PULSE Rate - results & comments

PULSE Rate - results & comments
May 29, 2002

from The Communication Initiative...global forces...local choices...critical
voices...telling stories...

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So what do the community of people and organisations working on the range of
development issues think about some of the major questions that confront our
work? The new technologies provide the opportunity for direct input and
expression with almost immediate communication back to your peers.

We have held 7 PULSE polls so far. Over 1,000 contributions have been
received. The polls are not scientific, but they do provide an indication of
the perspectives and opinions of the international development community - a
collection of voices that has previously been restricted to major, often
expensive, international conferences. Because each PULSE asks a YES or NO
question, in addition to soliciting comments, an overall view can be
assessed. This complements the commentary style of on-line chat fora.

Below we have included a selection of comments, along with the results and
our perspective on some of the issues raised in all 7 of the Polls.

You can still contribute to all Polls. Please do - links follow.

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#1 WITHOUT DIVERSIFIED MEDIA OWNERSHIP [EG PRIVATE SECTOR, THE STATE,
COMMUNITY GROUPS] IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO HAVE REPRESENTATIVE, DEMOCRATIC
GOVERNMENT IN A COUNTRY.

Almost everyone agreed - 90.91%. Two observations: If such diversified media
ownership is essential for genuinely representative government, given
present media trends, is there a danger in the countries of The South of
replacing one media monopoly, the State, with another, Private Sector; and,
does this disqualify the USA [almost all private sector media] as a
representative democracy?

Comments received:

Agree -
"Media increasingly plays the role of mediator in social affairs, and thus
without a media that can voice all (or many) sectors in society, those
voices are unheard. It is also true that a diversified media may not be
enough, if the values that underpin democracy are not rooted in the
society." [South Africa]

Disagree -
"Even if there were no media at all, democracy is always possible. Media
coverage is expansive and not always trusted. Without media,
representatives work differently and are more near the people which will
elected them." [ ]

Contribute - http://www.comminit.com/pulse/pulse_1.html
Comments - http://www.comminit.com/PulseComments/sld-4116.html

#2 IDENTIFYING AND ADDRESSING THE ROOT CAUSES OF TERRORISM SHOULD BE ONE OF
THE HIGHEST PRIORITIES FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY.

For many countries the 'terrorism' issue was huge over the past 9 months for
obvious reasons. But should that make it an international development
priority? We were surprised - 64% said 'yes'. Our expectation was that most
respondents would seek to preserve the established development priorities.
In agreeing many respondents argued that the high political priority on
'terrorism' provided an opportunity to address the issues that are at the
heart of most specific development issues, such as poverty and cultural and
religious discrimination.

Comments received:

Agree -
"If only it were so easy. Often the causes seem to be known but are
difficult to eradicate. Chronic poverty, unemployment, corruption, political
instability, how does one even begin to address these?" [India]

Disagree -
"Should only happen as a side line to development as is not dependent on the
other. The most important thing - poverty alleviation - is the key but this
does not mean that the main game is the prevention of terrorism". [Samoa]

Contribute - http://www.comminit.com/pulse/pulse_2.html
Comments - http://www.comminit.com/PulseComments/sld-4244.html

#3 SUPPORTING INVESTMENTS IN THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES BY ORGANISATIONS WORKING
"ON-THE-GROUND" SHOULD BE THE #1 COMMUNICATION PRIORITY FOR FUNDERS

Though 55% agreed, only 54 people participated. Which we found interesting.
There have been hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the new
technologies by development organisations and 'interesting' claims made
about the role of such technologies for positive development. And there are
many who doubt the value of such investments and the validity of the claims.
Which should have made for a good debate from divergent perspectives. Alas!

Comments received:

Agree -
"It is a great and cost-saving way to make the vast potential of local
knowledge directly available to the complex development arena." [Bhutan]

Disagree -
"What is required is a close coordination between those who work on ground
and the new ICT operators. If there is no coordination between the two, the
funding alone will not serve the cause." [India]

Contribute - http://www.comminit.com/pulse/pulse_3.html
Comments - http://www.comminit.com/PulseComments/sld-4282.html

#4 THE INTERNET IS A FORCE THAT DESTROYS CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Not in the opinion of 75% of partipants, most of whom were adamant that the
internet would have the opposite effect - cultural diversity would be
enhanced. This flies in the face of the perceived wisdom most often
expressed in this field.

Comments received:

Agree -
"I do believe that internet unifies, beliefs and ideas and there through
changes cultures. I woudn't consider it as a negative dimension necessarily
since cultures are in constant move and they change all the time. They
change but they also produce and create new ideas from inside. Internet is
juts one influence in this constant flow of movements." [Egypt]

Disagree -
"The internet is a gateway to understanding many different cultures.
Regardless of all the western advertisement, people can find all sorts of
viewpoints from different cultures on innumerable issues that it can only
show the cultural diversity that comes out of the internet." [Philippines]

Contribute - http://www.comminit.com/pulse/pulse_4.html
Comments - http://www.comminit.com/PulseComments/sld-4475.html

#5 THE RESULTS FROM THE U.N. CONFERENCE ON DEVELOPMENT FINANCING [WHICH
CONCLUDED LAST WEEK IN MONTEREY, MEXICO] WILL MEAN SIGNIFICANT ECONOMIC AND
SOCIAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE WORLD'S POOREST COUNTRIES.

This was a big event with all sorts of "promises" - some more promising than
others! As it turned out - this had the lowest participation of any PULSE
poll, 31 people, and 17 of them disagreed with the statement. It could be
dangerous to read too much into this but maybe, just maybe, there have been
so many big, expensive international conferences, with so many [broken or
unspecific] promises that many of us have just tuned out.

Comments received:

Agree -
"I agree with it but always with an 'if'. Funds are a necessary condition,
but never a sufficient condition. The approach will have to be holistic,
otherwise we can always be one more project which has funds but does not
know how to use them meaningfully." [India]

Disagree -
"Many conferences, little effect." [Senegal]

Contribute - http://www.comminit.com/pulse/pulse_5.html
Comments - http://www.comminit.com/PulseComments/sld-4538.html

#6 THE PEOPLE MOST DIRECTLY AFFECTED BY A DEVELOPMENT ISSUE HAVE THE BEST
IDEAS, ANALYSIS AND OPINIONS ABOUT HOW TO ADDRESS THAT ISSUE.

This poll produced, if we can add a qualitiative assessment, the most
in-depth and considered set of comments from all of the polls to date.
Perhaps because the issue strikes at the heart of an ongoing tension in
international development. Investments and efforts have recently [last 20
years] tended to favour the outside expert developing the simple, technical
solution. But has that approach worked and is it desirable to continue such
a strategy? 66% said the people most affected have the best ideas, analysis
and opinions about how best to move forward.

Comments received:

Agree -
"It is not enough to agree. Development workers must listen, respect and
trust the ideas and opinions of the directly affected people. Who can feel
their pain better than they do? Who can react to their pain better than they
do? There is a saying in Aarabic "Those whose hands are in water are not
like those whose hands in fire"." [Palestine]

Disagree -
"Involved people do not always have the long-term or in depth view of an
issue. It's like a focus group which is usually unfocussed." [UK/Senegal]

Contribute - http://www.comminit.com/pulse/pulse_6.html
Comments - http://www.comminit.com/PulseComments/sld-4681.html

#7 THE TERM 'THIRD WORLD' IS OFFENSIVE AND SHOULD NOT BE USED.

Communicators need words and phrases that accurately and emotively describe
concepts, situations and issues. As all progressive political movements have
stressed, words matter. They convey implicit and sometimes expicit meaning.
60% of contributors found the term 'Third World' offensive, and explained
why.

Comments from contributors:

Agree -
"It's a hangover from the cold war and even then was pejoritive. We live in
a new world ... remember Indira Gandhi's famous quote : "We are not a bloc
or a Third world, but part of this, our only world."" [Trinidad]

Disagree -
"Too much time and energy is wasted on finding the right definitions, while
the situation stays the same. We better work on that." [Uganda]

Contribute - http://www.comminit.com/pulse/pulse_7.html
Comments - http://www.comminit.com/PulseComments/sld-4773.html

#8 - CURRENT - BECAUSE IT UNDERPINS ALL DEVELOPMENT ISSUES, ADDRESSING
ECONOMIC POVERTY SHOULD BE THE ONLY INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PRIORITY AND
PROGRAMME.

Plese contribute at - http://www.comminit.com/pulse.html

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Partners: The Rockefeller Foundation, BBC World Service Trust, The CHANGE
Project, CIDA, The European Union, Exchange, FAO, Johns Hopkins University
Center for Communication Programs, The Panos Institute, Soul City, The
Synergy Project, UNAIDS, UNICEF, USAID, WHO.