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: Yellow Fever Game, Puppets for Agriculture...
EVALUATIONS: Mobile Cinema, Media Partnerships in Africa...
COMMUNITY RADIO POLL: Community involvement
STRATEGIC THINKING: Approaches to ICT4D, Drama against Bleaching Soaps...
MATERIALS: Culture and Health, Media against Corruption...
HIV/AIDS POLL: Multiple Concurrent Partnerships
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This issue of The Soul Beat contains summaries of programme experiences, evaluations, strategic thinking documents, materials, events and awards related to communication for development in Africa. This edition covers issues related to health and HIV/AIDS, information and communication technologies (ICTs), agriculture, gender, and governance.
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PROGRAMME EXPERIENCES
1. Investigation of a Yellow Fever Epidemic Game - Africa
This serious game is part of a range of training tools developed by World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with Agence de Médecine Préventive (AMP) for health professionals facing yellow fever epidemics across Africa. The game, based on video game principles, is designed to convey educational and operational World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations and messages, by presenting them in a form that is entertaining and engaging, imitating real-life situations.
Contact Cécile Duperray amp@aamp.org
2. ID Ur-Self NOW! Campaign - South Africa
This campaign, conceptualised and implemented by the Communications Chief Directorate of the South African Department of Home Affairs and launched in March 2008, seeks to encourage learners and young people from the age of 16 to apply for identification documents (IDs). One of the key objectives is to ensure that every South African has an ID to register for and vote in the 2009 general elections. The campaign involved a schools outreach programme, where schools across the country were visited and learners encouraged to apply for IDs.
Contact Siobhan McCarthy Siobhan.mccarthy@dha.gov.za OR Surekha Singh singhs03@sabc.co.za
3. TV Koodo - Burkina Faso
Early in 2005, the Institut Africain de Bio-Economie Rurale (IABER), with financial support from International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), initiated this project to provide information on agricultural markets through a television programme entitled TV Koodo. The show, which is hosted by two animal puppets, provides viewers of Burkina Faso’s national television channel with monthly information on market prices for livestock and grain, in addition to discussing various topics with guests invited to participate in the broadcasts.
Contact information@iicd.org OR Chloé Aicha Boro boro_aicha2000@yahoo.fr
4. Open Cage Radio Drama - Uganda
Launched in March 2008, Open Cage is a radio drama, developed by the International Women's Tribune Centre (IWTC) and local women's groups from Atana village in Northern Uganda, that focuses on sexual and gender-based violence. The drama is part of the IWTC's efforts to raise awareness of various aspects of the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, which specifically addresses the impact of war on women and women's contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace.
Contact Mavic Cabrera Balleza mavic@iwtc.org
5. Reporting on Agriculture and Women: Africa - Mali, Uganda, Zambia
Launched in June 2007, this is a 4-year project by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s (IWMF) designed to enhance reporting on the role women play in agriculture and rural development in Africa. The objective is to raise the quantity and quality of reporting on farming and rural development, with a focus on the importance of women to the economics of rural areas, and on creating more gender equality in newsrooms.
Contact Lindsey Wray LWray@iwmf.org
6. Mobile Mammography Van - Uganda
Initiated by doctors at Yale-New Haven hospital in the United States and a medical student at Uganda’s Mulago hospital, the 35-foot mammography van, which organisers say is the first of its kind in Africa, is the centrepiece of a two-year pilot programme that will take the van to the suburbs of Kampala. In addition to the van itself, public service announcements in Luganda, the local language, are broadcast over the radio urging women to come in for a free screening. Brochures are distributed to provide information about the early signs of cancer, and about the fact that many cancers can be treated.
Contact opa@yale.edu
EVALUATIONS
7. A Mobile Cinema Experience in Niger: Reach and Impact
By Dominique Thaly
The Cinéma Numérique Ambulant (CNA) is a mobile cinema project operating in Benin, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso since 2001. The CNA project shows educational films and African feature films, and conducts related debates in rural public settings. The case study discussed in this article is designed to assess the medium-term impact of the CNA project on a rural audience in Niger. It suggests that while there are some limitations, the CNA model has significant potential to convey information in these settings.
8. Implementation of the African Broadcast Media Partnership Against HIV/AIDS and its Impact in a Select Number of Participating Broadcast Companies
In February and March 2008 a study was conducted on the implementation of the African Broadcast Media Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (ABMP) and its impact in a select number of participating broadcast companies in Africa. The evaluation found that the Partnership contributed to national HIV/AIDS campaigns, and that broadcasters also benefited from improved technical capacity. The survey found that there are five broad types of impact that the ABMP has made on participating companies: fostering collaboration, learning, increasing HIV/AIDS as a programming focus, targeting the youth, and increasing viewership.
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VOTE IN THE NEW COMMUNITY RADIO POLL:
Communities in Africa interact with their local community radio stations...
*Sufficiently: communities influence programming content in a meaningful way.
*Infrequently: communities don’t generally engage with their local community radio stations.
*Not at all: community radio stations struggle to feature the voices of their specific communities.
*With difficulty: communities try to engage with their community radio stations, but the stations won’t hear them or feature their voices, struggles, and opinions.
To vote and send comments go to the Community Radio theme site and see the Top Right side of the page.
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STRATEGIC THINKING
9. Unbounded Possibilities: Observations on Sustaining Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Africa
By Ian Douglas Howard
This report, published by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), consists of two case studies of telecentres in Tanzania, one that engenders the idea of enterprises 'bubbling up' given the right environment, and the other modelled more on the approach championed by economist Jeffrey Sachs, who contends that economically poor communities require a 'big push', i.e. big projects and big changes. The author argues that both approaches are valuable, although the 'bubbling up' approach could lead to more sustainable rural ICT development.
10. Qualitative Research in Uganda on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Concerning Alcohol
By Agatha Kafuko and Paul Bukuluki
This report, conducted for Y.E.A.H - an organisation involved in behaviour change communication aimed at reducing the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in Uganda, presents the findings of a qualitative study which involved 30 focus groups exploring the knowledge, attitudes and practices of adolescents (15-17), young people (18-24 years of age), and adults (25-35) towards alcohol. Study participants demonstrated some awareness of the short-term and long-term problems associated with excessive alcohol use. They were fully aware that alcohol use - and particularly, excessive use – could have a detrimental impact on an individual’s health and quality of life.
11. Best Practices of ICT for Development Projects
By Steve Vosloo
This essay examines a number of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) case studies and reports to identify a range of best practice projects. It presents the findings according to pre-project, roll-out and post-project phases and concludes with general lessons learned by ICT4D project teams. According to the report, there have been many failures and successes in the ICT4D sector. Over time a body of knowledge and a culture of information dissemination has developed, enabling those in the sector to improve the likelihood of project success by avoiding the mistakes, and building on the pioneering work of others.
12. Use of Soaps Containing Mercury in Africa - How to Fight it
By Peter W. U. Appel
This report documents a forum theatre project sponsored by the Nordic Council of Ministers that focused on raising awareness about the toxicity of skin bleaching soaps, particularly those containing mercury. The campaign, which was held between June 2007 and early 2008, was designed to actively engage audiences in communication around bleaching soaps and the harmful effects they can have.
MATERIALS
13. Ears to the Ground: An Exploration of African Culture and Health
By Mary Ann Burris and Kaitlin Christenson
This book contains descriptions of projects from the Culture and Health Programme for Africa (CHAPS) in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. CHAPS worked to improve health, well-being, and gender relations in communities by examining the relationship between culture and health and by identifying, revising, and promoting cultural practices and beliefs through a small grants programme.
14. Investigative Journalism for Anti-Corruption and Good Governance: A Toolkit for Facilitators
This toolkit, published by Pact Tanzania, is designed to empower journalists to take a "front seat position" in enforcing accountability and good governance through investigative journalism. It is also designed to meet the requirements of all stakeholders in search of accountability and transparency at national and local level. The authors hope that this toolkit will help in improving the skills of journalists and further motivate them, the media houses, and training institutions to carry out even more public and investigative journalism.
15. Handbook on Community-Led Total Sanitation
This handbook guides communities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governments, donors, and other practitioners in the use of Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), an approach to rural sanitation developed by lead author Kamal Kar, an independent development consultant from India. It is based on his experience with providing hands-on training in Asia, Africa,
South Africa, and the Middle East. As detailed in the handbook, CLTS focuses on igniting a change in sanitation behaviour rather than constructing toilets. It does this through a process of social awakening that is stimulated by facilitators from within or outside the community.
16. Advocacy in Action: A Guide to Influencing Decision-making in Namibia
By Dianne Hubbard and Delia Ramsbotham
This manual is designed primarily for NGOs and grassroots-based groups who are interested in increasing their advocacy skills. It contains concrete, practical information about advocacy strategies such as petitions, press conferences, public demonstrations, and letter-writing campaigns, as well as detailed information on government structures and parliamentary procedures - and how to influence decision-making bodies and processes. It also includes actual case studies of advocacy efforts in Namibia.
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VOTE IN THE HIV/AIDS POLL:
Countries in Southern Africa are responding meaningfully to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) call for member states to focus on Multiple Concurrent Partnerships (MCP) identified as a key driver of the HIV epidemic in the region.
Agree
Disagree
Unsure
To vote and send comments go to the HIV/AIDS theme site and see the Top Right side of the page.
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