Unreported Development - Nigeria

Activities implemented as part of the project included:

• Continuous Education Series for journalists, 200 of whom had previously participated in seminars, training sessions, and forums on reproductive health and sexual rights issues organised by the Media Resource and Advocacy Centre (MRAC), a project of Devcoms. This centre 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 scientific information sources are available free to the journalists who have participated in the education series;
• publication of the Bulletin SERIES (Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights NEWS) on reproductive health and sexual rights issues for use by journalists; and
• production of a Media Handbook on HIV/AIDS in collaboration with UN Information Centre (UNIC) Lagos, and Journalists Against AIDS.

Development Issues
Rights, Women, Health, HIV/AIDS, Population.

This programme grew out of the belief that stories in the Nigerian media about HIV/AIDS and other reproductive health issues in print and electronic media lack depth. This belief was based on 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 was news (72% - 82%), while the least frequent type was editorial. Although there were more reports on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV/AIDS (56%) than other major reproductive health issues, most of these stories (especially those written by non-science or non-health reporters) lacked depth, were sensational, and used incorrect language. The study also found that reports on other reproductive health issues and the implications of such issues as unplanned sex, unwanted sex, unsafe abortion, sexual coercion, sexual violence, and the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic were almost nonexistent.

Unreported Development was part of a one-year initiative called Approaches to Media Partnership in Reproductive Health and Rights Promotion in Nigeria, which was supported by The Ford Foundation West Africa. This initiative forged partnerships between the media and NGOs through the sharing of ideas and materials that further enhance public discourse on development issues. The project utilised photographs and video and audio recordings as part of a comprehensive, multi-faceted presentation of the links between HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, and sexual rights in Nigeria. The visual narratives, packaged with text and linkedto detailed information about HIV/AIDS, reproductive and sexual health and rights and other development issues, told more comprehensive stories - by geo-political region, by topic, or by policy initiative - about Nigeria.