Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

The lessons of public-media
partnerships
By Noma Rangana
Noma Rangana is regional
Communications Officer at Save <strong>the</strong>
Children Sweden (Sou<strong>the</strong>rn Africa).
She was previously Programme
Manager for <strong>the</strong> Citizen Journalism in
Africa Programme at Hivos, and also
a Senior Programme Officer at Open
Society Foundation for South Africa.
110 | Media in Africa - 2011
Despite <strong>the</strong> increase in <strong>the</strong> number
of media outlets and <strong>the</strong> booming
new media, a considerable number
of people still do not have access
to information. Whe<strong>the</strong>r we are
talking about current awareness
or edutainment, <strong>the</strong>re is still a big
problem. The urban-rural divide is
still big.
The Hivos Citizen Journalism in Africa
Programme was aimed at building
<strong>the</strong> capacity of civil society organisations
and ordinary citizens to use
online and offline citizen journalism
as a means of publication, lobbying,
networking and knowledge sharing
with <strong>the</strong>ir constituencies and to
be reliable sources of news for <strong>the</strong>
media. The programme was implemented
in six sou<strong>the</strong>rn and eastern
African countries.
The objective was to improve <strong>the</strong>
capacity of selected African civil
society organisations working in
gender, HIV/Aids, rural development,
children and <strong>the</strong> youth, so <strong>the</strong>y
could use both traditional and
digital media strategically and with
journalistic professionalism. This
would support democratic processes
and a diverse and independent
media. It was also intended to
increase local media coverage
of targeted marginalised groups
including women, which would
contribute to increased involvement
and participation of <strong>the</strong>se groups.
The main activities of <strong>the</strong> programme
included:
• establishment of two focal
points in each country,
• information sharing and development
of an online learning
and news platform,
• training of trainers and media
training for 30 people from 15
organisations in each country,
and on-<strong>the</strong>-job training.
The training focused largely on
creating awareness and on <strong>the</strong>
ability to use a variety of digital,
traditional and edge-of-<strong>the</strong>-net
media tools. The online portal also
served as an outlet for <strong>the</strong> news and
stories written by <strong>the</strong> participants.
At <strong>the</strong> beginning of <strong>the</strong> programme,
skills assessments were done and it
emerged that <strong>the</strong> majority of <strong>the</strong>
people interviewed did not have
communication or media skills. There
was also limited understanding of
how to engage <strong>the</strong> media. The o<strong>the</strong>r
problem identified was that some
people had not been exposed to
new media and its potential as an
alternative to mainstream media.
Inter-country networks were encouraged
for information sharing.
This was also to ensure that stories
and news could be published outside
<strong>the</strong> country, especially where it
was difficult to raise certain issues.
Implementing <strong>the</strong> project proved to
be a daunting task as lack of connectivity
was a major problem for
many participants and <strong>the</strong> media.
For some in <strong>the</strong> media, internet access
meant maybe one or two con-