The Kenya Youth Variety Show [from Reaching Youth Worldwide]

Work With Youth to Design the Programme

1. The Kenya Youth Variety Show

"Thank you for presenting us with such an educating, consoling and entertaining programme...it is making us feel recognised and cared for."

18-year-old female, Kiambu region

Involving adolescents in the design and development of a programme takes additional time and money, but that initial investment pays off in terms of reaching and appealing to youth. The Kenya Youth Variety Show (YVS) [6], part of the Kenya Youth Initiatives Project (KYIP) that began in 1994, was conducted under the auspices of the National Council for Population and Development. A project advisory committee was formed, which included 26 youth-serving organisations all working together for the first time. KYIP had two main components: 1) networking for advocacy and 2) education. Both components were designed to inform youth about reproductive health issues, encourage them to seek information and services, and foster better communication between parents and youth. JHU/PCS provided technical assistance to KYIP to develop the educational component.

The Kenya YVS began broadcasting in March 1995. The show was a one-hour, upbeat English-language programme that aired weekly on Saturday mornings with a panel of adolescent and expert guests who discussed various reproductive health issues. The show was hosted by Karani, one of the most popular disc jockeys in East Africa, and Elizabeth Omollo, one of East Africa's best-known radio personalities. The programme's aim was to provide youth with accurate reproductive health information and link them to services where more information or assistance was available. A related objective was to encourage young people to obtain information from other reliable sources, such as trusted adults, since services are limited and often confined to a few geographical areas.

A regular feature of the YVS was a mobile van, nicknamed the Teen Bus, which traveled to specific districts in Kenya recording young people's opinions expressed in dramas, interviews, and panel discussions. The YVS also answered on-the-air telephone questions from adolescents. The first time the show aired, the three phone lines at KBC jammed due to heavy caller traffic. In addition to soliciting comments from callers, the show's producers invited listeners to write to the programme to share their impressions.

How It Worked

The programme planners made a strategic decisions to work with youth in every step of the programme. When the radio broadcasts began, young people, recruited to monitor the programmes, provided feedback to producers, participated in panel discussions with expert guests, and attend live broadcasts as members of the audience. Call-ins from young people helped shape the agenda of topics discussed in subsequent episodes, and the Teen Bus extended opportunities for expression and exchange to youth all over the country. By inviting young people as guests on the programme, interviewing them in the field, and responding to their letters, the programme gave young people a voice and opened a dialogue with them.

Kenya has a history of contentious debate regarding the dissemination of information about adolescent reproductive health (ARH). Religious leaders publicly burned booklets on ARH, a topic that was greatly politicized since most adults are opposed to young people having sex. The YVS, however, was able to broadcast information on ARH that previously had been controversial, with no opposition.

The high production quality of the YVS led to unsolicited interest in Kenya from Johnson & Johnson and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Johnson & Johnson became an important corporate partner by helping sponsor the programme, and UNFPA began supporting a follow-on project with a $900,000 grant.

Producers of the radio programme and print materials recognized that adolescents are not a homogeneous group. They took into account that some adolescents are sexually active and others are not. For example, broadcast and print messages were designed for younger as well as older youth. Along with sexual matters, the messages also covered a variety of other topics including peer pressure, parent-child relationships, substance use, and career development.

The programme also addressed the fact that many young people did not know where to go for advice and services. KYIP met this need by publicizing youth-friendly clinics and explaining to providers how to interact with young clientele. The weekly Teen Bus newspaper column and booklets produced for KYIP published names of youth-friendly clinics.

Evaluation Results

METHODOLOGY: The results of two omnibus surveys were used to assess the impact of the YVS. The omnibus surveys were national household surveys of youth conducted in communities every four months. The first survey served as an initial assessment because budget constraints prohibited a baseline survey. This assessment was conducted in December 1995, halfway through the broadcasts. The second survey, conducted in August 1996, was the follow-up survey. The evaluation focused on youth aged 15 to 24, though information obtained from adults also was also analysed. The first survey included interviews of 803 young people and the second survey included interviews of 779 youth. Just over 1,000 adults were interviewed during both surveys. In addition, impact data were collected from three sentinel youth-serving clinics.

The first survey showed at the inception of the radio programme, 23 percent of first-time clinic visitors cited radio as their main source of referral to the clinic, 48 percent cited friends, and 42 percent cited clinic personnel as their source of referral. The second survey found that by the fourth month of broadcasting, 56 percent of new clients cited radio as their main source of referral, 56 percent also cited friends, and only 39 percent cited clinic personnel as their source of referral.

When asked whether they had recommended the programme to others, 36 percent of the youth in the second survey said they had, up from 23 percent in the first survey. The adults who were interviewed during both surveys were also likely to recommend the programme to others: during the first survey, 18 percent had recommended the programme to others; this figure nearly doubled to 34 percent in the second survey. Many listeners became active promoters of the programme.

Adult listenership increased from 28 percent to 41 percent between surveys. This rise was encouraging since one of the objectives of the programme was to reach adults to foster parent-child dialogue.

Overall, a slight increase of listeners, from 54 percent to 56 percent, occurred between the surveys. However, listenership declined between surveys among 15- to 17-year-olds, the core intended audience. Two new FM radio stations began broadcasting during that time and may have drawn those listeners. This finding suggests future programmes should use more aggressive promotion to retain this key audience.

The local cost of the YVS (including research and evaluation, production and broadcasting, and programme management) was approximately U.S. $97,000. With an audience of more than 3 million, the average cost per listener was U.S. $0.03. Similarly, the approximate cost incurred to lead one youth to take an action related to reproductive health was U.S. $0.12. The individual cost for 1 percent of the audience (almost 60,000 youth) who visited a clinic or wrote to programme producers was U.S. $1.62 (see Table 1).

Based on 5,900,000 youth aged 15 to 24 nationwide

Source: Kenya Youth Initiative Project,August 1996 Survey