Budapest – ESI at CEU workshop on action research, effective writing, and advocacy

Photo: ESI

ESI's Gerald Knaus, Kristof Bender, Adnan Cerimagic and former ESI analyst Besa Shahini (now deputy education minister of Albania) led a two-day workshop ("Action Research, Effective Writing, and Advocacy 2018") organised by the Central European University in Budapest. They conducted practice-oriented modules and shared their experiences from more than 15 years of think tank work.

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, Adnan, 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)

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Kristof Bender, Gerald Knaus, Adnan Cerimagic, and Besa Shahini. Photo: ESI

Gerald Knaus. Photo: ESI

Besa Shahini. Photo: ESI