"This book is a contribution to efforts to improve governance systems around the world, particularly in developing countries. It offers a range of innovative approaches and techniques for dealing with the most important nontechnical challenges that prevent many of those efforts from being successful
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or sustainable. By so doing, the book sets out the groundwork for governance reform initiatives. Its overarching argument is that the development community is not lacking the tools needed for technical solutions to governance challenges. The toolbox is overflowing; best practice manuals in various areas of interest tumble out of seminars and workshops. However, difficulties arise when attempts are made to apply what are often excellent technical solutions under real-world conditions. Human beings, acting either alone or in groups small and large, are not as amenable as are pure numbers. And they cannot be put aside. In other words, in the real world, reforms will not succeed, and they will certainly not be sustained, without the correct alignment of citizens, stakeholders, and voice." (Introduction, page 1)
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"This briefing builds on DFID’s commitments set out in our 2006 White Paper, Making Governance Work for the Poor. The main purpose is to provide an overview of the relationship between media and governance, and to highlight some of the principal opportunities and challenges to engaging with the se
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ctor. It is aimed at all staff across DFID working on media or governance issues, and is intended to complement the practical guidance contained in DFID’s 2000 “Media in Governance: A Guide to Assistance”. The Note explains why and how the media is a critical sector in shaping governance relationships, and summarises key global trends in the media which are already leading to changes in country-level governance. The note explains some of the incentives and disincentives driving the sector which can lead the media to play either a positive or negative role in strengthening democratic politics. It pays particular attention to the role of the media in fragile states. The paper concludes by identifying key lessons and principles for donors to increase the effectiveness of media development initiatives in order to help build democratic, capable, accountable and responsive states." (Introduction, pages 1-2)
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"This study analyses statistical correlations between press freedom and human development, human security, stability, poverty reduction, and good governance, using indicator systems from Freedom House and Reporters without Borders, UNDP's Human Development Index, the Human Poverty Index, the World B
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ank's Governance Indicators and others. According to the abstract "all the findings confirm the importance of press freedom for development. A free press always has a positive influence, whether it be on poverty and its different aspects, on governance or on violence and conflict issues. It serves as an intermediary between individuals and government, informing the latter of people's needs and acting as a buffer against crises and situations of extreme deprivation; it holds governments accountable and makes their actions more transparent; and, along with other indicators of good governance, it creates a business-enabling environment, a climate conducive to more effective public affairs management, and so forth. The results thus suggest that a freer press can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and, most importantly, to the attainment of an acceptable and viable level of development. By promoting freedom of the press, states and international organisations provide themselves with a powerful development tool. A free press constitutes an instrument of development as such, in the same way as education or investment." (CAMECO Update 1-2009)
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"This latest set of aggregate indicators, are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from 33 data sources provided by 30 different organizations. The data reflect the views on governance of public sector, private sector
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and NGO experts, as well as thousands of citizen and firm survey respondents worldwide. We also explicitly report the margins of error accompanying each country estimate. These reflect the inherent difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data. We find that even after taking margins of error into account, the WGI permit meaningful cross-country comparisons as well as monitoring progress over time. In less than a decade, a substantial number of countries exhibit statistically significant improvements in at least one dimension of governance, while other countries exhibit deterioration in some dimensions." (Abstract)
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"Communication is a prerequisite for better, more transparent and accountable governance, and for wealth creation and economic growth. It underpins all the MDGs and is arguably as central a need of human beings as food, shelter, health and security. Governments and development actors need to recogni
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se the central role of information and communication in development - especially the importance of strengthening the capacities of poor and marginalised people to participate in political and development processes. Addressing the challenge of communication is urgent. New ICTs can expand opportunities for poor and marginalised people to participate - but strategic support is needed to ensure that ICTs fulfil their development potential rather than widening the wealth gap between rich and poor. The establishment and maintenance of diverse, dynamic and free media is also vital to successful development. The importance of getting the media 'right' is especially great in young democracies, as media play an important role in forming the nature of society." (Conclusion, page 59)
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"This report is one of the first studies comparing systematically different aspects of community radio practice in developing countries. Based on five country surveys - Colombia, Mali, Nepal, Peru and South Africa - it provides descriptions and analyses of: participatory processes and volunteerism;
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relationship with the community; exertion of rights; accountability and good governance; community radio networks; financing and financial sustainability; and community radio in conflict and post-conflict situations. The detailed country studies show that the practice of community radio broadcasting differs widely according to the national context, the legal environment and the specific role of national community radio associations and networks. In comparing the country studies, the main report stresses good practices, e.g. regarding the role of strong national networks, as well as some challenges like the need to accompany volunteers in a more systematic way and to address the precarious financial state of many community radio stations." (CAMECO Update 5-2008)
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"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 p
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urpose 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. This paper is structured as follows: Section Two provides an analysis of the relationship between governance and communication. Section Three reviews the kinds of evidence available and warns about the difficulties of establishing a causal link. Based on available evidence, Section Four provides an overview of the role of communication in government capability, accountability and responsiveness using a range of empirical data (where available) but relying heavily upon peer reviewed case studies. Section Five concludes with a summary of findings about the role of communication in good governance and identifies the factors which can encourage or impede a direct causal link." (Introduction, page 2)
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"Any approach to media development must include systems-wide measures including development of an enabling regulatory framework and increased access to information. Future media development processes must be African-owned and African-led, ultimately empowering Africans at all levels of society. With
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in this, media development strategies must fit the specific contexts of diverse African realities; While new technologies offer new and exciting opportunities, we must focus not on a transition from 'old' media to 'new' media, but on maximizing the potential for expanding networked journalism across the media in all its forms; The media is necessarily political, seeking to foster debate around inherently contentious social, economic, cultural and political issues. Donors and NGOs must recognize the clear-cut distinction between using the media to promote specific development policies and building the media as a component of genuine democratic debate." (Executive summary, page 10)
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This document presents a methodology for evaluating the contribution that communication interventions can make to accountable governance. CommGAP engages in complementary programme areas in an effort to amplify citizen voice; promote free, independent, and plural media systems; and help government i
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nstitutions communicate better with their citizens. The three programme areas are: research and advocacy; capacity building and training; and support for development projects. This document describes the evaluation framework - that is, the outcome and impact indicators, and the methodology behind the assessment - that CommGAP has developed.
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"About 80 representatives from government, civil society, think tanks and media organizations in developing countries, as well as representatives from multilateral and bilateral donor agencies, academic institutions, and international civil society organizations participated in a dialogue about deep
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ening voice and accountability to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of national poverty reduction strategies. … The objective of the conference was to begin to break through the "iron triangle" of technocrats in government, civil society and donor agencies that currently defines, and in many ways constrains, the development process; to amend the prevailing development paradigm to more effectively address issues of deepening voice and accountability; and to recognize the contribution of information and communication processes to that agenda." (Introduction, page 2)
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"Une presse indépendante est essentielle pour un développement économique équitable : elle contribue à donner la parole aux personnes pauvres et privées de droit. Des médias autonomes participent également à l’édification de bases solides pour une société libre et transparente. Les aut
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eurs, parmi lesquels figurent quelques Prix Nobel, comme Joseph Stiglitz, ancien économiste en chef de la Banque Mondiale et le célèbre Gabriel García Márquez, étudient le rôle des médias comme garde-fous des secteurs publics et privés et la politique en matière de liberté de la presse. Ils jugent également les effets nuisibles que peut causer un journalisme irresponsable et contraire à l’éthique. Un ouvrage de réflexion pour les étudiants, les professeurs et les chercheurs en communication et pour ceux qui s'intéressent au pouvoir et à l'impact des médias." (Description de la maison d'édition)
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"Since the start of the “third wave” of democratization, in 1974, the proportion of states that are electoral democracies has more than doubled, and the number of democratic governments in the world has tripled (Diamond 2001). Countries as diverse as the Czech Republic, Mexico, and South Africa
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have experienced a radical transformation of their political systems through the establishment of more effective party competition, free and fair elections, and a more independent and pluralistic press. Many hoped that these developments would expand the voice of the disadvantaged and the accountability of governments, so that policy makers would become more responsive to human needs, and governments could be removed from power through the ballot box if citizens became dissatisfied by their performance. Yet in practice, after the initial surge in the early 1990s, many electoral democracies in Latin America, Central Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa remain fragile and only poorly consolidated, often divided by ethnic conflict and plagued by a faltering economic performance, with excessive executive power in the hands of one predominant party and a fragmented opposition (Linz and Stephan 1996). The central danger, illustrated by the nations of the Andean region, lies in disillusionment with democracy, and even occasional reversals (Norris 1999; Pharr and Putnam 2000; Lagos 2001; Plattner and Diamond 2001)." (Summary)
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