World Congress on Communication for Development

The first World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD) was held in Rome, Italy from October 25 to 27, 2006.

Main objective

Hosted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and organized by The World Bank, FAO

Fão

Fão is a town in Esposende Municipality in Portugal....

and The Communication Initiative, the First World Congress on Communication for Development intended to clearly demonstrate to policy and decision-makers the effectiveness of Communication for Development in helping meet today's most pressing development challenges and to advocate among them for the systematic inclusion of communication in development policy and practice. Communication for Development

Communication for Development

Communication for Development is a broad term used to refer to all the different types of communication that need to take place in societies if sustainable democratic development is to occur....

- as a process of dialogue, information sharing and building mutual understanding - is a powerful tool to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of development interventions, to assess and mitigate the political and social risks of those interventions and to build social ownership and sustainability.

Participants

The WCCD, the first event of its kind, brought together more than 500 policymakers, development practitioners, NGO and CSO representatives, and academics/researchers active in the field. Thousands more from around the world were able to participate via webcasting and broadcasting.

Organization and structure

FAO and the World Bank spearheaded this event, and involved more than 75 key institutions, including multilateral and bilateral partners, media institutions, academic and research institutions, and NGOs to help organize the Congress. The three party governance structure consisted of a Steering Committee (to provide overall advice and guidance to the planning), a Scientific Committee (to conduct the paper review and the Mainstreaming study) and an Advisory Body.

Invitees Profile

Nobel Prize Keynote Speakers, Highest Level of Representation from the UN and The World Bank, Italian Authorities, High Profile Public Figures, Ministries and Authorities from Developing Countries, Prime International University Representatives and Academicians.

Themes and Structure

The Congress was structured around four broad thematic areas: Health, Governance, Sustainable Development, and Communication Labs. During the Policymakers Forum leading policy and decision-makers discussed and debated the opportunities and constraints they envisaged vis-à-vis the proposed recommendations for mainstreaming communication in development policies and programs.

A Mainstreaming and Policy Recommendations Study commissioned by the Scientific Committee served as the basis of discussions at the Policymakers' Forum, integrated the outcomes of the Forum and was then published, together with the proceedings of sessions and papers.

Media Partners

Media Partners included Inter Press Service

Inter Press Service

Inter Press Service is a global news agency. Its main focus is the production of independent news and analysis about events and processes affecting economic, social and political development....

-IPS, RAI

RAI

RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...

(Italy), BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

(UK) and CNBC (Germany). Additional media outlets were Al-Jazeera (Qatar), Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

, CNN Español, and major Latin-American media; Rome-based correspondents of the international press, together with major Italian newspapers covered the event. The BBC broadcast from the Congress site its flagship program, World Debate, while CNBC broadcast the show, Global Players.

Expectations

This event generated an enormous amount of interest around the world with more than 600 papers submitted through the call for papers, more than 1,700 registered through the Congress website, more than 600,000 hits on the site, and more than 2,000 people participated in pre-Congress e-discussions on Congress-related topics and themes.