A crucial appointment for concerned public relators will be next month in Rome at the first ever World Congress of Communication for Development

The principle that public relations in any organization (private, public or social) needs to be involved in the decision making process before decisions are taken…and this…. assuming that the truly strategic role of our profession is of a ‘reflexive’ nature, which implies a careful listening, understanding and interpreting of stakeholder groups in order to improve the quality of that process and to accelerate the implementation of its decisions, will be featured as the core content of the first ever World Congress of Communication for Development to be held in Rome from October 25 to October 27……More...

By invitation of the Government of Italy, the World Bank, the FAO (UN) and the Communication Initiative are the promoters and organizers of this Congress, which will see some 500 participants from 120 countries: Heads of State, Prime Ministers, Ministers, Communicators and Scholars.
Possibly this is the most important global event on public relations ever held, as it will integrate worldviews, theories, case studies and experiences from all over the world entirely focussed on public relations, communication and their impacts on global development issues.
The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, the umbrella organization for 65 national professional associations representing in excess of 160 thousand professionals, in partnership with the World Bank, will be staging in the event, on Friday October 27 from 12 am, a special session under the title:


The changing role of PR in the scenario of International Development.

Following a general framework introduction by the author of this-here blog, three relevant best practice cases will be presented by:
°Gherard Butschi (Switzerland, Ceo of Digital Management) together with Ambassador Peter Kallaghe Director of Communication of the Government of Tanzania, on this organizations early application of a specially designed public relations software to improve the quality of decision making;

°Peter Walker (UK, Chairman of the Pielle Consulting Group) together with Adebisi S. Olowoyo of Brass LNG. on the environmental impact analysis which led to the Nigerian Brass Island Development Project;
°John Paluszek (Usa, Senior Consel Ketchum) on the Hindustan Lever Company’s “Shakti” micro-finance program for women first-time entrepreneurs.

This is truly a major breakthrough for the Global Alliance in the sense that:
This is truly a major breakthrough for the Global Alliance in the sense that:
°it shows full awareness that public relations is not only a private sector or an ‘industry’ profession;

This is truly a major breakthrough for the Global Alliance in the sense that:°it shows full awareness that public relations is not only a private sector or an ‘industry’ profession;°it recognizes that there are hundreds of thousands of public relators out there in the world who are not necessarily represented by traditional professional associations;
°in every country existing associations are actively planning to reach out to development communicators, first of all to learn (many of the best practices presented in Rome would top most of our annual excellence award schemes..), then to liaise and to cooperate.


Finally, but by no means less importantly, the relationships and respect which the GA has been able to develop since its inception only four years ago with international organizations such as the UN and the World Bank indicates quite clearly that member associations and the public relations community in general are both beginning to feel and benefit from its presence.