Do you want to know how the handful of staff members operating from the 1960s into the 1980s at The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation came to support and closely collaborate with people like Patrick van Rensburg, Juan Somavia, Ahmed Ben Salah, Manfred Max Neef, Pat Mooney, Graca Machel, Joseph Ki-Zerbo and many others? Or why they received a cheque for US$ 100,000 from the Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation Jan Pronk? – Put differently: how this small institution with a big name was able to turn the belief that “ideas matter” into action and visible results?
Then you should read the conversation between Thomas G. Weiss and Sven Hamrell recorded by the United Nations Intellectual History Project: “In Those Days it was Fun to be a Swede”. This oral history — published on the Foundation’s 50th anniversary — is part of Development Dialogue no. 60, providing a comprehensive and holistic look at the past, as well as a thought-provoking assessment of our present-day and future challenges. See, read and enjoy!