Marie-Anne Delahaut ,  Director of Research and head of the Information Unit at The Destree Institute, Head and Founder of Millennia2015, President of the Millennia2025 "Women and Innovation" Foundation, PUF

PWI – Marie-Anne, you have two hats, let’s start with the Destree Institute. Tell us, please, about its mission, activities and your role as Director of Research.

Our meeting for the interview happens at a happy time: The Destree Institute was founded exactly 75 years ago in Namur, on the 11th June 1938. It was named in honor of the Minister of Sciences and Arts Jules Destree, who died in 1936.
The Destree Institute is a European pluralist research centre, a non-governmental, non-profit body and a think-tank; as per our statute: <<Acknowledged as a general service for lifelong learning and research centre with an interuniversity calling, the Destree Institute works as a permanent think-tank …. It pursues its goals with the greatest attention to the European and global dimensions of these issues, along with their impact on society as a whole. The Destree Institute operates therefore as a sensor of change and generates innovative ideas for action, in favour of deliberative democracy and the common good of society>>.
The Institute is, organizationally speaking, structured in four dynamic units: history research, information society, citizenship and foresight.

I have been working for a long time at The Destree Institute with different missions: director of publications, network administrator and director of research, head of the Information Society. I have been active in the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society since 2003, with a special research about "Foresight and governance of the internet"(I).
As a student and at the beginning of my career, I was a member of the Liege section of The Destree Institute.
I began my career as a French Teacher, discovered computers in 1987 and decided to learn more about information and communication technologies: I became network administrator and I developed the independent network of The Destree Institute (DNS, mail and web servers, database). I had another job when I was asked to join the team and… I accepted.
As far as I know, NGOs are created by people who have good ideas and goals, willing to act as "not for profit" organizations to develop projects. People gather spontaneously around those ideas and projects, people are ready to work, to produce research for free, but the difficulty is to gather money to finance these projects, particularly in the developing countries. The necessity of financing them is a struggle, the situation is not easy and funding is an important challenge for many NGOs.
Millennia2015 - "Women actors of development for the global challenges" is a foresight research process (II) developed and organized by The Destree Institute.

We are lucky to benefit from the wise advice of Dr. Eleonora Barbieri Masini (III) member of Millennia2015 Steering Committee. She has summarized Millennia2015's role and spirit in a short text translated into 22 languages by our members (extract below):

"… Millennia2015's commitment is to highlight women's crucial role in society and their unrecognized capacity as builders of alternative futures, based on characteristics such as an innate future orientation, capacity to mediate and to network at all levels, capacity to be social actors, to face natural catastrophes and human conflicts by creating solidarity among women. Millennia 2015 offers, through the use of advanced means of communication, the great opportunity for women all over the world to be in contact and thus render their role visible to themselves and at world level. … All women involved in Millennia2015 constantly show their participation by sharing their work and activities. … Women, in Millennia2015, come from different backgrounds, different cultures and different involvements in their societies. They come together with the aim of bringing to the forefront their role in every society as well as of building alternative futures according to their different roles, but with a common awareness. … It recognizes the role of women as well as women's enhancement as social actors that can make a difference and not mostly as victims, as still often thought. Millennia2015 shows women themselves and the world, that they can bring change towards a more human and sharing community" (IV).

Well, Alessandra, let me try to illustrate the Millennia2015 key feature in a structured and concise manner:

• The mission of Millennia2015 is to examine the strategies that - while respecting cultural and linguistic diversity - will lead towards more equality and solidarity and that take into account the needs/ values of women by the year 2025.
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• The goal of Millennia2015 is to act for gender equality, women's empowerment and their full participation to political, economic and social decisions, in complementarity with men, in order to build fairer and more ethical futures at the horizon 2025.
  The collaborative objective of Millennia2015 is to federate, on its multilingual website all the stakeholders mobilized for women’s empowerment, making sure to include the poorest.
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• The key values of Millennia2015 are complementarity between women and men, respect for rights and diversity, promotion of the human capital and of digital solidarity in order to empower women.
  
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• The tasks of Millennia2015, detailed in the millennia charter, consist in:
  
• • Identifying the nature of current and future changes;
  • Promoting a culture of respect for diversity and peace;
  • Recognizing and acknowledging women's ability to be actors and not victims of social change, while developing a new worldview that can create a more sustainable life for all humankind; building networks of feminine competence.
    Basing on content analysis dealing with gender issues raised since 2008, the 37 variables (V) of Millennia2015 have been formulated and analyzed by the contributors. The elaboration of hypothesis will enable Millennia2015 to produce exploratory scenarios.
  
  
• The Millennia2015 process, built with its international partners, is structured through three phases regulated by three international conferences organized by The Destree Institute:
  

• •  2008 - "Information transfer": Exchange and transmission of data as well as of analysis already collected or built, used to inform the participants or to question the society.
  • 2012 - "Knowledge process": Interactive building processes, step-by-step, for an innovative knowledge and a strategy made of precise actions.
  • 2015 - "Intelligence platforms": Collective dynamics of real field experiences exchanges and recombination of tools realized in order to learn together as well as to launch innovative initiatives.
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The three conferences details are illustrated in the picture below:

PHASES	Information Transfer Phase	Knowledge Process Phase	Intelligence Platform Phase
THEME
ORGANISER	The Destree Institute	The UNESCO & The Destree Institute	UN Women & The Destree Institute
LOCATION	Convention Centre, Liege	UNESCO Headquarters, Paris	United Nations, New York
DATE	07-08 March 2008	3-4 December 2012	2015

The governance of Millennia2015 is ensured by its direction, it’s a team within The Destree Institute and the steering committee.
My current collaborator, Coumba Sylla, who is research fellow at The Destree Institute for Millennia2015, came first as a trainee of the Eurodyssee Programme (Program of the Assembly of European Regions with the Union wallonne des Entreprises). I am lucky to welcome trainees, from the European ERASMUS Programme or from Eurodyssee: for example Rebeca Pascual Prats has been working with us for five months, her input is excellent. Trainees, motivated by a project, always come with an interesting constructive "new view".

The functioning of Millennia2015 is based on the strength and interaction of its network, which is a valuable human capital consisting of:

•  Members
  
•  Contributors
  
•  Regional communities
  
•  International thematic working groups (IWG)
  

We now count about 821 contributors, 2.713 members and 9.128 contacts in 109 countries

I would like to highlight the core importance of the International thematic Working Groups (IWG), which have been developed around the 37  variables within the framework of the foresight exercise.

The first and most active international working groups (IWGs) - "Women and eHealth" and “Women and Telemedicine” - have been created by Véronique Thouvenot, international expert at the European Centre for Humanitarian Health (CESH) and Scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO).
Other thematic working groups are being formed: "Women in situations of conflict and of war" (around the United Nations Security Council Resolution UNSCR1325 - Women, Peace and Security), "Women in Science", "Women and Sport" and "Women and eSolidarity".

Millennia2015 counts also several active Regional Communities, such as Benin, Djibouti, Goma (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Guatemala, India, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nepal and Senegal. They have studied the variables, produce studies, reports and promote Millennia2015 in their country or region.

All people are welcome to join Millennia2015 it is easy and free to register online at: www.millennia2015.org/Community_Registration