ANNUAL REPORT 2017
“Africa’s Voices’ ability to stimulate inclusive dialogue and collect opinions of marginalised communities in local languages through simple technologies has been invaluable in informing how we engage with our target beneficiaries.” -Joyce Kabue, Communication and Information Advisor, Oxfam Kenya
Photo Credit: The Girl Effect
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We fostered dialogue between new local governance authorities and citizens in Somalia, guided by our evidence on citizen perspectives (UNICEF)
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
HIGH LIGHTS
In 2017, we engaged 70,000 citizens across the African continent in inclusive digital conversations so their voices could be heard. In return, we produced rich, nuanced, and actionable insights and elevated them to the levels of governance and development actors.
We analysed hundreds of thousands of SMS and social media interactions of Kenyan youth on governance in the lead up to the 2017 Presidential Election, deriving insights on audience segments, conversation themes, sentiment and programme impact (Well Told Story) We fostered a dialogue between new local governance authorities and citizens in Somalia, guided by our evidence on citizen perspectives (UNICEF) We shared our knowledge and innovative methodologies with students, researchers and practitioners, including through our inaugural AVF Academy in Nairobi and at 5 international conferences and workshops.
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We ensured that 33,000 Somali households were better informed and gave crucial feedback to improve a cash transfer programme during the drought (UNICEF) We gave citizens in peri-urban and underdeveloped Kenya a platform to voice their opinions on tax justice (Oxfam) We paved the way for future health communication interventions in emergencies by evaluating our interactive radio approach, focusing on socio-cultural factors that affect the outcomes of vector-borne diseases in Cape Verde (Wellcome Trust/DFID) We informed evidence-based programming by a consortium supporting HIV/AIDS interventions for adolescent girls in peri-urban and western Kenya (Trocaire)
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
TABLE OF CONTENTS
01 Letter from our Executive Director 02 Letter from our Chair 05 Why Africa's Voices 08 How we do what we do
12 How we amplified citizens' voices in 2017 31 Our team 32 Key learnings 33 Financial Statement 34 Our strategy 2018-2020 iii
Photo credit: World Bank
LETTER FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR In 2017, the world woke up to the dark side of the data and digital revolutions. Extraordinary technological capability without strong ethics of use can easily destabilise society. Right from the start, Africa’s Voices has had a simple motivation: go where the people are, listen to them on their own terms, value their voices. We have proven that innovations in curating media spaces, and advances in social research methods and data and technology, can enable authorities and service providers to listen with speed, subtlety and rigour to the citizens they serve, and in turn be more effective and accountable. This report tells the story of an important year at Africa’s Voices. 2017, our third year of operations, exposed us to a new horizon of possibilities for the real and immediate value of our capabilities. The devastating drought in Somalia motivated us to provide new solutions to UNICEF to tackle urgent hygiene and nutrition priorities through interactive radio and targeted one-to-one health messaging. We also provided UNICEF with a two-way communications channel reaching 33,000 beneficiaries to drive better outcomes for an emergency cash transfer programme. And we saw the power of strong partnership, providing valuable social insights to a consortium of actors addressing school dropout rates amongst adolescent girls in parts of Kenya - a leading cause of rising HIV/AIDS infection. We have learnt more about where our capabilities are needed most. This year we sharpened our strategy for impact around two core programme areas: harnessing citizen voice towards stronger Governance & Accountability, and producing timely and robust Citizen Evidence for positive Social Change. A combination of unique technical capabilities remains the core of our programmatic solutions, and in 2017 our collaborations with Cambridge University colleagues allowed us to innovate on socio-technical solutions for rapid health communications and social insights in emergency contexts. As co-founder, my focus has turned to how Africa’s Voices must sustain value creation for the longer term: the strategy, the team, and the financial health that ensure we have a growing and lasting impact from the unique contribution we know we can make. Looking ahead, I’m especially excited about our fresh strategy for 2018-2020 and beginning a new chapter in which Africa’s Voices takes full flight.
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Dr Sharath Srinivasan Co-founder and Executive Director
LETTER FROM OUR CHAIR AVF was founded on the belief that, with proper analysis and humility, listening carefully to the least heard,  and often most in need, sections of society must be fundamental to delivering optimal social and economic outcomes. We hope and believe there is a growing understanding among service providers that listening to citizens’ voices is fundamental to their work.That surely is what democracy should be about. I believe AVF has established itself as a particularly effective and creative partner that can act as a core component of every programme, currently in East Africa but in time more broadly across the continent. In this report you will find emphasis on the values of listening; listening with real skill and attention. AVF has refined, and continues to refine, social research and technology capabilities to enable aid and governance actors to listen to citizens on their terms. By continuously growing the rigour, speed and nuance of our analysis, we hope that even more service providers will see this research must form a high component of their decision making. You will read about the growing list of those who have come to know or hear of the contribution we can make to help their programs. As I write, 2018 has brought further rapid growth in demand and our scale of work. It is, therefore, our capacity to man, to finance and to continue our own innovation plan that is becoming the major constraint to the extent of our work. We have a small group of providers of core funding, of whom the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David and Elaine Potter Foundation are key (would there were more!). We have a remarkable executive team of specialists led by our co-founder, Sharath Srinivasan, who is currently seconded to us from Cambridge University. Our small Board of Trustees contains an extraordinary range of skills and experience for an early stage enterprise. We have the ability to call on individuals and departments at Cambridge University who help us retain a position at the cutting-edge of data technology and social research. We have a number of early partners who have believed that we would add to the impact of their work and have helped us to refine our systems. We thank them all. They all form part of an exciting story. With their continued support we know we can make many bigger contributions in the years ahead.
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Lord Cairns Co-founder and Chairperson
“Anyone seeking to improve the lot of African citizens must first understand the priorities of those they seek to serve. Africa’s Voices will play a key role in a more thoughtful delivery of social goods through listening first.” - Salim Ahmed Salim, former Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity
Photo credit: TOBIN JONES
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
AFRICA'S VOICES IN NUMBERS 4 YEARS OF DELIVERING CITIZEN-DRIVEN MEDIA DIALOGUES TO CATALYSE SOCIAL CHANGE In four years, we have evolved from a small research team at Cambridge University to an established independent charity with an international team of 12 based in Nairobi and the UK. In recognition of our early success, we were awarded the Market Research Society’s President Medal in late 2016. But the real measure of progress is our impact and the momentum we have built. From refining a sophisticated approach to using interactive digital media as a research tool, to innovative analysis of local language text data at scale, to collaborations with key development partners in Africa, we have developed unparalleled citizen engagement and social evidence solutions. Through robust knowledge sharing and impactful partnerships we will amplify the voices of over 1,000,000 citizens by 2020.
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200,000
£1.5m
Citizens' voices Years of delivering amplified Total programme since 2014 funding received since citizen-driven media dialogues to catalyse 2013 social change 4
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
WHY AFRICA'S VOICES
How do we enable accountable and responsive cash transfers to citizens in drought-struck parts of Somalia? What are the gender norms that need to be challenged to prevent adolescent girls in Kenya from dropping out of school? How do we ensure rapid deployment of public health communication channels during emergencies that are effective in changing behaviours of at-risk populations? These are some of the questions that Africa’s Voices sought answers to in 2017. Since 2014, we have been on a journey to answer a much bigger and urgent question: How would the world differ if the voices of citizens, especially those most marginalised, were listened to and acted upon? What if we challenged all norms and conventions that often mistakenly govern development interventions by turning citizen engagement into concrete evidence? Would decision-makers be able to make better and more informed decisions for the benefit of those who need it the most? What if, for once, we listened first, and most of all, we listened intelligently? 5
“Africa’s Voices is a promising initiative dedicated to making the perspectives of the needy count in development efforts”
Prof. Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize Winner
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
OUR MISSION We design innovative methods for citizen engagement that also deliver robust social evidence to strengthen the impact of development, humanitarian and governance actors. OUR VISION Africa’s Voices envisions a transformation in social change across the African continent where the voices of citizens are crucial determinants for more relevant, timely and accountable services that improve people’s lives.
Africa’s Voices Foundation is inspired by this simple idea: listen first and listen intelligently. We curate and spark engaging, inclusive discussions through interactive media and digital channels, enabling citizens to share their voices. We then use innovative data analysis techniques to deliver robust, timely and actionable social evidence that strengthens the impact of development, humanitarian, and governance actors. Spun out of cutting-edge research at the University of Cambridge, we have an established presence in East Africa and beyond, with a growing team based in Nairobi. We believe in our mission because what we do matters. In three years, we have amplified the voices of over 200,000 citizens in evidence-based programming in Somalia, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Cape Verde on priorities ranging from health and immunisation, child protection and gender, water, hygiene and sanitation, cash transfers, local governance and municipal elections, tax justice and extractive industries. We are proud of what we have achieved so far. But this is only the beginning. Today, we are at a crossroads: we have the potential to drive a new era for development; one of evidence-informed policy making where development, humanitarian, and governance providers recognise the value of listening to citizens and incorporating citizens’ voices into their decisions. By seizing new opportunities afforded by digital communications and innovations in data and social sciences, African citizens will have more ownership of, and access to, impactful and sustainable change in their lives.
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
A BRIEF HISTORY OF AFRICA'S VOICES
2011-2014
Core foundational research at Cambridge University, funded by UK ESRC, DFID, Cairns Charitable Trust, Isaac Newton Trust, Alborada Fund, Vice Chancellor's Fund, ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.
2014
Spun out of Cambridge University and established as a registered charity in the UK. Beginning of Well Told Story partnership.
2016
2015
Secured £580,000 in total core funding, including £468,000 from Hewlett Foundation and a grant from The David and Elaine Potter Foundation. Nairobi office established. Beginning of partnership with UNICEF Somalia, Well Told Story and Oxfam Kenya.
Awarded The Market Research Society President’s Medal. With Cambridge University, awarded Wellcome Trust and DFID funding to evaluate AVF’s unique interactive radio method for deployment in health emergencies.
2017
Delivered 13 projects in 5 countries. Won Shuttleworth Foundation Flash Grant. Creation of CODA, in collaboration with Cambridge University Computer Lab colleagues. First annual AVF academy held in Nairobi. 7
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
HOW WE DO WHAT WE DO Our core capabilities Africa’s Voices is not yet another data collection organisation. We are not merely researchers and data scientists. We are curators of inclusive social spaces that matter to those whose voices we seek to listen to and amplify. Ultimately, it is the evidence we seek to generate and therefore, the research framework we are deploying, that dictates our approach to data collection; not vice versa. We deliver results through media interventions that build engaging dialogues through interactive discussions, conversational channels and localised content. In this framework, inclusive media-based dialogues act as real social spaces embedded in content that is engaging and that the audience values. We design questions relevant to each “space” meaning that the data we collect is conducive to producing quality insights that truly represent the views of our audience. To achieve this, we rely on our three core capabilities. It is the possibility to combine them in creative and groundbreaking ways that make Africa’s Voices unique. We leverage on the possibilities afforded to us by advances in technology and data science to generate quality insights at scale. By curating real inclusive social spaces using digital media and a novel approach to social science, we amplify citizens’ voices and influence decision-makers.
Engagement and media
We select and curate the most advantageous strategies for media and citizenship engagement, utilising a full range of digital channels that maximise the viability, value and scale of engagement in as many contexts as possible. 8
Research and Analysis
Technology and Data
We hone our research design We build modular data and analysis procedures, making infrastructure that is flexible, them quick and flexible. This scalable, and replicable to create allows us to implement robust technology- and data-based engagement and evidencesolutions to projects. This gathering solutions to complex supports practical engagement developmental problems. strategy and impactful programme design and analysis.
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
Education Humanitarian Governance
ytilibatnuoccA & ecnanrevoG
PROGRAMME AREAS AND SECTORS
Turning inclusive citizen engagement into evidence
egnahC laicoS & ecnedive nezitiC
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Health WASH Youth
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
Our value offering is organised into two programmatic areas plus a range of strategic initiatives. Examples of work we completed in 2017 under each area are presented in more detail in How we Amplified Citizens' Voices in 2017.
GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY Civic Engagement and Social Accountability We curate engagement-driven public dialogue between authorities and citizens, strengthening downwards accountability, legitimacy and effectiveness. By convening and analysing inclusive discussions, we provide evidence of citizens’ opinions to inform further action and accountability.
Programme Communications, Accountability and Monitoring to Affected Populations We deploy two-way channels for feedback and remote monitoring to ensure that beneficiaries' voices provide evidence for adaptive humanitarian programming and beneficiary complaints or grievances are recorded, responded to and resolved in an accountable and effective manner.
CITIZEN EVIDENCE & SOCIAL CHANGE Grounded Digital Social Research Using methods tailored to reaching citizens in remote, marginalised and fragile contexts, we provide evidence to shape interventions with a better understanding of the beliefs, norms, and opinions of citizens, complementing and enriching more traditional research methods.
Social & Behaviour Change Communications Effective communications for development, grounded in social contexts, can support changes in social norms and behaviour. In areas such as public health and gender, we analyse citizen perspectives towards tailoring change programming rooted in their realities, narratives and world-views. Sustained engagement allows for adaptive programmes and monitoring.
STRATEGIC INITIATIVES As a young organisation, we continue to explore new opportunities for value creation, including new types of partner, social impact, and new products that draw upon our unique range of capabilities for generating citizen evidence via inclusive media and communication channels.
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“Working with Africa’s Voices has opened a new world of insight and potential. To be able to decipher the collective meaning within our audience correspondence is like listening at the keyhole of a giant conversation. This new clarity has helped us refine our purpose and our methods, and given us a powerful new account of the impact of our work.” - Rob Burnet, CEO of Well Told Story
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Photo Credit: USAID
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
HOW WE AMPLIFIED CITIZENS' VOICES IN 2017 Governance & Accountability Kenyans’ attitudes around taxation to inform Oxfam’s tax justice programme 14 Assessing (Oxfam Kenya) DHIS Community Scorecard Initiative: Initial insights on local governance (UNICEF 16 DAL Somalia)
18 Kenyan youth views on the 2017 election (Well Told Story) 20
Beneficiary feedback and programme monitoring for unrestricted cash transfers to returnees from Dadaab and Dhobley (UNICEF Somalia)
Citizen Evidence & Social Change
23 DREAMS Challenge: Reducing Kenyan girls vulnerability to HIV (Trocaire) - Beliefs and practices of Somali citizens related to child protection and gender 25 Kalkaal (UNICEF Somalia)
27 Response to 2017 drought in Somalia (UNICEF Somalia) 29 Radio as a research tool in health crises (Wellcome Trust / DFID) 12
Photo credit: Mohammed Abdi Dahar
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY Photo credit: David Trainer
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
Do Kenyan taxpayers believe that they receive good quality services from the taxes they pay?
Assessing Kenyans’ attitudes around taxation to inform Oxfam’s tax justice programme (Oxfam Kenya)
Consider this: A struggling market vendor needs to pay business taxes to the local government. His business is not profitable and he is also paying a salary to an employee. What would you advise this person to do? Should they pay their taxes or not? Why? Listeners of Radio Jambo in Kenya’s Turkana region, Wajir Community Radio in Wajir, and Radio Citizen in Nairobi, are prompted to respond to this scenario, crafted by AVF, via SMS. The consensus is that the vendor should obey the law and pay his taxes. The audience largely agrees that it is both a civic and moral duty. Approximately 20% of Kenya’s GDP is derived from tax revenue, making it one of the country’s most stable sources of long-term financing. 14
Acknowledging the value of the general public’s engagement and influence on issues that affect them, Oxfam invited AVF to collect and amplify citizens’ views on taxes and their priorities for the national budget at the beginning of its tax justice project. Our goal was to assess the opinions and knowledge of citizens in Nairobi, Wajir, and Turkana about their rights as taxpayers, and the roles and responsibilities of their local and national governments for tax justice, budgeting, and public service delivery. Using interactive radio and SMS in Kiswahili, Turkana and KuSomali, we gathered opinions from citizens living in 35 counties, mainly youth (25-29 years old) and in their majority, male (73%). Across all sites, 559 people sent their views to a free short-code managed by AVF, sending 1149 messages over three shows.
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
“From working with Africa’s Voices, it emerged that there are various opportunities to engage citizens and more so through the use of radio. The insights have fed into a larger baseline study, and will be used to inform the advocacy and campaigning approaches in the different regions. We are grateful to have you on board as partners and explore more ways of working together strategically!” – Wairu Kinyori-Gugu, Tax Justice Project Manager for Oxfam Kenya
Insights for impact Our findings indicated a widespread belief that citizens should pay taxes insofar as the government reciprocates with the provision of quality services. We found that most people (71%) agree with taxation for both moral and civic reasons. Key themes in the discussion included poor service delivery, widespread corruption, and the disproportionate tax burden on the poor and small business owners. The study also revealed that people who are more prone to tax evasion are also those most dissatisfied with public services. Oxfam utilised our insights to benchmark citizen’s knowledge and perceptions on tax justice issues at the beginning of its tax project, in order to be able to assess the impact of the project’s capacity-building and awareness-raising interventions over time.
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
How can we create inclusive channels for public dialogue to support civic engagement in new Somali local governance structures?
DAL DHIS Community Scorecard Initiative: Initial insights on local governance (UNICEF SOMALIA)
“Daldhis, safety is in the hands of Allah, secondly, the president”. The role and effectiveness local governance in the community is a contentious matter in parts of Somalia. There are those citizens who, disillusioned with government service delivery, argue that, ultimately, it is all in God’s hands. In the past few years Somalia’s governance landscape has made critical gains, including the establishment of new federal states and broad elections in 2017. However, key to supporting stabilisation and peace-building goals will be establishing effective and accountable local governance institutions in line with the government’s Wadajir Framework. This means connecting communities with their local representatives to ensure responsive and transparent planning and service-delivery, as well as broader alignment of values between government and citizens. 16
To inform local government efforts related to service delivery, security, and citizen participation, AVF worked with UNICEF, district officials, and other governance actors to analyse the perspectives of people in Kismayo and Baidoa. Over a period of three weeks and on five radio stations, listeners were prompted to respond via SMS to questions related to satisfaction with local government service delivery; priority issues in their communities; and the institutions responsible for security. The initial data gathering was followed by 30minute radio shows featuring local and state authority officials who discussed and responded to the audience’s opinions raised during the preceding three weeks. In effect, this enabled a conversation between citizens and their government actors. Across three weeks, AVF received messages from 1,521 people in two districts, 36.8% of them women and 32,3% IDPs. In addition, 39.4% of participants were aged 15-19 and 25.6% were 20-24, suggesting that interactive radio is a viable channel for hearing youth perspectives on governance issues. Photo credit: Tobin Jones
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
Insights for impact Our research found that overall, citizens’ satisfaction with the government’s service delivery was lower amongst the more educated, older people and men. Those dissatisfied with local government performance often discussed this in terms of the government failing to live up to certain political values, whether they were transparency, fairness, or abiding by Somali cultural and religious norms. Services perceived as inadequate included education, healthcare, infrastructure and WASH. Narratives, however, used by citizens to proclaim satisfaction with service-delivery often focused on perceptions of recent change, rather than predetermined notions of what government should deliver. In their majority, citizens were satisfied with services related to hygiene and sanitation in their communities. Nonetheless, AVF found an evident lack of consensus among audiences on which institution(s) should be responsible for security. Many voices pointed to the community and citizens themselves as being the primary arbiters of security, rather than any formal institution. AVF turned these insights into concrete recommendations to local government including priority areas for service delivery improvement, and the need to respect strong support for communal approaches to security, such as community policing. Local officials who were involved in the radio shows have commended the initiative and its civic education element. UNICEF and other UN partners are looking to scale up this pilot to a much larger interactive communication campaign using AVF’s approach.
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
What are the key issues that concern young people in Kenya and shape their political views in the lead up to the 2017 Presidential Elections?
Kenyan youth views on the 2017 election (Well Told Story)
DJ Boyie is well-known character on Facebook among Kenyan youngsters. His posts spark vivid and often controversial debates. It’s only a few months to go to the 2017 presidential election and DJ Boyie poses a question to his over 700,000-strong following: What will have the biggest impact on your future, and why? The question is followed by a list of seven issues at the heart of the electoral debate, ranging from poverty and unemployment to corruption and healthcare. Overall, corruption and unemployment emerge as the two issues that concern Kenyan youth the most, recurring throughout the entire conversation on governance inspired by the 157 posts shared by DJ Boyie over 10 months leading up to the election. DJ Boyie is the creation of Well Told Story, the award-winning media company behind Shujaaz - a multimedia platform that engages young people in East Africa, triggers conversations, and changes mindsets. 18
In preparation for the 2017 Presidential Elections in Kenya, Well Told Story wanted to better understand youth discourses around governance - such as what youth perceive to be the greatest problems in their community and which issues might shape their political views. AVF and Well Told Story joined forces to explore social media discourse around governance. Our study used public data from DJ B’s Facebook page to explore the lifecycle of digital conversations and to develop insights into youth attitudes toward governance using a combination of thematic analysis, machine learning, and sentiment analysis. In the first round of analysis, we selected a subset of 157 posts that focused on the issues of governance. We found that governance posts enjoyed substantially higher levels of engagement that posts on other topics. The second round of analysis was dedicated to exploring the intensity and polarity of fans’ engagement around the four most popular posts on governance and concluded that corruption and unemployment were the two issues that most added to young voters’ anxieties. The most popular post of the campaign inspired over 2,100 reactions and 270 comments. Photo Credit: Well Told Story
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
“Our continuous rigorous research and evidence-based strategy are already helping us nudge the communicative dynamics on DJ B’s social media and fine-tune our activities to inspire more people to become an active part of the important debate.”
– Dr. Anastasia Mirzoyants–McKnight, Well Told Story
Insights for impact Our analysis resulted in two important insights. Firstly, that online conversations were dominated and driven by a small number of ‘power users’, who shape the online discussions, while the vast majority of fans reacted or silently observed. This insight led Well Told Story to shift their attention into engaging more actively with power users in order to increase the engagement of fans on DJ B’s Facebook page. Power users can act as “ambassadors”, driving increased dialogue, and bringing people and topics together. Secondly, we found that youth were not primarily concerned with the election itself. Rather, they were mostly concerned with corruption and unemployment. Given the significant overlap between multiple sub-topics, the message to Well Told Story was to work on curating cross-cutting discussions to inspire broader engagement on Shujaaz fans who wouldn't otherwise remain confident to issuespecific conversations. Our advice was that this would create more realistic, wholesome conversations, relevant to DJ B’s fans’ everyday life. AVF has been working closely with Well Told story since 2014 to better understand digital conversations of the Shujaaz media audience. Our collaboration has led to exciting new insights about how digital conversations reflect normative changes and shifts in behaviour among Kenyan youth (15-24 years-old). It has also enabled the discovery of new research approaches, including the description of the anatomy of sentiment and the method to research low-resource languages such as Sheng. 19
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
How do we enable accountable and responsive cash transfers to citizens in drought-struck parts of Somalia?
Beneficiary feedback and programme monitoring for unrestricted cash transfers to returnees from Dadaab and Dhobley (UNICEF Somalia)
It is the middle of the day in Mogadishu and a long queue has formed outside a local financial service provider’s shop. 300 returnees from the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Kenya have been waiting for hours without shelter from the sun to receive a cash transfer provided by UNICEF. However, the implementing partners and financial service providers are unprepared for the cash transfer, with technical difficulties preventing the vast majority of beneficiaries from accessing their cash. Earlier in the day, those returnees with working mobile phones had received voice messages from AVF prompting them to report any issues with cash collection. Exasperated, one beneficiary picks up the phone and replies: "We are here where we are supposed to get the money. The workers have left and we are standing in the sun and we are more than 300 returnees from Kenya. Please help us." In 2017, Somalia was struck by a catastrophic drought that triggered a humanitarian emergency. In response, UNICEF scaled up its unrestricted cash transfer programme for vulnerable populations including returnees and internally displaced people. Recipients received top-ups to an electronic card (SCOPE card) that could be used to access cash at specific financial service providers. 20
The cash transfer programme sought to support households' non-food needs (shelter, medicine, education etc) and to allow them to invest in productive assets and their future livelihoods. However, the system was hindered by frequent bottlenecks, often exacerbated by the significant challenge that communicating with populations on the move poses. AVF implemented two innovative interventions to bridge the communication gap and to ensure UNICEF’s cash transfer programmes were accountable and responsive to their perspective beneficiaries: 1. AVF deployed a two-way channel of communication with affected populations. AVF sent voice messages to inform beneficiaries of their entitlements and how to redeem their cash. Beneficiaries were then able to report issues in accessing their cash by sending an SMS to UNICEF’s Rapidpro platform - creating a dynamic feedback loop. 2. AVF implemented post-distribution monitoring surveys via SMS to assess outcomes for beneficiaries, and barriers to uptake for those who did not access their aid. Photo credit: World Bank
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
“Effective communication with beneficiaries through established feedback loops proved difficult, yet highly useful. AVF established SMS and voice message information and feedback loops to the beneficiaries via their mobile phones, over 40% of beneficiaries used the feedback service to report issues or request additional information. This is what led to the success of the returnees programme whose beneficiaries who were already in Somalia”. -Alejandro Guzman, Emergency Specialist UNICEF Somalia
Insights for impact By empowering citizens with information about their entitlement and bringing citizen evidence from SMS feedback to stakeholders such as the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, AVF has been able to encourage UNICEF, WFP, implementing partners and DFID to extend the deadline for returnees to receive their cash assistance. Our two-way channel was able to contribute to programme responsiveness by escalating issues and barriers to cash collection to UNICEF in real-time, feeding systematic analysis of bottlenecks and providing data on how to resolve them swiftly and effectively. The most significant of these was the preference among beneficiaries for mobile money transfer - 97% of those who transacted in Mogadishu reported that they already use these services. As a result, UNICEF is exploring the option of delivering cash assistance in many different sectors through mobile money services.
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
CITIZEN EVIDENCE & SOCIAL CHANGE
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
What are the socio-cultural and gender-based beliefs that prevent adolescent Kenyan girls from staying in or returning to secondary school?
DREAM Challenge: Reducing Kenyan girls vulnerability to HIV (PEPFAR / Trocaire) It’s April 2017. At Nairobi’s popular Ghetto FM Radio station, two radio presenters, DJ Bling and Bonokoare are on air discussing the challenges faced by adolescent girls going to school during their period. Their guest, Teresa, is a trained counsellor on Sexual and Reproductive Health issues working with LVCT Health. They are sharing a hypothetical scenario with their listeners and are inviting them to respond via SMS to a toll-free number: A Form 1 student, Trish, is having trouble attending school during her period due to strong menstrual pains and fear of soiling her uniform. Do they think Trish should go to school during her period? Yes, or no, and why? Text messages are streaming in. DJ Bling is reading them out to spark engagement and discussion. Teresa is responding to the audience’s comments and questions and helps debunk some common misconceptions about women’s menstrual cycles and the reasons some girls are hesitant to attend school during their period. *** This interactive radio show was part of an ongoing project AVF delivered in 2017 in collaboration with Trocaire, Girl Child Network, and LVCT Health. The project is part of the DREAMS Challenge, which calls for innovative solutions to help reduce HIV/AIDS infection among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). 23
Focusing on two rural locations in Siaya and two urban informal settlements in Nairobi, our project leveraged on a variety of activities to support girls to complete secondary school – which has been found to significantly reduce the risk of HIV infection. In Kenya, women are particularly vulnerable to HIV, with 7% prevalence among women versus 4.7% among men (Kenya HIV Estimate Report, 2015). Adolescent girls and young women (15-24 years old) account for 21% of new infections. There is strong evidence that keeping girls in school dramatically reduces their vulnerability to HIV by ensuring their awareness of the virus and risk factors. AVF directed two seasons of interactive radio shows (broadcasted in Swahili and Sheng on Ghetto FM, and in Luo on Radio Ramogi), designed to elicit audience feedback on (a) the socio-cultural and gender-based beliefs that prevent girls from staying or returning to secondary school, and (b) community beliefs on what makes adolescent girls vulnerable to HIV infection. Girls and young women were encouraged to interact with the broadcasts via free SMS. The first season engaged 2,835 participants, in their majority aged 15-29 years old and 69.9% female. Participation per radio show in the second season reached an average of 1,184 people. Photo credit: The Girl Effect
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
Insights for impact We provided insights into the social norms that impact the formal education of AGYW and affirmed that a complex web of social factors underpinning school dropout. While ongoing initiatives were already targeted at the individual-, community- and school-level, our findings identified a programmatic shortfall in addressing norms at the level of the family and the girls’ social groups. We were therefore able to inform the work of our DREAMS project partners and advise them on how to shape their initiatives accordingly. For example, our findings suggested that community forums run by Girl Child Network could focus on family-related issues linked to school dropout, as well as holding parental guidance sessions about the support they need to provide to their daughters. Further, our findings provided Bridge Centres, which support and educate girls outside of formal education, with an understanding of what might keep AGYW away from school while menstruating – and even fall behind and dropout - helping to ensure that they guidance and support provided to young girls is more effective and tailored to their needs.
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
What are the collective beliefs that must be challenged in order to implement effective social change initiatives aimed at eliminating harmful practices and promoting gender equality in Somalia?
Kalkaal - Beliefs and practices of Somali citizens related to child protection and gender (UNICEF Somalia)
Despite some improvements, harmful practices that violate the rights of women and children, especially girls, persist at concerning levels in Somalia. Effective social change initiatives aimed at eliminating harmful practices and promoting gender equality require a granular understanding of how people perceive and talk about these issues. Yet across Somalia, a breakdown of infrastructure and security persistently impedes communication of positive social and behavioural change. To address urgent evidence and data gaps, Africa’s Voices, UNICEF Somalia, and MediaINK designed five interaction radio shows on gender and child protection issues. The shows were broadcasted across 27 radio stations - covering 70% of the Somali population - to gather SMS data on four topics: 25
1. Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C); 2. Child Marriage; 3. Girls’ access to education; 4. Juvenile justice. Across five weeks, 40,544 messages were received in response to questions aired on the radio from 16,541 people within 73 districts across Somalia, of whom 45.2% were female. Photo credit: Photo: M. Knowles-Coursin/ UNICEF
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
"The Africa's Voices programme is one of the most articulate pieces of research I've seen on social norms in Somalia. It is the first time I've been given the tools to start applying this kind of scientific rigour to social norms programming and I'm finding it quite exciting and thought-provoking. The insights should be critical in our strategies for UNICEF's social norms pillar in 2018."
- Brendan Ross, UNICEF Somalia, Child Protection Specialist
Insights for impact For UNICEF, AVF’s approach provides a rare scientific rigour to social norms programming. Our insights and accompanying recommendations are informing UNICEF’s social norms work and in particular their messaging around social change. For example, AVF’s research revealed geographical variations across the various regions of Somalia related to FGM/C. Radio participants in Somaliland were more likely than those in the South to agree with FGM/C as a form of sexual control of women, while those in the South were more likely to agree with the practice on religious grounds. We were subsequently able to advise UNICEF to shape programming around FGM/C based on these regional variations. In the South, engaging religious leaders and narratives based on the Quran would appear a more appropriate approach to reframe perceptions, whereas in Somaliland, community theatre and radio dramas would be best suited to address an issue as sensitive as challenging narratives of female sexuality and autonomy.
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
How can we disseminate rapid information to promote the adoption of life-saving behaviours related to hygiene in droughtstruck parts of Somalia?
Response to the 2017 drought in Somalia (UNICEF Somalia)
In the midst of one of the worst droughts Somalia has ever known, cholera is rife. People in the cholera hotspots supported by UNICEF, receive a text message on their mobile phones: “Before eating your last meal, did you wash your hands with soap? Please reply yes or no”. Soon, the responses are streaming in. One reads: “I did not wash my hands because I don’t have soap and money to buy it because we don’t have anything”. Many others allude to the same: soap is rare and expensive. Others did not feel it was necessary to do so before eating or suggested that their hands are not dirty. The evidence is clear: in order to respond decisively to the cholera outbreak, common WASH norms and behaviours have to be challenged. *** February 2017 saw a huge deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Somalia due to an extended drought period. By October 2017, 886,000 people were estimated to be at an emergency level of food security (IPA Phase 4), with rates of malnutrition especially high in Mudug, Galgaduud, and eastern Somaliland. Meanwhile, a deadly cholera outbreak in parts of South-Central and latter Somaliland affected over 77,000 people leading to a death toll of 1,159. 27
Africa’s Voices worked with UNICEF to disseminate targeted and engaging messaging to promote the adoption of life-saving behaviours related to hygiene, water and sanitation, and child nutrition. We developed an interactive radio and SMS campaign that engaged people in discussion around the drought in Somalia, and used the reach and accessibility of both radio and SMS to amplify messaging on key behaviours. A particular emphasis was placed on developing a data-driven approach to Communications for Development (C4D), whereby individuals are sent near-time messages based on their self-reported barriers to behavioural change. For example, if respondents indicated that that they lacked access to soap, they would receive an SMS prompting them to use ash instead (as recommended by WHO). Overall, our programme engaged 24,258 people in 71 districts in just 8 weeks. It was successful in reaching women, youth, and caregivers of young children in certain areas – 43.4% of participants were women, 59.5% had children below 6 months, and 55.2% had children aged 6-24 months. The programme also reached those affected by drought and vulnerable to cholera: 19% of participants were IDPs, including a large proportion reporting from a confirmed IPC phase 4 area. Photo Credit: UNICEF
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
Insights for impact
Our analysis resulted in key recommendations for WASH messaging for future uses of the tool. For example, the prevalence of lack of soap among the audience suggests an emphasis is needed on encouraging the benefits of cost-effective alternatives for handwashing, such as ash. With regards to infant and young child feeding behaviours to tackle child malnutrition, we were able to highlight a need to dispel the notion, among the audience, that pregnant women must stop breastfeeding. AVF’s data driven SMS was developed to deliver targeted C4D messaging based on individual reporting of barriers. This tool was proven able to deliver targeted messaging to up to 1,300 respondents daily on a number of behaviours within 36 hours of their first message. Over 85% of participants found this way of receiving messaging helpful for promoting healthy behaviours in their family. This suggests that our tool can be a powerful component of effective behaviour change programming as well as other use-cases in humanitarian response.
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
How rapidly deploy public health communication channels during emergencies that are effective in ensuring interventions are tailored to the realities of at-risk populations?
Radio as a research tool in health crises (Wellcome Trust / DFID) The 2014-2015 Ebola crisis in West Africa laid bare the challenges of public health communication and data collection during emergencies. Top-down public health messaging is rarely – if ever – effective on its own at changing practices of at-risk populations. Instead, messaging needs to be inclusive, rooted in community beliefs and aligned with the everyday lives of the target audiences. Furthermore, public health data must be collected, analysed and used to inform policy. In this context, there is a crucial need to better understand the role of mediabased community projects in improving public health outcomes. Part of a two-phased project funded by Wellcome Trust and DFID focusing on infectious disease outbreaks and emergency contexts, AVF conducted research into the socio-cultural factors related to the prevention of vector-borne diseases in Cape Verde. In parallel, the project presented us with the opportunity to evaluate our interactive radio approach – a communication intervention and data gathering channel – for rapid deployment in epidemics and health crises. 29
The intervention in Cape Verde consisted of ten original radio programmes, focusing on mosquitoborne diseases, including dengue, malaria, Zika, and the mosquito itself, broadcasted on the national radio RCV and number of private FM broadcasters, including the popular Praia FM. Listeners were requested to respond via a free SMS short code. At a later stage, a Facebook Messenger channel was also established. The themes were chosen in collaboration with Cape Verde’s National Institute of Public Health (INSP) and the questions and content were further refined through focus groups with target populations (women, youth and the elderly) living in informal communities most impacted by mosquito-borne diseases. Photo credit: David Trainer
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
Insights for impact Overall, participation in the first season of radio shows was very low, attributed, primarily, to the general decline in radio listenership across the country with television widely regarded as the primary form of media. Nonetheless, the second season enjoyed significant increase in listenership, whereby, drawing on lessons learned from the first season, we shifted the focus from public health to topics of priority that spoke directly to the audience’s daily lives, such as water shortage. Against this backdrop, the project offered AVF a unique opportunity to evaluate our interactive radio approach for rapid social research and health communications in epidemics and health crises. More specifically, we were able to show that successful rapid data collection during epidemics depends on three factors: (1) being iterative and flexible in design and implementation; (2) being rooted in the everyday lives of those affected, i.e. be attuned to the particular sociocultural and material lives of those affected; and (3) consider how infrastructure, environmental and spatial characteristics of informal urban settlements impact local-level health behaviours during epidemics. AVF’s most valuable contribution was to show that data collection premised on achieving behavioural change based on general healthrelated knowledge misses out on insights into how individuals and communities make decisions about their health during epidemics, and how these decisions are impacted by factors not tied to individual knowledge about transmission or “best” practices.
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
OUR TEAM Board of Trustees • Lord Cairns, Chairperson and Co-Founder. Former board member, Mo Ibrahim Foundation and Chairperson of Voluntary Services Overseas • Sir David Green, Former Director-General of the British Council • Dr. Laila Macharia, Founder and CEO of Africa Digital Media Institute • Ms. Fiona Napier, Development consultant in Nairobi. Formerly with Open Society Foundations and Save the Children. • Dr. David Good, Director of Research at Cambridge Global Challenges SRI, University of Cambridge Staff • Dr. Sharath Srinivasan, Co-Founder and Executive Director • George Kaburu, Head of Performance and Operations • Dr. Claudia Abreu Lopes, Senior Advisor for Research and Innovation • Rainbow Wilcox Impact, Learning and Communications Manager • Joshua Homes, Product and Innovation Officer • Partha Moman, Programme Manager, Governance & Accountability • Rita Zagoni, Lead Technologist • Moses Maina, Media Specialist • Deborah Sambu, Researcher, Citizen Evidence & Social Change • Sandra Zerbo, Project Operations Manager • Dr. Alex Lewis, Researcher
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
KEY LEARNINGS 1. Taking a solutions approach: Unique and innovative capabilities is where we started, and why partners keep seeking us out. But we have learnt that translating capabilities into social impact requires another approach: designing from actual needs on the ground backwards to those capabilities. This is why in 2017, we began restructuring around developing applied solutions in two programming areas: (1) Governance and Accountability and (2) Citizen Evidence & Social Change. 2. Turning citizen evidence into action requires strong synergies with partners, decision-makers and stakeholders: Generating evidence that bears the potential to influence decision-making is not an easy task. Evidence presentation is key, as well as working in close partnership with those who have the ear of decision-makers to act as advocates. Our impact with the DREAMS Challenge in Kenya came from our close partnership with Trocaire, LVCT Health and Girl Child Network who had key links with local government. 3. It’s never just about data: Collecting data is increasingly easy. Yet in a world of abundant data, there’s a poverty of meaningful and robust insights. We’ve learnt that what sets us apart is how we combine solid social science theories and methods with innovative data analysis technologies; not vice versa. And through our close links with researchers at the University of Cambridge, we have privileged access to cutting-edge technological innovations. Guided by our social inquiries, we constantly advance, diversify, and enrich our data analysis techniques. 4. Play close attention to unique voices: True richness comes from those voices that are unique, authentic and unbiased. Capturing these voices means convening discursive spaces that are inclusive, driven by locally-curated content, and that the audience can relate to. Some of our most valuable and powerful insights often come by creating such conditions for genuine human interaction as opposed to raw data collection. 5. The power of collective voice: Our commitment is to go where the people are, and to capture citizen evidence through engaging real-world conversations that they value, such as on radio shows. This is often harder and more resource intensive than more extractive approaches to individual data collection. But we are seeing why it matters. Whether solutions are in the area of Governance & Accountability or in Evidence-Based Social Change, the power of collective voice to influence or hold authorities to account, or to shift harmful social norms, is palpable. 32
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
FINANCIAL STATEMENT Our income in 2017 500 Africa's Voices income in 2017 amounted 375 to a total of £634,000 of which £496,000 was restricted income whereas 250 £138,000 was unrestricted. 125 0 de c it rts e r nU de t c ir t s e R
Expenditure by programmatic area in 2017 Our total expenditure in 2017 was £689,634 and was distributed along our two programmatic initiatives and investments in technical innovation, strategic pilots and knowledgesharing. Governance & Accountability - £182,000 Citizen Evidence & Social Change - £238,000 Innovation & Strategic Initiatives - £144,000 Core & Leadership - £155,600 Our full report and accounts are available through the UK Charity Commission. 33
Core 18%
G&A 28%
Innovation 18%
CESC 37%
Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
OUR STRATEGY 2018-2020 2018-2020 Strategic Goals AVF’s strategy for the next three-year period of operations pursues three strategic goals: 1. To strategically grow impactful partnerships from consolidation to scale 2. To develop unparalleled citizen engagement and social evidence solutions, ensure our core capabilities are strong and scalable, and ensure others are making use of our knowledge and tools 3. To protect long term value-creation by building a financially robust organisation capable of sustainable performance and growth
Strategic growth in impactful partnerships
Innovation and Knowledge
Strengthening Organisation and Performance
By 2020, we will have strengthened our solutions, grown our impact and diversified our work across sectors and geographies, by amplifying the voices of over 1,000,000 citizens and seizing opportunities to scale across the continent.
By 2020, we will have developed citizen engagement and social evidence solutions for multiple contexts, sectors and partners - and we will share our knowledge, tools and methods with others to catalyze wider impact. To do so, we will develop and refine our solutions, and the technical and design-based capabilities that underpin them, with a determined focus on our value to citizens.
In 2020, we will be a financially and organisationally selfsustaining entity with a renewed leadership team able to ambitiously invest in innovations and strategic growth on the continent.
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Africa's Voices 2017 Annual Report
OUR SUPPORTERS Africa's Voices Foundation is deeply grateful to the following for their donations, awards, in-kind and pro-bono support that have enabled and empowered our work and have set us on a steady path to growth. GRANTS
AWARDS
IN-KIND & PRO-BONO
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Photo Credit: Tobin Jones (AU-UN IST/AFP/File)