About CEERD

The main objective of the CEERD Program is to develop new forms of World Bank country assistance in civic engagement, empowerment and respect for diversity the area of Voice through Media

Audience/Participants

CEERD supports World Bank networks and country teams, clients and nongovernmental stakeholders. It actively mobilizes and collaborates with communities of practice skilled and experienced public interest and community media.

Leverage with Bank Operations

The CEERD program is geared to influencing the content of the Bank's policy based and investment lending – in the areas of Community Driven Development, Education, Urban Poverty, Legal and Judicial Reform, Public Sector Reform, and Private Sector Development.  Field pilots are being embedded in or are complementary to Bank lending, and will be a basis for expansion under Bank-financed operations, as well as for adaptation and replication in other countries. Technical handbooks being developed under CEERD are to guide lending development. Communities of practice being mobilized are supporting the shape of prototypes and then lending.

Research Tools

Information on good practices in broadcasting policy is in demand in countries of every region, and particularly in countries that are opening their economies, democratizing and decentralizing public service delivery.  The CEERD Program's Voice and Media Technical Assistance Program is informed by the World Bank Guide to Good Practices, entitled Broadcasting, Voice and Accountability: A Public Interest Approach to Policy, Law and Regulation.  The Guide provides a systematic overview of the policies that foster free, independent and pluralistic broadcast media, and that can contribute to achieving public interest goals such as government transparency and accountability, enhanced quality of and participation in public debate, and increased opportunities for marginalized groups to develop and articulate their views.  This is the World Bank’s first inquiry into broadcasting policy as an area for development assistance, national leadership, and international communities of practice. Special attention is devoted to how media can enhance accountability in governance and contribute to development and ‘voice,’ particularly for those who are disadvantaged in society.  The book draws from a wide range of country experience in all regions of the world and is illustrated extensively by country level examples of policies, laws and regulatory institutions and provisions.  It is a valuable resource for policy makers, as well as development practitioners and students.

Technical Assistance in Action

The CEERD Program has observed progress at a small scale:

In Ghana, a community radio station has begun to broadcast debate on a District Assembly floor, while others have weekly call-in and write-in programs that put tough questions to the District Chief Executives (DCE) and raise concerns needing immediate government attention, often provoking the DCE or assemblymen to call in and talk the issue through while the program is still on the air.  The community radio stations broadcast follow-up meetings with officials, and the reporting of inaction can get fairly intense until the public service that was promised is delivered, or the public funds that were stolen are returned.  These transformations, affecting public servants’ incentives, are expected to spread quickly once community radio stations can be licensed easily.

WBI has additionally provided intensive technical assistance support for Reforms in Broadcasting Policy and Regulation in Ghana. This included a comprehensive broadcasting sector study carried out by a team of international and African experts; a detailed framework for the new broadcasting law, which the Attorney General’s Office used to draft the law, which is now at Cabinet; and support to National Media Commission’s consultations on its new roles.  WBI provided this support in collaboration with the World bank’s Ghana Country Office, as well as a national advocacy committee of Ghanaian experts, and relevant agencies.

In Kenya, WBU supported training on Economics and Development Journalism before the most recent national elections.  It introduced basic concepts and terminology essential for the media to decipher economic information from the government, the private sector, and the local and international development communities. The broader governance agenda in Kenya was subsequently addressed through a two-day workshop entitled Access to Information, Media and Accountability. Over 40 participants including public officials, media professionals and civil society practitioners debated around the next steps in advocating for access to information and media laws and good governance practices, which have been affected by recent developments after the elections in Kenya. Technical assistance was also provided by WBI throughout 2005 – 2008 to prototype community radio development in Bank Community Driven Development (CDD) lending.  This focused on establishment and functioning of the Wajir Community Radio (WCR), within the implementation of the IDA-funded Arid Lands Resource Management Project (ALRMP).  WBI mobilized Ghana’s Community Radio Network to provide the Technical Assistance Activity.

In Nigeria, WBI is providing technical assistance for community radio sector development. Nigeria is the only country in West Africa without community radio, and the airwaves currently exclude non-governmental and non-commercial broadcasting on public interest issues in local languages.  Diagnostic work was conducted in 2006, followed by consultations with government officials and a coalition of 200 Nigerian organizations.  Later in 2006, WBI convened a high-level symposium in Abuja on the role of community radio and the need for a better policy and regulatory framework to provide access to the airwaves. Officials from the Nigerian Executive and the National Assembly, and civil society stakeholders participated, plus the President of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters and African community radio expert-practitioners.  The Minister of Information followed up by establishing a joint government-civil society Community Radio Policy Committee to prepare a draft policy for government, and this was submitted in December 2006.  In 2008, WBI provided technical advice to develop the community radio sub-component on Fadama III, and design the participatory planning process to be funded under Fadama II.  In 2008, WBI also provided a three day training program for forty business and development journalists; this examined reporting on the budget and expenditures for oil revenues.  It aimed to improve analysis of economics, development issues, governance and anti-corruption issues.  The workshop helped to catalyze Nigerian journalists and CSOs in advocating for the passage of the Freedom of Information bill, which was subsequently passed by the Senate.