The power of talk: Media and accountability in three African countries

This policy briefing offers an empirical contribution to evolving thinking on governance within the international development landscape. Using the example of media, the brief argues that interventions designed to foster demand-based accountability may not be as successful in some fragile settings as more discursive platforms that aim to tackle problem-solving collectively. The paper thus underscores the need for locally embedded approaches to governance support that are both adaptive and reflective.

The brief draws on learning from BBC Media Action’s implementation of one project in particular – working to support media in three African countries: Angola, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. The briefing draws on quantitative and qualitative research, as well as insights from those implementing the projects, in order to shed light on some of the political realities that surround media as an institution that helps hold those in power to account. It documents both the successes of the project and some of the shortcomings.

Key findings:

This project’s main finding was the overwhelmingly positive response of audiences to the novelty of platforms that brought ordinary people face to face with public officials, community leaders and service providers. Audiences respond to issues which affect their day-to-day lives. This does not preclude the potential to develop truly “National Conversations”; however, often, localising national issues such as corruption allows for greater audience engagement because it resonates with people’s everyday lives. There may also be more opportunity to probe such local issues as they are perceived as less threatening to ruling elites.

The role of media in ensuring accountability can take different forms, some of them oppositional and critical, and some more rooted in political dialogue. Those rooted in dialogue, however, have the greatest impact in a climate of open and political freedom. A lack of political freedom and constraints to freedom of expression will always undermine the capacity for citizens to hold government to account. The “watchdog” model of the media is, if conceived in isolation from other approaches, overly simplistic. Privileging a guardian role for the media in countries with little or no tradition of vertical accountability may actually disempower and disengage audiences or provoke censorship or closures on the part of government. This role is a key function, but one that needs to be clearly understood within the context of the political economy of the country concerned.

Projects to support the media sector to improve governance performance must be situated within a deep understanding of the power structures at play and how these might influence the potential for the media to be able to drive national or community-level change. This must include an understanding of the country’s overall institutional structure and how this, in turn, conditions audience expectations and government incentives for change.

Development initiatives that aim to foster improved governance through the media must be flexible and responsive and have the intellectual humility to learn and change over time – reacting to both the changing political environment and evidence from the ground about what is working (and what is not). Creating opportunities for internal learning, flexibility and a non-linear approach to delivering intended impact can allow teams to learn and implement improvements throughout the project life cycle.

Summary