Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia (DKA) and Indige­nous Com­mu­ni­ty Vol­un­teers (ICV) have signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MoU) to col­lab­o­rate on ini­tia­tives that impact pos­i­tive­ly on social and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment in remote Aus­tralia. The two organ­i­sa­tions share val­ues, pri­or­i­ties, and ways of work­ing, and will part­ner on projects that strength­en Cen­tral Aus­tralian communities.

Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia (DKA) and Indige­nous Com­mu­ni­ty Vol­un­teers (ICV) have signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MoU) to col­lab­o­rate on ini­tia­tives that impact pos­i­tive­ly on social and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment in remote Aus­tralia. The two organ­i­sa­tions share val­ues, pri­or­i­ties, and ways of work­ing, and will part­ner on projects that strength­en Cen­tral Aus­tralian communities. 

DKA is a nation­al not-for-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion based in Alice Springs. It was estab­lished to encour­age learn­ing, research and sus­tain­able socioe­co­nom­ic devel­op­ment in desert and remote Aus­tralia. DKA’s pro­grams focus on desert lead­er­ship, renew­able ener­gy, dig­i­tal inno­va­tion and desert research. DKA is the land­lord of the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct, 73 hectares of Arrernte land in Alice Springs where a group of organ­i­sa­tions are striv­ing to make the desert a bet­ter place to work, learn and live. 

ICV is a First Nations organ­i­sa­tion work­ing with First Nations com­mu­ni­ties across Aus­tralia. Com­mu­ni­ties invite ICV to work with them on their pri­or­i­ties. ICV and com­mu­ni­ties work togeth­er to co-design and deliv­er com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment and research activ­i­ties draw­ing on the exper­tise, strengths and assets of com­mu­ni­ties. ICV then pro­vides access to skilled vol­un­teers in places where com­mu­ni­ties have iden­ti­fied that edu­ca­tion, health­care and employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties are lim­it­ed. ICV works to devel­op human and com­mu­ni­ty capac­i­ty to improve qual­i­ty of life, health, social and eco­nom­ic well­be­ing and par­tic­i­pa­tion in society. 

“DKA has exten­sive knowl­edge about remote Aus­tralia that ICV can draw on for com­mu­ni­ty-led research and to inform the design of com­mu­ni­ty-led devel­op­ment activ­i­ties,” said ICV CEO Stephanie Harvey. 

“DKA and ICV share vision and val­ues, we both work in a col­lab­o­ra­tive way to max­imise shared impact. This is a part­ner­ship with lim­it­less poten­tial to strength­en remote Aus­tralia,” said Ms Harvey. 

The two val­ues-based organ­i­sa­tions will share the lessons learned from pre­vi­ous projects and work togeth­er to devel­op research, under­take eval­u­a­tion and impact mea­sure­ment and inform pro­gram and pol­i­cy development. 

“ICV has done some real­ly impres­sive work around design­ing com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment projects as well as eval­u­at­ing their suc­cess, and we’re keen to learn from them,” said DKA CEO Dr Dan Tyson. 

“DKA is com­mit­ted to sus­tain­able socioe­co­nom­ic devel­op­ment in the desert, and devel­op­ing resources that help us and oth­er non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tions ful­fil our vision for stronger desert com­mu­ni­ties is part of that work,” said Dr Tyson.