Editorial
10 Dec 2010
After a short Christmas break to recharge our batteries, we started 2010 with fresh energy and the ambition to make this year a very successful one. For NICHE it will be a year full of new tenders and projects. For NFP 2010 will be a year of change as the programmes will switch to a new application and selection procedure, facilitated by an online application named Scholarships Online.
Since our last newsletter four new NICHE Programme Outlines have been signed in Uganda, Zambia, Vietnam and, most recently, Ethiopia. I just returned from an exciting identification mission to Indonesia so we have asked our focal point at the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta, Arnold van der Zanden, to present his view on NICHE in relation to the Embassy’s activities in Indonesia.
On 18 January the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) sent a wake-up call to the Dutch international development sector when it presented its sector review 'Less pretense, more ambition'. It offered plenty of food for thought and prompted a serious debate in the Netherlands. You can read Nuffic’s response to the report in the news section of our website (in Dutch).
In January we organized our second NICHE information session for Dutch providers. It was a very lively and interesting meeting, with plenty of room for questions and discussions about the latest developments in the programme. You can read more about the meeting and download the presentations from the NICHE website.
We asked the implementing partners of an NPT project in Colombia, entitled Strengthening of Knowledge and Amazonian Environmental Management, to tell us about the drawbacks and successes of their project. Their experience shows that universities can play a relevant role for local communities.
Finally, in this issue the NFP team reports about the Holland Alumni Conference, the soon-to-be-launched virtual Holland Alumni network and the big changes ahead for the application procedure with the introduction of Scholarships Online (SOL).
We hope you will enjoy the read and, as usual, we welcome your comments and suggestions to our mailbox.
Joep Houterman
Director Capacity Building and Scholarships
