Re: IN MEMORIAM: PANOS LONDON
http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/memoriam-panos-london (and some excerpts below)
Greetings
«Panos was a curious blend of independent journalism and participatory communication, but it was not about advocacy. The development world is full of advocates keen to communicate their analysis and their prescriptions. This has been responsible for much of the energy and success of development in recent years but there is – or at least was – room too for development analysis that seeks to explain and illuminate rather than persuade. As advocacy fills the development sphere, that role seems more relevant now than ever.» (James Deane)
http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/memoriam-panos-london
In any field of work there will be times that prompt you to pause for serious reflection and analysis. For me the closing of our very valued partner Panos London provides the stimulus for such reflection and analysis.
This was one of the original agencies to place now central issues such as the environment and HIV/AIDS onto the development agenda. It was also at the forefront of respecting and supporting the voices, information and analysis of the people and countries that were directly experiencing the major development issues. Reflecting its principles Panos developed a structure in which all of the Panos’ offices across Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Europe were equal – rather than the still predominant and traditional HQ in the North and «branch» offices in countries. (Please note that it is only Panos London that is closing)
James Deane who held numerous posts in Panos London has written a blog – see http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/memoriam-panos-london – in which he reflects on the strategic principles that drove Panos London, the contribution it made to development thinking and action, and the challenges that remain for all of us when one reviews the state of development from the prism of the Panos perspective.
A few excerpts follow. Can I please encourage you, your colleagues and networks to access the full blog athttp://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/memoriam-panos-london and take a few minutes to review James’s analysis, enter your reactions into the Comments block, provide a rating of how valuable this blog is to your work and share the blog with your online networks.
Your response, analysis, questions and ideas will help all of us to further refine and improve our work.
EXCERPTS
«Panos, and organisations like Earthscan before them, believed that the foundation of human progress is built on people having access to the information that shapes their lives, and to communicate with each other and to those in authority.»
«Increasingly we described our work as generating informed debate on the issues that mostmattered to the people of developing countries.»
«The organisation became known for its championing of participatory approaches to communication, including its much respected Oral Testimony programme. That participatory focus, for some a departure from its original journalistic remit, was as much pragmatic as it was principled. By the mid 1990s, it was clear that the big social marketing and other large scale communication programmes focused on preventing the spread of HIV were failing.»
«The story of the response to AIDS was in my view a catastrophic systemic failure by the international community and I have always been puzzled why no real international enquiry has been held into how an epidemic that affected perhaps a few million people in 1985 could end up infecting more than 30 million.»
The full blog is at http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/memoriam-panos-london
Please do review this blog. We look forward to your comments and critique.
Best wishes – Warren
Warren Feek
Executive Director
The Communication Initiative
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