100 likes | 224 Views
10 th Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development Rinalia Abdul Rahim, Executive Director, GKP Secretariat 12-14 February 2007, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
E N D
10th Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development Rinalia Abdul Rahim, Executive Director, GKP Secretariat 12-14 February 2007, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Summary Results of GKP Consultation with Practitioners on Issues DiscussedAt the 10th UN Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development Global Knowledge Partnership Secretariat gkp@gkps.org.my
Background to GKP Consultation • Limited consultation undertaken to obtain practitioner, civil society and other external perspectives on issues tabled at this meeting • Consultation was via questionnaire extended to around 40 non-UN organisations over 17 days • Questionnaire was circulated to 3 main partnerships – GKP, the Building Communication Opportunities (BCO) Alliance and the Communication Initiative (CI) – and also Internews • 7 completed responses from DIDACTICA, Internews, eCOM-LAC, OneWorld South Asia, Panos London, Panos South Asia and Warren Feek • Limited time for responses • Issues being discussed are difficult to engage with • A level of skepticism on assumptions underpinning RT • Communication for Social Change Consortium, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and GKP did not respond because of involvement in developing questionnaire and/or analysing the outputs
Summary Results of GKP Consultation (1) • A strong welcome for RT initiative • Issues being discussed at RT were important and timely, addressing real and urgent challenges • Increasing coordination of C4D action: Yes, great but …. • Current investments in C4D initiatives not strategic, are sector-specific rather than based on systemic approach for building capacities in society and across sectors • Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships: Key for Success • Strong consensus for involvement of CSO, private sector, academic, funding and other organisations through multi-sector or multi-stakeholder partnerships • UNDAF not well suited to meeting multi-sector or multi-stakeholder partnership approach • Consider 2 coordination mechanisms: (1) internal UN equivalent of JUNIC on C4D, (2) broader forum representing other stakeholder interests • Acknowledgment that effective C4D cannot always be product of consensus • UN (or governmental structures) in multi-sector partnerships must not have exclusive control or ‘veto’ power to avoid compromising two-way communication
Summary Results of GKP Consultation (2) • Incorporating C4D into planning systems: The value, scale and diversity of current initiatives • Most multilateral/bilateral development organisations insufficiently aware of dynamism, innovation and scale of C4D at country level • Important to be aware of, to build on and to support what exists in many countries • UN working together to achieve policy impact: a serious and necessary contribution • A more coordinated UN system could play positive role in securing enabling policy environments for C4D (community media, public service broadcasting, ICT policy and freedom of expression) • Questions of capacity: systematic thinking • Need to employ experts who can take holistic view – iCT, media, DevComm • Must have overarching “public goods” approach for C4D to be financed, managed and included in national policy and visions
Summary Results of GKP Consultation (3) • Role of UN: doubts among practitioners as to whether UN is sufficiently equipped to lead in C4D • UN organisations downgrading commitment to C4D (incidences C4D department closures) • Much of UN still perceived as conflating C4D with external communication and advocacy for promoting own brand and agenda • Skepticism over High Level panel recommendations will lead to envisaged increase in coordination • Concerns that UN system’s partnership with governments would compromise independence and capacity for C4D to hold authorities to account at country level • Concerns that increased coordination may lead to bureaucratic and technocratic framework which will stifle innovation, empowerment and pluralism
Summary Results of GKP Consultation (4) • Data collection, monitoring and evaluation • Important to incorporate C4D issues into national country assessment programmes • M&E indicators need to reflect long term and non-quantitative nature of impact which C4D initiatives bring • Other issues for international coordination • Consider establishing a UN Trust Fund to support international coordination and initiatives that cannot be funded from country level budgets • Examples are UN Democracy Fund and annual Human Development Report
Come to the 3rd Global Knowledge Conference(GK3), A GKP Event on the Future
Summary Results of GKP Consultation with Practitioners on Issues DiscussedAt the 10th UN Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for DevelopmentRinalia Abdul Rahim Global Knowledge Partnership Secretariat gkp@gkps.org.my THANK YOU