David South Consulting Online for Seven Years | November 2017

When it first launched in 2010, the David South Consulting (davidsouthconsulting.com) website was beautiful but sparse. Designed by one of Iceland's top graphic designers and illustrators, Solveig Rolfsdottir, it was basically an online CV (curriculum vitae). 

A lot has happened since: the new global magazine Southern Innovator was launched, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) came to an end in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) launched, and the UN adopted an innovation and South-South agenda, and so did many other countries, including China. And the content of the website has expanded to reflect this. The entire archive of the influential United Nations e-newsletter Development Challenges, South-South Solutions can be found here, as well as many resources chronicling the international development journey from the late 1990s.   

We even moved to a new studio and headquarters next to a bird sanctuary and nature reserve (matching our green words with green actions)!

The front page of the David South Consulting website.   

About David South Consulting.

Services at David South Consulting. 

David South Consulting had an Alexa rank of 7,243,014 in 2017.

David South Consulting international clients.

Practice Zones and HQ and Studio for David South Consulting.© David South Consulting 2017

Southern Innovator on the UNOSSC Website | November 2017

Southern Innovator among the South-South publications available from the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC).

Southern Innovator among the South-South publications available from the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC).

All five issues of Southern Innovator available from the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC).

© southerninnovator.com 2017

© David South Consulting 2017

Information Accelerates Crisis Recovery and Development | 1997

The United Nations Information Shop (UN Info Shop) was established by UNDP Mongolia in 1997 and was managed by the UNDP Mongolia Communications Office. Context is everything. At this time, Mongolia was still recovering from the chaotic and turbulent transition from Communism to free markets and democracy begun at the start of the 1990s, called by some "one of the biggest peacetime economic collapses ever" (Mongolia's Economic Reforms: Background, Content and Prospects, Richard Pomfret, University of Adelaide, 1994). There was a thirst for information: access to the Internet was still limited and access to mobile phones was just the preserve of the rich. As a legacy of the past, information, especially that about the outside world and the country’s true economic and social conditions, was restricted. During the years of Communism, even simple travel from one place to the next was strictly regulated. 

While today we can take it for granted that the Internet, and mobile and smart phones, deliver the world’s information in seconds, this just was not the case in the late 1990s in Mongolia. 

The UN Info Shop quickly became a crucial resource for students (many schools and universities were nearby) and it became a first stop for many wishing to access the Internet. It also substantially raised the profile of the UN in the country as the public could, for the first time, enter the UN building and discover what the UN was doing in the country. They could also visit the UNDP Mongolia Communications Office and meet its team. 

P. Dagmidmaa reads the Human Development Report Mongolia 1997 in the UN Info Shop.

An announcement in the Blue Sky Bulletin about the launch of the new journal Cooperation South.

The UNDP Mongolia Communications Office Team 1998 outside the UN Info Shop in the capital, Ulaanbaatar: David South, Bayasgalan and Bayarmaa.Many initiatives grew from the talented and dynamic UNDP Mongolia Communications Office team. Here are links to some of them: 

Ger: Mongolia's First Web Magazine 

Mongolian AIDS Bulletin

UN/UNDP Mongolia Development Web Portal 

Case Study: UN + UNDP Mongolia | 1997-1999

© David South Consulting 2017

Shortlisted for Infographics Storytelling Book | 2014

"Close, but no cigar" some might say, but we were genuinely flattered to be shortlisted in 2014 for inclusion in the book Visual Storytelling: Infographic Design in News published by Images Publishing in Shanghai, China. It is a lovely book to look at and the quality of infographics chosen for the book is high so it must have been a tough call. It was further proof Southern Innovator was getting known around the world and gaining respect for its content and design. The excellent work done by our graphic designer and illustrator Solveig Rolfsdottir speaks for itself.

Have a look at our other infographics here: http://www.davidsouthconsulting.com/case-studies/infographics-2005-2014.html

The proof flats for inclusion in Visual Storytelling: Infographic Design in News.

Visual Storytelling: Infographic Design in News published by Images Publishing.

© David South Consulting 2017

David South Consulting Scale-up | 2017

Pitch + Vision

The time has never been more urgent and propitious for our work. As we travelled the world producing content for the UN's Development Challenges, South-South Solutions e-newsletter and the groundbreaking magazine Southern Innovator, we also developed two Action Plans. One was developed in partnership with the UNOSSC to scale-up Southern Innovator magazine. Whilst that experienced significant obstacles we were only to discover as a result of various court cases (more on this here: The Strange Saga of South-South News), the other Action Plan was for scaling up David South Consulting. And that we are full steam ahead with!

David South Consulting will be structured as follows: 

1) Headquarters and domicile: London, UK.  Our mobile products are developed at the Google Campus London for Startups.

2) Global Hub: Geneva, Switzerland.

3) Data Centre: Reykjavik, Iceland. 

I will sketch out the vision further below and can give greater detail to interested partners and/or investors. In the course of working in international development since 1997 (either as a consultant or staff member), I have developed significant insights into what works and what does not. I have also worked with or met some amazing people and talents along the way. I have had the privilege of seeing first-hand the breadth and reach of the international system, visiting and working in its headquarters and sprawling 'campuses', from Geneva to Nairobi.

I have worked with some outstanding clients who in turn have shaped new thinking in the international realm. And it is time to put all that experience to good use. The world faces an epochal turning point. In the course of researching the e-newsletter and the magazine, I saw first-hand not only the scale of the challenges but also the solutions that either already exist or just need that extra push to be deployed.

Looking back on three decades of working internationally and chronicling its vicissitudes, a few things stand out: one is an ability to spot trends, another is to make strategic interventions that move things along, and finally, an ability to work ethically, and with a joy for the adventure of the journey and the amazing people you meet along the way.    

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Phase 1

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We accept payments and donations here: https://www.paypal.me/davidsouthconsulting

 © David South Consulting 2017