All the programme areas of Open Forum will be actively supported by, and will feed into the following anchoring divisions at organization:

Partnerships and Programme Co-ordination (PPC)
In Building Communication Opportunities for instance, the PPC division with its strong partners base would be able to not only provide increased coverage on the MDG theme, but could also make available information, knowledge and resource requirements for the capacity building of partners. Similarly, for Voicing the Voiceless through grassroots communications (such as the DLP, K4D, community radio, providing questions and answers services on rural livelihoods and human rights, support to rural knowledge access points etc.) partnerships will provide critical conduits to reach grassroots and also facilitate peer-to-peer learning methods among partners. PPC would also provide the critical issues on which the Research programme division may carry out the needs assessment exercise. Impact assessment of the ICTs by testing them with partner and non-partner organizations is also expected to be facilitated by the PPC division.

The partnership base would provide the critical mass in consolidating plural voices for the purposes of policy advocacy. Since advocacy should result in some policy changes and actions, the PPC would also facilitate this through the feedback about advantages accruing to the grassroots. The PPC would also serve a critical role of internal work audit, thereby supporting the streamlining of internal monitoring and evaluation of all projects and activities in the five programme areas mentioned above.

Capacity Building and Technical Services (CBTS)
The Capacity Building and Technical Services (CBTS) division would provide support, internally for Open Forum and externally for partner and non-partner organizations. Through its inputs into the major programme areas, CBTS would develop and provide appropriate and need based technological support mechanisms for the organisation. The C4D team (Building Communication Opportunities) would require expertise in new media, which CBTS would provide by facilitating the technology platform for local content hosting and integration. The Grassroots Communication team (Voicing the Voiceless) would require the grassroots content it sources to be processed into various technical formats. Here, CBTS team’s function would be i) to identify the technology tool sets that integrate content from various media, ii) to process the grassroots content and iii) to provide training support for those involved.

Since the Research and Analysis division will be conducting the needs assessment and impact studies required for strategic directional planning, CBTS could add to its efforts by providing technical training in research methodology for partners. Finally, while the programme area of Policy Advocacy will identify strategic issues for advocacy, CBTS could through capacity building intervention provide the technological tools and training in technology required for enabling advocacy. Thus the CBTS as a support mechanism at Open Forum would respond to particular requirements of the programme areas and provide the specific technology and training inputs required for facilitating smooth operation of the four programme areas.

Strategy & Implementation Strategy
Open Forum has already initiated a number of new projects and activities and aligned the earlier ones in conformity with the new strategy. The major projects under each of the four programme areas are:

Grassroots Communications
• Building communication opportunities at the grassroots through Grassroots Journalism initiatives
• Support network for village knowledge centres
• Peer-to-peer networking of knowledge workers at the grassroots
• Online advocacy for achieving the MDGs

Communication for Development
• Reporting from the grassroots
• Amplifying the grassroots voices
• Targeting policymakers
• Mainstreaming the message

Research & Analysis
• Pro-poor ICT and MDG research
• Mainstreaming ICTs
• A publication entitled, Antatah
• Support to Grameen Gyan Abhiyan/Mission 2007
• Support to MDG campaign- Online advocacy for achieving the MDGs
• Pro-poor, people centric ICT policy advocacy

The initiatives of Open Forum includes, Action research in a Delhi slum on education delivery; Lead in launching and supporting the civil society led NCRC; Online debates and road shows are on the anvil to share experiences and spread awareness about the potential of Open Source; Engaging policy makers and influencing authorities in a civil society led campaign to lobby for Community Radio as tool to empower people; In addition, the Capacity Building & Training Services (CBTS) has initiated work on creation of a Support platform for local content development.