Central to Open Forum’ advocacy & communications programme, we are also providing information on Development Issues, policies and programmes of the Government and donor organizations to its members. Central to these activities Open Forum has a separate programme for the partners and grassroots communities called Building Communication Opportunities (BCO). BCO is a programme of collective activities of development organizations concerned with information, communications and development issues. This programme was initiated in the year 2004 with an initial five-year mandate to support activities which make use of information and communications resources and technologies to contribute to sustainable development and poverty alleviation, empowerment and human rights.

The challenge of information, communications and development
The place of information and communications in development has changed markedly since the mid-1990s, as a result of many factors including technological change and the rapid spread of new technologies such as mobile telephones and the internet. Until the mid-1990s, “communications for development” discourse was more concerned with communications than with technology, focusing on ways in which information and knowledge are disseminated and in which individuals, communities and social groups participate in society and policy development, articulate their needs and express their views. This included significant concern with media, including electronic media (radio and television), but the emphasis was primarily non-technological. Rapid developments in information and communications technology led to a new emphasis in some development organizations in the later 1990s on the potential of technology to change the economic, social and power dynamics of societies. Much was then written about the potential for an “Information Society”, culminating in the two sessions of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held in 2003 and 2005. Debates about the relative importance of technological and human behavioural issues within communications for development continue today. They continue to be affected by ongoing changes in the prevalence of different communications media and devices, and by growing experience with different technologies, regulatory and other enabling instruments, and development applications. The evidence base of experience with ICD (information and communications for development) and particularly with ICT4D (information and communication technologies for development) is growing – although it is still problematically weak in many areas, as discussed below – and the sharing of experience continues to bring about new thinking about what can be achieved and what mechanisms and applications are likely to be most appropriate. BCO Programme of Open Forum have sought to play a part in these debates. In particular, they have been concerned to contribute findings from their own experience to the evidence base that is available, and to share learning from this experience amongst themselves and with others in the development and rights communities. They hope that the materials included in this report will have value for all interested parties.

BCO Programme sought to build on the existing strengths of its partner organizations and communities as to extend the work which partner organization and communities could undertake within their core areas of expertise rather than supporting specific projects that could be clearly identified as “BCO activities”. Detailed information of the activities undertaken by BCO agencies, with and without BCO support, is included in the Open Forum - BCO Report. From the beginning, BCO partners declared their aspirations for the partnership to be much broader than simply implementing projects, stressing in particular their “like-minded commitment” to the following common sentiments:

•	Understanding that consultation and learning add value to ICT4D strategy and effectiveness on the ground.
•	Realization that finding synergies and avoiding duplication increase the levels of success of the work.
•	Awareness that as a group, there is a critical mass of civil society and public sector experience and voice that enriches the quality of ICT4D debate and action.
•	Recognition that a common framework – with joint goals, mechanisms and meetings – stimulates consultation and thus collaboration and learning.
•	Initiating & participating in networks to bring about changes in Government policies & procedures.

At the time of its establishment, BCO partners also agreed the following set of “guiding principles”:

•	Poverty alleviation is the overall purpose of the programme.
•	Development is the priority, not technology.
•	Mixed technologies are the target, old and new combined.
•	Mainstreamed ICTs are the focus, meaning development sectors (e.g., health) supported by ICTs.
•	Networks are an organisational form that must be stimulated.
•	Local ownership is a means to sustainable impact on poverty.
•	Collaboration among international and national organisations is a means to strengthening impact.
•	Learning and accountability for ICT4D are continuous processes.

Finally, BCO partners agreed that they should seek to achieve outcomes – and learn from experience – in three particular areas, which they defined are listed below. These three priorities formed a key part of subsequent discussion about the purpose and implementation of the BCO Impact Assessment.

•	ICT4D mainstreamed in development sectors (mainstreaming).
•	Stronger voice of poor and marginalised people and more and better informed debate about development issues, enabled through ICT (voice).
•	Demonstrated impact of ICT4D on poverty (poverty impact).

Building Communication Opportunities (BCO) is a Programme of Open Forum concerned with information, communications and development issues. It was formed in 2004 with an initial five-year mandate to support activities which make use of information and communications resources and technologies to contribute to sustainable development and poverty alleviation, empowerment and human rights. BCO partners and communities have been concerned from the outset to include impact assessment in their objectives for the achievement of set goals. Open Forum gathers information and provides perspectives on issues that affect the voluntary sector, for its members especially those that work at grass-roots level and do not have convenient access to mainstream media and national government offices. Information is disseminated through Monthly Hindi Publication called Antatah and Quarterly English Publication called Development, both the initiative is approved from Registrar for Newspapers of India, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. Open Forum has also been publishing books, monographs, conference proceedings and primers on themes concerning development issues, MDGs, NGOs and civil society in general. The BCO Programme was initiated to look at different aspects of information, communications and development (ICD), including but reaching beyond work in which BCO partners were themselves involved.

Open Forum is dedicated to ‘voicing the voiceless’ – strategically positioning ICT tools (traditional and new) to enable the poor to effectively communicate and articulate issues of concern and thus influence decisions and policies that affect their lives. Open Forum’s programme strategy is based on BCO’s outcome areas.

Mainstreaming

•	Identifying and developing multi-stakeholder partnership-based methodologies to integrate ICD in thematic areas: poverty, food security and nutrition, education, gender, health, HIV/AIDS, environment, trade and globalization and national cooperation;
•	Thematic workshops to discuss the role of ICD in achieving development goals (MDGs) in India in partnership with government agencies, the private sector and civil society;
•	Briefing papers on the role of ICD in thematic areas;
•	The monthly publication Antatah, a Hindi Monthly publication of critical debate on development issues & experience with mainstreaming ICTs into development; and
•	A ‘helpdesk’ function on ICD aimed especially at development advisors of development agencies and organizations in South Asia.

Voice

•	Grassroots advocacy centres called as telecenters, initiated with the help of grass roots organizations and mainly managed by them; learning takes place through peer-to-peer networking mechanisms, radio programmes produced for mainstream development issues at large, and community newspapers that highlight pro-poor concerns;
•	Building capacity among community-based organizations in the use of audio tools for empowerment thus developing a network of grass roots broadcasters linked with mainstream media;
•	Grass roots Journalism training around MDG themes in audio and text format for dissemination through the Open Forum’s web portal, the K4D Channel, Open Forum’s regional, local and community newspapers and State and FM radio stations and National Capacity Development workshops.

Poverty impact

•	Assessing and publishing the impact of ICD as a means to strengthen grass roots advocacy for pro-poor service delivery;
•	Highlighting ICD best practice on the other publication & Production avenues of Open Forum.

Programme development methodologies
A substantial part of Open Forum’s community media programme is made up of advocacy centres which integrate a range of media including radio, Internet and print. The programme development methodology is built around participatory approaches and multistakeholder consultation, with a central place given to the MDGs which are the focus of grass roots learning and communications.
The advocacy centre strategy is built on:

•	A collaborative approach in partnership with local grass roots bodies and educational institutions;
•	Strengthening community information centres within community settlements through the provision of computers and Internet facilities;
•	Building capacities in radio production, development writing and internet usage;
•	Peer to peer learning through local volunteers trained in radio production and through exchanges among community - based CSOs;
•	Collective platforms through listeners clubs and websites developed by Open Forum that encourage shared knowledge through local and global content;
•	Programme production with local content feeding radio programming and newsletters.

Information is collated from and disseminated within underprivileged communities through two Open Forum’s programmes:

•	Grassroots Journalism has trained about 100 fellows from the grassroots to produce weekly half hour programmes which deal with local issues and are being prepared to be broadcasted over a number of community radio stations;
•	Digital Library Project uses community-based websites to disseminate community stories, news and information to a larger public.
•	K4D Community Call Center is an innovative solution which has been designed to dissaminate information by the help of telephone line and help of voice.