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UK Aid Match: Real Aid or Charity-Washing?

Martin Scott

All-Party Parlimentary Group for Aid Match;University of East Anglia (2023), 32 pp.

"UK Aid Match (UKAM) is a match-funding scheme, funded by the UK government, designed to incentivise greater charitable giving amongst the UK public towards projects that reduce poverty in developing countries. For every £1 donated to a UKAM charity appeal, the government also contributes £1 of UK ... aid – usually up to £2 million. This report examines UKAM’s communication requirements and considers their potential limitations, contradictions, inconsistencies, and political implications. UKAM’s overall aim is to allow the British public to have a say in how UK aid is spent and provide opportunities to engage with international development issues, whilst boosting the impact of civil society projects to reach the poorest people in developing countries8. According to the UKAM documents analysed for this report, all participating Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are required to comply with various communication requirements, to be eligible for government matchfunding, most notably to use a pro bono communications partnership that can provide at least 400,000 opportunities for the UK public to view information about the appeal and the match funding offer. [...] This report shows that UKAM appeals have generally been very successful in achieving their communications objectives. Since 2011, UKAM appeals have generated over 14 billion unique Opportunities To be Viewed (OTVs) by the UK public. These communications include appeals involving Ministers, Parliamentarians or the Secretary of State receiving over 45 million OTVs in 2019 alone14. In just the February 2020 round of UKAM , the ‘value in kind for pro bono communications’ of the 1.7bn OTVs was given as £2.2 million. However, this report also highlights several concerning contradictions with UKAM’s current communication requirements. For example, setting a minimum requirement for generating ‘Opportunities to View’ (OTV) appears likely to restrict the participation of NGOs with smaller marketing capabilities. This limits the extent to which UKAM can achieve its stated objective – in line with two consecutive Conservative Party Manifesto commitments – to ‘give the public a say in how a portion of the UK aid budget is spent. This report also notes that UKAM funding has only amounted to approximately 0.2% of UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) since 2011, while ODA has been reduced to 0.5% of Gross National Income (GNI)18. Given this, the 14 billion OTVs generated by UKAM may inadvertently give the UK public a misleading impression of the true extent to which they are directing a portion of the UK aid budget to their favoured charities. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that – rather than giving the UK public a greater say in directing UK aid – incentivising campaigns to have greater reach may instead be providing greater reputational benefits to government Ministers – who charities are required to feature in their campaigns." (Executive summary, pages 5-6) more

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‘Working with the Media Taught Us a Lot’: Understanding The Guardian’s Katine Initiative

Ben Jones

Journalism, volume 22, issue 2 (2021), pp. 448-464

"One of the more important ventures in the world of media and development over the past decade has been The Guardian newspaper’s ‘Katine’ project in Uganda. The newspaper, with funding from its readers and Barclays Bank, put more than 2.5 million pounds into a Ugandan sub-county over the cours ... more

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Participatory Communication Plan 2020

Communication for Development Initiative in Asia and the Pacific (ComDev Asia) (2020), 12 pp.

"As a regional initiative, ComDev Asia has adopted the communication framework for family farming and the United Nations Decade of Family Farming (UNDFF 2019-2028). The framework emphasizes three main lines of actions directly linked to UNDFF-GAP Outcome 4.4. These are: 1) participatory communicatio ... more

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Communication Manual: A Guide on How to Plan and Implement Effective Communication

Hina Akhtar, James Hochschwender

Washington, DC: Crown Agents USA;USAID (2018), 35 pp.

"This communication manual provides guidance and advice on how to carry out information and publicity activities by the Privatisation Commission of Pakistan. The manual [...] provides advice on communication planning, event management including information dissemination and outreach to both traditio ... more

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Communication in International Development: Doing Good or Looking Good?
Top Insights

Florencia Enghel, Jessica Noske-Turner (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2018), xiv, 182 pp.

"International development stakeholders harness communication with two broad purposes: to do good, via communication for development and media assistance, and to communicate do-gooding, via public relations and information. This book unpacks various ways in which different efforts to do good are com ... more

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Moving from Information Dissemination to Community Participation in Forest Landscapes: How Development Organizations in Asia and the Pacific Are Using Participatory Development Communication Approaches

Bangkok: Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC);FAO (2017), 64 pp.

"This paper offers a brief overview of the basic and practical steps involved in the participatory development communication (PDC) process to assist sustainable forest practitioners and communication officers to adopt a PDC approach in their work. The paper then reviews the PDC components of six cas ... more

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Search for Common Ground’s ‘Strengthening the Capacity of Civil Society to Contribute to Sustainable Governance in Liberia’: Final Evaluation Report

Heather Gilberds, Katherina Thomas

Search for Common Ground (2017), 58 pp.

"Overall, the program set out what it achieved to do—namely to strengthen the institutional capacity of civil society organizations to improve their credibility, visibility, effectiveness and sustainability. There is evidence that many partner CSOshave refined theirmission, developed a multi-year ... strategic plan, a communications plan, a gender policy and an HR policy. In addition, they are beginning to integrate new financial reporting and M&E structures. All of the partner CSOs have improved their sustainability byreceiving additional funds to continue their work, and many of them hav developed strategies to diversify their revenue generation, such as expanding their offices to rent out board rooms. A number of organizations are eager to pass their new knowledge onto others, with many training peer CSOs on what they learned through the Search program. Finally, the program was effective in improving their own confidence, with all of the partner CSOs expressing their appreciation of the program, and in particular the freedom they had to define their own priorities and objectives.A number of lessons emerged during the course of implementation that are relevant for Search’s future work in civil society strengthening, as well as for other organizations working in this sector: 1. The participatory benchmarking approach is useful to help organizations track improvments in their organziational capacity over time. However, there was a tendency for CSOs to overstate what was possible within a limited timeframe. As a result, benchmarks were not consistently met, and many of the capacity-related development were not fully institutionalized by the project end. 2. The integration of radio programs with other civil society organizing approaches—town hall meetings, workshops, and house to house outreach—is an effective way to improve awareness and engagement of citizens in governance reform issues on a mass scale. 3. Programs to improve the capacity and sustainability of CSOs, and to professionalize the sector, are crucial but often overlooked, in efforts to improve local governance in fragile and trasitional countries such as Liberia. 4. There is a need to continue efforts to link civil society actors together for cohesive action and to further improve the enabling environment for civil society in Liberia by providing opportunities for CSOs to develop strategic collaborations, improve organizational capacity development, and attract donor funds to support their work." (Conclusions) more

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Communicating Development with Communities

Linje Manyozo

London, New York: Routledge (2017), xii, 165 pp.

"Building on the work of Robert Chambers and Arturo Escobar, 'Communicating development with communities' is an empirically grounded critical reflection on how the development industry defines, imagines and constructs development at the implementation level. Unpacking the dominant syntax in the theo ... more

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A Socio-Cognitive Approach to the Communication of SME Support: An Exploratory Qualitative Study in Turkmenistan

Maya Velmuradova

In: Sustainable Development Goals in the Asian Context

Jan Servaes (ed.)

Singapore: Springer (2017), pp. 135-151

"Certain researchers call to reconsider Communication for development and social change as a problem of “Techniques and Society” (McArthur, Jouët, Bardini, Lohento, Kiyindou, Missé). Thus, the models of social integration of innovations are used here to study how the new development assistance ... more

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NGO Interpretation of Participatory Communication for Rural Cambodia: What is Lost in ‘translation’?

Phyllis Bo-yuen Ngai

Journal of International Communication, volume 23, issue 2 (2017), pp. 231-251

"Although the participatory communication is widely embraced by development agencies, few published studies critically examine how local NGOs interpret and implement the approach at the village level. This article analyses a Cambodian NGO’s attempts to engage grassroots involvement against key ten ... more

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Interrogating Practitioner Tensions for Raising Citizen Voice with Participatory Video in International Development

Tamara Plush

Nordicom Review, volume 36, issue Special Issue (2015), pp. 57-70

"Within international development, strengthening the voice of citizens living in poverty is recognised as vital to reducing inequity. In support of such endeavors, participatory video (PV) is an increasingly utilised communicative method that can stimulate community engagement and amplify the voice ... more

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New Media and International Development: Representation and Affect in Microfinance

Anke Schwittay

London: Routledge (2015), xv, 189 pp.

"Through a case study of Kiva.org, the world's first person-to-person microlending website, and other microfinance organizations, the book argues that international development efforts have an affective dimension. This is fostered through narrative and visual representations, through the performance ... more

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Mobile Technology Handbook

Kerry Bruce, Alison Koler, Jade Lamb, Joris Vandelanotte, Reid Porter

Washington, DC: Pact (2014), 51 pp.

"This handbook is intended to give people involved in international development work a framework for getting started with mobile technology. It is meant to be paired with training slides that provide more examples and context. It was created using training resources developed by myself and by Alison ... more

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Communication for Rural Development: Guidelines for Planning and Project Formulation
Key Guidance

Rome: FAO (2014), 55 pp.

"Communication for Development (ComDev) is a participatory approach that integrates community media, low-cost ICTs, mobile phones and other communication tools to facilitate access to information, knowledge sharing and social dialogue. Well-planned and managed ComDev activities are crucial to ensure ... more

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Good Practices in Development Communication

OECD Development Centre (2014), 99 pp.

"This report reviews and highlights some key issues in the current debate on development communication. To do so it draws on experiences and inputs from members of the Informal Network of Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Development Communicators (DevCom) [...] The report starts by looking at ... more

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Dissemination Tools and Materials

Andrea Castelletti, Matteo Giuliani, Andrea Cominola et al.

Smart H2O Project (2014), 29 pp.

"This report contains a detailed description of the SmartH2O project dissemination strategy and the tools set up to effectively support the communication of the project progress and results to a wide community of citizens, decision-makers, water utilities, and scientists. It reports dissemination an ... more

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Neue Medien

Nah Dran (GIZ), issue 1 (2013), pp. 12-27

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Communication Toolbox: Practical Guidance for Program Managers to Improve Communication with Participants and Community Members. For Emergency Programs and Development Programs
Key Guidance

Emily Rogers et al.

Baltimore, Md.: Catholic Relief Services (CRS) (2013), 58 pp.

"The Communication Toolbox offers practical guidance for program managers who want to communicate more effectively with program participants and community members. The tools are designed for emergency programs and development programs. The toolbox focuses on communicating about programs as a way to ... more

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Social Media in der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit

Geraldine de Bastion

In: Einführung in die Entwicklungspolitik

Hartmut Ihne; Jürgen Wilhelm (eds.)

Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb) (2013), pp. 367-380

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Communication for Water Sector Reform: Obstacles and Opportunities

Karla Chaman, Tracey Miller, Paul Mitchell

Washington, DC: World Bank (2012), vi, 16 pp.

"This Learning Note is published by the Operational Communications Division in the World Bank’s External Affairs Vice Presidency. It aims to help task managers communicate with service providers as they prepare for an urban water supply reform project. The focus is on how strategic public communic ... more

Communication in International Development: Doing Good or Looking Good? Top Insights

Communication for Rural Development: Guidelines for Planning and Project Formulation Key Guidance

Communication Toolbox: Practical Guidance for Program Managers to Improve Communication with Participants and Community Members. For Emergency Programs and Development Programs Key Guidance

Communication in International Development: Doing Good or Looking Good?
Top Insights

Communication for Rural Development: Guidelines for Planning and Project Formulation
Key Guidance

Communication Toolbox: Practical Guidance for Program Managers to Improve Communication with Participants and Community Members. For Emergency Programs and Development Programs
Key Guidance