The Drum Beat 334 - Communicating Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

A series of Drum Beat issues published in 2005 highlighted some of the specific ways in which communication is being used to help address and impact on the achievement of each of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - on local, regional, national, and international levels. To access these past issues, visit The Drum Beat archives and enter "mdg" in the keyword search. For more information on the MDGs, click here.

In anticipation of our 2006 MDG series, the current issue features just a sampling of the experiences, thinking, and resources that have been developed to address the MDGs generally (in terms of issue/goal) and globally (in terms of reach). A key focus of the items highlighted here is on involving citizens of all ages, as well as civil society more generally, in awareness-raising and activism around the Goals.

In addition to guiding communicators' future MDG-related efforts, we hope that this issue will also inspire participation in our upcoming MDG-specific issues, scheduled to be published this year; please send your materials to Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com Many thanks!

INVOLVING CITIZENS

- drawn from: Programme Experiences

1.MDG Youth Campaign Kit - Global

TakingITGlobal, in partnership with the Global Youth Action Network (GYAN) and the United Nations Millennium Campaign, has created an online toolkit which includes an action guide, brochures, fundraising guidelines, a sample press release, sample letters to a government representative, stickers, bookmarks, and postcards. This free information and guidance is designed to support young people who wish to use their voice to raise awareness about and advocate for the need to take action to meet the MDGs in communities around the world. The goal is to spur young people to get involved: "You might think achieving all of the Goals by 2015 is the responsibility of politicians, and that there is little you can do to help. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Contact info@takingitglobal.org OR Benjamin Quinto gyan@takingitglobal.org

2.Only With Your Voice - Global

The United Nations' Millennium Campaign has produced celebrity clips that involve well-known musicians, actors and actresses, a Nobel Laureate, sports figures, an animal rights campaigner, and others asking the global public to sign an online pledge to hold world leaders to "do exactly what we say; to create a better world and a better future for all." Public service announcements (PSAs) - shared on television and through an interactive website - are a key advocacy tool for stimulating members of the global public to use their voices to demand action. In addition, an e-card option includes a particular message from the selected celebrity spot, with a note that asks the recipient to demand that governments keep their Millennium promise.

Contact Mandy Kibel amanda.kibel@undp.org

3.Beautiful Struggle: The Thousand Word Project - Global

The World Youth Centre and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) are engaging young artists in a mural project meant to stimulate awareness and action around the MDGs. This programme uses art as a channel for bringing to light young people's interpretations of a particular struggle that currently affects their communities, and the ways in which they have come together to rise above adversity. The goal is to build the credibility of young people in their communities while also developing a network, providing a platform for youth to voice their needs and priorities, encouraging grassroots entrepreneurship, and promoting cross-cultural and cross-border communication. The project will culminate in the publishing of a book to be distributed throughout junior-high schools and high schools worldwide as an educational and empowerment tool. The book will feature photographs of each mural and will be accompanied by 1,000-word essays on the MDG-related problems that young people in particular locales face.

Contact Javid Alibhai thousandwordproject@gmail.com

4.2015: Where Will We Be? - Global

Launched by the BBC World Service Trust, this project uses the internet, television, radio, and in-person events to provide a platform for global audiences to get involved and debate development issues highlighted by the MDGs. In all of these media, words, images, and sound are meant to incorporate the visitor/viewer into these debates, making the issues more "real". For example, an interactive web platform is designed to enable visitors to share and compare their perspectives with those of BBC users around the world; these tools include forums that provide opportunities to contribute opinions to topical debates, audio-visual stories, an e-survey in 6 languages, a quiz, and radio programmes in 7 languages. Placing an emphasis on broadcasting the voices of diverse individuals, this initiative attempts to monitor the progress that is being made in achieving the MDGs by the 2015 endpoint, as well as the challenges that are hampering progress.

Contact Eleanor Morris eleanor.morris@bbc.co.uk

5.Nick 2015 Initiative - Global

Nickelodeon's 26 channels across the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America broadcast a series of 30-second original animation shorts highlighting how the MDGs affect the lives of kids worldwide and what they can do to have a voice in their future. One strategy involved the use of awards as an incentive to increase participation, learning, and creative reflections/expressions on the part of children. The theme of the Nick 2015 "Hear My Voice" contest was Aspirations: "Do something that represents your life today and then something that you want in your life in 2015." Selected artwork from each country was to be displayed at the foyer of the United Nations Building in New York.

Contact Mr. Anand Kantaria anand.kantaria@undp.org OR Mandy Kibel amanda.kibel@undp.org OR Cathy Phiri Phiri.Cathy@mtvne.com

6.Eight Ways to Change the World - Global

Produced by Panos Pictures, this online and in-person photography exhibition uses visual communication to draw attention and aid to the MDGs. Eight photographers, each sponsored by a leading British development agency, produced a set of photographs from the developing world, along with a personal testimony about what the experience meant to him or her. The photographic essays are designed to bring the lives of ordinary people living in poverty sharply into focus, highlighting the power of ordinary citizens' participation in action and advocacy around the Goals. Along those lines, the exhibition challenges visitors to make a pledge to do one thing themselves to change the world. Their pledges were to be displayed, pinned up with their portraits, as a colourful interactive installation.

Contact Adrian Evans pics@panos.co.uk OR adrian@panos.co.uk

SOME CHALLENGES

- drawn from Strategic Thinking

7.Mind the Communication Gap...

by Nalaka Gunawardene

Gunawardene argues that development experts have largely failed to communicate the development message in words that the public can understand. He proposes a simple test for development workers and United Nations (UN) officials: "explain to the humblest non-technical person in the office the core message and relevance of your work." Most, Gunawardene theorises, would fail this test. Examples of the communication gap are drawn from a recent meeting at the Asian Development Bank in Manila, where banners were displayed that read "eliminate gender disparity", "reduce child mortality" or "integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes" - phrases which, to Gunawardene, "obfuscate rather than communicate" the development message. Gunawardene notes the much greater success that entertainers like Bob Geldof and Bono have had in communicating the poverty message to mass audiences. He proposes that experts can learn from such approaches, and provides a series of communication tips for engaging media in order to reach greater audiences with the development message.

8.Towards the MDGs

by Warren Feek

In this presentation, delivered at a May 2005 discussion at the London, UK headquarters of a networking and learning programme on health communication for development called Exchange, Warren Feek proposes a different way of understanding the "MDG" acronym: Media Development and Development Communication = Gains in Development Progress. Feek argues that stronger evidence is needed to show that communication is essential to meeting the Goals, speculating that perhaps the evaluation "holes" that exist in fact persist because there is a fundamental "mismatch" between the nature of the MDGs and the communication strategies being developed to try to meet them: Whereas communicators often emphasise and value that which is generated by those affected, sensitive to social and behavioural dynamics, process-focused, and context-specific, the MDG vision is centrally decided, expert-shaped, universal and technical, geared toward short-term impact, and culture-neutral. In response, he proposes 5 areas of action that he thinks could help redress the mismatch.

9.ICTs and the MDGs: On the Wrong Track?

by Richard Heeks

Heeks' core premise is that the MDGs "run the risk of skewing the development agenda, and they also run the risk of marginalising [information and communication technologies, or] ICTs." Observing that an assumption has already been made that the MDGs are viewed as a priority for application of ICTs, he counters that ICTs are being used in places where "they are often least able to be implemented, least able to succeed, least able to sustain and, hence, least able to make a contribution to development as seeking to address fundamental injustices and inequities that everyone faces worldwide." Heeks suggests that agencies which invest in ICT projects should consider an "organic" approach of following fashion (e.g., by attending to the development potential of mobile telephony) rather than the inorganic approach of trying to create one's own fashion statement (e.g., by trying to increase access to the personal computer).

COMMUNICATION NEWS & CONVERSATIONS

10.Development Deadline 2015

A weekly e-newsletter from Inter Press Service (IPS) providing readers with "independent news reporting on how the Millennium Development Goals are influencing policy decisions and making a difference on the ground."

11.FLOSS in ICT4D to Achieve MDGs

A forum exploring the efficacies of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) in Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) and fulfillment of the MDGs.

12.World Volunteer Web Speakers' Corner

An online platform for debate on how volunteers contribute to achievement of the MDGs.

SUPPORTING CIVIL SOCIETY

- drawn from Materials

13.Campaigning Toolkit for Civil Society Organisations Engaged in the Millennnium Development Goals

by Jacqui Boulle & Debbie Newton

This toolkit includes background on the MDGs and on the role of government, civil society and the private sector in pursuing these goals. The authors focus on the tools and skills needed to start a campaign promoting the MDGs, and include links to campaign resources from the United Nations and civil society.

14.MDG Toolkit

This series of free course modules is designed to help organisations work with national governments to achieve the MDGs. These modules, which may be rearranged to suit the needs of any organisation, are intended for use in workshop groups where participants can learn interactively through discussions and activities.

15.miniAtlas of Millennium Development Goals: Building a Better World

This at-a-glance guide to the global problems and challenges that have bearing on achievement of the MDGs presents colourful world maps and graphics that provide information for over 200 countries and territories on issues ranging from eradicating poverty and reducing child mortality to eliminating HIV/AIDS and promoting environmental sustainability.

* Other Resources:

16.Millennium Development Goals Report 2005

17.UN ICT Task Force Series 6 - Creating an Enabling Environment: Toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

by Denis Gilhooly

18.Aid Harmonization: What Will It Take to Meet the MDGs?

This issue was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.


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