Prototyping Civic Action in Burkina Faso
By Karen Greiner, Director of Research and Innovation, Equal Access International
A well-formed question is essential when prototyping social change approaches. “How might we end global hunger?” is too broad. “How can we use technology to communicate with more people?” is too narrow, and suggests a solution to the question itself.
A good question allows for a surprise, but is concrete enough for focused experimentation. A prototype is a rapid research exercise that will quickly test ideas in real-life situations and contexts. I once described prototypes to a colleague, saying they are “shorter, cheaper and less fully-baked than a pilot.” Our internal prototype planning form asks five questions:
- What question are we seeking to answer?
- How do we plan to answer it? (Our prototype plan)
- What do we need for the prototype? (Our list of materials and people)
- How long will it take? (Our prototype schedule)
- How will we measure/document? (Our data/feedback gathering plan)
With the generous contributions of a group of university students in Burkina Faso, we recently ran a week-long prototype to explore new ways to reach community members with peace-building and civic engagement audio programs that we broadcast weekly via partner community radio stations.
We were careful to leave it up to our young collaborators to determine how, and with whom to share. We provided the students with abridged versions of our radio programs, reduced from 15 to 5 minutes, on micro secure digital (SD) cards. We asked them to share with as many people as possible over the next three days.
To our surprise and delight, we learned much more than new ways to reach listeners; we gained insight on the civic action itself, and about creating opportunities for young people to be agents of change, instead of passive recipients or “beneficiaries.”
First, let us describe how prototype collaborators shared audio content: They shared via mobile phones apps: WhatsApp, Bluetooth, Xender, and ShareIt. And they also shared via Facebook Groups, Pages and Messenger, and through in-person listening sessions using mobile phones, radios, and computers with SD card ports. They used USB-SD card adapters to broadcast the audio content at hair salons and, other businesses, including one radio station 75km (~46 miles) away from our prototyping site.
One young woman used of PowerDirector software to convert the audio extract to video, which allowed her to use our audio extract as her WhatsApp status message. Several others used similar techniques to convert audio to video for Facebook.
We had included a WhatsApp number within the audio file, and were able to partially track how and where the audio files “traveled.” We know from follow-up interviews (and also common sense) that not everyone who listened to the audio content responded to our request for feedback. But the WhatsApp messages, both text and audio, helped us hear from a sub-set of listeners. We were able to determine through discussion with our prototype partners and direct feedback, that for a total budget of $50 for SD cards, we reached more than 1,000 community members in 3 days.
In addition to giving us insights on how to reach more people, including non-radio listeners, with our audio content, our volunteer prototype collaborators also helped to remind us of the dynamism and creativity of young people.
Not only did our prototyping team members have creative ideas for reaching new listeners, but they were also willing to contribute a surprising amount of their own time and energy to share and discuss within their peer groups and communities.
“Rapid prototyping has taught us that youth have many beautiful ideas… I want to now do additional prototypes to learn what interests our followers on Facebook, and to also learn how people will react if we use more humor in our programs.” — Bonaventure Ganemtore, Information Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) specialist, Equal Access/Burkina Faso.
A recent United Nations report outlines the role youth can and do play in peace and security worldwide. The insights in this report resonate with our own experience as we prototyped audio distribution channels and discovered the potential of our young radio listeners for energetic and creative civic action. Our prototyping experience taught us that while our communication for social change programs have always been designed to create ways for community members to contribute, we can only gain by creating more opportunities and more often. Not only did our young radio listeners prove to be able researchers, but they also showed us their powerful potential as creative civic actors.
With gratitude to the Young Leaders for Peace, who continue to organize civic engagement events to this day, via WhatsApp and at their respective universities. Big thanks also to Bonaventure and Josepha, my partners in crime in the protoyping department, and to Zaksouaba Lamoussa for his continued guidance and support as EAI Country Director in Burkina Faso.
