible, Universitas establishes agreements with international partners to launch research projects aimed to systematize innovative practice in forms that can be published as articles, videos, teaching tools and so on.