June 2005

Welcome to another edition of GDRC's Mosaic. June was a relatively quite month here for us, reflected in the fewer number of new items added, and a lower visitor count to GDRC's website! THIS MONTH'S SPOTLIGHT: Triads of Sustainability from GDRC's Programme on Sustainable Development "Sustainability and sustainable Development are terms much branded about. There are seven 'triads' of concepts that can drive sustainability" There are a number of key sustainability lessons that have been learnt in recent times since the term 'sustainable development' came into fashion. These include (a) capacities to understand and analyze problems, (b) partnering with different resources/ organizations to find solutions, using local resources for local solutions, (c) involving the whole community and all stakeholders with comprehensive participation, negotiation and consensus-building from within, (d) ability to incorporate and adopt external resources within local contexts, or (e) respecting historical and cultural issues. These lessons were distilled into seven 'Triads of Sustainability' - where seven issues (participation, decision-making, partnership, governance, knowledge and information, continual improvement, and lifestyles) can help us in achieving sustainability. These triads, each having three drivers, are key ingredients that define and drive sustainability, particularly at the local level. GDRC has been working on these issues, within the overall perspective of sustainable development . The seven triads are availble at: http://www.gdrc.org/sustdev/triads/ As with all sections of GDRC, contributions, comments and suggestions are always welcome from users and subscribers! Please contact GDRC's Coordinator at - mosaic@gdrc.org FOCUS ON GDRC: LEARNING LESSONS Lacks, Gaps, and Mismatches ... In order to present an issue or a problem, or when evaluating a programme or project, GDRC developed a tool called the 'Lack, Gap and Mismatch Analysis'. 'Lack' (that which is not there) refers to a situation where the existing provisions made do not meet perceived needs of the target. Thus, the desired scenario does not exist or is not complete due to the 'lack' of certain necessities. 'Gap' (that which is insufficient) refers to a situation where the provisions made are those perceived by the target population, but are essentially insufficient or inadequate. 'Mismatch' (that which is not compatible) refers to a situation where the provisions made are incongruous to, and do not match the perceived desires/wants/needs of the target population. The key to usefulness of the L-G-M tool lies in its simplicity, and adaptability for diagnosis and perception of a problem, and guiding corrective action. MONTHLY STATISTICS FOR GDRC'S WEBSITE Total hits encountered - 812,359 Total files downloaded - 663,466 Total pages viewed - 251,097 Total web visitors - 98,638 Total KBytes - 6,790,860 Pages per day - Avg. 8369; Max. - 11,318 Visits per day - Avg. 3,287; Max. - 4,408 WHAT'S NEW AT GDRC'S WEBSITE? Some highlists of new items added to GDRC's programmes: Environmental Decision-Making: Documents - several new one-page documents were added. Urban Environmental Management: Disaster Management - Added link to "GOLFRE: Global Open Learning Forum on Risk Education" NGO Cafe: Kickstart an NGO - The Lack-Gap-Mismatch Analysis tool Information Design: Research Output - Info Design: Lessons Learnt at GDRC! ABOUT GDRC MOSAIC The "GDRC Mosaic" is a monthly email newsletter that provides information bites, and summarizes programme activities of GDRC, including new items added to the website. This month, it was sent out to more than 800 subscribers in 100 countries. To subscribe: http://www.gdrc.org/about/newsletter.html To unsubscribe: unsubscribe-mosaic@gdrc.org Comments, suggestions and contributions: info-mosaic@gdrc.org CONTACT ADDRESS: Global Development Research Centre 1-5-1-1013, Mori Minami Machi, Higashi Nada ku, Kobe - 658-0011, Japan Tel and Fax: +(81-78) 452-8414 Email: info-mosaic@gdrc.org URL: http://www.gdrc.org/ © 2003-2005, GDRC. All rights reserved.