Jemstone consultants bring journalistic rigour, insight and scepticism to all aspects of media and development: organisational reform, training needs analysis, communications strategy, media relations, identifying opportunities and changing policy.

Typically we work with media organisations, large funders and development organisations, ngos and community groups and those advocating reform. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Recent Jemstone clients and partners include: the United Nations, Al Jazeera, the European Union, As Safir in Lebanon, the Yemen Times, the World Bank Institute, the Global Knowledge Partnership, the Dutch Development Minister, DFID, GCC, UNV and Egypt National Parks. Click here for project details.

We believe passionately in people's right to have access to the information they need to make, or at least influence, decisions about their lives. So we work to improve media organisations, to build the capacity of the development community to put forward its ideas, and to make government and other decision-takers more responsive.

Our approach is distinctive. We are practical, participatory, evidence-driven and totally focussed on what is success and how to achieve it. When we have agreed the way forward, we move towards it step-by-step; predisposing people to change, enabling them to make it and then reassuring and reinforcing until the new ways are second nature.

Not only do we help to construct a strategy but we work with you to implement it, taking full responsibility for our recommendations. We bring in working experts not full-time trainers and use our unique experience of Europe and the Arab world to unlock their specialist knowledge. We have experience of the Euro-Med-Gulf media scene going back to the early 1990s, unrivalled contacts throughout the region, and a track record that shows we can blend the best of Europe with empathy for the aspirations and realities of the arab world.

**Recent Jemstone consultancy assignments:

• Current projects under development include: arabic kidsTVnews, MDG out-reach assignment to stimulate debate and identify best practice, ongoing discussions with two TV stations (one satellite, one state) on training needs and management restructuring, proposals to demonstrate the link between good media and development, a profile-raising strategy for the EU in Jordan and replication of specialist journalist awards to increase the status and capacity of local and regional media
• 2003 Millennium Development Goals, the assignment was to "increase awareness in Jordan of the MDGs, to demonstrate the leading role of UNDP in advancing the goals and to initiate a debate on the implications of the MDGs for Jordan". The means was a series of provocative, journalistic articles, one on each of the development goals, (in arabic and english ) to stimulate debate. The resource (the articles) is in place on www.jordandevnet.org; the next step is outreach.
• 2002 Jordan Volunteer of the Year Award was devised as a way of highlighting the role of volunteers in development, it also proved to be a creative way of publicising the Volunteer Match section of www.jordandevnet.org and demonstrated our event management skills at the launch and the presentation of the awards, by HRH Princess Basma.
• 2002 Investigative Journalist of the Year Award the task was to build on earlier investigative workshops and make more impact. Not only did the award attract unprecendented interest throughout the media in Jordan, as well as lots of media coverage, it also inspired others to replicate the idea.
• 2001 Development communication workshops designed to increase the capacity of development organisations in Jordan to influence the public and policy-makers by more effective communications.
• 2001 Al Jazeera Training Workshops we were asked to make the best news and current affairs broadcaster in the arab world even better -- to bring Al Jazeera up to world standards. Having analysed the output, we identified the key areas needing attention (including presenters, correspondents and video editors) and designed a programme of intensive workshops and follow-up sessions for them, plus feedback for the senior management. The results were seen on TV screens around the world after 9/11.
• 2000-01 EU-GCC media co-operation implementation study to advise on how to establish a pilot project, including proposals for an initial media training and co-operation programme.
• 1999-2001 Investigative Journalism Workshops, the first of their kind, in Jordan, Egypt and Yemen to strengthen and improve independent journalism, in the light of comments from the World Bank President: "if there is no searchlight on corruption and inequitable practices you cannot build the public consensus needed to bring about change". As we stated in our formal proposal: "It is important therefore to increase the media's capacity to fulfil this role, while at the same time demonstrating to doubters why this new function for the media is so important."
• 1999-->ongoing www.jordandevnet.org is the biggest searchable development web-site in Jordan, run "on behalf of the development community", with Jemstone guaranteeing its independence and responsiveness to ideas and proposals from the whole range of development organisations.
• 1999-2000 Mediterranean Development Forum, MDF was a World Bank initiative to provide a space where development of the Mediterranean region could be discussed and supported. MDF3 in Cairo in 2000 had the theme "Voices for Change, Partners for Prosperity". Jemstone provided media relations consultancy before and during MDF3.
• 1999-2000 Global Knowledge Partnership, the aim of the World Bank's GKP was to " help people everywhere to broaden access to the knowledge and technology they need to live meaningful and fruitful lives". Jemstone was brought in as media and communication consultants to advise on strategy and generate interest in the GK2 conference in Malaysia and a preparatory event in Addis Ababa.
• During the mid and late 1990s we ran a series of media training and development workshops, funded by the European Union and in partnership with other organisations, including the World Bank Institute, Egypt National Parks, As Safir in Lebanon, Al Ahram in Cairo, JRTV and others. These were designed with specific outcomes in mind, to ensure that all the partners and participants achieved their aims, including capacity building, networking, career development or just a higher profile for training.
• 1990-95 media and interview training, the Jemstone director provided senior level consultancy and training to commercial companies on TV and radio interview techniques and communications strategy. Clients included; Ogilvy &Mather in London and Brussels, Glaxo, Shell and Booz.Allen & Hamilton.
• Commercial video production, the Jemstone deputy director has worked with a wide range of clients including Fuji, Rotterdam port, and the Dutch Foreign Ministry on corporate and in-house videos and CD-roms.
• BBC management assignments, besides producing, presenting and reporting on most kinds of news and current affairs TV and radio programmes, the Jemstone director also carried out internal management consultancy assignments including (in 1994) assessing the prospects for sending broadcast material along telephone lines and conducting the first performance review exercise at BBC Westminster.