Media-NGO Partnership and Reproductive Health/Sexual Right Promotion
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Nigerian journalists announce new project to enhance media-NGO part-
nership and Reproductive Health/Sexual Right promotion
LAGOS NIGERIA, March 22, 2002 - Nigerian journalists, under the aegis
of Development Communications (Devcoms) Network, have initiated a new
project to advance journalists-NGO partnership in reproductive health
and sexual rights promotion as well as rural development reporting in
Nigeria. The project, UNREPORTED DEVELOPMENT, is aimed at bringing to
fore, through an in-depth reporting, development issues related to
population, reproductive health and sexual rights as they affect Ni-
gerian women.
�At the moment many stories on HIV/AIDS and other reproductive health
issues in the print and electronic media lack depth as news reporting
dominate reports and broadcast in the media while a number of devel-
opments are hardly reported in the Nigerian media. This project is
going to change this present scenario,� says Laide Shokunbi coordina-
tor of Publications, HIV/AIDS and Unreported Development at Devcoms.
Devcoms is currently documenting the link between health and culture
in form of stories expressed from the heart of eight communities in
Oyo, Kwara, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Yobe, and Benue States under the Culture
and Health Grants Program for Africa.
In December 2001 a team of 12 journalists were sent to 8 states (Oyo,
Ogun, Lagos, Delta, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, and Edo) on a field assignment
concerning UNICEF projects in these communities. Independent articles
and film production from the field tour have been reported in the Ni-
gerian media. Pathfinder International has also been part of the pi-
lot project concerning her activities in hard to reach communities
especially in Mambilla Plateau.
Shokunbi asserts that there is too much neglect of reproductive
health issues..."such as Couple relationships (including safer sex
practices), Unwanted pregnancy, Maternal mortality and morbidity,
Sexually transmitted diseases (STD), Unsafe Abortion, Infertility,
Violence against women and female genital mutilation, Special popula-
tion groups (adolescents), Safe motherhood, Family planning and other
population related issues. Under this project we are going to change
the status quo guided by the highest level of journalism ethics.�
The new project is a component of a one-year initiative, APPROACHES
TO MEDIA PARTNERSHIP IN REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS PROMOTION IN
NIGERIA supported by The Ford Foundation - West Africa. The Initia-
tive forges Media-NGO Partnership through sharing of ideas and mate-
rials that can further enhance public discourse on topical develop-
ment issues especially those that are threats to public health. The
project utilizes photographs, video and audio recordings as part of a
comprehensive, multi-layered presentation of the links between
HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and sexual rights in Nigeria.
These visual narratives, packaged with text and linked to detailed
information about HIV/AIDS, reproductive and sexual health & rights
and other development issues tell more comprehensive stories -- by
geo-political region, by topic, or by policy initiative -- about Ni-
geria. According to Akin Jimoh, Program Director at Devcoms �we are
already collaborating with a number of organizations to report the
unreported and we look forward to other organizations working in the
area of HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, sexuality, sexual rights, and
rural development to come on board.�
The UNREPORTED DEVELOPMENT is based on the outcome of a baseline
study involving content analysis of 2,156 articles on reproductive
health issues in four national print media publications over 12
years. The most common type of reproductive health report is news
(72% - 82%), while the least frequent type is editorial. Although
there were more reports on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in-
cluding HIV/AIDS (56%) than other major reproductive health issues
most of these stories lack depth, are sensational, while the incor-
rect use of language remains a problem, especially for articles re-
ported by non science or non health reporters. The study also found
that reports on other reproductive health issues and the implications
of such issues as unplanned sex, unwanted sex, unsafe abortion, sex-
ual coercion and sexual violence among others on the spread of the
HIV/AIDS pandemic is hardly reported.
Activities being implemented under the project include: Continuous
Education Series for journalists, 200 of whom participated last year
in seminars, trainings and forums on reproductive health and sexual
rights issues organized by the Media Resource and Advocacy Centre
(MRAC), a project of Devcoms; Publishing of the Bulletin SERIES (Re-
productive Health and Sexual Rights NEWS) on reproductive health and
sexual rights issues for use by journalists; and Production of a Me-
dia Handbook on HIV/AIDS in collaboration with UN Information Centre
(UNIC) Lagos, and Journalists Against AIDS.
If your organization works in Nigeria in the area of reproductive
health, sexuality, sexual rights, HIV/AIDS and any other areas that
affect women, YOU CAN COLLABORATE WITH US. To be a part of this pro-
ject kindly fill the attached form explaining areas your organization
feels are not well covered by the Nigerian media. Such areas for ex-
ample could be on programmatic experiences, personal narratives of
PLWAs, PABAs and those involved in care and support, community
based/local experiences, community development related to population,
reproductive health and other development issues.
Development Communications (Devcoms) Network, is a research based me-
dia advocacy NGO dedicated to public understanding and participation
in science and development. The center runs a Media Resource and Ad-
vocacy Centre that forges a media-NGO partnership and interaction be-
tween journalists and development actors. The Media Center founded in
1999 is one of the outcomes of a MacArthur Foundation - Chicago Fund
for Leadership Development and has facilities for electronic access
to a variety of international journals including POPLINE, MEDLINE,
New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Population Reports, among
others. These variety of scientific information sources are available
free to the over 500 journalists who have participated in our train-
ings, seminars and monthly media roundtable (Media for Development
Forum).
Kindly provide information on the seven items below and
mailto:devcoms@yahoo.com or mailto:mracnigeria@yahoo.com
Feel free to contact us for further clarifications.
Thank you for your cooperation.
1. NAME & ADDRESS OF ORGANIZATION
2. NAME & DESIGNATION OF CONTACT PERSON
3. TELEPHONE NUMBER
4. E-MAIL
5. UNREPORTED ISSUES YOU WANT ADDRESSED IN THE NIGERIA MEDIA
6. WOULD YOUR ORGANIZATION BE WILLING TO PARTNER WITH THE MEDIA ON
THE ISSUES HIGHLIGHTED?
7. IF YES, WHAT IS YOUR ORGANIZATION WILLING TO DO TO ADDRESS THE
ISSUES?
On behalf of Development Communications Network.
Akin Jimoh M.Sc., MPH
Programme Director
40 Johnson Street, Off Bode Thomas Street, Surulere
Lagos, Nigeria
mailto:mracnigeria@yahoo.com
--
To send a message to AFRO-NETS, write to: afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe afro-nets OR unsubscribe afro-nets
To contact a person, send a message to: afro-nets-help@usa.healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.afronets.org