Central European NGOs to raise awareness about development cooperation

Maastricht - March 5, 2008

Prague, 10 March, 2008 – The European Journalism Centre is cooperating with the Czech nonprofit People in Need, as well as four other organisations from new EU member states, to launch a three-year project which will strengthen the role of Central European countries within the context of European development aid and international politics.

A primary goal of the project is to engage the public with issues about the developing world and stimulate debate on development cooperation.

The program will focus primarily on politicians, university students, and journalists.

“One of the reasons why the developing world is not more visible in the Czech, Slovakian, Polish and Hungarian media is the lack of personal experience with developing countries, lack of information and insufficient budgets for traveling available to most of the media. We want to change this situation and make the coverage of these topics more similar to the way they are covered by European and American media where the developing world has more space available,” Blanka Medková of People in Need said. People in Need is the international coordinator of the project.

Reporters from Central Europe will be invited to take part in seminars led by experienced journalists who have worked for Reuters, participate in study trips and have an opportunity to exchange ideas and strengthen contacts with their counterparts in developing countries.

The subsequently improved media coverage is expected to have a positive impact on political decisions regarding the form and amount of foreign aid that Central European countries offer.

“The role media can play in bringing visibility to development issues is vital: decision-makers, society’s agents of change and the public at large, can be strongly influenced and pressured by hard-hitting, factual reporting and well-worded commentaries,” Josh LaPorte of the European Journalism Centre said. The EJC is the biggest European organisation specialising in education of journalism professionals.

The project will also directly ask the Central European politicians to participate in study trips to developing countries, attend seminars with development experts and take part in international conferences.

“Most politicians from this region have never had an opportunity to see extreme poverty in developing countries with their own eyes or to visit a development project. People are likely to decide differently about the budget for development cooperation if they have this kind of direct experience,” Medková said.

Additionally, experts from all four countries will prepare an analysis that will compare the development aid policies of their countries, which share similar historical backgrounds. This analysis will create a framework for sharing successful policies and models of development cooperation within the Central European context.

“Development cooperation should not only be about numbers and statistics. Improving the mechanisms and structures through which development aid is channeled is vital for ensuring a real positive impact on the lives of poor people in developing countries,” project organisers say.

Another important aspect of this three year program is raising awareness among university students who are not regularly confronted with these topics in their everyday curricula.
“It is important to approach this age group because it is today’s young people who will be steering the development politics in the future. They have one advantage compared to the older generation - many of them have had a chance to experience the developing world firsthand on their travels or volunteer trips,” Medková said.

The project is funded by the European Commission. It will be run by four organisations from new member states: Czech People in Need, Slovakian Partners for Democratic Change and Slovak NGDOs Platform (P MVRO), Polish Humanitarian Organisation Foundation and the Hungarian Foundation for Development of Democratic Rights. The media aspect will be implemented in cooperation with the European Journalism Centre from the Netherlands.

Posted on March 5, 2008 by EJC
Filed under news, development.