"The concept of a Regional BCC Network for HIV/AIDS for East, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) grew out of a common interest and understanding among a number of BCC practitioners dealing with HIV/AIDS in the region that something needed to be done to help address common challenges and needs, impro
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ve strategies, and build capacity in the area of BCC. In October 2001, they formed a BCC Task Force to recommend specific activities for addressing key areas of interest in BCC and for coordinating BCC efforts in the region, including organising a wider regional meeting for initiating a formal regional BCC Network [...] The objectives of the meeting were to: share lessons learned and interventions in BCC in the ECSA region; discuss key current issues and BCC tools for HIV/AIDS; discuss the expansion and operationalisation of the BCC Network for HIV/AIDS; foster linkages among BCC practitioners and those in allied professions in ECSA. The main themes of the meeting agenda highlighted the emerging issues in planning and programming for BCC; developing BCC for care and treatment; addressing stigma; reaching youth; and strengthening research, monitoring, and evaluation of BCC interventions [...] This report is an overview of the proceedings of the meeting and is intended to serve as a resource and learning document for meeting participants as well as for other BCC practitioners in the region. The structure of the report follows that of the meeting agenda and includes a summary of all plenary and concurrent session presentations and all group work discussions." (Executive summary)
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"Given the budget, good quality new PCs are likely to be the most stable, and in many instances will be the preferred technology choice. However, their high purchase price remains a key inhibitor to lowering their comparative total cost of ownership (TCO) in a small business, NGO or school. New PC p
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urchase prices can account for 63-85% of the ownership costs that make TCO different between new and refurbished PCs. In contrast, a key TCO inhibitor for refurbished PCs is their failure rate and associated ongoing costs, accounting for 64-75% of the comparative TCO costs. A network of good quality refurbished PCs (imported brands such as Hewlett Packard, Dell and IBM) offers a window period of stability, making them a viable technology choice under certain conditions. They are likely to have the lowest TCO over five years. While the hardware replacement costs over that period could be the equivalent of the purchase price of the PCs, most of these costs are likely to occur in the final years of ownership. The high frequency of failures, together with the high ongoing costs for lower quality refurbished PCs (some 75% of the comparative totals), suggests that they should not be considered a viable technology option. In the case of lower quality refurbished PCs, hardware replacement costs alone can be more than 140% the purchase price of the PCs. A high level of failure can be expected throughout the five years of ownership." (Executive summary, p.4)
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"Die Neuorientierung des FES-Medienprojekts für das südliche Afrika hat also zu einer eindeutigen Konzentration auf diese drei Hauptarbeitsbereiche (politische Rahmenbedingungen, alternative Medien und Gender) geführt. Daraus folgt, dass die Stiftung konsequent auf einen Arbeitsbereich verzichtet
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hat, in dem sie früher sehr aktiv war: der Aus- und Fortbildung von Journalisten im rein handwerklichen Bereich (an deren Bedarf es keinen Zweifel geben kann). Das muss nicht notwendigerweise für die gesellschaftspolitisch relevante und themenorientierte Fortbildung gelten. Dieser Rückzug hatte mehrere Gründe: Zum einen mangelt es im südlichen Afrika nicht an entsprechenden Angeboten (auch von Geber-Seite). Zum anderen wurde die Frage, ob dieses Arbeitsfeld zum Kernauftrag einer politischen Stiftung gehört, nach langer Diskussion negativ beantwortet. Und angesichts der immer knapper werdenden Mittel sind die Stiftungen gezwungen, sich auf den Kern ihrer Arbeit zu konzentrieren. Hinzu kamen die durch Erfahrungen bedingten Zweifel an der nachhaltigen Wirksamkeit von relativ kurzen Fortbildungsmaßnahmen, die in der Regel isoliert vom täglichen Arbeitsumfeld der Teilnehmer stattfinden." (Seite 11-12)
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"This study documents a crucial dimension of the resistance of Nigerian civil society to a repressive and monumentally corrupt military state in the late 1980s and 1990s in Nigeria. Employing a neo-Gramscian theoretical framework, the study relates how a section of the media defied censorship laws,
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outright bans, incarceration and the assassination of opposition figures, to prosecute the struggle for democracy. It captures the tensions and contradictions between a pliant section of the media, which sought to legitimise the state and a critical section of the same media, which in alliance with radical civil society, invented rebellious outlets to carry on the struggle against dictatorship. The study seeks to make fresh departures by documenting not only the role of the national media in the throes of democratic struggle, but that of the international media whose role was influential in the years studied. Finally the report offers empirical proof of the mechanisms by which a vibrant civil society can curb the ravages of a predatory state in an African country." (Abstract)
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"Document présenté au 29e congrès mondial d'IBBY qui s'est tenu au Cape Town en septembre 2004. Décrit les livres pour enfants et la lecture en Afrique francophone, la coopération culturelle entre la France et les pays d'Afrique - en particulier dans le développement des bibliothèques publiqu
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es - et le travail de l'organisation La Joie par les Livres, Centre National du Livre pour Enfants, basée à Paris, et de sa revue Takam Tikou. L'auteur constate que de nombreux progrès ont été réalisés ces dernières années, mais que de nombreux défis restent à relever dans la promotion du livre et de la lecture pour les enfants en Afrique francophone". (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1663)
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"Presented on the occasion of the 29th IBBY Congress held in Cape Town in 2004 – and envisaged as source of information for quality African published children’s books for teachers, researchers, parents and for all those interested in children’s literature – this is a virtual exhibition of 84
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children’s books from Africa for Africa. It covers picture books for small children, children’s fiction, folktales, and fiction for young adults, and includes books in English, French, Afrikaans, and in several African languages. The virtual exhibition displays the cover of each book, one or two extracts from the book (as small images that can also be viewed in enlarged size) together with a review and commentary about its contents. Additionally, there are informative profiles of African children’s book authors, illustrators, and publishing houses whose books are included (the latter with full contact and email addresses, and with links to Websites where available). This is a splendid resource." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1598)
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"Au cours de la dernière décennie, les dépenses consacrées à la fourniture de manuels et d'équipements pédagogiques pour l'éducation de base, dans l'ensemble de l'Afrique francophone, se sont élevées à plus de 500 milliards de francs CFA. Pourtant, même un investissement aussi massif n'a
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pas permis d'atteindre l'objectif « Un livre un enfant en l'an 2000 », et il n'y a pas eu de développement significatif d'une industrie indigène du livre. Cette étude tente d'identifier les principales opportunités et causes des pratiques de corruption qui existent tout au long de la chaîne de financement, de production et d'édition des manuels scolaires, ainsi que de la distribution des livres scolaires et autres matériels éducatifs en Afrique francophone. En outre, elle s'efforce de définir les conditions qui favoriseraient une plus grande transparence et de bonnes pratiques dans la fourniture de manuels, et - en utilisant des projets en Tunisie, en Côte d'Ivoire et en République démocratique du Congo comme études de cas - fait un certain nombre de propositions sur la façon dont cela pourrait être réalisé." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 387)
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"In den letzten Jahren sind die Cultural Studies in den deutschsprachigen Humanwissenschaften verstärkt rezipiert worden. Es fällt jedoch auf, dass Forschungen in und über Afrika deutlich unterrepräsentiert sind. Dies kann zumindest nicht an mangelnder Relevanz oder am Fehlen geeigneter Untersuc
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hungsgegenstände liegen, bietet doch insbesondere das urbane Afrika ein immenses Reservoir an populärkulturellen Medien und Praktiken an. Ein herausragendes Beispiel im westafrikanischen Senegal sind Presseberichte über die Hausmädchen, die mit Geschichten von Sex and Crime von sich reden machen. Der vorliegende Artikel geht in der Tradition der Aneignungsstudien aus den Cultural Studies der Forschungsfrage nach, ob und wie sich die senegalesischen Hausmädchen die Populärpresse aneignen und wie sie die Auswirkungen auf ihr Ansehen und ihren Berufsalltag einschätzen. Die qualitativen Interviews fokussieren das Selbstverständnis der senegalesischen Hausmädchen: Halten sie die berichteten Geschichten überhaupt für wahr oder von einem sensationsgierigen Boulevardjournalismus erfunden? Decken sich die im Arbeitsalltag auftauchenden Probleme der Hausmädchen mit der journalistischen Agenda? Nimmt das Ansehen des Berufsstandes durch die reißerische Berichterstattung Schaden? Zum Abschluss des Artikels werden die verschiedenen Argumentationsfäden zusammengeführt und erörtert, welches Erkenntnispotential eine verstärkte Berücksichtigung von westafrikanischen Massenmedien im Rahmen der Cultural Studies bereitstellt." (Zusammenfassung)
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"In this essay I have tried to show how, by taking as point of departure an understanding of religion as a practice of mediation, Pentecostalism has increasingly ‘taken place’, so to speak, in the public sphere as a result of Ghana’s turn to democracy and the liberalization and commercializati
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on of the media. Relatively undisturbed by the state, but all the more indebted to the emerging image-economy, Pentecostalism has spread in space, disseminating signs and adopting formats not entirely of its own making, and been taken up by popular culture. In the entanglement of religion and entertainment new horizons of social experience emerged, thriving on fantasy and vision and popularizing a certain pentecostally oriented mood. This movement of spatial extension, as I tried to show, is at times criticized from within, as pastors and believers fear to loose control. Yet, the fact that, on the level of experience, distraction and devotion are kept apart cannot be summoned in defense of an ontological difference between cinema and church, entertainment and religion. At the same time it would be too easy to simply write off the public appearance of Pentecostal-derived images as mere entertainment, as if the format of entertainment would completely absorb the religious and, in a sense, put an end to religion. The point is that in Ghana, Pentecostalism is alive and kicking exactly because it casts religion in a new (postmodern?) form, which is geared to mass spectatorship and part and parcel of Zerstreuung. Zerstreuung is meant here in the sense of ‘the dispersed, centrifugal structure of mass phenomena’ (Weber 1996: 94) which, as Benjamin showed, is condensed in the technology of film as it blows apart the prison of metropolitan space by ‘the dynamite of the tenth of a second’ and offers adventurous travelling among the ruins (1978:236), and puts together its imaged elements under new laws, which require new ways of reception that parallel the process of recording." (Conclusion)
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"This book has been written as a tool for people involved or interested in communication and natural resource management who seek a better understanding of how different theories and strategic change principles relate to actual practise. It is not, however, a book of theory nor is it an argument for
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one approach over another. Instead, it relates a variety of theories and change principles in simplified, almost schematic form, to a series of real initiatives in the field through interactive «experiences». It asks that the reader become a participant in a process that requires reading and analysing each initiative using different theoretical lenses. Each «experience» is organised around a theme, a learning objective, a description of an actual natural resource management and communication initiative, and one or two theoretical lenses through which to analyse the initiative. As you work through each «experience», you will be asked questions about the theory and change principles and how they relate to the initiative. The idea is not to «discover» the right approach but rather to create an interactive space that enables you to reflect on what might work in your own context and also on how different contexts may require different approaches, principles and theoretical frameworks." (Introduction)
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