The Start of Something Big
We think Catalyst is the start of something big—far bigger than the Posner Center organization and our community of organizations and individuals. Indeed, this Report on Collaborative Global Development is a foundational part of our plan to transform global development for greater impact. It aims to capture the infinite loop of global development’s emerging ideas, thought leadership, evidence-informed best practices, and policy and program implementation that both initiate and are the result of collaborative approaches.
We have grand plans. We aim to grow Catalyst to a journal-like publication, not necessarily with the pomp and grandiosity of a peer-reviewed tome, but with a robust community that collaborates to think, innovate, postulate, evaluate, and have knock-down, drag-out arguments about what works in collaborative global development—and what does not. Then, we turn around and try to capture all this in an utterly readable and provocative publication.
In the beginning, we will rely primarily on the Posner Center Community—convening our profound talent of deep thinkers and doers, innovators and entrepreneurs, zealots, and iconoclasts—to explore how we are transforming global development through collaboration.
We aim to gradually grow our contributors, audiences, and participating community by inviting vigorous, dynamic discussion through our online platforms. Catalyst takes the Posner Center where we want to go: to a deeper dialogue with the entire global development community.
We are truly appreciative of all the contributors, the Editorial Review Board, and our unruly Posner Center Team, who persevered and deftly managed the many uncertainties and delights of this new effort. We definitely owe you a few beers. Or kombuchas.
We hope that you enjoy Catalyst and are enthusiastic and critical in your consumption and feedback. Let’s start the discussion.
Onward and upward—
Burke Fishburn
Executive Director
Posner Center for International Development
Thank You to Rebecca Hofkes
Catalyst would not have been possible without the extraordinary talents and extreme perseverance of our Managing Editor, Rebecca Hofkes.
Rebecca served in this position through a Posner Center Collaborative Global Development Fellowship, with a day job as a researcher and project manager specializing in local government issues. She managed just about every aspect of producing this report with inspiring positivity, firm and steady discipline, an exacting eye for detail, and all with resolute focus on the big vision.
Her work on this report is proof of her belief that positive change occurs when people create a collaborative and empowered community. We wish her the very best on her future endeavors and as an aspiring science fiction writer!