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The Children’s Radio Foundation have reported some exciting project developments that have occurred in 2014, including their work on World Aids Day. 

The most successful of this years interventions have been the live monthly radio broadcasts at Nolungile Youth Clinic (Cape Town, South Africa). The youth-led events host candid talks from visiting speakers, and entertain with local artists who perform on the open mic. The event is held together by an open debate allowing the youth reporters to meaningfully engage visiting and clinic-using youth around the chosen topic. Some of the topics selected over the course of the project have included ‘Freedom in Health’, ‘Imagining Our Future: an HIV-free Africa’, and ‘Loving yourself: self-love as a way to prevent infection’. Due to an ongoing LGBTI focus within the radio broadcasts, the events also have created a sense of community for members of the local LGBTI community. The clinic has become a place where they meet, socialise, learn from others, and participate in debates.

According to 20 year-old Future Positive youth reporter Zuko Mkutyukelwa, “I think the monthly shows do a lot of work for people outside.  Because some guys think that they can’t go to the clinic…they think it’s only for ladies, females only. But when we host a show there are males and females present, so if they come they get knowledge to understand that the males also come to the clinic. And I think we are trying to invite more people into the clinic to change their point of views, to change how they see the clinic.”

The monthly events have also become a place where other civil society organisations (CSOs) are invited to participate in making the event relevant to a wider community and to create awareness of their respective services. The events have not only allowed the youth to hone their skills as leaders and educators, but have also allowed them to speak freely and share their views about health issues. It has allowed them to feel comfortable in this youth-friendly clinic space, to direct their own course of learning, and to communicate with the nurses and staff in a way not usually available to them on a typical clinic day. CSO partner Nicholas Mabulu from Ubuntu Africa reflected on the benefits of being part of the Future Positive network. “A partnership with Future Positive has helped in building our kids’ self-esteem through participation in the process of being young reporters. We have also been able to network with influential people that have assisted us in our curriculum module on motivational speaking on HIV. The involvement of Future Positive in our programs has increased dialogue within our youth groups on topics related to challenges of youth in Khayelitsha.”

On Monday the 1st of December, the OR Tambo Hall in Khayelitsha, Cape Town exploded with an estimated three thousand young people in support of the annual World Aids Day event. In and around the hall were activities geared to engage youth attending the event. Various organizations supplied condoms and pamphlets at their stands, while others offered HIV testing stations. The Future Positive pop-up radio booth had a stream of youth surprised to find themselves in the thick of youth-led debates and conversations. The first hour of the broadcast was led by Future Positive reporters Masinga Luzipho and Zibele Nomangola, who asked the attentive onlookers to participate in unpacking the topic of ‘what can parents learn from their children?’ According to Future Positive Director Lesedi Mogoatlhe, “Youth and parents alike took to the roaming microphone to share their personal stories and to debate their contrasting views, while others listened, nodded in approval, or protested loudly to what they disagreed with. The pop-up radio booth allowed young people to share their own experiences, and to learn from those of others. While the event was chanting the slogan ‘Phantsi nge stigma’ (Down with stigma), the reporters were unpacking the myriad ways stigma unfolds in their lives and in their community.” See attached photos of the event.

The Siyaziwa Radio Club includes youth between the ages of 19-30 years from Future Positive’s network partners Health4Men and Free Gender. The group of 10 LGBTI youth were trained by the Future Positive task team as facilitators who produce audio content that focuses on the issues of LGBTI and HIV and AIDS. After a comprehensive training of trainers in March 2014, the group has met regularly to share best practices on how to use radio techniques to facilitate difficult conversations within the youth groups in their respective organisations. The Siyaziwa participants are made up of youth living in Khayelitsha, a township with high rates of homophobic acts of violence and injustice. The group has focused on recording community dialogues about the sensitive topics of LGBTI and HIV discrimination and stigma. The recorded dialogues are now being used to create a solid foundation for an audio drama that the group is working on as a way to capture the nuances of the experiences of LGBTI youth in churches, schools, clinics, and within the greater community of Khayelitsha. 2015 will mark the launch of both the Siyaziwa audio drama series, as well as a monthly LGBTI show on Radio Zibonele.

In 2014 Future Positive extended its network to include youth from the Pediatric and Adolescent Care Clinic (PACC) based at Ubuntu Clinic in Site B, Khayelitsha. The group of youth aged between 11 and 17 years old are in a program initiated by MSF to tackle the ongoing challenge of keeping young patients adherent to their HIV treatment. While the doctors, nurses and clinic personnel work together in innovative ways to ensure adherence to medication, psychosocial care is equally important. In operation since August, Future Positive’s radio club forms a major part of their psychosocial intervention. The youth have chosen the name ‘Teenager’s Radio Club,’ and in weekly production workshops they share intimate experiences with one another and record audio stories that allow them to speak candidly about the different stages of their treatment process. The young reporters have taken full ownership of their learning, suggesting possible themes and topics, as well as looking forward to producing their first 30-minute radio programs in 2015.

Gulalai Ismail from Peshawar in Pakistan has been campaigning for equality and peace since she was a teenager. She and her sister Saba founded Aware Girls 12 years ago and have put their lives on the line to stand up for women’s rights and combat radicalisation.

Listen to a BBC World Service interview with Gulalai Ismail: 

The communique from the First Annual West Africa Civil Society Conference has been published.

The West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF) in collaboration with the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), and with support from the Commonwealth Foundation, organised the First Annual West Africa Civil Society Conference from December 8 – 9 2014 in Accra, Ghana.

This conference was held under the theme: ‘Strategizing for the Post-2015 and ECOWAS 2020 Development Agenda for West Africa’.

The Faces of Life project launched on 26 Nov 2014, giving a voice to the women of Rwanda whose lives were affected by the 1994 genocide.

The Chairperson of the Pacific Islands Association of NGOs (PIANGO), Mr. Siotami Drew Havea, is excited about the opportunity for his organisation to learn from its involvement in the first ever mechanism for inter-regional collaboration on SIDS. 

Havea welcomes the partnership with the Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC), which will help PIANGO enhance their capacity to conduct research and facilitate knowledge sharing between the organisations. 

‘CPDC has done a lot of research on trade, the environment and other issues. I think we can learn a lot from them about research and data collection,’ Havea says. ‘We’re also thinking of creating a hub for good practice that can be shared among civil society.’  

Havea also believes that the mechanism will play a crucial role in monitoring the progress and implementation of the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) pathway. 

Commonwealth Foundation Deputy Director Myn Garcia, who attended the SIDS conference, sees the value in the monitoring role the mechanism could play. ‘The mechanism is an important and critical first step in answering the call of NGOs for the establishment of an inter- and intra- regional platform to build the capacity of civil society for both the implementation and monitoring of the S.A.M.O.A Pathway. Development that is fair, sustainable and meaningful can only be achieved through a broad alliance of stakeholders with civil society engaging within an enabling environment. The establishment of a CSO collaboration mechanism for SIDS is a step towards that direction,’ she explains. 

The collaboration between PIANGO and CPDC had been planned and discussed for some time before its announcement. ‘It didn’t just spring up at the SIDS conference’, Havea remembers. ‘PIANGO had been looking at the Caribbean region and at CPDC and where they are at and we naturally had a lot of interest in partnering.’ 

The Commonwealth Foundation will play a role in supporting this mechanism, with a focus on enabling the monitoring of the SAMOA pathway and the documenting and sharing of good and fit practices.  

Foundation Director, Vijay Krishnarayn blogs on why review is on the agenda for the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. 

Every two years the Commonwealth gathers for reasons of politics and fellowship under the banner of a Heads of Government Meeting – known to all as CHOGM. But there is concern that this once highly valued event has lost ground in an increasingly crowded and competitive multilateral calendar. CHOGM review is on the agenda. 

The Foundation’s interest in CHOGM reform stems from its role as a facilitator of civil society inputs to Commonwealth political processes. In this capacity the Foundation has brought civic voice to several Commonwealth ministerial meetings over the past 20 years, most notably Education, Finance, Health and Women’s Affairs. 

The principal engagement however has been with CHOGM. This started after civil society organisations took themselves to Harare prior to the CHOGM in 1991. This prompted the Foundation to support an NGO Forum in Auckland in 1995 and it has been present in the wings of CHOGM ever since. CHOGM has attracted interest from civil society organisations and the Commonwealth has responded, deploying the Foundation to manage the process. 

A discussion on reform of the CHOGM process comes at a time when there is considerable interest in the ways in which institutions engage with citizens. In response to demands for citizen dialogue global institutions have responded incrementally and these initiatives have generally been seen as unsatisfactory by civil society and its advocates. 

The Commonwealth is part of that global system, but aspires to a set of values and principles that speak to human dignity and sustainable development. The Commonwealth started to open up to civil society inputs in the early 2000’s. The 2005 CHOGM in Valletta provided an opportunity for dialogue between civil society and Foreign Ministers and provision for civic voice started to be made in a succession of ministerial processes. The Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministerial Meeting went so far as to make provision for every seventh speaker to be from a civil society organisation. Heads of Government endorsed the trend in paragraph 77 of the 2007 CHOGM Communique:

Heads of Government welcomed progress involving civil society in all aspects of the Commonwealth’s work. They noted that a number of ministerial meetings now included provision for dialogue with civil society and called for this to be extended where possible.

Heads also acknowledged the need to look again at Commonwealth Ministerial processes as a whole and in 2009 a review was called for that would “examine inter alia the format, frequency and content of Ministerial meetings in order that these continue to support the Commonwealth’s values and principles, and provide the greatest possible addition of value and cost effectiveness.” The resulting rationalisation has if anything constricted the opportunities for civic engagement with Commonwealth Ministerial processes. 

Finance and Health Ministerial meetings in particular no longer provide meaningful opportunities for dialogue with civil society. At CHOGM the space afforded to civil society to engage with Foreign Ministers has been eroded and in Colombo in 2013 was foreshortened. Indeed civil society organisations have consistently asked for time with Heads of Government commensurate with that set aside for engaging with young people but this has been to no avail. 

This brief review shows that the Commonwealth has fallen short of its stated commitment to meaningfully engage civil society. Rather than progressing down this road it has actually retreated. In turn this has led to hard questioning on the part of civil society organisations (those accredited to the Commonwealth and the broader community) as to the value of engaging with the institution. 

The Foundation’s contribution to the debate on CHOGM takes as its starting point a number of requirements that enable meaningful civil society engagement. These have been developed following reflection on the experience of bringing civic voice to Commonwealth Ministerial meetings (including CHOGM 2013) over the past two years: 

• Civil society should be in the lead role when developing the agenda and the design of the process and methodology for the engagement
• A participatory process should be followed in the design, implementation and post processes of the engagement
• The engagement should be owned by civil society organisations in the host country and broader partner civil society networks across the Commonwealth with support from the Foundation
• Civil society should have access to relevant government ministries and decision-makers
• A consultation process that is inclusive, allows time for feedback to participants and integrates monitoring and sharing of results should be central to the design, implementation, delivery and assessment of the engagement
• All parties have timely access to relevant information
• The host government (where relevant) needs to guarantee a safe and secure space for dialogue and engagement

If these requirements are going to be made operational, the Commonwealth needs to reaffirm its commitment to the meaningful engagement of civil society in the CHOGM process. The host government also has a key role to play in creating the conditions for civic engagement with CHOGM and the Foundation has been greatly encouraged by the early signals from the Government of Malta looking ahead to 2015 in this regard. With this kind of commitment new and improved moments for dialogue between policy-makers and civil society can be realised. 

A reflection on recent CHOGMs suggests that the nature of the event is changing from a forum focused on drawing its own conclusions, to a gathering that provides space for deliberation and consensus in the context of other global processes, for example related to climate change or the post 2015 development agenda. This is an important contribution to multilateralism and one that highlights the need for processes that add value to discussion and debate. Civil society is an asset in this regard but its inclusion in CHOGM processes is in need of urgent review. 

Arts and culture practitioners from the Global South came together in South Africa in September 2014 to launch an initiative aimed at facilitating South to South collaboration and amplifying southern voices in the global discourse on arts and culture policy. 

Fourteen representatives from Africa, the Arab region, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Pacific joined together to begin planning an ambitious southern-led project, and to participate in mini-summits and public conversations in Cape Town and Johannesburg. 

The expertise of the delegates ranged widely. The group included artists, authors, photographers, arts managers, theatre managers and high-level representatives of funding agencies, NGOs, and IGOs. 

The events in South Africa were coordinated by the African Arts Institute in response to the identified need for artists, cultural activists, cultural NGOs and creative enterprises from the Global South to meet, to consider the global context and their respective experiences, and to set and assert an agenda more aligned to their (not necessarily homogenous) interests and perspectives. 

In events held with members of the public, the international delegates discussed a wide range of themes including artist mobility, the impact of geopolitical events on arts and culture, the implications of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, new opportunities for joint projects, and meaningful arts and culture policies that have been adopted by certain national governments. Also discussed was the global push for the inclusion of culture in the post 2015 development agenda. 

These themes and others will be areas of focus for this Global South initiative as it begins to take shape over the coming months and years. 

Congratulations to 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winners Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, two individuals whose causes closely reflect the 2015 Commonwealth Theme: A Young Commonwealth.

Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi is the Chair of Global March Against Child Labour, and the founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a grassroots movement for the protection of children.

The Commonwealth Foundation is particularly proud to support his work by funding a project led by Global March through our grants programme: Forging civil society action against child domestic labour.

This project will address the problem of child domestic labour in South Asia, in particular in Pakistan and Bangladesh, by strengthening the knowledge and capacity of civil society to carry out advocacy initiatives relating to child domestic labour and associated issues, such as trafficking, slavery and gender based violence. 

Satyarthi, a member of the High Level Panel on Global Education, said global goals on education can only be achieved if we collectively tackle child labour. In a recent visit to the Commonwealth Foundation, he reminded us that 85m children are currently working in extreme labour conditions around the world.

‘There are 197m young unemployed people in the world, but 168m children in full-time jobs – it’s a vicious circle,’ he explained. ‘We want to move from the exploitation of child labour to decent productive work… Strengthening social protection and civil society organisations is the way forward.’

Commonwealth Writers, the cultural initiative of the Commonwealth Foundation, unveiled a new website to coincide with the launch of the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. 

The work of the programme can now be explored through a series of hubs dedicated to different areas of creative expression, including the short story.

Find out more and check back for updates by visiting www.commonwealthwriters.org

To mark the launch of the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Commonwealth Writers hosted a conversation on how humour in short stories can help navigate difficult topics. 

Panellists Leila Aboulela, Kei Miller and Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi were chaired by Romesh Gunesekera. 

Find out more on the Commonwealth Writers website…