Budapest – ESI at CEU workshop on action research, effective writing, visualization, and advocacy
15 June 2017
Gerald Knaus and Kristof Bender. Photo: ESI
ESI's Gerald Knaus and Kristof Bender and former ESI analyst Besa Shahini led a two-day workshop ("Action Research, Effective Writing, Visualization and Advocacy 2017") organised by the Central European University in Budapest. The goal of this training was to develop the capacity of researchers and think tanks in Moldova, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan to produce effective policy proposals.
Issues covered were:
- Introduction “Writing for Impact” - put the reader first
- Empirical case studies (Montenegro) - how to show reality to change policy
- Writing about institutions (corruption in the Council of Europe)
- Transforming the education debate in Kosovo - how to integrate research and advocacy
- Basic writing tools - how to build sentences and paragraphs that work
- Break out groups - forming teams for feedback on drafts
- Brainstorming session (Kosovo education research) - how to design research for impact
- Presentation tools - how to persuade - the power of repetition
Gerald, Kristof, and Besa talked about the background story – how to research, write and advocate for change – using different case studies from our work in recent years:
- The European Swamp (Caviar Diplomacy Part 2) – Prosecutors, corruption and the Council of Europe (2016)
- Montenegro: Germany's Balkan stipends – Asylum and the Rozaje exodus (2015)
- The Merkel Plan – A proposal for the Syrian refugee crisis (2015)
- Books and Teachers – The Great Debate on Education Kosovo needs (2014)
Gerald also met with Michael Ignatieff, President and Rector of CEU.
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Besa Shahini. Photo: ESI