Communication and Change News and Issues
From SOUL BEAT AFRICA - where communication and media are central to AFRICA's social and economic development
In this issue of The Soul Beat:
* PROGRAMME EXPERIENCES on tackling corruption in education and promoting science in schools...
* EVALUATIONS of an HIV/AIDS theatre project and a television drama...
* STRATEGIC THINKING on bride price in Uganda and the Communication for Empowerment approach ..
* RESOURCES for gender sensitive TV and malaria training for faith-based organisations...
* AWARDS for bloggers and ICTS in government initiatives...
Welcome to the first issue of The Soul Beat in 2011. As always, we hope that our e-newsletters this year will support and strengthen your development work in Africa and beyond.
We kick off the year with a general issue of The Soul Beat which contains a selection of summaries from the Soul Beat Africa website. It covers a range of issues such as media development, health and HIV/AIDS, gender, science, and peace building, as well as a range of communication tools and approaches including information and communication technologies (ICTs), radio, television, print, advocacy, and community participation.
If you would like your organisation's communication work or research and resource documents to be featured on the Soul Beat Africa website and in The Soul Beat newsletters, please contact soulbeat@comminit.com
To subscribe to The Soul Beat, click here or send an email to soulbeat@comminit.com with a subject of "subscribe".
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PROGRAMME EXPERIENCES
1. Africa Education Watch (AEW) - Ghana, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda
This is a three-year programme (June 2007 to December 2010) supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation through Transparency International Secretariat (TIS). The overall goal of AEW is to improve transparency and accountability in the use of primary education resources in seven African countries by assessing waste, leakages, and corruption in the education sector and strengthening demand for policy reforms and improved service delivery. The project activities include the dissemination of research, and advocacy and media campaigns.
2. Engaging School Communities with Health Research and Science in Kilifi District, Kenya
Implemented by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) - Wellcome Trust programme in Kilifi, Kenya from September 2008 to March 2010, this was a pilot schools engagement initiative designed to strengthen partnerships between researchers, the education sector, and local communities who participate in research. Using participatory action research, workshops, and focus group discussions (FGD), the initiative was designed to improve understanding of science and health research, and stimulate young people to question their own attitudes towards science.
3. Schools for Dialogue - Rwanda
The Schools for Dialogue Project is part of the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRDP) initiative that works to help Rwandan society overcome obstacles to lasting peace. The project started in 2007 and is designed to raise young people's awareness around issues of tolerance and democratic principles, to engage them in the search for solutions to peace-building challenges, and to develop their skills in open and critical dialogue.
4. Community Information Boards (CIB) - Nigeria
In 2007, the Government of Nigeria with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) developed the concept of a Community Information Board (CIB). The board is designed to capture basic social and development data that communities could use to track the health and well-being of their children, as well as drive community dialogues, collective decision-making, and communal action to realise the rights of women and children.
5. Passo a Passo: Nossa Estórias (Step by Step: Our Stories)- Mozambique
Launched in August 2010, this project involves a series of digital stories and radio testimonials about landmines. Implemented and produced by CMFD (Community Media for Development) Productions for World Without Mines in Mozambique, the objective of this project was to provide an opportunity for those most affected by landmines to tell their stories through participatory workshops, and to raise awareness about continuing challenges.
6. Improving Communication about Uncertainty of Clinical Trial Outcomes - South Africa
This project, implemented from March 2009 to March 2010 by the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit (RHRU) in South Africa, focuses on a collaborative participatory process using a local South African musical art form called kwaito to promote a local language about clinical trials while highlighting the uncertainties of trial results. The project activities involved a collaboration between young, local aspiring musical talent, participants from an HIV prevention clinical trial, local community stakeholders, and clinical trial staff, to write the lyrics for a kwaito song which the young musicians then performed and recorded. The song was broadcast on community radio, inviting feedback and discussion from community members, and stimulating dialogue about the risks and benefits of clinical trial research.
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PLEASE SEND US YOUR INFORMATION
Soul Beat Africa is interested in ALL projects, research documents, materials, events and support opportunities related to communication for development in Africa. However, more specifically, we would like to expand our knowledge sharing in the following areas:
Visual Arts (including photography and murals)
Storytelling (including digital storytelling, memory projects, and oral history projects)
Communication through film/videos (including video advocacy and mobile community screenings)
Maternal health
Malaria
Promoting science in Africa
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBTI) communities in Africa
Alcohol and drug abuse
Cancer communication
Disaster Management/Risk Reduction
Please send your information to soulbeat@comminit.com
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7. Event Impact Assessment of SAFE Educational Theatre for HIV/AIDS
This report is an impact assessment conducted in 2006 of the work of Sponsored Arts for Education (SAFE). SAFE is a United Kingdom charity and Kenyan non-governmental organisation that uses the professional arts, primarily theatre, to promote health education issues within the Kenyan community. The purpose of this assessment was to establish the effectiveness of using high quality theatre as an intervention to break the silence, stigma, superstition, and discrimination that surround HIV/AIDS, and provide communities with accurate health information.
8. The Project Ignite Evaluation: Tribes in Trinidad & Tobago and Shuga in Kenya and Zambia
By Dina L.G. Borzekowskia
This document, published in July 2010, shares an evaluation of MTV's Staying Alive Ignite campaign, which used mass media (television drama), social networking platforms, and interpersonal communication to put forward key messages around transmission, prevention, condom use, HIV testing, multiple concurrent partnerships, and stigma and discrimination relating to HIV/AIDS in Kenya, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, and Zambia. This evaluation covers 2 of the 3 campaigns: "Shuga" in Kenya and Zambia, and "Tribes" in Trinidad and Tobago.
9. Bride Price, Poverty and Domestic Violence in Uganda
By Ravi K. Thiara and Gill Hague
This document, published in 2009, outlines the key findings from a research study on bride price, poverty, and domestic violence in Uganda. The research was conducted as a response to both the growing interest in the practices of bride-price and to moves for its reform in Uganda and other countries in Africa. The study was undertaken through a collaboration between MIFUMI, a non-governmental organisation and women's rights agency based in Uganda, and two United Kingdom-based research groups, the Violence Against Women Research Group, University of Bristol, and the Centre for the Study of Safety and Well-being, University of Warwick. The study found a mix of positive and negative impacts of bride price on individuals, families and communities, with negatives outnumbering the positives.
10. Children's Right to be Heard in Global Climate Change Negotiations
By Daniel Walden, Nick Hall, and Kelly Hawrylyshyn
This document, published by Plan International in 2009, focuses on climate change and the possibilities of child-centred community action and contribution to national and international consultations. In the document, produced in advance of COP15 in Copenhagen, Plan calls for systematic and effective approaches for children’s direct participation at official climate change negotiations and calls on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) decision makers to accept children as official stakeholders by providing a formal mechanism for children to dialogue and influence climate change decision making at the global level, including disaster risk reduction accountability mechanisms.
11. Life-Saving Learning around the Drinking Pot
By Sarah Cumberland
This article from 2010 reports on a grassroots initiative - a gathering of educated scientists in Uganda that has "turned into a social event that is changing the health behaviour of people in poor, rural communities". It was initiated by a research scientist with the Uganda Virus Research Institute, who established a science cafe: an informal meeting place of the science community and interested friends, in a bar in Entebbe, Uganda. He was inspired by what is now a global concept, the aim of which is to take science out of its academic setting and make it accessible by holding free meetings in public venues on topics that lead to interesting discussions between scientists and the general public.
12, Communication for Empowerment: Global Report
"Increased access to and participation in decision making process is critical for people to be able to hold their governments and government institutions to account. Thus, the Communication for Empowerment (C4E) approach can be viewed as a social accountability approach, as it aims to harness media to provide necessary information and establish communication channels to enhance participation of poor and marginalized groups and thereby combat their social and political exclusion." This report, published in 2010, is the result of a three-year partnership between United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Oslo Governance Centre and the Communication for Social Change Consortium in piloting the C4E approach in five least-developed countries: Mozambique, Madagascar, Ghana, Lao PDR, and Nepal. The report presents key learning from the information and communication needs assessments conducted in these five countries.
13. "Communicating Gender for Development": Dimitra's New Training Module
This article from 2009 documents a "Communicating Gender" training initiative implemented by FAO/Dimitra in Senegal, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Niger. The goal of the training course is to contribute to development efforts for gender equality by promoting information and communication that take gender issues into account. According to the report, one of the keys to reducing and removing persistent inequalities between men and women is access to information. Such access enables men and women to understand the issues at stake and seize opportunities for changes in behaviour at the social, economic, technical, and political levels. However, such change can only take place if both men and women are involved in the transformation process.
14. Stopping a Killer: Preventing Malaria in Our Communities: A Guide to Help Faith Leaders Educate Congregations and Communities About Malaria
By Kathy Erb
This sermon guide, published by the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA) in 2010, was designed to help Muslim and Christian religious leaders understand the dangers of malaria and what they can do to help save the lives of the people under their care. According to CIFA, religious leaders have a profound ability to change statistics of people dying of malaria and to lead the fight against malaria at the community level. As respected and trusted local leaders, they have credibility and influence in the lives of people in their communities, thus they need to be equipped to use this influence to educate their congregations about malaria control.
15. Break Another Silence: Understanding Sexual Minorities and Taking Action for Sexual Rights in Africa
This booklet, published by Oxfam in 2010, is about marginalised sexualities and human rights. It is written for people working in civil society and government organisations, with a focus on Africa, particularly the Horn, East, and Central Africa. The booklet seeks to encourage staff in civil society and government organisations to: understand sexual rights as human rights; to become aware of the ongoing abuses of sexual minorities’ human rights including lack of access to essential services; and to take action to protect rights for all, including minority groups.
16. Older Citizens Monitoring in Ethiopia: A Handbook
By Andrew Humphreys
This handbook, published by HelpAge International in 2009, provides guidance on how to plan and implement an older citizens monitoring programme, as implemented in Ethiopia. According to the book, older citizens monitoring is a process which promotes dialogue and interaction between older people, civil society organisations, and governments. In this approach, groups of older citizens are formed in order to develop and monitor policies and practices that affect them. The primary objective of this manual is to provide a guide for woreda (district) governments, NGOs, and communities that wish to replicate an older citizens monitoring approach to development.
17. Femme et Télévision au Maghreb (Women and Television in the Maghreb)
By Sahbi Ben Nablia
Published in 2009 by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Office in Rabat as part of its 2010-2013 programme to advance gender equality in media content of the Maghreb countries, this guide is designed to help television practitioners to create gender-sensitive TV content and to reduce stereotyping in their productions.
18. Citizen Journalism and Democracy in Africa - An Exploratory Study
By Fackson Banda
The general aim of this exploratory study, published by Highway Africa in 2010, is to analyse the nature of citizen journalism in Africa and its impact on the institutions and processes of democracy, including the media themselves. In particular, it aims to assess how ICT projects – non-institutional and institutional – have shaped the practice of citizen journalism.
19. Healthy Images of Manhood: A Facilitator Training Manual for Public and Private Sector Workplaces
By Leah Sawalha Freij, Cate Lane, Pauline Muhuhu, and David Wofford
This manual, published by Extending Service Delivery (ESD) Project in 2010, provides a range of 90-minute sessions that address gender, reproductive health, family planning, HIV/AIDS, and communication skills. It is designed for those implementing Healthy Images of Manhood (HIM), which is an integrated male engagement workplace programme designed to help men assume responsible sexual and reproductive health behaviours.
AWARDS
Go to the Awards page to view the full listings which include:
20. HIV/AIDS Blog Competition
Deadline Date: January 15 2011
Bloggers in Kenya are being invited to share their thoughts and feelings about African children living with HIV/AIDS as part of a competition designed to raise awareness of the issue. The organisers, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, are looking for personal contributions, written from the heart, and professional input, from doctors, nurses, and others who are involved with HIV/AIDS.
21. Technology in Government in Africa (TIGA) Awards
Deadline Date: February 28 2011
Organised by The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Government of Finland, the third TIGA Awards are designed to recognise African Governments’ effective use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for public service delivery. The Awards recognise African Governments and institutions that are engaged in initiating, developing, and implementing ICTs for public service contributing to the development of the information society in Africa.
22. Contest: Blogging on Development Policy
Deadline Date: February 28 2011
The Communication Initiative and the BBC World Service Trust invite entries for their first contest for blogging on development policy, soliciting persuasive critiques and encouraging discussion on development policy issues. The top 10 outstanding bloggers will receive a stipend of 240 UK pounds each to support their writing of 3 additional blog posts between March 15th and June 15th 2011. The top 2 controversial bloggers will receive a stipend of 50 UK pounds to acknowledge their skill in inspiring dialogue.
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