News

SCRIPTORIA helps produce new DFID Water Policy
We’re pleased to say that the UK Department for International Development (DFID) recently launched its new water policy. This globally important publication is designed to help DFID meet its £200 million commitment to vastly increasing the number of people with access to safe water and sanitation.

SCRIPTORIA’s role was to help the government’s senior policy advisors translate a series of complex issues into this relatively short and easy-to-read document. At our initial meeting we advised on the style and tone of the document. The next three months involved regular meetings and lots of late nights as we worked closely with them to rewrite their original policy document and fine-tune the final product according to comments from the International Development Minister and his team.

DFID’s aim is help twenty-five million people across Africa to gain access to safe water and basic sanitation over the next five years. 

To read the Policy Document, please click HERE (1.37 MB)

New Photo Guide to help you get the pics you need
We can’t tell you how frustrating it can be to have an important story to tell (or project to promote), and not have the pictures to really show it off. Charities and NGOs often don’t have the budgets needed to buy photos from picture houses, and instead rely on their staff to take compelling pictures as part of their everyday working lives. But this can be a pretty hit-and-miss process.

So, we’ve teamed up with the UK Government to produce a Field Guide to Photography for anyone working in development.

This guide isn’t aimed at professional photographers. Instead it targets project staff, researchers, volunteers, and the many other people working in the field who have the chance to take great-looking photos if only they had the confidence. The guide explains why it’s important to take these kinds of photos, what situations make for a great photo, and how to frame and actually take your picture.

And of course the same techniques can be applied at your next barbecue to produce great family photos too – what a bargain! You can download the photo guide by clicking HERE (1.2 MB).

Teaming up with business to fight poverty

Here at SCRIPTORIA we’re very proud to have produced the UK Department for International Development (DFID) brochure and display stand for the recently held, and globally important, Business Call to Action meeting.

The meeting saw the UK’s Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) welcome more than 80 CEOs from some of the world’s largest companies to London to showcase new business initiatives to reduce poverty in the developing world.

The meeting highlighted successful projects run by more than a dozen global companies, including Coca Cola, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters and Vodafone. Over the next five years, initiatives like these are expected to save almost half a million lives, create thousands of jobs, and benefit millions of poor people across Africa and Asia. They’re part of a concerted push to meet the Millennium Development Goals by helping poor people to access up-to-the-minute information, money and business expertise and by creating new business and employment opportunities.

Young people’s summary of the United Nations’ Human Development Report
on climate change
Do you ever read the United Nations’ Human Development report? We do (every year) and we can tell you that it’s a great read – stuffed full of useful statistics and facts and giving much-needed key information on development-related trends. But, it’s certainly not the kind of book you’d use to read your kids a bedtime story from.

So, how are the kids supposed to get balanced information on key issues like global warming? Well through the Human Development Report’s Youth Summary of course! This great little publication makes the key issues accessible to young people, and we’re pleased to say that, for the last couple of years, we’ve had the fun job of giving it a final expert review and read through, to check that it’s readable and communicates its messages as well as possible.

The latest issue is on climate change. So, if you haven’t already given a copy to your kids, we’ve got to ask “why not”? Download it HERE (5 MB).

A new look for the DEW Point Water Consortium
We’re not just about the big jobs here at Scriptoria; little touches to your public face can make a huge difference too. So, when DEW Point asked us to produce a desk-top calendar and a pop-up banner for them, we took the opportunity to push their brand forwards and really make them stand out. The result was a cracking new look, which Dew Point can now run with and add to their future materials - they’ve already used it to modernize their website. Great!