Mapping of media assistance and journalism support programmes in the Western Balkans region
16. July 2024
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This mapping of media development and journalism support projects in the Western Balkans seeks to provide an overview of programmes as a basis for discussion among donors, media support organisations, media outlets and journalists about the experience and lessons learned from implementing media assistance in Western Balkans as well as for initiating conversations on strategies for future interventions.
Purpose
The mapping was conducted in preparation for the GFMD Regional Meeting for the wider European region, held on May 24, 2024, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as an official side event of the International Press Institute (IPI) World Congress. It focuses on media development and journalism support programmes implemented in individual countries, as well as across the Western Balkans, between 2020 and May 2024. It is therefore a snapshot in a specific moment of time of the current and recently closed programmes funded by donors and implemented by GFMD members and other implementing organisations operating in this region.
This information intends to assist donors, implementers and media communities in the region in their efforts to effectively coordinate media support, avoid overlap and duplication, and identify gaps in funding.
Methodology
The mapping was a collective and collaborative effort; information was gathered by a GFMD consultant, the GFMD Secretariat, partners, members and donor organisations working in the Western Balkans. Sources included the websites and databases of bilateral and philanthropic donors and implementing partners (USAID, GIZ, EU funding and tenders portal, Internews, NED others), regional and national organisations implementing media assistance and journalism support programmes (BIRN, MDIF and others) and D-portal.
The mapping is an attempt to provide a broad overview of media support funding in the region. However, this information is not exhaustive, as it depends on the public data available, as well as contributions from partner organisations. [1] It may thus inadvertently exclude or limit information related to organisations that do not work directly with GFMD or our partners and/or overrepresent programmes implemented by them. Overlap might also be possible in cases where smaller calls for subgrants could have been parts of larger multiannual media support programmes.
Key findings
In preparing the summary of mapped programmes dedicated to supporting media in the Western Balkans, the GFMD team aimed to identify the following:
- Geographical Distribution of Funding: 33% are regional programmes covering more than one country.
- Programme Descriptions: Nearly 28% of the funding is dedicated to democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression.
- Type of Funding: Most programmes provide conditional funds for specific activities, with only 5.2% (three programmes) offering core support (unrestricted funding for operations and core activities).
- Sources of Funding: The EU funds the largest number of programmes (18 out of 58) through the European Commission or the EU delegation in the host country. The US funds 14 programmes, with two through USAID/Washington and the rest via US Embassies and USAID Missions. Sweden funds 12 programmes. Other funders include UNESCO, the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), among others.
- Implementing Organisations: 15% (6 out of 41) of the programmes are delivered by NGOs based in the donor country. Programmes implemented by national NGOs and media based in the region account for 43.9% of the total.
- Amounts of Funding: The largest programme is the Media Innovation Activity in Serbia, with a budget of over $13 million, implemented by IREX and funded by USAID and SIDA.
- Overall Budget: The methodology focused on programmes initiated, concluded, or in some phase of implementation from 2020 to 2024. Out of 58 mapped programmes, total budgets were identified for 33, amounting to €54,710,837. The average annual amount is approximately €12.72 million.
Conclusions
Breakout groups discuss practical ways that the principles could be implemented during the GFMD regional meeting for the wider European region, May 24 2024
This mapping was conducted in preparation for the GFMD Regional Meeting for the wider European region, where one of the main focuses of discussion were the OECD Development Cooperation Principles on Relevant and Effective Support to Media and the Information Environment. These Principles aspire to encourage development cooperation providers and other actors to improve the relevance and effectiveness of their support and policies to preserve, protect, and promote public interest media and information integrity in the following ways:
- Ensure that assistance does no harm to public interest media.
- Increase financial and other forms of support.
- Take a whole-of-system perspective.
- Strengthen local leadership and ownership.
- Improve coordination of support.
- Invest in knowledge, research, and learning.
In analysing the mapping, and in preparing its conclusions, we examined how the current snapshot of media assistance in the Western Balkans compares with the OECD Principles as a framework, and if the existing themes and modalities of support are in line with these guidelines.
Ensure that assistance does no harm to public interest media (Principle 1)
- Many programmes use media to achieve other development goals (encourage dialogue, increase environmental reporting, report on cultural heritage).
- The Principles encourage donors to ensure that when implementing this type of support, it does not do harm by “endeavouring that any use of media to achieve other development goals (“media for development)” upholds journalistic standards of quality, professionalism, and independence, and supports core media resilience.” [2]
Strengthen local leadership and ownership (Principle 4)
- Close to 44% of programmes appear to be implemented via country-based NGOs and media.
- We would need to conduct further research and analysis to identify the level of participation of local organisations in needs assessment and programme design. The NED awards direct grants to locally and regionally based NGOs and media demonstrating a positive trend towards empowering local ownership.
- However, the majority of funding appears to support project-based programmatic activities, indicating a lack of core support programmes for media and journalism. Compared to other donors, NED has awarded more than a quarter of its grants in 2020 for core support to media, and developing and supporting their key capacities, demonstrating practices more aligned with this Principle. Similarly, EED’s commitment to providing flexible, tailor-made support, driven by local needs, demonstrates practices aligning with the principle calling for strengthening local leadership and ownership.
Improve coordination of support (Principle 5)
- Only 4 out of 58 mapped programmes are funded by more than one donor organisation, indicating that joint or pooled funding would be a potential direction for donors to consider in order to use the available funding more effectively and efficiently.
- Observing that nearly one-third of mapped projects are regional, we point out one of the comments made by a local donor representative at the GFMD “Consultations on the principles for effective media development” meeting organised in Belgrade, Serbia on April 14, 2022, reflecting on the donor practise to award regional programmes:
“Determining the same priorities for the six different countries and different contexts is not efficient, some priorities can be relevant for some but not for all countries in the region. In these situations, local offices implement programmes because they were selected as regional priorities even though they are not likely to be effective”.
We would suggest that donors ensure that regional programmes are sufficiently flexible to capture the specifics of each of the countries. This would also be in alignment with Principle 4, which recommends contextualising “risks and opportunities for public interest media and information integrity, tailoring assistance to each individual context” and ensuring that assistance responses remain grounded in local realities, bottom-up, evidence-based, and demand-driven, with audiences and the public interest always at the centre.”
[1] – In an increasingly competitive environment some organisations are understandably less than willing to
share information on funders for fear of others ‘poaching’ their funding sources.