"In early 2020 hromadske reached a crisis point. Despite many successes achieved over 7 years of existence the organization was struggling motivation was low, staff turnover was high, previously set goals seemed irrelevant or unrealistic. The path forward was unclear. From March to September 2020 hr
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omadske embarked on a journey to recreate its organizational structure, operations, planning and team management, the revenue model … basically everything related to setting and realizing goals. Such transformations are rare in the media industry. Big changes in how things are done can be perceived as an admission of past mistakes or failures something that doesn’t sit well for many managers in our image conscious industry. More importantly, media transformations over focus on the visible part the journalism. But problems in editorial are often a symptom of deeper issues. hromadske decided to “pop the hood” and dig into the organization’s engine starting from the basics. The present document aims to provide a preliminary template for other media contemplating radical change, that we hope will be further developed by other media organizations going through similar issues. It lays out the challenges we faced, what we did to resolve them, and the lessons we learned along the way. We hope it will provide some insights and guidance." (Page 1)
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"This report and the associated workbook seeks to contribute to the discourse in three ways. First, we hope to open an extensible documentation and overview of practices, experiences, and resources on the legitimisation of, and resistance to, state-backed internet shutdowns across the world. Second,
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we seek to enable and advance a collective understanding of emerging legal and jurisprudential frameworks being used to legitimise and resist internet shutdowns. Free and open access to such data would help human rights lawyers and civil society advocates to locate relevant jurisprudence and accordingly tailor strategies." (About this report, page 6)
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"In March 2019, Cyclone Idai brought death and destruction to Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe as a result of heavy rains and extensive flooding (Figure 1). The respective governments together with UNICEF and other partners, responded swiftly to the disaster. Rescue and relief operations were impleme
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nted immediately, saving many lives, and resources were rapidly mobilized to provide food and non-food items to people in the affected areas. As part of the initial response, UNICEF conducted a rapid knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) survey on the information and communication needs of the most affected people in all three countries. The findings informed the lifesaving multisectoral C4D interventions which played a key supporting role in all three countries (Table 1). The experiences of the three countries in successfully mainstreaming C4D across the Cyclone Idai response offer valuable learning for future humanitarian emergencies." (Introduction)
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"2019 has seen major achievements resulting from needs-based, and specifically-tailored support through the Multi-Donor Programme on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists (MDP). Actions building on ongoing work and others opening new avenues, have initiated substantial changes in favour of
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freedom of expression and media development. The stories presented here are some examples of how the MDP works to provide countries and their populations with the necessary tools to nurture a free and independent media. This includes promoting the adoption of policies and standards on freedom of expression and safety of journalists, and fostering diversity, gender equality and media and information literacy through and with the media. Hence the name given to this series of articles: Let Free Media Thrive." (Editorial, page 2)
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"The aim of this document is to provide an introduction for companies to consider the relevance of the following issues for their operations, as well as inspiration and resources to begin to formalise their management of human rights. It is recognised that many of these issues cannot be solved by on
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e company alone and require collaboration across the mobile sector and working with other stakeholders. For each of the human rights issues covered here, the guidance: explains and defines what the human rights issue is and why it is salient for the mobile industry; outlines steps mobile operators can consider taking to operate responsibly and manage related risks; suggests examples of potential indicators that could be used to measure and report progress; briefly introduces supporting initiatives and resources in the sector that address these issues; and provides some case studies from GSMA members on addressing the topic." (Page 3)
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"The digital divide in rural areas is an important social issue, especially in developing countries. Although Internet and broadband penetration have increased in the world generally, there are many obstacles for rural China to get access to ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and its ser
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vices. The mobile platform is regarded as a novel and effective tool to reduce the digital divide. Based on a case of one mobile platform, namely WeCountry in Chinese rural areas, this study illustrates how a mobile platform bridges the digital divide and helps rural areas achieve social inclusion. Results show that: (1) the mobile platform mainly acts on the digital capability divide elimination, and it has to guide and increase users’ usage capability; (2) the mobile platform can empower villagers in structural, psychological, and resource dimensions, achieving political inclusion, social participation inclusion, and economic inclusion; (3) platform providers and government are key organizations during the divide elimination process. This paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications." (Abstract)
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"Community engagement is an approach to the humanitarian response of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. It places people affected by natural disasters, violence, and armed conflict at the heart of decision-making, strategy development and orientation of activities to protect and
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assist their communities. It is also the process of using or establishing two-way communication channels to address people’s needs, concerns, feedback, and complaints, partnering with the community to ensure that it can actively participate and guide the ICRC’s humanitarian action. The use of appropriate tools for identifying the needs is necessary to better assess the proposed response and to inform those involved beforehand. Community engagement helps to improve the quality and effectiveness of programs while building community acceptance and trust in humanitarian stakeholders. The inclusion of the most vulnerable people in communities affected by a humanitarian crisis, such as women, children, people with disabilities or the elderly, in the design and development of the humanitarian response will contribute to their re-silience and improve the quality and efficiency of the projects being implemented. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has placed community engagement at the center of its 2019-2022 institutional strategy. Although this approach is common in natural disaster-related humanitarian operations, there are fewer examples in situations of armed conflict and inter-community violence. It is therefore important to document and share good practices to better protect communities and address their needs. Several programs are being conducted in this regard in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the ICRC has been operating since 1978. In this publication, you will find a few tools to present good practices in community engagement. Each story features testimonies from our colleagues who share the challenges and lessons learned in humanitarian response activities." (Introduction, page 3)
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"This book presents a structured yet flexible methodology for developing intercultural competence in a variety of contexts, both formal and informal. Piloted around the world by UNESCO, this methodology has proven to be effective in a range of different contexts and focused on a variety of different
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issues. It, therefore, can be considered an important resource for anyone concerned with effectively managing the growing cultural diversity within our societies to ensure inclusive and sustainable development. Intercultural competence refers to the skills, attitudes, and behaviors needed to improve interactions across difference, whether within a society (differences due to age, gender, religion, socio-economic status, political affiliation, ethnicity, and so on) or across borders. The book serves as a tool to develop those competences, presenting an innovative adaptation of what could be considered an ancient tradition of storytelling found in many cultures. Through engaging in the methodology, participants develop key elements of intercultural competence, including greater self-awareness, openness, respect, reflexivity, empathy, increased awareness of others, and in the end, greater cultural humility." (Publisher description)
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"Full Fact first started working with Facebook on the Third-Party Fact-Checking programme in January 2019. When we joined the programme we committed to reporting regularly on its operation. Our first report, published in July 2019, covered January to June 2019.1 This second report details our experi
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ence from July 2019 to December 2020 [...] Broadly, our views are that: This is a valuable programme. It made a significant difference to our ability to tackle misinformation during the 2019 UK election, and to Facebook’s ability to respond. Facebook’s global network of fact checking partners meant it had options for responding to misinformation related to the pandemic that other internet companies did not have. Other internet companies should emulate the Third-Party Fact-Checking programme. In particular, from what we can tell, YouTube stands out as particularly being able to benefit from a similar programme to the Third-Party Fact-Checking programme. A partnership such as the Third-Party Fact-Checking programme can only be one part of an effective response to misinformation and disinformation. Other decisions the internet companies make are critical and need scrutiny and oversight: from product design, to advertising standards, to rules for user behaviour. Our two main concerns continue to be transparency and scale. Explaining the programme and its results is Facebook’s responsibility. These independent reports from Full Fact seek to add to the information Facebook provides, not act as a substitute. Most internet companies are trying to use AI to scale fact checking and none is doing so in a transparent way with independent assessment. This is a growing concern." (Introduction, page 5-6)
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"This book analyses the partnership between applied theatre and sexual health communication in a theatre-making project in Nyanga, a township in South Africa. By examining the bridges and schisms between the two fields as they come together in the project, an alternative way of approaching sexual he
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alth communication is advocated. This alternative considers what it is that applied theatre does, and could become, in this context. Moments of value which lie around the margins of the practice emerge as opportunities that can be overlooked. These somewhat ephemeral, intangible moments, which appear on the edges, are described as 'apertures of possibility' and occur when one takes a step back and realises something unnoticed in the moment. This book offers an invitation to pause and notice the seemingly insignificant moments that often occurs tangentially to the practice. The book also calls for more outcry about sexual health and sexual violence, arguing for theatre-making as a route to multitudes of voices, nuanced understandings, and diverse spaces in which discussions of sexuality and sexual health are shared, felt, and experienced." (Publisher description)
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"In this chapter, I analyze transnational memory following the four elements outlined in the introduction—actors, structures, practices, and outcomes—in the case of the disappearances of forty-three students from Ayotzinapa, Mexico, in 2014. First, I discuss why the issue of agency and the outco
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mes of transnational memory represents a “hard” aspect for theorization. Then, drawing on the work of Kurasawa (2007), I propose to approach transnational memory as a crucial component of the project of global justice. Kurasawa stresses the importance of conceiving of human rights not as ontological attributes that we enjoy as members of humankind but as a set of practices, “capacities that groups and persons produce, activate and must exercise by pursuing ethico-political labor.” After sketching the sociopolitical context of the Mexican “War on Drugs,” I analyze the transnational memory work in this case in three different initiatives: the work of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI for its Spanish initials), the Forensic Architecture online platform “The Ayotzinapa Case: A Cartography of Violence,” and the initiative Ayotzinapa: Visual Action. Read together, these actions cover a spectrum of actors—intergovernmental organizations, research centers, activists, and artists, as well as different dimensions: legal, forensic, aesthetic. Finally, I discuss the potential of “structurally transformative agency” (Hays 1994: 64) to disrupt the structure of impunity that has prevailed in Mexico." (Page 48)
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"The concept of digital literacy has been defined in numerous ways over the last two decades to incorporate rapid technological changes, its versatility, and to bridge the global digital divide. Most approaches have been technology-centric with an inherent assumption of cultural and political neutra
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lity of new media technologies. There are multiple hurdles in every stage of digital literacy implementation. The lack of solutions such as local language digital interfaces, locally relevant content, digital literacy training, the use of icons and audio excludes a large fraction of illiterate people. In this article, we analyse case studies targeted at under-connected people in sub-Saharan Africa and India that use digital literacy programmes to build knowledge and health literacy, solve societal problems and foster development. In India, we focus on notable initiatives undertaken in the domain of digital literacy for rural populations. In Sub-Saharan Africa, we draw from an original project in Kenya aiming at developing digital literacy for youth from low-income backgrounds. We further focus on Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Tanzania, where field studies have been conducted on the use of digital technologies by low-literacy people and on how audio and icon-based interfaces and Internet lite standard could help them overcome their limitations. The main objective of this article is to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) in the context of digital literacy skills as one of the pillars for digital inclusion. We will learn how digital literacy programmes can be used to build digital literacy and how KPIs for sustainable development can be established. In the final discussion, we offer lessons learned from the case studies and further recommendation for stakeholders and decision-makers in the field of digital health literacy." (Abstract)
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"This research brings together scholarship across the Americas and Caribbean to examine digital inclusion initiatives in the following countries: Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, the United States, and Canada. Across the cases, several themes emerge that offer important indicator
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s for future digital inclusion initiatives. First, public policy can effectively reduce access gaps when it addresses the trifecta of network, device, and skill provision. Second, this triple-crown of public policy is highly effective for longitudinal effect when implemented early via educational institutions. Third, rural-urban digital inequality is resistant to change such that rural populations benefit less from policy initiatives than their urban counterparts. Fourth, digital inclusion in rural areas and among marginalized populations is most effective when cocreated with communities to ensure community investment, participation, and control. Fifth, stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic are rapidly increasing our dependence on digital technologies, making digital inclusion more important than ever for education and rural communities. We therefore close the article with discussion of how the COVID-19 pandemic is amplifying digital disadvantage and exclusion across the Americas, the Caribbean, and the globe. (Abstract)
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"Der Report „Wozu Non-Profit-Journalismus?“ macht sich für eine dritte Säule im Mediensystem stark: Der gemeinnützige Journalismus hält der Krise Antworten entgegen und leistet als Ergänzung zum öffentlich-rechtlichen und privaten Verlagsjournalismus einen Beitrag zur Medienvielfalt. Er is
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t frei von kommerziellen Interessen, sucht die Nähe zu seinen Nutzer*innen und agiert innovativ und lösungsorientiert. Der Report gibt erstmals einen Überblick über die Akteur*innen des gemeinnützigen Journalismus im deutschsprachigen Raum, er enthält Tipps für potenzielle Förderer*innen und nennt Empfehlungen für eine Reform des Gemeinnützigkeitsrechts." (https://rudolf-augstein-stiftung.de)
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"Policy advocacy is an increasingly important function of many nonprofit organizations, as they seek broad social changes in their concerning issues. Their advocacy practices, however, have often been guided by their own past experiences, anecdotes from peer networks, and consultant advice. Most of
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their practices have largely escaped empirical and theoretical grounding that could better root their work in established theories of policy change. The first book of its kind, Nonprofits in Policy Advocacy bridges this gap by connecting real practices of on-the-ground policy advocates with the burgeoning academic literature in policy studies. In the process, it empirically identifies six distinct policy advocacy strategies, and their accompanying tactics, used by nonprofits. Case studies tell the stories of how advocates apply these strategies in a wide variety of issues including civil rights, criminal justice, education, energy, environment, public health, public infrastructure, and youth." (Publisher description)
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