In November 2007, the OECD Development Centre and the Portuguese Development Institute (IPAD) jointly organised the Annual Meeting of the Informal Network of DAC Development Communicators.
The meeting looked at ways that communicators from donor agencies can work together to surmount shared challenges in communicating about development results. They also identified good practice in communicating about aid effectiveness and development results, in a manner that is coherent with the principles of the Paris Declaration – ownership, harmonisation, alignment, managing for results and mutual accountability. In particular, they looked at incentives – carrots and sticks – that are effective in raising the profile of communication in aid policies and programmes.
Euforic's Peter Ballantyne gave a presentation on new media. He explained how new technologies on the internet change the way internet users find information and how communicators can use these technologies to disseminate their messages:
The meeting looked at ways that communicators from donor agencies can work together to surmount shared challenges in communicating about development results. They also identified good practice in communicating about aid effectiveness and development results, in a manner that is coherent with the principles of the Paris Declaration – ownership, harmonisation, alignment, managing for results and mutual accountability. In particular, they looked at incentives – carrots and sticks – that are effective in raising the profile of communication in aid policies and programmes.
Euforic's Peter Ballantyne gave a presentation on new media. He explained how new technologies on the internet change the way internet users find information and how communicators can use these technologies to disseminate their messages:
- Blogs increasingly take over the role of the traditional news media. Internet users of today do not just visit websites, but interact with information that is brought to them from multiple sources through methods such as RSS feeds and social bookmarking.
- User generated content is playing an increasingly important role in a world where everybody is a communicator. Content from video sites, blogs and other sources is subsequently remixed into new content in different contexts.
- This changing internet and media environment is creating a challenge for all communicators. During and after the discussion it became clear that there is great interest for these technologies, but that Members are only just starting to use them.
- In Peter’s presentation there are numerous examples and links to these new technologies.