The Drum Beat 325 - Soul Beat Africa

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Soul Beat Africa is an initiative of Soul City and The Communication Initiative with a specific focus on communication for development and social change on the African continent. October 26 2005 marked the 50th issue of The Soul Beat, Soul Beat Africa's electronic newsletter.

In this issue of The Drum Beat, we celebrate the past two years of Soul Beat Africa by featuring information from that 50th issue.

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Welcome to the 50th issue of The Soul Beat! Since the first issue of The Soul Beat was distributed in September 2003, you the Soul Beat Africa network have increasingly visited the Soul Beat Africa website, and participated in developing Soul Beat Africa as a network. With this, our 50th edition of The Soul Beat, we'd like to review what we've been up to, where we are going, reflect on the process and request your feedback on our work.

Soul Beat Africa aims to be a space for communicators across Africa to share experiences, materials, strategic thinking and events, and to engage in discussion and debate. It is meant for communicators, practitioners, media makers, academics, researchers, and others who are using or are interested in communication for change in Africa.

Please Contribute!
Soul Beat Africa wants to feature your work, your events, your publications, your strategies in Africa. Contact Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com

Subscribe to The Soul Beat or e-mail Bonolo bonolo@comminit.com

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KNOWLEDGE BASE

Since beginning in September 2003, a very wide range of information has been submitted by the Soul Beat Africa network and sourced through research on issues as diverse as HIV/AIDS, children, women, the environment, ICTs, and many more - all related to the use of communication as a tool for development and social change. Soul Beat Africa aims to use the capacity of web-based processes to support your work, relevant to your contexts. This includes access to descriptions of programmes run by your peers worldwide; summaries of research and evaluation results; outlines of strategic thinking, change theories and planning methodologies; summaries of training and conference opportunities; access to peers in other programmes for supportive commentary and review; summaries of relevant information derived from the field. The Soul Beat Africa team believes the ability to access this information in real time, engage peers for support and reflect on strategic thinking for more effective work directly improves programme performance.

For example, since September 2003, Soul Beat Africa has uploaded summaries of:

684 Programme Experiences

566 Materials

504 Strategic Thinking Documents

480 Events

Windows:
In order to provide quick and simple access to the information that is most relevant to people in the network, two 'Windows' on Soul Beat Africa were developed:

Edutainment - providing a specific focus on the information related to Edutainment on the Soul Beat Africa site.

Community Radio - providing a specific focus on the information related to Community Radio on the Soul Beat Africa site.

Searching:
Search The Soul Beat Africa website OR search The Soul Beat Africa website PLUS linked sites! Simply click on your choice before clicking the "SEARCH by CATEGORY" button. The more boxes you tick, the narrower will be your search and the smaller the number of results.

THE SOUL BEAT

The Soul Beat has had a steadily growing subscriber base of subscribers throughout Africa. As of October 12 2005, there were 8,431 subscribers throughout Africa and the world. We have increasingly focused on theme-based issues.

In keeping with the commitment of Soul Beat Africa and The Communication Initiative global strategy, Soul Beat Africa has focused two issues of The Soul Beat specifically on communication as a tool for helping to achieve the Millennium development Goals:

MDG 2: Universal Primary Education

MDG 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

The Soul Beat will be focusing upcoming issues on the remaining MDGs. To contribute your information, please contact Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com

SB Extras:

Building on the development of communities of practice around our two windows, Soul Beat Africa has launched two SB Extra's, each distributed every second month, updating you on related programme activities, awards, training, evaluation and research results, networks, books, other materials recently placed on Soul Beat Africa.

SB Extra: Edutainment complements The Soul Beat through a specific focus on edutainment.

SB Extra: Community Radio complements The Soul Beat through a specific focus on community radio.

If you know someone who would be interested in receiving The Soul Beat and SB Extras, please forward this edition to them. They can "subscribe" by subscribing to The Soul Beat and indicating an interest in Community Radio or Edutainment within the notes.

INTERACTIVE FEATURES

Discussion Forum:
In collaboration with AMARC, Soul Beat Africa held its first interactive discussion in August 2005. The discussion asked the question: Why is Community Radio marginalised in Communication for Development strategies in Africa? Is it because of sustainability and impact issues? 87 individuals signed up to the discussion forum with contributions from South Africa, Zambia, Uganda and Canada.

What you are saying about Soul Beat Africa: Click here

Send your comments: Click here

Please Contribute to Soul Beat Africa!

Soul Beat Africa wants to feature your work, your events, your publications, your strategies. Contact Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com

Subscribe to The Soul Beat or e-mail Soul Beat soulbeat@comminit.com

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Editor's note: It is with respect and some sadness that the Soul Beat Africa team bids Deborah Walter farewell as Editorial Director and Project Manager. Deborah has provided strong leadership over the past two years of running and growing Soul Beat Africa. Deborah will continue within The Communication Initiative family, in support of both The CI and the Soul Beat Africa teams.

The Communication Initiative and Soul Beat Africa teams welcome new colleagues Kathy Magrobi - Director, Soul Beat Africa and Anja Venth - Editorial Director, Soul Beat Africa.

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Please participate in our PULSE POLL

The main difference between health communication and health education or social marketing is that health communication is transdisciplinary in nature.

[For context, please see The Drum Beat 324]

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This issue was written by Deborah Walter and Deborah Heimann.

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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com

To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, see our policy.

To subscribe, click here.