Amsterdam, 30 January: At the first ESOMAR Council meeting of 2019, Nijat Mammadbayli was appointed Council Representative to the ESOMAR Foundation board. The decision was made unanimously by the ESOMAR council members. He will replace Pervin Olgun, who held the position of Representative of the Supervisory Board previously.
Nijat is a young and ambitious Senior Analyst specializing in consumer research in FMCG and Telecom. He has over 3 years of experience in helping multinational clients answering complex business questions as well as executing non-standard pricing and communications studies. He has a strong interest in learning how to have a positive impact by doing Social Research. In 2017, Nijat led a team that won the ESOMAR Corporate Young Professional Award for his work on “Turning a Corner on Negative Perceptions of Refugees in Europe”.
Nijat holds an MSc degree in Marketing Management from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. By having international mind-set (born in Azerbaijan, lived in the Netherlands, South Korea, and the UK) and being multilingual gives him a better perspective in working with different cultures and mindsets.
“We are thrilled to welcome Nijat to our board, we are hoping that his energy and enthusiasm will bring a fresh and important perspective to our work to help us make the world a better place”, said John Kearon, President of the ESOMAR Foundation.
Paragons Partnerships member, UN SDG Action Campaign is running the 2nd edition of the UN Sustainable Development Goals Awards.
The United Nations SDG Action Campaign is a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General administered by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and mandated to support the UN system-wide and the Member States on advocacy and public engagement in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) implementation. The UN SDG Action Campaign aims to mobilize and inspire individuals and organizations to take action and join the global movement for the SDGs, while connecting people’s actions and perceptions with decision makers in SDG planning and review processes at all levels.
The UN SDG Action Campaign inspires and empowers people with knowledge, platforms and tools to share their opinions and experiences and actively contribute towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
The UN SDG Action Awards recognize the most brilliant individuals, civil society organizations, subnational governments, foundations, networks, private sector leaders who are working on SDG advocacy to advance the global movement for the Sustainable Development Goals in the most transformative, impactful and innovative way.
To enter a project or initiative please prepare the application by filling in this form.
The window for submissions runs until 30 January 2019 with all shortlisted finalists being notified by March.
The 2nd edition of Making a Difference competition is now open for entries. The centrepiece of the ‘Making a Difference’ programme aims to highlight and promote how research has made a real difference to Not-for-Profits. The competition is open to all non-profit case studies whether they are international, national or local.
This competition plans to raise awareness of the impact of great research on Not-For-Profits by offering a platform for these stories to be heard.
The winners of the competition will be announced at ESOMAR’s Asia Pacific Conference on the 22nd May. The winning authors together with their NFP counterparts will be invited to present their work during a special ‘Making a Difference’ session at the ESOMAR Congress, in Edinburgh, in September 2019. The Congress provides amazing exposure and an ideal opportunity for networking and promotion.
WHY YOU SHOULD ENTER THE COMPETITION:
It encourages excellence, educates and motivates the industry to produce great research on and for Not-For-Profits
Share your work with your peers for mutually beneficial inspiration and learning.
The competition will highlight ‘Make a Difference’ case studies to massively increase the overall impact of market research in building a better world!
Your work will be promoted throughout the year on all our platforms
Win a category and an award, receive a trophy
Participate and present at the ESOMAR Congress in Edinburgh, the biggest event in the market research industry
It’s a fun, challenging and exciting way to share your work.
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
All non-profit cases are welcome whether they are international, national or local!
You may showcase any innovative and insightful research work
There is no limit of entries per author
Each case-study must have a separate application
New entries deadline: 29th of April 2019
LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION?
Check out some of the previous winners of the Making a Difference Competition
At the end of 2018, ESOMAR Foundation and the ESOMAR staff were involved in one memorable Charitable activity. Throughout the month of December, we have managed to collect at our office in Amsterdam clothes, accessories, toys and other goods for adults and children in need.
Joining hands with the local organisation Surf the Earth Project – STEP, we had reached several remote rural communities in Bacau county, Moldova region of Romania. Together, we managed to offer a Christmas present to individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds (social, economic, geographic). 330 kilos of goods, accessories, and clothes traveled from Amsterdam to Romania and were added to the collection of the local campaign.
A total of 700 bags and backpacks equipped with school supplies were offered to school children in 8 villages from 2 counties of Nord-East Romania (Bacau, Vaslui). The campaign exceeded the initial expectations with the help received from the ESOMAR Foundation.
Please take some time and enjoy this selection of photos which were taken during the first day of Christmas when the children received their presents.
not easy to get there
The ESOMAR Foundation would like to thank the ESOMAR staff and everyone that took part in this lovely activity. We would like to extend our best wishes to all our beneficiaries, partners and supporters.
In the year ahead, we are looking forward to working with you to make the world a better place!
14 December 2018 – Paragon Partnerships, supported by ESOMAR Foundation, won the MRS President’s Medal which is awarded annually to an organisation that has conducted extraordinary research but who might not be recognised through the usual channels.
On choosing the winner, Jan Gooding, President of MRS, said:
“I was immensely impressed by what was achieved on a voluntary basis. It was a huge act of generosity on the part of everyone involved. At a time when the UN can find itself justifying its work and existence, when the problems in the world are so huge, this kind of collaboration to provide evidence of effectiveness is something to be celebrated and applauded.”
Paragon Partnerships was launched in 2016, by Stan Sthanunathan of Unilever, in response to the UN’s 17th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) – the call for private sector partnerships to help the UN achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) by 2030.
The programme calls on the private sector to help the UN achieve its SDG’s by 2030. The UN SDG Action Campaign, along with Paragon Partnerships member Kantar Public, developed and tested a question library of almost 100 SDG questions. This huge project constituted the first step to enable countries to measure their journey to the accomplishment of the SDGs in a consistent way. Data from the library was presented at a UN High-Level Political Forum in July 2018 and is also publically available for any government organisation or NGO to use. Read more on Paragon and its relationship with the ESOMAR Foundation.
More information:
The UN SDG Action Campaignis an inter-agency special initiative of the UN Secretary-General to scale up, broaden, and sustain the global movement to take action for the SDGs. The UN SDG Action Campaign aims to mobilize and inspire individuals and organizations to take action and join the global movement for the SDGs, while connecting people’s actions and perceptions with decision makers in SDG planning and review processes at all levels.
Paragon Partnershipswas launched at Impact 2016, the MRS Annual Conference, by Stan Sthanunathan of Unilever in response to the UN’s 17th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). The programme calls on the private sector to help the UN achieve the SDGs by 2030.
The Market Research Society (MRS) is the UK professional body for research, insight and analytics. MRS recognizes 5,000 individual members and over 500 accredited Company Partners in over 50 countries who are committed to delivering outstanding insight. As the regulator, they promote the highest professional standards throughout the sector via the MRS Code of Conduct.
Scholarship awarded to Maria Paola Loy Villagran in Guatemala to pursue MS in market research at Universidad Rafael Landivar
11 December 2018 – Amsterdam, NL – The ESOMAR Foundation—a charitable organization representing the market research industry—in cooperation with global non-profit Women in Research (WIRe) and Unilever, recently funded a scholarship benefiting a female student entering into an market research related field of study in Guatemala. The scholarship has been awarded to recipient Maria Paola Loy Villagran, who will be pursuing a Master of Science in Marketing with a focus on Market Research, at Universidad Rafael Landivar.
“We are ever so grateful to WIRe and Unilever for providing the opportunity to Paola to pursue her studies in the market research field,” says John Kearon, ESOMAR Foundation President. “It is through their generousity and support that we can ensure that talented students in need can fulfill their dream of a better life”
This year’s scholarship recipient, Maria Paola Loy Villagran, is a Guatemalan native from a disadvantaged socio-economic background. Through the scholarship, Paola will have the opportunity to pursue an advanced degree and, in the future, a career in market research. Through funding the education of women like Paola, the organizations involved help to advance the voice of women in the market research industry as well as the voice of Guatemalan women in the practice. Upon receiving word that the scholarship had been funded, Paola remarked that “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard WORK!”
Women in Research (WIRe) raised the funding for the scholarship through outreach to their global community, receiving a generous outpouring of gifts and support on Giving Tuesday: an international day of giving. These gifts were further supported by a matching donation from Unilever. WIRe is the only non-profit organization solely dedicated to the advancement of women and underrepresented communities in the market research industry, providing career development and educational opportunities for women while supporting a variety of diversity initiatives. Unilever, a global consumer goods company, with a strong focus on charitable initiatives, especially in emerging markets, matched the WIRe community’s contribution dollar for dollar for the scholarship fund. ESOMAR Foundation, WIRe and Unilever have previously collaborated to award scholarships in Kenya and Cambodia.
“We are thrilled that, for the third year in a row, the WIRe community and market research industry have come together to amplify underrepresented voices in this industry through the continued support of WIRe’s Global Scholarship Fund,” says Kristin Luck, founder of Women in Research, “The aims of the ESOMAR Foundation and this scholarship initiative align perfectly with WIRe’s mission to advance the contributions of women in market research while fostering a more vibrant and just industry for all. We’re pleased to offer this support to Paola as she advances in her studies with the goal of a career in Market Research and I’m humbled by the WIRe community’s continued enthusiasm regarding this initiative.”The ESOMAR Foundation and WIRe plan to continue to collaborate in 2019 to fund additional scholarship initiatives in emerging or disadvantaged markets.
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About ESOMAR Foundation
ESOMAR Foundation is a charitable Foundation representing the Market, Social and Opinion Research industry. Our industry has a wealth of knowledge and experience that can be applied to every aspect of society to ensure a more transparent, reliable and sustainable world. The ESOMAR Foundation is the charity arm of ESOMAR, the global industry association of market, social and opinion research. https://esomarfoundation.org
About Women in Research
Women in Research (WIRe) champions diversity in the marketing research industry by arming women with the tools to develop professionally, build connections and stay inspired. We believe in the positive impact of women in business. Our mission is to advance the contributions and voice of women in research, both for themselves and for the greater good of the industry. www.womeninresearch.org
The 4th and last webinar of the “What different Qualitative Approaches can be used to achieve various objectives?” series will focus on research design and action. The webinar will give listeners an overall understanding of how to design and deliver a qualitative project that will really make a difference to their Not-for-Profit organisation’s impact.
The first speaker, Astrid Novianti, will talk about a particularly challenging project that was conducted in Indonesia – a very important, high profile and ‘political’ subject, with a sensitive and difficult audience – how did she make sure that the research design was right? That all aspects were covered? That the findings really drove the action strategy?
The subject of the study was Stunting – which is the impaired growth and development of children caused by poor nutrition and repeated infection resulting in their height being two standard deviations below the WHO Standards. Stunting in the first 1000 days from conception, has adverse consequences on cognition, educational performance, adult wages. It’s not a “visible” illness and goes undetected in the early days. Behavior change in health and nutrition leading to prevention of stunting is a key task in emerging markets.
Indonesia has a higher incidence of stunting among ASEAN Countries …1 in 3 children. The government of Indonesia has committed to an integrated National Nutrition Communication Campaign (NNCC) for behavior change targeted at individuals, communities, and stakeholders to minimize stunting. To this end, IMA World Health was commissioned by MCA Indonesia to design and implement an effective NNCC resulting in behavior change and lower stunting incidence.
Kantar TNS Indonesia conducted the in-depth study for understanding of knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior related to mother and child nutrition and stunting – to identify the motivators and deterrents to desired behavior, including the role of different influencers and influences to aid integrated communication strategy development covering message and media/touchpoint strategies.
Astrid will share the difficulties, the thought process she went through, and what has been done as a result of the insights generated.
In the second part, we will have three speakers, Emmanuel, Barbara and Astrid, who want to share their very current experience around another difficult, sensitive and political topic – corruption in voting behavior in Kenya. They will offer insights into a qualitative research in progress on voter integrity in rural Kenya. After losing a successful grassroots campaign in the August 2017 general election they started collecting voices among the local campaigners, to document the process and gather first information on what might have happened.
“Corruption” turned out to be a complex multivariate concept, that needs further exploration to reframe it, learn from it and make it fruitful for future democratic development. But how? They will share how they will prepare for the second round of research in January 2019 to deepen our understanding of voter decision making and concepts of democracy that will provide the database for further action, as an information-based support network for upcoming local politicians and civic education training for this rural community.
They look for ideas and contribution from you, the audience. It is a very challenging assignment – how do you get people to talk to you honestly about such a topic, in a way that helps you know what to change? Do you have relevant experience that you can share?
The webinar will feature
A lifelong market researcher currently working on the GfK Verein’s University Cooperation Programme to improve the quality of education in Market Research in Africa and China.
Astrid is a team leader in TNS qualitative unit in Indonesia. She is a psychologist graduated from the University of Indonesia and have her Master of Science degree from Rijks Universiteit Groningen, the Netherlands, and with more than 10 years of research experience, she has the passion of understanding human behavior. With the rich experience of working both in the research agency side as well as consumer and market insights role with two different multinational clients (Heinz & Samsung). Astrid is an expert in providing deep and sharp analysis with an excellent understanding of business issues. She also provides added value of cultural context and psychological aspect beyond the findings.
Emmanuel Karisa Baya is an organic farmer from the coastal province of Kenya. He is the founder and executive director of Magarini-Centre, a CBO that teaches organic farming and supports 252 orphan children. In the 2017 general election he ran I for a seat in the local council (MCA) and is since then leading the local voter empowerment project Soil Peace in his community.
Barbara Kalusche is a senior qualitative research consultant based in Dresden, Germany. For the past five years, she has been using her psychology, journalism and deep democracy facilitation background to create forums for deeper understanding in highly polarized environments e.g. by developing facilitating-deutschland and oneworlddresden a platform for German and rural Kenyan students to connect.
Astrid Kunert is the co-founder and strategist of QMR, the Munich based Institute for high-end qualitative research. With more than two decades of market and social research experience, Astrid and her team have served national and international clients in a wide variety of industries including automotive, financial services, media as well as government institutions and NGOs.
We look forward to hearing from you next Wednesday, 28 November 2018, 17:00 CET for an enlightening discussion!
One of the most important relationships we have as ESOMAR Foundation is with Paragon, another Market Research Industry initiative, which is trying to make the world a better place. EF is a member of Paragon – you can find the list of members on the Paragon website: http://www.paragonpartnerships.com/
What exactly is Paragon?
Paragon Partnerships was launched in 2016, by Stan Sthanunathan of Unilever, in response to the UN’s 17th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) – the call for private sector partnerships to help the UN achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) by 2030.
It was realised very early that the sustainable development goals cannot be achieved by any single organisation – even the UN! A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. And these inclusive partnerships, built upon principles and values, a shared vision, and shared goals that place people and the planet at the centre, are needed at the global, regional, national and local level.
Hence, Paragon is the initiative of the global market and social research industry sector, aimed at enabling Governments, Academics, the UN and NGOs around the world, which are working to tackle the 17-point plan of the UN Global Goals – end poverty, combat climate change, and fight injustice and inequality around the world – to connect with market, opinion and social research companies, which are committed to helping by providing access to quality data and insights on the issues that the world is facing.
Measuring Progress with the UN SDG’s
One of the really core objectives of Paragon is to help measure progress with the UN goals to not only keep governments and policy makers accountable, but also gauge how much we are getting closer to the targets so that new policy adjustments can be made – so, in 2017, an 11-country study was conducted online for the UN SDG Action Campaign, sponsored by the Paragon Members: Kantar Public and Lightspeed.
As a result, a benchmark was successfully established for these countries to improve on as they continue their journey to meet the SDGs by 2030.
In 2018 the UN SDG Action Campaign requested further support to measure progress with the 2018 priority SDG’s in targeted emerging markets where accurate measurement is only possible using representative random probability methodologies. So, Paragon, the Global Research Business Network (GRBN), and ESOMAR Foundation called for volunteer agencies in the selected countries to sponsor a survey for the UN. The survey was conducted in 3 countries Lebanon, Sri Lanka and Romania. Kantar Operations India analysed the data, and the presentation of the data was delivered by Kantar Public at UN HLPF (High Level Political forum) Meeting on July 13th, 2018.
Jordan Robinson, Director for the Development Practice, Kantar Public, presents the 2018 study results at an event during the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York.
Subsequently the 4 agencies have been connected with local UN representatives and promoted and recognized by the UN SDG Action Campaign on their website and in social media etc. UN SDG Action Campaign has also made the data publicly available for any government organization and/or NGO to use.
We are currently talking to UNSDG Action Group about the measurement programme for 2019, and helping to train UN volunteers in Interviewing skills. The measurement work is currently short-listed for the UK Market Research Society’s President’s medal – which is great – please do keep your fingers crossed for us.
We have been contacted by Prof. Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University for a project to feed into his efforts around the “World Happiness Report”, and “Global Happiness Policy Report”, as published annually, with contributions from SDSN, which is headed by Prof. Sachs, and with input from several scholars, and research institutes and universities around the world.
At the moment they are getting ready for the next publication of these reports(2020), and they would like to have the contributions of Global Market Research Industry, as represented by Paragon.
We thought the best way to approach this would be through, first, making a desk research/rewind of all existing MR material on this topic, and we have already received lots of feedback from the Paragon partners about what already exists in this space. These will help us in wrapping our heads around what is available and also will help in the shaping of the new study.
And then the second thing is finding a research vehicle to run the research on (it will be US based initially). We think we have identified a good random probability survey which is run by a Paragon Agency partner, but we will probably want to supplement it with some NLP, or qual, etc. And then we will put together a Paragon team to author the research results and the article/chapter in the next World Happiness Report.
This will be quite a high-profile work that finds its way all around the SDG community globally. Jeffrey Sachs is one of the people with the most authority in this field. He is one of the world’s most renowned economists, as well as serving as Special Advisor to current and past UN Secretary Generals and he was the architect of the Millennial Goals. So it is a really exciting opportunity for us.
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs
Those are our 2 key initiatives of the moment – we are also looking at helping NGO’s with understanding social listening and data visualization, because they know that they need to keep up with the latest techniques and methodologies – but need to understand how it can work for them. A bit like the series of webinars we have run as ESOMAR Foundation to help NGO’s understand how qualitative research can help them achieve their objectives more effectively and sustainably.
About the Author:
Phyllis Macfarlane, Member of the Board and Treasurer, ESOMAR Foundation
This is theseventh blog-post from Paola Loy Villagran, the recipient of the ESOMAR Foundation scholarship in Guatemala.
The last months I have been so busy that I have not even felt them, I am really learning a lot, working hard for the final exams this year.
I am recently receiving an Anthropology of Consumption and Neuromarketing course which introduces us to study different areas of consumption from a multidisciplinary perspective, combining approaches of the social sciences to understand the decision-making process of the consumer in a globalized environment. The main research method we are using is qualitative, particularly ethnographic. The course combines theoretical, analytical and methodological elements, all based on academic books and journals of recognized prestige.
Also, we are working in the design of effective and innovative distribution channels for real companies during classes, so it gives all students the opportunity to learn about current trends of distribution, communication and digital management to achieve business efficiency. The courses challenge us to solve cases of real companies, defend points of view as a team, like people in real companies do every day.
My friends and I during a presentation about cardamon companies
In personal terms, my birthday is coming soon, so I am really looking forward to celebrating it with all my family and enjoy one of the many traditions of the country and that I like so much to mention in this blog.
I am talking about the enormous and colorful kites soaring over the skies of Guatemala on the first and second of November of each year, a tradition that is part of the All Saints’ Day celebrations.
Kites with diameters between 24 and 30 meters are made of cloth and paper with bamboo frames, they usually contain religious or folkloric themes so they can be flown in the nearby Sacatepéquez cemetery to honor the dead during special dates.
People from all around the world visit Santiago Sacatepéquez during this event in order to learn about the legends of the country and that special day. According to the elders, the impact of the wind against the paper takes away the bad spirits, so the locals spent hours to make kites so the good spirits remain calm and stop receiving unwanted visits.
The 4th Webinar in this series focusses on research design and action. Even when we fully appreciate the value that qualitative research can bring, the possibilities of different types of qualitative research, and have seen examples of some particularly challenging projects – it is not always easy or obvious to see what to do in your own particular situation. So in Webinar 4 we will pull all these different strands together and look at how to identify the issue that needs to be addressed and think about the best, and most cost-effective, research design to address it. How to define the key insights, and then – most importantly – how do you define the most appropriate and most effective actions to take, based on the insights and findings of the research?
This webinar will give listeners an overall understanding of how to design and deliver a qualitative project that will really make a difference to their Not-for-Profit organisation’s impact.
The webinar will feature
MODERATOR Phyllis Macfarlane Treasurer ESOMAR Foundation
A lifelong market researcher currently working on the GfK Verein’s University Cooperation Programme to improve the quality of education in Market Research in Africa and China.
Astrid Kunert Co-founder and strategist QMR – Qualitative Mind Research
Astrid Kunert is the co-founder and strategist of QMR, the Munich based Institute for high-end qualitative research. With more than two decades of market and social research experience, Astrid and her team have served national and international clients in a wide variety of industries including automotive, financial services, media as well as government institutions and NGOs.
Barbara Kalusche Senior Qualitative Research Q-research
Barbara Kalusche is a senior qualitative research consultant based in Dresden, Germany. For the past five years, she has been using her psychology, journalism and deep democracy facilitation background to create forums for deeper understanding in highly polarized environments e.g. by developing facilitating-deutschland and oneworlddresden a platform for German and rural Kenyan students to connect.
Emmanuel Karisa Baya
Organic Farmer and founder “Peace from the soil”
Emmanuel Karisa Baya is an organic farmer from the coastal province of Kenya. He is the founder and executive director of Magarini-Centre, a CBO that teaches organic farming and supports 252 orphan children. In the 2017 general election he ran I for a seat in the local council (MCA) and is since then leading the local voter empowerment project Soil Peace in his community.
Astrid Noviant Client Advisor Kantar TNS Indonesia
Astrid is a team leader in TNS qualitative unit in Indonesia. She is a psychologist graduated from the University of Indonesia and have her Master of Science degree from Rijks Universiteit Groningen, the Netherlands, and with more than 10 years of research experience, she has the passion of understanding human behavior. With rich experience of working both in the research agency side as well as consumer and market insights role with two different multinational clients (Heinz & Samsung). Astrid is an expert in providing deep and sharp analysis with excellent understanding of business issues. She also provides added value of cultural context and psychological aspect beyond the findings.
Amsterdam, 30 January: At the first ESOMAR Council meeting of 2019, Nijat Mammadbayli was appointed Council Representative to the ESOMAR Foundation board. The decision was made unanimously by the ESOMAR council members. He will replace Pervin Olgun, who held the position of Representative of the Supervisory Board previously.
