Research communication: Act now!

Euforic was in Vietnam last week working for the Danish Development Research Network (a member since last year). We were facilitating a workshop on research communications. Euforic was approached because of our work with communication between development actors and our involvement in the research for development project (R4D) for DFID in the UK.

Strengthening communication in N/S research partnerships for development

The workshop was designed to support DANIDA funded research projects and is a continuation of the series begun in Tanzania.

Over 45 participants drawn from all over Vietnam together with research colleagues from Denmark met for 3 days in Hoi An to develop their understanding of developing communication strategies and approaches for their projects. The two projects involved are both examining the impact of climate change, one focussing on physical changes, while the other has a multidisciplinary approach including geographers, natural scientists and socio economists.

The workshop aimed to develop communication skills, build strategies and make practical products.

Group work in project teams ran through the three days, resulting in a draft communications plan for each project and the development of example products such as press releases and leaflets. These working sessions were interspersed with demonstrations, papers and presentations and culminated with a presentation exercise to explain the final results of each project team to the rest of the workshop.

The sessions covered standard methodologies to developing communication strategies, identifying target groups, establishing the aim of the communication, developing messages for that group and chosing the appropriate channel to reach them.

One of the most popular sessions was looking at new opportunities on the web for research communication and ways the projects could work with these systems.

Wiki
A common Wiki platform for the resources and learning from the workshop process has been developed by Euforic for DDRN and provides a resource base for those who have attended the Tanzanian and Vietnamese workshops. The commscorner and web2share sites also provide reference points on Web2 tools and communications advice for researchers respectively.

Learning by acting

The final presentations were a learning exercise in themselves with one project team demonstrating clearly how a theatre exercise could explain the communications plan through role play, a synopsis of
their presentation is given below.

ACT1: The local authority
Set in the office of the local authority, we saw project members explaining their project with the aid of a leaflet they planned to have distributed by various actors in the community and to win the support of the local authority in the process. As this scene was acted out we saw an image of the proposed leaflet they were discussing as a backdrop to the piece of theatre.

ACT2: The donor
The scene set at the Danish embassy showed how the project team planned to communicate with the funder of the project, using their communications strategy to demonstrate they had planned more communication activities than expected, and would seek additional funding for some specific activities. Meanwhile the screen behind them highlighted the relevant part of their communications strategy.

ACT3: The farming community
Here the scene quite clearly illustrated the local community concerns with changes in climate andthe ways the project team had considered explaining their study activity and considering how they could present eventual findings.


Setting the scene: Open meeting
The other project group staged a local open meeting attended by all stakeholders touched by the projects, i.e. local authorities, CSOs, local social organisations as a way to present their strategy.

The take home message
In discussing all the information products and actvities there were three elements the researcher needed to consider.

1)Start by putting yourself in the shoes of your audience, think of what their interests are and what will make them act on information.

2)The inverted pyramid - don't write all your communications like a research paper, most audiences want the conclusions first rather than last.

3)Answer the Who, What,Where,Why,When and How questions in everything you write.

Finally we summed this all up in an active mnemonic.

Make a pyramid with your hands above your head and then invert it 6 times by swinging your arms down to point at the ground and at the same time look at your shoes. Each time you bend down say to yourself each of the six questions...Who, What,Where,Why,When and How.

- Who.... will benefit from the research and who is doing it?
- What... is it all about?
- Where... is it happening?
- Why... does it need to be done?
- When... will the results be ready or events happening
- How... is it all being done?

We all learnt a lot from the workshop, in particular how to communicate across two languages and two cultures. For this we found two solutions. For the first we had a great translation team and for the second............

Good singing voices and a common sense of humour.

World Congress on Organic Cotton

The World Congress on Organic Cotton kicked off in Interlaken, Switzerland today.
Euforic is attending the event and working with our member Helvetas to support social reporting the congress. We organized a training session for social reporters that will be blogging, blipping and tweeting during the conference.

People interested in the topic who do not have the chance to participate, can still follow the congress in a variety of ways:

• the Organic Cotton blog - http://ocplatform.wordpress.com/ - will capture the conversation and ideas that are being discussed at the congress. People can visit it, or subscribe to the event feed - http://feeds.feedburner.com/wcoc09
  
  
• on the blog, people can also find a series of 'blips' - see them all at http://helvetas.blip.tv/
  
  
• @helvetas on twitter will be used to post links and quotes from the different session
  
  
• pictures will be posted on on flickr

We invite social bookmarkers who are interested in the topic to use the congress tag wcoc09 [#wcoc09 for twitter] if they want to share their views using the same web spaces.

AFD supports innovation of development finance mechanisms

On March 4 and 5 2010, the French Development Agency AFD will organise in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank an international Marketplace on Innovative Financial Solutions for Development (2010 MIF).

The 2010 MIF will be dedicated to smart, fine-tuned, innovative financial mechanisms for mobilizing, channeling, and spending funds for development issues. The event will bring together development practioners, donors, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, academics, representatives from across a range of financial institutions and policy makers to exchange experience and ideas on innovative development finance solutions. The 2010 MIF will be structured around workshops and a marketplace where innovators can showcase their initiatives and projects.

The main objectives of the event are to:

• advance the agenda on innovative financial solutions for development;
  
• facilitate knowledge sharing and learning, including South/South learning, on what kinds of innovative financial solutions for development work, what don’t, and how to design these solutions to maximize development impact and cost-effectiveness;
  
• spur the evolution of cutting-edge projects that apply innovative financial mechanisms to development challenges.

A key feature of the 2010 MIF will be a competition to garner and highlight fresh ideas on how innovative financing mechanisms can be used to better solve development challenges at local, country, regional, or global levels, with the goal that successful innovations can be scaled up and replicated broadly.

The winners will be awarded pilot grants to assist them in the implementation of their proposals. Proposals are welcomed from all organizations involved in innovative finance focused on development, including financial institutions, private-sector companies, social enterprises, non-governmental and civil society organizations, government agencies, universities and other academic organizations, foundations, and development organizations. Guidelines and application forms can be accessed on this website. Proposals must be submitted by November 15th 2009.

You can download the MIF 2010 guidelines and application form on: www.fininnov.org. Proposals need to me submitted before 15 november 2009 at the latest.

For more information please contact : info@fininnov.org

See also the Euforic newsfeeds on AFD and on finance for development

ATOL has relaunched its website

Recently, Euforic's member organisation ATOL (Belgium) has drastically changed its website (atol.be). At the moment only the Dutch language version is fully operational, but the French version is supposed to be ready soon.

The changes include not only a new look and feel but the information about ATOL's vision, mission, and activities is presented in a far more organised way to make it easier for readers to understand what ATOL is all about. Topically, ATOL's activities focus on empowerment, gender, the learning organisation, social economy and development information, whereby it plays an advisory role providing information and knowledge, doing research and consultancy.

The most prominent change however is the application of Web 2.0 features such as Twitter, RSS feeds etc., enhancing the interactive character of the website and reinforcing the broadcasting and sharing of information.

ATOL is an active member of the Euforic cooperative and has contributed in several Annual General Meetings by facilitating sessions and presentations, and has participated in various projects.

For more information about the ATOL website, please contact Ann Fransen

See also Euforic's newsfeed on ATOL and on information, knowledge, and communication

Next Brussels Briefing on agricultural SMEs in ACP countries

The next Brussels Development Briefing will be held in Brussels on 23rd September 2009 from 8h30 to 13h00 on “Upgrading to compete in a globalised world: What opportunities and challenges for SMEs in agriculture in ACP countries?”.

This Briefing will discuss the effects of the financial and food crisis on enterprises in developing countries and also the opportunities this can provide to link local SMEs to global economies. Experts will also discuss investment programmes needed to support SMEs in order to promote growth and investments, upgrade and upscale SMEs to reach regional and exports markets. This session will also share concrete examples of SMEs being successful by boosting innovation and technology, processing, value-addition, infrastructure upgrading.

For the programme and registration form, please check http://brusselsbriefings.net/.

Earlier Brussels Briefings looked at 'The Role of Livestock for ACP countries: challenges and opportunities ahead', ' Meeting Food Safety Standards: Implications for ACP agricultural exports', 'Fighting against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (IUU): Impacts and challenges for ACP countries', 'Land access and rural development: New challenges, new opportunities', 'How does international migration affect ACP rural development?', 'Rising food prices: an opportunity for change?', 'New drivers, new players in ACP rural development', 'Does Fair Trade contribute to sustainable development?', 'The climate challenge for ACP agriculture', 'Aid for Trade', 'Advancing African Agriculture' and 'Challenges to rural development in ACP countries.'

Sign up for the Brussels Briefing newsfeed; see also the Euforic newsfeed on agriculture

Options for architectural reform for EU development cooperation

A recent ODI Background Note looks at key issues of EU development cooperation which will be decided upon in the remaining months of 2009. The paper assumes that the Lisbon Treaty will come into force on January 1 2010 after a positive Irish referendum in October.

This implies that key decisions need to be taken, including the appointment of the Council President, the High Commissioner for Foreign and Security Policy as well as the creation of the European External Action Service.

“Although the institutional location and the role of the new High Representative are outlined in the Lisbon Treaty, the question remains as to how the role will be balanced with the triple Presidencies – those of the European Council, the Council of Ministers and the Commission.”

According to the authors the High Representative could be improve EU stabilization efforts in the areas of conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict and institution building. However, the political influence of this post over development cooperation could lead to a policy which might be overridden by short-term foreign policy goals.

The paper also provides three models for a future Commission structure. The first model describes an overarching DG International Development with ACP countries, Asia, Latin America, the neighbourhood, the Middle East and former Soviet Union under one roof and a broad mandate managing all aspects of the program cycle as well as humanitarian aid. The second model would combine all regions as well plus the aid programming. However the neighbourhood and enlargement policies as well as humanitarian aid would stay separate. The third model proposes a DG for development policy, programming and humanitarian aid. Here programming and implementation would be separated in different DGs. Also part of this suggestion is a DG for the EU neighbourhood and enlargement policy.

Irrespective of the model that will be preferred, the authors underline that:

“[i]n any model [...] an important principle and lesson learned from the current set-up will be to avoid, or at least reduce, the creation of conflicting and overlapping portfolios in the Commission.”

by Martin Behrens

The paper is one of the outcomes of the ODI European Development Cooperation Support Programme.

See the Euforic newsfeed and dossier on EU development cooperation and management.

See also EADI's EDC2020 project on the future of EC development policy and cooperation

Vacancy: Concord is seeking an Policy Manager

CONCORD is the European confederation representing, through its members, over 1600 European NGOs for relief and international development. CONCORD leads reflection and political actions on key development issues and regularly engages in dialogue with EU institutions and other civil society organizations.

Since its creation in 2003, CONCORD has been managing a growing membership and an increased number of processes. To oversee the internal workload generated by CONCORD’s diverse activities, CONCORD is seeking an experienced POLICY MANAGER.

The manager will manage the policy department overall, overseeing planning and implementation of agreed strategies, supervising staff and managing directly and indirectly CONCORD’s policy – related the working groups. She/he will act as senior adviser to the Director and to the Board on policy issues and lead on CONCORD’s institutional relations and dialogue. As a member of the Management Team he/she will be co-responsible for the achievement of CONCORD’s organizational mission and goals.

The successful candidate will have demonstrable people management skills, knowledge of how to influence EU decision making through advocacy and effective communications, excellent networking skills and demonstrate the ability to think strategically. She/he will speak English and French, have direct experience of the NGO sector and experience of working in a multicultural environment.

The position is based in Brussels.

For further information about this exciting opportunity go to www.concordeurope.org/. Click here to see the full job description. Applicants are invited to submit a CV and cover letter in English or French by 15 September to secretariat@concordeurope.org . Interviews will take place on 17th September.

Global Perspectives on the Middle East Imbroglio

The cover story of the August issue of Global Perspectives gives a rather skeptical prognosis for a new start of the Middle East Peace Process. Although the Obama Administration increased pressure on the Israeli Government, currently there seems to be little hope that it is going to negotiate the high threshold it built in order to accept a Palestinian State.

Also in this issue Thomas Hammarberg (Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe) writes about the value of budget analysis to assess government’s human rights commitment. In the European context budget analysis was so far successfully used to monitor gender mainstreaming. The key problem in all human rights work is a gap between the promises and the implementation. This gap can only be bridged when budgets themselves reflect the pledges made.

A summary of the UNDP Arab Development Report 2009 discusses a European Neighborhood Region which should be on the European foreign policy agenda. Citizens of the Arab region suffer under a lack of human security caused by regional conflicts, environmental problems, lacking rule of law, crime and health challenges. Further the region which faces rapid population growth has to deal with a high unemployment rate and permanent internal migration. Europe needs to assist the Arab countries in dealing with this enormous amount of problems in order to avoid negative effects like irregular migration and security risks.

Regarding the ongoing Climate Change Negotiations Ramesh Jaura describes the different positions during the latest informal talks from 10-14 August in Bonn. According to diplomat voices there still is too little progress to finally settle a global climate deal in Copenhagen this December.

With the UN Climate Change Summit on September 22 ahead Thalif Deen raises doubts on the usefulness of the UN summit culture. Since the Rio Summit in 1992 there have been dozens of summits and review summits on various themes, at best leading to political declarations which in the end often lacked funding for implementation. The journalist believes that the upcoming summit will also be nothing more than a talk-fest.

Global Perspectives is a bi-lingual (English/German) joint production by IPS Inter Press Service Europe and the Global Cooperation Council, published by Globalom Media. The monthly editions on various themes of international cooperation and development are downloadable for free.

See also the Euforic newsfeeds on IPS Europe and the Middle East.

by Martin Behrens