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Below are announcement about our ongoing activities and work, often together with relevant links. For further details on operational work see section Portfolio. The output of Supras’ work, including documents, images and websites, is available in section Library.

Information about Supras' activities and work are available via our profiles at these social media platforms: Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, TripIt and Twitter.

2016

November 2016 - November 2018
NalGad Hydropower Project, Nepal. Employer: SMEC Holdings / Surbana Jurong.
Comments: Title: Resettlement Expert / Planner & EIA Expert. The role of the Resettlement Expert / Planner & EIA Expert is to provide social / cultural inputs to the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) for this proposed project, under a contract with the Government of Nepal. General services provided include technical advice and reporting (including as regards Ethnic Minorities Development Plan, gender and ethnic minorities issues) in accordance with international and national guidelines. Furthermore, it includes supervision and implementation of social related activities for the project, assistance with national staff management, client liaison, and other tasks as directed by SMEC / Surbana Jurong.
Links: SMEC | Project Data Sheet | ? | Images
March
Climate change and energy efficiency project (Riga, Latvia).
Comments: In Riga, Latvia, working with the NGO "Eku saglabasanas un energotaupibas birojs" and Riga Technical University on the project "Renovation impact on climate change and energy efficiency habits of residents". The project is implemented in the framework of the The European Economic Area (EEA) Financial Mechanism 2009 - 2014 Programme's "National Climate Policy" small grant scheme "Capacity Building in the Field of Research and Measures for Enhancing Society's Understanding about Climate Change and its Consequences".
This mission aims to review and quality control massive data sets collected through nationwide surveys.
Links: Organization name | Project Data Sheet | ? | Images

2014

9-14 May 2014
Green Days, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Comments: Lars Soeftestad gave a presentation on social issues, networking and env. protection in connection with implementing the Rio Conventions.
Text. Links: Zelenidni / Green Days
November-December 2014
Title/heading.
Links: Organization name
Comments: Activities: (1) Supras business meetings (Sofia), (2) Project meetings, including a project on Roma (Sofia),(3) Preparation of new projects, incl. a marine archaeology project (Nesebar, Bulgaria) and a medical anthropology project involving Roma (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), (4) Conference "The future of the lower Danube: Regional economic encouragement - intelligent cities - new infrastructure" (Svishtov, Bulgaria, 24. November). My presentation it titled "Responsible research and innovation: EU and Bulgaria". The focus is on a new EU strategy on R&I for all Danube countries [conf. website], (5) Conference "Central and Eastern Europe, Civil society Forum" (Bucharest, Romania, 27.-28. November 2014) [conf. website], (6) Meeting organized by the Norwegian Embassy in Bulgaria to launch a "Norwegian-Bulgarian Business Group" (Sofia).
3 September 2014
Knowledge Broker, South Norway European Office (Kristiansand, Norway and Brussels, Belgium).
Links: South Norway European Office
Comments: Lars Soeftestad is now Knowledge Broker with the South Norway European Office. The position entails the responsibilities to identify concrete opportunities and triggering actions in respect of EU and international project funding, knowledge transfer and exchange, within the thematic and sectorial areas of strategic importance to the South Norway region and its players.
The goals of the South Norway Europan Office are to contribute to the further development of the region through, among others: (1) Better utilization of the possibilities in the EEA agreement, (2) Increase the participation of regional actors in Agder in EU-projects, and (3) Promote networking with European stakeholders. The South Norway European Office is headquarted in Kristiansan, Norway and had an office in Brussels, Belgium.
30 June - 2 July 2014
Seminar on human rights and domestic violence (Sofia, Bulgaria).
Links: Presentation | Images
Comments: (1) The National Institute of Justice in Bulgaria organized a seminar under the project "Increasing the capacity of the judiciary and training on the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms at the National Institute of Justice." The EEA and Norway Grants provided financial support. The participants were judges and magistrates from Regional Courts throughout Bulgaria. The topic of the seminar was "Domestic violence - international legal framework. Recent case law of ECHR. Practical issues in the implementation of Law on Domestic Violence". Lars Soeftestad was responsible for the seminar on 1 July, which had an emphasis on international perspectives, including addressing culture and cultural relativism, that is, the fact that domestic violence is a relative concept to be viewed against the absolute standards of international human rights, (2) The Flickr page includes the list of participants, (3) see also the comment on Supras' company page on LinkedIn.
9-13 May 2014
Green Days (Sofia, Bulgaria).
Links: Green Day website (Bulgarian only) | Conference program | Presentation (to appear).
Comments: The Green Days is an annual event. In addition to a number of public activities, there is a conference that focuses on, among others, sustainable business and tourism. Lars Soeftestad gave a presentation on "Protecting our environment: from CBNRM and stakeholder analysis via networking to the Rio Conventions." The presentation addressed the linkages between micro- and macro-societal levels, and the concomitant connections between stakeholders in public sector, private sector and civil society.
11-13 March 2014
Soil and Land Leadership Events (Bonn, Germany).
Links: Overview of events | Presentation | Images
Comments: Lars Soeftestad was invited to participate in these workshops, as a follow-up of his participation in the UNCCD COP 11 (Namibia, September 2013; see below), where he addressed the role of the private sector in supporting and advancing sustainable land mangement. The following UN agencies and related organizations were involved: Economics of Land Degradation (ELD), UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), UN Global Compact (UNGC), and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). There were three separate but linked workshops: Economics and Land Degradation for the Private Sector (ELD), Soil Leadership Academy (UNCCD), and Principles for Sustainable Soil Management (UNGC and WBCSD).

2013

23-25 October 2013
2nd European Ecotourism Conference (Poiana Brasov, Romania).
Comments: Lars Soeftestad was invited as Speaker on the topic "Multi-stakeholder approaches to developing ecotourism destinations," with a presentation titled "Stakeholder analysis, an analytical tool in the implementation, management and evaluation of ecotourism activities." In addition to the conference presentation itself, also the original larger file is linked above.
Links: Presentation | Presentation (original) | Images
2-14 October 2013
Business/project meetings/events (Sofia, Bulgaria).
16-27 September 2013
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Conference of the Parties (Windhoek, Namibia).
Comments: In order to highlight the impressive efforts by national and local governments, UNCCD recognizes that it is vital to work together with the international business community. To this end selected private sector firms and organisations were invited to participate in the conference. More specifically, they were invited to support the Sustainable Land Management Business Forum (SLMBF) which organized a series of high level meetings at the conference, aimed at providing real solutions in the fight to combat land degradation, within the context of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). Lars Soeftestad was, in collaboration with Responding to Climate Change (RTCC) and Entico Corporation, invited to participate, and Supras Ltd. is a proud sponsor of the SLMB Forum.
Lars Soeftestad was invited as an expert on land management, multi-stakeholder analysis, PPP, and social development, in order to participate in and facilitate interaction between the delegates and the private sector on issues related to land management, specifically in the Sustainable Land Management (SLM) Business Form. In the SLMB Forum he, among others, presented the technical paper "The private sector in development cooperation: Land management, climate change and social development" (Supras Briefing Note, no. 5, September 2013). This technical paper addresses the realities of how the private sector interacts with civil society at the local level, in both developing and transition economies. It argues that much need to change in order for the private sector to contribute to sustainable local development in a meaningful way. Together with other interventions, this technical paper contributed to the inclusion of important language on social issues in the Forum's Declaration.
Lars Soeftestad was also interviewed on Climate Change TV managed by RTCC.
Links: Technical paper | Climate Change TV Interview (Note: in addition to Supras' channel on Vimeo, the interview is available on, among others, YouTube and RTCC.) | Images
8-15 August 2013
Business/project meetings/events (Sofia, Bulgaria).

16 May - 8 June 2013
Business/project meetings/events (Sofia and Varna, Bulgaria).
19 February - 7 March 2013
Business/project meetings/events (Dobrich, Sofia and Varna, Bulgaria).
Links: Norwegian embassy, Business Forum, Sofia (images) | Business/project meetings, Dobrich and Varna (images) | Karin Dom Foundation, Varna (images)
Comments: Cf. the activity below.
20-22 February 2013
International conference on "Opportunities for development of ecological tourist attractions in region Ruse-Giurgiou" (Ruse, Bulgaria). This was the closing conference of the EU-funded project "Eco-tourism: A Perspective for development of two small cross-border communities" (MISETS 791 No. 2(21)-3.1-12).
Links: | Networking meeting, Ruse (images) | Ecotourism conference (images, to appear).
Comments: This EU-funded and managed project built ecotourism facilities, specifically eco-trails and associated visitor centres, intended as vehicles for local development, in two neighboring regions in Bulgaria and Romania, along the Danube. Visits were made to the project locations in, respectively, Vitovo, Bulgaria and Giurgiou, Romania. Cf. the activity above.

2012

19-24 November 2012
Launch workshop, EEA and Norway Grants for Bulgaria (Sofia, Bulgaria).
Links: Images
10-27 May 2012
Business/project meetings/events (Dobrich, Kazanlak, Sofia and Varna, Bulgaria).
Links: Boyana Church, Sofia (images) | Bulgarian-Nordic Chamber of Commerce, Business Forum, Dobrich (images) | Norwegian 17 May reception, Varna (images) | Meeting with Roma NGO, Sofia (images)
? April 2012
Green Industry Innovation Conference (Oslo, Norway).
Links: Images
Comments: Organized by Innovation Norway.
17 January 2012
Partner in a project proposal 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 are from Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and UK.
12 January 2012
Registered a new group on LinkedIn devoted to Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM).
Links: LinkedIn | CBNRM group
Comments: The membership climbed to 70 within days. At the end of 2013 the group had more than 600 members.
5 January 2012
Working to identify a manager of Supras Limited Bulgaria. Suggestions for good candidates are welcome!

2011

14-20 September 2011
European conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons (IASC), 14-17 September (Plovdiv, Bulgaria); business meetings in connection with Supras Ltd. Bulgaria (Sofia and Varna, Bulgaria).
Links: 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 (cf. activity below).
3 September 2011
The LinkedIn group “Stakeholder analysis” was registered. This group is owned and managed by Supras.
Links: More
Comment: The website will eventually move to www.stakeholderanalysis.net (cf. activity above).
2 September 2011
Conference on microfinance “Practice meets theory: what is the future of microfinance in the post Yunus area?,” (Kristiansand, Norway).
Link: More
Comments: organized by Norwegian Centre for Microfinance Research, University of Agder.
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
Business/project meetings/events (Varna and Sofia, Bulgaria).
Comments: Esp. in connection with a new consultancy firm, Supras Ltd., that was registgered recently.
10 May 2011
A 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, in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Links: More
5 May 2011
The report "Calimani National Park, Romania: Stakeholder analysis", submitted to local project authorities for the project "Ecotourism in Tara Dornelor, Romania, an instrument for sustainable development," in Vatra Dornei, Romania.
Links: Report
Comments: The report is recognized also as Supras Paper, no. 1, May 2011. A revised version was submitted to an IASC conference (cf. activity above).

2010

? December 2010
Business/project meetings/events, in connection with registering Supras Ltd. (Varna, Bulgaria).
Links: images
? November 2010
Business meetings/events, founding meeting of the Norwegian Drupal Group (Oslo, Norway).
Links: Images
5-10 September 2010
"Effective project management for the adult education staff", Grundtvig in-service training (Lublin, Poland).
Links: Images
Comments: Lars Soeftestad participated.
? August 2010
Calimani National Park project, stakeholder analysis 2 (Vatra Dornei, Romania).
Links: Images
Comments: Lars Soeftestad gave the training.
? July 2010
Calimani National Park project, stakeholder analysis 1 (Vatra Dornei, Romania).
Links: Images
Comments: Lars Soeftestad gave the training.
? July 2010
Coastal zone management project, workshop 2 (Varna, Bulgaria).
Links: Images
Comments: Lars Soeftestad gave the training.
28 April 2010
Supras’ Image bank transferred from a Supras website to Flickr.
Links: Flickr| Images
4 April 2010
Images from the March 2010 mission to Nepal (see below) uploaded to Supras’ Flickr site
Links: Images
28 March 2010
Lars Soeftestad returned from the mission to Nepal (cf. activity 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.
Links: www.socialinclusion.org.np
? March 2010
Meeting with the NGO ANSAB (Kathmandu, Nepal).
Links: Images
18 March 2010
Evaluation of the project “Social Inclusion Research Fund” (SIRF) (Nepal).
Links: SIRF
3 March 2010
A new intern is working with us, namely Simi Ann Solaas. Welcome!
Links: access
9 February 2010
Supras’ Capability Statement is updated, available in two forms.
Links: html version | pdf version
2 February 2010
Images from the January 2010 mission to Romania uploaded to Supras’ Flickr site.
Links: Primary school 2, Panaci (images) | Social activities, Dorna Arini (images) | Network training, Vatra Dornei (images) | Network meeting 2, Vatra Dornei (images) | Project team 2, Vatra Dornei (images)

2009

? December 2009
Providing support to the project “Ecotourism in Tara Dornelor - An instrument for sustainable development” (Vatra Dornir, Romania).
? November 2009
Providing support to the project “Ecotourism in Tara Dornelor - An instrument for sustainable development” (Vatra Dornir).
? October 2009
Supras’ TripIt and Twitter accounts added.
Links: TripIt | Twitter
? October 2009
Seminar on "Distributional impacts of closure of floodplain commons in Bangladesh" (Dhaka, Bangladesh).
Links: Images
27 May 2009
Participation in two conferences: (1) Norad meeting to present the new strategy for support to civil society in the South, and (2) Fredskorpset’s annual “Municipality conference” (Oslo, Norway).
Links: Norad | Fredskorpset
15 May 2009
Supras’ TripIt and Twitter accounts added.
Links: TripIt | Twitter
15-28 April 2009
Preparation mission for Norad-funded project on education and ICT (for details, see below under 27 February 2009) (Nepal).
Links: Project Data Sheet (to appear).
Comment: Cf. related activity in February 2009
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 by Lars 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.
Links: Project Data Sheet (to appear) | Project presentation (Project presentation (in Slovenian mostly) | Workshop presentation (to appear) | Images (to appear).
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).
Links: Project Data Sheet (to appear) | Images (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 (cf. related activity in April 2009).
5 February 2009
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 Autumn 2009.
Links: 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 Supras website completely 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.
Links: Capability Statement
Comment: The statement can be accessed from the home page.
? 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.
Links: Dedicated project website is here
14-18 July 2008
12th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons (IASC), Cheltenham, England.
Links: IASC | More
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)
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).
Links: More
Comment: Website is available in Norwegian. On the EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism, cf. the activity 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.
Links: Details on the project are available | Project Data Sheet (to appear)
Comment: Funding from the EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism (for details, see the Comment under 30 January 2008 below).
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.
Links: EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism | NGO Norway Information Portal
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.

2007

5 December 2007
Uploaded a number of Supras documents prepared over the last several months, including conference papers.
Links: 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.
Links: EEA Financial Mechanism / Norwegian Financial Mechanism | NGO Norway Information Portal.
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.
10 October 2007
A new consultant, Bernadette Montanari, added to the Supras roster.
Links: Staff and consultants.
6 October 2007
The tool Snap) installed on select websites and 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.
Links: Images (to appear).
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.
Links: More
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, that Supras implemented. 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.
Links: More | Conference | ETA.
29 February 2007
Began collaboration with Lauren N. Sorkin and James J. Tarrant (both International Resources Group, Inc.) on a paper on Environmental Trends Analysis (ETA) and poverty alleviation to be presented at ESRI's 2007 International User Conference (San Diego, 18-22 June) in the track "Sustainable Development and Humanitarian Affairs". Links: ESRI 2007 user conference | International Resources Group, Inc. | ESRI | ESRI 2007, paper abstracts | conference (on supras.biz) | 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.
Links: More | Images
18 October 2006
Preparation 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).
Links: 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.”
Links: 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.
Links: 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.
Links: 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.
Links: More
6 June 2006
Lars Soeftestad 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.
Link: Website