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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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The Retirement Project of George Stuart Atkins: Development Radio in the Time of Cybernetics

Ian Smillie

Development in Practice, volume 27, issue 8 (2017), pp. 1133-1140

"For years after its start-up in 1979, Farm Radio International (FRI) sent radio scripts and other material to broadcasters in more than 100 developing countries, believing it reached as many as 100 million people. By 2000, however, its unidirectional scattershot approach was being questioned by bot ... more

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Building an Ecosystem Around Data: Using Interactive Radio for Accountability to Farmers in Tanzania

Francesca Feruglio, Heather Gilberds

Brighton: Institute of Development Studies (IDS);Farm Radio International (2017), 15 pp.

"In 2015, Farm Radio International applied to Making All Voices Count for a practitioner research and learning grant. Farm Radio International (FRI) is a Canadian-based not-for-profit organisation working in direct partnership with approximately 600 radio broadcasters in 38 African countries to figh ... more

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A Survey Report on the Public Perception of the Role of Civil Society Organizations and the Media in Nepal

Unity Service Cooperation Nepal

USAID;FHI 360 (2017), 39 pp.

"The vast majority of survey respondents, irrespective of their gender and geographical location, recognized the importance of media, particularly electronic media. They acknowledged media role in keeping people informed, entertained and opinion formation. Although people heralded the media for focu ... more

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2016 Global NGO Online Technology Report

Nonprofit Tech for Good;Public Interest Registry (2016), 12 pp.

"[This] report is an inaugural effort to gain a better understanding of how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide use online technology to communicate with their supporters and donors. Over the last two decades the NGO sector has embraced ... more

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The Coverage of the Conflict in the East by the Ukrainian Media: Investigating the Values, Guidelines, and Practices of the Journalists

Dariya Orlova

Kyiv: Detector Media NGO (2016), 19 pp.

"Ukrainian journalists find it hard to remain neutral and independent when covering the conflict in their country. Many are torn between feelings of patriotism and their role as detached observers, new research has found. Of the 47 Ukrainian journalists, representing 42 different media outlets, inte ... more

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Comparative Analysis of Sustainability of Selected Community Radio Stations

D. K. Krishna, N. V. Kumbhare, Rabindra N. Padaria, Pemlata Singh

International Journal of Extension Education, volume 12 (2016), pp. 39-45

"The community radio has made an impression in all grounds of rural society with specific need of sustenance in the long run. The study was taken up to compare the status of three community radios operational each under State Agricultural University (SAU), Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) and Non-Governme ... more

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Assessment of Media Development in Mongolia: Based on UNESCO’s Media Development Indicators

Paris: UNESCO (2016), 115 pp.

"This first-ever comprehensive assessment of the media landscape in Mongolia was undertaken in 2013-2014 to determine the level of media development in the country. The assessment was carried out by UNESCO, in partnership with a network of organizations, including the Globe International Center, the ... more

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Introducing Community Audio Towers as an Alternative to Community Radio in Uganda

Brian Semujju

Journal of Alternative and Community Media, volume 1 (2016), pp. 141-153

"This article presents two communities in Uganda that use Community Audio Towers (CATs) as an alternative to community radio, and examines why the communities prefer the use of CATs to ‘mainstream’ community radio. Using data collected through observation at two sites in Uganda and 10 key inform ... more

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Opening the News Gates? Humanitarian and Human Rights NGOs in the US News Media, 1990-2010

Matthew Powers

Media, Culture & Society, volume 38, issue 3 (2016), pp. 315-331

"This study examines whether changes in the media, political, and civic landscapes give leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) increased news access. Using longitudinal content analysis (1990-2010) of a purposive sample of US news outlets, it compares the prevalence, prominence, and story loc ... more

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"Keep the People Uninformed": Pre-Election Threats to Free Expression and Association in Uganda

Human Rights Watch (2016), 42 pp.

"[This publication] documents harassment and intimidation by government and ruling party officials against the media and civil society, particularly outside the capital, Kampala. The police, district officials, internal security officials, and the country’s broadcasting regulator visited and calle ... more

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Captured News Media: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro

Milka Tadic Mijovic, Marija Sajkas

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2016), 16 pp.

"Political and business elites in the countries that are the subject of this report have acquired control over a large number of public and private media, mostly through non-transparent privatization, advertising and/or budgetary support to loyal media. Consequently, media freedoms and freedom of ex ... more

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Social Sector Communication in India: Concepts, Practices, and Case Studies

Jaishri N. Jethwaney

Los Angeles et al.: Sage (2016), xvi, 268 pp.

"Social sector communication helps address issues by influencing policy and can be used to bring about desired behavioral change among the targeted public. This book not only highlights the theoretical underpinnings, practice, and skill of social sector communications in India, but also provides an ... more

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Hands Off my Regime! Governments’ Restrictions on Foreign Aid to Non-Governmental Organizations in Poor and Middle-Income Countries

Kendra Dupuy, James Ron, Aseem Prakasha

World Development, volume 84 (2016), pp. 299-311

"Many resource-strapped developing country governments seek international aid, but when that assistance is channeled through domestic civil society, it can threaten their political control. As a result, in the last two decades, 39 of the world’s 153 low- and middle-income countries have adopted la ... more

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Exploring the Potential for Interactive Radio to Improve Accountability and Responsiveness to Small-Scale Farmers in Tanzania

Heather Gilberds et al.

Ottawa: Farm Radio International (2016), 36 pp.

"The research examines the possibilities of new digital technologies along with radio to facilitate adaptive management processes through rapid feedback to help ensure that agricultural development projects are farmer-centered, and meet the needs of those they intend to serve. Grounded in assessing ... Farm Radio International’s Listening Post—a methodology for collecting real-time, unfiltered feedback from farmers through a multi-channel platform linked to radio—the research highlights barriers to success and articulates lessons learned during the process of designing and implementing the model [...] The research demonstrates that linking a mobile-based crowd-sourcing tool with radio is effective at ensuring engagement from a large number of farmers. The radio stations offer a simple way to recruit participants from among the regular listeners of farmer radio programs. Also, the radio stations tend to be trusted sources of agricultural information among farmers, increasing motivation to participate. Further, the radio programs offer an easy way to close feedback loops by disseminating information about actions that stakeholders are taking in response to feedback. The Listening Post faced many of the same challenges documented by organizations utilizing similar tools—it was difficult to incentivize stakeholders to adequately respond to farmers, and competing motivations between extension officers, farmers, funders and partner organizations made it difficult to collect high-quality information that was usable and actionable. Moreover, an overarching focus on developing and implementing the technology and engaging a large number of farmers at the exclusion of other factors meant that many of the processes and mechanisms for effectively using the data collected and for responding to what farmers were saying weren’t fully developed. Despite these issues, there is significant evidence that the Listening Post model holds potential to act as a conduit for civic action if the correct stakeholders are engaged from the outset, if mechanisms for analyzing and disseminating relevant data from the platform to partners, local stakeholders and farmers is further refined, and if stakeholders ensure farmers can effectively use the technology." (Executive summary) more

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The Other Air Force: U.S. Efforts to Reshape Middle Eastern Media Since 9/11

Matt Sienkiewicz

New Brunswick, New Jersey, London: Rutgers University Press (2016), ix, 216 pp.

"As it seeks to win the hearts and minds of citizens in the Muslim world, the United States has poured millions of dollars into local television and radio programming, hoping to generate pro-American currents on Middle Eastern airwaves. However, as this fascinating new book shows, the Middle Eastern ... more

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The Freelancer-NGO Alliance: What a Story of Kenyan Waste Reveals About Contemporary Foreign News Production

David Conrad

Journalism Studies, volume 16, issue 2 (2015), pp. 275-288

"This paper explores the impact that emerging partnerships - particularly between freelancers and nonprofits - are having on the practices of contemporary foreign news reporting. Through an exploration of a widely published project on a health crisis in East Africa-funded by the Pulitzer Center on C ... more

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Communication for Development Approaches in the Australian NGO Sector and Academia

Valentina Baú, Tait Brimacombe (comp.)

Sydney; Melbourne: University of New South Wales, School of the Arts & Media;La Trobe University, Institute for Human Security & Social Change (2015), 13 pp.

"In June 2015 a group of academic researchers from Australian universities and practitioners from Australian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) came together to discuss the use of communication for development (C4D) in their present and future work. The seminar was organised as a pre-conference t ... more

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"A Horrific Photo of a Drowned Syrian Child": Humanitarian Photography and NGO Media Strategies in Historical Perspective

Heide Fehrenbach, Davide Rodogno

International Review of the Red Cross, volume 97, issue 900 (2015), pp. 1121-1155

"This article is a historical examination of the use of photography in the informational and fundraising strategies of humanitarian organizations. Drawing on archival research and recent scholarship, it shows that the figure of the dead or suffering child has been a centrepiece of humanitarian campa ... more

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Normative Influence on Network Structure in the Evolution of the Children's Rights NGO Network, 1977-2004

Drew B. Margolin et al.

Communication Research, volume 42, issue 1 (2015), pp. 30-59

"This study examines the impact of legitimacy on the dynamics of interorganizational networks within the nongovernmental organizations' children's rights community. The 27-year period of analysis included a critical community event: the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of ... more