Launch of the knowledge platforms

Toespraak | 13-06-2012

Mr Amoako, Professor Gunning, ladies and gentlemen,

Academics are professional sceptics and politicians are professional decision-makers, said Robbert Dijkgraaf in last year’s Machiavelli lecture. The former president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences claimed that since the academic mainly seeks subtleties and the politician is above all pragmatic, they seldom see eye to eye. Because academics and politicians have widely differing interests, far too little academic knowledge is applied in the practice of politics.

This problem is by no means new. In 1937, the economist John Maynard Keynes wrote, ‘There is nothing a government hates more than to be well-informed; for it makes the process of arriving at decisions much more complicated and difficult.’ It is much easier to choose if you are not aware of all the pros and cons. No fat files, just a short report. That is what politicians prefer.

Criticism of this kind is inextricably linked to the profession. But as a politician, I too believe that knowledge should play a more central role in policy. No one benefits from fact-free politics. Both politicians and the policymakers at my ministry are responsible for analysing trends and interpreting events occurring all over the world. And their analysis goes much deeper than what you find in the newspapers.

You need knowledge to define a context. And that sometimes means reading a whole stack of dossiers and books. But often knowledge and experience have not been recorded on paper. They can only be conveyed by word of mouth. For decent policy, knowledge needs to be shared, combined and applied. But first, knowledge and policy have to meet. And that is often easier said than done.

That is also apparent at my Ministry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We could be more ambitious in our quest for knowledge, according to a critical report on Dutch development cooperation released by the Advisory Council on Government Policy in January 2010. Civil servants are knowledgeable and highly educated. But because they change jobs so often, the ministry has a very short institutional memory. We need to invest more in knowledge about development. Not only in knowledge to make our own policy more effective, but also in knowledge within developing countries. And we need to use the knowledge and experience we have more effectively.

I took the Council’s criticism to heart. That is why I am here today to launch the knowledge platforms. Today marks the start of a partnership for the development of knowledge.

Why, ladies and gentlemen, is knowledge so important for development cooperation? Marc Dierkx, a historian who studied the history of Dutch development cooperation, compared making policy without an institutional memory to a bicycle wheel. Every few years, the same questions are asked, attempts are made to solve the same problems, and the same approaches are used. The wheel keeps spinning. We keep on pedalling, but the bicycle doesn’t move.

To my mind, the bicycle is moving, but it could go faster. By learning from past experience, and applying current knowledge, we can make our policy more effective. Country-specific knowledge is vital. No two countries are alike. Every population, culture and environment has different needs. There is no standard formula for successful development cooperation. We have to adapt our approach to each individual country. Wherever we can, we need to share and use knowledge about peoples, countries and cultures. That is essential. Because if you pedal too slowly, you and your bicycle will fall over.

So to move ahead, knowledge is important. We also need knowledge in order to do away with the image of the fact-free politician. The idea that policy priorities are chosen solely on the basis of scoring points with the electorate. Or the notion that, despite our good intentions, we do more harm than good. To ensure that policy is not determined purely by our wishes, we need researchers who take a critical look at it. And we need to take their conclusions seriously.

Let me give you an example of how research can correct policy. It is a well-known fact that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo violence against women is rife. The country has even been called the rape capital of the world. The problem has attracted much attention from NGOs and governments. Sexual violence is a serious problem in the DRC, and all the international attention is quite justified. But researchers from Wageningen University point out that this attention isn’t always effective. The mobile courts sponsored with development aid provided legal support for victims, but not for suspects. As a result, innocent men have probably been convicted of rape. We are now looking to see whether other Dutch projects have had similar, undesirable side-effects.

So we need knowledge for effective policy. That was always the case, but now it is more important than ever.

First, because development policy is becoming more and more complex. International trends are having an increasing impact at national level. Global public goods like clean air, biodiversity and food security play an important role in our development policy. The adjective ‘global’ indicates how comprehensive and influential these goods are. To safeguard them, we need vast amounts of knowledge.

Knowledge is also playing a greater role in economic and social development. Since innovation is progress, the right knowledge is essential. Knowledge of nanotechnology for entrepreneurs in India, and of hydrotechnology for farmers in Uganda. The knowledge economy is worldwide.

Finally, parties other than the government increasingly possess unique knowledge. I am talking here not only about academic knowledge, but also knowledge in the field. On my visits to partner countries, it always strikes me that the local staff of NGOs usually know best what is needed, and how it can be achieved.

Companies too possess essential knowledge. Ernst & Young did a study of Africa’s ability to attract business. And they discovered that European companies see fewer opportunities in Africa’s growing market than companies from other parts of the world. For the ministry, this was a useful study, since we are trying to involve the private sector in development cooperation. But we do not have the resources to ask 500 of the world’s business leaders for their views on investing in Africa.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We sometimes lack the time for evaluations, we make too little use of research, and our policies are often led by our wishes rather than the facts. We hope to improve this situation through cooperation. The knowledge is often there. All we have to do is share it, and build on it.

A good example of how people can benefit from each other’s knowledge is ‘Diplopedia’. This is a wiki set up by and for US State Department officials. It has been a great success. Very quickly, two thousand active users published more than ten thousand articles. The result was a concrete institutional memory, with reliable, up-to-date information.

I want to achieve the effects of crowdsourcing for development cooperation, with individuals voluntarily contributing and pooling valuable information. Besides academics, we are also going to work more closely with NGOs and companies. Valuable development partners are also major knowledge partners. They have a greater share in this increasingly connected world, so it makes sense to involve them in gathering information. We need collective responsibility, with the ministry playing the role of broker.

The knowledge platforms, Rob Swartbol has just told you about, puts this type of cooperation into practice. Together you will draft the main research questions, and you will also ensure that research results help us make policy.

For these networks, we should be looking beyond our borders, to partnerships with experts and institutes from other countries. North or South. In Europe, in emerging economies and partner countries. To ensure worldwide access to essential knowledge.

Access to the best knowledge. That’s what I want to bring about in the Netherlands too. That is why I have taken a closer look at the network of knowledge organisations associated with the ministry. We no longer give money away untied, but allow institutions to compete for assignments. And they work together with the knowledge platforms. I hope this will lead to more quality and more focus.

Within the ministry too, I am making better use of knowledge and experience in making policy. We are gathering, preserving and using knowledge more effectively, in assigning tasks, for example. Every department has a staff member engaged in gathering knowledge on their subject and drafting strategies.

Ladies and gentlemen, you are here today as experts. You will shortly be in meetings, making a start with the knowledge platforms. By combining your diverse knowledge, disciplines and experience, you will form a solid network. A network in which we strengthen each other and raise the quality of our policy on our four priority themes.

I hope that by meeting at the same table you will reduce the distance between government, business, NGOs and the research world. As a former academic, journalist and businessperson myself, I know how great the differences can be. And despite this, or perhaps because of this, I would say: look beyond your ivory towers, offices or ministry. Make the move from knowledge through policy to practice. Because by working together we can achieve a productive exchange. The academic can still be a professional sceptic. And as a professional decision-maker, I can base my political choices on facts. With your help.

Thank you.