COMMUNITIES

CIVIC ACTION TEAMS

We recently conducted a natural resource governance project to strengthen and advocate for the inclusion of marginalized groups in oil-producing communities. This included multiple town hall meetings and citizen engagements in Uquo, Esit Eket, and Upenekang host communities in Akwa-Ibom state; Abudu, Ikobi, and Oben communities in Edo state; and Asaa, Mmahu, and Obile host communities in Imo state.

We also sought to ensure proper representation and inclusion for marginalized groups in Nigeria including women, youths, and people with disabilities. We organized a series of townhalls and multi-stakeholder meetings across Akwa Ibom, Kaduna, Edo Imo, and Abuja which featured  Community Frontline Activists (CFAs), as well as partner CSOs, government representatives, journalists, and citizens. Surveys carried out across communities in these three states identified a number of challenges:

  1. A lack of public trust in the government;
  2. Poor dissemination of information;
  3. An inability of communities to engage with elected representatives;
  4. The exclusion of many marginalized people (mostly women and persons with disabilities) in decision-making processes.

Our CFAs worked closely with communities on a series of reforms in these areas. Solutions have included using community radio for better dissemination of local government information, and holding townhall meetings that gave many marginalized voices the space to contribute to discussions. CivActs has been a key part of regenerating a level of trust between communities and local government officials.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

IMPACT TO DATE

We trained 339 community volunteers, 30 in each of the project districts, on rumour tracking, identifying fake news, and countering misinformation.

We provided 1500 pamphlets, 600 brochures and posters, as well as ten standees designed and distributed by the thousands within the targeted communities.

We invited ten content creators to participate in the Virtual Media Caravan activity, where they shared inspirational stories of unsung champions of COVID-19 (in the form of blogs, columns and video) of marginalized communities. These stories have been shared on more than 35 local websites, newspapers, Facebook pages and YouTube channels.

56 Coronavirus CivActs Campaign (CCC) weekly bulletins were developed and published in four languages including, English, Urdu, Sindhi and Pashto, reaching 5.2 million people on social media in 15 months.

Radio spots were aired in various languages on regional and local radio channels focusing on Covid-19 SOPs, countering misinformation and vaccine promotion, with a total reach of 6.35 million. The project created 12 radio programs organized in Urdu, Pashto and Sindhi.

We produced 27 100 copies of IEC materials (brochures, pamphlets, posters and standees) which were disseminated in 10 project districts for offline advocacy.

33 videos from public health experts, government officials, DCs, DHO, political and religious figures as well as influencers were developed in collaboration with the Department of Health (DoH) – KP to increase the vaccination rate and focus on the strata of the population eligible for vaccination.