Media Highlights - An Update on Media Coverage of CGIAR Research

The CGIAR builds a high profile in the international media on the issues of climate change, agriculture and food security.

A central theme of the CGIAR's collective efforts in media outreach during recent months has been the intricate relationship between global climate change, agriculture and food security.

Media and related work on those subjects has been carried out by a team comprising colleagues from the CGIAR Fund Office; various Centers; the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Challenge Program; Burness Communications (a private firm with which the CGIAR has a longstanding relationship); and other partners.

From late September 2009 through late March 2010, the team organized five major news story promotions. One of these formed part of a cluster of activities carried out before and during the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), with the aim of raising awareness about the importance of agriculture and the relevance of CGIAR-supported research. Two other promotions drew attention to the dire implications of climate change for agriculture and natural resources in drylands, a vast and especially vulnerable environment with high indices of rural poverty.

The outcomes of the media and related activities are summarized below

The front lines in coping with climate change

New developments in monitoring and assessing land degradation in drylands, together with the links between this issue and climate change, were the focus of a story promotion done in connection with a global scientific conference titled Understanding Desertification and Land Degradation Trends, which took place late last September in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Held within the framework of the Ninth Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the event was organized by the Dryland Science for Development (DSD) Consortium, in which the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) play key roles.

The promotion resulted in significant coverage, particularly in Latin America, but including stories in six languages reaching 18 countries. Highlights of the coverage consisted of wire stories by Agence France-Presse, Agencia EFE (Spain), Deutsche Presse Agentur (Germany) and Inter Press Service; interviews broadcast by BBC Network Africa, the Earthbeat Program of Radio Netherlands and SABC Channel Africa; and original stories on SciDev.Net (UK) and in La Nación (Argentina).

Several stories strongly emphasized the links between desertification and climate change, depicting drylands as the front lines in global efforts to help the rural poor cope with climate change impacts. The various media reached through this promotion collectively have a potential audience of more than 26.5 million people.

Climate change winners and losers in East Africa

A story promotion conducted early last November centered on a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Agricultural Systems, which reports on the use of simulation models to project the likely impacts of climate change on East Africa's vital maize and bean harvests over the next two to four decades. Revealing great diversity within and between countries, the results provide countries with initial guidance in seizing opportunities to intensify farming in favored locations and cushion the blow that will fall on rural people in more vulnerable areas.

The promotion yielded coverage by several key international outlets. Highlights included a story by Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Germany's leading wire service, which was picked up by more than a dozen major publications, notably Die Zeit, Berliner Zeitung and Focus magazine. Moreover, BBC World Service widely disseminated an interview with the study's lead author, a researcher with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), while a story by SciDev.net quoted this researcher as well as ILRI's director general. The coverage potentially reached a total audience numbering more than 26 million people.

The CGIAR at COP15

In addition to promoting climate-related news stories during the lead up to COP15, the communications team carried out various other activities, which culminated in intensive media outreach and social media reporting during the conference itself.

About 6 months before COP15, the CGIAR launched a blog, called Rural Climate Exchange, which created a steady stream of news on agriculture and climate change, giving particular emphasis to CGIAR research and advocacy. To some extent, the blog served as a story bank for media interested in this work. A Twitter account automatically disseminated blog posts to an eventual total of 200 individuals and organizations.

In addition, during October, the CGIAR Fund Office and Burness Communications organized a high-level messaging workshop, in which they assisted several Center directors general and climate scientists in refining key messages for outreach at COP15.
During the first week of COP15 (on December 11), four CGIAR experts on climate change held an official press briefing to launch a report prepared by CCAFS. About a dozen journalists attended the event, including reporters from BBC, The Economist, Reuters and SciDev.net. The resulting media coverage included stories by the Globe and Mail (Canada), ANSA (Italy) and other key international outlets.

Several key journalists also attended Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD) on December 12, including reporters from the Associated Press, Reuters, Der Spiegel (Germany), Inter Press Service, Nature News, ABC Radio (Australia) and Bloomberg. Bringing together more than 350 climate change negotiators, scientists, farmers and development experts, the event aimed to build consensus on steps for incorporating agriculture into the post-Copenhagen agenda and to map out the strategies and actions needed for achieving climate change adaptation and mitigation in agriculture.

In parallel with its media outreach, the communications team used social media to report extensively on those and other COP15 events related to agriculture and the CGIAR. This reporting included substantive text posts on key developments as well as video interviews with participants and event photos. During the weekend on which ARDD took place, the blog site received well over 500 visits; the total number of visits for December was 3,000.

Combating water scarcity in the Middle East

The same combination of media outreach and social reporting drew attention to the International Conference on Food Security and Climate Change in Dry Areas, held in early February 2010 at Amman, Jordan. Organized jointly by ICARDA and the Jordanian government, the conference saw the launch of an ambitious seven-country project, called the Water and Livelihoods Initiative, which offers new hope for farmers in the face of acute and growing water shortages.

News story promotion resulted in significant media coverage in the Middle East and other regions. Highlights of the coverage included stories by several wire services (e.g., Petra Jordanian News Agency and UN IRIN); interviews broadcast by Radio France Internationale and Voice of America; original print coverage by several African newspapers; and an online article by SciDev.net. The UN IRIN story ran on the Al Arabiya News Channel, one of the top stations in the Middle East.

Social reporting included extensive text posts and video interviews on the CGIAR's Rural Climate Exchange blog.

Realizing Africa's rice potential

Substantial regional coverage of the Africa Rice Congress 2010, held at Bamako, Mali, during the last week of March, highlighted new research that could enable the continent to realize its large potential as a rice producer and thus reduce its dependence on imported rice. Organized by the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) in collaboration with the government of Mali, the congress called for long-term commitment to scientific innovations and partnerships that are needed to double Africa's rice production within the next decade or so.

More than a half dozen radio outlets (including BBC French Service, Radio Canada and Voice of America) broadcast interviews with AfricaRice scientists and other Congress participants. Television coverage of the event was significant as well, involving channels in Mali and other West African countries as well as the international French-language channel TV5 Monde. Media coverage also included reports in local print media and numerous online articles, together with blog posts and tweets.