ABOUT THE PANOS NETWORK
ABOUT OUR ORIGINS
PANOS MAY OFFICIALLY HAVE BEEN FOUNDED IN 1986, BUT OUR ORIGINS GO BACK TO THE EARLY 1970s, WHILE THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT WAS GATHERING PACE.
In 1974, British journalist Jon Tinker started Earthscan, a unit of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), which provided journalists (and later, NGOs) with objective information on key global issues and on policy options for addressing them.
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IN NEPALI, A PANAS IS AN OIL LAMP, AROUND WHICH PEOPLE GATHER TO DISCUSS IMPORTANT ISSUES. IN AMHARIC, PANOS MEANS A TORCH. THE SAME WORD MEANS "BEACON" IN ANCIENT DORIC GREEK. THE PREFIX "PAN" MEANS "ALL", OR "UNIVERSAL", IN LATIN. |
By 1986, Jon had transformed Earthscan's Southern media programme into a new independent institution, Panos, which would later become Panos London.
From the outset, as part of its commitment to Southern-led development, Panos aimed to build a network of independent institutes around the world.
Over time, offices opened in Zambia, Haiti, Nepal, Ethiopia, India and Paris, among others. In 2000, West Africa became the very first independent institute. Six years later, Eastern Africa also completed the transition. The regional offices are now all autonomous entities, federated into an international secretariat.
After more than twenty five years since the creation of Panos, the vision is well alive for a global network of institutes striving towards a common goal – ensuring that information is effectively used to foster public debate, pluralism and democracy.
MISSION & VALUES
THE PANOS INSTITUTES WORK TO ENSURE THAT INFORMATION IS EFFECTIVELY USED TO FOSTER PUBLIC DEBATE, PLURALISM AND DEMOCRACY.
Globally and within nations, Panos works with media and other information actors to enable developing countries to shape and communicate their own development agendas through informed public debate.
| WE FOCUS ON AMPLIFYING THE VOICES OF THE POOR AND THE MARGINALISED; TO FOSTER PUBLIC DEBATE, PLURALISM AND DEMOCRACY. |
OUR VISION
A world where communities build open, democratic and sustainable societies aimed at social justice, within and between countries, with free and diversified information and communication flows, including an independent and plural media.
APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT
THE CAPACITY TO RECEIVE INFORMATION, TO DEBATE, AND TO EXPRESS ONE’S OWN IDEAS AND NEEDS IS A RIGHT IN ITSELF AND AN ESSENTIAL PART OF PEOPLE’S ABILITY TO LIFT THEMSELVES OUT OF POVERTY AND PARTICIPATE IN THE LIFE OF THEIR SOCIETY.
Communication is part of the fabric of societies. By receiving, giving and discussing information and ideas we are able to make decisions and form opinions – parents decide if their child will go to school, an HIV positive person decides whether to declare his or her status, and individuals decide how to vote in an election.
Communication enables health services to ensure the supply of medicines in their clinics, farmers to find out the price of their crops, and diaspora communities to send remittances back home.
Communication underpins development.
GOVERNING STRUCTURE
THE PANOS NETWORK IS LEGALLY REGISTERED AS AN INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION IN THE NETHERLANDS. THE NETWORK IS GOVERNED BY A COUNCIL, WHERE ONE BOARD MEMBER AND THE DIRECTOR FROM ALL REGIONAL INSTITUTES ARE OFFICERS.
Over the last decade, the Panos Network has established a strong common governance structure and has adopted rules of conduct and procedures that govern and oversee its work. These include:
A Constitution for the Network, which provides for the formation of the Panos Council, the highest organ of the Network, with Council meeting annually; it is made up of two representatives from each of the Panos Institutes (a Governing Board member and its Executive Director)
Drawn from the Constitution, a Stichting Panos Network Foundation document, legally establishing the Panos Network as an international organisation registered in the Hague, the Netherlands
A set of By-Laws
A Code of Conduct on Fundraising and Programme Implementation
A growing set of Resolutions passed by the Council
An Executive Committee to oversee the work of the Network between Council meetings
A Panos Network Secretariat
A Forum of Directors
PARTNERS
MEMBER INSTITUTES WORK WITH A WIDE RANGE OF PARTNERS AT LOCAL, NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND GLOBAL LEVELS.
Panos projects and programmes are sometimes designed and implemented with other actors, to optimise the use of resources and amplify impacts.
The ambition of the global Panos Network is to become the ‘partner of choice’ of a growing number of stakeholders (local beneficiaries, donors, operational partners, development agencies, NGOs, governments and national and international organisations).
