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Civil society gets toolkit to amplify marginalized voices
Hivos and SANGONet
July 17, 2007

http://www.hivos.nl/english/english/news/press_releases/launch_of_the_citizen_journalism_in_africa_project

Scour the Net and you're sure to be deafened by a mushrooming of sites dedicated to a novel megaphone in the media world: Citizen Journalism. This advocacy tool is rapidly changing the media landscape and its potential in enabling ordinary citizens to evolve into shapers of news has been seized upon by Hivos (Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries) and SANGONet (South African NGO Network). Together they have launched the Citizen Journalism in Africa project.

With the generous contribution of 1 million Euros from the European Union, this collaborative project, through the means of an information knowledge sharing portal, aims at empowering civil society organisations with the requisite online and offline citizen journalistic tools to participate meaningfully in emerging democracies. Media and advocacy skills as well as technical ICT publishing skills will be delivered through this e-learning platform and will be complemented by an intensive training programme.

The project commenced with a 4 day launch workshop held at Roodevallei, north of Johannesburg on the 3rd -6th July. Twelve civil society organisations from the six participating countries in Africa
i.e. Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa met and engaged in vigorous debating and planning sessions regarding the implementation of the project. Participants were provided with an opportunity to share their experiences of the media environment they operate within. They were also tasked with identifying challenges which could possibly hinder the implementation process such as compromised bandwidth, stringent censorship measures etc. along with highlighting areas of opportunities that could be exploited in order to maximize the delivery of information. It was agreed that the 2 selected organisations from each of the six countries will constitute the Country Focal Points (CFP's) who will have access to the portal and who will serve as the conduits for the transfer of information and skills to their respective constituencies.

The workshop relied heavily on a peer to peer exchange of information heralding the modus operands of the envisaged e-learning platform which is to be largely dependant on collaborative networking and knowledge sharing. An air of candour prevailed throughout the proceedings enhancing the soliciting of suggestions regarding the participants' requirements of the portal. The participants were unanimous in their avowal of the need for such an intervention and expressed their eager anticipation of the live portal when each organisation was handed a laptop, co-funded by the EU, with the promise of a digital camera to follow shortly.

The next leg of the project entails intensive training sessions which will enable the selected CFP's to cascade their learning to their surrounding constituencies as well as provide technical support to
the CSO's and community media organisations. Continuous participatory efforts through knowledge sharing and training activities is anticipated for the duration of the three year life cycle of the
project which will culminate in the establishment of a lifelong network of ongoing learning.

Through these varied interventions it is hoped that the voices of marginalized groups including women are effectively amplified to ensure a healthy involvement and participation in the democratic
processes of the participating countries.

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