"This learning brief provides an overview of the rites of passage that coalitions may experience as they attempt to chart their way through what is often unknown territory. The findings of the PRIMED workshop suggest that, via media development agencies, they can tap into a wealth of local and inter
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national experience which can help shape new initiatives and give them impetus. Balancing inclusion with focus is a particular challenge as alliances attempt to cater to multiple agendas and accommodate conflicting viewpoints. The risks of coalitions falling victim to infighting, disenchantment, funding gaps and political capture are very real. Nevertheless, the approaches highlighted in this document have proven their worth. Coalitions worldwide have marked up an impressive tally of achievements ranging from greater protections for media practitioners to the introduction of new legislation that supports regulation and decriminalises libel. They have helped forge lasting links between stakeholders and sectors that previously had limited experience of cooperation and even considered themselves to be diametrically opposed." (Conclusion, page 13)
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"This is an applied facilitator’s guide for reform managers, change agents, development practitioners, and training professionals who need to use smart communication techniques—the relevant concepts, frameworks and applications—to promote change through governance reform. It is grounded on the
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expert knowledge and practical research from academics and scholars and practitioners in the field, culled and enriched from CommGAP’s series of global dialogue on key governance issues." (Back cover)
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"This report has looked at six successful intellectual property (IP) reform campaigns from around the world, and examined the strategies, messages and goals of the campaigners who fought them. Although each example has its own lessons to share, broad trends have emerged. Several of the most striking
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campaign successes employed the internet as a mobilising force. A template for such action emerges from examining these campaigns in concert. Almost without exception, campaigners worked in coalition with other stakeholders. These coalitions varied both in style and in substance, and examining those differences is instructive. The campaigns were fought on intellectual and emotional ground which was often some distance from the mechanism of intellectual property law itself. This observation should encourage campaigners to think about the merits and pitfalls of different messaging approaches. Finally, the observation that very few of the case studies emerge from countries in the developing world prompts the report to examine why this might be so, and to challenge campaigners to examine the value of a more global perspective. It’s fair to say that the issues that motivate IP reform activists go beyond the public messages their campaigns focussed upon. The upcoming campaign against the substantive issues contained in the plurilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement offers campaigners an opportunity to find and voice these concerns, concerns that have motivated them thus far to undertake the significant an impressive policy interventions in the global intellectual property space that have been detailed in this report. The time has come to for a mobilising critique against the flawed orthodoxy of tough, unwieldy global intellectual property regimes." (Conclusion, page 47)
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