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GFMD End of Year Review

2011 has been an exciting year for the Global Forum for Media Development.  The GFMD and its members have been promoting recognition of media development as an integral part of development policies in many international forums and have helped increase support for media development. This short review highlights the milestones of GFMD activity in 2011.

2012 promises to be an even more important year for the GFMD as we work to organise the GFMD 3rd World Conference in Brasilia on September 25-28. In the coming months members will receive invitations and more information about the event, which will be the highlight of the 2012 media development calendar bringing together media assistance groups from more than 100 countries around the globe.

International Organisations
The GFMD’s work to promote support to media development has focused on the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which, for the first time, involved the GFMD and its members in discussions about development strategies and organised a special meeting on the role of media in promoting good governance in June 2011 in partnership with GFMD members BBC World Service Trust and Internews Europe.  The GFMD developed the position of media support groups to the OECD High-Level meeting on development, which took place in Busan, South Korea in November 2011. While the final document of that meeting did not specifically mention media, many of the attending governments supported the GFMD’s position that media are a key non-state actor (the term used by the OECD to describe non-governmental organisations including business) playing an important role in ensuring accountability and transparency by governments.
The GFMD also worked closely with UNESCO and other UN agencies, including the UN Alliance for Civilisations in their work related to media development.
Throughout 2011 the GFMD has been closely involved in an ambitious project to develop guidelines for media companies to report on their business activities with a focus on quality of content, internal accountability and impact on society at large. The Global Reporting Initiative guidelines for the media sector will be published at the beginning of 2012.

Information Services and Advice to Members
Throughout 2011 the GFMD continued to give advice to its members and to provide them with up-dates on trends in media development.  A new staff member joined the GFMD secretariat in July 2011: Subendran Ravindran hosted by GFMD members South East Asian Centre for Electronic Media (Seacem) and Malaysiakini in Kuala Lumpur has been writing the GFMD stories and GFMD monthly newsletter that tells members about what is going on in media development around the world. The GFMD’s quarterly briefing the GFMD Insider, published in partnership with GFMD member International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) continued to provide members with insights on donors’ strategies and future plans and provided useful tips on new technology developments and monitoring and evaluation. The GFMD secretariat provided ad-hoc advice to members on project development and further developed the GFMD toolkit for assessing media landscapes by testing the kit in Ghana. The full report of the test will be published by the Center for International Media Assistance at the beginning of 2012.

Africa
In 2011 the GFMD’s efforts to promote better cooperation between media assistance organisations and the African Union paid off. At the African Forum for Media Development (AFMD) in Cape Town in September 2011, participants launched the Pan-African Media Network (PamNet), a coalition of Africa-wide and sub-regional groups involved in media in Africa. The steering committee of the PamNet includes the AFMD, The African Editors Network (TAEF), the Afrian Media Initiative (AMI), the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) and the Network of African Freedom of Expression Organisations (Nafeo). Gabriel Baglo of the GFMD Steering Committee is the convenor of the group.
The GFMD also worked closely with the African Media Initiative, which joined the GFMD in 2012. At the African Media Leaders Forum in November 2011 the GFMD and AMI called for a coalition for media development in Africa involving media companies, media assistance groups, media loan funds and African banks and investors. Both organisations have agreed a partnership to organise joint sessions on African media at the GFMD World Conference.

Asia-Pacific
The GFMD was closely involved in setting up a network of independent media councils in the region and organised a special mission of support to Malaysia in April 2011 to assist media assistance groups in the country to promote independent self-regulation against efforts by the government to impose a statutory council. The GFMD organised the 3rd Bali Media Forum in December 2011 and succeeded in getting support from the Bali Democracy Forum, which took place at the same time and brought together governments from across Asia-Pacific. The Bali Democracy Forum, for the fist time, declared its support for media freedom and support to media assistance organisations.
With the current developments in Myanmar opening the possibility for direct media support work in that country the GFMD has been asked to assist in coordinating media assistance work in partnership with its Burmese members.

Latin America and the Caribbean
The GFMD secretariat and Steering Committee members Veet Vivarta of ANDI in Brazil have been organising support for the GFMD World Conference throughout 2011. We succeeded in getting the support of the Brazilian Ministry of Communication for the event and the President Dilma Rousseff will open the conference. We are discussing sponsorship and support with Brazilian companies, including media giant Rede Globo, who have agreed to organise a special session at the conference. The GFMD was also involved two major conferences in the region on media development and public service media in Brazil organised by UNESCO and in Cartagena, Colombia organised by GFMD Steering Committee member FNPI.

Middle East/North Africa
The region has seen tremendous change in 2011 and GFMD members were at the forefront of supporting independent media in the Arab Spring. The GFMD is supporting its members in the region in the challenge to build independent and pluralistic media landscapes and has focused on ensuring that they are fully informed and involved in discussions at international level about media development strategies. Many GFMD members have carried out missions to the region in 2011 and the GFMD secretariat has shared their findings with its members.

Eurasia
Work in Europe focused on the European Union with the GFMD promoting the importance of media development amidst the European financial crisis. The GFMD succeeded in putting media firmly on the EU’s development agenda by organising a high-level panel discussion at the European Development Days in Warsaw in December 2011 in partnership with its member Deutsche Welle Akademie and Friends of Europe. Karl Rudischhauser, Director of the European Commission’s Directorate for Development pledged support for building free and open media and communication environments around the world.  The GFMD assisted its members in Russia and the Caucasus to develop a programme of support for media safety and GFMD members in Eastern Europe and the Balkan region continued to work closely together through the South-Eastern European Network for the Professionalisation of Media (SEENPM).

GFMD Governance
The Steering Committee members continue to be closely involved in the work of the GFMD. At a meeting in Washington in March 2011 the Steering Committee decided key changes to the organisation, increasing membership fees for the larger international groups, hiring an advocacy officer in 2012 and finding a Knight Fellow to work with the GFMD to strengthen its impact and visibility in the coming years. The GFMD Code of Conduct for Media Development Organisations continues to be a reference point for media support groups. Leon Willems of Freepressunlimited in the Netherlands was appointed Treasurer by the Steering Committee and the GFMD Director is working closely with other members on a review of the GFMD statutes. Some of the Steering Committee members left media development in 2011. David Makali of the Kenya Media Institute went back into journalism, Ognian Zlatev of the Bulgaria Media Centre is moving to Brussels to become Head of Communications at the European Commission’s Directorate for Employment. We wish them all the best in their new endeavours.