Soul Beat Africa

• COMBATTING CORRUPTION - a school campaign and changing social norms...
• ELECTIONS - the impact of political radio debates and journalism training...
• THE ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICTS) - casestudies and academic thinking...
• SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND CITIZEN ACTION - a fair taxation project and promoting accountability through the media...

• 1. Corruption in Schools Campaign - South AfricaLaunched by Corruption Watch in late 2013, the Corruption in Schools Campaign is working to encourage public participation in combatting corruption in schools in South Africa. Through its online and SMS [text messaging] platforms and other media and communication channels, the campaign: encourages reporting of corruption in the education system; creates awareness of corruption in schools; and shares information, tools, and strategies to help communities hold schools accountable.
  
• 2. Literature Review on Social Norms and Corruption [January, 2014]By Samira LindnerThis Expert Answer brief, produced by the web-based U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, shares the findings from a literature review of research on to how social norms are being leveraged by anti-corruption initiatives as part of work to influence corrupt behaviours. The brief provides a summary and analysis of a selection of studies from the East Africa region as well as other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to help explore how social norms can be integrated into anti-corruption activities.
  
• 3. Poverty and Corruption in Africa: Community Voices Break the Cycle [2012]This report discusses the experiences and lessons learned from Transparency International's (TI) Poverty and Corruption in Africa project, which focused on poor people's role in improving service delivery in Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Zambia and highlighted the link between corruption and poverty. The report outlines social accountability tools developed by the six TI country chapters to engage poor people and their governments in constructive dialogue.
  
• 4. Anti-Corruption Caravan - UgandaThe Anti-corruption Caravan is a mobile, citizen-led campaign traveling through Uganda to raise awareness, encourage dialogue, and improve accountability to fight corruption. Led by ActionAid with the support of the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF), the caravan moves from district to district hosting events where people are invited to identify corrupt offices and officials in the local government, as well as name "Icons of Integrity" who stand up against corruption. ActionAid is also collecting feedback and experiences regarding corruption to share online and in print publications.
  
• 5. Investigating Corruption in Malawi - Training Resources for Journalists [2012]This training resource is meant to inform and guide journalists and civil society in Malawi on how to investigate corruption following a story-based approach. Along with guidelines to reporting, the resource includes excerpts from Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer findings in Southern Africa, an article on journalism and corruption in Malawi, an article on whistleblowing in Malawi, a step-by-step manual to story-based enquiries, a guide to reading budgets, and a case study on anti-corruption efforts in a public office in Blantyre, Malawi.
  

• 6. Debates: The Impact of Voter Knowledge Initiatives in Sierra Leone [March, 2015]By Kelly Bidwell, Katherine Casey, and Rachel GlennersterThis research report discusses how debates between candidates during elections affect voting behaviours, based on research conducted in Sierra Leone during the 2012 Parliamentary elections. Researchers collaborated with Search for Common Ground to host, film, and screen structured, inter-party debates. Debates were held in fourteen competitive constituencies in the lead up to Election Day, and videos of the debates were screened at 197 public gatherings at polling centre level. The research found that the debates were associated with "evidence of strong positive impacts on citizen political knowledge, policy alignment and votes cast on Election Day."
  
• 7. Handbook for Journalists during Elections [April, 2013]This Ha ndbook was produced by Reporters Without Borders and the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) to help journalists to transmit fair and balanced information about the candidates, their programmes, and the electoral process. It is meant for journalists working for media of every category (radio, television, print and online), scale (local, national or international) and form of ownership (state-owned, privately owned or community.)
  
• 8. Sierra Leone: Encouraging Impartial Coverage During the 2012 Elections [September, 2013]This re search report discusses a BBC Media Action training in Sierra Leone on election reporting for journalists of the International Radio Network. The aim of the mentor-based training was to encourage impartial, fair and accurate reporting by journalists covering elections. According to the report, "Mentors and journalists found the training improved their ability to: report elections in a professional way that reduced the likelihood of conflict and unrest; provide objective, impartial and fair coverage of political parties; and incorporate citizen voices in discussion programmes around the elections."
  
• 9. Niambie Radio Project - TanzaniaNiambie ('Tell me' in Kiswahili) is a three-year civic engagement project which is designed to inform Tanzanian youth of political processes and issues so that they can play a more constructive role in the country's democratic processes. This is particularly important in light of the local, parliamentary, and presidential elections taking place in late 2015, as well as the new proposed constitution being put to a referendum. The BBC Media Action is working with youth to offer them information and an interactive platform through a national radio show, accompanied by digital content production and social media, and is also conducting capacity building workshops for media organisations to improve reporting around elections.
  
• 10. How Fo Do? Television Drama - NigeriaHow Fo Do? was a ten-week television drama that sought to contribute to and promote meaningful participation in the 2015 election process in Nigeria. The objective of the drama was to educate eligible voters on their voting rights, the voting process, and the need to participate in the election process, and to encourage peaceful co-existence and promote a culture of tolerance among the electorates. In particular, the series sought to raise awareness of the strategies, deceptions, and misinformation used during electoral campaigning to mislead potential voters, in order to enable vulnerable voters to make more informed choices.
  

• 11. Is There a Link Between Digital Media and Good Governance? What the Academics Say [June, 2013]By Mary MeyersThis study from the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) focuses on academic thinking on good governance and digital media, taken to mean "all the various types of new information and communication technologies such as the Internet, social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter, blogs, podcasts, SMS [text messages] and mobile phones." The report is organised into two main parts. The first presents the overarching theory and debate from two opposing standpoints that can be crudely characterised as the techno-optimists versus the techno-pessimists. The second part looks at some empirical research and country case studies by a number of academics from different disciplines; law, political science, and anthropology.
  
• 12. Citizen Participation and Technology: An NDI Study [May, 2014]Drawing upon case studies from 9 programmes around the world and a citizen participation theory of change, this case study from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) explores this question: Does the use of technology in citizen participation programmes amplify citizen voices and increase government responsiveness and accountability?
  

• 13. Rethinking Social Accountability in Africa: Lessons from the Mwananchi Programme [September, 2013]By Fletcher TemboThis re port draws on five years of lessons learned and case studies from implementing the Mwananchi Governance and Transparency Programme in six African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Zambia. The report proposes a focus on context-specific processes, or 'interlocution processes', by which selected actors, or interlocutors, can orchestrate changes in citizen-state relations at various levels, and a retreat from standardised tools which fail to produce the right results in different contexts. According to the report, media can play a key role as an interlocutor, but that processes themselves are at the centre of social accountability, rather than organisations or institutions.
  
• 14. Capacity for Research and Advocacy for Fair Taxation (CRAFT) ProjectRunning from 2012 to 2016, this project is working to contribute to fair and pro-poor tax systems and more transparent and accountable fiscal policies, with the end goal of helping create more democratic states. The CRAFT project is designed to strengthen civil society through training, action research, policy advocacy, civic education, and alliance building to undertake monitoring, watchdog and advocacy actions to achieve fair and pro-poor tax systems in focus countries, which include Uganda, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, and Bangladesh. The project is led by Oxfam Novib and Tax Justice Network.
  
• 15. The Forum: Promoting Accountability Through the Media in Zambia [September, 2013]This re search summary shares the experience and audience survey results following broadcasts of The Forum, a debate programme which was recorded with a live studio audience and broadcast nationally on radio and TV in February and March 2013. BBC Media Action, in partnership with the Zambian National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC), produced and broadcast these two national television debates focusing on the United Nations (UN) World Day for Social Justice and the UN Day for Women's Rights and World Peace. According to the report, most of The Forum's audience reported improved understanding of governance-related topics covered in the programme and believed it played a role in government accountability.
  
• 16. Promoting Active Citizenship [January, 2015]By Duncan GreenThis pa per pulls together insights and lessons from 10 case studies of Oxfam's work in promoting active citizenship. The case studies, written over the course of 2013/14, employ a 'theory of change approach' to explore how change happens in different contexts. The case studies cover a range of countries, including Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as different kinds of initiatives, such as humanitarian, long-term development, and advocacy initiatives and campaigns.
  

• The Soul Beat 205 - Communicating for Peace in Africa
• The Soul Beat 199 - The Role of the Media in Promoting Democracy and Governance
• The Soul Beat 190 - Citizen Action and Government Accountability