From Louise Shaxson, Chair of the INASP Board
On behalf of the Board I am delighted to introduce INASP’s 2023 Annual Review.
I’d like to begin by thanking John Young, who stepped down as Executive Director at the end of 2023, for leading the organisation with a clear strategic vision, wisdom and empathy over the past five and a half years. John has made a series of hugely important contributions to the field of international research in his long career, first at ODI and then at INASP. We wish him all the best and are very pleased that he will remain part of the team as an INASP Associate. But I’m delighted that Jon Harle agreed to take over as INASP’s new Executive Director in a world that seems to be changing ever more rapidly.
Towards the end of last year we entered the age of AI, and I’m very proud of the way INASP has responded by amplifying the work of our growing team of Associates and harnessing AI for equitable learning across the Global South. We’re only at the beginning of being able to understand the potential of artificial intelligence, but the AuthorAID community has been very active in discussions about how to illuminate the potential of large language models (LLMs) to empower early career researchers.
The speed at which AuthorAID members are able to support one another and uncover new ways of using LLMs has been extraordinary. If you want to see efforts to democratise the use of AI by improving its accessibility, look no further than the AuthorAID community’s focus on building equitable learning opportunities for all early career researchers, no matter who they are and no matter which institution they come from.
In the coming year we will be focusing on ensuring that the use of LLMs and other AI-enabled technologies are fully aligned with the highly-regarded principles of gender-responsive pedagogy we developed in our Transforming Employability for Social Change in East Africa programme. And we want to ensure that it’s not just universities who benefit: TVET institutions are critical for the development of green skills, and we are committed to growing our community towards those institutions, understanding their particular needs and how they can best take advantages of the opportunities presented by AI-enabled learning.
We will also maintain our focus on open access publishing to ensure that this learning can be shared. Because INASP is all about equitable learning, equitable access to knowledge, and creating the learning ecosystems which foster that equity.
