16th Meeting of Senior Fellowships Officers of the ... - Development

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16th Meeting of Senior Fellowships Officers of the United Nations System and Host Country Agencies
knowledge, and discuss current development issues. Participants ranged from country
directors, to World Bank representatives, Japanese officials, university staff and other development
stakeholders. Distinguished presentations were made on capacity-building,
country development strategy, Japan as Knowledge Economy, etc. Based on the positive
feedback from the participants of the two conferences, the fellowships programme would
use the occasion of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the JJ/WBGSP in 2007 to further
strengthen that initiative as a capacity development tool. The preparations for the anniversary
conference in Tokyo were under way.
121. Ms. Zork, Chief of the Scholarships Unit of the Organization of American States,
inquired on how the World Bank kept in touch with its alumni fellows in a world
where physical and electronic addresses changed frequently. Mr. Shibata specified that
every two years the World Bank conducted a tracer study to follow up on fellows who
had completed the Programme. The organization sent out letters and emails but also
contacted the Alma Mater Universities to which many fellows had developed a special
affection during their research. Experience had shown that fellows continued to stay in
touch with their host institutes while their contacts with the World Bank diminished.
Another approach followed by the World Bank was to appoint former fellows as focal
points for alumni who traced fellows through the channels of the alumni network.
Regional focal points of alumni association had received small financial rewards in the
past but currently no such incentives existed; all focal points were volunteers.
122. The representative of ITTO, Ms. Aoki, inquired if the World Bank ran cost-sharing
programmes. Mr. Shibata named partnership programmes with Columbia University,
Harvard University and several Japanese Universities.
123. Dr. Nukuro, Regional Adviser of WHO for the Western Pacific Region appreciated the
presentation on scaling up programme which could be useful for other agencies if the
key factors to a successful alumni network could be identified and pursued. Mr. Shibata
pointed out that his agency invited the fellows with outstanding final papers to conferences
and defrayed their travel and per diem expenses. This incentive aroused the interest
of focal points as well as regular fellows to attend and contribute with presentations. One
example was the Regional African conference in Tanzania where one person came from
600 miles away on his own expenses. In the framework of the 20th anniversary of its fellowships
programme the World Bank was planning to publish a booklet with some of
the high profile personalities who were former World Bank fellows such as Ministers or
Directors of National Banks. Besides the booklet, video interviews with former fellows
were conducted and would be presented during the celebration of the 20th anniversary.
124. Dr. Hassanabadi raised the issue of the number of returned responses in tracer studies.
He noted that even though WHO withheld the payment of the last 100 dollars until
the final report of the fellows is received, the highest response rate ranged between
70% and 75%. Mr. Shibata acknowledged that his organization was facing the same
problem. It was commonly admitted that the response rate of tracer surveys was relatively
low and that the World Bank’s current response rate of around 40% could be