Global Development Learning Network

In April of 2004, the International Monetary Fund (IMF ) and the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) agreed that Ethiopia had made sufficient progress and taken the necessary steps to reach its completion point under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.

The World Bank Institute (WBI) has helped train a large number of Ethiopian nationals in areas such as infrastructure finance, anti-corruption strategies, safety nets and social funds, economic growth and poverty reduction, girls' education, and macroeconomic management. Ethiopia has joined the Global Development Learning Network, which is enabling regular offerings of WBI courses using distance techniques.

The Global Development Learning Network uses distance learning technologies and methods to facilitate interactive, cost-effective learning and knowledge-sharing for sustainable development and poverty reduction. GDLN Centers around the world offer a unique set of services to development practitioners.

The Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) is a worldwide partnership of distance learning centers (GDLN Centers) and other public, private, and non-governmental organizations committed to development learning and development dialogue for lasting poverty reduction. Offering a unique combination of distance learning technologies and methods, GDLN facilitates timely and cost-effective knowledge sharing, consultation, coordination, and training.

Through GDLN, individuals, groups, and organizations design and deliver courses, seminars, and other activities that cover the full range of development issues. GDLN Centers around the world have facilities for videoconferencing, web-based learning, and face-to-face interaction and also offer logistical support and facilitation services. These provide cost-effective, fast, and high-impact alternatives to traditional meetings and courses, enabling people around the world to connect with each other without having to travel. Activities do not need to be delivered in a concentrated period of time because people can continue working even as they participate in events. This gives them time and flexibility to read background materials; prepare real assignments related to their actual work; and interact with local peers for an enhanced learning experience.

The World Bank played a key role in establishing GDLN and continues to provide considerable support to the Network. It bears the cost for staffing and operating GDLN Services, a team that coordinates the Network's operations. Other teams in the World Bank work with and through GDLN to communicate with clients across the globe. The World Bank is also a major provider of activities to the Network: through GDLN, the World Bank Institute (WBI) alone has provided over 100 courses, seminars, and dialogues on a large range of development topics to participants from government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.

Initially a World Bank initiative, the Global Development Learning Network (GLDN) is today a global community. With a coordinating team based in Washington, DC, GDLN spans the world through its network of partners. GDLN Centers around the world connect with each other and also with centers that are not part of the Network for a truly global reach.

The coordinating team (GDLN Services) is based in the World Bank Institute in Washington, DC and provides management and financial oversight of the Network. Other supporting teams are part of the World Bank's regional operations and work closely with individual GDLN Centers and other partners on region-specific issues

GDLN Centers are at the heart of the Network because they are the facilities that receive and deliver programs across the globe. Centers are owned and managed by partner institutions and can typically accommodate up to 60 people, offering meeting rooms, videoconferencing, computers with Internet connections, and logistical and facilitating support. Through these facilities, people around the world can interact with each other as if they were in the same room.

Clients and partners use GDLN to organize events on development issues, including meetings, courses, seminars, and other learning events. These activities can be both "virtual" and face-to-face and usually combine both methods. Activity topics range from health and education policy to business development, environmental monitoring, and trade.

EMP/SKILLS - Skills and Employability Department