Annual Report 2012
Annual Report 2012
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Date
2012
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DiploFoundation
Abstract
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For Diplo, 2012 was indeed a year of change. Our core funding from the Swiss Development
Corporation was reduced and our funding from ACP expired. Our Internet Governance Capacity
Development Programme was faced with a difficult transition from being able to offer multiple
complete scholarships, thanks to ACP funding, to being able to offer much fewer, partial scholarships
from our core funding. This, obviously, has had an effect and our student numbers are down. While
many want to learn and to increase their knowledge, few have the funds to pay for what is still a
privilege as opposed to a right. And yet, on the flip side, work was completed to ensure the continuance
of Internet governance as an important part of Diplo’s agenda by adding an Internet Governance stream
to our Master’s in Contemproary Diplomacy and to seek out corporate sponsorship for key students.
The release of the fifth edition of our flagship publication An introduction to Internet governance and
its subsequent launch at the 2012 Internet Governance Forum in Baku, helped to cement our place in
the field.
Diplo is a living organisation – one that is constantly evolving to meet new challenges and striving to
stay one step ahead of the posse. Our successful series of Internet-governance-related webinars in 2012
is testament to our ability to adapt, innovate, and move forward. Our course on Consular Diplomacy
was adapted to include the increasingly important element of disaporas. Likewise, the addition of new
courses – Diplomatic Protocol, Cybersecurity, and Economic Diplomacy – increased our offer and
ensured that we continue to occupy our niche in the world of diplomacy training.
Our key resources are our people – both staff and faculty and indeed our alumni work tirelessly to
promote our message and to ensure that we move towards more inclusive diplomacy. This was evident
at our 10th anniversary celebration in Malta where we marked the occasion with an international
conference on innovations in diplomacy. The conference focused both on new innovation areas such
as e-diplomacy and on innovation in traditional diplomatic functions (e.g. protocol, consular affairs).
Leading innovators in diplomacy, alongside practitioners and researchers provided a reality check of
the promises, successes, and failures of innovation in diplomacy over the last 20 years.
This was on the back of a series of very successful e-diplomacy days and events which will lay for the
foundation for a monthly series of advanced webinars in 2013 on the evolution of diplomacy where
reflections on the history of diplomacy will act as a search for guidelines for the future of diplomacy
in the Internet era. Focusing on the interplay between continuity and change, the stage has been set in
2012 for Diplo’s continued advancement in 2013.
We thank you for your continued interest in and support of Diplo’s activities