GPPi to design and facilitate workshop for World Bank Institute’s GDLN

The World Bank Institute has commissioned the Global Public Policy Institute to design, implement and summarize a workshop on the future of the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) to take place on 26 — 27 November 2007 in Berlin. The GDLN is an existing partnership of learning centers in over 60 developing countries. Facilitating knowledge exchange and capacity building in developing countries, GDLN Affiliates offer the use of distance learning tools such as interactive videoconferencing for peer-to-peer learning and dialogue among change agents, usually against a fee for services and facility use. Affiliates arrange, on behalf of their clients, meetings, workshops and courses that typically involve participants in several countries. The World Bank currently manages the partnership.

Initiated in 2000, the GDLN partnership has expanded rapidly, from 11 to over 120 Affiliates in seven years, evolving towards a consortium-based network. The Network’s governance structure is evolving, reflecting the growth and increasing diversity of the partnership. Over the past three years, in parallel with a rapid increase in the GDLN membership (both in terms of individual Affiliates and, increasingly, large in-country networks), Affiliates in Africa, the Americas, East Asia and Eurasia have begun creating regional associations with localized missions and structures for decision-making, oversight, and direct member participation in decisions and responsibilities that will help scale up the services and products they offer and also ensure Affiliates’ financial sustainability. For the global network to scale up its value added, it will be essential for its members to define and agree on a common vision, based on a sound understanding of the current products and services offered under the GDLN brand worldwide. 

The workshop will bring together the Bank’s GDLN management team (regional GDLN coordinators and the WBI GDLN Secretariat) and one to two representatives of GDLN Affiliates in each region.