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Femina Hip online multimedia and civil society initiative (Tanzania 1999 onwards)

January 19, 2016

Background: Founded in 1999, Femina Hip is a multimedia platform and a civil society initiative working with youth, communities and strategic partners across Tanzania. The aim is to promote healthy lifestyles, sexual health, HIV and AIDS prevention, gender equality, citizen engagement and more recently includes coverage of income generation and employment issues through edutainment, connecting young people and giving them a platform to speak up and share experiences. The project has received financial support from a number of partners, including SIDA and USAID/PEPFAR.

What the programme involved: Using edutainment as its main approach to entertain and educate young people Femina produced and developed a wide range of media products, which include two magazines (English and Swahili language ‘Fema’ and ‘Si Mchezo!’ ) aimed at 15 – 25 year olds; two TV products (Fema TV Talk Show and Ruka Juu), an interactive website (Chezasalama or ‘Play Safe’) which focuses on providing youth-friendly information on sexual and reproductive health, and an interactive SMS platform. All are supported by community mobilization and interpersonal contact through Fema Youth Clubs.

In 2010, the use of social media and the era of accessing the Internet via phone, and indeed the ‘smart phone’ were just beginning in Tanzania and Femina began exploring how young people used these products and how they in turn could use them – particularly Facebook – to reach out to young people. In 2010, Femina Hip opened its first Facebook account (and later a Twitter account) and invited young people in Fema Clubs to become ‘friends’ and ‘like’ the page. It later encouraged Fema Clubs to develop their own online spaces.

Femina Hip recently updated their SMS system and there is now a strong SMS feedback system that allows young people to communicate with Femina directly. Outgoing messages are used inform audiences about new issues of TV shows and magazine editions. Incoming SMS messages help generate content (in the form of audience questions), gage the level of understanding and knowledge of audiences, and allow an easy and affordable communication platform. It also encourages young people to learn, understand and use technology more – all of which are useful skills that Femina would like to encourage and expand to include more rural young people, especially girls. Femina Hip is also exploring the use of SMS as a counselling system.

Why this approach? ‘Entertainment education’ – including portraying the realities of everyday life for young people, magazine and TV features that featured and included young people, published messages and letters from young people etc. – encouraged and enabled young people to easily get on board and actively participate in discussions about issues that resonated with them.

Results observed: Femina’s work is evaluated through a Results Based Management system In terms of Femina’s social media output it was found that the audience is mostly urban and mostly male and mostly interested in sexual and reproductive health questions and content. When TV and radio programming is live and on-air Femina sees a surge in SMS responses from young people.

However, through social media engagement Femina has seen an increase in audience participation and engagement with their core topics, they have reached more young people with relevant information, especially with sexual and reproductive health information, and they have expanded the use of technology in rural areas. Overall Femina’s media and social media products are estimated to reach an audience of around 11 million.

Lessons learnt: Social media spaces are public platforms, and often in the public domain. Young audiences might not be fully aware of this and some of the consequences of posting in public spaces, so it’s important awareness is raised, particularly in relation to the content of certain subjects that Femina Hip encourages debate on. A social media policy can provide a useful guideline for staff on how to participate in online spaces.

Access to phone and internet technologies are still limited in Tanzania and this can make young women especially vulnerable; being offered the use of a phone and credit by men in exchange for sexual favours. This makes outreach and face-to-face training an important component of Femina’s programme.

(Source: Report by C4D Network member Lynn O’Rourke )

Filed Under: *MASS MEDIA ROUTES, Case Studies, Children, Health, HIV/AIDS and SRH, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), Rural Development, Social Media, Tanzania Tagged With: Mobile Phones, SMS

Promoting Equal Chances for Women and Men to Use and Benefit from ICT-enabled Solutions (IICD report 2015)

January 10, 2016

This publication explores issues of gender in ICT4D project and is based on case study research conducted among Connect4Change projects in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. The publication pulls together insights and learning around the effects of ICT uptake and use on women’s empowerment and gender relations in agricultural value chain development, maternal and child health, and hospital management information systems projects, and includes the 3 case studies as separate and stand alone documents for more information.

Filed Under: Case Studies, Gender, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), Kenya, Publications (published in print and/or online), Tanzania, Uganda Tagged With: Agriculture, Case Studies, Child health, gender, ICT4D, Kenya, Maternal Health, Tanzania, Uganda, Women

Mobile for Development: Transforming Global Healthcare Through Mobile Technology (AIDF report 2015)

November 15, 2015

With the ascent of mobile technology and increased connectivity across the globe, the digital divide is slowly closing. As technological changes and solution-based innovations forge ahead in the next few years, the mobile landscape will be transformed. In the current climate, concerns are focused on unsustainable consumer businesses around mHealth and a highly regulated healthcare market that may restrict the use of mobile devices for healthcare purposes.

This Aid & International Development Forum (AIDF) Mobile for Development report attempts to address these challenges, together with recommendations and next steps to take the mHealth into the next innovation stage. This first report highlights the global scale of mHealth adoption, latest trends, economic impact and the increasing preference for remote monitoring with patients.

Filed Under: Health, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), Publications (published in print and/or online) Tagged With: Health, mHealth

Social Media for Election Communication and Monitoring in Nigeria (Demos/DFID Paper 2015)

November 15, 2015

Nigeria has witnessed an exponential growth in internet and social media use. From a modest 200,000 users in 2000, by 2015 around 30 per cent of the population is online, increasingly on smart phones. The use of social media in elections initially became noticeable in the preparations for the 2011 Nigerian elections, and now receives widespread media attention for its role in informing, engaging and empowering citizens in Nigeria and across Africa.

Social media activity presents a novel way to research and understand attitudes, trends and media consumption. There is a growing number of academic and commercial efforts to make sense of social media data sets for research or (more typically) advertising and marketing purposes.

This project examines the potential of social media for monitoring and communication purposes, using the 2015 Nigerian elections as a case study. The purpose of the research is to develop an understanding of the effectiveness of social media use for communication and monitoring during the 2015 Nigerian election, and draw out lessons and possibilities for the use of social media data in other elections and beyond.

Click here for full paper.

Filed Under: Case Studies, Governance, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), Nigeria, Publications (published in print and/or online), Social Media Tagged With: Elections

MajiVoice: A New Accountability Tool to Improve Public Services (Water and Sanitation Program policy note 2015)

November 7, 2015

MajiVoice is an innovative accountability mechanism that is transforming service delivery in the Kenyan water and sanitation sector. Linking citizens, water service providers (WSPs) and the sector regulator, the new MajiVoice software platform provides specific tools and incentives to strengthen the focus on customer needs and improve service standards. In its first year, the system has achieved concrete results: At Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company Ltd (NCWSC), Kenya’s largest water utility and the first to adopt MajiVoice, the number of complaints recorded rose almost tenfold, resolution rates climbed from 46% to 94% and time to resolution halved.

Under the guidance of the Water Services Regulatory Board of Kenya (WASREB), the regulator responsible for sector rules and their enforcement, the system has since been extended to WSPs in Nakuru, Nanyuki and Mathira. MajiVoice was developed in partnership between the World Bank’s Water Global Practice, WASREB and participating WSPs. The Water Global Practice supports client countries in improving access to safe water and sanitation services, especially among the poor. To achieve this aim, lending operations such as the Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project (KISIP) and the Water and Sanitation Services Improvement Project (WASSIP) are combined with innovative technical assistance such as MajiVoice. This knowledge note describes how MajiVoice succeeded in improving accountability in the Kenyan water sector and outlines the building blocks to achieve similar impact in other countries and sectors.

(Taken from Policy Note introduction)

Filed Under: Case Studies, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), Kenya, Publications (published in print and/or online), WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Tagged With: Citizen Participation, ICT4D, Kenya, Water and Sanitation Hygiene

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