PANOS NETWORK - OUR ORIGINS

ABOUT THE PANOS NETWORK

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.

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.

PANOS HISTORY TIMELINE

1986 • PANOS LONDON ESTABLISHED
Improvisation and audacity characterized Panos London. Its founding members begged, borrowed, and called in favours to get the charity off the ground. Initially an environmental organization, it quickly gained a reputation for working on controversial issues such as the rapid escalation of the HIV epidemic in poor countries. Read an account of Panos London's earliest days

1987 • AIDS AND THE THIRD WORLD'
AIDS and the Third World was Panos's first investigation into the HIV/AIDS epidemic when little was known about its likely impact. Tens of thousands of copies were published in several languages. This groundbreaking study looked at the impact of HIV and AIDS on the world's poorest people. In 1987, the disease was highly stigmatized across both developed and less developed countries. Read an account of the Panos London AIDS programme

1987 • PANOS FEATURES SERVICE LAUNCHED
These in-depth, analytical features were translated into 50 languages, and alerted millions worldwide to the global influence of environmental and social issues. Internationalist in outlook, Panos Features ensured Brazilian journalists were published in Bangladesh, Tanzanians in Barbados, Sri Lankans in Chile, Nigerians in Finland, and Zambians in Indonesia, to name but a few. The service continued until 2004.

1990 • 'TRIPLE JEOPARDY - WOMEN AND AIDS'
This dossier, published to mark World AIDS Day 1990, marked an important step in the debate around HIV and AIDS. It treated AIDS as much more than a medical issue and raised many of the fundamental questions of equity – between the sexes and between regions of the world – at the heart of the development debate.

WHAT WE ACHIEVED

+1,300 testimonies gathered from people across 38 countries describing their experience of living through poverty and conflict.
+10,000 journalists trained, supported, mentored and inspired from over 85 different countries.
+26 years of publishing groundbreaking books and documents.
Panos worked across six continents, in more than 85 countries.
Hundreds of radio programmes produced that were broadcast across the internet, community and national radio stations globally.
Published +1,000s of news and feature articles.
Millions of readers, viewers and listeners reached across the globe.

1990 • 'MIRACLE OR MENACE? BIOTECH AND THE THIRD WORLD'
Ahead of its time, this Panos environmental dossier, written by Robert Walgate, spells out the implications of biotechnology for development countries, and asked "in whose interest is it being developed?"

1992 • 'AT THE DESERT'S EDGE, ORAL TESTIMONY FROM THE SAHEL'
A collaboration between Panos and SOS Sahel, this book explored the culture, history and environment of the Sahel through the recollections of over 500 men and women who live there.

1993 • 'LISTENING FOR A CHANGE, ORAL TESTIMONY AND DEVELOPMENT'
This book set out the oral testimony approach as pioneered by Panos. Oral testimony recorded the fine details of people's lives using active listening and encouraging the interviewee to dictate the direction of the interview. Its aim was to show planners and politicians what it felt like to be at the sharp end of development. Read 'Listening for a Change'

1994 • 'PRIVATE DECISIONS, PUBLIC DEBATE - WOMEN, REPRODUCTION AND POPULATION'
Winner of Global Media Award for excellence in journalism, this book was published to coincide with the United Nations Cairo International Conference on Population and Development. Fifteen journalists from Africa, Asia and Latin America reported on subjects as diverse as female genital mutilation, unauthorized sterilizations, untreated STDs, HIV infection and the influence of Catholicism and Islam and how they affect reproductive decision-making.

1995 • 'ARMS TO FIGHT. ARMS TO PROTECT.'
An oral testimony collection featured interviews with women in 12 countries living through the wars of the 1980s and 1990s and their aftermath.

1996 • 'ON THE MARGINS: MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN AND HIV IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD'
This taboo-busting dossier produced by Panos and the Norwegian Red Cross tackled a subject which mainstream media was reluctant to tackle and many NGOs were slow to pick up on.

1997 • PANOS PICTURES IS LAUNCHED
Panos Pictures, which started life as the photographic wing of Panos, was established, in 1997, as a commercial agency by its director Adrian Evans. Pursuing stories beyond the contemporary media agenda, it continues to win awards and plaudits.
http://panos.co.uk

1996-97 • REGIONAL OFFICES OPENED
In 1996 Panos opened a regional office in Lusaka, Zambia with regional offices in Kathmandu, Nepal and in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia following in 1997.

1999 • 'AIDS AND MEN'
This agenda-setting publication examined the relationship between men's actions and HIV and AIDS around the world.

1999 • 'GIVING VOICE'
Panos published these practical - and still relevant - guidelines for implementing oral testimony projects.

2000 • MOUNTAIN VOICES
A collection of interviews with over 350 people living in mountain and highland regions round the world. For background information, to learn more about participants, and to get access to the full transcripts visit mountainvoices.org.

2000 • INTERWORLD RADIO
Panos and OneWorld.net launched an online content-sharing network, providing free radio programmes, support and advice to other radio professionals worldwide. Radio stations in the global North and South gained access to the voices of people affected by global issues worldwide, while talented radio journalists in developing countries gained training, experience and exposure.

2000 • 'JUST A LOT OF HOT AIR? A CLOSE LOOK AT THE CLIMATE CHANGE CONVENTION'
As this timely briefing recognised, fossil fuels have long been crucial to the debate about wealth and development. It highlighted the issues, concerns, possibilities and dangers of global climate change negotiations.

2003 • 'MISSING THE MESSAGE'
Calling for greater participation and accountability in the fight against HIV by those living with the virus, its message was clearly and widely heard.

2006 • PANOS EASTERN AFRICA
Panos Eastern Africa became the final regional office to gain autonomy.

2007 • AT THE HEART OF CHANGE
Our landmark document set out the importance of communication in achieving international development goals.

2010 • RURAL VOICES
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) produced their 10-yearly Rural Poverty Report using the expertise of people living in poverty showing how widely Panos's oral testimony method had been embraced.

BEACON PROJECTS

Relay: communicating research
The Relay programme brought researchers and journalists together to improve media coverage of critical development issues in collaboration with Panos Network institutes in Eastern and Southern Africa and South Asia. The project piloted, adapted and consolidated an approach to build the capacity of editors, journalists and researchers to improve uptake of research in collaboration with Panos Network institutes.

PANOSRELAY.ORG.UK

Linking southern journalists with European media
This project nurtured and supported up-and-coming journalists in developing countries – helping them to contribute stories to the media in UK, Spain, Sweden and Poland. Hundreds of articles were published in the UK, Sweden, Spain and Poland on subjects ranging from Delhi’s first female taxi drivers to HIV and children.

Climate Change Media Partnership
Panos joined forces with Internews and IIED to report from the heart of the international climate negotiations. Journalists from Asia, Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Latin America took part in fellowship programme designed to improve media coverage of climate change issues in developing countries.

CLIMATE CHANGE MEDIA PARTNERSHIP

Panos Pictures
Panos Pictures is a photo agency specialising in global social issues, driven by the vision and commitment of its photographers and staff. Panos is known internationally for its fresh and intelligent approach and respected for its integrity and willingness to pursue stories beyond the contemporary media agenda. Panos Picture is now wholly independent from the Panos Network. PANOS.CO.UK

ABOUT OUR ORIGINS

ABOUT PANOS

PANOS CARIBBEAN	PANOS WEST AFRICA	PANOS SOUTH ASIA
Established in the late 1980s, the mission of PANOS CARIBBEAN is to promote sustainable development and social justice in the Wider Caribbean, especially empowering the poor and vulnerable, to share information and articulate their own perspectives on development issues, broadcasting them across language and political borders. Panos Caribbean specialises in children and youth media, public health and environment, with a special focus on gender. Panos Caribbean works in English, French, Kreyol and Spanish.	PANOS INSTITUTE WEST AFRICA (IPAO/PIWA) is an international non-governmental, independent, secular organization, founded in 2000 on the footseps of a program initiated in 1988. The mission of PIWA is to build a democratic sphere of communication for change and social justice in Africa. PIWA runs four thematic programmes on media pluralism, diversity and peace, democratic governance, and globalization.	PANOS SOUTH ASIA was founded in 1997, with the aim of creating a more vibrant and inclusive media, and a smithy to forge and shape new ideas and policies to make a more equal world. PSA works closely with journalists and the media, offering a range of fellowships, organising workshops and seminars, and producing resources such as the 'Understanding WTO' toolkit. Strengths include innovative work on conflict, bringing together editors and journalists from conflict-affected regions, as well as publications and research communication on environmental, public health and media pluralism.
PANOS SOUTHERN AFRICA		PANOS GREAT LAKES
Since 1996, PANOS SOUTHERN AFRICA has relentlessly devoted itself to cultivating an environment enabling the marginalised to actively participate in inclusive debate and decision-making processes. PSAf works with the too often unheard women, men and youths, helping them to drive their own agendas and influence policies and programmes. This includes working on issues such as HIV/AIDS, natural resource management, governance, poverty, economics, globalisation and international trade. PSAf methodological strengths include oral testimonies and working with rural radio listening clubs.		PANOS INSTITUTE GREAT LAKES (IPGL/PIGL), founded in 2014, is headquartered in Bujumbura and serves the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Burundi region. Its mission includes promoting media plurality and the access to an independent, diverse and responsible press in the Great Lakes area. Among its stategies, PIGL works actively at building a legal framework that protects the freedom of the press. PIGL also works on themes such as public health/HIV, media pluralism, governance, as well as peace & conflicts.