Reaching Millions at a Time: Empowering Youth in the Digital Age

I went to an excellent session on Monday that highlighted the efforts of youth-driven organizations to use new media to empower young people to adopt healthy behaviors and become agents of change in their own communities. Organizations and interventions highlighted included Taking It Global's online activism community (including educational materials and activities and youth-produced media); the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS' online social networking platform and local capacity-building activities; Thembi Ngubane's radio diary (highlighted on this blog a few months back); Punto J's interactive ARSH portal and complementary IPC activities; and MYMSTA, LoveLife's new cellphone-accessible social networking site.

The key take-ways:

• In order to be effective, ICT activities must be complemented by "human" efforts such as peer education; social network interventions; community mobilization; or on-the-ground capacity building.
• ICT activities are both feasible and valuable in developing country settings, but intensive market research is essential as cost, access, and usage vary tremendously. One of the examples given in this area was South Africa, where formative research for MYMSTA indicated that many young people have and frequently use cellphones and cell-accessible websites, but many fewer use computers to access the web or frequently text due to prohibitive costs. In other countries in Southern Africa, access to the internet via cellphones is much more limited and SMS is less expensive and more frequently used.
• New media provide interesting opportunities to re-imagine (and extend the reach of) traditional mass media. Examples mentioned in the course of the session included streaming downloads of mass media spots; online photonovelas (see an example on Punto J's portal); and vlogs.
• Online fora are being used to support capacity building and engagement among young people in a wide variety of ways, including: professional and social networking; training (in everything from media production for the sites themselves to advocacy and program management); and dissemination of tools, materials, and youth-produced media. Although not discussed in the course of the session, I also think that online fora like TIG, GYCA, and Punto J's have interesting potential as resources for the motivation and capacity building of youth peer educators, who play a key role in many HIV interventions.
• Youth-to-youth ICT has the potential to enable broad reach at relatively low cost, although current research does not seem to include evidence of true impact or cost-effectiveness.

For more information on some interventions highlighted during the session, see:
GYCA/TIG online community focused on youth action and programming, Punto J youth portal, or LoveLife South Africa WAP-accessible social networking site.

Comments

[Liza]

The median age of the African population is less than 20, yet many young people are disillusioned by the protracted political and economic crises afflicting the continent. Today's youth will one day be leaders in society making decisions that will have enormous impact. They have many assets, talents, and resources to offer. The challenge is to mobilize their energies and to adapt ICT policies and strategies so that they feel included and represented.
The importance of Youth in building the Information Society in Africa has been addressed by the African Information Society Initiative (AISI), the Action Plan of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, the First African Development Forum ADF, held in 1999 and the Third Committee on Development Information (CODI III).

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Liza

Drug Intervention