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Future activities • We know that building local capacity is important in delivering our work. We hope to build on our existing presence in China, Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa by recruiting local staff in South-East Asia and the Middle East and North Africa to manage our news and marketing in these regions. • We will continue to build local capacity by supporting and mentoring contributors, such as our freelance journalists from developing countries. Our freelancer survey in 2008 led us to develop and start to implement an action plan, including sending out a regular freelancer newsletter and making our guidelines and editing process clearer.
Annual Review 2008
In 2008 SciDev.Net conducted a survey of our freelancers to better understand their needs and ways in which we could work together. We asked the freelancers a series of questions in an online survey about their experience not only of working with SciDev.Net but also of being a science journalist in the developing world. Here are some of the responses to the question: What effect has working with SciDev.Net had on your journalism? "It has introduced me to a new way of writing and editorial demands which I was not familiar with. And which I find fascinating."
"It has improved my ability to read and understand scientific papers." "It has also exposed me to a number of scientists. At one point because of the story that I did for SciDev.Net, I was invited to attend a meeting of scientists in Malawi last year. The scientists appreciated the work that I did and the good work that SciDev.Net is doing." "I am proud that SciDev.Net has been another opportunity to meet with other experienced scientists and strong professionals in science journalism from around the worldwide; this will help me to strengthen my career."
• We will continue with our two science journalism internship programmes supported by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC). • We will continue to develop broader capacity building activities such as science communication workshops. • We intend to publish four 'practical guides' for science journalists and science communicators in 2009, based on specific topics including effective reporting on climate change, and science and innovation policy.
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