GFMD IMPACT strategy
The International Media Policy and Advisory Centre (IMPACT) is an initiative of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD).
The International Media Policy and Advisory Centre (IMPACT) is a GFMD initiative to create a learning, knowledge-sharing, and analysis destination for the international journalism support and media development community.
It is a collaborative project designed to bring together media development and journalism support groups, donors and funding organisations, academic and research institutions, as well as technology, media, and governance experts.
To offer donor agencies, philanthropic organisations, and media support actors required insights, and a range of tools and resources for informing strategy, programme, and project design, as well as implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. This will help to maximise effectiveness of the funds available for this sector and catalyse efforts to build stronger, healthier, and more sustainable media and information systems.
IMPACT Theory of Change
GFMD conducted a consultative process in 2019 and prepared two reports that have informed the concept note for the centre:
IMPACT Structure
To ensure that IMPACT meets the needs and expectations of its diverse stakeholders, GFMD initiated a co-design process, gathering representatives from its membership, the donor community, researchers and academia, media development practitioners, and other experts for a series of co-design sessions, scheduled for September 2020 through January 2021.
Given the importance of the impartiality and credibility of IMPACT, GFMD solicited the assistance of an external consultant to design and facilitate the initial co-design sessions. In preparation for the sessions, the GFMD Secretariat compiled lists of representatives from various stakeholder groups and designed a questionnaire for participants to select and prioritise key issues they would like to discuss. Based on the responses, GFMD created groups of participants for each of the key issues.
Three introductory sessions were held in September 2020, via Zoom, gathering a total of 23 unique participants (with some attending more than one session). Two sessions addressed IMPACT’s Stakeholders: Engagement and Independence (10 and 11 September) and one session addressed IMPACT’s Help Desk and Other Products and Services (16 September).