What we do – LEAD Foundation

Together with our partners we encompass local peoples’ knowledge, belief, practices and institutions, as they have evolved over many generations in a particular region or country, largely outside universities and formal educational institutions, as part of the cultural heritage.

Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) constitute the subject matter of the newly-developing field of ethnoscience to provide a unique body of knowledge and information of a community or a society to facilitate communication and local decision-making processes as a base of embarkation to achieve sustainable community development around the globe. As such, ethnoscience has not only provided the foundation of modern science in the past , but also continues to contribute to scientific innovation and invention for the future, in particular to sustainable development around the globe.

LEAD initiate international Projects and Programmes promoting the role Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in policy-based Research & Education, as well as in International Exhibitions in Leiden, The Netherlands, Bandung, Indonesia, Singapore, and Chania, Greece.

In addition to the academic endeavour to document, study and analyse the dynamics of indigenous systems of knowledge, belief, practices and institutions as the ‘cultural dimension of development’ in the subfields of ethno-economics, ethnomedicine, ethnobotany; ethno-pharmacology, ethno-agriculture, ethno-ecology, indigenous bio-cultural diversity management and conservation, integrated microfinance management, integrated ecotourism management, integrated community-managed development. It also seeks to further develop a specific IKS-oriented complementary qualitative and quantitative research methodology, based on the special design and implementation of the ‘Leiden Ethnosystems Approach’.

Partners

Since its establishment in 1987, the LEAD Programme has engaged in several fruitful cooperation programmes around the world which are similarly focussed on and involved in the multidisciplinary field of ethnoscience and development.

The various joint cooperation activities have been formalised in a ‘Letter of Intent’ or a ‘MoU’, in which a particular focus is indicated, such as the documentation, study and analysis of indigenous knowledge and institutions in sectors, such as medicine, agriculture, ecology, bio-cultural diversity conservation, integrated microfinance management , integrated ecotourism management as well as community-managed development.

Following the undersigning of such ‘Letter of Intent’ or ‘MoU’, joint activities are undertaken, including joint research projects and programmes, joint education and training, joint executive courses, joint Post-graduate Master and PhD courses, joint international exhibitions, joint international conferences, seminars and workshops, and joint publications.

Formal cooperation has successfully been established with the following counterparts: