WGCOMED

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WGCOMED

• Communication for Education and Development
• April 13, 2004

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WHAT CAN COMMUNICATION CONTRIBUTE TO EDUCATION?
Groupe de Travail
Working Group
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Comprehensive Programfor Targeted Populations
Possible contributions of communication to
education
4.Mobilise partners
5.Inspire pedagogy
3.Advocate education issues
6.Promote visibility and image of education
COMMUNICATION
PLWHA Networks
2.Enhance dialog and debate
1.Provide information
7.Promote enrolment
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COMED Vision

• Joint action for building confidence, trust and
  ownership. Ministries, media and education
  stakeholders can work towards a common objective
  promoting education
• Media Teachers Ministries
• COMED
  NGOs Parents Students Donors

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COMED Brief history1998 First
experts consultation to set capacity -building
agenda (Cotonou)1999Ministerial meetingon
communication for education and development
(Harare) First training workshop
(Cotonou)2000Evaluationof phase I
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2002 COMED becomes ADEA Working Group

• STEERING COMMITTE (2004)
• Lead Agency (NORAD)-Sissel Volan
• ADEA Secretariat-Joris van Bommel
• Communication Officer-Ibrahima Sarr (Senegal)
• Journalist-Cornia Pretorius(South Africa)
• Communications Trainer-Ben Zulu(ASDF)
• Education/Gender Specialist-Penina Mlama(FAWE)
• Agencies-Birger Fredriksen (World Bank)
• Coordinator-Alfred Opubor (COMED/WANAD)

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COMED Funding

• Norwegian Education Trust Fund
• World Bank
• ADEA

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COMED Program thrusts... CAPACITATIONSETTIN
G STANDARDS LINKAGING

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Working With Ministries of Education

• National training for communication officers
• Needs assessment finding
• No standard job descriptions or performance
  criteria
• Backgrounds, experience, competencies vary widely
• Most require basic training in professional
  communication skills

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COMED Curriculum COMED Curriculumfor
communication officersObjective enhance
ministerial capacity for institutional
communicationModulesDesigning and managing
communication strategiesCommunication
techniques and tools Institutional
communication program design and
managementInternal communications
Public/external relations Media/ press
relations Public affairs communication/advocacy
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Working With Ministries of Education

• Helping to design ministerial communication
  strategies, e.g.
• Djibouti
• Senegal
• Gabon

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Working with Media
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Media training

• Curriculum for journalists
• Issues and sources of information in education
• Skills in journalism for education
• Media coverage of major education events

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Encouraging media excellence

• The Akintola Fatoyinbo Africa Education
  Journalism Award

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Building trust joint modules(for communication
officers and journalists)

• News in education (critique of media coverage and
  news values)
• Communication, education and development
• How to define a national communication strategy
  for education
• Building networks of communicators for education
  and development
• New information/communication technologies

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Working with other stakeholders

• FAPE lecole des parents
• Parents talking to parents
• Objective
• increase access (esp. for girls)
• increase parents participation in schools
• Radio-based strategy radio programs APE
  listening groups (May-September 2004)
• Burkina Faso Guinea Senegal

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Working with other stakeholders

• National Policy Dialogue Teams (ministries,
  teachers unions, womens groups)
• ADEA/IBE/WBI training seminars on policy
  dialogues in education
• COMED module on communication strategies in
  support of policy dialogues

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Future Directions

• Priority National capacity building
• Ministries (strategic communication)
• Media (education specialization)
• Parents etc.(communication /advocacy strategy)
• EFA/policy dialogues (communication strategy)

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Challenges

• Diversifying resource base
• Increasing national commitment to developing
  communication strategy for education/EFA
• Accessing national resources for COMED training
  programs

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End Quote

• Education is the key to economic and social
  development. If we can get our leaders to
  understand that education deserves priority, we
  would have accomplished a marvelous task...Our
  role as journalists is very important but to
  become more effective development actors, we need
  to comprehend the major issues in education.
• -Akintola Fatoyinbo, COMED initiator and first
  Program Manager (final public statement,
  Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, 30 November 2002. Akin
  passed on the following day, 1 December, 2002)