Mapping Out Regional Consultations: A Practical Orientation to Organizing Consultations

"Carrying out regional consultations with multiple stakeholders can help establish a shared understanding of major challenges and build consensus about promising paths forward."



This guide is designed to provide practical guidance on how to organise consultative processes in the field of media development with multiple stakeholders on a regional scale. It seeks to serve as a hands-on toolbox for organisations working to advance media freedom and is intended for international organisations carrying out consultations, as well as regional and local organisations that would like to do so.



The guide is based on an approach first developed and implemented by DW Akademie and the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA). Since 2015, DW Akademie and CIMA along with many other partners in the field have been organising regional consultations that bring together a wide range of stakeholders. As explained in the guide, "The aim of these exercises is to identify key challenges facing independent media and to come up with regional approaches to address them. Consultations have been held in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans and South Asia. Bearing in mind the complex nature of media systems, these consultations typically include representatives of a wide range of actors, including journalist associations, regulators, legal groups, human rights organizations, policymakers and media experts. The consultations are intended to help partners to strengthen political support for independent media, improve media methodologies, and define clearer, better articulated ideas for policy reform."



According to the guide, three essential considerations for regional consultations are:

1. Designing an interactive, participant-driven agenda that ensures that themes and priorities truly reflect the needs and demands of local actors.
2. Enabling themes and priorities to emerge during the process rather than having the organisers predetermine them.
3. Having a diverse range of participants to ensure that all perspectives are included and that the end results are credible.

The contents are as follows:

1. Laying the groundwork
   • Local partner organisation: How to create ownership - looks at why it is important that the consultation process should lie with an organisation based in the region where the consultations are taking place.
   • Participants: Making sure all voices are heard - discusses the importance of involving a broad range of stakeholders.
   • Input report: Setting the scene - looks at the development of an input report prior to the consultation that offers an overview of the current state of the media sector in a given region.
2. Planning the event
   • Meeting mode: In-person, online, or hybrid - looks at the main pros and cons of in-person, online, and hybrid consultations with multiple stakeholders.
3. Coming together
   • Facilitation: Who and how - focuses on how to select a facilitator who will prepare and moderate the sessions, ensure that all perspectives are considered, drive the discussion forward, and compile the results.
   • Agenda: Interactive and participant-driven - looks at how to create an agenda that can evolve according to the priorities and interests of the group.
4. Impact: Building momentum
   • Supporting follow-up activities - provides guidance on how to support possible follow-up activities and initiatives.
   • Results - offers examples of some of the results that were achieved through the regional consultations facilitated by DW Akademie and CIMA in partnership with local organisations.