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About Sumernet
The Challenge of Sustainable Mekong
The Role of the Knowledge Community
A useful concept in this regard is that of the “knowledge community”. It refers to individuals and institutions, which – notwithstanding differences in background, interests or skills – have both an interest in and the ability to produce knowledge for the relevant policy domain. These communities often span across a variety of divides, and are comprised of indigenous researchers as well as international experts, from complementary disciplines and backgrounds, as well as decision makers (both domestic and international) and civil society actors. In the Mekong region, this community can broadly be categorized into three groups (though there is some overlap between them):
- Civil society and non-government organisations: e.g. research and advocacy NGOs, international organizations and public policy institutions and networks.
- Academic and research institutions: e.g. universities, independent research institutions, independent experts, the mass media, and research arms of government agencies, donor organizations and financial institutions.
- Decision-makers: i.e. government departments, regional agencies, donor organizations, the private sector and financial institutions.
The problem facing many developing countries is how to strengthen the knowledge community and enable it to discover its voice, how to create languages and perspectives that facilitate the solution of problems, how to engender a shift in the discourse from heuristic opinion to informed judgment, how to level the playing field in terms of access to knowledge and information, and how to harness the power of scientific research more fully in the service of sustainable development.
Sumernet's vision of catalytic action envisages a response to this situation at three levels (Box 2): at the lowest level, designation of a dedicated support team for logistical and communications support, resource mobilization, and outreach; in the middle level, the formal agreement between the founding partners on the creation of the network – essentially a community of practice for sustainability in the region – and associated division of responsibilities; and at the higher level, the development of a programme of work – creating platforms for interaction with stakeholders, building capacity, enhancing access to independent information and analysis, and providing outlets for dissemination – oriented explicitly towards the catalysis, coalescence, and take-off of the regional knowledge community on sustainable development.
Such an enabling environment is a key contributing factor – perhaps, the contributing factor – of a sustainability transition. The point has been made eloquently by Dr. Mingsarn Kaosa-Ard, Director of the Social Research Institute, Chiang Mai University, Thailand, in her review of the considerable disparity in various poverty estimates for the region, stating that: “[This is] not necessarily problematic in open and well-informed societies with strong education and research institutes, aided by free access to official information and a free press. However, in most Mekong region countries … [there] is insufficient capacity and resources to enable close scrutiny of public data. The result is that people in the region are … [deprived] of their rightful entitlements to public resources and
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