"Given the budget, good quality new PCs are likely to be the most stable, and in many instances will be the preferred technology choice. However, their high purchase price remains a key inhibitor to lowering their comparative total cost of ownership (TCO) in a small business,
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NGO or school. New PC purchase prices can account for 63-85% of the ownership costs that make TCO different between new and refurbished PCs. In contrast, a key TCO inhibitor for refurbished PCs is their failure rate and associated ongoing costs, accounting for 64-75% of the comparative TCO costs. A network of good quality refurbished PCs (imported brands such as Hewlett Packard, Dell and IBM) offers a window period of stability, making them a viable technology choice under certain conditions. They are likely to have the lowest TCO over five years. While the hardware replacement costs over that period could be the equivalent of the purchase price of the PCs, most of these costs are likely to occur in the final years of ownership. The high frequency of failures, together with the high ongoing costs for lower quality refurbished PCs (some 75% of the comparative totals), suggests that they should not be considered a viable technology option. In the case of lower quality refurbished PCs, hardware replacement costs alone can be more than 140% the purchase price of the PCs. A high level of failure can be expected throughout the five years of ownership." (Executive summary, p.4)
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"This report represents the first attempt by a nongovernmental organisation (NGO) to appraise the media-development work of OSCE in the field. It is the outcome of a project designed by Press Now, an NGO
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based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. For the past decade, Press Now has assisted media in the countries of the Balkans and Eastern Europe, working with funds from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture a nd Science, and the European Agency for Reconstruction, as well as from other governments and private donors. With its experience of cooperating with many OSCE field missions and offices, Press Now believes that the importance of the OSCE’s activities in media development merit this methodical survey. Despite many differences in mandate, resources and context, the OSCE operations analysed in this report reveal a number of distinctive achievements and patterns. Unless these patterns are more widely discussed, there is a risk that the OSCE will not draw the lessons that are offered by its own experience. Press Now hopes that this report will help to catalyse such discussion." (Preface, page 5)
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"The lessons taught by Radio Okapi are many: There needs to be a myriad of players and partners involved including IGOs, NGOs, and citizens of the country/ies in question. The UN on its own may not be sufficient particularly in a region where its mission may not be understood; We need to find some w
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ay to involve ordinary citizens and give them a voice; The use of several languages must absolutely be considered if a media intervention is to succeed in a multilingual environment. There is a desire to reach as many people as possible thus the need to broadcast in several languages – a task that can prove daunting, yet not insurmountable; There must be long-term planning. There needs to be a balance between short-term (maintenance of order) and long-term goals (building a viable indigenous media system; There must be follow up. Some view UNTAC radio mission as a failure precisely because of the lack of follow up. Organizations, be they IGO or NGO, cannot simply parachute in. There must be commitment for the media are not simply injectable; there are no simplistic solutions; Given the complexities of such situations, the remedies must be transnational for we live in an interactive, transnational world; Although there are significant challenges, there needs to be some way to measure the effectiveness of such projects for how can one quantify the role that radio, or media in general, plays in peacebuilding. Indeed, what are the measures used to gauge peacebuilding?; Priority needs to be placed on sustaining the impact of such training. Therefore there needs to be some mechanism put in place so that local staff are trained and self-sufficient before foreign staff depart; Local partnerships are crucial thus bringing diverse people together to work on a longterm, peacemaking project." (Pages 47-48)
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"This book tells how four busy executives, each coming from a different background, each with a very different perspective, were surprised to find themselves converge on the idea of narrative as an extraordinarily valuable lens for understanding and managing organizations in the 21st century. It ref
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lects a conversation that took place under the auspices of The Smithsonian Associates in April 2001 and the effects that this conversation has stimulated since then." (Preface)
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"This book is written for managers of NGO and community organisations. It aims to help them to think critically about what kinds of information they, their organisations, their staff, and their project partners need. It discusses how they can acces
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s such information, manage it, and communicate it in the most effective and equitable way. The approach it describes is illustrated with case-studies from Oxfam's experience and other sources." (Oxfam Publishing catalogue 2003)
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"This qualitative study aims to show the need to encourage more Mozambican women to enter and to stay in journalism, and the need to mainstream gender in media coverage. The study, carried out by UNESCO, follows on the heals of a gender and media baseline study conducted by Gender Links (GL), an
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NGO based in Johannesburg, and MISA. The GL/MISA study found that women in Mozambique constitute only 3 per cent of those working in the media, which is far below the regional average of 22 per cent. Women only constituted 15 per cent of the sources used in the media. This UNESCO qualitative study involved in-depth interviews with 34 media experts. It was carried out in Maputo, the capital, Beira, in the central province of Sofala, and Nampula, in the north, during the months of October, November and December 2003. In addition to the interviews, a two-hour workshop was held in December with senior women journalists and editors to discuss the study and their views on gender and the media. The UNESCO study showed that women journalists are especially under-represented in Mozambique’s print media with some newspapers, such as the Sunday newspaper, Domingo, and the Independent, Zambeze, having no women journalists. Others had only one or two women. Most, although not all, editors felt that it was a problem having so few women journalists, but there was no agreement as to how to change this situation." (Executive summary)
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"Determining that the time had come to derive lessons from past efforts, think afresh about media assistance, and perhaps add some new models - including approaches for Africa and Asia, where the cultural preconditions and economic prospects are quite different from those of Europe - USAID’s Burea
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u for Policy and Program Coordination (PPC) undertook a year-long evaluation and review of USAID’s media assistance programs. The goal of the review was to develop a set of learning tools and promote a more aggressive media development agenda. The media assistance review was launched in July 2002 by PPC’s Dr. Krishna Kumar, who convened about 30 USAID and public diplomacy officials, congressional aides, journalists, and NGO media development practitioners to assess what has worked, what has not, and what might be done differently. Much of the discussion focused on the need to create professional, independent media that can give voice to different sectors of society, provide useful information, and hold powerful institutions and individuals accountable. The candid discussion also revealed areas of tension. Media development practitioners cited tensions arising from the possibility that the goals of public diplomacy were sometimes incompatible with the goals underlying the promotion of the development of independent, indigenous media. Another tension related to the competing priorities and methods of media work in conflict zones versus those of long-term media development in more stable developing democracies." (Introduction, page 7)
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"The perspective that informs this important book is that every evaluation of a capacity development effort should itself contribute to the capacity development effort and ultimately to the organization’s performance. This is a revolutionary idea in evaluation. With the idea have come the question
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s: Can it be done? And, if it is done, what will be the consequences? This book elucidates and deepens the idea, shows it can be done, and examines the consequences, both intended and unintended, of engaging in capacity development evaluation." (Foreword)
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"This book examines the importance of participatory video as a catalyst for development. It shows how powerful video images have been used to promote changes in attitudes and social behaviour, helping communities identify development solutions that are within their reach. Video has been used to reac
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h policymakers, to empower women and to rescue the culture and heritage of indigenous people. As a mediation tool, the power of video has been used to resolve conflicts, achieve consensus and find common ground for collective action. This book brings together practical information on innovative experiences with the use of participatory video." (Publisher description)
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"This book brings together key readings in the NGO managment literature, focusing on NGDO's working on issues of poverty and injustice in developing countries and on a global scale. The contributions which are drawn from a wide variety of sources r
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anging from books and journal articles to agency publications." (D + C 5/2002)
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"This toolkit is for people and organisations that support NGOs and CBOs responding to HIV/AIDS in developing countries. These include NGO support programmes, training institutions and individual trainers. The toolkit can also be used by NGOs and C
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BOs themselves to build skills within their own organisations and implement advocacy work. It is important that people using this toolkit already have some basic facilitation skills, for example in guiding large group discussions and small group activities. It is also helpful if they have some previous experience of advocacy work around HIV/AIDS, although this is not essential." (Page 5)
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