Welcome to Soul Beat Africa's REDESIGNED WEBSITE!!

You may have noticed that there have been fewer Soul Beat newsletters over the past two months. This is because we have been very busy with the redesign of our website.

The redesign has taken into consideration the survey feedback of 2,300 network members who provided their assessment and advice on how we should move forward (click here to download a summary of the report in PDF).

What you see here is just a beginning! This platform will grow and expand over the next weeks, months, and years. We count on continued feedback from you to guide the process. Please send us your comments anytime through our online form, click here.

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WHO WE ARE

Soul Beat Africa is an online space for sharing the experiences of, and building bridges between, the people and organisations engaged in or supporting communication as a fundamental strategy for social change in Africa. We hope that this new platform of knowledge and interactivity will better support the work of communication for development practitioners in Africa and around the globe.

Soul Beat Africa forms part of the CI network process which includes The Communication Initiative, which is in English and offers a worldwide overview and focus and La Iniciativa de Comunicación which is in Spanish and offers a worldwide overview and focus on the Latin American experience and context. The Soul Beat Africa platform is in English and offers a focus on the African experience and context.

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REGISTRATION

Please join us in the newly INTERACTIVE ONLINE SPACE by registering!

Go to "Register" in the top right of the site (or click here ) It is free!

If you are new to Soul Beat Africa, you can subscribe to our e-magazine, The Soul Beat, through this registration process. If you are already subscribed to The Soul Beat, please also register. (If you are already subscribed, but opt not to register, you will still receive our e-publications; however, in the coming weeks and months there will be features available only to people who are registered within our new platform).

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FEATURES!

Some of the features on this NEW website include:

THEME WEBSITES - "windows" into Soul Beat Africa website:

These sites (accessible by clicking on the dark blue tab at the top of the page above the website title) labelled "Theme Sites" - provide specific points of interaction for those people working on particular themes within the communication for development field. They often include additional information and interactive features (such as discussions and polls) that will not be found on the general Soul Beat website.

To access the Theme Sites directly go to:

- Edutainment

- Community Radio

Watch this space as we will be adding the following Theme sites in 2008:

- HIV/AIDS

- Environment

- Human Rights

- Governance and Democracy

- Children

- Gender

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NEW POLLS!

Each website has a theme-specific poll related to it. In most cases these are located in the Top Right corner of each website. Please express your opinion today!

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SUMMARY KNOWLEDGE!

We also still feature our main KNOWLEDGE SECTIONS full of summaries of key information for communication and media for development policymakers, practitioners, and other interested publics:

Programme Experiences

Evaluation Methodologies and Data

Strategic Thinking [articles, reports, and documents]

Materials

Awards [available from other organisations]

Funding Opportunities [such as fellowships, grants, scholarships, and internships]

Universities

Events

Training

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NEW VIEWS!

All of the above Knowledge Sections and Interactive Features can be filtered through various "lenses", such as:

- Communication Approaches (i.e., advocacy, entertainment, social marketing, etc.)

- Communication Tools (i.e. radio, television, live performance, etc.)

- Development Issues (i.e. environment, health, rights, etc.)

- Regions and Countries (i.e. West Africa, North Africa, Central Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal Ethiopia, etc.)

- The 8 Millennium Development Goals

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TECHNICAL NOTE

There are a few glitches and some hidden content that we are working to address at the moment. Let us know if you see something, and please accept our apologies in advance for any inconvenience that our growing period may cause. We are grateful for your patience while we work to make this new website even better!

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SEND US FEEDBACK!

Please click here and let us know what YOU think.

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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