How the toolkit was made

Methodology for the development of this Toolkit.

The toolkit was developed by the Global Forum for Media Development as part of the 2025 work plan of the Team Europe Democracy (TED) Network's working group on media and digital.

Interviews and Focus Groups

Between May and July 2025 GFMD engaged with conducted

• 3 focus groups

• 15 structured interviews

Anonymised contributions

The conversations were conducted under the Chatham House rule as creates a trusted space for dialogue, especially for politically sensitive topics.

The toolkit has used the advice, suggestions and case studies provided but does not reveal the identity of the interviewees/focus group participants or who they work for.

Quotes featured in the toolkit have therefore been use anonymised.

Incorporating the most relevant literature

GFMD learning, policy and regional meetings

Findings from GFMD meetings have been used throughout, including:

Donor-practitioner-academic learning meetings: Focus on a thematic area of media development and media viability.

Policy and learning meetings: Organising GFMD members and partners around specific policy and advocacy opportunities.

Regional meetings: Convening members and partners to discuss both media development and policy opportunities on a regional level.

The toolkit also draws on the consultations (2021-2023) that informed the drafting and adoption of the OECD principles.

Media Viability Manifesto

The Media Viability ManifestoMedia Viability Manifesto

The Media Viability Manifesto (MVM) provides an urgently needed common framework for joint action from the global media development community. Its aim is three pronged:

• to foster conceptual clarity,

• to strengthen strategic collaboration between multiple stakeholders,

• and to align practical implementation in the field of Media Viability.

State of Media Development - DW Akademie

State of media development vis à vis the OECD principlesDeutsche Welle

This report by DW Akademie's think tank DW Freedom takes a thorough look at the media development sector, a crucial part of international cooperation. It offers recommendations for its organisations and their funders.

International Media Assistance (IMA) Index

The aim of this Index is to evaluate and rank states, based on how well they deliver against their commitments to provide international support to the media. It includes all states that are members of both the OECD-DAC and the Media Freedom Coalition (30 countries in total). The Index will launch in October 2025 and will be updated annually.

Alignment with ongoing processes

The Toolkit will incorporate learning from related processes.

Within the TED Network this will include:

• The TED Network desktop study of EU funding to media and information integrity

• Outputs from other TED working group

Outside of the TED network this will include

• OECD DAC survey on implementation of the principles.

• Media Freedom Coalition (MFC) MediaDev Working Group.

Next steps

2025

Publishing a first draft for feedback and discussion: A Beta version of the toolkit will be published ahead of the TED Annual Meeting 16-17 September in Brussels in order to gather initial feedback from key stakeholders.

Finalising the toolkit: GFMD will use feedback from the TED Network and other stakeholders to finalise the toolkit by the end of November.

Launching the toolkit: GFMD, TED and other stakeholder hold a series of events to promote the launch of the toolkit including:

Global Investigative Journalism Conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 20th November 2025

GFMD and DW Akademie holding a side event on the implementation of the OECD principles.

Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism Conference, Amman, Jordan - 5 -7 December 2025

Toolkit promoted a meeting of donors and international intermediaries and regional actors.

2026

It is expected that the toolkit will be updated on an ongoing basis as best practice changes, funding mechanisms evolve and new case studies emerge.