R4D Iraq

Final Report of the Peer-to-Peer Development and Support of Science Journalism in the Developing World: the SjCOOP Project. 1st April 2006 to 31st March 2009.

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 09:00 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ)

Production Year: 2009

Citation: World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ), 105 pp.

Summary:

SjCOOP1 objectives were to (1) develop a network of professional science journalists in Africa, North Africa and in the Middle East; (2) put in place national and regional associations of science journalists; and (3) strengthen the World Federation of Science Journalists as a supportive partner of science journalists in the developing world.

In 2009, at the end of SjCOOP, networks of science journalists are now in place in Africa and in the Arab World. Each network is made of one regional association complemented by national associations. The African network includes nine national associations (6 created by SjCOOP) with a total membership of 408 journalists. The Arab network is mainly represented by a pan-Arab association with two national associations (created through SjCOOP) representing some 215 journalists.

The 32 journalists who succeeded the SjCOOP training, and the African and Arab SjCOOP coordinators and mentors who participated in providing the training, now represent the hard core of these two networks of professional science journalists in Africa and in the Arab World. They work in 17 African countries (Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo (RDC), Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, and Zambia) and 5 Arab countries (Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon).

While supported by SjCOOP, these journalists have created the first pan-African science magazine, five new science TV programs, six new science radio programs, and seven new science beats in newspapers, magazines and news agencies. Fifteen of them have been promoted by their editors because of their new skills. Seventeen now freelance internationally. Their professionalism has been recognized by 44 prizes, awards, scholarships and internships awarded to 22 of them.

This hard core of African and Arab science journalists has learned to work together, across the frontiers of their respective countries, reporting on a few regional issues in 'transborders' articles. They have also established contacts with editors to publish these stories. They now use internet technologies like Skypechats and Skypecasts to keep in touch with scientists and colleagues. Through SjCOOP, they have introduced Skype news conferences with scientists in their respective regions.

Seven SjCOOP journalists have contributed to create the first ever online course in science journalism (8 lessons available in Arabic, English, French, and now in Portuguese and Spanish). The course is being used in universities. Two SjCOOP journalists have become professors of science journalism in universities in Egypt and Madagascar.

Five of the associations have organized their own conferences, workshops and training activities with SjCOOP support. This was done for the first time in Rwanda and Uganda. Several have done so in close collaboration with local science departments and academies.

With SjCOOP's conclusion, the African and Arab science journalists, individually and through their associations, are now active members of the world community of science journalists. Twelve associations from the developing world are now official members of the World Federation of Science Journalists and eight are twinned with associations in Asia, Europe and North America. This new global network in science journalism creates an incentive for better reporting and increased recognition of science journalists in the developing world.

Changing Lives: Making Research Real : Phase 2

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:54 GMT

Project Status: Current
Project Background: This project aims to raise the profile of research in the media in Africa and Asia. It does this by working with seasoned journalists to uncover the human interest stories within often complex research programmes funded by DFID and others. Stories are posted on the IPS wire service and have been used by commercial radio and print media throughout Africa and Asia to stimulate awareness and debate on development issues. This second phase build on the success of a trial phase one, and will expand the programme to include radio production and a South-South learning component to test the programme in Asia.

Project Objectives:

The specific objectives are:

To raise awareness of research by generating quality editorial content that highlights the impact and value of research for distribution to mainstream and community media;

To increase media uptake of news on research and create an understanding of the conditions necessary to support such increased use;

To develop evidence-based best practices for South-South learning by creating opportunities for interaction with Asian reporters.

Intended Outputs:

The programme will deliver the following outputs:

72 printed features
24 radio stories
6 radio programmes
monthly and quarterly newsletters
All stories will be profiled on a dedicated IPS multi-media platform and will reach audiences identified as DFID's key stakeholders, including the media (who subscribe to IPS features - 400 in Africa alone).
Building the capacity of southern journalists to report science, utilising an established network of IPS journalists

Actual Outputs: Programme products included:
1. Updated mini-site entitled “Changing Lives: Making Research Real” linked to the IPS Africa web-page with links to various research organizations;
2. 60 African online feature stories;
3. Twelve thematically linked feature stories from Asia;
4. Columns produced by southern researchers;
5. Twenty-four radio stories a month;
6. Selected online stories rewritten for radio "rip and read";
7. At least six radio programmes during the project period;
8. Weekly distribution to media on the continent;
9. Monthly html newsletter distribution;
10. Quarterly eight-page newsletter;
11. Updated branding and branding materials including pamphlets;
12. Marketed distribution to media in Africa;
13. Specific partnership drive to ensure IPS Africa can harness regional events to improve journalistic coverage of research;
14. Evaluation meeting with best practices guidelines developed.

Policing, Regime Change, and Democracy: Reflections from the Case of Mexico.

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:47 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: D. E. Davis

Production Year: 2007

Citation: Working Paper No. 22 (series 2), 2007, London, UK; Crisis States Research Centre, 27 pp.

Summary: This paper explores the experience of attempts to mount new policing operations and restore order in post-revolutionary Mexico, with the aim of generating policy insights for contemporary countries experiencing regime change, and in particular Iraq. It describes how and why the challenges of policing regime change in post-dictatorship Mexico laid the foundation for that country's descent into chaos. Central to this process were the problems engendered by trade-offs between democracy and public security, whereby the privileging of attempts to secure the latter over the former ultimately worked against both, producing further police corruption and abuse of power. More generally, the paper seeks to understand which organisational, political, and societal conditions are more or less likely to lead to the establishment of stable, professional, and non-partisan police who in turn play a positive role in facilitating democratic regime change. The experience of Mexico suggests that the more a new regime needs to count on citizen militias with their own political, ethnic, and religious exclusivities, as opposed to professional police with a commitment to non-partisan social inclusion, the worse the societal fragmentation and the greater the likelihood of persistent violence. The paper concludes that in situations where new regimes have been born out of violent conflict it might be unwise to rush into constitutional reforms that enhance and set in stone police powers. While putting off the task of constitution-making may prolong the effort to establish the foundations for democracy, the question is which elements of the constitution should be dealt with right now, and which might wait until a more propitious moment. In Iraq, a focus on building state institutions and making them accountable, transparent, and pluralistic is likely to provide a more fruitful way forward at this stage than constitutionally enhancing greater police powers.

RoboWar Dreams: Global South Urbanisation and the US Military's 'Revolution in Military Affairs'.

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:37 GMT

Document Type: Miscellaneous
Creator: S. Graham

Production Year: 2007

Citation: Working Paper No. 20 (series 2), 2007, London, UK; Crisis States Research Centre, 27 pp.

Summary: This article seeks to open up to critical scrutiny the attempts currently being made to reengineer post-Cold War US military power to directly confront global south urbanisation. Through analysing the discourses produced by US military commentators about 'urban warfare,' and the purported military and technological solutions that might allow US forces to dominate and control global south cities in the future, the paper demonstrates that such environments are being widely essentialised as spaces that necessarily work to undermine the United States' military's high-technology systems for surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting. The paper shows how, amid the on-going urban insurgency in Iraq, widescale efforts are being made to 'urbanise' these military systems so that US military forces can attempt to assert high-tech dominance over the fine-grained geographies of global south cities in the future. This includes an examination of how US and Israeli forces, by 2007, had already begun to implement ideas of robotised or automated urban warfare to counter the complex insurgencies in Iraq and Palestine/Israel, respectively.

Field Exchange - August 2003. Operational definition of famine: Summary of workshop.

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:00 GMT

Document Type: Report
Creator: S. Devereux

Production Year: 2003

Citation: Field Exchange - August 2003. Operational definition of famine: Summary of workshop. IDS Sussex, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, 3 pp.

Summary: A one day workshop was held on 14th March, 2003 by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Sussex, with the aim of developing an operational definition of famine. Convened as a follow-up to an IDS 2002 conference on famine, it was attended by a group of academics, donors, agencies and ENN. Four cases were highlighted to focus discussion.

On the Death Toll in Iraq from 1990.

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:00 GMT

Document Type: Research Paper
Creator: T. Dyson

Production Year: 2006

Citation: Occasional Paper No. 1, London, UK; Crisis States Research Centre, 32 pp.

Summary: The number of child deaths that have occurred in Iraq since 1990 because of the effects of conflict and economic sanctions is a matter of considerable contention. This paper examines detailed demographic data on the country, in particular that collected since 1990. After presenting a brief modern history of Iraq and commenting briefly on recent population trends in the country, the paper deals with levels and trends in fertility and child mortality by discussing the data and the context in which they were collected. The final sections provide estimates of the number of excess child deaths during 1991-2003 and comments on mortality at ages other than childhood, with particular reference to what has happened since the invasion of 2003.

Discussion Paper No.3. Democracy in the Desert: Civil Society, Nation-Building and Empire.

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:00 GMT

Document Type: Discussion Paper
Creator: Jean-Paul Faguet

Production Year: 2004

Citation: Faguet, J. P., Discussion Paper No.3, Democracy in the Desert: Civil Society, Nation-Building and Empire, 2004, London, UK; Crisis States Research Centre, 16 pp.

Summary: The new era of US empire commenced with decisive military victories in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the aftermath of war has proved surprisingly difficult and violent. Explanations of the US's failure to win the peace have largely overlooked the inherent difficulty of planting democracy in so inhospitable a social environment as Iraq's. This paper examines the prospects for US empire, focusing on the problem of nation building, and in particular the role of a well-functioning civil society in making democracy work.

Peer to Peer Development and Support of Science Journalism in the Developing World - the Support of Science Journalism in the Developing World Programme (SjCOOP)

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:00 GMT

Project Status: Current
Project Background: The WFSJ is a Canadian non-profit, INGO representing science and technology journalists associations. Its members are national, regional and other international associations of science and technology journalists. It serves to further science journalism as a bridge between scientists and the public. Its goal is to improve the quality of science reporting, promote standards and support science and technology journalists worldwide.

Project Objectives:

The Support of Science Journalism in the Developing World Programme (SjCOOP) has four main objectives. They are;

The professional development of science journalists in the developing world
The establishment of national and regional associations of science journalists in developing countries
Establish the WFSJ as a support to science journalists and associations in the developing world
Establishment of relationships between scientists and the media

Actual Outputs: This peer-to-peer mentoring project was successful in mentoring and graduating 32 science journalists, creating an online course in science journalism, fostering science journalists associations in Africa and the Middle East, supporting local activities of these associations, and creating international twinning arrangements among associations. Networking and contacts among journalists were highly valued and were directly linked to: improved training; reduced feelings of isolation; enhanced opportunities for twinning of associations; the development of local initiatives; and a sense of community among science journalists.