Protecting Independent Media for Effective Development (PRIMED): Theory of Change

"Public interest media are vital to open, just societies. They provide citizens with reliable news and information, hold the powerful to account and provide a platform for debate."

Protecting Independent Media for Effective Development (PRIMED) is a 3-year programme that is designed to address the challenges to public interest media at both outlet and environment level. Implemented by a consortium of media development organisations led by BBC Media Action, PRIMED works to build the resilience of media to political and economic pressures that are undermining viability. It also seeks to support the development of information ecosystems that enable a better flow of trusted public interest media content. The programme is being implemented in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone, which have been chosen because they have very different media environments, representing different market sizes and varying degrees of challenges around media restrictions, political will, and economic conditions. Lessons learned from these countries will be used to contribute to improved media viability and resilience across the programme, as well as in other countries with similar challenges. [See Related Summaries below for more information on the partners, objectives, and overall strategy (Communications Summary), the Programme Approach, and PRIMED's Policy and Learning Strategy]. The focus here is on the programme's theory of change and its work streams and planned activities.

As stated in the Programme Narrative developed by the PRIMED Consortium, "Finding effective, sustainable solutions to the intractable problem of securing the long-term viability of media in development contexts is a formidable challenge. Public interest media are under intense pressure worldwide, and there are few examples of credible and sustainable models of financially viable and resilient independent media in weak economies characterised by fragile or authoritarian politics. Economic, political and technological developments all suggest that the climate for fostering public interest media is becoming more hostile."

For this reason, the focus of PRIMED is on creating healthier information ecosystems that will support public interest media. This requires media outlets that are enabled and capable of providing content in a sustainable way. To be capable, media organisations and practitioners need to have the skills and resources to produce and sustain the production of public interest content that has staying power and is resilient to current and future shocks and stresses. Another prerequisite for healthier information ecosystems is an enabling environment that encourages and supports viable public interest media content.

To create these healthier information ecosystems, PRIMED works to achieve three interlinked outcomes:

1. Improved capacity of participating media outlets to manage their organisations and deliver public interest content (in varying degrees).
2. Better informed, coordinated, and magnified sectoral support for the defence of media freedom.
3. Enhanced evidence and learning within and beyond the programme, together with strong networking and policy engagement to facilitate (and contribute to) more coherent support to media freedom.

Click here to view the Theory of Change diagramme.

To achieve these outcomes, programmatic inputs fall within three interlinked work streams:

Work stream 1: Building Resilient Foundations: The programme will work to improve the capability of participating media to manage their organisations and deliver public interest content to their audiences through a capacity building package of business and management support tailored to each media partner, as well as production support that strengthens audience engagement, relevance, and trust (Output 1). This work stream includes supporting media partners to understand their audience in order to develop content that is engaging, inclusive, and relevant and that informs business and revenue generation strategies. This will be done by providing partner media operations with the skills and tools to understand their audience, test content, and act on audience feedback/social media analytics. Mentoring and long-term capacity building is at the core of the programme's approach, although, where relevant, the programme will also use other tools such as peer networking, workshops, consultancies, and training of trainers.

The programme will support a variety of different types of media outlets in each context and tailor its approach according to a thorough assessment of the threats and opportunities that each organisation faces, the market it is in, its size, audience niche, resources available, distribution, and many other factors. Given the likely enduring reality of market failure, especially with the advent of COVID-19, in Sierra Leone and to some extent Ethiopia, the programme will also explore diverse non-market solutions to media viability. These solutions may include working with partners to secure funding from philanthropic and international donors, as well as working with government and other bodies to explore different approaches to public subsidy and fresh approaches to regulatory reform and coalition building.

Work stream 2: Sectoral Support for Change: By increasing the capacity of sectoral partners, providing them with the necessary technical assistance to advocate for change and strengthening their ability to work together, the programme will contribute to better informed, coordinated, and magnified sectoral support for and defence of media freedom (Outcome 2). Sectoral partners include a range of associations, bodies, and individuals advocating for media freedom. The programme's focus on building and strengthening inclusive coalitions is designed to bring together the cumulative efforts under each of these two work streams.

Working closely with sectoral stakeholders in each of the three countries, PRIMED will also identify the priorities and opportunities for media reform in order to address some of the barriers to viable and resilient public interest media. The programme will facilitate and support the formation of coalitions, networks, and alliances between sectoral partners best placed to advocate for these reforms, so that they can then develop and implement advocacy strategies aimed at bringing about these reforms.

Reform and advocacy may involve undertaking legal reforms, improving regulatory standards, creating or improving self-regulatory mechanisms, shaping the quality of media content (particularly when it comes to the portrayal of women and other groups), bringing together different media operations that look to collectively address common issues that affect their viability, and, where possible, engaging with government to improve public subsidies. Across all countries, the programme will seek to engage with civic platforms to build broad coalitions of aligned interests, including those representing the interests of disadvantaged groups. Where relevant, dialogue and coordination between sectoral partners and with government on regulatory and legal provisions will be encouraged, so that greater media freedom would be optimised and enshrined in the country's legal, regulatory, and operational systems. PRIMED's learning for impact work stream (outlined below) will play an important role in capturing and sharing lessons on how to build coalitions and regional groups - hopefully contributing to a learning agenda relevant for media, researchers, and policymakers.

Work stream 3: Learning and Policy for Impact: The overall objective of this work stream is, by the end of the PRIMED programme, to have identified which strategies are most effective and which factors are most important in contributing to improved media viability and resilience in the settings covered by the programme and beyond and communicate them to those in a position to boost public interest media - both within and beyond the PRIMED Programme (Outcome 3).

The programme will facilitate exchange and learning across countries so that consortium members and partners can learn from and be inspired by each other. Strategies will draw on consortium partners' knowledge of Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone by identifying and targeting critical factors that provide opportunities for (or inhibit) media viability and resilience. Value will be added through additional efforts to learn from existing media support projects in a further two "learning countries": Iraq and Zambia.

The aim is that learning will advance the media support sector globally and locally in order to understand, develop, and fund public interest media more effectively, as well as to inform, adapt, and support project strategy in each of the three PRIMED countries. Thus, this work stream will work at three levels:

• Country/local level - through adaptive learning within the country programmes to inform practice and policies in-country.
• Global level - through informing the policies and approaches of consortium members and international policymakers.
• "Glocal" level - through country/local experiences informing global donor policies.

To find out more about the Learning and Policy Strategy and the learning questions the programme seeks to answer, see Related Summaries below.

Overall, the balance between these work streams and the selection of activities will vary in each case. Programme partners will input across different aspects, in different combinations and to varying depths depending on the opportunities and challenges in each country programme. Activities within each work stream reinforce each other, and, where appropriate, the same local partners and their beneficiaries will be involved across work streams to maximise impact. Gender equality and inclusion will be integrated in each work stream.

For more information, contact Maha Taki (see above).