National Committee Meeting

Barbara Solich

In 2008 and 2009, the IHDP Secretariat has directed great attention to IHDP National Committees and Programmes. Information about their activities has been updated, communication enhanced and innovative future activities proposed in the context of the Secretariat's new Capacity Development Strategy.

Crowning these efforts was the meeting of the IHDP National Committees and Programmes during the IHDP Open Meeting 2009. Thirty-one national representatives from all major regions joined the session, which was chaired by Ilan Chabay, Member of IHDP Scientific Committee and Elda Tancredi, Chair of IHDP Argentina.

During the first hour and a half of the session, representatives of each National Committee/Programme gave a short overview of their organisation’s operations and national activities. The presentations gave a picture of local research initiatives on global environmental change focussing on the human dimensions and illustrated the financial and managerial difficulties such research often faces. The second half of the session was devoted a discussion on how to overcome those financial and managerial obstacles on the local level, as well as how to enhance cooperation between National IHDP Programmes and how to involve them in the operation of IHDP scientific projects.

Three representatives of the IHDP Scientific Committee present at the session (Ilan Chabay, Gernot Kleppert and Elena Nikitina) reported on the course of the discussion to the IHDP Scientific Committee in their annual meeting, which followed the IHDP Open Meeting 2009. The IHDP Scientific Committee showed enthusiastic support for the continued improvement IHDP National Committee and Programme ties, giving excellent prospects to further refine the role that the National Committees and Programmes will play in the future of IHDP.