Grantees of the Global Development Awards Competition from 2019 to 2022 attended a pre-conference workshop to showcase their award-winning ORD and MIDP projects and the progress made so far, at the Universidad de San Francisco Quito in Ecuador. The day-long event was attended by 14 in-person grantees out of a total 19 awarded grantees, who were awarded at the Global Development Conference two days after. There were five grantees who could not attend the workshop and the conference in person but were mentioned at the workshop.
The workshop saw a series of activities, starting with a Speed Networking exercise to determine "Who are we?" Each participant took turns to talk to another participant for three minutes, on a roational basis. This gave way to familiarity and knowledge about fellow researchers and award grantees in the room. This was followed by a Group Activity to determine 'Where we stand as a network and where to go?', where participants were divided into groups to collect thoughts, insights and visions for the future. Each group received the opportunity to present the outcomes of their respective discussions.
The grantees also received the opportunity to present their projects before their peers and GDN staff members, especially the President, Jean-Louis Arcand and Director of Programs and Research, Francesco Obino, followed by a feedback session and a discussion. The last session was on Research and Implementation Cooperation, primarily focused on Connector Grants.
The workshop left participants more informed, enriched and with new ideas and insights that only networking can bring. It was a great start to the upcoming conference!
The awarded grantees included: