Some of you will have participated or seen the CEC global survey that was conducted in December 2009 on “CEC web approaches as a hub for learning and communication”. The quick survey identified overall needs of the CEC global membership in terms of developing a web-based information exchange hub (see report in the CEC Newsletter – March 2010 at http://www.iucn.org/about/union/commissions/cec/?4483/CEC-website-survey-results).

In the African regions we found that some of the proposed technologies may be hard to navigate for our membership. We often are challenged by realities that prohibit long-time internet connectivity and downloading of larger files. It is often difficult to become a member of an online discussion group and overall connection to the global world of experts and practitioners may be harder to administer than generally believed.

CEC wants to ensure that we design outreach mechanisms that (i) allow all CEC members to connect in a meaningful manner, and (ii) to help national CEC members to find support materials that will assist them in their work with their national networks of environmental learning and communication practitioners. This may require specific support interventions for regions that are technologically not quite as well set up compared to others.

The CEC web-based information exchange hub will be one discussion point at the up-coming CEC Steering Committee meeting in April (13 to 17) in Scotland. To enrich the discussion and make more meaningful inputs from our regional perspective, we have developed a short follow-up survey that would allow our regions to more specifically identify our needs and potential.

I would be grateful if you could fill in the short online survey (or the attached word version of it). If you decide to fill in the word version kindly return it to Ms Linda Uulenga l.uulenga@iecn-namibia.com and cc to Tommy Garnett tommy.garnett@gmail.com, CEC Regional Vice Chair). If you prefer to print the survey and fill it out by hand, you can fax it back to us at +264 61 249204. Submission deadline is the 01 April 2010 to allow us analysis and write up of results prior to the April SC meeting.

SECTION I: Personal context information

1. About Yourself?

Name and title: ____________________

Country: __________________________

Primary IUCN language (English, French, Spanish): ____________________

2. Your age group and gender

o Female under 35
o Female 35 – 55
o Female over 55
o Male under 35
o Male 35-55
o Male over 55

3. What kind of organization do you work for? Please tick.

o University
o Government, government agency
o National NGO
o Consultancy
o Private Sector
o International organization
o International NGO
o Other (Please Specify) ________________________________

SECTION II: Your environmental learning and communication community interactions

4. Who are your main interactions with? Please tick.

o Schools
o School learners (Grade 1-7; primary level)
o School learners (Grade 8-12; secondary level)
o Teachers
o Teacher trainers
o Teacher training institutions
o Teacher trainers
o Teaching students
o University
o Lecturers
o Researchers
o Students
o Technical professionals
o In government (head quarters/capital)
o In government (regional office/outstations)
o In NGOs (head quarters/capital)
o In NGOs (regional offices/outstations)
o In Community-based Organisations (CBOs) (head quarters/capital)
o In CBOs (regional offices/outstations)
o Policy makers
o In national government
o In national parliament
o In local authorities
o In local councils
o Other (specify) ___________________________________________________________
o Donors
o Other_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. How do you communicate/interact with your key stakeholders groups mostly?

Schools Universities Technical professionals Policy makers Donors Other I (specify) Other II (specify)
Phone
Cell/mobile phone
Fax
Email
Internet communication platforms e.g. Twitter
Meetings
Other

6. What are your learning and communication key support needs in terms of media used?

Schools Universities Technical professionals Policy makers Donors Other I (specify) Other II (specify)
Printed reference materials (e.g. books, publications, journals)
Online access to resource materials (internet)
Online community-of-practitioners interactions e.g. Twitter/ Facebook, mailing lists
Cell phone based resource access and communication e.g. Twitter
Training workshops
Technical seminars
Other

7. What are your major constraints with each of the above?

Support needs/tools Constraints/opportunities (please elaborate)
Printed reference materials, e.g. books, publications, journals
Online access to resource materials (internet)
Online community-of-practitioners interactions e.g. Twitter/ Facebook, mailing lists
Cell phone based resource access and communication e.g. Twitter
Training workshops
Technical seminars
Other

8. How often do you have access to internet resources (i) at work and (ii) outside your work environment?

(i) At work
o Daily
o Weekly
o Monthly
o Never
o Other _____________________________________________________________________

(ii) Outside work
o Daily
o Weekly
o Monthly
o Never
o Other _____________________________________________________________________

9. How and where are you connecting to the internet?

o Mobile phone,
o Regular telephone line
o Broadband (ISDN, ADSL etc.)
o Home
o Office
o Internet café
o Other (please specify) ______________________________________________________

10. Please describe the quality of your internet access:

o Very good
o Good
o Poor
o Very Poor
o Other comments __________________________________________________________

11. Do you have access to a cell phone?

o Yes, I have access to a cell phone
o No, I do not have access to a cell phone

12. If you have access to a cell phone – how do you use it?

o Calls (incoming only)
o Calls (incoming and outgoing)
o SMS
o Internet access
o Twitter and other group subscriptions
o Other _________________________________________________________________________

13. What are the approximate costs for internet or cell phone in your country?

o Monthly internet subscription (specify connection and US$ amount) ______________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
o Monthly cell phone subscription and approximate costs per call/sms/browsing ______________ ______________________________________________________________________________

SECTION III: How can CEC support your professional needs?

14. As a member of IUCN in the ESA region- what are your expectations from the global IUCN- CEC network?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
15. How can CEC-ESA interactions be improved for your country/work?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
16. Has the recently established email server been useful or helpful to your position as an IUCN-CEC member? Please grade on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being highly useful and 1 not useful at all (please tick). Substantiate your rating if you like.

Highly useful
o 10
o 9
o 8
o 7
o 6
o 5
o 4
o 3
o 2
o 1
Not useful at all

Comment:_________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

17. What other comments or advice to you have for us?

Comment:_________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THANK YOU!