Introducing the Finnish Foundation for Media, Communication and Development (VIKES)

The Finnish Foundation for Media, Communication and Development (known by its Finnish acronym VIKES) is Finland’s leading specialist in freedom of expression internationally. Our mission is to promote freedom of expression and journalistic plurality as the foundations for democracy and development. In other words, VIKES is a development organization that promotes free, critical and quality journalism. In 2014, we supported freedom of expression in 14 different countries through 10 different projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

VIKES was established in 2005 on the initiative of the Union of Journalists in Finland, and it brings together the whole Finnish journalistic community. Finnish journalists are particularly well placed to promote freedom of expression, as Finland is a world leader in both freedom of the press and government transparency. For example, Finland has remained at the top of the World Press Freedom Index for five years running.

Yet, the 2015 World Press Freedom Index highlights the worldwide deterioration in freedom of information in 2014. Beset by wars, the growing threat from non-state operatives, violence during demonstrations and the economic crisis, media freedom is in retreat on all five continents. More than ever, journalists are being persecuted, imprisoned and murdered because of their work. Freelance journalists who have to work in unstable areas, together with their local assistants, are particularly at risk. In addition to political and economic pressures, journalistic freedom is undermined by the expansion of public relations and lobbying. And yet the solution for global environmental, economic and human rights problems requires the existence of critical and professional journalism.

Independent, professional media and open communication networks contribute to both civil society and sustainable economic development, and in that way to the eradication of poverty. Furthermore, transparency, openness, and citizens’ right to communication are basic conditions of development. Freedom of expression is a precondition for democracy and human rights.

Subsequently, the Finnish Foundation for Media, Communication and Development (VIKES) will participate in the Media for Development Programme both to provide expert advice and to promote freedom of expression. Through the contacts of VIKES the journalists can also have chance to work together with local journalists in developing countries to understand better the role of media in development.

In 2015, the Media for Development the planned project activities for VIKES include:
•    Providing expert journalism input to the TV-production planning meeting organized by ERR in Estonia in March.       
•    Organizing a training for writing journalists from the new EU member states in Finland in April.
•    Organizing the programme of a joint study-trip for the writing journalists to a developing country in Africa or Asia in September/October.
•    Providing expert policy-maker input to an international roundtable on development financing in Latvia organized by Green Liberty in June.
•    Raising public awareness on freedom of expression and development cooperation through VIKES’ network of journalists and communication channels in Finland.

Contact us and participate: maiju.mitrunen(at)vikes.fi
Follow us: on Facebook and Twitter.

People in Need

The People in Need (PIN) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization based on the ideas of humanism, freedom, equality and solidarity. PIN consider human dignity and freedom to be the basic values. PIN believe that people anywhere in the world should have a right to make decisions about their lives and to share the rights expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The People in Need Organization was established in 1992 by a group of war and foreign correspondents who were no longer satisfied with just bringing back information to the Czech Republic. Instead, they began sending out aid. It gradually became established as a professional humanitarian organization striving to provide aid in troubled regions and support adherence to human rights around the world.

Within the twenty years of its existence People in Need has become one of the biggest non-profit organization in Central Europe. Apart from humanitarian aid and human rights, it started targeting the field of education as well as helping people living in social exclusion.

People in Need is a member of Alliance2015, a strategic network of seven European non-governmental organizations engaged in humanitarian assistance and development projects. This collaboration yields effective results both in the target countries and in campaigns aimed at influencing the attitudes of politicians and the general public in Europe.

Nowadays, the foundation’s activities are focused on four main areas:

• Emergency relief and development cooperation
• Human Rights Support
• Social Integration Programmes
• Educational and informational programs

The People in Need  is one of the implmenting partners of the M4D project. PIN's role is to cooperate with project partners and primarily implement joint and national activities to the raise general public awareness about global development issues, their connection to our lives and about the influence of our everyday choices on global challenges. 

National activities planned for 2015

• Establishing relationships with journalists and involving them into the trainings for journalists that will build their capacities in reporting about development issues and prepare them for media trips to developing countries
• In collaboration with major printed media a media campaign will be organized
• Development issues will be also promoted on website www.Rozvojovka.cz and facebook. One media supplement is planned for the second half of the year
• A national opinion poll will be conducted
• Policy-makers and other stakeholders will be engaged and invited to the an international policy roundtable about financing for development organized by Green Liberty
• 4 quarterly bulletins on development cooperation both in printed as well as electronic version will be developed. These bulletins target relevant decision makers, i.e. members of Czech national Parliament and Czech representatives in European Parliament, Ministries' officials and key development experts, scholars and NGO representatives
• Raising public awareness of development cooperation and the European Year of Development through public events, media outcomes, website and facebook 

PMVRO the Slovak partner of Media4Development

PMVRO (The Slovak NDGO Platform) is an interest group of legal entities, an umbrella organization of 31 non-governmental organizations in Slovakia (24 regular members and 7 observers) primarily active in the area of international development cooperation, humanitarian assistance and global education. The NGDO Platform’s role is to represent the common interests of its member organizations both at home and abroad, influence policy making in the area of development cooperation and raise public awareness about issues related to development assistance. The members of the Platform are indispensable actors of the Slovak Official Development Assistance.

The NGDO Platform began to emerge in 1998. In 2003, it was established as an interest group of 15 legal entities and was officially registered at the Regional Office in Bratislava. In May 2010, the NGDO Platform and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which the NGDO Platform was granted a status of an official partner of the MFA for review and preparation of key documents related to development policies and development cooperation. 

The NGDO Platform is a partner of the project Media4Development funded by European Union. The project coordinator Dagmar Mekinova and her colleagues are looking forward to the three year cooperation with organizations from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Finland and GB/Ireland. We believe that our participation in the project will lead to increased interest of people living in Slovakia, policy makers in global issues and that the journalists will be more determined to cover them.  

In 2015 PMVRO plans the following Media4Development activities/events:

Monthly:

- raising awareness of the Slovak public about the work of the Slovak NDGOs in the field of development cooperation by writing about their development projects related to the EYD2015 monthly themes and posting them on Facebook. As the January them was “Europe in the World”, the map showing the places in the world where Slovak NDGOs, members of PMVRO, are active in the field of development cooperation and humanitarian aid was developed and posted on Facebook.

- media monitoring on the coverage of development issues   

March: participation of a Slovak documentarist in the training in Tallinn lead by ERR who will receive a grant for a study trip and production of a documentary.

April: participation of two experienced journalists in the training in Helsinki led by VIKES who will take part in a joint study trip or receive a grant to visit development projects of Slovak NDGOs himself/herself.

June: 

- participation of 5 policy makers in the round table in Riga organized by Green Liberty

- development of the bulletin “Rozvojova spolupraca” (Development Cooperation)

June - September: organizing a photo/news story competition “Decent Life for All”, the winners will be awarded by grants for study trips to development countries.  

October: organizing the event “Development Day” on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty with the aim to promote work of Slovak NDGOs and stimulate public interest in global issues. The winning photos/news stories of the photo/news story competition will be exhibited there and the winners officially announced.

November-December : travelling exhibition from photo/story  competition  (at least 3 towns in Slovakia)

December:

-  development of the bulletin “Rozvojova spolupraca” (Development Cooperation)

 - preparation of the January 2016 opinion pools  

Except all listed above, we will organize informal media briefs and publish press releases.

Green Liberty in the boat of M4D

Green Liberty (Zaļā Brīvība)

The Green Liberty has been founded in 1991 and registered as a non-profit NGO in 1993 (then as the Green Library of Environmental Protection Club). In 2000, the organization re-registered with new name - Green Liberty.

Green Liberty’s mission is to develop a society where people live in harmony with each other and their environment. The Green Liberty aims at informing people about social and environmental implications of current trends in consumerism, trade and globalization; empowering people to make meaningful decisions connected with their lives directly and indirectly; and opposing abuses of power.

The Green Liberty organizes press briefings, conferences, exhibitions, public lectures, expositions, and runs webpage and online campaigns. Green Liberty publishes environmental information, organizes different cultural and environmental actions, as well as does studies on socio-environmental issues and works on sustainable development and lifestyles, development issues and particularly on fair trade, climate and energy and waste related issues. Green Liberty also advocates government on sustainable development and environmental policy integration in various sectoral policies.

Green Liberty has a longstanding experience working with issues about sustainable consumption. We have been involved in several projects related to the topic, e.g. EU 7^th FW funded project “Action Town” (http://action-town.eu/) looking for the ways NGOs can provide new insights for research in sustainable consumption and production with the goal of reaching absolute decoupling of economic growth from resource use. Green Liberty has published consumer guides (http://www.zb-zeme.lv/images/viss%20kopaa.pdf and http://www.zb-zeme.lv/images/stories/brosura_a6.pdf) on sustainable living and regularly worked with media to popularize sustainable living in society. We have also done several studies on sustainable consumption and related topics, e.g. „Current Status and recent changes in consumption and production patterns in Latvia”, background report for UNEP.

The Green Liberty participates in local and international networks (including CAN Europe, European environmental bureau, European Eco-Forum and FairFood) and co-operates with civic and state organizations in Latvia and abroad.

Role of the Green Liberty in the project

The Green Liberty among other organizations from four EU member states is Media4Development project partner. The role of the Green Liberty in this project is to cooperate with project partners and to implement joint and national activities involving media representatives, policy makers and anybody who is interested to raise general public awareness about global development issues, their connection to our lives and about the influence of our everyday choices on global challenges. To succeed in these tasks, the Green Liberty will participate in face-to-face meetings and virtual communication between the partners to give input on the agenda, to share best practices, to support each other, to contribute to the better achievement of the project results.

National activities organized by the Green Liberty in 2015

In 2015 the Green Liberty will organize a joint activity of the project – an international policy roundtable about financing for development. The roundtable is rather timely for Latvian policy makers, media and general public because of Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU during the first part of this year. Thus, roundtable discussions are going to be directly linked with awareness of the EYD2015, strengthening the post-2015 agenda and engagement in issues of global importance that, among generating jobs and economic growth and developing the base for digital Europe is one of the priorities of the Latvian Presidency.

To reach general public and to bring development cooperation issues closer to people’s daily agendas the Green Liberty will provide several national activities: official and unofficial national meetings and discussions with policy makers, and campaigns in social media linked to EYD2015 thematic months involving policy makers. The Green Liberty will inform public and policy makers about general, EU level and national topical issues of development cooperation with the help of generated bulletins, articles and mass media supplements, media monitorings, and opinion pools.

Thus, the Green Liberty is responsible for national journalists’ participation in training and study trips, for Latvian national broadcasting companies and other corporations’ involvement, cooperation with national policy makers, and dialogue with general public.

Ask, share and participate: inga@zalabriviba.lv

Introducing BAAG to the M4D team

BAAG – British & Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group – is very excited to be part of the Media4Development programme.  Our Programme & Communications Coordinator, Jenny, joined the planning meeting in Tallinn last month and she and the team are now busy developing our activities for the year. 

Before we start blogging about these in detail, we thought a short introduction to BAAG would be useful – and hopefully interesting!

BAAG was established in 1987. It is a unique advocacy network organisation with 28 current member agencies. BAAG’s vision is to contribute to an environment where Afghans can take control of their own development and bring about a just and peaceful society. We seek to put our vision into practice by:

·    Bringing member agencies and the wider relief and development community together to advocate continued international commitment to the development of Afghanistan;

·  Sharing information and knowledge to improve policy debate and decision-making processes with a particular emphasis on ensuring that those processes reflect the views, needs and aspirations of the Afghan people;

·     To enhance the abilities of Afghan civil society in influencing national and international policies on Afghanistan.

BAAG has a long history of informing policy- and decision-makers regarding the reality of Afghanistan’s development and humanitarian needs and the challenges of delivering these. Similarly BAAG has worked with the British media to raise awareness of Afghanistan for many years, developing strong relationships with a number of high profile print and broadcast journalists.

Subsequently BAAG will participate in the Media4Development programme both to provide expert advice to project partners and to continue to raise the issue of development cooperation to the British and Irish public, media and policy makers.

In 2015 BAAG plans the following Media4Development activities:

•         Providing expert journalism input to a media training workshop delivered by VIKES in April.
•         Providing expert policy-maker input to an international round table in Latvia organised by Green Liberty in May/June
•         Hosting two round tables of British and international policy-makers and influencers on development themes, in June and November/December
•         Raising public awareness of development cooperation and the European Year of Development via events in London and Ireland and through the development of four news articles
•         Organising a journalism and photojournalism competition to award aspiring development journalists with a research trip to Afghanistan

In the past few weeks we’ve started our social media activities by writing a News article about the Media4Development programme, posting this on Twitter and Facebook and tweeting other development stories using the #EYD2015 tag.   We’re talking to our website designers to develop a dedicated web page for the programme and are looking into some public events in which we can promote EYD2015 and Afghanistan.  More to follow soon!

What Mondo has been up to in Estonia

The year has had a busy start! After the great kick-off meeting where all the project partners met and discussed their ideas and plans for the three years, our M4D project team in Mondo sat down and started making plans for 2015 - the European Year of Development. We have also been working together with the Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) who are also a M4D partner organisation.

We started the year by posting letters and thematic calendars to policy makers and journalists. The letters were addressed to:

• All the 101 parliament members of Estonia;

• The prime minister and all the other 13 ministers of Estonia;

• 32 officials from relevant ministries (including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of the Environment etc.);

• 6 members of the European Parliament representing Estonia;

• 50 selected journalists.

Letters in the envelopes introduced both EYD2015 and the M4D project, emphasising Estonia's role in international development cooperation and also touching on the Sustainable Development Goals. The envelopes also had a 2015 calendar in them that introduces the Sustainable Development Goals and different development cooperation projects taking place over the world.

January's social media theme "Europe in the World" was introduced by a video clip calling for action during the EYD2015. The message added to the video informed our Facebook "likers" about the EYD2015 and also incorporated the year's motto "Our world. Our dignity. Our future." in Estonian.

Right now we are preparing the political debate (on the 12th of February) that will bring together the major political parties of Estonia to see what are their views on development cooperation. As the elections will take place on the 1st of March, the debate will be right on time. 

Thanks to the good cooperation with ERR, the debate will be led by Indrek Treufeldt (a well-established TV journalist in Estonia) and live broadcasted online. We are also helping ERR to develop a thematic webpage.

Young people who are taking part of the Model UN arranged in spring will have a chance to meet politicians during the debate and also ask their own question. Prior to that they will spend the first half of the day learning about the Sustainable Development Goals.

In the coming months we will continue to grow our relationships with different media houses and newspapers and also meet with a creative agency to discuss future public campaign. We will also start preparing and planning our first bulletin to address policy makers in May.

Let's begin!

January started with good news from the European Commission. The contract for the M4D was signed and we could start the work!

The first joint meeting between the partners took place in Tallinn on 19-20 January 2015. We discussed the modalities of cooperation, signed contracts with partners and planned for the year to come. Many thanks to everyone for your active participation!

Joint events for the first year will be:

-training of documentary makers in Tallinn (ERR, March)

-training journalist in Helsinki (VIKES, April)

-Rountable for policy makers on development financing (Green LIberty, May/June)

-Competititon for best photo/article (PMVRO/NMS partners + BAAG, June-September)

-joint study trip for journalists (VIKES, autumn)

In this blog you can later find reports on all of these events. In addition, there will be national activities in each partner country which will also introcuced through the blog by each partner.

As this is the European Year of Development a lot of awareness raising activities will also take place via the social media. Social media postings will use these two hashtags: #EYD2015 #M4Dproject