News
Below is Supras‘ TripIt account. Includes updates on Supras activities. Links to other pages on the Supras site for more detailed treatment are often included.
For further details on an activity see the Portfolio. The output of Supras’ work, be it documents, images or websites, is available in section Library.
Information about our activities and work are also available at these pages: TripIt and Twitter.
2012
- 17 January 2012
- Involved as partner in a very interesting proposal for a large project on creative economy, to be submitted to EU's FP7 Cooperation Work Programme (Activity 8.1, Area 8.1.1, SSH.2012.1.1-2). The other partners represent Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and UK.
- 12 January 2012
- Registered and manage a new group on LinkedIn, devoted to Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). The membership climbed to 70 within days!
- 5 January 2012
- Working to identify a capable manager of Supras Limited Bulgaria. Suggestions for good candidates are welcome!
2011
- 14-20 September 2011
- Participated in the European conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons (IASC), 14-17 September, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and for business in Sofia in connection with Supras Ltd. Bulgaria. [more]
- 10 September 2011
- Supras purchased the domain www.stakeholderanalysis.net. It will be used in connection with the LinkedIn group “Stakeholder analysis” that Supras owns and manages (see below).
- 3 September 2011
- The LinkedIn group “Stakeholder analysis” was registered. This group is owned and managed by Supras [access]
Comment: The website will eventually move to www.stakeholderanalysis.net (see above). - 2 September 2011
- Participated in conference on microfinance “Practice meets theory: what is the future of microfinance in the post Yunus area?,” organized by Norwegian Centre for Microfinance Research, University of Agder, Norway. [access]
- 30 July 2011
- The paper “Protected areas in transition economies: Stakeholders, resources and change in Calimani national Park and Tara Dornelor, Romania” was finalized and submitted to the organizers of the European conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons (IASC), in September 2011 (see below and above).
- 16-31 May 2011
- On assignment in Bulgaria (Varna and Sofia). Specifically to network and set up our new consultancy firm, Supras Ltd., that was registered recently.
- 10 May 2011
- Our proposal for a paper on stakeholder analysis in protected areas in transition economies, based on data from Romania, accepted for presentation at the European conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons (IASC), 14-17 September 2011. [more]
2010
- 28 April 2010
- Supras’ Image bank, which used to be available partly on the Supras site and partly on Flickr, is now transferred completely to Flickr. [flickr.com/supras/collections]
- 4 April 2010
- Images from the March 2010 mission to Nepal (see below) uploaded to Supras’ Flickr site. [flickr.com/supras/collections]
- 28 March 2010
- Returned from the mission to Nepal (see below). The idea and concept of “social inclusion” has attained a remarkable position in Nepal. SIRF’s role in this larger picture is to provide grants to persons belonging to ethnic and tribal minorities, in order to provide training in social science research at the university level. The goals are to produce critical research, make social science research more relevant, and ensure that research contributes effectively to public debate, policy making and a deliberative democratic process. [www.socialinclusion.org.np]
- 18 March 2010
- Travel to Nepal in connection with evaluation of the project “Social Inclusion Research Fund” (SIRF). [www.socialinclusion.org.np]
- 3 March 2010
- A new intern is working with us, namely Simi Ann Solaas. Welcome! [access]
- 9 February 2010
- Supras’ Capability Statement is updated, available in two forms. [html | pdf]
- 2 February 2010
- Images from the January 2010 mission to Romania uploaded to Supras’ Flickr site. [flickr.com/supras/collections]
2009
- December 2009
- In Romania to provide support to the . project “Ecotourism in Tara Dornelor - An instrument for sustainable development”.
- November 2009
- In Romania to provide support to the . project “Ecotourism in Tara Dornelor - An instrument for sustainable development”.
- September 2009
- In Romania to provide support to the . project “Ecotourism in Tara Dornelor - An instrument for sustainable development”.
- 27 May 2009
- Participation in two conferences in Oslo: (1) Norad meeting to present the new strategy for support to civil society in the South, and (2) Fredskorpset’s annual “Municipality conference”.
- 15 May 2009
- Supras’ TripIt and Twitter accounts added. [access: TripIt | Twitter]
- 15-28 April 2009
- Mission to Nepal, in connection with the Norad-funded project on education and ICT (for details, see below under 27 February 2009).
Comment: The project is presented on this Supras page. - 3-7 April 2009
- Mission to Slovenia, on behalf of CBNRM Net. CBNRM Net is a partner in the project Support for Local Initiatives (PoLok), together with Inštitut za politike prostora (IPOP) (Institute for Policies of Space) and Zavod za prostorsko kulture (Trajekt). CBNRM Net was represented through Lars T Soeftestad at a project workshop for public sector representatives in a number of Ljubljana’s municipalities, where he gave a presentation titled “The benefits of partnerships in spatial planning: Stakeholders, relationships, communication, participation and cooperation.” (available for downloading (see below). A public roundtable on these issues was also organized, with Lars as moderator.
Comment: The project is presented on this Supras page. Information on the project is also available on the PoLok project’s website (in Slovenian, with a couple of pages in English). The presentation given at the project workshop is available here. Images from the public roundtable are available here. - 27 February 2009
- Project proposal on adult education and ICT4D in Nepal, prepared jointly with Norwegian Association for Adult Learning (VOFO), in partnership with READ Nepal, awarded by Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). More detailed information to appear.
Comment: This is seed funding in order to prepare a large and comprehensive project proposal in fall 2009. A fact-finding mission is planned for April 2009. - 5 February
- A 2003 paper titled “ICT and development: East is east and west is west and the twain may yet meet,” coauthored with Maung K. Sein (University of Agder), addressed the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in development cooperation, and included a case study of the process of implementing an ICT-strategy in the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, or ‘Norad’). This paper will be republished in an edited collection of papers that will address WTO, communication and e-commerce. The publication is anticipated in Autum 2009. [more]
Comment: The above linked page includes citations for both the 2003 work (including a download link) and the new publication. - January 2009
- A series of dialogue meetings with members of the politically elected City Council in Kristiansand, held separately for each political party. Emphasis on capacity building in connection with an increasing emphasis in Kristiansand, at both administrative and political levels, of internationalization and north-south relations. Agreement was reached that this will be an ongoing dialogue. Implemented in collaboration with Forum South.
- January 2009
- The complete website has been overhauled, including architecture, layout and content.
Comment: the site map and page indexes will be updated later, which means that some searches will turn up empty pages. However, in these cases there will be a forwarding link available to the correct page.
2008
- December 2008
- A revised version of Supras’ “Capability statement” is available. [access]
Comment: The statement can be accessed from the home page. - Primo September 2008
- Meetings with the Foundation of Speleology; in Suceava, Romania. The purpose are discussions of a partnership between the Foundation and Supras, and preparing a joint project proposal on ecotourism and renewable energy.
- 16-26 July 2008
- Mission de supervision de L’UNOPS, Project de Développement Rural dans le Moyen Atlas Oriental, Maroc. Supras contributed to the planning and setting up a comprehensive and scalable monitoring and evaluation system (M&E) for this IFAD project.
Comment: The dedicated project website is here. - 14-18 July 2008
- 12th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons (IASC), Cheltenham, England. [access].
Comment: Two papers presented, on (1) “Institutions, organizations and the poverty/environment nexus: Challenges to a rights-based approach to management of coastal resources in Colombia and Ghana,” (co-authored with Laura Alayon), and (2) Protecting traditional property rights under conditions of change: Production of plant oils as a community-based enterprise in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco,” (co-authored with Bernadette Montanari) [more] - 3-5 July 2008
- Networking visit to Association for the Support of Economic Development and Economic Integration (ASEDEI); in Varna, Bulgaria. The purpose was discussions of the partnership between ASEDEI and Supras.
- 1 July 2008
- Official launch of the NGO Fund for Bulgaria, under the EEA Financial Mechanism; in Sofia, Bulgaria. Organized by Foundation for Local Government Reform (FLGR) and Bulgarian Environmental Partnership Foundation (BEPF), jointly with Royal Norwegian Embassy. The workshop provided opportunities for networking between representatives of civil society in Bulgaria and Norway.
Comment: On EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism, see Comment under 30 January 2008 below. - 30 June 2008
- The official launch of the NGO Fund for Romania under the EEA Financial Mechanism; in Bucharest, Romania. Organized by Fundatia pentru Dezvoltarea Societății Civile (FDSC), jointly with Royal Norwegian Embassy. The workshop provided opportunities for networking between representatives of civil society in Romania and Norway.
Comment: On EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism, see Comment under 30 January 2008 below. - 23 May 2008
- Launch of a networking website for Norwegian organizations and institutions in the public sector, private sector and civil society that are involved with the EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism. The website is the result of a partnership with the Norwegian Association for Adult Learning (NAAL) and Community-Based Natural Resource Management Network (CBNRM Net). [access]
Comment: The website is available in Norwegian. On the EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism, see the Comment under 30 January 2008 below. - 6 May 2008
- Funding received for the project “Support for Local Initiatives” in Slovenia. The counterpart is Inštitut za politike prostora (Institute for Policies of Space); Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Community-Based Natural Resource Management Network (CBNRM Net) is a partner.
Comment: Funding from the EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism (for details, see the Comment under 30 January 2008 below). Details on the project are available. - 10 April 2008
- Participation in the launch workshop for the Norwegian bilateral fund for Hungary; in Budapest, Hungary. Organized by the Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation, jointly with Autonómia Foundation, Foundation for Development of Democratic Rights and Carpathian Foundation. The workshop provided opportunities for networking between representatives of civil society in Hungary and Norway.
Comment: On the EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism, see the Comment under 30 January 2008 below. - 3 April 2008
- Participation in the launch workshop for the Norwegian bilateral fund for Portugal; in Lisbon, Portugal. Organized by the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG). The workshop provided opportunities for networking between representatives of civil society in Portugal and Norway.
Comment: On the EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism, see the Comment under 30 January 2008 below. - 28-29 February 2008
- Participation in the NGO Fund conference “EEA Grants and Civil Society. Experiences and Visions;” in Oslo, Norway. Organized by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism. The workshop provided opportunities for networking and exchange of experiences between representatives of civil society in a number of the recipient countries, as well as in Norway.
Comment: On the EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism, see the Comment under 30 January 2008 below. - 26 February 2008
- Participation in the “Norwegian-Polish Partnership Forum;” in Warsaw, Poland. Organized by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The workshop provided opportunities for networking between representatives of civil society in Poland and Norway.
Comment: On the EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism, see the Comment under 30 January 2008 below. - 30 January 2008
- Participation in the launch workshop for the Norwegian bilateral fund for Slovenia; in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Organized by the Regional Environment Centre for Central and Eastern Europe, Country Office Slovenia (REC). The workshop provided opportunities for networking between representatives of civil society in Slovenia and Norway.
Comment: The EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism aim to reduce social and economic disparities within the European Economic Area (EEA), and to enable all EEA countries to participate fully in the Internal Market. See also the NGO Norway Information Portal.
2007
- 5 December 2007
- Uploaded a number of Supras documents prepared over the last several months, including conference papers. [access]
- 22-23 November 2007
- Participation in a civil society conference on “Good citizenship - A project or lifestyle?;” in Tallinn, Estonia. Organized by the Network of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations (NENO). The conference included the launch workshop for the Norwegian bilateral fund for Estonia, and provided opportunities for networking between representatives of civil society in Estonia and Norway.
Comment: The EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism aim to reduce social and economic disparities within the European Economic Area (EEA), and to enable all EEA countries to participate fully in the Internal Market. See also the NGO Norway Information Portal. - 10 October 2007
- A new consultant, Bernadette Montanari, added to the Supras roster. For details see Staff and consultants.
- 6 October 2007
- The tool Snap shots (from www.snap.com) installed on select pages. It enhances links with visual previews and interactive excerpts of the external destination site.
- 24-27 September 2007
- Participated in Web2forDev 2007 conference in Rome, Italy. This is the first conference devoted to exploring the ways in which international development stakeholders can take advantage of the technical and organizational opportunities provided by Web 2.0 methods, approaches and applications.
- 1-16 September 2007
- Project supervision missions: Raymah Area Development Project and Dhamar Participatory Rural Development Project, two IFAD/UNOPS projects in Yemen.
- 28 June 2007
- Presentation on “ICT-based networks as communities of practise: Past, present and future,” at internal staff seminar at the World Bank, Washington DC, United States.
- 18-22 June 2007
- Participant at the Twenty-Seventh Annual ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, USA. Presented the paper “Environmental trends analysis (ETA): Tools for poverty alleviation,” with co-authors Jim Tarrant and Lauren Sorkin (International Resources Group).
- 2 June 2007
- Agreement reached concerning a seminar presentation to be given at the World Bank ultimo June. Details to be announced.
- 30 May 2007
- Submitted an abstract for the annual conference of the Norwegian Association for Development Research (NFU). Prepared jointly with colleagues in Colombia and Ghana, this is a comparative study of coastal zone management in the two countries, emphasizing institutions (in the sense of New Institutional Economics) and organizations, as located in the traditional and the modern sectors, and their roles in poverty reduction. Nice that the Bank sector work I did in Ghana 10 years back still is useful. [access]
- 24 April 2007
- Uploaded a new paper “Social GIS: Integrating GIS and participatory mapping,” that builds upon experiences with the [Mauritania Technology Fosters Tradition (TFT) project. It presents Social GIS, a new methodological approach and process for how to integrate participatory mapping and GIS. This paper came about as a separate output in connection with preparing the paper on Environmental Trends Analysis (ETA) for the ESRI 2007 International User Conference (see above). The paper is available in html format and will, upon final revision, be available as a Supras Notes paper. [access]
Comment: Additional links: conference | ETA] - 29 February 2007
- Began collaboration with Lauren N. Sorkin and James J. Tarrant (both with International Resources Group, Inc.) on a paper on Environmental Trends Analysis (ETA) and poverty alleviation to be presented at the ESRI 2007 International User Conference (San Diego, 18-22 June). [more]
Comment: Additional links: [conference | ETA]
2006
- 3-11 November 2006
- Participated in the 9th plenary meeting of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Organization (GSDI), in Santiago, Chile, and a USAID-sponsored workshop on Environmental Trend Analysis (ETA). Presented the World Bank project Technology Fosters Tradition (TFT) in Mauritania, for the workshop as well as to the conference at large. [more]
Comment: Additional link: [images] - 18 October 2006
- Preparation is underway on two presentations. The first is a public lecture in Kristiansand on 24 October, organized by Forum Sør (Forum South) on the topic of “Stakeholders, relations and results in development cooperation.” The second is a presentation on GIS and the environment-poverty nexus, using data from Mauritania, to be presented at the 9th plenary meeting of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Organization (GSDI) (see immediately above). [more]
- 15 October 2006
- The site modification is almost over. What remains now is largely the support pages, that is, FAQ, Help, Page index, Search and Sitemap.
- 14 August 2006
- A major modification of the Supras site is underway, involving structure, architecture, usability and content. It will be done in steps, and will hopefully be done by mid-October.
- 9 August 2006
- Project “Reversal of land and water degradation trends in the Lake Chad Basin ecosystem: Establishment of mechanisms for land and water management” (Lake Chad Basin Commission / Global Environment Facility, RAF/00/G31/P070252). In connection with the “Environmental and social risk assessment” assignment under this project (see below), submitted report on “Social risk analysis in the Lake Chad Basin.” [more]
- 17 July 2006
- Project “Reversal of land and water degradation trends in the Lake Chad Basin ecosystem: Establishment of mechanisms for land and water management” (Lake Chad Basin Commission / Global Environment Facility, RAF/00/G31/P070252). Submitted, jointly with Impact Assessment, Inc. (La Jolla, California, USA), Social Impact Assessment (New York, USA) and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (Johannesburg, South Africa), the draft final report under the project’s “Environmental and social risk assessment” assignment. [more]
- 1-7 July 2006
- Project: “Aceh and Nias Recovery Program.” Informal reconnaissance and study field visit to Meulaboh, Aceh, on the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, to study the project “Aceh and Nias Recovery Program,” implemented by Norwegian Church Aid in collaboration with Church World Service (CWS) Indonesia. [more]
- 20-23 June 2006
- Presentation of a paper “Regulating the commons in Mauritania: Local agreements as a tool for sustainable natural resource management,” written jointly with Karl Peter Kirsch-Jung, at the 11th International Conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons (IASC), Bali, Indonesia. [more]
- 6 June 2006
- Lars was elected Chairperson of Forum Sør (Forum South), a resource network for institutions and organizations – as located in civil society, public sector and private sector – in the Agder region in southern Norway that work on development cooperation.
Comment: Additional link: [website]