This article describes discussion at and results of the 3rd Symposium Forum Media and Development hosted by the Catholic Media Council (CAMECO), on behalf of the German-language "Forum Medien und Entwicklung". It took place in Bad Honnef, near Bonn, in Germany, on September 27-28 2007. As stated here: "The symposium dealt with core questions: 'How do we effectively promote a media system and an environment that foster democracy and contributes to overall development goals?' and 'How do we achieve sustainable change?' The symposium included a section called "Setting the Framework," which charted the challenges and options in monitoring and evaluation, in working with - and defining - indicators of media development, as well as a discussion of whether to develop a handbook. Following were five concrete cases focusing on 'Concepts and Tools,' which focused on such methods as outcome mapping, most significant change, and grassroots evaluations. The symposium also considered journalism training."

The first workshop presented lessons learned on measuring change that include the need for:

• transparency among donors and implementers at all levels;
• evidence-based arguments showing that media assistance promotes democracy and development and increasing visibility of the results of media assistance efforts;
• more knowledge and capacity building; and
• a diverse toolkit to satisfy the complexity of media assistance efforts - creation of a practitioner handbook on the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the impact of media assistance.

The workshop participants called for:

"1. Create a media M&E expert working group that will carry forward conference discussions and promote discussion of the points above and other issues;
2. Create media assistance coordination group to encourage broader knowledge of efforts and avoid duplication of efforts."

A Wikipedia project with four sections emerged from the workshop discussion. The goal is to create a web-based resource to help gather experiences and ideas that can be turned into practical toolkits for M&E of journalism training, media performance, and development communications. Sections include:

• M&E in media development (institutional/project level);
• M&E in media development (macro level);
• M&E in the field of training; and
• M&E in communication for development.

The second workshop was an exercise in analysing evaluations done for journalism training. Evaluations from participants were clustered according to objectives of the training and levels of evaluation. Most evaluated the output level, i.e., what the participants have learned in the course. The usual method is a questionnaire conducted before and immediately after the course.  Evaluations of the set-up of training institutions focus on the sustainability and viability of the institution. Participants assumed that the media sector evaluation has not yet reached the outcome or impact level of its programmes. Hindering factors were identified:

• Outcome tools and indicators still missing;
• Tight budgets and deadlines set by donors;
• Lack of cooperation between researchers, implementers, other experts, and beneficiaries; and
• Suspicion that the "learning culture" is not widespread in the media assistance sector, and misgivings on the results of evaluation.

Ideas that emerged include: evaluation from the beginning of projects, including self-assessment tools; cultivation of a culture of "freedom to fail" (in order to learn and restructure from an evidence base); and follow-up of results integrated into project structures.

CSFC Consortium website and their e-publication, MAZI, Issue February 27 2008.