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Africa Voices Foundation

Nairobi, Kenya
Joined March 2021

AVF deploy social science, media expertise and innovative technologies to enable public spaces of discussion, listen to citizens’ authentic voices and turn this engagement to rigorous social insights

Presence in: Kenya, Somalia
Focus: Governance, Accountability & Transparency, Policy Advocacy, Right to Information

Africa’s Voices is a non-profit organisation delivering citizen-driven media dialogues for social change. Spun out of 8 years of research at the University of Cambridge, Africa’s Voices has been working in Africa since 2015 sparking large-scale, inclusive and engaging conversations on issues ranging from public health emergencies, child protection and humanitarian emergencies in order to put citizens at the heart of norm-changing dialogues and social and behaviour change. Africa’s Voices has pioneered an interactive radio methodology premised on a unique combination of social science, media expertise, and data and technology which allows for a citizen-led approach to social and behaviour change.

Our Approach

The interactive radio method developed and deployed by Africa’s Voices has been designed to build trusted real social spaces for norm-challenging dialogues. This methodology is easily adapted to multimedia campaigns which may consist of radio, TV, social media and on-the-ground interventions. It is a two-pronged approach: 

(1) Audiences drive radio programming by sharing their perspectives via SMS to a free short-code in response to open-ended questions posed on media platforms. In line with our approach to SBCC, citizen voices representing positive attitudes are amplified and used to shape new content design. 

(2) Combining data analysis and social science, and with participants’ consent obtained through follow-up messages, we generate robust insights on public opinion, beliefs and attitudes about critical issues. Such timely analysis of thousands of messages in local languages at scale, allows for rapid content development based on the views expressed. These insights can be used as powerful evidence for more participatory programme design across a range of sectors to challenge exclusionary, harmful and negative practices.