Soul Beat Africa
African development action with informed and engaged societies
Soul Beat Africa
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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The Soul Beat 229 - Soul Beat Africa Turns 10

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Issue #
229
The Drum Beat

Soul Beat Africa

 

The Soul Beat 229 - Soul Beat Africa Turns 10

September 25, 2013
From SOUL BEAT AFRICA - where communication and media are central to AFRICA's social and economic development

In this issue of The Soul Beat:

Soul Beat Africa is 10 years old!

Initiated by the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication and The Communication Initiative, Soul Beat Africa was officially launched in September 2003. We are the youngest member of The Communication Initiative Network, with the Communication Initiative and the Communication Initiative Latin America (CILA) both in their 15th year.

In this current funding environment there are not a lot of initiatives, especially web-based knowledge portals, that can celebrate 10 years of existence, and this can partly be attributed to a very committed team of people working for The CI, Soul City, and Soul Beat Africa, who believe strongly in the importance of communication for development (C4D), as well as in the importance of being able to access knowledge to ensure effective development action on the ground.

We are also indebted to our Partners who provide resources to support the work, shape the overall vision for The CI/Soul Beat Africa process, determine the specific strategies for each year, and review progress on the key performance indicators. Click here for the full list of Partners.

And finally, we would not be where we are today without you, our valued network, who have supported us for all these years. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your engagement and contributions.

To celebrate our anniversary, this newsletter (newly redesigned) provides a glimpse of Soul Beat Africa at 10, looking at what we do (including some useful tips on navigation), who our users are, how people are using our site and processes, and what impact our work is having.

WHAT WE DO

Overview

Soul Beat Africa is a knowledge management initiative focused on media and communication for social change in Africa, that offers an online space where people and organisations can access and share knowledge and network amongst themselves on a wide range of development issues.

The Soul Beat Africa Website - New Design!

In our continuous efforts to remain up to date with technological developments and to enhance your experience with our online platform, the site has recently undergone a redesign to be more user-friendly, visual, and dynamic. To help you find your way around, this newsletter will offer some tips on navigation and on using the search function.

Knowledge Summaries

The Soul Beat Africa website currently has over 6,500 knowledge summaries, and new content is being added on a weekly basis. The collection can be searched by a range of filters which include:
  • type of information (programme experiences, evaluation reports, strategic thinking reports, materials, awards, etc.);
  • geographic location - by region, e.g. Southern Africa and country, e.g. Malawi;
  • development issue (health, governance, environment, education, children, gender, etc.);
  • communication media (print, radio, live performance, visual arts, etc.); and
  • communication approach (advocacy, edutainment, social marketing, interpersonal communication, etc.).
Click here to view the full list of content with all filters.

Soul Beat Africa Theme Sites

The Soul Beat Africa Theme sites are topic focused sub-sites within the overall Soul Beat Africa website which have been developed with support from our funding partners. The Soul Beat Africa theme sites have grown considerably over the years and now include:

The Soul Beat E-newsletters

We have sent out 229 issues of The Soul Beat e-newsletter since our inception. These have covered a wide range of topics, including Gender, HIV/AIDS, Disability, Agriculture, Peacebuilding, Theatre for Change, Radio and Television Dramas, Social Media, Libraries, Games for Social Change, and many more.

To view all editions, click here for the newsletter archive.

We also produce Soul Beat Extras, our niche e-newsletters which complement our theme sites and are supported by partner funding. On a bi-monthly basis, we currently publish an Extra on HIV/AIDS, Community Radio, and Edutainment.

Click here to subscribe to our newsletters.

Soul Beat Africa and Social Media

The past 10 years have seen the rise of social media and Soul Beat Africa has not hesitated to take advantage of this very effective way to reach out to our network. You can now stay in touch with Soul Beat Africa through:

We have also developed an online networking space where people can discuss a range of communication for development issues. Click here to join.

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TIPS ON NAVIGATION

  1. You can do a key word search and use the Main Search Filters block in the right navigation bar. To view the full list of summaries and to search them by the full range of filters, click here.
  2. The list of rotating blocks further down on the homepages (main site and theme sites) show the most recent knowledge that has been uploaded within a particular category, e.g. Experiences, Materials, Strategic Thinking. For the full list of summaries, click on the title within each block.
  3. On each summary page, there is a block "More like this" which offers more knowledge that is similar to the summary you are looking at.
  4. On each page there is also a block on the right called Network Images and Videos - click on the images to go to the related summary page or click on the "Videos" option to view the latest videos on C4D.

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WHO ARE THE SOUL BEAT AFRICA NETWORK?

Soul Beat Africa has built up a considerable subscriber network of over 16,000 individuals and organisations from Africa and beyond. In Africa, our top 10 subscriber countries are: South Africa, followed by Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Ethiopia, and Malawi.

Globally, the top 10 Soul Beat subscriber countries are: the United States, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, the United Kingdom, Columbia, Uganda, India, Ghana, and Zimbabwe.

The Soul Beat Africa network consists of people working for non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations, media organisations (journalists and media professionals), academic institutions (students and lecturers), government departments, research institutions, multinational development and donor organisations, as well as development and communication consultants. The majority of these people are working in or have an interest in communication and media for social change.

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OUR ACHIEVEMENTS

Website Use

Over the past 10 years, the Soul Beat Africa website has seen a steady growth in use. For the past year (September 2012 - August 2013), the Soul Beat Africa website had over 63,882 unique visitors, which is an average of 5,323 unique visitors per month. These users have been accessing the summary pages and in many cases have also downloaded the full document or resource from the links provided.

Our 10 most downloaded summaries in the past 12 months were:
  1. African Communication Research 3(3): Bribery and Corruption in African Journalism [Faculty of Social Sciences and Communications at St. Augustine University of Tanzania; December, 2010]
  2. Making Elections Count: A Guide to Setting Up a Civil Society Election Situation Room [Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA); 2012]
  3. Theory and Practice of Participatory Communication: The Case of the FAO Project "Communication for Development in Southern Africa" [Dissertation by Paolo Mefalopulos, 2003]
  4. Communications for Change: How to Use Text Messaging as an Effective Behavior Change Campaigning Tool [FronlineSMS and Text to Change; 2012]
  5. Youth Empowerment through Arts and Media (YETAM) - Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, Rwanda, Kenya, and Mozambique, and Ghana
  6. SSDI-Communication Project - Malawi
  7. Rights Not Rescue: A Report on Female, Male, and Trans Sex Workers' Human Rights in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa [Open Society Institute; June 2009]
  8. Diabetes: The Hidden Pandemic and its Impact on Sub-saharan Africa [Prepared for the Diabetes Leadership Forum, 2010]
  9. Transformational Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa [World Bank and the African Development Bank; 2012]
  10. Half the Sky Movement: Mobile Games - India, Kenya and Tanzania

 

Impact Of Soul Beat Africa - Feedback From The Network

In the most recent independently conducted and analysed network survey, we asked why people use The CI and Soul Beat Africa websites, newsletters, and online networking spaces. The responses were: "to learn knowledge that contributes to my work"; "to get more information" and "to enhance strategic thinking". 33% of overall respondents rated the social network they developed through the CI/Soul Beat process as "extremely valuable" or "valuable."

From a recent survey on our Democracy and Governance Initiative, we received the following feedback from our network:
  • "The content has provided useful background and/or sources of information for our news bulletins and programmes."
  • "We used information and tools highlighted to improve our own tools, or to avoid duplication of already existing tools."
  • "I get inspiration about radio programme ideas..."
  • "We have been using participatory approaches and the knowledge accessed from SBA strengthened our thinking further."
  • "Like the general Communication Initiative e-newsletters, Soul Beat is a valuable Communication Development resource that keeps me abreast of what's happening on the continent..."

Click here for more comments.

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SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK - WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Help us to better support your work! Please use the star rating system (top of the page) and comments form at the bottom of each content page to let us know what you think about each knowledge item on the site. You can see which posting has received the most ratings and comments in the "Most Popular" by Rating and by Comments block in the right navigation bar of each page on the site.

You can submit comments via the comments form or just send an email to soulbeat@comminit.com

Click here to view what our network has said about Soul Beat Africa.

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AND THE BEAT GOES ON....

Looking into the future, the work on our website is ongoing, and we will keep on modifying and improving the site by adding more features to improve your user experience.

We will continue to develop new partnerships with organisations and look forward to adding more theme sites and development issues to our existing portfolio.

We would also like to see our networks grow, especially in African countries where webuse and subscriber numbers are still low. Please help us by forwarding our newsletters to your colleagues and networks in Africa or wherever they may work around the globe.

We recognise that our value grows from our ability to listen to our network and to respond to your needs. We will continue listening and responding and trust all of you will keep on letting us know how you find what we do beneficial to your work by: accessing, rating, and commenting on the knowledge on our site; joining or following discussions; submitting knowledge for us to post; and sending us comments.

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Please send material for The Soul Beat to soulbeat@comminit.com

We would love to hear from you: Click here to send us your comments or email soulbeat@comminit.com

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