This is a general issue of The Soul Beat which highlights development communication experiences, strategic thinking, evaluations, materials and events from Africa. Topics covered in this newsletter include HIV/AIDS and reproductive health, gender, video and photography, journalism, advocacy, multimedia campaigns and information and communication technologies (ICTs).
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Please Participate in The CI Network Survey - CLOSES APRIL 14th!!
This survey is an attempt for us to gather information about how you are using The Communication Initiative to respond to your interests and needs and engage and involve your analysis and perspectives for improved development action.
Click here to participate in English.
Click here to participate in Spanish.
If you would like to have this survey e-mailed to you contact Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com
This survey closes April 14 2006.
Many thanks!
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PROGRAMME EXPERIENCES
1. Through the Eyes of Children: The Rwanda Project – Rwanda
This Rwandan children's photography project involves children orphaned by the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The children, ranging in ages from eight to eighteen, were given disposable cameras to photograph themselves and their community. The goal of the project was to share with the world the perspective of the children and to provide an opportunity to reflect on the tragedy of the genocide. Contact info@rwandaproject.org OR jhoward1@optonline.net
2. Owerri Digital Village – Nigeria
This is a community technology and learning centre in Eastern Nigeria established by Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF). Its aims to give rural villagers skills to improve their lives and create jobs. International and local volunteers work with students and the local community at the Owerri Digital Village to develop an understanding of technology, its usefulness and how it can enhance their lives. Contact ytf@youthfortechnology.org
3. Rehabilitation Through Sport – Angola
This is a pilot initiative that aims to increase the quality of life of people with amputations and other physical disabilities in post-conflict Angola. Specific goals of the project include increasing awareness of the abilities, leadership potential, and rights of people with a disability, as well as educating professionals and people with disabilities about the value of sport in rehabilitation and social inclusion. This programme uses interpersonal communication - face-to-face training - to mobilise expertise in the import and application of sport in rehabilitation through a human-rights-based approach. Contact Amy Farkas Amy.farkas@paralympic.org OR info@paralympic.org
4. Safe Journey – Zimbabwe
Safe Journey is a Zimbabwean multimedia information campaign launched by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Harare aimed at reducing the risks linked to irregular migration and the transmission of HIV/AIDS. The campaign uses a variety of media including radio and television programmes featuring migrants' testimonies as well as billboards and posters. Contact Nicola Simmonds nsimmonds@iom.co.int
5.
Children's Voices in Namibia aims to educate children about their rights by giving them the space and skills to express themselves through film. This project of the Danish non-profit organisation Ibis, teaches children how to use video cameras and then invites them to make films about their lives and issues that affect them. Contact Jane Shityuwete js@ibis.org.na OR Ingrid Louis ingrid@ibis.org.na
6. Grants Awareness Campaign - South Africa
This campaign was a communications and public outreach project that aimed to fight child poverty in South Africa by raising awareness about child support grants (CSGs). The campaign focused on developing and distributing as much information as possible to communities all over the country through television, radio and print media. It also held grant registration drives and conducted training on the grant application process.
Contact info@acess.org.za OR soulcity@soulcity.org.za
STRATEGIC THINKING
7. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Africa with a Gender Perspective
By Eirah Gorre-Dale
A roundtable discussion was organised jointly by the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) as a side event during the 2005 World Summit that took place at the United Nations in New York. The participants discussed how the lack of safe water, sanitation and hygiene awareness remains one of the world's most urgent health issues. The discussion also looked at how unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene habits play a major role in Africa's high child mortality rate and the low school attendance rate of girls.
8. It's Hot for Girls! - ICTs as an Instrument in Advancing Girls' and Women's Capabilities in School Education in Africa
By Shafika Isaacs
This is a 16-page paper that focuses on attempts at introducing information and communications technologies (ICTs) in formal primary and secondary school education in Africa. The paper contends that a clear conceptual framework in problematising the education crisis from a developmental, gender and ICT perspective is lacking and that conceptual clarity on appropriate strategies for using ICTs as a tool for women's empowerment in Africa is critical.
9. Participatory Media for the Spoken World: Experiences from Mexico, Tanzania and Vietnam
By Bernhard Huber
This exploratory study analyses the functions and implications of participatory video projects in rural development settings. The term 'participatory video' refers to a bundle of innovative usages of video technology which enjoy growing popularity in many corners of the world. As experience and knowledge about what good practice is differs from person to person and in the literature, this study aims to categorise the varying approaches into a typology based on a review of the relatively scarce literature on the subject. Through a conceptual distinction of different project goals, three basic kinds of participatory video are identified, i. e. therapy-, activism- and empowerment-type video.
10. Civil Society, Democratisation and Foreign Aid in Africa
Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Discussion Paper 383
By Mark Robinson and Steven Friedman
This paper summarises the findings of a comparative research project on the contribution of civil society organisations to democratisation in Africa. Drawing primarily on empirical case studies of civil society organisations in South Africa and Uganda, and related material from Ghana, the research examines the ability of civil society organisations to influence government policy and legislation through tangible shifts in policy and legislative priorities and their implementation. It also looks at the ability of organisations to widen opportunities available to citizens to participate in public affairs, promoting a culture of accountability and challenging the power of the state to dominate decision-making.
EVALUATIONS
11. Raising Voices Programme Tools: Evaluation Report
By Simonne Ruff
Raising Voices, a project of the Tides Center, works to develop sustainable programmes that prevent violence against women and children. The organisation is based in Uganda and provides resources and support that build gender-based violence prevention capacity in organisations primarily in East and Southern Africa, as well as around the world. One key strategy is the development and publication of programme tools that focused on violence prevention and this document assesses the use and impact of these programme tools.
12. Behaviour Change Evaluation of a Culturally Consistent Reproductive Health Programme for Young Kenyans
By Annabel S. Erulkar, Linus I.A. Ettyang, Charles Onoka, Fredrick K. Nyaga and Alex Muyonga
This is an evaluation report of the Nyeri Youth Health Project in Kenya, a locally designed adolescent reproductive health programme. The project is a reproductive and sexual health information programme for in- and out-of-school youth in both rural and urban areas aged 10 to 24. The objectives of the project were to delay the onset of sexual intercourse among youth who are not yet sexually active; to prevent sexually experienced youth from suffering negative consequences of sexual activity and to create a reproductive health information and service environment responsive to the needs of youth.
13. Evaluation Report on the Reflect ICTs Project
This document provides an evaluation of the Department for International Development (DFID)-funded project Reflect ICTs, which is being carried out by ActionAid International (AAI) and local partners in Burundi, India, and Uganda. As part of this project, information and communication technology (ICT) is being introduced to existing community-based discussion circles ("Reflect circles"), as part of an effort to enhance the capacity of people to make strategic choices about the media of communication that they have identified as most relevant to their specific needs.
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NEW SECTION ON STUDIES IN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION
Do you know of any African universities or colleges offering courses in development communication, development journalism or courses in ICT with a development focus?
Please send information to Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com
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MATERIALS
14. Guide to Equality in the Family in the Maghreb
This Guide was developed by a coalition of women's organisations from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to be used as an advocacy tool for reform of family law in Muslim-majority societies. The Guide presents the current state of the law, then proposes religious, human rights, sociological, and domestic legal arguments for reform.
15. Mainstreaming ICTs: Africa Lives the Information Society (2005)
This handbook is a contribution towards efforts to bridge the "policy-practice" divide. The book is aimed at development practitioners and ICT innovators interested in inventive technology applications for social justice and development. It contains 10 case studies highlighting innovative and creative ways in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been used to promote people-centred development in sub-Saharan Africa.
16. Deadly Catch: Lake Victoria's AIDS Crisis (2005)
This is a short documentary film that aims to increase awareness and understanding of humanitarian crises and to assist humanitarian actors in their advocacy efforts. Produced by Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN), the film tells the story of an African community that is devastated by HIV/AIDS.
17. Advocacy Tool Kit
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) aims to create a media environment in which information flow strengthens democracy by enabling more informed citizen participation. This Advocacy Toolkit, developed by MISA, is a training resource aimed at strengthening campaigns that will achieve democratic goals by enabling broad participation in the change process.
UPCOMING CONFERENCES
African Children in African Media(June 15-17 2006) Athens, Ohio, United States.
2nd International Conference and General Assembly Meeting of the African Network for Strategic Communication in Health and Development (15-20 Oct 2006) Cape Town, South Africa.
Pan African Refresher Programme on African Experience of the Media in Globalisation (July 30-August 6 2006) Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
RESOURCE MOBILISATION
African Development Foundation (ADF)
Global Fund for Womens Grants
AWARDS
Panos Institute West Africa: ICT media production
Deadline: May 18 2006
Africa Free Media Foundation (AFMF)/ World Free Press Institute (WFPI) Trophy for Impartial Coverage
Deadline: Sep 30 2006
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Subscribe to The Soul Beat Extra - your e-journal focussed in each alternate month on Community Radio or Edutainment. The Soul Beat Extra on Community Radio on February 15 2006 will focus on Community Radio Stations in the SADC Region. If you would like to receive the Soul Beat Extra on Community Radio or Edutainment please contact soulbeat@comminit.com
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The Soul Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
Please send material for The Soul Beat to the Editor - Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com
