About

The Global Forum for Media Development is the largest global community for media development, media freedom, and journalism support.

Through collaboration, coordination, and collective action our network of 147 member organisations — as well as our dozens of partners — creates, promotes, and delivers policies and programmes to sustain journalism as a public good.

We help our members get funding by:

Curating an up-to-date, searchable list of funding opportunities worldwide.
Profiling and mapping donors and funders.
Providing fundraising guidance through multilingual resources, events, and mentoring.
Updating a glossary of terminology related to media development and journalism funding.

With our members the GFMD Secretariat advocates for donors and funders to:

Fund more: Increase the amount of funding to media development and journalism support.
Fund better: Needs-based, long-term, flexible funding that is responsive to growing evidence of what are the principles and practicalities of effective media assistance.

We advise donors and funders on how to fund media development and journalism effectively

Our International Media Policy and Advisory Centre – GFMD IMPACT:

Convenes all media support actors for open, honest and constructive dialogue on what works, what doesn’t work and why.
Responds to help desk requests from donors and others by commissioning research, conducting surveys, and producing policy papers.
Plays a coordination and information sharing role in emergencies and crises.
Act as the institutional memory of the sector by curating and sharing knowledge produced by our members and partners.
Encourage the evaluation of media development work as a way to identify and advance best practices, methods and technologies.

International Media Policy and Advisory Centre – GFMD IMPACT.

We support the development of good media policy

Through collaboration, coordination, and collective action our network creates, promotes, and delivers policies and programmes to sustain journalism as a public good.

We advocate to policymakers for policies that enable journalism to survive and thrive.
We advocate to tech companies / advertisers to create a digital ecosystem that secures a future for journalism.
We collaborate with members to improve their policy and advocacy skills.

We convene the media development community

GFMD has a unique, neutral, and trusted position, which allows it to bring together all the major actors in media development, local and regional media assistance groups, and the representatives of nascent media sectors to reach a common understanding of needs and priorities.

“Being a member of this network gives us a major opportunity to meet and exchange with colleagues, better coordinate our activities, and develop new partnerships.”
– Caroline Vuillemin, Directrice Générale, Fondation Hirondelle.

Vision

We envisage a world in which democracy, human rights, and sustainable development benefit from a pluralistic and informed public sphere underpinned by free, independent, and viable public-interest media and journalism.

We are adamant that a well-functioning independent media sector is critical to healthy democracies, to human rights, and sustainable development.

We believe that independent media and professional journalism are a public good and a pillar of development in their own right, and contribute to just, peaceful, and inclusive societies.