Presentation of Swiss Research Partnership Projects

Swiss Universities for Applied Sciences and Swisscontact
A development promotion program backed by SDC

Knowledge Exchange Platform North-South
The Chad-Cameroon pipeline project as a challenge for
methods, evaluation and community research

Short Summary

The idea behind the Knowledge Exchange Platform n/s project has brought together two levels.

1. The content level focusing on global trends and local impacts on the example of the World Bank Project in Cameroon: A participative Community Studies field study (workshops) was conducted in February in Yaoundé, together with our African partners.
2. The methodological focus involving the development of an ICT platform for north-south knowledge exchange: In the sense of a pilot for the further development of the International Community Development knowledge exchange project, initial experiences were gathered during the Yaoundé workshop.

In-depth documentation on the project can be found on the www.knowledge-exchange.ch platform. All documents on the Yaoundé workshop are stored here; various podcasts describe the seminars and discussions taking place in situ; and the discussion forums contain the on-line exchange between the students in Cameroon and Switzerland.

All of the project’s objectives have been or can be achieved, as has become evident in several respects. To be more precise:

1. Chad-Cameroon Worldpipe as a model example of global trends and local impacts: Convention attendance by Southern partners in Lucerne, summer 2008 publication in the planning stages, seminars and workshops with Southern partners within the context of Hans-Peter Meier-Dallach’s World Drivers Association, fall 2007, implementation of the methodological Community-Based Development approaches in the South, integration of the model example into the curriculum, developing it into a new interdisciplinary module of the Lucerne School entitled Development Cooperation/Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (starting in the 2007/2008 winter term).
2. Further development of the knowledge exchange platform within the context of International Community Development und integration into the International Community Development Master program.

HSA, on this basis and in connection with the consolidation of international development (a new department will be established starting in the fall of 2007), is considering a commitment in the field of knowledge collaboration in the South, also in combination with the development of a Master program. Experts are currently in the process of conducting preliminary inquiries and exploratory talks. This follow-up application is intended to be a new EZA research application to be submitted this coming winter.