AMPLIFYING CITIZEN VOICE Connecting People to Decision Makers
Contents About U-Report
4
U-Report Deployments
6
U-Reporters & Policy
8
Did You Know?
10
Stories from the Field: Uganda
12
Chile
14
Nigeria
16
Resources
18
4 / About U-Report
About U-Report / 5
About U-Report U-Report is designed to give young people and communities a chance to voice their opinions about issues that they care about. Members, or ‘U-Reporters’, join via SMS, Facebook or the U-Report app. U-Reporters participate in weekly polls on topics related to the Sustainable Development Goals such as education, health, protection, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, social policy, and water and sanitation. Data is available in real-time and shown on the U-Report public websites. In addition to weekly polls, U-Reporters can send a message at any time and at no charge. UNICEF’s partners are able to filter, analyse, and respond to the most relevant messages based on keyword analysis. Today, there are more than 2.5 million U-Reporters and the membership continues to grow each day.
6 / Global Map of U-Report Deployments
Indicates countries with digital reach - 130 Indicates countries being explored - 20
U-Report has national programmes in all of the ‘blue’ countries above. If you would like to get involved in U-Report in your country please contact us at ureportcontact@gmail.com
Last updated: 2016-AUGUST The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
Global Map of U-Report Deployments / 7
30
12
LIVE
Brazil Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Central African Republic (CAR) Chile Fiji France
Guinea India Indonesia Ireland Liberia Malaysia Mali Mexico
Mozambique Myanmar Nigeria Pakistan Papua New Guinea Senegal Sierra Leone Swaziland
Thailand Uganda UK Ukraine Zambia Zimbabwe
PIPELINE
Argentina Bangladesh Chad Germany Guatemala Jordan Malawi Mauritania
Palestine South Africa Syria Tunisia
8 / U-Reporters & Policy
Empowering young people to influence policy and connecting leaders with constituents U-Report empowers young people to become change-makers and policy influencers while helping governments to be better informed to make decisions. U-Report has been used to: • • • • •
Support Sexual Reproductive Health behavior change Promote safe elections Coordinate emergency response Warn farmers about crop diseases and tell them how to stop it. Connect Members of Parliament to constituents.
Ways national and local governments can interact with U-Reporters: • •
• • • • •
Elected representatives ask constituents their opinion before voting on issues that impact them. Government members and Parliamentarians are invited to send questions to U-Reporters and receive reports back from UNICEF and our partners. U-Reporters have moderated Q&A sessions with government officials and parliaments on children’s issues. Reporting on Sustainable Development Goals. U-Reporters submit questions for government or parliamentarians to answer. U-Reporters share their opinions on a policy through polls. Promote bills and legislation on children’s issues.
U-Report creates a safe space for both parliamentarians and constituents. Any abuse is automatically filtered out and young people and parliamentarians are protected from online trolls.
U-Reporters & Policy / 9
10 / Did You Know?
Did You Know? / 11
Did you know? Last year we received 21 million messages from U-Reporters
100 people join U-Report every hour
U-Report is now in twice as many countries as it was this time last year
U-Report creates dialogue: one third of U-Reporters discuss the poll topics with friends or family
12 / Stories from the Field: Uganda
Uganda Members of Parliament solicit youth opinions on Violence & Protection issues U-Report began an advocacy campaign by messaging U-Reporters about their experiences with violence as part of a Justice 4 Children programme. As part of the project Members of Parliament were registered into the U-Report system with the consent of the Speaker of the House and the Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Children. Over the course of the campaign U-Reporters were asked to share their experiences of violence as well as that of children in their community. Results were shared with Members of Parliament who were also engaged on the same issues via U-Report and during trainings. Outcome: The majority of U-Reporters said that children are not treated fairly and almost 3,000 suggestions were received on what child probation officers and magistrates could do to better protection of children. Children were also asked about their experiences with the justice system and secondary school-goers were asked about their experiences being beaten by teachers in school. 41% said they had been beaten within the last month. Results were presented in reports to government and the final report was delivered two days before the vote on the Children’s Act. In the run up to the vote in parliament all Members of Parliament in U-Report were asked if they were going to vote for the Act or not, or if they needed more information. Every member of the Parliament that said “no� or requested more information was invited to a workshop run by the UNICEF Social Policy team. 50 members of the Parliament replied, 80% has decided to vote, 20% either said no or wanted more information all of whom were invited to the training.
Stories from the Field: Uganda / 13
14 / Stories from the Field: Chile
Chile Youth influencing Teen Health policy Over 3,000 U-Reporters were asked what they thought the top priority should be for teen health. 60% replied with Teen Suicide (18%), Teen Pregnancy (15%), and Sexual Education (59%) as the main priorities. The Advisory Council of Adolescents and Youth advised Ministry of Health on priorities. As a result of poll the Advisory Council shifted their focus to concentrate on Sex Education.
Stories from the Field: Chile / 15
16 / Stories from the Field: Nigeria
Nigeria Educating Youth for Peaceful Elections Elections in Nigeria have a bloody past, in particular the 2007 election, and subsequent violence in the run up to the 2011 elections. For 2015 U-Report was used to educate youth on a number of facets of the election to help reduce the risk of violence by providing information that helps mitigate conflict. Rather than ask questions U-Report was used to send informational alerts. U-Reporters received 14 SMSs in the run up to, during the day itself and after the election. Results: 2.5 million messages were sent to over 180,000 people across Nigeria. Messages included how to register to vote, the time to arrive, tips on making voting easy, promoting peace and behaving responsible, when the election ends, and a referral number to call in case of violence or the need to report any issues. 80% of U-Reporters said their election experience was a good one and 20%, mainly in the south, reported a “not so well� experience. U-Reporters received a follow-up message congratulating them on a reasonably peaceful election compared with past events. Outcome: While elections were largely peaceful U-Report cannot claim all of the credit as it was one communication device of many, however reaching 180,000 people in some of the most hard-to-reach areas demonstrated the tool as a force for positive good in volatile situations especially as those areas, such as the North East, had some of the highest levels of a peaceful election reported.
Stories from the Field: Nigeria / 17
18 / Resources
Resources U-Report Facebook www.facebook.com/ureportglobal
U-Report Twitter www.twitter.com/UReportGlobal
U-Report Website www.ureport.in
UNICEF Innovation www.unicef.org/innovation www.unicefstories.org
Principles of Innovation www.unicefstories.org/principles
Image Credits: Cover & Back: © UNICEF/UNI166655/Fabres Page 4: © UNICEF/UNI99797/Siddique Page 9: © UNICEF Uganda/2013/Yusuf Atef Page 10: © UNICEF/UNI112233/Halle’n Page 13: © UNICEF/UNI197168/Ntabadde Page 15: © UNICEF Chile/002/Ruiz Page 17: © REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye
www.unicefstories.org www.unicef.org/innovation @UNICEFInnovate
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