Upscaling and strengthening the capacities of the youth in East Africa to advocate and combat

HIV/AIDS through community media, mobile telephony and online presence

A project under the Unified Budget, Results and Accountability Framework (UBRAF) 2012 – 2013

EACOMNET M&E Meeting Report

Table of Contents

Page 1: Project Background

Page 2: About EACOMNET

Page 3: Meeting procedure

Page 4: Summary of online discussions

Page 5: Programme proceedings

Page 12: Summary of key messages

Page 15: Challenges and key lessons

Page 19: Annexes

EACOMNET Secretariat | Shalom House, Ngong Road, Daniel Comboni Road-Wing C 1st Floor. P.O Box 2641-00100, GPO Nairobi. Tel: (254 20) 2379949; Cell: (254 20) 725262623

Contact person: Njuki Githethwa njuki@kcomnet.org | secretariat@kcomnet.orgWebsite: www.eacomnet.net

Editorial: Njuki GithethwaDesign and Layout: @ochiengamosMeeting Photos: @ochiengamos

EACOMNET Publication | September 2013

This report is a summary of the recent Monitoring and Evaluation meeting hosted by East African Community Media Network (EACOMNET) secretariat in Nairobi on 29th - 30th August 2013.

The report has been prepared for circulation to participants and partners but is also intended as a resource for those interested in the meeting proceedings.

In collaboration with UNESCO, EACOMNET has been engaged in a project under the Unified Budget, Results and Accountability Framework (UBRAF) 2012 – 2013. The project seeks to upscale and strengthen the capacities of the youth in East Africa to advocate and combat HIV/AIDS through community media, mobile telephony and online presence. The goal of the project is to establish a youth friendly platform and to build a regional network of correspondents to combat HIV/AIDS through the development and sharing of radio programs and related multimedia formats.

To achieve the programmatic and the operational outcomes of this project, the following interventions have taken place:

• Community radio correspondents have been trained on investigative reporting and local content generation of radio and multimedia programmes in Eastern Africa.

• A multimedia website have been designed to share the radio programmes produced by the community radios in the region (See www.eacomnet.net)

• Audio hosting service have been outsourced from sound cloud to store the radio programmes in high quality mp3 format.

• Youth friendly online platforms – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube– have been established so that young people can start to actively and creatively take action in the fight against HIV/AIDS using online presence and mobile telephony.

• This M&E meeting has taken place. The meeting is a result of EACOMNET’s ongoing commitment to sound evaluation and impact measurement of its projects and the increasing demand in the secretariat to respond to demands for evidence of impact.

Background

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About EACOMNETEACOMNET is an umbrella body of community radio stations in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda and Burundi. EACOMNET is driven by national community media networks in Eastern Africa region, such as Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET),Community Media Network of Tanzania (COMNETA), Community Media Network of Uganda (COMNETU) and others in the subregion.

EACOMNET’S mission is to network community media initiatives in East Africa and to facilitate them to effectively engage in pressing socio-economic issues in the region. The main partners for the network are the community radio stations, mediaproduction organizations, NGOs, UN bodies, inter- governmental agencies and other development partners.

EACOMNET programme areas are centred on networking, capacity building and policy advocacy. Since its inception in 2012, EACOMNET has managed to support efforts in respective countries in East Africa to establish national community media networks where they were non-existent. Strengthening the national community media networks is crucial for them to be able to support local media to address pressing socio-economic and local governance issues at the grassroot communities.

Kenya Community Media Network

(KCOMNET)

Community Media Network of Tanzania

(COMNETA)

Community Media

Network of Uganda

(COMNETU)

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KENYA

TANZANIA

UGANDA

RWANDA

BURUNDI

The meeting was announced on August 5, 2013 by email to a group of 12 participants. 10 participants confirmed physical attendance. The meeting brought together ICT for Development (ICT4D) experts in an interactive online dialogue process and a face to face meeting on 29th - 30th August 2013 in Nairobi. The face to face meeting was preceded by the active inputs from the online discussions. The aim of the meeting was to provide guidance on how to use community media, mobile telephony and online presence to design and set up an online monitoring system and an evaluation process for the UBRAF project and related engagements by EACOMNET. The 11 participants of the face to face meeting (Annex 4) were drawn regionally from Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya to represent ICT networks, community media, AIDS NGOs, bloggers, academia and techies.

Most participants came from Kenya. One of the distinctive features of the meeting was the multi-stakeholder background of the participants. The meeting reinforced EACOMNET’s commitment to multi-stakeholderism in its engagements going forward.

The meeting was premised on two issues of concern

How do we design M&E Strategies using community media, mobile telephony and online presence?

What criteria should we use to award community radio that has produced the best programme(s) on HIV/AIDS and engagements on online platforms?

Meeting Procedure

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Summary of Online Discussions

The online discussions were rich, insightful and elaborate (Annex 4). Analysis of the points highlighted in the online discussions identifiedwords/points which were referred frequently by the participants. These words/points are summarized in the opposite word cloud (fig. 1)

Key questions that came up during the online discussions include.

•Where is the M&E data for this project going to come from?

•How is continuous online participation going to be achieved?

•How will we develop the indicators?

•Which data analysis methods will be used?

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Figure 1

Programme ProceedingsAnnex 2

Setting the Context-Njuki GithethwaNjuki set the context for the meeting by welcoming participants and giving background information about EACOMNET UBRAF. He also clarified the specific objectives of the meeting. Njuki observed that, “measuring results and evaluations in general, including impact evaluations, are indispensable processes that every organization that wants to succeed in any project must take seriously”. He recognized the role of youth in production and consumption of content and concluded the opening remarks by posing pertinent questions: how do we find that the content being published on EACOMNET’s website and online platforms is useful to the target audience? How do we distinguish what is relevant from what is not and how do we know that the information we publish online is achieving the intended impact?

Njuki Githethwa is the Coordinator of Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET) and the secretariat of East African Community Media Network (EACOMNET) based in Nairobi.

Introducing eacomnet web presence - Alex Odhiambo & AMos OchiengAlex Odhiambo and Amos Ochieng introduced the EACOMNET website (www.eacomnet.net) and social media platforms. Alex in his presentation gave an overview of how the website works and explained the technical background behind the interface of the website and the social media platforms. He highlighted areas that still need improvement and asked participants to provide acritical review on the website and the social media platforms.

Alex Odhiambo is EACOMNET’s web programmer and developer and is responsible for day to day Search Engine Optimization for the site; Amos Ochieng is the programmes officer – ICT at KCOMNET and is responsible for maintaining the overall look and feel of EACOMNET website and social media sites, keeping the content fresh, well-structured and relevant to the audience.

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Interpreting Google Analytics & Web Metrics - Phillip ThigoUsing www.eacomnet.net Google analytics dashboard, Phillip explained that Google analytics allows you to see where your visitors come from and if they engage with your content or leave immediately. With Google Analytics, you can get valuable insights about your visitors as well as identify the social media sites that send the most visitors back to your website to see which one needs more attention. This way you will learn more about the visitors who come to your site from Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or other social media sites.

It was clear to all participants that the challenge with the setting up of online M&E strategies will be in the synthesizing and making sense of all the information coming in via all sorts of media channels and being accountable now and in future to those who participate in the process. Philip Thigo shared experiences and a series of innovative online engagement practices, highlighting a range of low cost innovative online and offline engagement tools.

Philip Thigo is the Director, Business Analysis & Strategy at Infonet Africa-www..infonet.or.ke

The role of mobile telephony and new media tools in advocating and combating hiv/aids prevention and mitigation - edward ahonobadhaIn his presentation, Edward presented statistics and trends on how youth are using new media tools in the local and global contexts to fight and combat HIV/AIDS. “Digital and social media has become a way to communicate, connect and learn in our own terms” he pointed. He shared case scenarios on how young people are engaging with the online platforms of the Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium(KANCO) on issues of AIDS. Contributions from participants laid out the context within which youth are turning to online communication channels to address challenges related to sex, pregnancy and HIV/AIDS.

Edward gave a case study how KANCO is working with National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK) through the Ministry of health to address the plight of People Living with HIV and AIDS in Ndeiya, Central Province.

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He concluded by citing the challenges posed by new media tools in combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic and pledged the determination of KANCO to work with EACOMNET to upscale the project in Kenya and in the region

Edward Ahonobadha is a Documentation and Communication Manager at Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium (KANCO).

ICT Tools for M&E - Cleopa OtienoCleopa explained the functions of three tools. Frontline SMS, Freedom phone and Twitter for feature phones. “These are the technologies changing the nature of monitoring and evaluation” he observed.1. Frontline SMS is a desktop software and web based service that enables instantaneous two-way

communication to any mobile handset2. Freedom phone use voice menus to conveniently provide information on demand services,

making it a useful additional channel for community radio stations and emergency response initiatives. It can be used to provide information on a full spectrum of issues, it is intuitive, cost-conscious and Internet-independent.

3. Twitter for SMS is a service for users of feature phones with limited or no connectivity. The tweets are received/sent as SMS. This channel can be used to mobilize listeners, remind of upcoming broadcast/program, as a feedback mechanism for listeners, conduct surveys and even market the radio station. This service is low cost, each tweet is KES1.00 and is broadcast to all community members subscribed to the service for free via twitter website, if any member sends a question or gives feedback, s/he is charged the same amount but the tweet is broadcast to all for free.

Cleopa Otieno is a Community Learning Coordinator at telecentre.org and the National Coordinator for Kenya Telecentre Network.

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FRI Experience - Kassim SheghembeFarm Radio International (FRI), is using several strategies to a) maximize listener participation in radio programs through mobile phones and b) put in place monitoring and mentoring mechanisms to keep abreast of how the radio programs are developing and steer the course as needed. Kassim presented and demonstrated the following strategies relevant to this project.

a) “Beep-to-vote” is a way that a radio station can allow listeners to vote by leaving a missed call on either one or two (or even three) numbers to “cast their vote”. It allows anyone to participate at little or no cost, even those without knowledge on how to write an sms. This can be used to conduct short surveys (true/false) or evaluate a program (like/don’t like) or make a choice (option-A/option-B). “Beep-to-vote” is based on a cloud based sms software called Telerivet.

b) Community listener group surveys - using a similar platform to beep-to-vote, FRI sends 10 questions to a listener club (usually approx. 20 people) via sms, after they have listened to the live program. The responses to the questions are shared via web with the broadcasters and the Farm Radio staff members to help monitor and improve the programs from week to week.

c) SMS to facebook. FRI announces a number on the radio and tell listeners that their sms will be published to the facebook page belonging to the radio station. This allows people who are “offline” to have their views/comments posted online (through facebook).

All FRI partner community radios are using a $250 android 7” tablet in the studio so that broadcasters can access the above services in real time. Broadcasters can submit logsheets each week and email a copy of their recorded radio program to FRI office each week.

Kassim Sheghembe is an M&E expert using mobiles/radio and online platforms at Farm Radio International, Tanzania.

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Introduction to M&E - Christian BenardChristian Bernard exposed participants to qualitative and mixed methods used in evaluation, data analysis tools and step by step guide to monitoring. A “surgery” with Christian, provided an opportunity for participants to put their own “measurement” and evaluation dilemmas forward for discussion. He proposed a new approach to M&E using ICTs.

Christian Bernard Ochieng is a research scientist and an M&E expert at Kenya Telecentre Network.

UNESCO Experience - Shibata MasakazuMasa shared an experience of M&E strategies and tools summarized in a conversation prism (Fig 2).New technologies are opening up all kinds of possibilities for improving monitoring and evaluation. UNESCO under the project, “Empowering local radios with ICTs” has developed MyLocalRadio.org: a way to ask and answer questions about local radio. Explaining how the website works, he said, The website offers a space for the meeting of minds where users can exchange knowledge that makes a difference in the daily routine of local radios.

Several tools are in operation (Fig 2). These innovative tools provided opportunities for participants to question and explore how these methods might be used for monitoring and evaluation in their own contexts.

Masa ia a media specialist, UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa - Nairobi, Kenya

Plan and design for the award to the best HIV/AIDS radio programme, produced and shared by community radios in east africa - jIMMY OkelloJimmy Okello rounded off the day exploring possibilities for scaling up the project including guidelines for awarding community radios that has produced the best programmes. He presented an outline for the plan and design for the awards to the best HIV/AIDS programme produced and shared by community radio in East Africa.

Jimmy Okello (Radio Apac, Uganda) is the interim Chair of East African Community Media Network (EACOMNET) and Coordinator of Community Media Network of Uganda (COMNETU).

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Figure 2

Summary of Key Messages

Most of the discussions were shaped at the intersection of technology and development. Participants pointed out a variety of issues, strategies and actions.

Audience research is a mobile affairWhatever your target audience, the only device they are likely to have by their side all the time, everywhere is a mobile phone. SMS surveys and frontline SMS therefore offer excellent reach and much speedier response rates than other forms of market research.

Including ‘The missing melody’ is mandatoryCombating stereotypes of women in radio and ensuring balanced coverage of HIV/AIDS issues means training both genders as well as offering insight on who the beneficiaries are (for example females compared to males). One participant cited high illiteracy among women as the main reason preventing them from taking an active part in radio programming. Furthermore, it was suggested that health issues should be discussed in the context of the target community of respectivecommunity radio station.

“Commercial radio stations discuss HIV/AIDS issues for the whole country in one sitting, in one hour” –

Edward Richard Anonobadha, KANCO.

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Start online advocacy but network offlineTraditional advocacy techniques can be effective; however, combining them with online efforts will truly maximize your impact.

Gathering support is key to your organization’s success. But once you have that support, how do you mobilize them into action? Two options were floated:• Look for influencers. People who have a dynamic personality that comes across online and they

command the respect of other key players in their niche. Work with them to popularize and promote ideas across multiple channels.

• Locate local voices in the offline world to continue to attract others with a similar vision and willingness to physically engage with the project.

Trends and statistics from Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium (KANCO)• 2/3 of youth either have a mobile device or have access to one• The explosive use of social media and digital technologies is exposing young people to

unprecedented opportunities and risks• Digital and social media is a way to communicate, connect and learn in their own terms•Many young people involve in risky behaviours. They have little awareness of the risks involved• Underage sex and teen pregnancy are big issues among youth today.•Many young people are engaging with KANCO online platforms on issues of AIDS, their sketchy

grammar indicates that they are youth

Train the senior level managerYoung creative people are highly mobile and hard to retain. Focus on training senior level executives on how to properly plan for, integrate, manage and measure social media programs.

SMS is here to stayMobile telephony is improving peoples’ lives in simple and efficient ways using SMS. SMS is a highly targeted and cost efficient way of spreading the word quickly about issues of local concern.

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Challenges and Lessons Learnt

• Calling is becoming the old slow way, tweeting to service providers is faster than calling. Safaricom customer care and payTV services provider DSTV are best cases in using twitter for customer services.

• Keeping track of all the social media feed is not easy.

• Information targeting youths should be packaged in an ear friendly way so that the youth can download the same way they download ringtones and popular music or the way they download love messages.

• Not all ICTs can be used for M&E, the project period is five months; the M&E plan should focus only on few tools that can serve as data sources within the time frame.

• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) was cited as a potent source for AIDS information for people who do not have internet access. IVR is a good avenue when the operator is busy. Many people don’t want to talk to machines, they want to press zero to talk to the operator.

• Before you try out IVRs, draft a communications strategy, use what works and leave what doesn’t work.

• Hootsuite and Tweetdeck were mentioned as social media management tools. These tools not only manage the information that you send but also the information that you are receiving.

• Telerivet poses as an alternative to shortcode services. Telerivet uses a tool that most people in every country already have – a standard mobile phone. A cloud-based management system routes messages to and from any number of mobile devices, allowing you to reach anyone who has a mobile phone with SMS.

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“Physical monitoring is expensive,what opportunities can onlineplatforms offer?” –

Njuki Githethwa,KCOMNET/EACOMNET Secretariat

“I really like the idea of an award as this is the only way to encourage ‘best practice.” –

Grace Githaiga,KICTANet

“We are no longer dealing with traditional ways of doing M&E. No direct contact interventions will be used as source of data. Main data source here is onlineinteractions” –

Christian Bernard, KenTel

“Youths are very tech savvy today with their phones and if you givethem a chance to be able tocommunicate with you throughtools such as twitter, and other mobile services, we will be able to mobilize more audiences” –

Cleopa Otieno,Telecentre.org/KenTel

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“I may be analogue with capital A but now I have an idea how to integrate social media tools into our fishingactivities” –

Jedidah Waruhiu, L. Victoria Rights Programme, Diakonia Sweden

“We are living in a generation of tablets and ipads, response is prompt”

“Ignore the buzz of theweb, aggregate phone calls and SMS.” –

Phillip Thigo, InfoNet

“Inviting CCK to suggest content for radio programmes will interfere with our media independence, editorial independence and freedom of expression” ~

Jimmy Okello, InterimChair, EACOMNET/ Radio Apac, Uganda

“Radio stations in Moshi, Tanzania presented theirviews to the G8 summit in USA, linking Telerivet to twitter” –

Khassim Sheghembe, Farm Radio International

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“MyLocalRadio.org is an online community of practice for people wanting to freely collaborate, share knowledge and build local radio together.

Shibata MasakazuUNESCO-Nairobi

Annexes

Annex 1: List of resourcesAnnex 2: Meeting ProgrammeAnnex 3: List of participantsAnnex 4: Excerpts of online discussionsAnnex 5: The M&E Plan

Annex 1: List of resourcesThe resources provided were especially valued and therefore have now been made more widely available on the EACOMNET website and social media platforms. Visit www.eacomnet.net to access and download the presentations, meeting photos and other multimedia formats.

Annex 2: Meeting Programme

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Annex 3: List of Participants

Online discussion: gracegithaiga@yahoo.com, cochieng@kenyatelecentres.org, bsullivan@farmradio.org, jokello@hotmail.com, cleopa@kenyatelecentres.org, njukig@kcomnet.org, amos@kcomnet.org, alexander.aluoch@gmail.com, a.yusuph@unesco.org, Pthigo@infonet.or.ke, m.shibata@unesco.org, kanco@kanco.org, ksheghembe@farmradiotz.org

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Physical meeting: Shalom House, Nairobi - Kenya

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Annex 4: Excerpts of online discussions

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Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plan

EACOMNET-UBRAF 2012-2013

ANNEX 5

UNIFIED BUDGET, RESULTS AND ACCOUNTABILITY FRAMEWORK (UBRAF) 2012-2013 | Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plan

Summary

The M&E plan has been developed based on the following key performance indicators

1. Number of producers trained on the development of radio programs on HIV/AIDS2. A platform for networking established with a website, facebook and twitter account3. Number of people trained on use of ICT to share online content4. Program logs and work plans detailing the schedule of production and sharing of programs to be provided by the partner community radio stations to EACOMNET secretariat5. Programs produced and shared according to work plan6. Youth focused programs produced and shared7. Online data bank of programs available8. Uploaded programs and digital stories shared9. Traffic on the platforms available10. Award type, criteria and procedure of entry

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Data Collection, Analysis and Reporting

(i) Data collection

• Data will be collected from all the projects activities. Sources of data include training reports, work plans and metadata from uploaded materials.

• Qualitative data will be obtained from new media analytics and content from the online discussions and engagements.

• Training reports will provide data on the number of radio producers trained and the number of partners who will be able to share content online and manage online interactions

• Program logs and work plans will provide information on the scheduled programs and the extent to which the programs are being aired according to schedule

• Meta data of online content will be derived from the online platforms and will give data to provide information on the increasing index of available content specific for online youth interactions.

• Web 2 tools will include Facebook insights and Google analytics that will give an indication of the popularity of the contents shared online.

• Qualitative data obtained from content of shared programs and discussions will provide data for indication of the impact of the programs and the quality of service provided.

(ii) Data Analysis for strategic information and reporting

All data once summarized in the respective tools is entered on a data sheet. This is an excel workbook that will allow entry of individual episodes of the programs. Each producer handling a programmatic component fills their summarized data in the data sheet.

Basic data analysis is conducted on collated data; trend, comparative and progress analysis. This will help to determine the online engagements and gaps in project implementation and forms part of strategic information for decision making for the presentation of the award.

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(iii) Data Quality Assurance

• EACOMNET secretariat will undertake data quality assurance to ensure that data collected, analyzed and reported is accurate, reliable, precise, complete and timely.

• Project staff directly involved in the project are trained on fundamentals of M&E and the various online M&E strategies that they will be involved in.

• Supervisory review of filed data by the M&E focal person

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Annex 5a: Logical framework

Goal

Strengthened capacities of the youth in East Africa to advocate and combat HIV/AIDS through community media, mobile telephony and online presence

ObjectiveCommunity based young men and women enabled to contribute fully to the overall goal of reduction of sex transmission of HIV and AIDS through media and ICT capacity building

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Annex 5b: Data collection and reporting tools

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