Seven organisations join GFMD in 2021

What a year! Despite the huge challenges facing our sector, as 2021 draws to a close, we wanted to reflect on what we have been able to achieve together.

In the month that two journalists received the Nobel Peace Prize, it is heartening to know that tremendous work of journalists around the world, especially those pushing back against the rise of authoritarianism is being recognised.

Despite the hardships accelerated by COVID, media development and journalism support organisations across the globe have proven to be resilient. GFMD has been able to rise to the challenge of supporting and advocating for our community. We know we have more to do but we are proud of what we have been able to achieve this year with our growing membership:

Knowledge sharing, peer-to-peer learning, and capacity building

• Launched the GFMD MediaDev Fundraising Guide, dedicated fundraising newsletter and updated fundraising pages of the GFMD website. 
• Continued to help coordinate work in the sector, especially in relation to the evacuation of journalists from Afghanistan and our ongoing engagement in Lebanon, which we are developing into a model for information sharing and coordination.

Peer-led policy and advocacy

• Executed targeted advocacy and policy efforts related to disinformation, media sustainability, and journalism safety. (Read our recent advocacy around the European Digital Services Act here)
• Continued engagement with the Internet Governance Forum through the Dynamic Coalition on the Sustainability of Journalism and News Media; (Read the report from the DC-Sustainability’s session on at IGF 2021 here; technology platforms and ICT policy networks; the SDG16 Data Initiative; and other coalitions. 
• Our dialogue with Twitter continues to help members and their partners get “blue tick” verification.

Research, analysis and sector learning initiatives

• Launched the International Media Policy and Advisory Centre (GFMD IMPACT), to convene donors, practitioners, researchers, and academia to exchange perspectives, experiences, and knowledge in planning, implementing, supporting, and programming media development and journalism support projects. As well as hosting learning meetings on theories of change and impact measurement, and responses to disinformation), this month we provided recommendations to the Summit for Democracy. 
• Hosted the Journalism Funders Forum and facilitated learning and knowledge sharing amongst meetings for our members.

Engaging our members and improving our governance structures

• Recruited seven new members (more detail about them below) and established a pathway for independent publishers to join GFMD as affiliate members. 
• Our new constitution, adopted at this year’s General Assembly, ensures more equitable representation from our regional and topical members on our Steering Committee, which is chaired by Zoe Titus, the Director of the Namibia Media Trust. 

This is just a very short summary. We will be sharing our annual report early in 2022. 

More connected, more equitable

According to our most recent network analysis 

• Members remain dedicated and loyal to GFMD; they see value in information and knowledge exchange, policy and decision-making support
• The connectedness of the GFMD network has improved. Members are forging connections with each other and in such a way that the connections are distributed somewhat equally rather than concentrating around a select few organisations. 

The main way that we interact with our members is through our extensive and range of mailing lists and newsletters. Whatever your needs and interests, we will have something for you! For more information on our mailing lists and how to subscribe, click here.

Welcoming new members

Today GFMD has a total of 103 general members based in 46 countries. 

This year we welcomed seven new members to our ever-growing community of journalism support and media development organisations. 

The new members are equally balanced across both the Global North and the Global South, reflecting the international nature of the GFMD network. 

Environmental Investigative Forum (EIF) – EIF operates as a network connecting experts and journalists around environmental investigative stories. They connect Geographic Information Systems (GIS) experts with journalists in order to turn data into comprehensive maps, satellite imagery into investigative resources. EIF aims at developing its own environmental monitoring tools in the near future.

Fundación Al Fanar – Al Fanar’s mission is to connect the Spanish-speaking world with the political, social and cultural reality of the Arab world in all its geographical breadth, linguistic plurality, ethnic variety and cultural diversity and all the nuances and richness that entails.

Media Development Collective – Founded in the Netherlands, the Media Development Collective is a new, collaborative consultancy and training organization focused on the media, civil society, and for-good sectors. They provide media training, coaching, and assistance with the implementation of media campaigns and programs. 

Quote This Woman+ – Based in South Africa, Quote This Woman+ is a non-profit company that aims to contribute to gender transformation of the media landscape through the use of woman+ voices and narratives that better correlate to South African demographics. QW+ offers media training and workshops, and so far, these have been provided without a charge to their database members.

Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum –  Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum (SDJF) is a non-governmental, not-for-profit and national-level organisation that uses new media tools to make transformations that lead to social changes and long term development of the country by advocating, capacity building, mentoring, stewardship, internship, volunteering and community initiatives. 

SembraMedia – SembraMedia is dedicated to increasing the diversity of voices in Spanish by helping digital media entrepreneurs become more sustainable and independent. They provide journalists and other social entrepreneurs business and technical training, market intelligence, networking opportunities, consulting and financial support.  Their diverse team represents a regional network of more than 850 digital publishers in 20 countries in Latin America, the U.S., and Spain.

Namibia Media Trust – Set up in 1985 with the start of The Namibian newspaper, Namibia Media Trust reflects and promotes the values and principles of press freedom, free speech and independent journalism. This includes advocacy and policy interventions to promote media freedom, free expression and access to information in Namibia and beyond. The Trust also provides practical, needs-based workshops, training and mentorship for journalists and non-editorial staff.

We want to hear from you! 

We look forward to another challenging but exciting year and encourage you and your colleagues to take full advantage of membership with GFMD. We deeply appreciate your membership and are happy to accommodate you in any way we can. 

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or feedback as to how we can serve you better, please email our Membership and Engagement Manager, Fiona Nzingo.