The Drum Beat 201 - Political Participation

How can communication strategies and activities support people further participating in their own political development bearing in mind Jan Servaes's observation that "participation does not always entail cooperation or consensus. It can often mean conflict and usually poses a threat to existent structures..."? (Servaes 1996, 23 - as quoted in Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies and Strategies in Development Communication: Convergences & Differences" by Silvio Waisbord, Ph.D.)

This issue of The Drum Beat presents a number of initiatives, many of them grassroots, that raise this and other questions related to community involvement in political change.

PROGRAMMES

1. SEELINE (South Eastern European Legal Initiative) - South Eastern Europe
Initiated by the Croatia-based Be active Be emancipated (B.a.B.e.), this regional network of women's human rights organisations exchanges knowledge and engages in advocacy work to prevent violence against women and protect women's rights. Strategies include encouraging regional governments and parliaments to incorporate gender-sensitive provisions into the legal system, strengthening collaboration between women's human rights groups and concerned individuals, and making tribunals' work regarding violence against women publicly known and visible.
Contact seeline@zamir.net

2. Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices - India
This locally-based non-profit NGO seeks to effect change in communities throughout India by focusing on democracy at a grassroots level. Established by ActionAid in 1997, Praxis works to empower communities by conducting research and training that asks community members to identify and address their own problems. The goal is to communicate principles of democracy and to promote social equity and participation.
Contact Carolyn D. Williams princesspariah@angelfire.com

3. Red TV - Peru
Red TV's network includes 115 television channels in 24 departments throughout Peru, ranging from small municipal channels to commercial television companies. The network focuses on democracy and citizen awareness by developing skills in participative television production, debate, and discussion. It seeks to involve communities as well as universities and NGOs throughout Peru. Televisión Ciudadana (Citizen TV) provides training and technical assistance to local channels for segments that strive to strengthen local democracy, build citizen awareness, and promote debate and the participation of leaders and the local public. Pantalla Viva (The Living Screen) is a talk show featuring debate and opinion. The programme gives special importance to public participation by, for instance, inviting questions by telephone.
Contact Redtv@rcp.net.pe

4. Election 2002 Coverage - Sierra Leone
The Search for Common Ground - Sierra Leone (SFCG-SL), in conjunction with the European Centre for Common Ground, conducted a programme to ensure that the results of the May 14, 2002 Presidential & Parliamentary elections would be shared with the public in Sierra Leone. SFCG-SL engaged in coalition-building in the form of an Independent Radio Network and a network of youth monitors who worked to make the elections process transparent to citizens.
Contact ffortune@sfcg.org or rbesant@sfcg.org

THINKING

5. Information Age Government: Success Stories of Online Land Records & Revenue Governance from India
Details the justification for and outcome of efforts to foster and support e-governance in India, which has focused on systematising manual land use records. The successes and challenges associated with Karnataka: Bhooomi (Land), Himachal Pradesh: Lokmitra (People’s Friend), and Haryana: Rewari District are explored. The author concludes by noting that "Participation of the people in the developmental and democratic processes requires that the access to new technologies should be taken to grassroots. Merely putting computers in a government office won't help". 

6. Can Social Movements Save Democracy?
Reviews 4 books, drawing out these common themes: 1) Organising strategies can work, even in places with a diverse population and widespread poverty. 2) Groups organise themselves in participatory ways because it works, not simply because of an abstract commitment to participation. They build power by organising people through individual and group meetings, studying public issues that affect their interests, and engaging in direct action. 3) People participate in these groups to advance deep interests and values often rooted in religious conviction and practice. The reviewer concludes that social movements can press governments to restructure decision-making in ways that foster the direct and indirect participation of more citizens, as well as help community institutions create and engage in new approaches to democratic politics.

7. Looking Behind the Internet: Empowering Women for Public Policy Advocacy in Central America
Current research in Costa Rica and Nicaragua finds that e-government approaches view women as individual recipients and users of ICTs rather than organised actors. "Action-research" is designed to empower women by making public information (PI) and associated services more participatory and responsive to women's strategic and immediate needs. Research findings support: 1) Placing PI systems in the context of state-civil society relations. 2) Making PI systems and applications of ICTs more readily understandable. 3) Measuring the value of PI based on an understanding of where it comes from and how it is produced and disseminated. 4) Identifying key obstacles to the access, use, and appropriation of PI. 5) Prioritising possible solutions for PI production. 6) Using PI in solutions to social, economic, and political problems.

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The Pulse Poll

Decisions on who will lead major international development agencies should include an election process involving the people most affected by the issues that agency is seeking to address - eg: children 10 to 18 should vote for the next UNICEF Executive Director and people living on less than USD 2 per day should vote for the next World Bank President. 
Do you agree or disagree? 

[for context, please see - The Drum Beat #199]

VOTE!

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MATERIALS

8. Gacaca: Living Together Again in Rwanda? [film]
This 55-minute documentary film features a Rwanda-based grassroots justice system called the Gacaca Tribunals, which are designed to unify a nation that in the early 1990s experienced politically motivated ethnic killings. Citizens act as judges in an effort to democratise the justice system. By exploring the process of building and sustaining this new justice system, the film portrays the Tutsi and Hutu peoples' struggles to rebuild their lives and communities by dealing with the emotional trauma of their past and reconciling their deep differences.

9. Legislative Theatre: Using Performance to Make Politicians
An attempt to use theatre in a political context to engage the populace, Forum Theatre is based on the concept of the "spect-actor," the spectator who intervenes in an unresolved scenario on stage to try to break a cycle of oppression. As a politician in his native Rio de Janeiro, the author used Forum Theatre to involve the local populace in generating legislation and social change.

10. The People Have Spoken
This review of the June 1999 democratic elections in South Africa includes chapters on the role of civil society, voter education, election monitoring, and the media in the election process.

11. Zimbabwe: My Land, My Life [film]
Filmed over the 3-month period preceding the presidential elections, this 52-minute documentary explores political unrest and violence in Zimbabwe. Set in the farmlands of the tense and violent Mashonaland East area, the film follows the lives of a farmer, a farm worker, and a war veteran.

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New from Patricia Castano & Adelaida Trujillo (Director of La Iniciativa de Comunicacion)

War Takes: a documentary film
For over 4 years, 3 Colombian filmmakers turned their cameras on themselves, using personal stories to expose the reality in their war-ravaged country. According to these filmmakers, Colombia has been functioning for many years in the gray area between legalism and lawlessness... 

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LINKS

12. Coalition of Women for Peace
A group of Jewish and Palestinian women who coordinate and organise activities to mobilise Israelis to support: a political agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbours; the involvement of women in peace negotiations; the elimination of militarism in Israeli society; and equality, inclusion, and justice for all Israeli citizens.

13. Partnerships for Development Models (PDM)
Facilitates partnership formation between local governments, the private sector, and civil society for improved delivery of services and socio-economic development in South Africa.

14. Generation Europe S.A.
An online community catering to people aged 19-29 from countries across Europe. It's interactive features seeks to articulate and quantify young people's opinions on social and political issues and to shape public and corporate policy.

15. Tanzania Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (TANGO)
Supports the active role of NGOs in people-centred development in Tanzania based on the values of justice, peace, good governance, human rights, gender equality and equity, and sustainable human development. Offers information about activities conducted by Tanzanian NGOs and highlights events, partner news, job placements, and online lobby campaigns.

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This issue written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

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