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Posted by Antonio  on  Fri, 27/06/2008

Colleagues have previously argued on this blog that public opinion is a critical force in conflict transformation and peace building.  It makes intuitive sense that serious assessment of the viability of peace processes requires taking stock of various societal forces -- not just the political will of elites but also the public will comprised of the preferences of various stakeholder groups.

Posted by Caroline  on  Thu, 26/06/2008

Every morning last week I stumbled through the public foyer in the United Nations Headquarters on my way to work (which was speaking to spokespeople – a tall order).  It wasn’t until Friday that I stopped to take a look at the exhibition that I had largely rushed by, running a slalom course through visiting tourists all week. 

Posted by Sina  on  Tue, 24/06/2008

Roumeen Islam is manager of the World Bank Institute's Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Division. She is an economist by training and, I might add, by conviction. But to anybody who cares seriously about the role of the mass media in development, Roumeen is much admired in a particular capacity: as someone who has made a sterling contribution to how the media is viewed within international development. Although media systems and their impact on development are not the only things that have preoccupied her - right now she is leading major work on international trade indicators, amongst others - she has done as much as anybody I know to put an institutional view of the media on the development agenda.

Posted by Caroline  on  Fri, 20/06/2008

I was delighted, yesterday to stumble across Ban Ki-Moon striding purposefully around in the bowels of the United Nations Head Quarters in New York. I was, at the time, bossing around a handful of Senior Public Information officials, ushering them back into a conference room to listen to my words of wisdom on strategic communications.  I nearly dragged him inside to say a few words, as I already knew he would loom large in today’s weblog, but he looked busy, so I let him be on his way.

Posted by Tom  on  Thu, 19/06/2008

The number of governance reform processes in which communication plays a role appears to be vast. Which of these are of vital importance?  How exactly can communication help? And what does research have to tell us? A new volume of edited work offers one set of answers to such questions.  Governance Reform Under Real World Conditions: Citizens, Stakeholders, and Voice is a project of the Communication for Governance & Accountability Program (CommGAP).

Posted by Sina  on  Tue, 17/06/2008

New policy and practice fields need intellectual energy; otherwise they don’t go anywhere quickly. Those promoting the new fields need to be producing justificatory essays, applied research, good practice manuals, policy briefs, evaluations, articles in refereed journals...and blogs too! They should be bombarding policy makers with all kinds of output of good quality; and they should be organizing the field as a serious discipline. I am happy to see that the role of the media in development is attracting more intellectual energy.

Posted by Sina  on  Thu, 12/06/2008

Photo Credit: Flick User estanI have been forced to think about the role of the news media in the governance reform agenda a lot in the last few weeks. First, CommGAP had the workshop at Harvard. And last week, we had a brown bag seminar here at the World Bank (organized by our public sector reform colleagues) on the media as an institution of accountability. I spoke at both events. These were very important moments and one could say a lot about each one, but the one thing that has stayed with me is the extent to which most colleagues working in international development think of support for the media as little more than training journalists.

Posted by Anne-Katrin  on  Mon, 09/06/2008

Photo Credit: Flickr User desi.italy"Social accountability" and "good governance" are two rather popular buzzwords in the world of development agencies these days. There is much talk about participatory decision-making, transparency, and government responsiveness - but there is considerably less talk about one fundamental principle underlying all accountability mechanisms: information, and as intermediary of information, the media.

Posted by Antonio  on  Thu, 05/06/2008

A post from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), somewhere in the heart of the medieval section of this deeply multicultural city. I’m here with a team organized by the World Bank Institute (WBI), working with local partners on preparing a capacity building program for low income municipalities on increasing citizens’ participation in local governance. Colleagues from the WBI facilitated sessions on participatory budgeting and citizens’ feedback mechanisms.

Posted by Caroline  on  Thu, 05/06/2008

The second day of the Global Media Forum for Media in Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention in Bonn saw far more participation and lively debate from the delegates, which was very welcome. A fascinating debate about responsibility between a former Bureau chief at Al Hayat, a representative from Al Arabia and the Head of Programming at Al Jazeera ensued as part of a session on perception and prejudice in the Middle East.

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