Blogs

By: Ana Victoria Portocarrero In a speech delivered at the launch of the Feminist Edge alumni network, a professional development program for gender trainers at KIT Institute, Arturo Escobar invited us to recognise care as the foundation of life and therefore, as central to systemic radical social change. In today’s fast-paced world, where productivity and […]

While many organisations aim to use Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) for learning, they tend to prioritise accountability goals based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to meet donor requirements. However, in complex development projects, traditional KPIs fall short to capture the fluid and unpredictable nature of system transformations. In this blog, we argue that adaptive management—an […]

Laura Cala Vergel, PMEL analyst with Share-Net Columbia, shares her experiences attending this year’s programme. The Feminist Edge programme offers a holistic training between pedagogical concepts and practices, providing participants with key tools to strengthen their work as gender trainers. The course has been a transformative experience that has allowed me to deepen my knowledge […]

From 9 to 14 June, KIT Institute, as a Knowledge Management partner for the Land-at-Scale (LAS) programme, participated in the annual LAS Exchange event which this year took place in Uganda. Equitable and sustainable land governance is essential to achieving sustainable development and has a key role to play in strategies for sustainable livelihoods, food […]

Why direct transfers are a better strategy for value redistribution in the cocoa sector. by Rob Kuijpers, Ruerd Ruben, and Rik Habraken. Increasing cocoa prices above market equilibrium is an expensive way to achieve living incomes for farm households. Besides excessive monetary costs, higher prices may have unintended adverse effects, such as on child labour […]

“At KIT we see participatory research that directly feeds into evidence-informed lobby and advocacy as a win-win. It allows researchers and advocates to jointly broaden our perspectives and helps lobby and advocacy to focus on actions with the biggest potential for change.” (Pam Baatsen, Senior SRHR advisor at KIT) In our role as knowledge partner […]

In contrast to commercial banks, whose primary focus lies in financial services for profitability, development banks finance projects that contribute to societal progress. In this article, Dr Nicola Francesconi, a senior economist at KIT Institute, makes the case for adopting more rigorous impact evaluation techniques within development banks. These techniques would allow us to truly […]

By Nicola Francesconi KIT recently co-hosted the debate ‘Redefining Relations’ on the Dutch Government’s newly launched Africa Strategy. The debate centred around the question: What does an equal partnership between African and Dutch institutions look like? Following up on the discussion, Dr. Nicola Francesconi, a senior economist at KIT, shares his thoughts on the key […]

This World Sexual Health Day 2023, we talk to one of our close collaborators on sexual health education in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, Lalla Fatouma Traore, about this year’s theme – consent. Lalla has worked with KIT on numerous projects. She taught most of the content related to sexual and reproductive health and rights […]

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the achievements of women worldwide in all their diversity. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender equality. To me – a gender advisor at KIT – it is an important moment to commemorate the past, present and future. In order to understand where […]

Knowledge is power and, for now, knowledge is dominated by the richest countries. Thus Dutch magazine Vice Versa writes in its report on the Power of Knowledge conference; Kennis dekoloniseren is pijnlijk en nodig (Decolonising knowledge is painful and necessary). The annual Power of Knowledge conference is the latest initiative to bring together professionals concerned with […]

Thirty students sponsored by the Kenniscentrum Global Health joined the Power of Knowledge event on 1 September 2022. They were all asked to share their reflections on the event; of which five were chosen and published. Creating equitable partnerships The main goal of the event was to examine how the North-South paradigm shapes the flow […]

by Chantale Al-Lakis Chantale Al-Lakis, Epidemiologist at KIT Institute, sent us this dispatch from Abidjan. She was recently in the port city with other KIT advisors (below) to deliver a workshop on the World Bank and Global Financing Facility-funded project on Service Delivery Redesign for Maternal and Neonatal Health in Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Niger, […]

By Mayada El-Zoghbi KIT Institute’s Managing Director, Mayada El-Zoghbi, recently visited Rwanda, where she met our partner AKADEMIYA2063 2063. She sent us this dispatch from Kigali. In it she talks about the trends she observed and the people she met during her brief visit to the country also known as the ‘Land of a Thousand Hills’. […]

By Sandra Quintero, Team Lead for KIT Institute’s Colombia Hub In 2023, KIT Institute’s Gender team, in collaboration with the Global Health and Sustainable Economic Development teams, launched a new hub in Colombia. The time is ripe for such a development; Colombia’s government is actively pursuing inclusive policies and is keen to make Colombia a […]

By Lisa de Graaf KIT has been working on the A3-SEED, Accelerating Agriculture and Agribusiness, project in South Sudan with IFDC since 2021. Nicola Francesconi, Sandra Quintero, and I recently travelled to Juba as part of the project. Commercialising the South Sudanese Seed Sector Since South Sudan became a sovereign state in 2011, the country’s […]

Knowledge is power and, for now, knowledge is dominated by the richest countries. Thus Dutch magazine Vice Versa writes in its report on the Power of Knowledge conference; Kennis dekoloniseren is pijnlijk en nodig (Decolonising knowledge is painful and necessary). The annual Power of Knowledge conference is the latest initiative to bring together professionals concerned with […]

Thirty students sponsored by the Kenniscentrum Global Health joined the Power of Knowledge event on 1 September 2022. They were all asked to share their reflections on the event; of which five were chosen and published. Creating equitable partnerships The main goal of the event was to examine how the North-South paradigm shapes the flow […]

In Italian, ‘Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga come è, bisogna che tutto cambi .‘ In the lead up the Power of Knowledge event, Sandra Alba, Senior Epidemiologist at KIT, grapples with what redressing the power imbalances in knowledge exchange means to her and why it’s vital we address this issue now. This famous Italian saying comes […]

As a public health professional who has written several peer-reviewed articles, Dr. Oti is very vocal about the power imbalances that plague the practice of global health. He has spoken at many events about decolonizing knowledge. Before he travels to Amsterdam from Nairobi, Kenya, he speaks to us about why he considers it important to […]