In February 2005, The Communication Initiative launched a 2-year series of Drum Beat issues focusing on some of the varied ways in which communication has been used to help address and impact on each of the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - at local, regional, national, and international levels.

Below is the second "overview" issue highlighting a sampling of the summaries posted in a myriad of sections of our website in 2006 that focused on the use of communication to meet the MDGs, generally and globally. This completes what we hope will be the first phase in our focus on the MDGs; we are now reviewing the best way forward. Please send your additional MDG-related submissions, now and in the future, to Deborah Heimann at dheimann@comminit.com

CONTEXT

1. 2005: A Watershed for Commitments But...

Over US$50 billion was pledged in new commitments by 2010, including a doubling of aid to Africa. But aid remains poorly coordinated, unpredictable, largely locked into "special purpose grants," and often targeted to countries and purposes that are not priorities for the MDGs.

2. How Much More Aid is Needed to Reach the MDGs?

Reaching the goal of reducing poverty by 50% by 2015 will require an additional US$39-$54 billion per year; however, as reaching the poverty goal will help reach the other goals and vice versa, the final estimate is US$40-$60 billion per year. By itself, this additional aid will not be sufficient to attain the goals.

3. How Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services is Key to the MDGs

This fact sheet looks at the relationship between access to sexual and reproductive health (RH) services and 5 of the 8 MDGs. The authors argue that poor RH is hindering countries' efforts to achieve the MDGs and that access to RH services influences global security by helping to hasten the demographic transition. They then present a series of recommendations.

4. A Global Agenda to End Poverty

A survey conducted for the European Commission found that 88% of respondents in 25 European countries had never heard of the MDGs. Produced through a partnership between the World Bank's Data Group and National Geographic, this large-format, full-colour wall map is designed to serve as a tool to increase understanding of the MDGs among all audiences, but is particularly focused on educating secondary school students about the substance of the MDGs and what is needed to meet them.

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Survey

"Missing the Message - 20 years of learning from HIV/AIDS" was launched by the Panos Institute on World AIDS Day back in 2003. Did the report influence your HIV and AIDS communication thinking and practice? Help Panos evaluate the impact of the publication by answering the following questions:

1. In what ways did the report help you better understand HIV and AIDS communication thinking and practice?
2. Did the report contribute to any change in HIV and AIDS communication policy and practice within your organisation? If so, in what ways?
3. Did you recommend the report to someone else and/or have you quoted or in other ways used "Missing the Message" in your work?

Please email your replies, by February 5 2007, to hivaids@panos.org.uk - please include your name and organisation.

[Contact for questions: Helena at helena.lindborg@panos.org.uk ]

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ADVOCACY: COMMITTED YOUNG CITIZENS

5. Youth and the Millennium Development Goals: Challenges and Opportunities for Implementation

This report is part of a process designed to catalyse further dialogue, collaboration, and action in the direction of youth inclusion in the realisation of the MDGs. It was formulated by an international team of over 350 young leaders from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who participated in a 3-week online consultation. As the 40 case studies offered here illustrate, youth are making a difference - contributing to achievement of each Goal as activists and as leaders in community development, and by their record levels of volunteers. Young people are also already participating in decision-making to formulate better policies and programmes in many government and institutional structures. This document is meant to be used as an advocacy tool and guide for programmatic action, but ultimately, it is meant to serve as a call to the international community to create sustained partnerships with young people as a crucial strategy for achieving the MDGs.

6. Nine is Mine Campaign - India

Launched by more than 4,500 children in Delhi, India on October 16 2006, this is a participatory children's advocacy initiative to call for 9% of the gross domestic product (GDP) to be committed to health and education. Nine is Mine relies on the will and determination of young people to effect social change; activities are undertaken through the leadership of a Children's Taskforce, which has spearheaded the creation of a "Nine Is Mine" Declaration. This Declaration was to be taken to 15 states of India to enable 100,000 children and their supporters to petition the Prime Minister to keep his promise to dedicate funds to help meet the MDGs. The effort was expected to culminate with a Children's Assembly against Poverty and a rally to be held on the occasion of Martyr's Day (January 30 2007) - one month before the announcement of the National Budget.

Contact info@wadanatodo.net

7. Eurizons: European Tour for Global Responsibility

In August and September 2006, a group of 50 young people from 12 European countries engaged in a hitchhiking tour across Europe to campaign for the MDGs. In 8 European cities, Eurizons organised panel discussions, concerts, street theatre, and films. For example, the events in Bratislava, Slovakia specifically addressed children between 9 and 14 years of age; the hitchhikers joined the children in 5 "playgrounds" featuring games about MDG #8 and the other Goals. Throughout the tour, the hitchhikers discussed Europe's responsibilities for reaching the MDGs with young civil society activists as well as people they met on the road. The hitchhikers presented the results of these encounters to the European Parliament in the form of an Open Letter; the face-to-face meeting involved discussion of what both politicians and young active European citizens must do to contribute to global development.

Contact Matthias Fellner kontakt@firmamente.com

8. Stand Up Against Poverty. Stand Up for the MDGs - Global

As part of this October 15-16 2006 global advocacy effort to set an official Guinness World Record, over 23 million people in 80 countries physically and symbolically "stood up" to communicate their desire to fight poverty and to hold their governments and leaders accountable for promises to take anti-poverty action. For example, schoolchildren across Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, and Westbank stood up together to highlight the injustice that not all children can afford to go to school, and in Bangladesh over half a million young people stood united in gigantic white human chains across 64 districts of the country. The purpose of this action was to raise awareness of the MDGs and to publicly demonstrate to policy makers the growing global support for the achievement of the MDGs and for the strengthening of development policies in both Northern and Southern countries.

Contact Amanda Kibel amanda.kibel@undp.org OR Anand Kantaria anand.kantaria@undp.org OR
info@millenniumcampaign.org

9. Rural Voices of Youth - Nigeria

A young Nigerian who is a member of UNICEF's Voices of Youth (VOY) project launched this initiative to reach out to his peers in Nigeria's rural areas who do not have easy internet access, but who still wish to take part in VOY - a global effort to connect youth with their counterparts from around the world through ICTs, enabling them to learn more, say more and do more about the world they live in. The young volunteers visit schools and interview local youth in the Yoruba language, asking about their experiences with development challenges such as water, environment, and sanitation; intergenerational dialogue; conflict; and HIV/AIDS. In one programme activity, the volunteers organised an essay contest and workshop on the MDGs for secondary school students. As part of the workshop, participants listened to guest speakers who stressed the importance of taking responsibility, working together, and volunteering in achieving the MDGs.

Contact Oyebisi Babatunde Oluseyi oyebisius@yahoo.com

10. Global Youth Leadership Summit (GYLS) - Global

Drawing on the energy and initiative of young community activists from around the world, the GYLS involved a major summit and music concert that was scheduled to take place in October 2006 - with associated mobilisation of, and networking among, youth around the world to be stimulated via an interactive website and other information and communication technologies (ICTs). Organised by the United Nations Office of Sport for Development and Peace, the Summit charged young participants with the task of motivating others and building local networks, as well as staying connected to a global team of dedicated young leaders. In addition to the Summit Declaration, a key outcome was expected to be youth-directed community and national projects for the MDGs. A team of student journalists, coordinated by the National Association of Black Journalists and its partners in the Unity coalition representing Hispanic, Asian-American, and Native American journalists, added to the Summit's national and international news coverage through both online and paper publications.

Contact Richard Leonard richard.leonard@undp.org OR Bator Lo bator.lo@gmail.com

CONNECTIONS: ICTs & MULTIMEDIA

11. Media Empowerment Programme - Global

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) has developed a programme to address development issues as articulated in the MDGs by working directly with disadvantaged groups to increase their access to ICTs. For instance, as part of its work in the Caribbean, agricultural extension officers have been taught camera and video production skills to gather information on local agricultural issues. The work has also updated Ministry of Agriculture media units with digital technology and training to aid in the 2-way flow of information among farmers, extension officers, and scientists. These video and audio productions reach farmers via radio, television, workshops, and field days. COL claims that this work "has aided governments in the region in their efforts to move towards crop diversification (i.e., away from single-crop dependency such as bananas in Dominica or sugar in St. Kitts & Nevis) among small-plot farmers who have been sidelined by mass-produced food products from developed countries."

Contact info@col.org

12. Building Digital Opportunities (BDO) Programme: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Poverty Reduction in Sub Saharan Africa: A Learning Study (Synthesis)

by Richard Gerster & Sonja Zimmermann

BDO is an effort on the part of 5 NGOs to identify and help remove some of the key barriers to, and to develop genuine opportunities for, poverty-focused ICT for development in Africa. It is "a framework for locally owned ICT livelihood projects, for ICT regulation and training activities, as well as media development with an emphasis on accessible media, like community radio." Focusing on activities in Mali, Uganda and Zambia, this study examines progress in fulfilling BDO's global objective to ensure that ICTs contribute to the achievement of the 8 MDGs and 17 Millennium Development Targets. Comments on this Learning Study are welcome...

13. Bending the Arc - Africa

Bending the Arc is a forum for sharing best practices between business, civil society, governments, and international development organisations. As part of this initiative, ICTs are being used as a tool to share information about the MDGs, and to engage members of the general (African) public. For example, the project website offers a service through which one may browse or search a database of online videos and case studies detailing projects that are contributing towards the achievement of one or more of the MDGs in Africa. The "Have Your Say" section offers a chance for anyone to weigh in on the project and/or strategies for achieving the MDGs in Africa.

14. Making the Difference - ICT as Key Enablers for Equitable and Sustainable Development

This brochure aims to show how and where ICT can make a difference in sustainable development and the achievement of the MDGs. It argues that the power of ICT can most effectively be harnessed through participation and cooperation of all stakeholders and all sectors of society - government, civil society and the private sector.

15. art'ishake

This e-publication on arts, culture, social change and development includes contributions from across the globe which focus on the MDGs and arts/creativity.

FUTURE THINKING & RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

16. Communication and the MDGs: No Magic Information Bullets

by Silvio Waisbord

In this paper, Silvio Waisbord explores what he sees as a rather strange and surprising phenomenon: the absence of communication in the MDGs. Specifically, the author suggests that communication is primarily conceived of as a group of information dissemination tools: press releases, brochures, posters, websites, and message design. When understood in that sense, communication is broadly seen as helping to contribute to the MDGs, though not in a fundamental, sustainable way, Waisbord thinks. The reasons for this exclusion are not Waisbord's focus here; he seeks, rather, to explore the way in which communication's absence from the Goals exacerbates its relegation to an auxiliary, instrumental role to achieve other objectives.

17. Unleashing the Power of Knowledge for Meeting MDGs and Sustainable Development in Africa: Fundamental Issues for Governance

by Jacques L. Hamel

"Published by the Economic Commission for Africa in June 2005, this paper explores the concept of knowledge as a strategic weapon...Used defensively it may be applied to the protection of African countries against the forces of globalisation on endemic, traditional, or local knowledge. Used offensively it may address the upgrading of indigenous knowledge for producing goods and services that Africans demand. It may also address some non-enabling mythological faith-based knowledge that results from the colonisation of large parts of Africa....It may address the construction of productive and competitive capacities to face up a number of daunting contemporary challenges. As suggested by the author, these are embodied in MDGs and in the sustainable development concept....The paper critically reflects on the notion of knowledge, African knowledge, African knowledge economies (AKEs), African knowledge societies (AKSs) and African knowledge policies for sustainable development. Its purpose is to contribute to sustainable development thinking in the African region and open a new front in the development discourse. War against unsustainable development can be won with more potent knowledge."

18. Equity and Social Indicators: Monitoring the Millennium Development Goals

This online information tool presents disaggregated estimates for 42 MDG indicators and other social indicators by gender, region, ethnicity, and income quintiles for 4 points in time and 23 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

19. Monitoring and Indicators for Communication for Development: Technical Note

Offered by DANIDA in the context of the Poverty Reduction Strategies Papers (PRSP) process and the effort to meet the MDGs, this Note provides guidance on the process of identifying relevant communication indicators for the preparation, implementation, and monitoring of development assistance. A key premise is that, while externally-derived indicators such as those provided here may stimulate ideas and provide general guidance, "indicators should be developed through a participatory process to satisfy the need for locally-owned, meaningful indicators in a given context" because they "depend on the actual goals of communication interventions determined by the diagnosis of the problem, the type of strategy, and approach selected." Along these lines, "most important indicators are often not quantifiable." Indicators should be relevant and accurate enough for those concerned to interpret the information; they can, for instance, take the form of pictures and stories, "the meanings of which can be checked with communities later on."

This issue was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.


Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com


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