"Public and community libraries are sustainable local institutions that can stimulate grassroots development. The 21st century library is no longer just about books or solely a place for kids. Libraries around the world can and have become powerful partners to help deliver services that enable commu
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nities to achieve the MDGs. As this report will illustrate, at a time of constrained budgets, libraries offer a proven, existing and sustainable venue that delivers results." (Page 3)
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"Access to information, freedom of expression and an independent media are important for a sustainable future. They should be explicitly included in a future framework describing UN development goals for the years beyond 2015. We discuss two options: firstly, integration of “information access and
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freedom of expression” as one of the new Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). And secondly, “good governance” as a new goal in which transparency, accountability and free media are considered." (Abstract)
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"In this chapter, we argue that citizen access to information is a catalyst to the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) [...] We examine how citizen access to information varies across a range of population sub-groups, different countries, and across a variety of topics and the exte
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nt to which access to information is related to people's health, finance, livestock, and agricultural practices. We draw on data from the AudienceScapes Research Initiative, gathered in three countries. Zambia, Ghana, and Kenya." (Page 245)
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"Our approach is based on an understanding of access to information as a composite measure of access to source/s or platform, exposure, evaluation, content and self-reported differences in citizens’ reporting of the impact of their use of Information, Communication and Media (ICM) resources (Power
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, Khatun and Debeljak 2011). The data that were used to test this approach were collected within InterMedia’s AudienceScapes research initiative, which was co-funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and aimed to improve development outcomes through knowledge sharing and dissemination of research and analysis in a user-friendly format (see www.audiencescapes.org). Within the initiative, InterMedia conducted nationally representative surveys in Kenya, Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania, which focused on how the general population in all four countries obtains, shares and uses information on development related issues. The analysis provided insights into understanding citizen’s access to information in a number of key development areas, such as education, health, governance, agriculture and personal finance, and enabled the InterMedia team to examine our approach to ICM resources and the five dimensions of “Citizen Access to Information”, discussed here. In this article we use examples from these four studies to demonstrate the variation in citizen access to information in developing countries, and illustrate the proposed dimensions and sub-dimensions of our approach." (Pages 19-20)
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"Development Communication in Practice: India and the Millennium Development Goals analyzes seven Indian newspapers for a period of seven months and evaluates the extent to which development issues are addressed in them. The findings reveal an under-representation of development issues in the media
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which, the author argues, needs to be addressed. Reviewing recent concepts on poverty measurement and the MDGs set forth by global scholars such as Jagdish Bhagwati, Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz, the book acknowledges the importance of information technology, literacy and education in the process of development." (Publisher description)
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"Following an initiative of the Committee on Economic Co-operation and Development, the Office of Technology Assessment (TAB) at the German Bundestag (i.e. the German parliament) has carried out a project on the relevance of the Internet and other new information and communication technologies (ICTs
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) for social advancement in developing countries. This final report documents the results of the project. [...] In the first place, the report analyses and discusses the use of ICT and how it can contribute to social development in the context of the situation in developing countries. Secondly, a more detailed examination is undertaken of contributions relating in particular to the areas of democracy, good governance and civil society, of industry and trade, and of education, research and technological development. Thirdly, the results of these analyses are used to draw conclusions about concrete and strategic courses of action and challenges for German development co-operation within the context of general issues relevant to research and education policy." (Preface)
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"Entwicklungsländer und moderne Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT): Wie geht das zusammen? Dieses oft diskutierte, aber selten detailliert untersuchte Thema wird in diesem Buch vor allem anhand Afrikas südlich der Sahara behandelt, einer Weltregion mit erheblichen Entwicklungshemmn
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issen. Im Fokus steht dabei die besonders voraussetzungsreiche Internetnutzung. Tatsächlich sind die Hürden für einen entwicklungsförderlichen Einsatz moderner IKT und speziell des Internets dort weiterhin sehr hoch. Die Ergebnisse der materialreichen Studie, für die auch Forschungen vor Ort durchgeführt wurden, verweisen indes nicht bloß auf Potenziale der IKT für Entwicklung, sondern sie zeigen auch, dass sich die Internetnutzung in Subsahara-Afrika bereits vielfältig darstellt und derzeit dynamisch entwickelt. Nicht nur mit Blick auf die schwerpunktmäßig untersuchten Felder (Demokratisierung, Wirtschaft, Bildung und Forschung) bestehen erhebliche Chancen und Bedarfe für einen Ausbau der Informationsgesellschaft in dieser Weltregion. Vorschläge, wie darauf politisch reagiert und Entwicklung durch Vernetzung gefördert werden kann, bilden einen weiteren Schwerpunkt des Bandes." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This paper intends to look at the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a communication tool instead of an object of communication. The MDGs possess the potential to make development more understandable to people at the centre of development policies: the poor, vulnerable and socially excluded. Th
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e potential to make development interventions more effective and, ultimately, to achieve the MDGs, lies in improving the capability of these people to use information about development to claim their rights and to hold authorities accountable for their commitments. Based on the available literature and international conventions, the paper will elaborate a framework for the application of communication for development in promoting the MDGs at the country level. The framework will be used to examine the Albanian experience in using the MDGs to mobilize participation around national and local development strategies. It will also highlight the contribution that communication can make in Serbia to the social inclusion of marginalized groups such as Roma, refugees, internally displaced persons and people with disabilities. The proposed framework can be used to identify gaps, opportunities and entry points in each country. It can help make the best use of the MDGs at the national level through including excluded groups in the policy debate, which will enhance transparency, accountability and responsiveness to their needs." (Abstract)
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"This evaluation of Andrew Lees Trust’s Projet Radio (ALT/PR) in Southern Madagascar examines the impact of radio broadcasts on audience knowledge and attitudes relating to certain MDGs. It finds that the project is achieving some notable success in changing and enhancing knowledge and attitudes o
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n topics including HIV/AIDS, family planning, mother and child health, environmental issues, social and administrative issues and gender inequality. Radio is also having a positive impact on uptake of health services, enrolment in literacy classes, construction of environmentally-friendly woodstoves, tree-planting, agricultural yields, and awareness of strategies for poverty reduction through incomegeneration and community associations. This evaluation looks at ALT/PR’s methods and organisation and finds many advantages to its particular three-way process of working. This involves radio stations, communities and local service-providers in a mutually advantageous partnership for the production, distribution and broadcasting of radio programmes. The provision of radio-sets to listening groups appears to be a very successful strategy, and our surveys show a high level of commitment and enthusiasm on the part of listeners, especially women. The ability of radio to scale-up and extend the on-the-ground work of local service-providers emerges quite clearly. Our study also looks at challenges that ALT/PR has tackled and, in some cases, is still facing. These are challenges involving management and networking in what is a particularly poor and disadvantaged area. The project still faces issues relating to ensuring its radio programmes are consistently and truly participative. Demand for its services is high and there is a risk of staff becoming over-stretched, particularly for senior management. ALT/PR is demonstrably cost effective and has a good local reputation, but fundraising continues to be a time-consuming preoccupation. ALT/PR is already tackling the major long-term challenge of sustaining the networking mechanism it has set up, and we highlight some encouraging signs of sustainability." (Abstract)
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"Any approach to media development must include systems-wide measures including development of an enabling regulatory framework and increased access to information. Future media development processes must be African-owned and African-led, ultimately empowering Africans at all levels of society. With
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in this, media development strategies must fit the specific contexts of diverse African realities; While new technologies offer new and exciting opportunities, we must focus not on a transition from 'old' media to 'new' media, but on maximizing the potential for expanding networked journalism across the media in all its forms; The media is necessarily political, seeking to foster debate around inherently contentious social, economic, cultural and political issues. Donors and NGOs must recognize the clear-cut distinction between using the media to promote specific development policies and building the media as a component of genuine democratic debate." (Executive summary, page 10)
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"This evaluation has five main objectives: to evaluate the implementation results of the project, to extract the lessons learnt, to propose a way forward for the Khoun Radio, to assess the feasibility of a national scale-up strategy, and finally to consider which role UNDP could play in these proces
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ses. In summary it can be said that the project has managed to have a number of the crucial components of the project implemented. In spite of strong and committed initiative, support and management from the UNDP side, the uniting and facilitating organisational framework is not yet fully in place. It is, however, considered possible to remedy this lack through an intensive, participatory planning process in Khoun among the board members and the community broadcasters – facilitated by the project staff. The report presents, analyses and extracts recommendations in connection with all of the project’s four activities: establishment of a radio station; training of district and provincial information officers; training of (volunteer) programme producers and the board; elaboration of a baseline study and collaboration with other communityoriented radio activities in Laos." (Executive summary, page 6)
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"Highlights the relevance of radio in poor communities, its broad applicability to a range of sectoral activities such as health, rights, education, livelihoods, and conflict prevention, and identifies the need to deepen the capacity of radio broadcasters at all levels to conduct effective monitorin
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g and evaluation, so as to begin the process of developing a rigorous information and communication for development evidence base which highlights radio's - and other communications mediums - strategic contribution to the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals." (Executive summary)
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"This paper is premised on the notion that awareness-raising and communications about the MDGs in the industrialised countries are crucial in order to remind and hold national governments accountable to their aid, trade and debt commitments, which are found in the MDGs." (OECD website)