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December 07, 2011
The Media Alliance hosted the Media Leaders' Forum on corporate social responsibility and climate change as part of the opening activities of the 3-day Asia Television Forum (ATF) 2011 in Singapore, The event, coinciding with the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17) in Durban, South Africa, discussed the role and responsibility of media companies in affecting positive social action and behavior change on issues relating to climate change. Ruder Finn, a partner of The Media Alliance, attended the Forum and provided media relations support.
Attended by more than 40 invited senior executives from media and advertising companies and leaders from international development agencies, the Media Leaders' Forum aimed to encourage the media and advertising heads to support broad and extended campaigns to raise awareness and achieve behavioral change by providing advertising inventory, entertaining program content and editorial space to explain the issues.
One of the highlights of the meeting was the launch of the Redraw the Line Campaign which seeks to mobilise the public to take positive action and drive demand for clean energy, transport and environmentally sustainable consumption.
The Forum's keynote speaker, Mr Shun-Ichi Murata, UN Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), highlighted the importance and role of the media in influencing mass, sustainable consumption of energy, transportation and disaster risk reduction.
"While climate change present great challenges to economic and social development in the Asia-Pacific region, it also presents vast new opportunities in terms of green technologies and maximizing quality of growth," Mr. Murata said. "Economic quality could concentrate on improving resilience to oil price shock, competitiveness, and generation of more employment. Social quality could be to enhance inclusiveness, equitable distribution of income and improve quality of life and well-being. Ecological quality could intensify ecological efficiency and resilience to climate change as well as enhance vibrant and dynamic eco-systems."
Use of media relationships and tools for advocacy
Moderated by Sharanjit Leyl, Presenter of the Asia Business report of BBC, the keynote address was followed by a panel discussion which demonstrated the use of media relationships and tools for advocacy, awareness and behaviour change in accomplishing companies' CSR objectives.
Panellists included
- Shun-ichi Murata, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP),
- Robert Van Zwieten, Director of Capital Markets and Financial Sectors Division, Private Sector Operations Department, Asian Development Bank, Manila
- Martin Blake, Executive Director, The GreenAsia Group, Singapore, and Executive Chairman, Carbon Zero Solutions Ltd, London
- Thepchai Yong, Managing Director, Thai Public Broadcasting Service, Bangkok
- Ken Hickson, Chairman of Sustain Ability Showcase Asia and Author of ‘The ABC of Carbon' and Governor of WWF Australia
- Dan Gibson, Managing Director, Ogilvy & Mather, Singapore
The executives discussed how socially-responsible campaigns can lead to partnerships that provide additional substance and revenue streams for the creation of such content, and the effect on brand-building and image enhancement of media companies and global marketers through pro-social content. It explored how the partnerships with international development and donor agencies and private-sector companies with strong CSR initiatives can affect public engagement on issues relating to climate change
The Media Leaders' Forum on Climate Change was organised with the support of, and in close collaboration with, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and in cooperation with the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and as an activity to advance the UNESCO Paris Declaration on Broadcast Media and Climate Change in the Asia-Pacific region.
The event was supported by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the International Advertising Association (IAA), the Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA), the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Singapore, the Singapore Compact for Corporate Social Responsibility, the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies, Singapore, and Ruder-Finn Asia.
Ruder Finn and The Media Alliance signed a partnership agreement in March 2011, to help increase and improve communications and message dissemination through media on a wide range of issues covering social and sustainable economic development in the Asia-Pacific region.
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