The project is designed to increase the availability of information on the forestry sector by working with research and other organisations to generate quality information that can be used to empower citizens to meaningfully participate and influence key policy decisions in the management of the country's forestry resources. PEA believes that without adequate, quality, and timely information on the forestry sector, citizens and civil society cannot meaningfully influence policy.

The project's strategies include the following.

• Civil society strengthening: PEA will establish a partnership with six selected civil society organisations and twelve media houses, and will work towards building their capacity to work together and separately to address the questions/issues around forestry governance.
• Use of media for citizen and power holders' engagement: PEA will work with and support ten radio stations and two newspapers including those it has not worked with before, to create platforms to support citizen’s voice and participation in demanding accountability and better forest resource management.
• National level engagement: PEA will place journalists in parliament to monitor and cover discussions by the Natural Resources sub-committee of parliament and periodically through a journalists or media forum as they share their experiences.

Given that issues to be dealt with are highly sensitive, PEA says that coverage of key issues surrounding this sector requires excellent investigative skills on the part of the media which calls for skills development, exposure, access to quality resource materials, and strong civil society or social movements to act as a buffer and protect spaces for media and citizens. PEA is working to create direct links between the media and existing civil society networks on forestry governance to increase access to quality and well researched information on the sector but also create, strengthen, and protect spaces for citizens to debate and raise key concerns on the management of the forestry sector.

Environment, Natural resource

This Panos-led media component is part of the five-year Forest Resources Sector Transparency (FOREST) Programme, funded by Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) through Care Denmark, intended to address, among other issues, loopholes in implementation and funding of policies, laws and regulations in the forestry sector, insufficient representation of poor and vulnerable communities dependent on forests in decision making structures on forestry management, and gaps in civil society's effectiveness in improving forestry governance.

The project was conceived based on the idea that many people are excluded from any of the benefits of Mozambique’s soaring economy and continue to face a bleak future. This is especially true of the youth in the country's Northern provinces, who also battle to access information and to participate in debates about their concerns and their futures. The Wired For Sound project is designed to give Mozambican musicians a broader stage and bigger audience, but also to use music to help to break down some of the barriers that exist – that stop young Mozambicans from speaking out – and encourage them to express themselves publicly and powerfully on their most pressing issues.

Mobile Studio

The group will be traveling for six weeks with a fully professional, mobile recording and production studio. They will be able to stop at any point on their road trip and collect recordings of what young people are doing, saying, and creating, while also collaborating with local musicians. The mobile studio is intended to give an opportunity for young Mozambicans who may not have had the chance to publicly air their views or share their stories and ambitions to have their thoughts recorded and broadcast. It is also an opportunity to showcase some of the hidden musical talent in northern Mozambique, working with local artists to produce professionally-recorded material that can be aired on community stations – and hopefully internationally in future. The material will also be used for a radio documentary to be broadcast internationally.

Social Media

Regular updates will be shared via social media. They intend to put up as much material as possible on Facebook, twitter, and instagram so that people can track the trip and learn more about the reality behind the 'Mozambique is booming' headlines.

Community Radios

The youth-centred debates will be aired on community radio, while also providing the stations with additional material, including musical recordings, documentaries, and interviews with young artists and individuals. As youth perspectives will be broadcast, the project will help the rest of the community, including community leaders and local politicians and officials, to understand what the key issues are and what the youth think should be done to address them. All the profits will be channelled back to the community stations in Mozambique to support their growth – and the development of local musical talent.

Music Distribution

After the six-week trip, Wired for Sound will also professionally produce a small body of recorded songs and these will be made available for download on iTunes and amazon.com, as well as be featured on the music streaming service, Simfy Africa, and the recently established music synch agency, Synchronicity, which places music with pictures (TV adverts, movies, soundtracks, documentaries, premium products, apps and electronic media).
Developmental Issues
Governance, Youth

Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN)

BBC Media Action

The project was developed based on the idea that more equitable and increased taxation is critical for both poverty reduction and democratic governance. In order to ensure pro-poor economic growth and essential services, such as education and health for all, developing countries need to raise more tax in ways that are progressive and effective. The project is working to get the voice of citizens heard on these issues, including challenging decisions by leaders and using media to amplify pressure for tax reform. CRAFT also facilitates mutual linking and learning between lead organisations from participating countries.

The CRAFT project has five intervention strategies:

• Research – the project includes research on existing taxation policy and practice, detecting the underlying trends, and formulating a vision on what pro-poor and fairer taxation should look like in each country specifically. Organisers recognise that although there are common traits, the tax situation and the specific issues to address and the best strategy to address them vary greatly in each country, meaning a tailor-made approach is needed.
• Training: The project is working to enhance the capacity in civil society organisations, grassroots leadership, and media to understand what tax justice is all about and how civic awareness and advocacy can strategically be undertaken. Training is based on a modular approach, for subject-matter specialists (tied to the research), trainers-of-trainers, campaign implementers, and civic leaders.
• Civic Education: Popular mobilisation is being undertaken through civic awareness campaigns, to provoke social pressure to change tax policies and practices wherever these are ineffective or unjust. The project influences public opinion through widespread awareness raising and mobilisation.
• Policy Advocacy: The project includes advocacy campaigns to change tax policies and practices. The project engages with the state in political lobby and builds national and international partnerships by participating in (global) networks and joint campaigns. The project also includes international actions and Oxfam campaigning on fiscal justice and progressive taxation. It liaises with international initiatives working on issues such as tax avoidance and tax competition and bi- and multilateral aid agencies targeting governments to build capacity in the tax authorities and judiciary.
• Alliance Building: this involves alliance and coalition building to gain strength and synergy within civil society as change agents, both within countries and linking up regionally and globally, and gain in learning capacity. Partners and allies will share lessons learned to act as policy partners of governments, using both insider (research-based policy advocacy) and outsider (media, popular mobilisation, and international pressure) strategies.

Economic Justice

According to Oxfam, tax revenues in developing countries continually fall short of what realistically could be obtained when analysing these countries’ actual productive potential. In many cases rich countries collect as a percentage of GDP more than twice as much public revenue as developing countries. 18% of GDP comes from tax revenue in African countries compared to an average of 38% in Western European countries. Oxfam research found that improving tax collection could potentially raise $269 billion annually, which is enough to cover up to 60% of the financing requirements for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. To make the system fairer, tax reform is necessary to shift the tax burden to wealthier households and (multi)national companies. Improvements could be achieved by enhanced tax regulations on trade; tackling tax evasion through tax havens; responsibly formalising part of the informal economy; and reducing tax exemptions and raising direct taxes, especially taxes on non-wage incomes.

Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish

4

Conducted in the local pidgin English, the Brekete Family Radio programme is intended to be a platform "for gathering public opinion, obtaining public redress, facilitating arbitration, and fundraising for a scholarship programme for the poor." The programme airs from 8pm to 9pm, Mondays to Fridays. People call in to report complains or issues, usually related to governance, which are discussed by the in-studio panel and the audience. In some circumstances, the government official involved is actually called while the programme is still on air to offer an explanation over an alleged issue. According to OSIWA, "this kind of on-air public accountability inquest has become very effective in putting a large number of public officers on the spot and has also achieved significant results in confronting impunity."

Brekete Family Radio is aired in five states in Nigeria, including Abuja and has an estimated listenership of 20 million people. In addition to calling in, people can respond to the show through SMS and submit complaints through an online form.. The Brekete Family website includes an archive of recorded radio programmes.

Aside from producing this daily radio programme, the project involves a monthly newsletter that captures the key cases to be followed up on and a collection of evidence that may be used as a basis for future advocacy efforts on political, economic, and social issues. People can also interact with the project and discuss issues on the Brekete Family facebook page. In addition, audiences can stay in touch with what is happening by following the show on Twitter, which is being run by Ordinary Ahmad Isah, the presenter and founder of the programme.

According to OSIWA, “every day the program is flooded with thousands of text messages and hundreds of phone calls. There is also always a crowd of plaintiffs in the BFR office itself. They work with volunteer lawyers, and do their best to assist everyone and anyone that has an issue.”

Governance

Nairobi, Kenya

The three focus countries are neighbours, and according to CGCS were chosen because each is "characterized by a very distinctive approach to ICTs...by concentrating on processes of state-building and peace-building, our project seeks to bring greater clarity about the expectations and the realities of the use of communication technologies in developing contexts." The research is being conducted at macro and micro levels.

At the macro level, the research project is "examining how norms and practices in the field of ICT which have emerged internationally are adopted, resisted or reshaped at the local level." The project website explains that while various development actors have promoted standards, policies, and practices in how ICTS can be used to support state-building, peacebuilding, and governance, in reality this has resulted in mixed responses. The macro-level research will investigate how ICT policies have been shaped and implemented in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, "to understand how different discourses (i.e development, stability, prevention of violence) and actors (from governments to religious organisations) have been instrumental in shaping ICT policy and practice and how these can support or disrupt state-building and peace-building."

At the micro level, the project will focus on citizens' use of ICTs, in comparison to the macro-level conceptions, examine both day-to-day use, as well as who and how people are embracing ICTs as a tool for state-building and peace-building. This second component of the project includes case studies of how people are in reality using ICTs for peacebuilding.

A key part of the project is the development of the ICTs, State-building, and Peacebuilding in Eastern Africa website, which brings together research, scholarship, and news pertaining to the use of ICTs to promote peacebuilding and state-building in Eastern Africa. It is intended to "increase access to the limited amount of information on ICTs in order to spark conversation and improve research." Along with news and updates on research and events, a key part of the website is the ICT Research Library, which provides summaries of research related to the project. As part of developing the website, a literature review was conducted to produce the annotated bibliography which forms the core of the Library.

Technology, Peace-building, Governance

English

24

Constituents from four key constituencies (Maun West, Nata/Gweta, Boteti North, and South East South) use an online platform called USpeak to share an issue, an opinion or to request information to their Member of Parliament. They can also submit an issue via the online platform or send it via SMS. Citizens from other constituencies can also take part in Botswana Speaks using Speak4Yourself to discuss and debate issues and legislation that is currently being discussed in the Parliament. All Members of Parliament can participate in these debates and receive input. Along with the online dialogues, constituency meetings are organised in villages of the four pilot constituencies to discuss issues that concern people and that they want to share with their Member of Parliament.

In April 2013, the four Members of Parliament (MPs) involved in the Botswana Speaks Parliamentary Initiative announced the launch of its pilot phase, explaining its functioning and objectives to the representatives of local and national media. Workshops were held with the four MPs involved in the project as well as their constituency administrators and the Parliament staff to present the functioning of the platform and discuss the way ahead for the success of the pilot phase. A constituency tour was organised in the four pilot constituencies from April 11 to April 16 to present the Botswana Speaks platform in all four constituencies to local authorities and citizens.

The online platform is not intended to replace the Kgotla system, but rather be supplementary to the existing system that has been used to raise issues as well as to comment on any bills and pieces of legislation and motions that are being discussed in Parliament. According to the project, the scheme represents a meeting of tradition and innovation.

People can also interact with the project through the Botswana Speaks facebook page.

Governance, New technologies

According to Botswana Speaks, Botswana has experienced remarkable levels of political stability and economic development in a region not normally associated with growth and good governance. Widely praised for its long established practice of popular consultation and levels of social cohesion, Botswana's case constitutes a prime example of the way in which traditional structures can be successfully integrated within contemporary administrative structures.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were created by the United Nations to develop the world’s poorest countries from 2000 to 2015. According to the project, world leaders will need a new guiding document, called Post-2015, for Africa’s development and for this they will need Africa's youth to speak out so that their voices can be heard for Post-2015. The Voice Africa's Future initiative is being rolled out in 10 African countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana and South Africa.

In this initiative mobile technology platforms are used to ensure African youth groups participate in shaping the post-2015 agenda. The project uses a multimedia approach to reach the youth and ask them to participate in this initiative. Through local radio shows, celebrities, newspaper adverts, and various events they were asked to SMS "post2015" free of charge to their country short code. According to TTC, youth tend to be early adopters of technology, not only in developed countries, but also in developing countries. That is why using mobile technology is the best way to reach African youth and give them the opportunity to express their valuable opinion.

The youth are also being asked to choose the top three most important issues that will make the most difference to their lives as young people living in Africa. All issues identified are put into groups and clusters and are used as input for a report for the High Level Panel of the Secretary General of the United Nations, which will study the report before the High Level Panel meetings that are planned for Bali and New York.

People can interact with the initiative through the Voice Africa’s Future website as well as social media such as the Voice Africa's Future facebook page and Voice Africa's Future on twitter.

Governance

Through this project, PSAf is working to build the capacity of community radio stations to develop content by working with radio listening clubs and by interfacing with community members. It also seeks to facilitate networking and community development information sharing among community radio stations and initiatives both at national and regional levels. In Malawi, the project includes the establishment of radio listening clubs (RLCs) in around six community radio stations - Dzimwe, Nkhotakota, Mzimba, Voice of Livingstonia, Usisya and Mudzi Wathu. In Zambia and Mozambique about five to 10 RLCs will be established in either country. In April 2013, PSAf conducted a project sensitisation and Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop for the six radio stations in Lilongwe to set the stage for the roll-out of the project in the target communities.

According to PSAf, RLCs are an effective communication tool to magnify the voices of the marginalised, especially when the listeners participate actively in the whole process, raise issues, discuss them, explore options, and seek external support. Through the RLCs, communities can raise awareness of the development issues affecting their communities and debate them. As a group they then explore options for solutions and ask questions that can influence policy or development planning, or enhance their understanding of certain issues. These issues are brought to the attention of relevant audiences, and the stations follow up with service or resource providers on any development initiative they have been promised. In this way, the voices of such remote communities are brought to the ears or the government, policy, and development planners.

The three countries were chosen because it was identified that people in rural areas in these countries were not being accorded the opportunity to speak out on issues that affect them, such as child marriage, child trafficking, and drug abuse. Women make up the majority of people who are marginalised, therefore the project is making a deliberate effort to address the challenges that women face in accessing development information.

Governance, Gender

According to PSAf, in southern African countries the majority of people continue to be on the margins of development processes, without any chance to be heard on the kind of development they desire for themselves. In addition, there are still huge gaps in the media's coverage of issues in a gender balanced manner. Women across Southern Africa currently have limited access to opportunities, communication, and information channels to enable them play a role in development.

The project is working to improve the lives of the economically poor, especially women and girls, through encouraging public debate on issues of local public concern. At the outset of the project organisers realised it was necessary to understand and be deeply involved with the radio stations' way of operating and community, to better understand each. Some stations are urban while others are rural, some are very familiar with social media, while others struggle with electricity. Because of such variety, the first stage of the project was to carry out research about the community and the local radio stations, getting information about community listening habits, as well as input on issues of local public concern in areas of health, agriculture, and one other relevant area for the community. For each radio station, UNESCO surveyed the programming quality, gender equality, ICT literacy, financial management capacity, and existence of correspondent networks.

Based on the findings, the project is working to increase knowledge among radio staff about ICTs for improved programming, editorial work, communication and interaction, broadcasting and delivery, financial planning, and management. This is done through various workshops which cover how to use the internet, management of daily contacts, mobile-friendly content production and use of related broadcasting software, as well as use of ICTs in radio programming and diffusion. Other training focuses on such topics as radio formats and gender, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief information. There will also be a national forum of all sponsored radios on ICTs and sustainability.

As part of the project, a radio correspondents' network will be created or strengthened, providing radio stations with greater plurality of sources and diversity of local news. Radio staff will manage the correspondents' networks, who will also be trained in both journalism and use of ICTS and mobiles for interviewing and reporting.

A series of Open Educational Resources are being produced from the trainings, aiming to broadly share knowledge about local radio. These resources will be available to copy, share, translate and adapt, and are intended as a collaborative way to turn local radios into social service providers. Another component of the project is an emphasis on accessing national and regional expertise for the project implementation in all activities: research, workshops, surveys, monitoring, etc. Professionals and organisations involved are closely accompanied by our staff, assessing the activities to enhance the outcomes.

In accordance with UNESCO work, another project focus is to give priority to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) when choosing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for local radios. Besides being no-cost, such software is developed to best satisfy the needs of the users, since it is developed by the users themselves.

The project website includes analysis of and links to open source technology, information about the participating radio stations, and news about ongoing training .

The project is also running MyLocalRadio.org, which is an online community of practice for people wanting to freely collaborate, share knowledge and build local radio together. It is available in English and French languages and has also a mobile version designed for improved usability, also aiming at feature phones.


Click here for more information from the project website.

Media pluralism, Local Governance, Gender

The project is designed to increase the availability of information on the forestry sector by working with research and other organisations to generate quality information that can be used to empower citizens to meaningfully participate and influence key policy decisions in the management of the country's forestry resources. PEA believes that without adequate, quality, and timely information on the forestry sector, citizens and civil society cannot meaningfully influence policy.

The project's strategies include the following.

• Civil society strengthening: PEA will establish a partnership with six selected civil society organisations and twelve media houses, and will work towards building their capacity to work together and separately to address the questions/issues around forestry governance.
• Use of media for citizen and power holders' engagement: PEA will work with and support ten radio stations and two newspapers including those it has not worked with before, to create platforms to support citizen’s voice and participation in demanding accountability and better forest resource management.
• National level engagement: PEA will place journalists in parliament to monitor and cover discussions by the Natural Resources sub-committee of parliament and periodically through a journalists or media forum as they share their experiences.

Given that issues to be dealt with are highly sensitive, PEA says that coverage of key issues surrounding this sector requires excellent investigative skills on the part of the media which calls for skills development, exposure, access to quality resource materials, and strong civil society or social movements to act as a buffer and protect spaces for media and citizens. PEA is working to create direct links between the media and existing civil society networks on forestry governance to increase access to quality and well researched information on the sector but also create, strengthen, and protect spaces for citizens to debate and raise key concerns on the management of the forestry sector.

Environment, Natural resource

This Panos-led media component is part of the five-year Forest Resources Sector Transparency (FOREST) Programme, funded by Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) through Care Denmark, intended to address, among other issues, loopholes in implementation and funding of policies, laws and regulations in the forestry sector, insufficient representation of poor and vulnerable communities dependent on forests in decision making structures on forestry management, and gaps in civil society's effectiveness in improving forestry governance.

The project was conceived based on the idea that many people are excluded from any of the benefits of Mozambique’s soaring economy and continue to face a bleak future. This is especially true of the youth in the country's Northern provinces, who also battle to access information and to participate in debates about their concerns and their futures. The Wired For Sound project is designed to give Mozambican musicians a broader stage and bigger audience, but also to use music to help to break down some of the barriers that exist – that stop young Mozambicans from speaking out – and encourage them to express themselves publicly and powerfully on their most pressing issues.

Mobile Studio

The group will be traveling for six weeks with a fully professional, mobile recording and production studio. They will be able to stop at any point on their road trip and collect recordings of what young people are doing, saying, and creating, while also collaborating with local musicians. The mobile studio is intended to give an opportunity for young Mozambicans who may not have had the chance to publicly air their views or share their stories and ambitions to have their thoughts recorded and broadcast. It is also an opportunity to showcase some of the hidden musical talent in northern Mozambique, working with local artists to produce professionally-recorded material that can be aired on community stations – and hopefully internationally in future. The material will also be used for a radio documentary to be broadcast internationally.

Social Media

Regular updates will be shared via social media. They intend to put up as much material as possible on Facebook, twitter, and instagram so that people can track the trip and learn more about the reality behind the 'Mozambique is booming' headlines.

Community Radios

The youth-centred debates will be aired on community radio, while also providing the stations with additional material, including musical recordings, documentaries, and interviews with young artists and individuals. As youth perspectives will be broadcast, the project will help the rest of the community, including community leaders and local politicians and officials, to understand what the key issues are and what the youth think should be done to address them. All the profits will be channelled back to the community stations in Mozambique to support their growth – and the development of local musical talent.

Music Distribution

After the six-week trip, Wired for Sound will also professionally produce a small body of recorded songs and these will be made available for download on iTunes and amazon.com, as well as be featured on the music streaming service, Simfy Africa, and the recently established music synch agency, Synchronicity, which places music with pictures (TV adverts, movies, soundtracks, documentaries, premium products, apps and electronic media).
Developmental Issues
Governance, Youth