By Philip Lee, WACC Deputy Director Programmes, WACC

WACC’s vision of communication rights combined with its Christian values is highlighted in a Stakeholder Report released yesterday.

WACC stakeholders – members, affiliates, regional associations, executive committees, directors, project partners, funding partners and staff – were consulted as part of a year-long process of strategic planning. The results were discussed on October 11 by WACC’s Board of Directors prior to taking important decisions about the future of WACC.

L-R: Margrit Saroufim Mina- President, WACC Middle East,  Sheila George – President, WACC North America, Daniel Benson - Director from Canada and Dr Samuel Wilson Meshack, president, WACC Asia.

From Finland to Rwanda, Indonesia to Tonga, Costa Rica to Lebanon and beyond, a series of consultations gave an opportunity for hundreds of members and partners of WACC to voice their concerns.

Consulting more than 500 people in all eight WACC regions involved an extensive Internet survey. There was a high (35%) response from WACC members. Five online meetings with WACC regional executive committees took place as well as face-to-face consultations with some 35 project partners in Asia and Latin America.

WACC European church-related partners participating in a two-day round-table held in Helsinki, Finland, contributed their views and an Internet survey was also carried out among national coordinators of WACC’s Global Media Monitoring Project in 108 countries.

The Stakeholder Report is a background document for the strategic planning process. It describes WACC’s communication mandate and its Christian identity as the “glue that holds the organization together and distinguishes it as a unique player in the populated landscape of civil society organizations working on issues of rights and social justice.”

The findings indicate that there is significant consensus that WACC exists to facilitate the work of all those who believe in the importance of communication rights. WACC understands communication rights as those that enable people to express themselves individually and collectively by all means of communication in order to improve their lives.

WACC’s General Secretary, Rev. Karin Achtelstetter and President, Dr Dennis Smith.

The Stakeholder Report addressed questions of identity in a context of cultural diversity, religious pluralism, and different understandings of faith. It reviewed WACC’s mandate in a rapidly changing technological world, concluding that the primary beneficiaries of WACC’s programmes should be those people in the world who are denied access to information and communication.

The report also outlined strategic directions, with general agreement that WACC should continue to work within a justice and rights framework to bring about social change, to strengthen alliances and networks, and to use advocacy as a key methodology.

One stakeholder commented, “The relationship between communication and power will continue to be shaped by the ongoing transformation of the media and communication ecosystem. Influencing that transformation so that new communication tools and systems reflect Christian values, not corporate or authoritarian values, needs to be an explicit priority.”

Board of Directors

Rev. Karin Achtelstetter, WACC’s General Secretary, noted that “The Stakeholder Report is a document which will be shared not only with the Board of Directors, but with WACC’s entire constituency. It has helped us gain a clear picture of where we are as a global communications organization.”

She also commented, “The survey confirmed that our members and partners are keen on taking part in shaping the organization’s future.”

The next stage in the process will see WACC’s Board of Directors discuss in depth a new Strategic Plan for 2012-2016.

The complete Stakeholder Report can be found here...

See more photos on WACC Facebook...

Photos by Kristin Koelbl

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