Trade in Educational Services (ES) is affecting the interests of many countries in trade, economics, education and culture resulting in heated debates between government representatives, private sector investors, teacher unions and student associations on how to approach liberalisation of this sector, if at all. What ever the approach, an agreement on GATS/ES should be sufficiently flexible to safeguard the multi-functional nature of education, as well as the different needs of developing countries’ education without falling into the trap of “managed trade” nor succumbing to short-term myopic protectionism.
The authors describe the complexities of the WTO/GATS negotiations on trade in educational services and outline ways on how negotiations of GATS/ES could be successfully completed within the timeframe of the Doha Round.
Organization Development (OD) Practitioners working within the UN system encounter difficulties because of ill-defined organisational structures, multiple political interferences (external and internal), cross-cultural value differences of UN staff and different management practices of UN Agency leadership best described as “Porous Boundaries”. This article introduces and defines “Porous Boundaries”, shows its relation to power politics frequently used in UN Agencies and discusses the role of the OD consultant who needs to adjust his consulting approach to match these environmental challenges.
Key words: Organization Development, United Nations, Porous Boundaries, Power factor, Role of Consultant.
Research project titled “Trends and influence of private finance on global health initiatives and development goals in resource-constrained countries”, funded by the Swiss Network of International Studies (SNIS), CSEND (Lichia Yiu; Raymond Saner) as Consortium member with Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basle; Global Health Programme, Graduate Institute, University of Geneva, FUNDS, London, Franklin University, Lugano (Fall 2012-2014). Working Paper, 31st September 2012 to 30th April 2015.
Research project titled “Inter-ministerial Coordination of Trade Policy at Central Government Level in Macedonia and Kyrgyzstan”, funded by the Scientific Co-operation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland (SCOPES 2005-2008) programme, Swiss National Science Foundation, CSEND (Raymond Saner) as Research Project Leader.
Book publication: R. Saner, “Trade Policy Governance through Inter-ministerial Coordination: A Source Book for Trade Officials and Development Experts”, Republic of Letters, Dordrecht NL, 2010.
Research project titled “Governing the Use of Landscape and Habitats in the Alpine Areas: Negotiations as a Means to co-ordinate Stakeholder Interests”, CSEND (Raymond Saner) as consortium member, funded by Swiss National Science Foundation, 2002- 2004. Final document in book form “Staehelin, Elke, Saner, Raymond, Wagner Beatrice, “Verhandlungen bei Umweltkonflikten: ökonomische, soziologische und rechtliche Aspekte des Verhandlungsansatzes im alpinen Raum”, (Negotiations of environmental conflicts: economic, sociological and legal factors of Negotiations in the Alpine Region) , VDF Hochschulverlag AG, ETH Zürich, 2005.
Research project titled “In-Service Training as an Instrument for Organisational Change in the Public Administration: An International Comparative Study”, CSEND (Raymond Saner, Lichia Yiu) Initiator and Rapporteur of this Research Working Group, secretariat at International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) Brussels, participating countries Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Slovakia, Mexico, Hong Kong., 1994- 1997), final book publications: Saner, R.; Strehl, F; Yiu, L; ” In-Service Training as an Instrument for Organisational Change in Public Administration: A Comparative Study”, (in English and French) International Institute of Administrative Sciences, Brussels, 1997, and Saner, R.; Yiu, L.; Mindt, B. “Interface management of in-service training within the federal administration of Switzerland (German), Paul Haupt Verlag, Berne, ( 170 pp), 1997
Humanitarian workers are confronted with systemic challenges when helping post-traumatic communities reconnect and rebuild. Specific skills and knowledge are needed to provide social reconstruction of the community and healing of collective and individual traumas. At the same time, support is also needed for the helping professionals who are often exposed to the danger of burn-out. “Sense making” is an important element in dealing with this occupational stress.
This one-day workshop aims at introducing key social science theories and techniques in reconstructing post-traumatic communities while lending support to the “helpers” who are pressed to intervene in uncertain territory with limited authority and leverage.
Learning Outcome and Benefits
Attending in this workshop, participants will be able to,
acquire a understanding of the complex dynamics which Characterise humanitarian work and assess how the concepts presented during the workshop can be fruitfuly applied to their own work .
become familiar with work tools which are part of emotional intelligence and supportive of artistic expressions of human experience that can help transcend barriers to human interaction and communication.
develop further their own working models of effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian work in situations of community development in post-conflict situations.
A nominal fee of EUR 395/CHF 475 is charged to cover lunch, coffee breaks and administrative fees (click on Brochure for more payment information). All other expenses are to be covered by the participants such as accommodation in Geneva and travel to and from Switzerland. The CSEND staff will assist in making reservations for accommodation if so required.
Language Requirement
The workshop will be held in English. No interpretation will be provided.
Venue: World Council of Churches, Salle 4.The workshop will be held in English. No interpretation will be provided.
Sino-Swiss project on “Policy Dialigue on Financing Higher Education and Sustaining the Quality of Higher Education for Lifelong Learning”
Under the auspices of the OECD, CSEND experts established a framework to facilitate the development of a research network between Switzerland and China. The focus of this research network is to carry out comparative studies concerning the management and financing of higher education in the context of life long learning. For more detailed information and background documents please check
CSEND chaired a panel and gave papers on “The link between higher education and employability” and another paper on “Quality Evaluation in a Diversified Higher Education System – at an International Seminar on the Development of Higher Education and Financing Policies co-organised by OECD, Paris and the Ministry of Education, Beijing, China July 2004.
CSEND worked on a USAID-sponsored policy project for Booz Allen Hamilton. The goal of the study was to identify success factors of the Integrated Framework (IF) a WTO instrument targeted to support Least Developed Country’s supply-side deficiencies. Target interviews were conducted with officials of the Geneva-based IF agencies namely WTO, UNCTAD, UNDP and ITC. Geneva, August 2005.
