CNS: About us

Vision

A just social order by achieving development justice for all

(health, gender, economic, re-distributive, social and climate justice)

Mission: We work towards...

enhancing visibility of neglected issues related to development justice, in particular, health and gender, by documenting voices of key affected populations, among other constituencies, in our rights- and scientific-and-community-evidence based thematic news coverage, and syndicating these news-feature articles to a range of print, online and social media
advocating and campaigning for policy, programmatic and social changes to achieve development justice for all

CNS campaigns for development justice as health, gender, economic, social, redistributive, climate justices as well as accountability to peoples is fundamental for a socially just and ecologically sustainable world for all.

CNS is an organisational member of WHO Civil Society Commission, WHO Global Diabetes Compact Forum, Stop TB Partnership, International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR Net), Asia Pacific Network of Environment Defenders (APNED), Asia Pacific Regional Civil Society Coordination Mechanism (AP-RCEM), among others. CNS also works closely with Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals, Corporate Accountability, Asha Parivar, among others.

CNS believes that experiential and lived knowledge of key affected populations should be central to driving responses to specific health and development issues. Recognizing community competence as an expertise along with those of other constituencies (such as doctors, scientists, policy makers, among others) is one of the key principles of CNS.

Also with an unprecedented surge in the uptake of social media tools, one cannot help but note that health and science journalism is no longer limited to trained media personnel, but has expanded to include a mosaic of other equally competent writers adding to the bandwidth of the coverage spectrum, such as, citizen journalists, bloggers, tweeters, scientists, image makers, multimedia specialists, and most importantly, key affected populations!

CNS Correspondents are voluntary citizen journalists, bloggers, media personnel, writers, or people from key affected populations such as survivors of gender-based violence or diseases (such as cancers or brain tumours), men who have sex with men (MSM), people living with HIV or people who have completed TB treatment, among others. They come from over 20 countries, mostly in Asia-Pacific and African regions. [Recommended link: How to become a CNS Correspondent]

How CNS came into being...

In early 1990s, a group of like-minded writers, who wanted to focus on independent, in-depth and people-centric news reporting on health and development issues, began a news feature agency in Hindi and English languages. This laid the foundation of CNS.

Later, towards the turn of the century, some of us became a part of a visionary citizen journalism initiative on HIV (and TB) related issues (formally called Health and Development Networks - HDN). CNS meantime focussed on development issues raised by Asha Parivar, and groups like the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM).

After HDN wrapped up operations in early 2009, we took over the management of CNS, which emerged in its present 'avatar' as a specialized news service on health and science. CNS was a part of a Thailand-based company (Jay Inspire Media and Communication Services Co Ltd) between 2009-2012. It now functions from India.

Feminist and development justice leader Shobha Shukla who taught physics in prestigious Loreto Convent College for over 30 years and writes in Hindi and English print and online media since decades; Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay Awardee and senior social activist; and Arundhati Dhuru, noted social activist of Narmada Bachao Andolan and NAPM have been key inspirations behind the values that drive CNS.