June 2010

The DRC is one of the most pluralistic media environments in the world, with more than 450 radio stations and more than 100 television stations. In Kinshasa alone, there are 51 Congolese television stations, and surveys show that television is the preferred source of information for Kinshasa’s 10 million residents. With this enormous potential for TV to bring about social change, Search for Common Ground has begun television production and training, using different formats and innovative production-based training approaches.

The Team

The DRC is one of more than 10 countries around the world where Search for Common Ground is producing a dramatic TV series called ‘The Team’. Based around a fictional football team, the series handles issues of conflict and good governance, resonating with the metaphor: “If we don’t collaborate, we won’t score goals.” The Congolese version of The Team focuses on a female football team, ironically named ‘The Mosquitos’ whose two characters face a struggle with issues of sexual violence, corruption, tribalism, impunity and reconciliation, as they try to lead the Mosquitos team to victory. The series finished its 45 day shoot in late January, and is expected to be on air by July 2010. Watch your screens!

Tosalel’ango (Let’s Do It) is DRC’s one and only Reality TV program. Congolese under the age of 30 contact SFCG with a vision of change for their community. Those with the best ideas are selected to be on the show. Each week, cameras follow two young ‘challengers’ as the host accompanies them through ‘challenges’ related to making the change they want to see.. During the first two seasons (28 episodes), youth addressed real life problems such as water cuts, corruption, pollution, street children, and erosion. A survey in November 2009 found that one out of four Kinshasa residents have heard of the program (a remarkable figure in a saturated media environment where few programs have more than 10% of the audience), and 98% of the viewers felt that the program had a positive impact on their lives.

SFCG is currently preparing the third season, which will also see the Tosalel’ango team leave Kinshasa and search for ‘challengers’ in at least two other provinces out of the country.

“This program is truly different from others. The information is true and honest. Tosalel’ango serves as a great source of inspiration for us. We now see solutions whereby before we only saw problems.” – Tosalel’ango viewer

TeleGouvernance Trainings and Productions Make their Mark

With support from the USAID Governing Justly and Democratically program, SFCG has partnered with TV stations in four cities: Bukavu, Kisangani, Mbuji-Mayi and Matadi. In each city, SFCG’s Television and Governance trainer selected the most influential station, and organized a series of trainings and co productions aimed at increasing the role of the TV station in local governance. Nine months later, the TV stations have produced 67 television programs using formats including roundtables, interviews, man-on-the-street interviews, and investigative reporting. SFCG’s added value has been twofold: the training reinforced the journalists’ technical skills about how to handle different formats; and it gave guiding principles and practical examples about what governance means, and how TV journalists can contribute to promoting transparency, and fighting corruption and impunity. A snap survey of 157 people in Bukavu showed that 61% of the population know of the TeleGouvernance programs on Vision Shala, SFCG’s local partner, and 74% said that the programs were markedly richer than other TV programs, notably in the pertinence of the subjects, the educational value and the technical quality. Trainer Gedeon Engwanda analysed the impact of the TeleGouvernance project on the stations themselves, and found that all four had revised their program schedules to include more subjects around governance, had implemented tighter controls against bribery and partisanship in their editorial coverage , and had improved their relationship with local authorities through the enhanced credibility that the TeleGouvernance programs brought to the stations.

SFCG Brings Conflict Sensitivity into Humanitarian Interventions

SFCG is launching a partnership with UNICEF as part of an important stabilization and reintegration project known as Programme of Expanded Assistance to Returnees (PEAR) Plus. Search for Common Ground will be helping UNICEF and other international NGOs (IRC, Oxfam GB, Coopi and AVSI) to integrate a conflict sensitive and peacebuilding approach into the reconstruction effort in the eastern DRC. The project targets water, sanitation, education and infrastructure, in order to rebuild regions devastated by the war. SFCG’s role stems from an important study that SFCG conducted last year on the conflict sensitivity of humanitarian interventions in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri. The study found a deep mistrust between local actors and the humanitarian community, and that humanitarians generally sidestepped important conflicts in the communities where they worked. SFCG will accompany this project by reinforcing NGO capacities, building a strong relationship between humanitarian groups and radio stations, and integrating innovative and participative SFCG activities into the target areas. The full report is available in French at http://www.alnap.org/pool/files/french-fullword-final.pdf. The summary is available in both English and French: http://www.sfcg.org/programmes/drcongo/pdf/ English_SummaryCover_Final.pdf , http://www.sfcg.org/programmes/drcongo/pdf/French_SummaryCover_Final.pdf.

SFCG Combats Sexual Violence

Sexual and gender-based violence continues to be a gaping wound for the Democratic Republic of Congo as the nation looks towards a more peaceful and democratic future. This violence has not abated, and perpetrators include military, armed groups as well as civilians. Between January and September 2009, the United Nations recorded more than 7,500 cases of rape in North and South Kivu, which was more than the total of recorded cases for all of 2008. SFCG responds to this crisis with an approach that emphasizes prevention through awareness raising – a complement to the multiple reactive strategies aimed at caring for survivors of many other national and international organizations in DRC.

Mobile Cinema

SFCG is launching the second phase of its Mobile Cinema project, which projects and discusses the film ‘Fighting the Silence’ produced by IF Productions, with support from Amnesty International and UNHCR. Af ter reaching approximately 400,000 persons since September 2008, SFCG is launching a second phase, with a closer collaboration with local partners through local coalitions against sexual violence (Commission Territoriales de Lutte Contre les Violences Sexuelles). A second focus will be on working closely with the police and the army in North and South Kivu, with the aim of reaching a “critical mass” of security force personnel to combat sexual violence. A second phase will see Mobile Cinema activities in North and South Kivu, and will include a ‘prevention’ working group, br inging toget her local communi cator s (journalists, musicians, actors, etc) to enable them to grasp the messages arising from the important body of research around the causes of SGBV.

Live and Love - Getting to the Youth

Most Congolese youth under the age of 25 have grown up with conflict and instability around them. Sexual violence has become almost commonplace, and many believe that war coupled with poverty and social instability has fomented negative and violent gender relations amongst youth. Live and Love (Uishe na Upende) is the name of the newest of SFCG’s radio programs, aimed helping youth between 15 and 25 years old talk seriously about their sexuality, their relationships, and how to avoid the risks of violence and exploitation. Produced by Justin Marius, 23, the program uses a magazine format to go into communities and record frank conversations between young boys and girls. Subjects include the role of money and gifts in relationships, early marriage, parents’ attitudes towards youths’ relationships, pornography, and how to raise culturally taboo subjects. Focus groups with young people revealed that the tone and subject matter resonated; many said these subjects were on their mind but they were unable to talk about them.

Audio and Video Spots

Over the last six months, SFCG produced 10 audio spots and 5 video spots, working with the Goma-based arts collective Yole! Africa on the videos. The radio spots, in Swahili, were produced by SFCG to reinforce a series of important messages about SGBV, related to the illegality of ‘amiable arrangement’ of rape cases, the importance of legally registering all children, including those born of rape , and the importance of seeking medical attention within 72 hours of an attack. The video messages aim to put a twist on prejudices and stereotypes, highlighting that we often discriminate against rape survivors even though, just as in a traffic accident, the victim is clearly not at fault.

Fighting Impunity

The rule of law and the fight against impunity remain amongst the biggest challenges in the reconstruction of the DRC. SFCG continues to work with security forces, notably the Congolese army through the innovative ‘Tomorrow is a New Day’ project in five provinces. The project empowers leaders within army brigades and battalions with interactive and participatory tools to sensitise their units on human rights and civilian protection messages using audio sketches, image boxes, participatory theatre, and mobile cinema screenings. The units also organize joint activities with the civilians around them, targeting the parts of the surrounding community with whom relationships are the most negative.

Activities often include athletic matches, cultural activities, joint work projects, and public meetings.. In recent months, this project has expanded to Ituri and North Katanga, in addition to reaching tens of thousands of soldiers in North and South Kivu and Kinshasa. An added component to this project is a new radio program aimed at highlighting the positive steps underway in the fight against impunity. Called ‘The Road to Justice’, this program covers special military and civilian courts, interviewing magistrates, victims, community members and human rights activists. The program aims to influence, gradually, the overwhelming distrust that the population feel towards the civilian and military justice system. Most mainstream media coverage highlights the exactions and crimes committed, the cases of criminals escaping prison and the like; SFCG seeks to report factually and accurately on concrete steps being taken to combat impunity, be so that Congolese may also be aware of the slow but steady progress underway.