Guidelines for round 2 [20-24 October]

The present round of the e-consultation has two aims:

to review draft theme papers prepared for the upcoming Policy Meeting in Bangkok during 3-4 November 2008 and to provide inputs to the authors for finalizing the papers; and
to initiate a discussion on the Policy Innovation Forum based on a concept note prepared by ENERGIA.

The theme papers for your review under this round can be found under 'references'.

While all participants are invited to comment on any aspect of the draft papers, those participants designated as reviewers for specific papers are requested to cover the following in a systematic fashion:

coverage of key issues
coherence/persuasiveness of main lines of argument
appropriateness of facts, figures and country examples/illustrations
adequacy of conclusions and recommendations
overall appeal to policy makers
structural aspects (sequencing of topics, referencing).

Participants and designated reviewers are requested to note the following while carrying out their reviews:

The theme papers have been drafted under severe time constraints with authors allowed to restrict themselves to information readily available.
They are intended as discussion papers that need not meet the rigorous standards of academic research.
Comments on various aspects listed above should be accompanied by relevant suggestions that can be quickly acted upon by authors within 3 days.

To help meet this time line:

suggestions should be sufficiently elaborated,
accompanied by supporting data/information as needed and
references to online publications/reports should provide the relevant Internet URLs or, ideally, electronic copies of referred publications/reports should be e-mailed direct to authors.

Please post the reviews no later than 12:00 GMT on 23 October 2008. We encourage you to post your reviews as soon as you complete them to allow authors more time. Authors would post their reactions to the reviews by 12:00 GMT on 24 October 2008 informing the group on their proposed actions to finalize the papers.

The concept note on the proposed Policy Innovation Forum will be posted on event web site on 23 October 2008. We request your comments and suggestions on this by 12:00 GT on 24 October 2008.

Guidelines for round 1 [22-27 September]

Step 1: Background paper

Read the approach paper made available here.

Step 2: Participating in e-discussions

Daily themes

Moderators will introduce the daily themes with an email posted to the list serve, putting forward key discussion questions and making reference to the background documents supporting each topic. Messages will be posted to the server between 01:00-02:00 GMT*.
One-page background documents will be uploaded on a daily basis and are available here.
Participants are encouraged to provide answers and comment on the daily topics by drawing from their own experience.
To post your message just hit the REPLY button of your email.

Summary of themes

Moderators will consolidate the main discussion items and propositions emerging from the daily discussions and will post their summary to all participants at the end of the day. Summaries will be archived on the website the next day.

Step 3: Follow-up discussions

Continuation of discussions

If one day is not sufficient to fully cover a topic, the moderators and the participants may choose to extend discussions to the following day. This may allow participants in different time zones to still contribute with their inputs even after the daily summaries have been posted to the group.

Production of discussion papers

Discussions will feed into the production of thematic discussion papers and the main challenges, solutions and trends identified in these discussions will be taken up by the authors for these papers.

Houserules for an effective discussion

Concise messages: Participants are encouraged to use short and concise sentences and messages, as a show of respect to the time and attention of the other participants.
Plain English: Participants are expected to communicate in plain and simple English.
Sharing of documentation: It is possible to share attachments with the discussion group. Copyrighted materials may not be posted without permission of the copyright holder. However, we encourage participants to share only relevant documents which are not heavier than 1 megabyte, to avoid overloading the inboxes of other participants. If participants want to share larger documents, these could be uploaded here, by sending the documents to the following address: a[dot]panjwani[at]etcnl[dot]nl.
Use of acronyms/abbreviations: To ensure understanding of discussions by all participants, please provide the full forms (spell out the name) of the acronym or abbreviation at least once in the same email.
One liners/personal notes: We request participants to avoid sending personal messages through the server or one line emails such as “Bravo” or “thanks for the info”.
Availability of moderators: The moderators would be facilitating discussions between 02:00 and 12:00 GMT*. We encourage participants to join in during these hours if possible. If you have any questions or seek further clarifications on any of the steps outlined above, please write to: a[dot]rojas[at]etcnl[dot]nl.

* Given that discussions will take place with participants living in different time-zones, hours are provided according to GMT time. Please do check how these times are translated to your location.