T-Shirts to Web Links: Results: Accomplishments and Achievements

- from T-Shirts to Web Links: Women Connect! Building Communications Capacity with Women's NGOs

Results: Accomplishments and Achievements


Through Women Connect! an important foundation has been established for ongoing and future efforts. In these three African countries, lead women's organisations and individual leaders in the women's movement have been exposed, many for the first time, to more strategic thinking about and use of effective communication; many of them have incorporated this in their work and shared theirlearning and experiences with other organisations and women leaders. The participating organisations are now more keenly aware of the need to formulate communications strategies and to be aware of communications in all their work. The participating groups have been eager to buildon the momentum and activities established with their small grants. They have a year's experience in doing more effective planning, research, implementation and monitoring. Their work has shown greater results from the use of communication strategies in very challenging circumstances. They express the desire to empower sister and other organisations with the same skills.

Information communication technology. In these three African countries, lead women's organisations have been trained in how they can use the Internet to link better with each other and with the outside – and are doing so. They understand better the multiple possible applications of ICT, and the need to be careful in making choices. Many are saving costs through the use of e-mailin place of long-distance telephone and faxes. As summarised in the final project evaluation, theICT projects funded by the Women Connect! small grants yielded the following immediate tangible benefits: [23]

• Connectivity: Nine organisations that did not have e-mail or Internet access became connected.
• Women's Internet cafés: Two organisations (in Zimbabwe and Zambia) set up Internet cafés that also function as Internet learning centers. Both Internet cafés are training sister women's groups, women parliamentarians and other women, in how to use the Internet and are providing access for them if they don't have connectivity in their own organisations.
• Websites: Five organisations established websites.
• Repackaging information: Nine organisations repackaged information from the Internet for dissemination to key constituencies, one of these using radio. The information covered HIV/AIDS, reproductive health topics, and a range of subjects targeted at young women inschools.
• Awards: On the basis of its repackaging of Internet information on reproductive health, theAssociation of Ugandan Medical Women Doctors (AUMWD) was a finalist in the Stockholm ICT Challenges Awards in September 2001.

Strategic use of media. "What is amazing in many cases ... is how much organisations that undertook media projects succeeded in achieving with limited funds" stated the external evaluation. [24]The media projects funded by the Women Connect! small grants yielded the following immediate tangible benefits.

• Campaigns: Eight organisations conducted campaigns on topics including reproductive health, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, women in decision-making, gender stereotypes, and women and the law. Others produced t-shirts, stickers, posters, flyers and information sheetson specific women's health and empowerment themes.
• Research: One organisation conducted research on why its advocacy work was failing to yield the desired results and produced recommendations for a more effective media strategy.
• Community publications: Two organisations worked with communities in producing their own publications -- one a newsletter and another a training manual with a strong emphasis on gender and health.
• Calendars: Two organisations produced calendars, one of which was an innovativemotivational calendar emphasising new gender roles for women and men (produced by the Zambia Association for Research and Development, ZARD). [25]

The most important learning was the necessity to do public opinion research and needs assessments. This was very doable and satisfying to the participants. "An important strength of the campaigns is that the majority conducted some research before launching into their campaigns.... Some of this research was in-depth, professionally conducted and gave useful pointers on attitudes towards issues such as women in leadership and teenage pregnancies" (Morna 2001, p.43). By actually doing needsassessment, the NGOs acquired important information on knowledge, attitude and practices of their target audiences that often differed from their initial assumptions. The participating groups now know how to conduct needs assessments and are better able to understand their audiences' points' of view on critical issues and present their messages accordingly. Sheila Kawamara, director of the Uganda Women's Network, talking about the ineffective way UWONET previously lobbied forchanges in the domestic relations bill, put it this way:

"The campaign had largely been one where we talked to ourselves as women or the already 'converted.' We realise that we have pointed fingers and not understood people's problems and realities.... There is therefore a strong and urgent need to look at issues from the eyes of the people we are trying to reach." [26]

Mass media. During the needs assessment for Women Connect! it became clear that women's NGOsoften have non-existent or poor communications with the local mass media. Women Connect! thus hired local public relations and mass media professionals to participate in its workshops and work with the women's groups on how to think more strategically about their relationships with mass media professionals and to cultivate mutually beneficial long-term relationships. Participating NGOs are now more effective in relating to mass media professionals and getting their stories into the local newspapers, radio and television. Most women's groups, however, still need significantly more learning in this area.

Health. Because Women Connect! made reproductive and sexual health issues the main content ofits training, even participating NGOs that did not have health as a focus of their work were able to strengthen their competencies in the health area. The NGOs also generated important data on women's health. They – and women in their communities -- now have greatly expanded up-to-date information, have ongoing access to current information through the Internet, and have much greatermotivation and ability to share this information. Some groups have downloaded health information from the Internet and repackaged it into other traditional media. For example, the Uganda Private Midwives Association broadcast radio programs presenting health tips on ante-natal care, safe motherhood, and infant nutrition. The on-line newsletter of the Association of Ugandan MedicalWomen Doctors presented data and case studies on breast and cervical cancers, HIV prevention and treatment, and reproductive health.

Networking and collaboration. Collaboration is often difficult and too time-consuming, but thereappears to be greater receptivity among the participating organisations to more structured networking than previously. [27] Women Connect! encouraged collaboration and, in some cases, it took. Forexample, in Zimbabwe two organisations worked together effectively to launch a media campaign on reducing violence against women during "16 Days of Activism," an annual advocacy event to highlight issues of violence against women. The groups divided the labor: YWCA produced drama, print media, and organised an essay contest and community march. Musasa produced radio programs, a web-site, co-hosted a community forum, participated in the march and networked to involve other organisations.

In Uganda, women's organisations identified ways to collaborate on the health components of theirsmall-grants projects. Some of their innovative suggestions included: sharing strategies on effectivecounseling skills; identifying professionals that do counseling and referring clients (instead of notproviding any follow-up assistance); training parents on parent-child communication to addressreproductive and sexual health education; setting up mechanisms to inform women about sourcesof health information (e.g., via midwife clinics and women's rural information clubs); providingtaped discussions of radio health programs to women's clubs in rural areas; addressing needs ofadolescents (e.g., use of reproductive health services, building self-esteem and confidence, encouraging groups to join the "Straight Talk" exchange in which teens anonymously submit questions on relationships and sexual health); and using the e-mail listserv of the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) to share experiences and seek information.

Small grants. The final evaluation reached the following conclusions about the small grants.

"Learning by doing. The small grants program gave the participating women's organisations the opportunity to try out concepts that they had learned in the initial training workshops. Although mistakes may have been made along the way, this learning by doing probably constituted the most important capacity-building in Women Connect!

"Potential for impact: Although one year may be too short and $5000 too little to enable a communications project to take off, each activity opened the door to future possibilities.... Organisations with websites have recognised the importance of using e-mail more interactively and are looking to sharpen the use of e-mail in advocacy work. Those who undertook mediacampaigns have recognised the need to build a communications dimension into all their work and to have a clear communications strategy." [28]While all of the participating women's groups had suggestions for improvement, most were very positive about what they accomplished with their small grants. "What I liked about the process is that the funds came after training of staff, so that they could put their ideas into practice," explained Barbara Dembedza, the executive director of the Women and Aids Support Network (WASN) inZimbabwe. [29] Debbie Serwadda, program coordinator for Hope After Rape (HAR) in Uganda, had this to say:

"There was a culture of investing in us from the start.... This small grant project has completely revolutionised our lives! Oh, the excitement to just sit at a desk and be able to access information from as far as Australia! My personal and networking skills have already been enhanced even though we are only in the preliminary stages of project implementation... Hurrah for Women Connect! We surely will not let down the women and children of Uganda." [30]

24 Morna, 2001, p.38.

25 Morna, 2001, pp.71-73

26 Mayer, Doe and Muadi Mukenge. Women Connect!: Improving Women's Reproductive Health andEmpowerment Through Women's NGOs. A Final Report to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Los Angeles,Pacific Institute for Women's Health, December, 2001, p.16.

27 Some women's NGOs do collaborate effectively in mobilising around specific issues that need pressure from women's advocates (e.g., legislation be fore Parliament on women's issues). This sort of mobilisation is especially strong in Uganda, where it is coordinated by the Uganda Women's Network (UWONET).

28 Morna, 2001, p.72.

29 Morna, 2001, p.66.

30 Pacific Institute for Women's Health, Women Connect! Workshop Evaluation, Harare, October 2000.