PCF5:Governance and social justice - session reports

Governance and social justice: sessions 1 and 2

Papers presented:

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

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

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

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.

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.