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Taking a first step towards A Future We Want at Partos Innovation festival 2018

On October 11th, a large and diverse crowd gathered for the 5th edition of the Partos Innovation festival 2018. All these explorative minds both brought and found inspiration, solutions, innovations and connections to make the first step towards the future we want. They are all striving for a future that is just, and in which everyone is safe and healthy. A future without poverty, in which everyone has access to government, resources and communal facilities. Now, they have joined forces.

18 oktober 2018


The mood was full of expectation in the big hall of  Pakhuis de Zwijger. Bart Romijn, director of Partos, kicked off the day by a brief elaboration on the future exploration that was undertaken earlier this year in cooperation with Perspectivity and illustrates this using a short video.

Inspiring keynotes
Marina Diboma, moderator of the day, introduced the first keynote speaker. Mark Kamau, a Human-Centered Designer at BRCK, challenged the audience to tackle lion-sized problems instead of scratching at flees and shared BRCK’s inspiring successes, from connecting Africa to the internet, to designing a digital classroom giving access to a digital learning environment.

Next up was a special moment: our newest publication ‘Joining forces, Sharing power: civil society collaborations for the future’ was launched. This book, created in collaboration with The Broker, showcases new ways of working together in international development. Yannicke Broker, the author, had the honor to hand out the first copy to Tulika Srivastava, the second keynote speaker who was also interviewed for the publication. Then, Tulika, a human rights lawyer from India and executive director of Women’s Fund Asia, continued with her speech on dismantling power towards accountability and enabling inclusion.

Interactive workshops
In between the plenary sessions in the morning and afternoon there were many workshops to choose from. Here you find some examples. Note: Below on this page you can download the presentations.

In the workshop ‘Joining forces and shifting power, prepared by Women’s Fund Asia, Mama Cash, Hivos and Partos, participants attempted to design The Inclusive Partnership, in which the most affected are in the lead and not money but our connected capacities are driving development.

The workshop ‘the Inclusion Game’ was led by Matthijs Nederveen from Light for the world, who invited participants to play the Inclusion Game and apply this concept into a Do It Yourself (DIY) action plan for their own organization. Other workshops focused on the question “how do NGO’s set up transformational and inclusive business partnerships”, or on topics such as Data and Digitalisation. Irene de Goede (Oxfam Novib) and Irene Guijt (Oxfam Great Britain) shared their experiences in generating and leveraging research findings to inform advocacy and campaigning to influence power, publics and stakeholders. Michele Turner from World Learning challenged her participants to integrate inclusion throughout their projects using The Transforming Agency Access and Power Toolkit.

In between the workshops the festival attendees had the chance to get some lunch, expand their networks, meet up using the conversation starter app and ask questions to the experts who are thrilled to help people with any questions in their expertise.

The afternoon workshops were as well-attended as the mornings’. Festival guests had the option to attend a migration debate with interesting experts on the topic like Wim Naudé, Agnes Dinkelman, Kiza Magendane, Jeroen Doomernik and Seada Nourhussen. Other options included a workshop on influencers for marketing; a session on the impact of visual storytelling, journalism and community art; a workshop on Design Thinking and co-creation led by Butterfly Works; or to explore the implications, ‘dark sides’ and opportunities of inclusive growth of data and digitalization led by Dalberg.

For me today is all about connecting. I got to meet a lot of people from quite different backgrounds. Partos created a space where people from a technical background, government and NGO’s really are stimulated to connect with one another. 

                                                                                                              – Rajin Alqallih – Upinion

(W)rap-Up

Julián Rodríguez, a youth leader from Colombia, had the honor to be the third, last and youngest keynote speaker. In his speech Julián highlighted the importance of young people in driving change to create a sustainable world. This is what drives him to serve rural communities at the remote places leading the UN global campaign The World We Want in Colombia. Julián is followed by the Awards ceremony, which 15 international teams have been waiting for, ready to hear if their initiative is the winner of their category. To learn more about the Awards and winning initiatives, click here.
The talented word artist, Atta de Tolk (Atta, the Translator) is only person that can ‘Rap Up’ a day full of innovation, inspiration, dialogue and connections. With a mix of humor and inspiration, he shares his perspective of the 5th edition of the Partos Innovation Festival. 

 

Photos can be viewed through this link.
Photocredit: Roos Trommelen

Workshop Presentations

Do you want to look over the workshop presentations once more? You can download them here!