Femina HIP

In Tanzania Media, Speak Up and Be Heard



Posted by MelissaUlbricht on Jun 01, 2011

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In Tanzania Media, Speak Up and Be Heard

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For the largest civil society media platform in Tanzania, back talk is good.

In fact, talking back is the objective of a new service at Femina HIP called Speak Up! The service aims to increase access of marginalized youth and rural communities and promote a participatory, user-driven media scene in Tanzania.

Femina HIP is the largest civil society media platform in the country, outside of commercial mainstream media. Products include print magazines, television shows, a radio program, and an interactive web site. Fema magazine, for example, has a print run of over 170,000 copies and is distributed to every rural region in the country.

Website URL: 
http://www.feminahip.or.tz/
Organization involved in the project?: 
Femina HIP
Project goals: 

Speak Up! aims to increase access of marginalized youth and rural communities and promote a participatory, user-driven media scene in Tanzania.

Brief description of the project: 

Over the last few years, Tanzanian media outlet Femina HIP has encouraged its audience to connect and comment by sending letters, email, and SMS messages. Speak Up! is a service that offers a more automated, organized way to receive and respond to incoming SMS messages. The service is funded for one year. 

Target audience: 

The Femina HIP and Speak Up! target audience is marginalized youth and rural communities in Tanzania. Femina HIP with its media holdings reaches an estimated 10 million Tanzanians every year.

Status: 
Ongoing
What worked well? : 

Femina HIP is already a popular media outlet in Tanzania. With its media holdings reaches an estimated 10 million Tanzanians every year. The Speak Up! service helps create a more more systematic and organized flow of messages from the Femina HIP audience. The service was built by a local wireless application service provider and works in collaboration with local mobile providers. With Speak Up!, Femina HIP is better equipped for two-way communication with the audience. 

What did not work? What were the challenges?: 

It has been challenging to help the audience understand how to send SMS to an automated service. If someone misses a space or spells a key word incorrectly, for example, the SMS is marked “invalid” and ends up in the trash box. Similarly, if people send a message that is over the 160-character limit of a text message, the second half of the message is also marked invalid. Another issue may be cost. While there is a cost to send a text message, sending an SMS to a shortcode actually carries a slightly higher cost.

Global Regions: 
Sub-Saharan Africa
Countries: 
Tanzania
Last Name: 
Fuglesang
First Name: 
Minou
State/Province: 
Dar es Salaam
Country: 
Tanzania
Email: 
info@feminahip.or.tz 


 




  
Put up a Billboard and ask the Community: Using Mobile Tech for Program Monitoring and Evaluation 


Posted by admin on Oct 31, 2009


Guest post by Christine Martin, Tufts University.


The potential for mobile technology to impact development has been researched and reported on in areas ranging from job matching services to financial inclusion.  More and more development agencies are adopting mobile communications in their programmes in innovative ways. However, there is a lack of research on how mobile technology is being used to monitor and evaluate programs in the field.

    

            

                            

        







 

        
      
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