This Conference Brings Together an Emerging Community of Practice in Indicators, Sustainability and Human Values for Business, Civil Society and Faith Based Organisations Around the World :.
It Will Showcase the Results of a Pioneering EU Funded Project Identifying Values-Based Indicators (www.wevalue.org) to Measure the Values Dimension of Organisations and Projects (The Development of Indicators and Assessment Tools for CSO Projects Promoting Values-based Education for Sustainable Development).
The conference is free to attend but it is necessary to book a place on line here.
Contact :
Julie Carter
Sustainable Development Coordination Unit (SDeCU)
Faculty of Science and Engineering
University of Brighton
Cockcroft Building
Lewes Road
Brighton
BN2 4GJ
Tel: 01273 644707
jc333@brighton.ac.uk
More info:
We Value (www.wevalue.org) in collaboration with the European Bahá’í Business Forum (www.ebbf.org) announces the launch of the Making the Invisible Visible international conference hosted by the University of Brighton (www.brighton.ac.uk), United Kingdom, December 16-18, 2010.
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) as well as faith-based organisations and businesses worldwide are often conscious of the importance of their values-based work, but this is usually seen as a non-measurable intangible asset. Until now, values have been largely overlooked in conventional project monitoring and evaluation activities, which tend to focus on concrete outputs and outcomes rather than the ‘human results’ of the work.
The relevance of values to the success of businesses, CSOs and other organisations, even when they are not themselves values-based, is becoming increasingly recognized, e.g. in the Stiglitz Review, and is a key theme of the three day international conference.
A major driver for the initiation of this conference is the ESDinds EU research project, which has exciting results to report on the development of values-based indicators, trialed in the field with CSOs and businesses, and remotely by a further 50 organisations, a few of which will report at the conference. But most of the presentations will be from organisations who have related messages from several different, disciplines – who don’t themselves yet fully.
The international conference seeks to provide a unique arena for discussing several unmet needs of a wide range of organisations – including businesses, civil society organisations (CSOs), social enterprises and funders – e.g. to measure aspects of their work at the project level, and especially those which are based on human values. The further potential for this work to be extended for ‘Beyond-GDP’ new economics will also be discussed.
“The development of useful indicators for any type for Civil Society (CSO) projects have always been problematic.” said Ismael Velasco, Research Fellow in Sustainable Development at the University of Brighton, UK. “It was during this project that the need to bring together workers in the different but overlapping fields of Indicators, Sustainability and Values became apparent. Benefits of such interdisciplinary approaches are already emerging; several groups wish to report on them and learn from each other. It is expected that a new Community of Practice will emerge from these interactions.”
Among the speakers due to address the conference are global experts in economics, such as Augusto Lopez-Claros (Chief Economist and Director of the the Global Competitiveness Report 2006/2007 and the Humanitarian Response Index at the World Economic Forum); leading environmentalists such as Arthur Dahl (President of the International Environment Forum, former Deputy Assistant Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and former coordinator of the UN System-Wide Earthwatch) and Professor Arjen Wals (UNESCO Chair of Social Learning and Sustainable Development and world expert on environmental education); parliamentarians such as Professor Bedrich Moldan (Senator in the Parliament of the Czech Republic and a global authority on indicators for sustainable development); civil society organisations as diverse as the International Red Cross, Earth Charter International, the Alliance for Religions and Conservation (ARC), among others; world experts on values in business across the world, such as Richard Barrett (leadership expert mapping values among some 2000 organisations and 3000 leaders in over
Attendance is free, and there are still possibilities to contribute with a presentation and/or a workshop related to values, sustainability and/or the challenges of evaluation in your work. To register for the conference please go to:
http://www.brighton.ac.uk/sdecu/research/esdinds/conference/index.html
http://www.brighton.ac.uk/sdecu/research/esdinds/conference/speakers.html
The We Value Platform and growing worldwide Community of Practice stems from the ESDinds project, a two year collaborative research project funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme based on the concept that values can be usefully measured, when locally defined through relevant indicators, and that this information can help CSOs and business organisations in their efforts to develop successful and sustainable programs and business models. We Value membership is open with over 170 values-based indicators developed as the basis for the measurement of values within organisations around the world. For more information: www.wevalue.org
ABOUT EUROPEAN BAHA’I BUSINESS FORUM
The European Bahá’í Business Forum (ebbf) is a spiritually inspired, non-governmental organisation of individuals across more than 60 countries contributing to a prosperous, sustainable and just civilisation by promoting and applying ethical values, personal virtues and moral leadership in their workplaces. The ebbf community endeavors to inspire and empower people whatever their work may be with its mindful people meaningful work community platform which offers capacity building, practical tools and a global community of like-minded individuals. For more information: www.ebbf.org
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON
The University of Brighton, UK, (www.brighton.ac.uk) is a ‘new’ university (a Polytechnic before 1992) which places great emphasis on applied research, community engagement and sustainable development. Prof. Marie Harder is Coordinator of the ESDinds EU FP7 research project, and is a leader in co-inception and co-production of research with CSOs.
http://artsresearch.brighton.ac.uk/research/academic/harder
Ismael Velasco is Research Fellow in Sustainable Development at the University of Brighton. He is a community development specialist with 18 years’ experience in three continents, with expertise in participatory theory and practice, values education, diversity management and social exclusion.
Media Contact for wevalue.org:
Tammara Anderton
Anderton Boyd
+41763290359
tammara@andertonboyd.com