"The Pacific Islands are home to diverse and fast-changing media and communication infrastructures and practices. In this article we examine the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) Innovation Fund, which has opened up the media and communication for development field to new players by funding m
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any small-scale, low-cost initiatives. As elsewhere, the funding environment has exerted a major influence over the kinds of projects that are implemented, both in terms of the focus and goals as well as the actors who are able to participate. This article explores some of the ways in which this Innovation Fund, which has funded highly localized, small-scale initiatives, has encouraged experimentation and how these initiatives respond to locally determined needs. Central to this article is the question of what happens when donors have less control over the focus of funded projects. Through an analysis of some projects undertaken as part of the PACMAS Innovation Fund, we investigate what innovation means in this context, paying particular attention to how the spread of digital technologies is integrated into media and communication for development practices." (Abstract)
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"For over five and one-half years, the Civil Society and Media Leadership (CSML) Program, led by IREX in partnership with The Carter Center and Social Impact, contributed to building a more capable, collaborative, and agile civil society and media sector in Liberia. The CSML team provided intensive
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support including training, mentoring, small grants, and equipment to over 60 civil society organizations and 35 media outlets in 15 counties. IREX has distributed over $6 million in grants to civil society organizations to conduct advocacy, reconciliation, civic and voter education, Ebola awareness raising, and contribute to their own organizational development. Community radio stations have received a total of over $400K worth of equipment, including 19 transmitters. The Carter Center trained 3,500 chiefs, women, and youth to advance access to justice and resolve community disputes, and broadened awareness of Freedom of Information to over 15,000 Liberians across the seven original target counties. Beyond these outputs, CSML has contributed to true impact, fostering an improved and enhanced civil society and media sector. These accomplishments are a result of the collaborative effort of IREX and its wealth of partners both international and national who sought, together, to achieve the goal to “sustain peace in Liberia through greater inclusion, giving a voice to, informing and engaging Liberian citizens.” As a result, in part, of the CSML program, IREX’s civil society partners conduct advocacy that is more informed and less confrontational, engage the media as a key stakeholder, and have more productive strategies for engaging local and national government." (Executive summary)
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"This report presents the findings of the Mid-Term Performance Evaluation of the Mozambique Media Strengthening Program (MSP), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The MSP project, with a period of performance of June 10, 2012-June 11, 2017 and a budget of $9,978
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,124 million, is being implemented by the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX). The MSP is the largest activity in USAID/Mozambique’s Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) portfolio. Launched by IREX in June 2012, its goal is “[a] free, open, diverse, and self-sustaining Mozambican media sector providing high-quality information to citizens that promotes debate, accountability, and transparency.” The MSP contributes to USAID broader objective of strengthening democratic governance of Mozambican institutions and second- and third-order aims of more effective civil society participation in governance processes and citizens becoming better informed of their rights and responsibilities. This evaluation of the MSP seeks to achieve two purposes. First, the assessment attempts to validate interventions that are valued by stakeholders and that contribute to desired results, and second, the study aims to generate evidence-based recommendations for improved implementation of MSP over its final two years." (Executive summary)
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"USAID’s ProMedia II Regional project, implemented by IREX between 1999 and 2014 provided a flexible tool to support independent media in a time of transition in Europe and Eurasia (E&E). The project supported multi-year, full-time technical assistance projects in three countries: Bulgaria and Alb
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ania from 1999 to 2004 and Macedonia from 2000 to 2004. It gave USAID a platform to follow-up early assistance under another mechanism that gave rise to European Radio for Belarus, which has grown into an important off-shore alternative news source in a country with a largely state-controlled media. It gave IREX an opportunity to turn an idea for measuring a media sector as a whole into the Media Sustainability Index, a respected authority on the state of media in the E&E region. Finally, it served as a tool to fund a number of small-scale regional projects and to bring together disparate media development projects in E&E so that personnel could learn lessons from one another and make use of a strong network of talent working on similar issues." (Executive summary)
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"The Nigerian media focuses little on business, and the business coverage that does exist is often dominated by macro-economic, large and international business issues, or is one-sided, representing only the views of government or the elite. The real issues that impact on Nigeria’s millions of sma
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ll businesses and its huge agricultural sector are often neglected, and the poor are denied an effective voice on business environment issues [...] ENABLE [the Enhancing Nigerian Advocacy for a Better Business Environment program] [...] recognis[es] media as a key driver of change and working to reinforce the incentives and improve the skills around small business and agricultural reporting. This involves developing the media as a major actor in the business environment policy process, and working with them to increase the quality and quantity of sustainable (commercially viable) coverage of small business and agricultural issues. The underlying premise for sustainability in media is simple: media coverage that focuses on the real issues that impact on how the majority of Nigerian’s make their living, and which does this in a dynamic and relevant way, will gain significant audience. These popular media products will then attract advertisers and sponsorship. In other words, effective programmes that focus on the livelihoods of the poor can be both popular and profitable for media houses." (Executive summary)
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"The purpose of this evaluation is to identify results and lessons learned from USAID’s Afghanistan Media Development and Empowerment Project (AMDEP). AMDEP was designed as a one-year project (later extended) that began on November 1, 2010. It built on eight years of previous USAID media activitie
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s in Afghanistan and continued USAID’s strategic focus on improving news and development-related radio information for under-served groups such as rural families, women and young people. Through the consistent funding and support to the radio industry in Afghanistan, USAID has underwritten an enhanced forum for news and information programming outside of Kabul. By choosing radio as its primary tool, the initial groundwork was laid for a national messaging forum. Enabling provincial and district broadcasters to receive a consistent and increasingly professional series of programs was a good approach. That many of the programs have to do with national, regional and international news and information is creating the conditions for more and better citizen participation in democratic development. The stage has been set for national advertising supported messaging in the future. AMDEP supports a comprehensive “value chain” approach to strengthening the media sector, dealing with training of journalists; establishing and operating a network of rural radio stations; introducing “new media” to enable amateur voices to communicate about social, economic, and development issues; encouraging advocacy to protect journalistic freedoms; helping citizens understand and value the importance of media information and news; training media lawyers; and supporting new media laws and policies that will support development of a dynamic, independent media industry. Internews is the lead implementer of AMDEP activities and of previous USAID media activities that led to AMDEP. Overall, AMDEP has been remarkably successful. It had to function in a context of administrative delays and funding uncertainties, security threats, an environment of many different media projects and an unpredictable economy. The technical and managerial depth of the Internews team was an important factor in the project’s success, as was its selection of effective Afghan partner organizations. Flexibility and agility on the part of USAID and Internews made it possible to adapt to changing circumstances." (Executive summary, page 1)
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"This report is the cluster evaluation of 12 UNDEF-supported projects related to the media. It concerns projects that either focused on media capacity building or included a significant element of work with the media. The projects were implemented between 2007 and 2011; they lasted between 12 and 24
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months. The total budget of the 12 projects was US$3.519m (including evaluation costs of US$20,000 to 25,000 per project). Eleven of the projects covered individual countries – six projects in Africa (two of which in Sierra Leone), four in Asia, one in Europe – and one was global. National civil society organizations (CSOs) implemented four of the projects, while international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or their local affiliates implemented the other eight." (Executive summary)
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