Save the date: Sida’s help desks – Overview and collaboration with the SweDev research community 

On March 11, we welcome our research community to a lunch webinar with representatives from Sida to learn more about Sida’s help desks and explore opportunities for collaboration. 

This webinar offers a timely opportunity to look inside Sida’s thematic helpdesks and understand how they work in practice as part of evidence-informed development cooperation. Convened together with SweDev, the Swedish platform for development research that brings together researchers across universities and disciplines, the seminar will showcase how Sida’s helpdesks provide rapid access to specialist knowledge, support short turnaround needs, and contribute to decision-making in complex and fast-moving contexts.

By bringing together Sida, helpdesk providers, and members of the SweDev development research community, the webinar will give participants a practical and engaging overview of a part of the aid architecture that is highly important but not widely visible. Through short presentations from different helpdesks, participants will gain insight into how thematic expertise is organised, how analytical support is delivered under time constraints, and how these functions help translate knowledge into timely advice and action.

The webinar will also open a forward-looking discussion on collaboration points between Sida’s helpdesks and SweDev’s academic network. The aim is to create a constructive space for exchange on where research-based expertise can add further value, how complementarities can be strengthened, and what practical interfaces may support continued dialogue and cooperation.

Confirmed speakers: 

• Anna Mia Ekström, Chair, SweDev 
• Ola Möller, Sida 
• Representatives from Sida’s Helpdesk for Environment and Climate Change 

Additional speakers will be announced. 

Agenda

• Welcome and aims of the webinar (Anna Mia Ekström, Chair of SweDev)
• The role of Sida’s helpdesks (Ola Möller, Sida)
• Brief presentations of Sida’s helpdesks (Nordic Consulting Group)
• Presentation of Sida’s Helpdesk for Environment and Climate Change (Eva Stephansson, Helena Eriksson, Linda Hansson)
• Presentation of SweDev as a potential resource (SweDev)
• Discussion of Sida Helpdesk-SweDev collaboration – access to SweDev’s expertise
• Conclusions

The webinar will take place online on March 11 at 12:00-13:00 (CET).