Nairobi Declaration: Making Entertainment Useful

The countries of Africa are bound together by the urgent and unique challenges of the twenty-first century. Africans must stop the HIV/AIDS pandemic without forgetting the humanity of those infected and affected by HIV/ AIDS. Africans must make reproductive health information and services available to all, while remembering that their use must be voluntary. Africans must achieve social and political development grounded in our unique and diverse cultures.

We are uncompromisingly optimistic about the future of Africa and its people in all their diversity and the vital role issue-based entertainment (commonly referred to as entertainment-education, enter-educate, and edutainment) must play in meeting these challenges. Our optimism is grounded in the 20 years of demonstrated success with issue- based entertainment in many countries throughout the continent. Twenty years of experience has created a skilled and diverse pool of writers, actors, producers, and researchers who are already engaged in making a better Africa. Twenty years of demonstrated success has created a pool of financial supporters, government agencies, and non-governmental agencies that are committed to providing the resources, support and the structure to enable our work. There is impressive work on environment, health, rights, and poverty alleviation being undertaken through various media strategies. We believe that more can be achieved.

Our vision for the next 20 years is to build on this past success by spreading the issue- based entertainment methodology to all countries in Africa. We, the issue- based entertainment community, meeting at the 2003 Nairobi Soap Summit on Making Entertainment Useful, June 3 to 7, 2003, commit ourselves to the advancement of issue -based entertainment on the continent of Africa and globally.

Our commitment includes the following positions and actionable steps:

1. To use proven issue- based entertainment methodologies of production and implementation;
2. To use the creative energies of our artists to serve our educational goals;
3. To make the educational issues of our programs relevant and accessible to all populations;
4. To make our programs as entertaining as possible so that they will draw the largest possible audience without compromising the ethical frameworks that guide our programs;
5. To build our programs on the oral traditions of African culture;
6. To respect the cultures of all our audiences;
7. To understand that the process of behavior change is slow and that our commitment must be sustained over time;
8. To adhere to the highest standards of program production possible;
9. To remain connected to our colleagues worldwide for a continuous exchange of ideas;
10. To build the capacity of our writers, actors, producers and researchers so that the pool of talent will grow and improve;
11. To explore the use of various media and to use multiple media to reinforce our educational themes and reach the largest possible audience;
12. To collaborate with academic scholars in communication and public health so that our interventions will be studied and disseminated;
13. To create lasting networks and professional institutions engaged in issue-based education for sustainability;
14. To collaborate with our colleagues regionally to share our successes and our experiences;
15. To reach out to the owners of the media to provide the idea that social and commercial interests can be both met through issue-based entertainment;
16. To develop and study the use of grassroots and alternative broadcast methodologies (community radio, short wave and digital rebroadcast platforms.)
17. To collaborate with cultural, social and, political icons and opinion leaders to disseminate information for social change;
18. To generate local resources as a strategy to achieving sustainability;
19. To call upon the donor community to work as equal partners in generating an agenda for issue-based entertainment programs, striking a balance between donor interests, audience needs, and creative outputs;
20. To document and disseminate the processes and best practices of practitioners within the continent;
21. To advocate the use of issue-based entertainment and related communication strategies as an integral part of global health strategies at the local, national and international levels.

Next Actionable Steps:

1. We call for hosting an entertainment-education soap summit at least once every two years on the African continent to share experiences and best practices, to foster networking and collaborations, and to generate advocacy for issue-based entertainment among donors, media production houses, governments and the general public.
2. We call for instituting a set of awards to recognize African excellence in issue-based entertainment production and implementation. Guidelines for the open competition, award categorizes, and selection process will be developed by a small consultative group.

Contact:

Dr. Kimani Njogu

Regional Representative, Africa

Population Communications International

Twaweza House

Parklands Road, Mpesi Lane

P.O. Box 66872

Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya

Tel: 254-2-3752009

Fax: 254-2-3753941

knogu@africaonline.co.ke