PCF5:Governance and social justice - session reports

Session details

 * Date: ... Wednesday July 16...
 * Time: ... 11:00 am and 2:00 pm...
 * Room: ... 822 ...

Session papers
Papers presented:


 * 1) Parliamentary Strengthening Programmes: improving access, availability and governance through a self-paced learning probramme - Mr. Mitchell O'Brien (in place of Brooke Prater)


 * 1) The role of open and distance learning in providing support for the decentralization and democrratisation process in Namibia - Ms. Ndeshimona Afunde


 * 1) Trnasforming citizen-leadership engagement, governance institutions and development in communities or quarters: the example of mile 19 in Cameroon - Mr. Daniel Mbwage


 * 1) Using Culture to transform attitudes - Mr. Rafiqul Khokan

Key Issues that arose in the session

 * It is important to build on culture. The use of humour within culture is an effective way to tackle sensitive issues and attitudes around good governance;
 * governance interventions should dovetail with existing training programmes for the target group of learners;
 * to ensure clarity of focus, time must be taken to ensure partners have common objectives
 * traditional and modern processes and structures can overlap at the community level;
 * use of radio with phone is a possible way to allow communities without internet availability to partcipate in a form of OERs - developing curricula interactively through radio and phone.

Points for future action (Policy, recommendations, commitments etc.)

 * find ways to incorporate forms of culture in good governance to build changes on strong platform for sustainability and to encourage busy people to stick with the course;
 * find ways that allow learners to be involved in material development through radio and phone where internet access is not a possibility;
 * networks are important for initiatives and for organizatios working in this field - establish an open social-network forum as place to share ind diseminate research and materials and discuss challenges.