With CARE in Nepal, March 2017
Report 2017.
Also in 2017 I have enjoyed the senior freelancer’s privilege of being able to combine periods of busy project work and intervals of reflective rest.
In the Spring we began to implement a planned generation shift in CARE Denmark of both management and Board of Directors. A new Secretary General took office in the Autumn and a number og Board members – including me – will leave the Board during Spring 2018. The recruitment process for successors has just begun. Consequently, the journey to Nepal in March 2017 with our patron, HRH Prince Joachim, was probably my last of 12 years’ "field visits" to the countries where CARE is operating. CARE International held our annual June Council meeting in Oslo, Norway. After years of internal restructuring, we began the necessary debate on the changing conditions and roles of aid organizations arising from new global structures and developments in recipient countries. As many other businesses, the INGO “middlemen” of aid might be disrupted into redundancy in coming years, if they are unable to adapt to a new environment.
Just before the summer vacation, I was contacted by the Ministry of Culture asking me to participate in a project group considering possible new structures and financing systems for the 97 government authorized museums in Denmark. Months of intensive work was completed with the publication of the report in early December. We will have to see, if the Parliament will follow some of our suggestions. But in any case, for me it has been an interesting reunion with the world of museums, I left 30 years ago. Parallel to that, I am participating in a project developing scenarios for the future library service in the City of Copenhagen planned to be finalized in the Spring, 2018.
Viewed a little "von oben", it is striking how much "public services" like museums, libraries and media are in the same boat challenged by digital platforms and a more individually oriented societal/political culture. And following that track, I began in early summer to work on an investigation of the decision-making processes leading up to the forthcoming media agreement in the Danish Parliament for the period 2019-2022. The result will be decisive concerning the future of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), which now - according to signals from the majority group in the parliament - seems to be forced into the tracks of the New Zealand PSM reform of the 1980’ies. I have signed a contract with a Danish publisher to deliver a manuscript at the end of 2019.
All in all, yet another busy year providing contacts and cooperation with many committed people, for which I am very grateful.