Next Generation for Development
Next Generation – Collaboration for Development was a joint three-year program of Cooperation Canada, formerly the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC), and the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID) between 2017 and 2019.
Funded by the International Development Research Centre, Next Generation aimed to position Canada as a leader in innovative, multi-stakeholder international development and humanitarian research, practice, and policy development. The program’s overarching goal was to encourage better collaborations between civil society and academia and strengthen the Canadian ecosystem of research and knowledge sharing. The ability to do development work and deliver humanitarian assistance rests largely on the ability of different actors to work together, and exchange knowledge and expertise: when practitioners and scholars come together there is a co-production of knowledge that leads to research that is timely, relevant, and based on evidence, which feeds into programming and policy.
To achieve its goal, the program supported a series of partnerships between academics and practitioners, using a range of different models of collaboration – communities of practice, working groups, annual conferences, leaders’ forums, outreach events, speakers’ tours, and others – to stimulate new thinking and generate timely and policy-relevant joint research. The program tested and refined these models of practitioner-academic collaboration, generating processes, products and relationships that Cooperation Canada and CASID both hope will outlast the program’s closure. The program also supported the creation of a database of Canadian academics and practitioners contributing research on issues related to international cooperation.
The NextGen Database
Over the course of the program, NextGen teamed up with the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Canada to link research in Canada to relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). NextGen updated its database by mapping areas of research to the SDGs to identify how researchers in Canada contribute to the implementation and understanding of the SDGs. Given the universality of Agenda 2030, the NextGen Database expanded its mandate to include researchers beyond the international development and humanitarian fields. It now includes researchers working on domestic issues related to SDGs, which helped increase its number of profiles by 35%.
Overall, to facilitate collaborations, there was a need to establish a better sense of who the different groups and individuals in this ecosystem are – both within and beyond CCIC-CASID respective memberships. The Next Generation Database assisted in mapping out groups, but also enabled the formation of a community of fruitful collaborations that leave no one behind.
Resources and Publications
Next Generation: A special issue of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies coming out from a collaboration between Cooperation Canada and CASID
We are pleased to announce the publication of a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, entitled Next Generation of Knowledge Partnerships for Global Development, dedicated to a collaboration between Cooperation Canada and the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID). The Next-generation models for Canadian collaboration in international development project (2017-2020, henceforth NextGen) was funded through the IDRC Foundations for Innovation program.
Report: Organizational and human resource capacity for addressing gender equality: Civil society engagement with the Feminist International Assistance Policy
Through a survey of 45 Canadian civil society organizations (CSOs) and key informant interviews, this study examined how CSO’s have made progress towards addressing gender equality as a result of the development and launch of the Feminist International Assistance Policy in 2017. The survey examined operational investments that affected financial, technical and human resources in project implementation processes. Supported by CASID-CCIC Next Generation Program, l’Association québécoise des organismes de coopération internationale (AQOCI), MITACS and the University of Ottawa, this report provides recommendations for CSOs and Global Affairs Canada.
The Next Generation Final Evaluation Summary is out!
The Next Generation Final Evaluation Summary is out!
With the approaching closure of the Next Generation Program, the time has come to read and reflect on the multitude of achievements the program has brought to our sector. The program inspired the policy, practice and investments decisions of civil society organizations, academic institutions, networks, funders and governments.
NextGen’s Guide for Research Partnership Agreements
The Next Generation program developed a new bilingual guide for fair and equitable research partnership.
While examining experiences of research partnerships between academics and civil society organization (CSO) practitioners in the Canadian context, the Next Generation research has uncovered challenging aspects of cross-sectoral research collaboration including tensions and misunderstandings in research partnerships between practitioners and academics.
Press Release: The NextGen Database – Helping you Connect with Experts Working in International Development and Humanitarian Assistance
From left to right: Kate Grantham (Vice-president CASID), Liam Swiss (President and CEO, CASID), Andréanne Martel (Program Officer Next Generation Collaboration for Development, CCIC), Shannon Kindornay (Director, Research, Policy and Practice, CCIC), Laura Avalos...
Find out more about the NextGen Symposium
This final event of the Next Generation for Development Program will welcome stakeholders from civil society organizations (CSOs), academic institutions, researchers and students involved in the NextGen program, and funding agencies.
Participants will convene to discuss on the importance of fair and equitable partnerships and reflect on how to improve knowledge mobilization in the global development and humanitarian sector in Canada and abroad.