Community Media/Capacity Workshops/Vancouver Oct-09/Report

Report on COL Consultative Planning Meeting
The main focus of the meeting was on educational media programming, especially at a community level and in particular how programming is designed and developed. The meeting used COL’s community learning programme approach as a jumping off point, incorporating a range of experiences represented by the various participants. The main organisational references used at the meeting were COL and UNESCO plans for 2010-11 and 2009-12 respectively. Participants left the meeting with a clearer understanding of both COL and UNESCO programme priorities for coming periods.

Participation: Caribbean Institute for Media and Communication (Kingston), Media Training Centre for Health (South Africa), Maraa (Bangalore), Story Workshop (Malawi), UNESCO; COL consultants from Solomon Islands and Kenya; staff from COL and UNESCO.

Results of the meeting

 * 1) Key partners met and trained each other in implementing approaches to participatory educational media
 * 2) In the process the partners developed a framework for an online toolkit that is now being used to develop pilot educational media programmes, thereby testing both the approach and the toolkit as well as feeding the ongoing evaluation of the toolkit materials
 * 3) Initiatives have been since been seeded in Tanzania, South Africa, and the Solomon Island: a total of six community learning programmes are now in development: one in Karagwe, Tanzania, four in Isabel Province, Solomon Islands and one in Upington, South Africa; an additional 2-3 programmes will be established Jan-Jun 2010 in India and one or more other locations
 * 4) Longitudinal research is being planning for the Phukusi la Moyo programme in Mchinji District, Malawi

UNESCO-COL connections in line with the joint action plan

 * Discussions with UNESCO Windhoek about potential collaboration in gender and health programming at a community multimedia centre in Keetmanshoop, Namibia
 * Activities to support educational content for community media in Tanzania; pilot learning programme developed in Karagwe about HIV/AIDS; additional partnership with MISA Tanzania, Institute for Adult Education, Community Media Network of Tanzania
 * Prospective collaboration in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Solomon Islands

Follow-up plans (at Dec-09)

 * Continue successful initiatives until 2012 increasingly integrating applied research into programme development and production.
 * Feedback on programme outputs and outcomes at PCF6 and through a Perspectives Series publication on Media for Learning