"My Better World" Using Animated Characters, Real Life Stories and Flexible Formatting for Multi-Platform Africa-Wide Distribution
Summary:
"My Better World" is a new 55-episode (18 half-hour) story-driven television series designed to build self-knowledge, confidence and problem-solving abilities among African youth. Produced in eight-minute themed episodes (click here for one example), the show explores specific life skills through a fresh format that combines entertaining animation with real-life documentary segments. Against rich backdrops of pan-African life, six colorfully illustrated friends navigate their way through the challenges of school, family, friendship, responsibilities and hope. They discover abilities, opportunities, consequences and self-worth. Review committees across five sub-Saharan countries informed their creation and guided the show's stories. At each episode's core, real people share their experiences in inspiring mini documentaries. These everyday role models reflect the animated segments' themes with their personal stories of struggle, courage and perseverance. From schoolgirls to pilots to entrepreneurs, they share their conflicts and dreams as they improve their lives and encourage others. The show's unique animated/reality format entertains while connecting important topics to real people. It is a powerful resource for expanding life skills and sparking discussions as important and wide reaching as early marriage, staying in school, being healthy and setting goals. While targeting young women and girls, it reaches across ages, gender and social class to form a centerpiece for community dialogue. It was produced by and for use in schools, clubs, and communities in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria and for free-to-air television broadcast across sub-Saharan Africa, premiering in Kenya in October 2019.
Background/Objectives:
My Better World was designed as part of Impact(Ed) International's Discovery Girls-Transition Project under the UK Department for International Development's Girl's Education Challenge with an overall goal to get more girls in school and learning. The series was designed with, by and for students, educators, community members and state and regional education officials in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. The series is uniquely created both as a tool for facilitated learning in the classroom as well as to reach millions with life skills programming through terrestrial free-to-air television broadcast and digital distribution.
Results/Lessons Learned:
Preliminary results of the series' evaluations are encouraging. Midline data from schools and clubs, for example, show that >90% of female students in all three project countries changed how they thought about the topics covered in the videos and >70% of male students in each country self-reported themselves as more supportive of their female counterparts' education. Additionally, a World Bank social norms campaign and clustered randomized research trial in northern Nigeria paired My Better World content with facilitated community screenings. Pilot results indicated an average increase in enrollment rates of 53% across the pilot communities and suggested that the intervention had a spillover effect on enrollment for children outside the treatment radius. The scaled-up intervention concluded in late-2019 and preliminary results will be available to present at the 2020 SBCC Summit. Ratings data for the show's initial broadcasts will be available in advance of the Summit also.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
The show's format allows mini episodes to be combined into traditional half-hour television episodes, facilitating distribution across digital and broadcast platforms. The story-driven programs attract audiences on their entertainment merit, while the human-centered creative design prepared the show as an educational tool for schools and clubs. Finally, the use of easily customizable animation and documentaries from across sub-Saharan Africa make the series highly exportable across the continent, enabling expanded reach and impact. This model (of maximizing distribution platforms and contexts) serves as an encouraging example of strengthening cost benefit, encouraging increased investment in similar media initiatives.
Abstract submitted by:
Regan Alsup - Impact(Ed) International
Aric Noboa - Impact(Ed) International
"My Better World" is a new 55-episode (18 half-hour) story-driven television series designed to build self-knowledge, confidence and problem-solving abilities among African youth. Produced in eight-minute themed episodes (click here for one example), the show explores specific life skills through a fresh format that combines entertaining animation with real-life documentary segments. Against rich backdrops of pan-African life, six colorfully illustrated friends navigate their way through the challenges of school, family, friendship, responsibilities and hope. They discover abilities, opportunities, consequences and self-worth. Review committees across five sub-Saharan countries informed their creation and guided the show's stories. At each episode's core, real people share their experiences in inspiring mini documentaries. These everyday role models reflect the animated segments' themes with their personal stories of struggle, courage and perseverance. From schoolgirls to pilots to entrepreneurs, they share their conflicts and dreams as they improve their lives and encourage others. The show's unique animated/reality format entertains while connecting important topics to real people. It is a powerful resource for expanding life skills and sparking discussions as important and wide reaching as early marriage, staying in school, being healthy and setting goals. While targeting young women and girls, it reaches across ages, gender and social class to form a centerpiece for community dialogue. It was produced by and for use in schools, clubs, and communities in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria and for free-to-air television broadcast across sub-Saharan Africa, premiering in Kenya in October 2019.
Background/Objectives:
My Better World was designed as part of Impact(Ed) International's Discovery Girls-Transition Project under the UK Department for International Development's Girl's Education Challenge with an overall goal to get more girls in school and learning. The series was designed with, by and for students, educators, community members and state and regional education officials in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. The series is uniquely created both as a tool for facilitated learning in the classroom as well as to reach millions with life skills programming through terrestrial free-to-air television broadcast and digital distribution.
Results/Lessons Learned:
Preliminary results of the series' evaluations are encouraging. Midline data from schools and clubs, for example, show that >90% of female students in all three project countries changed how they thought about the topics covered in the videos and >70% of male students in each country self-reported themselves as more supportive of their female counterparts' education. Additionally, a World Bank social norms campaign and clustered randomized research trial in northern Nigeria paired My Better World content with facilitated community screenings. Pilot results indicated an average increase in enrollment rates of 53% across the pilot communities and suggested that the intervention had a spillover effect on enrollment for children outside the treatment radius. The scaled-up intervention concluded in late-2019 and preliminary results will be available to present at the 2020 SBCC Summit. Ratings data for the show's initial broadcasts will be available in advance of the Summit also.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
The show's format allows mini episodes to be combined into traditional half-hour television episodes, facilitating distribution across digital and broadcast platforms. The story-driven programs attract audiences on their entertainment merit, while the human-centered creative design prepared the show as an educational tool for schools and clubs. Finally, the use of easily customizable animation and documentaries from across sub-Saharan Africa make the series highly exportable across the continent, enabling expanded reach and impact. This model (of maximizing distribution platforms and contexts) serves as an encouraging example of strengthening cost benefit, encouraging increased investment in similar media initiatives.
Abstract submitted by:
Regan Alsup - Impact(Ed) International
Aric Noboa - Impact(Ed) International
Source
Approved abstract for the postponed 2020 SBCC Summit in Marrakech, Morocco. Provided by the International Steering Committee for the Summit. Image credit: Impact(Ed) International