The Global Alliance

"Bringing together public relations and communication management associations from around the world, we aim to help the global public relations profession share ideas and best practices, seek common interests and standards, and better understand the unique aspects of each culture in which practitioners operate," says Toni Muzi Falconi, chair of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA) for 2003.

According to Margaret Moscardi, executive director of the Public Relations Institute of South Africa (PRISA), "as representatives of national bodies for public relations practitioners, global trends and issues increasingly affect us. Therefore, it is advantageous for us to communicate with practitioners from around the world regarding the experiences we have had and the solutions that have worked, or for that matter, the solutions that have not been successful. This global thought process attributed to the successful establishment of the GA in October 2000."

The GA is a grouping of associations, not individual members. However, individual members of participating associations benefit in that they are able to access information regarding regional or international conferences and seminars, case studies, awards programmes, benchmarking research, and other pertinent communication. The GA secretariat is run by PRISA as the Association's contribution to the global body.

"The GA also enhances networking opportunities and serves as a vehicle for examining ethical standards, universal accreditation options, and other initiatives to strengthen the profession around the world," adds Moscardi. "Committees and workgroups, such as Advocacy/Policy, Ethical Standards in public relations and communication, Evaluation & Measurement and Professional Accreditation/Certification, as well as continuing professional development have been set up to deal with public relations and communication management issues that arise."

South Africa's own Chris Skinner, APR, FPRISA, has been appointed as part of the expert ethics panel of practitioners who have had experience in dealing with ethical matters within their organisation, with clients and as volunteers to their public relations association.

The panel (five in total) was recently involved in the promulgation of the Global Ethics Protocol, which was unanimously approved by member organisations. This is the first global standard for the profession - a protocol to standardise the codes of ethics of the profession. The protocol prescribes the minimum elements that must be included in codes of ethics currently in use around the world.

The GA has also announced the formation of a new virtual ethics forum where practitioners facing ethical dilemmas will be able to submit, on a confidential basis, a particular situation on which they wish to obtain clarification from experts from around the world.