ZEF Bonn

Preface
This Annual Report of ZEF has been redesigned in accordance with the proposals
made by the ZEF Advisory Board. We highlight a relevant development theme in an
essay that may be debated further and followed up by ZEF, its collaborators and
others. This year we have put forward the theme of “Disasters, Conflicts and Natural
Resource Degradation: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Complex Emergencies".
The rest of the Annual Report is again structured along the lines of the “ZEF
Strategy for the Future", which was released last year. Progress in the crosscutting
research themes, which allow for transdisciplinary integration, is reported on (theories
of development and change, natural resource scarcity, poverty and equity, and
governance and governability).
As usual, activities by the three departments are reported and the many different
initiatives of ZEF researchers, partners and guests are documented.
One of the important highlights of 2001/02 was the external evaluation of ZEF by a
high-level panel of experts. We are extremely pleased with the favourable assessment
and the panel's findings and conclusions, and we are following up with adjustments
in the small number of areas where the panel suggested change. We include an
English summary of the conclusions in this Annual Report.
Following the evaluation, the University of Bonn and the Land of North Rhine-
Westphalia have signed an agreement that assures core funding of ZEF on a significant
scale, ensuring the Center's sustainable after 2004, when Federal Government
pump-priming support ends.
This report demonstrates that ZEF has seen further growth, integration, and consolidation
of research and teaching programs in 2001/2002. Also, new initiatives in global
networking as well as its distance learning scheme have been launched. The
research of ZEF's doctoral students is more and more closely related to ZEF's major
research programs on crosscutting themes and has become an integral part of its
overall research agenda. ZEF's visiting professors and senior researchers are playing a
key role in facilitating these developments.
Our sincerest thanks goes to all those who have contributed to making the past year
a successful one, to our staff, their families and to ZEF's international and German
partners.
Joachim von Braun Paul L.G. Vlek Andreas Wimmer
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