Publisher creates its own development programme

A development programme created by a private sector company? It makes perfect sense when you are India's largest newspaper publisher and the issue is something as fundamental as literacy.

India's Grass-Roots Teachers
55,000 volunteers from India's five biggest cities have signed up for Teach India, an initiative backed by the Times of India and the UN Volunteers programme working to spread literacy, and more importantly, quality education. In the first leg of the program — the biggest of its kind in India and possibly the world — 3,000 volunteers have already started teaching 53,000 children. "I want to take these children beyond just clearing exams," says Iyer. "I want to give them the power to think."
Run by the Times of India, one of India's leading English-language dailies, in collaboration with UN Volunteers, the program has already received over 100,000 applications from would-be volunteers and is struggling to accommodate them all. "Such a visionary and large-scale program has only been possible because we've been able to get the media, civil society and corporate sector together," says Adeline Aubry, a former UNV program officer under whom the initiative was launched. India has had a long tradition of volunteerism, she says, "but Teach India gives them a giant common platform for a common cause."

Read more in TIME magazine.
Learn more about the project from Times of India.

Definitions of Communications for Development

The 9th UN Round Table on Communication for Development, 2004, hosted by FAO in Rome:
“Communication for development is about people, who are the drivers of their own development; It contributes to sustainable change for the benefits of the poorest; It is a two way process [and] is about people coming together to identify problems, create solutions and empower the poorest; It is an approach of equal importance to all stakeholders; It is about the co-creation and sharing of knowledge; It respects indigenous knowledge and culture and that local context is key; It is critical to the success of the Millennium Development Goals”

‘The Rome Consensus: Communication for Development – A major pillar for Development and Change’, statement by The World Congress on Communication for Development, October 2006:

“Communication for Development is a social process based on dialogue using a broad range of tools and methods. It is also about seeking change at different levels including listening, building trust, sharing knowledge and skills, building policies, debating and learning for sustained and meaningful change. It is not public relations or corporate communication.”

Article 6, General Assembly resolution A/RES/51/172, December 1996:
“Communication for Development stresses the needs to support two-way communication systems that enable dialogue and that allow communities to speak out, express their aspirations and concerns, and participate in the decision that relate to their development”

The General Assembly “recognized the relevance for concerned actors, …policymakers and decision makers to attribute increased importance to communication for development and encouraged them to include it … as integral component in the development of projects and programmes”.

Photographer Awarded TED Prize for Work on War, Disease

The power of the news media to make a real difference in tackling a major disease is being actively explored in a unique private sector project

Wired magazine reports that photographer James Nachtwey received the 2007 Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Prize for his work documenting images of war, disease and political unrest across the globe for over 25 years. As a result, he got a $100,000 prize to spend on a 'wish': a project that he otherwise wouldn't get a chance to pursue.

Nachtwey chose to "share an underreported worldwide story, prove the power of news photography in the digital age and raise awareness about a global health issue that has the potential to become a worldwide pandemic — Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR TB)."

Wired.com: What does TED have the potential to do for this cause?

Nachtwey: When an issue is more widely known, a lot of things become facilitated — funding, new programs, treatment and scientific research. And it becomes something that has to be dealt with.

Wired.com: How will the internet help spread the message about this disease?

Nachtwey: Because there are so few pages in the traditional press for serious subjects, the internet has really taken the place of the traditional press to get those stories out there. One of the purposes of journalism is to create awareness. If we’re not aware of something, we can’t deal with it. Tuberculosis has a cure. If you take action on TB, you will get results.

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