HCSS Centre for Strategic Studies

Millennium Project: 'More than the sum of its parts'

‘More than the sum of its parts’ is a three year project that aims to operationalise a comprehensive approach to interventions in fragile states and to enhance the understanding of what works and what does not. This will be done through the establishment of two web-based ‘Communities of Practice’: for Sudan and Burundi.

In post-conflict or preventive interventions, a wide array of actors is actively engaged in the field of security, good governance, reconstruction, civil society and the private sector. Each organisation has specific knowledge about a particular country, about what is needed, and what can be done in the short- and long-term. Each actor has its mandate and working principles. Despite the best efforts, these activities often lack a common strategy and coherent approach: coordination is minimal, communication limited and priorities are different for each of the actors. There is a need to find better, more effective ways to make the best use of the working practices of the various actors.

This project will support these efforts by testing the opportunities and limits of the comprehensive approach with the aim to develop instruments for more effective cooperation. Within the scope of this project, two web-based Communities of Practice have been launched in May 2009: for Burundi and Sudan. The online platform (PRIME Platform for Representatives in a Multi-Stakeholder Environment) offers a flexible and robust network to facilitate more accurate, timely and relevant exchange of information and knowledge, to enhance a shared understanding and to improve communication, coordination and cooperation between Dutch actors working in these states. This should allow for more effective use of the available knowledge and resources, and eventually should lead to more effective joint engagement by Dutch actors in fragile states. For more information about PRIME, please contact primeadministrator@hcss.nl

The Millennium Project More than the Sum of its Parts has been designed by HCSS and Cordaid in line with the Schokland Agreement, signed by the Ministers of Defence and Development Cooperation in June 2007.

More about this project on www.millenniumakkoorden.nl.