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Science for the SDGs: Building the interface between research & policy

You’ve worked on your PhD for the last five years, alongside a full-time job at the United Nations. What were your aims? Why did you choose to do that? / My aim was to develop a deeper understanding of the issues I was dealing with at the UN. For example, promoting the catch-up and long-term develop...
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Why we need to talk about migration & human security: Interview

When most political leaders talk about migration and security, they usually refer to threats rather than opportunities. Prof. Khalid Koser, the executive director of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), a Geneva-based public-private fund supporting local prevention of radical...
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Amsterdam International Water Week: UNU partners honoured

Young entrepreneurs from ‘Finish Society India’ and ‘Sidian Bank Kenya’ were honoured in this year’s ‘Sarphati Sanitation Awards’, presented at the opening ceremony of Amsterdam International Water Week on 30 October 2017. Shortlisted for the Award were (i) Mr Abhijit Banerji of Finish Society India...
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A positive view of the future prevents school dropouts in Southern Africa

Why and how do some female child carers in Lesotho manage to stay in school despite being responsible for running a household? This was the question that researcher Brenda Yamba, originally from Zambia, wanted to answer. She defended her PhD at Maastricht University last June. “Brenda was what you m...
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Going global with Dutch data: From sampling to surveys to big data apps

Being so close to the borders of both Belgium and Germany gives Maastricht University a truly international character – and this is one of our best marketing tools. Maastricht is the most international university in the Netherlands and, without scientific proof, I dare say that our institute is the ...
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Three global events: Three final chances for science, peace & development?

The Dead Sea, Jordan – the lowest point on Earth, where three thousand delegates at the World Science Forum are sharing the highest of aspirations: to make sure science brings ‘real change’, and perhaps even peace. A gathering of researchers and policymakers under the patronage of Irina Bokova, Dire...
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Mygration Story: How an adopted citizen became an extraordinary patriot

When people ask me where I’m from, I tell them, 'Texas', rather than the United States. We Texans are notoriously prideful of our beloved state and its heritage, and as far from home as I may be, I am no exception to this rule. However, it’s been over three years since Texas was actually home; meanw...
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United Nations Day 2017: ‘A revitalised and responsive UN’

Anniversaries always present an opportunity to look back. But today, as we commemorate the establishment of the United Nations on 24 October 1945, we must not focus solely on past lessons and progress. We must also consider the potential of a UN that is being revitalised to respond to a world vastly...
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European Commission employs double standards in Spain

The situation in Catalonia is critical, given that its drive for independence is opposed by the Spanish authorities. The Catalan government calls for dialogue - but the Spanish government makes it conditional on compliance with the Spanish constitutional and legal system. The commission refuses to i...
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Data storytelling across the media divide — ‘R&T’ Panama 2017

In the world of science reporting, researchers are rightly afraid of being misinterpreted — but journalists are equally frustrated by a lack of clear data to write their articles. One way to break the deadlock is to build trust and partnerships across the ‘media divide’. Partnerships based around da...
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Would the Mahatma approve? On nudging vs. lynching (to use toilets) in India

Today is Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, and in homage to his philosophy and strategy of non-violence, the UN has marked it as the International Day of Non-Violence. In India, the countdown has also begun for 2 October 2019, the target date set to attain the Swachh Bharat or Clean India Mission (SBM). Th...
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How I learned to stop worrying and love the conference: Epilogue to APPAM 2017

‘Public Policy & Governance Beyond Borders’ was the guiding theme of the international conference of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), held in Brussels on 13-14 July 2017. Our sixth post in the series looks briefly at the universal human right to education —...
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Demystifying energy systems: From Brittany to the Black Sea

The Joint Research Centre is quite a unique institution at international level: we produce scientific studies and reports that feed into the work of colleagues in other Directorates-General – who in turn are responsible for designing EU Regulations and Directives. We contribute to the policymaking p...
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Working for the youth of Colombia: Dr. Andrea Franco-Correa

We recently caught up with Dr. Andrea Franco-Correa of Colombia, who graduated from our PhD programme in January 2017. She defended her thesis ‘On the measurement of multidimensional poverty as a policy tool: The case of Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru’ — and has since started work at the Colombia...
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Human rights, development & international justice: New student views

Students on our Master of Science (MPP) programme were asked to write a critical opinion on the protection of human rights and development. Focusing on the means and measures available to international actors — from political mediation, to the International Criminal Court (ICC), to the Interna...
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New 5-year grant for study on education policies & immigrant student achievement

Education policies for the transition and integration of immigrant students are increasingly important in ethnically diverse countries like Canada. Yet the ability to support children’s integration varies greatly across countries, linked to a wide-range of national and regional characteristics. The ...
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‘Public policy beyond borders’ – What lessons did we learn?

‘Public Policy & Governance Beyond Borders’ was the guiding theme of the international conference of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), held in Brussels on 13-14 July 2017. In this fifth  post in the series, Dr. Mindel van de Laar and Ayla Bonfiglio ask how the ev...
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Social innovation: How to shift up and over to a new economy?

Strangers who share one car. A network around a drug addicted youth who offer care themselves, under the guidance of a professional. A person paying back an hour of painting window frames with an hour of working in someone else’s garden. These are all examples of a more social economy, which is grow...
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MPP graduate wins Action Research Prize

Maastricht University (UM) celebrated the opening of the academic year on Monday 4 September 2017 by asking the question: ‘Can academics change the world?’ During the morning symposium, focusing on the action research approach in academic disciplines, six (all female) students (three Master’s and th...
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Sanitation wins must not become safe water losses

  A joint post by Rushva Parihar and Dorcas Mbuvi. … An estimated 2.4 billion people still do not have access to proper sanitation, of which about 1 billion still defecate in the open. These figures represent the enormous challenge of achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 and its spec...
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