Twitter – C4D Network

Can big data be used for evaluation? A UN Women feasibility study (UN Women, 2018)

October 1, 2018

The objective of the study was to investigate the feasibility of leveraging big data sources—particularly Twitter, Facebook, and radio data—to improve the evaluation of gender equality and women’s empowerment initiatives. In particular, this study seeks to understand the role of big data to evaluate the contribution of UN Women to women’s political participation and leadership (WPP).

Taking Mexico and Pakistan as two case studies, which present different challenges to access of big data sources and distinct barriers to WPP, processes of accessing, analysing, and triangulating big data sources were documented with traditional data as a feasible means to provide more credible and robust insights about the effectiveness of UN Women interventions.

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Mwili Wangu Changuo Langu [My Body, My Choice] (The Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health, Kenya 2011-2015)

January 24, 2016

Background: Young Kenyans often lack places to safely ask questions, or talk to anyone about their sexual feelings. For various cultural and social reasons (not limited to Kenya, or Africa in general) sex education is not a topic many parents and teachers feel comfortable or happy to take on which often results in young people not having the knowledge or confidence needed to avoid unwanted and/or risky sexual activity.

To try to tackle this the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health (TICAH), works with groups of adolescents and youth to help them understand their choices when it comes to their sexual and reproductive health (SRH).

What did the program involve? TICAH created safe spaces for peer groups (young women and young men separately) to think about attraction, intimacy, safety, health, and pleasure. The programme involved a holistic approach that focused on SRH issues, including HIV prevention for young people for discussions. Young people involved in the project were involved in discussion groups of not more than 30 young people to share thoughts, experiences and lessons learnt around SRH for a duration of six months. As part of the discussion groups that also produced short five minute films recorded with a true story collected from the discussion groups told in such a way that it evoked discussions on each choice made in the film.

Through social media, TICAH partnered with other local organisations working with young women for twitter chats and sessions to discuss current affairs relating to young women’s choices and challenges on sexual health. The twitter chats sessions were moderated by a facilitator well informed on SRH Issues.

Why this approach: In terms of the social media approach, Twitter works well because discussions and chats can be pre-planned and young people can prepare in advance. These discussions can then be storified and shared in other platforms for young people to read.

In terms of video production, short videos are a useful way to bring young viewers together to explore issues and to share their experiences with each other.

Results observed: Scenario videos have reached over 250 young people who have reported that their knowledge has increased and their behaviour re: safe and wanted sexual encounters has also changed as a result of learning from the scenario videos. However, actual behaviour change can be very difficult to measure

Lessons learnt: Scenario videos are a very effective tool in behaviour change because they opens up space for frank discussions that are sometimes regarded a taboo. Young people learn better in spaces where they feel safe and confidentiality is upheld. Twitter chats works better in a controlled environment where young people are notified earlier of chat discussions.

No Hoodie, No Honey social media campaign (United Nations Population Fund, Nigeria 2013 onwards)

January 23, 2016

Background: In 2013 UNFPA launched its “No Hoodie, No Honey” social media campaign in Nigeria in order to try to educate young people, particularly girls, about the importance of safe sex. The campaign was driven by recent figures that half of girls under the age of 18 are sexually active and that Nigeria has one of the highest rates of adolescent HIV/AIDs prevalence: 3.4%. The aim of the campaign is to inform and empower girls aged 15-24 with accurate information and skills that will allow them to make informed decisions when it comes to sex and relationships.

What did the Programme Involve? UNFPA produced two animated videos, 5 minutes in length to which were placed online and were freely available.

In these videos, targeted mainly at adolescent girls, the two main female characters, Ene and Toju, discuss having sex for the first time, pregnancy, sexual transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDs, and using and carrying condoms. The second video also features a young male character whose behaviour and attitudes are also supportive of the film’s main messages – namely, girls in relationships should not feel pressured into having sex but if they would like to have sex then carrying condoms and asking male partners to use them does not make them promiscuous but is rather a sign that they are in charge of their life and sexual health. The videos encourage young women to carry condoms and to be assertive when it comes to their use, even when the man disagrees. The videos also try to stimulate discussions about the embarrassment girls face when it comes to initiating condom use, and give ideas for how that can be overcome.

UNFPA Nigeria has also run a regularly updated and interactive Twitter feed since 2013 – pushing the messages with the #NoHoodieNoHoney hash tag and encouraging engagement and activity through the use of online competitions and Twitter chats.

Why Animations and a Social Media Campaign? The target group, young women and girls, are frequent users of social media in Nigeria. Therefore it was felt that this medium would reach the largest number of the target audience.

The animations allowed a greater engagement as the characters were young people that the target audience felt familiar with and could relate to. Pidgin English is used to make the conversation seem less formal and more engaging for young Nigerians.

Results Observed: The campaign was widely reported in the Nigerian media, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. On YouTube, the first video has been seen over 6,000 times, and the second video has over 3,000 views. Over 7,000 people have liked the UNFPA Nigeria page, which focuses on issues of sexual health and the #NoHoodieNoHoney hash tag has been tweeted from, to and about on an almost daily basis since 2013. All of which suggests that the campaign has reached significant amounts of the target audience and is sparking conversations about sexual health, which was the aim of the campaign. Due to the nature of the campaign it is difficult to judge the amount of behaviour change it might initiate.

Lessons Learnt: This case study emphasises the importance of formative research in deciding target group, message and medium. Background research about sexual activity and health in Nigeria highlighted the need to focus on improving sexual health among adolescents, and revealed the lack of young women’s empowerment when it comes to sex.

It also highlights the importance of ensuring those without access to electricity/ICT do not miss out in social media campaign as the NoHoodieNoHoney videos were adapted into free comic books to ensure the message was spread.

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