Conference in January 2021 - Fragile Contexts, Digitalisation and Remote Management, Monitoring and Verification

What does “working remotely” mean for the participants and their respective organizations, e.g. for a ministry in Mali, for an NGO or a development bank? We will not only look at what defines “working remotely” for the participants and their organizations but also at the respective challenges arising from the new modus operandi. Are they mainly technological or rather related to security, regulations or how to maintain (personal) contact? As understandings of “working remotely” and perceived challenges will differ, so will the frameworks and strategies which participants have developed to address them. These overarching approaches will be presented and discussed during the conference, providing opportunities to learn from each other and to develop the approach for your own organization further.

Country representatives, donors, development banks, NGOs, consultants, academia and civil society will have an opportunity to present their best practice examples with solutions to working remotely in development projects. The focus will be on specific project examples from around the world highlighting new roles or functions in collaborating remotely or specific technologies or a combination of both. While technology might be at the heart of a specific example, we are equally interested in sharing what the application of a new techonolgy means for project stakeholders, how their roles, capacities and responsibilities might (have to) change – or how working remotely can be all about defining new roles, functions and responsibilities among project stakeholders without introducing any (new) technology at all. Examples will not be limited to the implementation phase but will also encompass methods of how to conduct project or program appraisals and evaluations remotely. Other sessions will focus on new forms of collaboration and/or technologies which may not yet be integrated into the implementation of development projects but which show potential to add value when working remotely.

Solutions for different stakeholders and applying technologies must of course take into consideration key questions about data (security) standards, privacy rights, and ethics. How do we need to reflect on them when working remotely and adjust our actions accordingly in order to ensure that working remotely does not infringe on personal rights or ethical standards – or even endanger people and projects? Other considerations when applying certain types of technology shall also be discussed as well as examples of how to tender for “remote services”.