"We started by performing fieldwork in five countries, covering the four main SSA regions: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. We then conducted 116 interviews across 78 organizations, covering the overall ecosystem: mobile network operators (MNOs), aggreg
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ators, donors, multilateral organizations and nongovernmental organization (NGOs). The following are key findings by mobile channel: SMS volumes are driven by a few players, mostly multilateral agencies; Voice/IVR allows for rich interactions, but impact needs to be documented further. USSD usage by aid and development players appears limited despite promise; Interest in mobile money is high among both supply and demand players; Mobile internet adoption is still limited in potential. In each of the five countries, the 2018 market value of all mobile channels generated by NGOs and multilateral organizations was estimated at between $500,000 and $1 million. Using data from these five countries to extrapolate to all 48 countries in SSA, the total 2018 market is estimated at $15.7 million, with mobile money standing out as the largest channel. This aggregate number for the sector appears low compared to the overall size of the telecommunications market. Market appeal is further reduced by the fact that the mobile sector already perceives the aid and development sector as being difficult to work with, due to uncertainty of demand, long procurement processes and other factors. While price has been cited as a reason for this low aggregate number, the fieldwork suggests that it is driven more by the lack of awareness of many implementing partners, particularly at the country level. These challenges to scale are consistent with qualitative findings obtained from DIAL’s Ecosystem Baseline study in 2018. That said, the market appears bound to grow due to strong underlying trends. Our model predicts three scenarios that show a 2022 market value of between $31.6 million and $61.6 million." (Executive summary, page 4)
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"The issue of soli (Soli is a Ghanaian journalistic parlance referring to the practice where journalists accept money or other forms of gifts as sitting allowance after covering an event.) or content-influencing gifts and its relations to the professional practice of journalist and other media worke
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rs has become a subject of discussion among academic researchers and general audiences. It is against this background that this article examines media practitioners’ understanding of the culture and moral implications of soli and its effects on professional journalism in the northern region of Ghana. Using qualitative approaches, the study revealed that in Ghana, soli is both a moral and cultural problem, and when accepted, it undermines objective, balanced, and independent news reportage. This project concludes that any discourse on soli must take into consideration the cultural and philosophical foundations of journalism within a developmental context, as well as the various global socio-cultural institutions Ghanaians are exposed to." (Abstract)
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"The paper begins with an introduction on the media landscape in Senegal and explains how they have today become platforms where citizens can get information and express their views on the implementation and the operationalization of public policies. This paper also elaborates on the challenges that
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hinder the media from effectively contributing to participatory, transparency and accountability from duty bearers. Finally, a set of key recommendations to encourage citizen’s participation in governance processes are given." (Page 2)
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"The paper begins with an introduction on the media landscape in Burkina Faso and explains how they have today become key platforms for citizen-authorities’ engagements - where citizens can express their views and also receive information on the implementation and the operationalization of public
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policies. It also highlights key challenges hindering the media from effectively contributing to participatory, transparent and accountability governance in Burkina Faso and finally makes some recommendations improving the situation." (Page 2)
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"Drawing on available data and literature, this paper begins with an introduction on the media landscape in Ghana and explains how the media have contributed to promoting participatory and accountable governance. It further discusses the trends, barriers of media and governance in Ghana and makes ke
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y recommendations on how participatory governance can be improved." (Introduction, page 2)
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"[...] this pilot study in Siaya County sought to assess what makes for more effective public participation in Kenya. In contributing to a timely policy concern about how to best meet the imperatives/aspirations of devolution, it sought also to address the limited empirical evidence in scholarship a
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bout how to design effective public participation. The pilot study had two operational components, designed to generate new insights into public participation in the context of devolution in Kenya: 1) implementation of an intervention, designed to generate citizen engagement and feed insights from citizen voice into a Country policy process; 2) a study into the intervention, examining the extent to which its distinct elements make it an effective means of providing for public participation with County governments in Kenya." (Introduction, page 4)
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"The constitution of Lesotho gives assurance to freedom of expression which is supposed to protect the rights of journalists in the day to day dispensation of their duties. The situation on the ground however shows the exact opposite. Recent history can show assassination attempts on practicing jour
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nalists to the extent that one newspaper editor received severe gunshot wounds that left him maimed for life. The situation is so dire for journalists to the extent that whenever there is political turmoil in Lesotho, journalists flock into exile together with political targets during the political unrest. This study therefore sought to establish perceptions of journalists, policy makers, legislators, media students and ordinary citizens on the consequences of this prevailing situation of suppression of freedom of expression by the state. The study used qualitative methods for gathering information, presentation and analysis of findings. Information was gathered through in-depth face to face interviews with various sources. The findings were presented and analysed thematically." (Abstract)
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"Der US-amerikanische Streamingdienst kauft sich in Afrikas wichtigste Filmindustrie ein. Ob das anspruchsvollen afrikanischen Filmemachern mehr Geld und mehr Zuschauer bringt, ist jedoch fraglich." (Einleitung)
"This policy brief analyses the use of social media by different groups affected by Boko Haram’s terrorist insurgence, including the group itself. The rate, speed, spread and belief which information from social media commands has changed theatres of war and amplified terrorist threats. The Nigeri
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an youth who are the forerunners of social media use in the country have further employed Hashtag (#) Activism for varied causes regarding Boko Haram. This study examines the interlinkages between the use of social media in ‘orchestrated data circulation’ (for the dissemination of information and propaganda) by both the insurgents and the Nigerian government, and the populace’s growing awareness of the power they wield by simply having internet data and a phone which enables them to challenge, counter and refute claims made by the government or security agencies. The populace does all of these by providing verifiable eye-witness accounts shared and made viral on social media. This brief further highlights the hidden enablers of the above interlinkages – Telecommunication Companies (TELCOs) whose role as Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) continues to oscillate between being government collaborators, targets for Boko Haram’s terrorist attacks and simply profit-driven enterprises competing for subscribers. As a base for contextual analysis, this study premises that while all parties involved attempt to appropriate social media for their benefits, specific parties such as social media tech companies, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the populace have impactful roles to play. One of such is ensuring the benefits accrued from the continuous boom of social media are properly harnessed for peace processes and the safeguarding of individual rights to freedom of expression." (Abstract)
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"Ce travail se propose un double objectif d’étudier la communication dans les organisations en réseau et identifier un modèle structurel et stratégique applicable à la pastorale communicationnelle au Burundi. Il s’agit de tenter de proposer des aspects pastoraux réticulaires sur base d’u
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ne flexibilité organisationnelle et une fluidité communicationnelle. En vue d’arriver à la proposition d’une pastorale de la communication en réseau au Burundi, nous entreprenons de: 1) Étudier l’organisation en réseau; 2) Développer la communication dans les organisations en réseau; 3) Produire une étude de la communication pastorale de l’Église du Burundi en vue de relever ses forces et ses faibles des structures en considération, les opportunités et les menaces inhérentes à l’environnement pour une éventuelle structuration en réseau; 4) Proposer des éléments structurels et stratégiques pour une pastorale de la communication en réseau au Burundi." (Objectifs, page 9-10)
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"Three years after writing the report Publishing for Peanuts, in which we surveyed 35 media startups mostly from the Global South, we decided to go back and see how the outlets had fared. Our area of interest in 2015 was small-to-medium size independent media outlets with a track record of consisten
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tly producing credible content independently of state and mainstream media in the countries in which they were operating. ‘Startup’ describes their work practices but, in fact, some of those we interviewed had been in operation for many years but may have undergone a relaunch or adapted to new circumstances following a political event. Those “Global Muckraker” outlets remained our focus in 2018. As questions about media viability remain unanswered we wanted to understand the experiences of journalists in the Global South. Returning to the 35 outlets, we found three had failed, and six had been seriously reconfigured or renamed [...] Our key findings: Financial survival is the biggest worry for the media outlets we profiled, followed by political risk and physical safety. The outlets remain dependent on donors. Advertising is hard to come by and raising funding from audiences has proven difficult. Donors need to accept this reality and be willing to commit to long-term support for outlets creating a public good. The grim political climate, rise of right-wing demagogues and attacks on the media have made the outlets feel appreciated in many countries. They recounted tales of support and encouragement from their audiences. But this sentiment does not translate into sustainable forms of funding. The outlets have professionalized in the sense that many now have accounting software, bookkeepers and full-time staff working on grant writing. But many still rely on unpaid contributors and some use office space that was provided for free or rented at a discount. There is a strong correlation between employing a full-time marketing staffer and generating revenue ..." (Executive summary)
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"The report is written from a media perspective and focuses on regional media initiatives and challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa. Seven focus areas that are instrumental for the future of quality journalism have been investigated: Professionalism – capacity to demand accountability; Gender and media
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; Financial sustainability and media diversity; Access to information; Safety of journalists; Social media, disinformation and online harassment; Media self-regulation and ethics. In the second part of the study, focus is set on what donors should consider when reviewing how regional media initiatives and processes can contribute to democracy and accountability. This second part can be seen as connecting local and national media stakeholders with regional initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as to the ongoing global dialogue on the need for increased media development, manifested at the international meeting organised by CIMA and Sida in Paris in March 2019. The report lists seven recommendations on entry points: 1. Step up regional media support; 2. Focus on integrated, comprehensive regional approaches; 3. Stimulate regional coalition building; 4. Support regional innovative initiatives that demand accountability; 5. Prioritise regional support that promotes financial sustainability for the media; 6. Strengthen regional support for institution building, supporting self-regulation and ethics; 7. Fund regional processes that are anchored in national and local initiatives aiming at building trust and giving voice to the excluded." (Executive summary)
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"Since the beginnings of African cinema, the realm of beauty on screen has been treated with suspicion by directors and critics alike. James S. Williams explores an exciting new generation of African directors, including Abderrahmane Sissako, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Fanta Regina Nacro, Alain Gomis, Ne
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wton I. Aduaka, Jean-Pierre Bekolo and Mati Diop, who have begun to reassess and embrace the concept of cinematic beauty by not reducing it to ideological critique or the old ideals of pan-Africanism. Locating the aesthetic within a range of critical fields - the rupturing of narrative spectacle and violence by montage, the archives of the everyday in the "afropolis", the plurivocal mysteries of sound and language, male intimacy and desire, the borderzones of migration and transcultural drift - this study reveals the possibility for new, non-conceptual kinds of beauty in African cinema: abstract, material, migrant, erotic, convulsive, queer. Through close readings of key works such as Life on Earth (1998), The Night of Truth (2004), Bamako (2006), Daratt (Dry Season) (2006), A Screaming Man (2010), Tey (Today) (2012), The Pirogue (2012), Mille soleils (2013) and Timbuktu (2014), Williams argues that contemporary African filmmakers are proposing propitious, ethical forms of relationality and intersubjectivity. These stimulate new modes of cultural resistance and transformation that serve to redefine the transnational and the cosmopolitan as well as the very notion of the political in postcolonial art cinema." (Publisher description)
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"Latin American telenovelas began to be widely broadcast on African screens between the late 1970s and early 1980s, and today are among the most popular entertainment products on the continent. The content, aesthetic and narrative format of telenovelas have become a model for many African video film
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producers, who have incorporated some of telenovelas’ defining elements in their productions in order to attract local audiences. This special issue analyses the impact of telenovelas’ circulation in Africa by focusing on the ‘uses’ African audiences and media producers make of them. Why do telenovelas travel so well around sub-Saharan Africa? How do African audiences make sense of them? And what impact do these media products have on local media entrepreneurs and on the aesthetics and narrative aspects of the contents they produce? In this introduction we provide some background and data about the history and the political economy of telenovelas’ circulation in Africa, and answer the questions raised above by connecting the finding of the essays included in the special issue to ongoing debates on the global circulation of melodrama, on the transformation of African screen media, and on the performative dimension of African audiences’ engagement with foreign media forms." (Abstract)
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"The evidence amounts to a persuasive refutation of the commonly held beliefs that radio had widespread, direct effects and that hate radio was the primary driver of the genocide and participation in it. That said, the evidence suggests radio had some marginal and conditional effects. RTLM broadcast
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s instigated certain attacks, particularly in and around the capital. The survey research shows statistically significant correlations between radio incitement and higher levels of violence among perpetrators. From that, it might be deduced that RTLM catalyzed some key agents of violence in some locations. Qualitative analysis additionally shows that a minority of the survey genocide perpetrators believed radio coordinated elites and signaled that authorities wanted the population to fight "the Tutsi enemy." In sum, then, the positive evidence of radio media effects is that radio instigated a limited number of acts of violence, catalyzed some key actors, coordinated elites, and bolstered local messages of violence. Based on these findings, it is plausible to hypothesize that radio had conditional and marginal effects. Radio did not cause the genocide or have direct, massive effects. Rather, radio emboldened hard-liners and reinforced face-to-face mobilization, which helped those who advocated violence assert dominance and carry out the genocide." (Page 123)
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