Interactive conversations at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

On 11 February, researchers from the “Governing SDG interactions in East-Africa” were at the Hague for meetings with experts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The meetings were scheduled and organised by Liesbeth Voets from the Directorate General International Cooperation. She also moderated the sessions together with Dr. Nowella Anyango-van Zwieten.

Starting with a lunch session, the SDG Interactions project was introduced by Dr. Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen. This followed a brief overview presentation by Dr. Nicky Pouw of the broader Knowledge Brokering and Synthesis Project that our project is part of.

The highlight of the lunch session was the presentation of preliminary findings by the PhD candidates:

• Charles Tonui: SDG Financing Architecture between and within international donors, and the Government of Kenya
• Dereje Yimam: Key Governance Factors in a Fragile system: the case of Kunzila Water, Sanitation and Health Programme, Ethiopia
• Tonny Ssekamatte: Participation of Informal Households in the Governance of Water, Energy, Food and Health in Kampala
• Annita Kirwa: Internal and External SDG Interactions betweenPolicy Programmes in the Kenyan Dairy Sector
• Rachel Gitundu: Local Realities of SDG Interactions in Multilevel Development Initiatives through an Intersectionality Lens

The Ministry experts mentioned that our findings shed important light to some of their own work, saying the insights were ‘awesome’, ‘very touching’ and ‘inspiring.’ There was also commendation of the clear and strongly communicative figures used in the presentations to depict SDG interactions.

In one-to-one talks with specific experts, we also discussed policy coherence, food security, national SDG coordination and the Dutch Africa strategy of the Netherlands.