The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Civil Society Challenge to Export Credit Agency Debt

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This communication-based initiative aims to involve non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in a collaborative process that urges rich country governments to change the way they report aid statistics. It seeks an environment of openness in which the citizens of aid donor countries can get a true picture of their nation's contributions and can hold their governments accountable. The initiative was developed by Eurodad, a network of NGOs working for national economic and international financing policies in an effort to achieve poverty eradication. Fifty-seven participating NGOs from 24 countries have signed on to an advocacy statement that condemns what are being described as dubious development aid statistics linked to export credit debt deals. Currently, the NGOs argue, governments falsely inflate aid figures by including commercial debt write-offs.
Communication Strategies
This initiative is premised on the notion that networking and advocacy on the part of civil society organisations can form the basis of a challenge to those in positions of (greater) power to share information openly with citizens. The vision is that community involvement in effecting change can then ensue. Eurodad explains that, "While it is encouraging that a number of governments have announced increased aid levels in recent years, we are very concerned that many governments are falsely inflating their aid figures by including debt write-offs. Export credit debts alone increase the stated aid total of many countries by one quarter of their real amount." The motivating concern is that, if most donors are really at present "cheating their way through" toward the agreed-upon United Nations aid target (the year 2015) by including cancellations of defaulted commercial debt, the economically poor are being shortchanged, with citizens of donor countries potentially unaware of the (arguably) faulty reporting on the part of their leaders.

In an effort to urge governments to provide these citizens with accurate details about the official development aid (ODA) that is being provided, NGOs have come together to produce a statement in which they demand action by governments to:
  • acknowledge that support provided to domestic corporations by Export Credit Agencies (ECA) does not serve development objectives as defined by ODA. ECA are institutions by which Northern governments subsidise their companies abroad, and that insure, on behalf of the State, private sector investments in Southern countries.
  • exclude cancellation of export credit debt from ODA, thereby removing these amounts from their reporting of progress towards the agreed United Nations target of 0.7% ODA/Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
  • establish regular audits to ascertain and publicly report on the origins of export credits debts
  • cancel all export credits that originate from export credit support to deals with undemocratic regimes.
Participating NGOs are using information and communication technology (ICT) - that is, the Eurodad website - to share this statement with members of the public and fellow civil society organisations in the hope of raising awareness and stimulating advocacy efforts.
Development Issues
Debt, Overseas Development Assistance.
Key Points
Organisers cite the following statistics to provide context for this effort:
  • In France, almost one-third of ODA is devoted to debt cancellation, of which almost half has been set aside for the cancellation of export credit debt.
  • In the Netherlands, 10% of the official aid budget is reserved for export credit debt cancellation out of the official aid budget.
  • Over 30% of the total external official debt of developing countries is ECA debt.
Sources

e-CIVICUS No. 265 [PDF], September 30 2005; and Eurodad website.