*REGION: Sub-Saharan Africa – Page 3

“Zéro Palu ! Je m’engage” l’outil (RBM Partnership to End Malaria, 2018)

April 17, 2019

Le Programme national de lutte contre le paludisme, aux côtés de PATH et de Speak Up Africa, a lancé pour la première fois « Zéro Palu ! Je m’engage » en 2014 au Sénégal. Cette campagne nationale renforce l’appropriation communautaire des efforts de lutte antipaludique et accroît la sensibilisation et l’engagement politique des principales parties prenantes en matière d’éradication du paludisme afin qu’elles en fassent une priorité nationale. La campagne repose sur:

l’engagement d’acteurs politiques afin de garantir que l’éradication du paludisme reste une priorité pour les dirigeants sénégalais;
la diversification des sources de financement afin d’augmenter les ressources allouées aux interventions de lutte antipaludique et la création de partenariats innovants entre les secteurs public et privé;
la création d’un mouvement communautaire afin d’obtenir une plus grande prise de conscience et une appropriation des interventions antipaludiques par les communautés. La sensibilisation des communautés a été effectuée par des champions communautaires lors de visites à domicile, mais aussi par le biais des médias sociaux et d’une série TV spécialement créée pour l’occasion.

L’outil « Zéro Palu ! Je m’engage » est destiné à toutes les personnes ou organisations désireuses de mettre en œuvre des activités de plaidoyer, de mobilisation des ressources ou de communications dans le cadre de la lutte contre le paludisme à travers le continent africain. Les utilisateurs peuvent l’utiliser comme un tout ou sélectionner les modules les plus adaptés à la mise en œuvre de leurs plans nationaux d’élimination du paludisme.

Cliquez ici pour plus de détails.

Zero Malaria Starts with Me Toolkit (RBM Partnership to End Malaria, 2018)

April 17, 2019

Starting in Senegal, the National Malaria Control Programme, alongside PATH and Speak Up Africa, launched “Zero Malaria Starts with Me” in 2014. The nationwide campaign builds community ownership over malaria efforts and increases awareness of and political commitment for malaria elimination among key stakeholders to ensure it is a national priority. The campaign is based on:

Engaging political actors to ensure malaria elimination remains a priority for Senegalese leadership;
Diversifying funding sources to increase financial resources for malaria elimination interventions, and establishing innovative public-private partnerships;
Creating a community-based movement to increase community awareness and ownership of anti-malaria interventions. Communities were reached through community champions conducting house visits, as well as through social media and an original TV series.

The Zero Malaria Starts with Me toolkit is meant for everyone interested in engaging in malaria advocacy, resource mobilization, or communications in African countries. The content is based on tools and materials developed through the Zero Palu! Je m’engage campaign led by the Senegal National Malaria Control Programme (PNLP) and Ministry of Health and Social Action in partnership with Speak Up Africa and PATH.

Users may benefit from the toolkit either as a complete package or as a collection of modules for those interested in a specific topic.

Click here for full toolkit.

Audience responses to migration stories: Voices of African migrants (International Media Support and University of Leicester, 2018)

April 14, 2019

This report was commissioned to examine the nature and quality of media stories produced by journalists supported by the Voices of African Migrants pilot programme (see http://migrantvoices.org/), managed by International Media Support (IMS), in four migration ‘Hubs’ in Africa, and explored how local audiences interpreted and responded to those stories. It used content analysis, interviews and focus group discussions.

The research findings show that most stories used human interest frames and foregrounded migrant experiences. The migrants’ main contributions to the stories were to provide a human face to hardships and suffering. Meanwhile, NGOs were included to provide facts, statements of general causes of migrations, statistics, and a sense of scale. Government statements were used to provide a comment on policies and solutions. Most articles were supportive in their sentiments to the plight of migrants.

Participants in the focus groups (especially migrants themselves) recognised that migrant voices were missing from mainstream media reporting on migration, that reporting on migration tends to be negative, and that there are pressing issues relating to migration that need to be discussed in the public sphere.

Focus group participants generally responded with empathy and understanding in response to stories about the hardships migrants face. Some stories provoked a distancing or disruption to understanding, especially when an aspect of the story did not match their prior tacit or cultural knowledge about migration. A small number of stories deeply moved focus group participants.

The report unpacks how an emphasis on ‘voice’ in this context can inadvertently lead to an underinterrogation of systemic and structural issues by individualising, and in some cases, perpetuating a representation of migrants as helpless victims.

Click here for full report.

Celebrating and promoting African languages online through Twitter in 2019

April 8, 2019

Starting in March and running throughout 2019, African language digital activists will take turns managing @DigiAfricanLang, a new Twitter account highlighting the role technology and the internet can play in the promotion and the revitalization of languages on the African continent. A key aim of the Twitter campaign will be to recognize the commitment of Africans who are leveraging all types of digital and online media to raise the profile of their languages and cultures online and attract a new generation of speakers.

In partnership with the Yoruba Names Project and Global Voices in Yoruba, Rising Voices will coordinate the participation in the campaign of more than 40 digital activists from across the continent , coinciding with the International Year of Indigenous Languages.

Click here for full details.

Why Invest in ICTs for agriculture? (CTA Discussion Paper, 2018)

March 9, 2019

With the ability to reach many farmers with timely and accessible content, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for agriculture (ICT4Ag) has the potential to transform farming and food production, worldwide. ICT4Ag supports new methods in the monitoring and management of soils, plants and livestock (precision agriculture), access to online markets, and improved communication between value chain stakeholders, among others. The services provided are vital in connecting farmers with the information they need to improve their agricultural productivity and reduce poverty. Through case studies and examples of ICT4Ag initiatives from across Asia, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa, the first chapter looks at how ICT4Ag actually works to drive economic development across developing economies.

Click here for full paper.