Governance Donors Recognise Important Role of Media
09.10.09At the Strengthening Independent Media Conference in Salzburg, a panel of governance funders underscored why the media play such a vital role in strengthening governance. Given that the donors are now emphasising accountability and transparency, “there is a great opportunity to make the case for how important free and independent media are in ensuring democratic governance,” said James Deane of the BBC World Service Trust, the moderator of the panel.
Brian Levy of the World Bank explained that his organisation’s new policies, including a strong focus on more engagement with civil society when developing governance programmes, provide more opportunities to engage with the media. He said key decisions on what programmes the World Bank will run are taken at country level, so media assistance NGOs need to contact World Bank offices to suggest ways to become part of the bank’s governance strategies.
Bjorn Forde of the UNDP governance centre said that there has been a shift from donors having accountability for aid budgets to national governments playing the lead role. This shift provides a new opportunity for independent media to play its watchdog role. For that reason, media development should be part of UNDP governance programmes.
But there’s still a long way to go before media development becomes an integral part of any World Bank, UNDP or other donor’s governance programme.
Brian Levy of the World Bank said in the Philippines, for example, a coalition of civil society organisations has been very successful in monitoring the country’s budget, but media NGOs are not involved. GFMD members should find out what kind of monitoring is going in their regions and find ways to play an important role.
The Strengthening Independent Media Initiative is organised by the Salzburg Global Seminar in partnership with the GFMD and Knight Foundation.