This news article from the Thomson Reuters Foundation focuses on how gathering public input on government plans, often via digital tools, is a growing trend at municipal and national levels.
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Innovation in the Horn, East and Central Africa (HECA): Perspectives from on-the-ground experiences (Oxfam Case Study, 2017)
Innovation involves applying information, imagination and initiative to get greater or different value from resources, and includes all processes by which new ideas are generated and converted into useful processes or products.
These case studies showcase some of the innovative ideas that are being implemented by Oxfam in six countries: Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi. Each project was selected for its potential to bring greater impact in the future. They include turning ‘excrement into income’ in urban slums in Kenya; giving citizens a voice through empowering them to use their mobile phones to report and share information on justice issues in Rwanda; and using a logistical ‘hub’ in Uganda to enhance service delivery and cost-effectiveness across a region.
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Wumen Bagung – Communication for Development and Social Change Bulletin: “Whose Theory Counts?” (RMIT, 2018)
This edition of Wumen Bagung explores four key themes, each focused on how communication outcomes are influenced by the role of the community, and whether it is passive or active participant. The first theme brings together analyses from across Asia of different ways of communicating to local communities starting with a review of how water, hygiene and sanitation services are communicated in Cambodia, fresh approaches to communication underway in Myanmar by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the use of cable television in local Philippine communities.
The second theme – which details outside approaches to communication for development (C4D) – opens with Robert Boughen’s challenge for us to rethink Chinese media development investments, not from a neoliberal development perspective, rather through acknowledging that Chinese media assistance in Africa ‘has an active function in a cohesive model of the ‘development economy’. Edwar Hanna and Jackie Davies of C4D Network consider the effects of urbanisation on communication for development, while Sina Øversveen critically examines the Freedom of the Press Index.
The third theme focuses on the lessons to be learned from local communities by directly involving them in C4D. In ‘The Space Between’, Donna Griffin takes us on a journey of learning the Aboriginal way of understanding the world, while Winifredo Dagli reviews the learning development training offered by the University of Philippines Los Banos. Kylie Smith and Melissa Fan close this theme with an examination of C4D in the age of feminism.
The final theme provides examples of the community as leaders in communication and looks at how video is actively being used to interrogate local development challenges in India, followed by an analysis of public art as a critical tool in democratic communication.
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Adolescent Girls Creating Safer Cities: Harnessing the Potential of Communication for Development (UN-Habitat, 2012)
Safer cities strive to create public spaces that are open and accessible to everyone, without exception. Most cities, however, are not totally safe for
adolescent girls. What’s more, they are run and developed predominantly without their needs being taken into account. Each week 1 million people
move from the countryside to city slums, of which a growing number of migrants are girls, and there is growing pressure to find ways to address the myriad of dangers girls face, from violence and exploitation to discrimination and access to schooling and safe housing.
Communication for Development (C4D) has emerged as an important addition to those promoting the rights of girls in the city. Programmes based on C4D take into account the fact that, as experts in their own safety and use of the city, girls are best positioned to identify the issues and priorities
that affect them today and in the future, in order to make cities safer and more inclusive. In short, C4D gives adolescent girls a voice with which to take an active role in the development of safe urban environments.
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“Voice of the voiceless”: Learning from SORADI’s project to strengthen accountability in Hargeisa (IAAAP Paper, 2018)
Citizens’ ability to seek accountability from Hargeisa Local Council is highly constrained, SORADI’s evidence-based, coalition-building model provides some clues as to what an effective approach might look like. Diverse, highly-networked, inclusive groups of citizens can work together to design and implement advocacy strategies, creating positive momentum for change. However, the development of capable, accountable and responsive authorities requires a step-change in the quality of the Councillors, who are responsible for leadership and oversight.
The paper draws on 22 key informant interviews who have been involved in the project, including members from both accountability fora.
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