Communities and their regions have an unprecedented opportunity to integrate higher levels of organization, process and tools to connect legacy assets residing in colleges, universities, and libraries to people and their ideas; to reinvigorate institutions, organizations and government; and to strengthen creativity, collaboration, and communication for innovation and enterprise in education, economic, and workforce development. This paper begins a discussion of the value collaborative innovation networks (COINS) offer to accelerate and strengthen innovation in Open Source Economic Development (OSED) in the Civic Space, and to explore the design of an improved model of I-Open Civic Forums, a process driven approach to build networks, community, and communications for enterprise collaboration.

By: Graeme Bloch (Education Specialist, DBSA) graemeb@dbsa.org

Introduction: Theoretical Issues

This paper examines a policy intervention process, in which the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) played a central facilitating role on behalf of government in drawing up an Education Roadmap for the new incoming government of South Africa.

Questions are raised about the conditions that led to the specific request to DBSA as well as about DBSA’s positioning to participate as credible broker in this education policy development process. The wider social conditions and concerns that opened up space for critical policy development are clearly a part of this complex equation.

In addition, the limitations and specificity of the whole process are identified. This leads to some critical questions relating to follow up and implementation, and thus about the efficacy and impact of the particular policy intervention.