EDITO
3
Gloomy Goggles
At the beginning of each new year, political analysts in every corner of the world traditionally present their compilation of the most important events of the year, while simultaneously trying to forecast what lies ahead. This year, many of those essays have remarkably gloomy overtones and feature epic titles laden with superlatives: The end of the world as we know it, Democracy under siege, The year of the surprises, An uncertain year, Revolution will be in the air in 2017, The biggest year for political risk since the end of the World War II. Yet, instead of succumbing to defeatist visions about the future, the experiences of the past year should only encourage us to become more active than ever.
What will be needed in 2017 is not less, but more creative thinking, experimenting and actively pushing for new, deeper democratic practices in some countries, while advocating to uphold minimal democratic institutions in others.
Not less, but more academic research should be conducted and fed into the public arena to stir up discussion and debate, documenting those issues that remain largely under the global media radar and to counter tendencies towards fact free politics.
And finally, not less but more intercultural exchange and empathy will be needed in 2017, allowing us to learn more about others and, as if by osmosis, enable compassion to permeate through sociological, cultural, religious or even brick walls.
To contribute in our own way to these three ambitions is Exchange to Change’ s New Year’ s resolution for 2017. We strive to keep you informed of the interesting work of the members of the IOB community. More precisely, we present IOB research in the hope to inspire or inform you, discuss ongoing events through the eyes of IOB alumni, staff and students and facilitate interaction between them across the globe.
We start off 2017 by zooming in on 2016 as the year in which democratic processes generated a series of‘ surprising’ results. The article presents an insider’ s view on the‘ why’ and‘ how’ behind the results of the referenda on the Colombian Peace Agreement, Brexit and the electoral college victory of Trump. Next, we present Patricia Bamanyaki’ s innovative research on gender budgeting initiatives to improve maternal health, put Christine Apio’ s lifelong commitment and work on women’ s protection in the spotlight and hope you learn – as we did – from reading about Dennis Essers’ presentation on the Synthetic Control Method. Moreover, throughout the magazine you can read about events and future opportunities for IOB staff, students and alumni to( re-) connect and exchange to change …
Happy New Year!
Sara Dewachter Alumni coordinator
Exchange to change January 2017