For a few years now, I have been developing a theory of media reform in post-conflict environments. It is a reading of the facts, nothing grand. I want to trot it out and see how you react to it. My sense is that when a developing country succumbs to conflict and finds the will to come out of it, or the combatants are simply too exhausted to continue the quarrel, donors rush in to help put Humpty Dumpty back together again. One of the things donors sometimes do is re-build the media system.
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 On May 2, a day before World Press Freedom Day 2008, I received an e-mail message from Internews Network, an NGO that specializes in media development around the world. The message promotes a new public service announcement (PSA) featuring Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, speaking on behalf of a group called
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Now, it is well-known that the problem of politicized ethnicity bedevils quite a few developing countries. Less well known is the peculiar challenge that this problem poses for governance reform. I will use an example that I know well but disguise the name of the country.
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 A couple of weeks ago, I attended a viewing and panel discussion of a documentary film entitled Magic Radio: The FM Revolution in Niger at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C. Mainly about the contribution of private FM radio toward enhancing grassroots democracy, the film also illustrates radio’s efficacy in publicly promoting development issues, particularly in the areas of health, education, and gender. The subsequent panel featured Mark Nelson, Tia Duer, and Ajay Tejasvi of The World Bank Institute (WBI), who expanded the scope of discussion to include the following points: the importance of carrying out tec
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This group of Kenyans singing the Indian anthem is part of Pangea Day. In 2006, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim won the annual TED award. A self-described American-Lebanese/Egyptian/Syrian, Jehane has become known for her documentary “Control Room,” an insightful view at the relationship between Al Jazeera and the US Central Command, as well as the other news organizations that covered the Second Iraq War. The TED prize granted $100,000 and a wish to change the world. Her wish was to create a day in which the world came together through film.
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I went to New York with a colleague last week to visit the 
In the wake of the massive and horrific natural disasters in Burma and China, it is important to examine how the provision of humanitarian relief relates to issues of voice and accountability. In a general sense, communication should be an absolutely vital element of any relief effort. Broadcasting or otherwise circulating crucial information about unsafe areas, survivor resources, and important health and public safety issues can help prevent further outbreaks of disease and post-disaster traumas. Apart from providing humanitarian information, an independent media sector (in tandem with civil society) can ensure that rebuilding efforts are consultative, transparent and accountable. 
There is a fascinating story in this week's edition of The Economist (
There is a lot of attention paid to Freedom of Information (FOI) Acts. The World Bank outlined some of the issues related to the subject both in a 
Before I joined the World Bank about a year and half ago, I worked for DFID, the British Government's development ministry. DFID is part of the British Civil Service. That means I was a civil servant. And I attended a variety of training courses at the Civil Service College. And the experience taught me a thing or two about the sources of pressures for accountability faced by ordinary civil servants. And here I refer to pressures for accountability emanating from outside the civil service itself. I want to discuss the three leading sources of pressure.
It may seem like a bit of a reach to connect the 
In my last post, I discussed one of the supreme values undergirding the democratic public sphere: the public use of reason, that is, a commitment to reason, to argumentation, and the possibility of agreement. I discussed the threat posed to that value and the possibilities of the public sphere if claims are based on the supposed demands of a Deity. But irrationality in the public sphere comes from another source as well: the loud and insistent claims of ethnic champions in complex, multiethnic polities.
I think it is safe to say that on average religious faith plays a bigger role in public life in most developing countries than in the West or in places like China and Russia. In these latter societies, secular humanism appears to reign supreme. So, while the problem I am about to discuss is not dead in the West - it is certainly still a real issue in the United States of America for instance - it is a major issue in developing countries. It is the problem of basing a claim for public policy change or the resistance of policy change on the supposed commands of your favorite Deity: God, Allah, Jesus, Holy Prophet, the Lord Buddha, Lord Khrishna....and on and on the list goes. In many developing countries, this is a source of real pain and conflict. We don't need to name these countries. You have an entire basket of them to pick from. 
I sat down the other day with a group of specialists from a Country Team within the World Bank. We were discussing efforts to improve the governance system in that country and how a Program like ours - 
In Liberia we have been working with the Ministry of Information and about 50 public relations officers from the various ministries and organizations within the government, including the Ministry of Information, the President's Office, the individual line ministries and a donor-funded economic development program.
What is the basis of the claim that 'People, Spaces and Deliberation' are central to how you achieve good and accountable governance durably? One way of buttressing is to step back and reflect on two competing interpretations of governance, really, politics. The first interpretation of governance or politics is that it is purely and simply the business of the elite. Leaders rule, take all the decisions and that is that. Improving governance is about improve public administration, improving what leaders do. Some technocrats even prefer this authoritarian view of politics. They like it because they say it is efficient. Leaders are clear, decisions are taken quickly and implemented immediately. 
