Intermediary services in development contexts

13 February 2011
IIEP will play a key role in the coming year

The roles of intermediary services

Information and Knowledge Intermediaries - portals, gateways and reporting services - seek to increase access to, and use of research, within development policy and practice, as well as facilitate exchange and knowledge sharing between stakeholders, by playing a “brokering” or “intermediary” role between the suppliers and the consumers of information.

The UNESCO HIV and AIDS Education clearinghouse which is coordinated by IIEP is an intermediary service.

Sharing knowledge on intermediary services

IIEP attended the I-K Mediary Network workshop held in Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh from 24-26 January. This workshop, co-organised by the UK Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and DNet Bangladesh, brought together 39 participants from 14 countries, working on intermediary services in development contexts. Throughout the three days a series of participative sessions examined a range of topics including demonstrating the value of intermediaries in development processes, monitoring and evaluation tools and frameworks, as well as innovation and collaborative projects.

Prior to the workshop, IIEP also attended the I-K Mediary Network Core Group two-day meeting to plan and steer network activities for the coming year. IIEP was nominated to take over as Chair of the Core Group for the coming year.

The I-K Mediary Network is global network of organisations and services that play an information and knowledge intermediary role in development. The I-K-Mediary Network is co-ordinated and supported by the IDS Knowledge Services as part of the DFID funded Mobilising Knowledge for Development programme.

For further information, contact Lynne Sergeant: l.sergeant@iiep.unesco.org