The Drum Beat 473 - Transparency
This issue of the Drum Beat focuses on the concept of transparency. It features: campaigns examining and supporting transparency in funding; discussions of transparency in government; a highlight on the role of media in promoting transparency; and perspectives on access to information.
Please send project, evaluation, strategic thinking, and materials information on communication for development at any time. Contact Deborah Heimann at dheimann@comminit.com
The Drum Beat 473 contains:
- Perspectives on INFORMATION ACCESS.
- Highlight of the DEVELOPMENT CLASSIFIEDS within The CI.
- Spotlight on transparency in DEVELOPMENT FUNDING .
- POLL on a free and plural media related to democratic development.
- Articles on PUBLIC FUNDS MONITORING.
- Examples of promotion of transparency THROUGH THE MEDIA.
INFORMATION ACCESS
1. The Role of Communication in Governance: Detailed Analysis
Published in 2007, the introduction of this paper reads: "The aim of this paper is to examine the role (both positive and negative) that communication plays in promoting good governance by analysing available evidence and highlighting specific case studies, evaluation reports and academic articles detailing the impact of communication on governance. The purpose is to move beyond anecdote and conjecture, to review the evidence and provide a reliable basis for policies and programmes on communication for good governance." The document's conclusions state the view that governance requires an inclusive public space based on informed dialogue and debate and suggests that communication, which can facilitate a broader voice and accountability, has a positive impact on good governance.
2. Transparency and Silence: A Survey of Access to Information Laws and Practices in 14 Countries
by Helen Darbishire and Thomas Carson
This report details the results of a study undertaken by the Open Society Justice Initiative and its partners to discover how government offices and agencies in 14 countries respond to specific requests for information. The purpose of the study was to explore the strategy of, and trends in, one specific aspect of transparency: the passage of laws on freedom of information (FOI), or public access to government information and records. These laws are envisioned as key tools of democratic reform. As of 2006, 65 countries have laws that provide mechanisms for people to request and obtain information from their respective governments, with 53 such laws enacted in the past decade and a half. The key question is: how well do FOI laws actually work in practice?
by James Deane
“...Elections do not always create democratic governments - particularly in fragile and fractured societies, governments are often effectively elected dictatorships, governing on behalf of the ethnic or other groups who have provided the votes to elect them. Those who did not elect them are simply not looked after. And elections do not seem to be working very well in keeping governments honest. Paul Collier...argues that mechanisms for providing checks and balances between elections are the key to providing the environment for economic growth in bottom billion countries. He considers media to be essential to this process...”
4. Bird Flu: Communicating the Risk
by Peter M. Sandman Jody Lanard
This article, from 2005, provides discussion and recommendations on how to communicate to the public the risks posed by the avian influenza, or bird flu. Officials, the authors state, are wary of either needlessly sounding the alarm over a risk that may prove to be inconsequential, or of being accused later of having left the public unprepared for a disaster. Among the recommendations for communicating the seriousness of bird flu to the public are the following:
- Start where your audience starts - understand their current beliefs, and start the explanation from there.
- Acknowledge uncertainty - people are alarmed by overconfidence.
- Share dilemmas - it humanises the organisation and invites new ideas.
- Inform the public early and aim for total candor and transparency.
5. Information and Communication Technology in Rural Development
The case studies included in this volume, published in 2000, illustrate various applications of information and communication technology (ICT) that have made a difference in the delivery of services or products in rural areas in India. Each case is authored by the administrators who have piloted and implemented the projects and who describe both the opportunities and challenges in the diffusion of ICT. ICT applications in rural development are classified here as those that: provide decision support to public administrators for improving planning and monitoring of developmental programmes; improve services to citizens and bring in transparency; empower citizens through access to information and knowledge; and expand private sector development.
Development Classifieds is an initiative of The Communication Initiative which includes listings of any development-related jobs, consultants, requests for proposals (RFPs), events, training opportunities, and books, journals, or videos for sale. Please click here.
The next issue (last one in 2008!) of the Development Classifieds E-magazine will be published December 17th 2008.
Please submit open vacancies from within your organisation, event information, training opportunities, upcoming RFPs, details about your consultancy skills, and information about books, journals, or videos for sale as soon as possible to ensure inclusion.
DEVELOPMENT FUNDING
6. "Better Information: Better Aid": Consultation Draft
aidinfo is an initiative to accelerate poverty reduction by making aid more transparent. According to this August 2008 consultation draft by the creators of aidinfo, "transparency of aid is a means to an end: it improves people’s lives by enabling them to make sure that aid is used better. It reduces poverty because it improves decision-making, increases accountability and ownership, reduces duplication and waste, and so increases the impact of aid."
7. Publish What You Fund - Global
Launched on September 1 2008, the Publish What You Fund (PWYF) campaign brings together aid effectiveness advocates, Southern government officials, freedom of information advocates, and budget monitoring groups. Civil society groups from around the world, including organisations working on aid effectiveness and groups working on access to government information, embarked on this global campaign for aid transparency based on the belief that, for aid to be effective, accountable, and participatory, information must be available to recipient governments, affected communities, and other stakeholders, as well as the general public.
Contact Karin Christiansen Karin.Christiansen@PublishWhatYouFund.org OR Martin Tisne martin.tisne@tiri.org OR Helen Darbishire helen@access-info.org
8. Living with Poverty - Kenya, Mozambique, Pakistan, Zambia
The non-governmental organisation (NGO) Panos, London is using the internet as a tool to bring to light testimonies from people living in poverty in Kenya, Mozambique, Pakistan, and Zambia. The goal is to communicate the human indignities that lie at the heart of poverty, and to explore approaches to poverty reduction as part of the effort to meet Millennium Development Goal (MDG) #1, which calls for efforts to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. Panos London's head of oral testimony, Siobhan Warrington, says, "The value of these testimonies is that they are driven by what the narrators want to talk about. As a result they highlight not only the daily hardships of poverty but tell us what people actually living in poverty think needs to be done. These are the real voices that policy-makers should be listening to."
Contact Siobhan Warrington Siobhan.Warrington@panos.org.uk
Please VOTE in our current Democracy and Governance POLL!
What is your answer to James Deane's blog question: "Is a free and plural media more important than elections in securing democratic development?" (See James' blog click here)
- Yes
- No
- Depends
VOTE and COMMENT click here.
PUBLIC FUNDS MONITORING
9. Persistent Corruption in Low-income Countries Supported by Multinationals and World Finance
There is a strong correlation between corruption and poverty. 40% of those scoring below 3 on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2007, indicating that corruption is perceived as rampant, are classified by the World Bank as low-income countries. Somalia and Myanmar share the lowest score of 1.4, while Denmark shares the top score of 9.4 with Finland and New Zealand. 2007 saw significantly higher scores in several African countries, including Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, and Swaziland - reflecting the positive progress of anti-corruption efforts.
10. Corruption Fighters' Tool Kit: Civil Society Experiences and Emerging Strategies
This is a compendium of civil society anti-corruption experiences. Published in 2004, it presents anti-corruption tools developed and implemented by Transparency International (TI) National Chapters and other civil society organisations from around the world that aim to create public awareness about the problem of corruption; monitor public institutions; encourage citizens' participation in key decision-making processes; and open channels of communication between governments and their citizens. The publication aims to highlight the potential of civil society to create mechanisms for monitoring public institutions and to demand and promote accountable and responsive public administration.
11. Stealing the Future: Corruption in the Classroom
edited by Bettina Meier and Michael Griffin
This booklet, published in 2005, addresses corruption in the education sector. It cites the need for instruments to curb corrupt practices in order to ensure that funds allocated are contributing to achieving goals in the current context of decentralisation, privatisation, globalisation, and diversification of educational services. The organisation's approach to analysing situations and instruments for achieving transparency is the presentation of 10 studies carried out by TI Chapters in 2004 and 2005 in Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Georgia, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Zambia. The studies assess the forms and extent of corruption at schools, in universities, and in education administration, providing examples of how civil society can help curb corrupt practices in education.
See Also: African Media Development Initiative (AMDI)
PROMOTION OF TRANSPARENCY THROUGH MEDIA
12. Play the Game for Open Journalism - China
In 2008, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the sports political institution Play the Game joined forces to launch a telephone helpline and website to support thousands of foreign journalists reporting on the Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Play the Game for Open Journalism is an online effort to provide resources, counsel, and a platform for discussion amongst journalists seeking to encourage democracy, transparency, and freedom of expression in world sport. The purpose of this initiative is to draw upon the window of opportunity provided by the Beijing Olympics for foreign journalists, who - reportedly for the first time - have been granted the right to work freely without interference from Chinese authorities.
Contact ifj@ifj.org OR Jens Sejer Andersen jens@playthegame.org OR info@playthegame.org
13. The Long, Hard Road of Investigative Reporting in Latin America
by Tina Rosenberg
This 2006 editorial explores recent trends in investigative reporting in Latin America. The author contends that Latin American journalists who investigate crimes such as corruption and drug trafficking "are routinely" threatened, sued, or even killed. Rosenberg explains that this is especially true of journalists working in rural areas, but that "even prominent journalists in capital cities must live as if behind bars and occasionally go into hiding." Whereas "in most investigations, reporters guard their information jealously and compete to be first", in 2005, a group of reporters and editors from Colombia's 19 leading magazines and newspapers banded together to all publish the results of an investigation about paramilitary power on the same day - without a single author's name attached. The idea was to deprive the paramilitaries of targets for retaliation.
14. i4d Information for Development Magazine: Open Publishing
i4donline.net's February 2008 magazine focuses on open publishing. As stated in its opening editorial: "According to the Wikipedia, Open Publishing is a process of creating news or other content that is transparent to the readers. They can contribute a story and see it instantly appear in the pool of stories publicly available....The concept of the commons and alternatives to licensing regimes that are prevalent in the field of intellectual property is a complex subject and we have tried in this issue to bring to the attention of the readers the latest developments....In order for the materials that are available on the Internet to be legally hassle-free, and accessible to differently-abled people's requirements, there are some interesting software and development tools that have been examined. It is important to understand that this field is fairly nascent, and there is need to create massive awareness."
This internet-based tool is designed to collect the opinions of the international online community and to contribute to the debate on decision-making processes within major international organisations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. The GlobalVote website highlights what GlobalVote considers to be the most current events and issues through resolutions and opens these up for voting by GlobalVote members. By disseminating polling results to UN organisations, to universities, to the media, and to national governments, GlobalVote hopes to mobilise the international community, advocate for equal representation, and effect positive change.
Contact James Dreiss james@theglobalvote.org OR info@theglobalvote.org
This issue of The Drum Beat was written by Julie Levy.
The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com
To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, click here for our policy.
To subscribe, click here.
- Log in to post comments