Progress Report by the Director

Abstract

"At the close of the reporting period covered in this report, in December 2003, UNRISD learned that Salma Sobhan, who would have participated in her first Board meeting this year, had died suddenly in Dhaka, Bangladesh. UNRISD received this news with profound regret. 2 This report presents the Institute’s work from January through December 2003, including its conference, research, advisory, publication and dissemination activities. It is supplemented by an administrative and financial report. 3 A highlight of this reporting period was the writing and publication of Research for Social Change, the Institute’s fortieth anniversary report. The report is intended to be commemorative, of course, but—more importantly—it seeks to present the Institute’s contributions to social development thinking and debates in six areas: social policy and well-being; social cohesion and conflict; sustainable development; democratization, civil society and governance; gender and develop-ment; and markets, business and regulation. By the end of the reporting period, preparations were at an advanced stage for the April 2004 conference on Social Knowledge and International Policy Making: Exploring the Linkages. In addition to its substantive sessions, this event will provide an occasion to celebrate the Institute’s anniversary and present the anniversary report to an international audience. 4 The preparation of the UNRISD Policy Report on Gender and Development gathered increasing momentum during this reporting period. By December 2003 the European Union, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the government of the Netherlands had committed substantial funds for this activity, and discussions were under way with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada. The generous response of the funders testifies to the importance of this UNRISD initiative, which will provide a valuable complement to work being carried out by other United Nations agencies to assess the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The UNRISD report will examine—from a gender perspective—four areas of institutional and policy reform: (i) the changing political economy of development; (ii) livelihoods, entitlements and social policy; (iii) governance, democratization and civil society; and (iv) armed conflict, violence and social change."(pg 1)