Shaping policy processes through citizen voice in Francophone West Africa: the arts as a vehicle for knowledge co-construction
Lead Research Organisation:
Institute of Development Studies
Department Name: Research Department
Abstract
This networking activity convenes research, policy, cultural and community engagement organisations from across Sahelian Francophone West Africa. In this context, many citizens have minimal opportunity to contribute to governance processes, and their voices are seldom heard in deliberative spaces. Meanwhile, creative and artistic methods such as music and drawing have been used elsewhere to represent citizen voice to policy, in ways which could be conceptualised as storytelling, such as photovoice, digital storytelling or participatory filmmaking. Co-creation of such outputs often occurs between participants and researchers. As a rich tradition of storytelling exists in West Africa, this network aims to discover whether artistic and cultural methods can be used similarly here and, going further, whether policy makers themselves can engage with communities and artists to co-create understanding about issues of mutual concern.
The core group of interdisciplinary researchers from five research institutions will map policy and civil society stakeholders, as well as arts professionals. A subset will be interviewed to understand the conditions under which artistic co-creation could be possible. A further subset of interviewees will be invited to convene the wider network and participate in a workshop, where the answers to these questions, and to the overall research objective, will be debated.
Part of the workshop will involve an activity where policy makers and community and advocacy representatives attempt to co-create understanding about an issue of concern through a pre-determined but flexible creative activity, facilitated by artists, termed 'storytellers' in the context of this activity and workshop.
The answers to questions and the results of the debate will be processed by IDS into a working paper and a policy brief. The artists will work to create a communicable set of outputs from the creative activity. These will be publicised through traditional and modern media, from radio to Instagram. Thereby, awareness of the agenda will be raised among other relevant organisation, who may be able to participate in researching them further, or adapting the techniques trialled in the practical domain.
Capacity of the network members will be raised, but through the dissemination activities, the wider public and policy, advocacy and research communities will become aware of the network and the potentials for developing this kind of work.
The core group of interdisciplinary researchers from five research institutions will map policy and civil society stakeholders, as well as arts professionals. A subset will be interviewed to understand the conditions under which artistic co-creation could be possible. A further subset of interviewees will be invited to convene the wider network and participate in a workshop, where the answers to these questions, and to the overall research objective, will be debated.
Part of the workshop will involve an activity where policy makers and community and advocacy representatives attempt to co-create understanding about an issue of concern through a pre-determined but flexible creative activity, facilitated by artists, termed 'storytellers' in the context of this activity and workshop.
The answers to questions and the results of the debate will be processed by IDS into a working paper and a policy brief. The artists will work to create a communicable set of outputs from the creative activity. These will be publicised through traditional and modern media, from radio to Instagram. Thereby, awareness of the agenda will be raised among other relevant organisation, who may be able to participate in researching them further, or adapting the techniques trialled in the practical domain.
Capacity of the network members will be raised, but through the dissemination activities, the wider public and policy, advocacy and research communities will become aware of the network and the potentials for developing this kind of work.
Planned Impact
The overarching impact of this work will be to understand how to use the arts to facilitate responsive policy making, which relates to sustainable development and listens to citizen voice.
The wider groups who may benefit from the activities are represented in the network. These are:
(a) Local researchers in governmental and independent institutions.
(b) Citizens' associations and advocacy groups concerned with citizen representation, possibly including local NGOs and community organisations, who may be in contact with continental or regional networks.
(c) Artistic and cultural professionals, such as musicians, writers, griots, filmmakers, etc., who we term 'storytellers'.
(d) Policy makers, particularly in ministries concerned with heritage and culture, but also in areas of sustainable development identified as important by community groups, likely to include environment and agriculture and thereby connecting to SDGs 6, 7, 12 and 15. These policy actors may be working at the national level or in local decentralised authorities.
There are three main impacts.
1. Each group will gain a deeper understanding of the conditions under which citizen voice may be better integrated with policy making, how this may happen, when it may not, and the limitations of such an approach. Each will understand the preconditions for such engagement, and how to achieve them, as well as the role that novel forms of communication, such as storytelling, can play in relation to their respective functions and concerns.
2. Different constituent groups (citizens, policy actors, artists and researchers) will build capacity to engage with the use of storytelling as a policy tool in their own realm. Community groups and development professionals will understand better how to use artistic methods as a form of citizen evidence. Policy makers will enhance their capacities to engage with co-creative processes, either through actual participation in such activities or an ability to interpret their outputs as representations of citizen voice. Researchers will gain deeper understanding of how to mobilise these methods in participatory research; the advantages, disadvantages and potential pitfalls. For the members of the wider network, this capacity will be built through participation in the workshop (activities 4-7). Activity 2 interview participants will also gain exposure to these ideas, and may engage with outputs through social media and local radio.
3. This work is likely to touch on issues of environmental sustainability and natural resource governance. As it is participatory, we cannot specify now whether any solutions will emerge in relation to the questions of resource degradation, ecosystem change and desertification which face west African Sahelian communities, or what they may be. Yet, it is likely that suggestions of this nature will be uncovered, and that they will be related to the everyday realities of the community and policy actors involved.
We aim to spread these impacts as wide as possible. We will map the potential wider network members exhaustively, and select those to be in the network who have the widest forward networks and are most active. The core network is dedicated to seeking further funding opportunities for more collaborative research, and encouraging wider network members to experiment with the methods explored in the workshop, introducing them to a wider audience. Our working paper and policy brief will be in French and English, and artistic outputs of the project will be disseminated as far as possible in appropriate places, in the most appropriate media to raise awareness and start conversations about the agenda. Local languages will be used, and online as well as conventional communication methods will be used in dissemination.
The wider groups who may benefit from the activities are represented in the network. These are:
(a) Local researchers in governmental and independent institutions.
(b) Citizens' associations and advocacy groups concerned with citizen representation, possibly including local NGOs and community organisations, who may be in contact with continental or regional networks.
(c) Artistic and cultural professionals, such as musicians, writers, griots, filmmakers, etc., who we term 'storytellers'.
(d) Policy makers, particularly in ministries concerned with heritage and culture, but also in areas of sustainable development identified as important by community groups, likely to include environment and agriculture and thereby connecting to SDGs 6, 7, 12 and 15. These policy actors may be working at the national level or in local decentralised authorities.
There are three main impacts.
1. Each group will gain a deeper understanding of the conditions under which citizen voice may be better integrated with policy making, how this may happen, when it may not, and the limitations of such an approach. Each will understand the preconditions for such engagement, and how to achieve them, as well as the role that novel forms of communication, such as storytelling, can play in relation to their respective functions and concerns.
2. Different constituent groups (citizens, policy actors, artists and researchers) will build capacity to engage with the use of storytelling as a policy tool in their own realm. Community groups and development professionals will understand better how to use artistic methods as a form of citizen evidence. Policy makers will enhance their capacities to engage with co-creative processes, either through actual participation in such activities or an ability to interpret their outputs as representations of citizen voice. Researchers will gain deeper understanding of how to mobilise these methods in participatory research; the advantages, disadvantages and potential pitfalls. For the members of the wider network, this capacity will be built through participation in the workshop (activities 4-7). Activity 2 interview participants will also gain exposure to these ideas, and may engage with outputs through social media and local radio.
3. This work is likely to touch on issues of environmental sustainability and natural resource governance. As it is participatory, we cannot specify now whether any solutions will emerge in relation to the questions of resource degradation, ecosystem change and desertification which face west African Sahelian communities, or what they may be. Yet, it is likely that suggestions of this nature will be uncovered, and that they will be related to the everyday realities of the community and policy actors involved.
We aim to spread these impacts as wide as possible. We will map the potential wider network members exhaustively, and select those to be in the network who have the widest forward networks and are most active. The core network is dedicated to seeking further funding opportunities for more collaborative research, and encouraging wider network members to experiment with the methods explored in the workshop, introducing them to a wider audience. Our working paper and policy brief will be in French and English, and artistic outputs of the project will be disseminated as far as possible in appropriate places, in the most appropriate media to raise awareness and start conversations about the agenda. Local languages will be used, and online as well as conventional communication methods will be used in dissemination.
Organisations
- Institute of Development Studies (Lead Research Organisation)
- Research Group in Applied and Theoretical Economics (GREAT) (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON (Collaboration)
- Gaston Berger University (Collaboration)
- International Development Research Centre (Collaboration)
- Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale (Collaboration)
- Mali-Folkecenter (Collaboration)
- Association des Gestionnaires pour le Développement (AGD) (Collaboration)
Publications
| Title | My Earth, my planet |
| Description | This is a song, which is accompanied by a music video. made in workshop kone and team copy words from news item which bits from mariam, which from actors |
| Type Of Art | Composition/Score |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | helped in new project, just come out so ont sure yet of full impact |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duzDulYUpW4&t=25s |
| Description | The stakeholder mapping this project carried out enabled us to understand the nature of the stakeholder pool relevant to our concerns in each context. We have addressed our first objective, to identify relevant actors in the study contexts. Additionally, we are able to say something about the actor landscape in our target countries. It became clear that the artistic community in Mauritania is dominated by the musical and narrative rather than visual arts, with a comparatively stronger representation of the visual arts in Senegal in particular. We found that there is already a small and vocal group of artist activists dealing with issues of environmental destruction and citizen voice in each country. There was an unexpectedly great number of active civil society groups in Mauritania, and it became clear that some were not specifically focused on issues of environmental concern or citizen representation, but were ready to work on these issues if opportunities arose. So, the categorisation of civil society organisations in terms of focal themes was not necessarily a relevant approach in this context. In Senegal, and Mali to an extent, organisations described themselves and their activities as more thematically focused. From the interviews we completed, and the workshops, we elicited some themes that enable us to answer the five 'preliminary questions' we laid out, addressing our second research objective: 'Understand the potentials for and limitations of using the arts for citizen communication to policy, and when these methods are and are not viable.' We see evidence of limited, shrinking and unequal access to routes through which citizens may make their voices heard in some contexts, and racialised definitions of citizenship in Mauritania. There are antagonistic relationships between artist and policy actors in some context, as well as between civil society actors and politicians, but there are also examples of good personal relationships between policy individuals and artists, which are sometimes characterised by compromise and instrumentalism. Communication leading to change more possible when a political or personal channel of influence has been created, usually earlier. We have also seen that the underlying politics of a context informs how far the arts can be used to exert pressure on policy makers, and personal relationships also count for much, in particular between artists, community leaders and those with political power. There is evidence across locations of the potential of art as a medium through which to communicate to policy actors and the public, and even effect immediate social or policy change when used as a form of community pressure, e.g., through pop songs. The arts have been largely used, and successfully and commonly, for communication, not for dialogues. The latter is very hard. In workshops, participants confirmed that the arts have potential for communication and possibly dialogue, but political sensibilities and established hierarchies make the use of the arts to convey sensitive messages fraught. These hierarchies are class, wealth, gender, race and language based. Professional siloing contributes to these difficulties. We recorded opinions that environmental issues may be tackled through the arts, but also issues of environmental injustice and gender related discrimination, and possibly security. In the study contexts, environmental issues are inextricably bound up with social and economic ones. The environment is not conceptualised as something beyond its resource access implications for people. Music has been shown to have particular power, and has been more successful than visual art in some ways at mobilising a larger group of people, but plastic arts can have other more practical functions. Music is particularly powerful when linked to active community groups and youth groups who use digital social media. We have evidence of the potential for communications media to play a role in facilitating artistic communication, e.g. through YouTube and social media. Digital technologies can widen the potential of the arts to do this for some groups but increase exclusion for those who do not use colonial languages or have access to knowledge, electricity and connectivity infrastructure and hardware. Artistic pieces used for communication potentially have an effect of forcing a homogenisation of messages, and simplifying the complexity of verbal debates on environmental issues, which express multiple opinions. |
| Exploitation Route | At a theoretical and academic level, we have contributed to understanding how far the arts can be used as a mode of communication and dialogue in Sahelian West Africa, and found that their role is more likely to be as a successful communication tool than as a tool for dialogue, due to the specific context. However, we also found that the use of the arts as a dialogue tool is possible, in certain circumstances. We discovered that explicit attention to social hierarchies and professional silos is necessary to make use of the arts as a dialogue method successful. We also found that the use of art as a dialogue method is likely to be more productive when an artform is used that resonates with the cultural context. This has practical implications for artists, policy actors, civil society groups and researchers working in the region, who may wish to use these methods either n communication or dialogue. Also at practical level, we have created a stakeholder map as a resource that can potentially be used by others, and it is available in the IDS OpenDocs repository as an appendix to the project working paper. It can be used as a resource for our network members, and others, to identify other organisations in the wider country and region with whom they may partner. Our song and report on how it was created, in the working paper, can serve as a guide for others who may wish to use this method of arts-based dialogue. This may include artists, policy actors, civil society groups and researchers, working in the region or elsewhere. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Environment,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Description | We used our stakeholder map to forge partnerships with stakeholders in the context of our project network, and that of the subsequent project, 'pan-african network'. We then interviewed key stakeholders and brought them into the project network. In workshops, we deepened the relationship to the extent that they co-created new research insights (as detailed in the relevant sections) and outputs - including the project song, and the follow-on funding application. These relationships are not only between the project team and the stakeholders, but also between the stakeholders themselves> although international connections were forged, those at the national level are more likely to be productive. Participation in workshops and interviews led to discussions and reflection about 1. how participants can use the arts to achieve their institutional and societal aims and 2. how their own practice could be enhanced by partnership with us and other network members. In some countries, participants expressed interest is using these methods in future engagement work, and surprise at the findings of the workshops. In these contexts of low trust and engagement between stakeholders, having them work together in workshops is an impact because it creates new working relationships between key stakeholders. The existence of the Facebook group and whattsapp group has served as a communication tool for stakeholders to become aware of each other's work, including internationally. We and other partners have used our findings to create a follow-on project where we were able to develop the method of arts-based dialogue further, and share it with multiple civil society, policy, art and research stakeholders across 5 African countries. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Call: UKRI GCRF Collective Prog - Cultures and Histories of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition |
| Amount | £17,041,160 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/V000144/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2021 |
| End | 01/2023 |
| Description | Pan-African network for the arts in environmentally sustainable development |
| Amount | £130,504 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/W006642/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2021 |
| End | 01/2023 |
| Title | Co-creative arts-based dialogue |
| Description | This is the novel method we used in the 5 national workshops. Members of different groups convene in workshops with the aim of creating an artwork, as a group. The workshop must be facilitated by an artist or an artist and a researcher/ practitioner. groups agree on a theme or are given a theme by facilitators. The first stage is for participants to see examples. The second stage is discussion of the theme. Participants may be divided into workgroups, with members of each stakeholder group in each workgroup. Within the workgroup, they discuss how they want the artwork to look. The artist will have given them the parameters of what they need to create, e.g. words, images, or ideas. They feed back, as groups or individuals. The final stage involves the artist compiling the contributions of participants into a final work. The degree to which the artist creates the work and the participants create it must be established during the course of the workshop by the artist and facilitator, based on the participants' confidence. The final stage is for the participants to reflect on how far the artwork reflects different views, what it shows, and what they gained or learnt from working with others on the artwork. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Use of this method in Mauritania, Ghana, Mali and Senegal led to deepened understanding between stakeholders who had not formerly worked together, and establishent of working relationships. In Kenya, it led to dialogue between policy and civil society groups who had not formerly engaged extensively or meaningfully with ecah other. A guidance note on how to use this method will be published by IDS, and then it will be available to others. |
| Title | Citizen voice interview data set |
| Description | 10 interviews conducted with key stakeholders, 3 in mali, 3 in mauritania, 4 in senegal. Interviews were conducted in french and transcribed non verbatim with english notes. respondents covered artists (3), policy actors (3), and civil society/ advocacy actors (4). Interview schedules dealt with the activities of the actors interviewed and the extent to which a crossover between arts, activism and policy was encountered in their work, successes and barriers to this, the specific messages and issues each actor considered appropriate, in their context, for treatment using these methods, and their personal and institutional opinions about the likely extent of success of using the arts for dialogue and communication in their specific contexts. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Any impacts will be indirect, and attributable to the workshops these interviews informed rather than the interview data set itself. |
| Title | Stakeholder map of actors relevant to arts and environmental policy in Mauritania, Mali and Senegal |
| Description | A database of actors who are relevant to the project ambitions, i.e. engaged in environmental activism, community representation, the arts (particularly arts on the theme of the environment), and policy to do with the environment, and arts and culture. We have mapped 51 in Senegal, 130 in Mauritania, and 42 in Mali, capturing their contact details, core activities and organisational size. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This stakeholder map is an essential output and starting block of the project. It fulfils our first objective, and enables us to carry out all subsequent activities, starting with network partner interviews. Unexpectedly, we needed to make personal contact with many stakeholders in order for them to be incorporated into the map, in order to gain in depth information that was not available online in the West African context. So, contacting them led to the impact of raising their awareness about the issues we are researching, the existence of our partnership, and some of the other organisations within it. The data set is complete in one sense, but in another it is a living document, which will be added to as we proceed through the project. Therefore, we will update it and share via the engagement workshop, which will be an opportunity for new network members to contribute to it in an engaged way, with a 'final' version being produced as this 2-year project comes to an end. There is potential for it to continue as a living document, being added to indefinitely, depending on the nature of future network engagement we commit to at the end of this 2-year phase of partnership building. |
| Description | Conversations with IDRC |
| Organisation | International Development Research Centre |
| Country | Canada |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Researcher Peter Taylor has led conversations with the Canadian funder IDRC, who have expressed interest in engaging with the findings of this project, including participating in the event that will be held as the major project activity. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We are making space for thes partenership to develop as part of the follow-on funding we will seek as part of this partnership project. Our aim is to influence IDRC's own approach to learning more about/ promoting citizen engagements. We expect that this interest may pave the way for growing realisation amongst development actors that citizens are key sources and generators of knowledge on how to tackle global challenges, including the pandemic, as well as environmental challenges and climate change |
| Impact | None yet. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Network of 'citizen voice' extended partners |
| Organisation | Mali-Folkecenter |
| Country | Mali |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The workshops decscribed under 'engagement' served to interest partners/ participants into the new collaboration, and the IDS team made minimal contribution except for to engage in dialogue with some partners on WhattsApp, notable Kone who produced the Malian song. Thus, as intended, most contribution was made by partners. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners organised workshops, liaised with participants to generate interest, and followed up with participants to retain their interest through various modes of communication - largely the phone and face to face visits. Partners publicised the facbook group and the outputs produced in mali, and the follow up project opportunities. partners decided who would be the most likely partners to engage with actively in follow up projects, and who to attract to the facebook group as more passive external audiences. |
| Impact | yet to be realised |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | The partnership associated with the award. |
| Organisation | Association des Gestionnaires pour le Développement (AGD) |
| Country | Mauritania |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The whole award is about creating a partnership between the partners - and a set of other actors who we have started to convene. The project partners are active in the partnership already, and in early 2021 we have mapped other partenrs and met several, and are preparing to covene the main workshop that will consolidate them as members of the partnership. |
| Collaborator Contribution | IPAR: acting as lead partner and steering the project in West Africa and acting as lead contact for partners on the ground, hosting meetings. All partners: performing mapping and identifying future network members, contribute to performing interviews which bring those partners on board. |
| Impact | We are at an early stage of the partnership as of yet. As we work through the project and subsequent projects that we anticipate will result from it, we will enlarge the network. We will begin with those who have been interviewed since 2020. In interviews, we empowered network members and raised their awareness of the possibility of acting on the issues we are focusing on, and their capacity to do so. The network will be working towards the project goals of understanding how the arts can contribute to citizen-policy dialogues, but may also activate more specific issues, probably to do with environmental issues or security. The network is therefore multi- and trans-disciplinary: it currently includes social scientists, economists, a development NGO, and a communications scientist. The expanded network will include policy makers, musicians, plastic artists and community activists. Opening these channels of communication is in itself is an outcome, though we can't say an 'other impact' has come out of it yet. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | The partnership associated with the award. |
| Organisation | Gaston Berger University |
| Department | Laboratoire d'Analyse des Sociétés et Pouvoirs/ Afrique-Diasporas |
| Country | Senegal |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The whole award is about creating a partnership between the partners - and a set of other actors who we have started to convene. The project partners are active in the partnership already, and in early 2021 we have mapped other partenrs and met several, and are preparing to covene the main workshop that will consolidate them as members of the partnership. |
| Collaborator Contribution | IPAR: acting as lead partner and steering the project in West Africa and acting as lead contact for partners on the ground, hosting meetings. All partners: performing mapping and identifying future network members, contribute to performing interviews which bring those partners on board. |
| Impact | We are at an early stage of the partnership as of yet. As we work through the project and subsequent projects that we anticipate will result from it, we will enlarge the network. We will begin with those who have been interviewed since 2020. In interviews, we empowered network members and raised their awareness of the possibility of acting on the issues we are focusing on, and their capacity to do so. The network will be working towards the project goals of understanding how the arts can contribute to citizen-policy dialogues, but may also activate more specific issues, probably to do with environmental issues or security. The network is therefore multi- and trans-disciplinary: it currently includes social scientists, economists, a development NGO, and a communications scientist. The expanded network will include policy makers, musicians, plastic artists and community activists. Opening these channels of communication is in itself is an outcome, though we can't say an 'other impact' has come out of it yet. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | The partnership associated with the award. |
| Organisation | Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale |
| Country | Senegal |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The whole award is about creating a partnership between the partners - and a set of other actors who we have started to convene. The project partners are active in the partnership already, and in early 2021 we have mapped other partenrs and met several, and are preparing to covene the main workshop that will consolidate them as members of the partnership. |
| Collaborator Contribution | IPAR: acting as lead partner and steering the project in West Africa and acting as lead contact for partners on the ground, hosting meetings. All partners: performing mapping and identifying future network members, contribute to performing interviews which bring those partners on board. |
| Impact | We are at an early stage of the partnership as of yet. As we work through the project and subsequent projects that we anticipate will result from it, we will enlarge the network. We will begin with those who have been interviewed since 2020. In interviews, we empowered network members and raised their awareness of the possibility of acting on the issues we are focusing on, and their capacity to do so. The network will be working towards the project goals of understanding how the arts can contribute to citizen-policy dialogues, but may also activate more specific issues, probably to do with environmental issues or security. The network is therefore multi- and trans-disciplinary: it currently includes social scientists, economists, a development NGO, and a communications scientist. The expanded network will include policy makers, musicians, plastic artists and community activists. Opening these channels of communication is in itself is an outcome, though we can't say an 'other impact' has come out of it yet. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | The partnership associated with the award. |
| Organisation | Research Group in Applied and Theoretical Economics (GREAT) |
| Country | Mali |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The whole award is about creating a partnership between the partners - and a set of other actors who we have started to convene. The project partners are active in the partnership already, and in early 2021 we have mapped other partenrs and met several, and are preparing to covene the main workshop that will consolidate them as members of the partnership. |
| Collaborator Contribution | IPAR: acting as lead partner and steering the project in West Africa and acting as lead contact for partners on the ground, hosting meetings. All partners: performing mapping and identifying future network members, contribute to performing interviews which bring those partners on board. |
| Impact | We are at an early stage of the partnership as of yet. As we work through the project and subsequent projects that we anticipate will result from it, we will enlarge the network. We will begin with those who have been interviewed since 2020. In interviews, we empowered network members and raised their awareness of the possibility of acting on the issues we are focusing on, and their capacity to do so. The network will be working towards the project goals of understanding how the arts can contribute to citizen-policy dialogues, but may also activate more specific issues, probably to do with environmental issues or security. The network is therefore multi- and trans-disciplinary: it currently includes social scientists, economists, a development NGO, and a communications scientist. The expanded network will include policy makers, musicians, plastic artists and community activists. Opening these channels of communication is in itself is an outcome, though we can't say an 'other impact' has come out of it yet. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | The partnership associated with the award. |
| Organisation | University of Brighton |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The whole award is about creating a partnership between the partners - and a set of other actors who we have started to convene. The project partners are active in the partnership already, and in early 2021 we have mapped other partenrs and met several, and are preparing to covene the main workshop that will consolidate them as members of the partnership. |
| Collaborator Contribution | IPAR: acting as lead partner and steering the project in West Africa and acting as lead contact for partners on the ground, hosting meetings. All partners: performing mapping and identifying future network members, contribute to performing interviews which bring those partners on board. |
| Impact | We are at an early stage of the partnership as of yet. As we work through the project and subsequent projects that we anticipate will result from it, we will enlarge the network. We will begin with those who have been interviewed since 2020. In interviews, we empowered network members and raised their awareness of the possibility of acting on the issues we are focusing on, and their capacity to do so. The network will be working towards the project goals of understanding how the arts can contribute to citizen-policy dialogues, but may also activate more specific issues, probably to do with environmental issues or security. The network is therefore multi- and trans-disciplinary: it currently includes social scientists, economists, a development NGO, and a communications scientist. The expanded network will include policy makers, musicians, plastic artists and community activists. Opening these channels of communication is in itself is an outcome, though we can't say an 'other impact' has come out of it yet. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Blog - Activists and policy makers explore the role of art in development |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This blog describes the song 'my earth my planet' created in a workshop in Mali during the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ids.ac.uk/news/activists-and-policy-makers-explore-the-role-of-art-in-development/ |
| Description | Blog : The arts in environmental communication and dialogue in the Sahel |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This blog describes the overall Citizen Voice project, laying out the background for understanding when and where arts-based enggaement may be appropriate in the Sahel. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/the-arts-in-environmental-communication-and-dialogue-in-the-sahel/ |
| Description | Citizen Voice Mali workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This was a national level workshop, hosted by the research partner GREAT in Bamako. Participants came from policy, art, research and civil society organisations. Research team staff presented the results of interviews the project had carried out. The musician present performed a song, and 2 painters explained their work on environmental themes. Formal presentations were given by 2 researchers and the representatives of 2 government departments. The closing session involved artistic experimentation. All participants created individual drawings. The artist then facilitated them all contributing lyrics to a song, which she then put to acoustic guitar accompaniment. Each participant wrote one line. All participants joined in singing the song to close the workshop. This performance was video recorded. A workshop report was produced. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Citizen Voice Mauritania workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A national level workshop was hosted by the reserach partner. Participants were from the culture, arts, environmental policy and civil society domains. Participants had general discussion, adn carried out a focused participatory activity where they answered these questions: - What are the priority actions to be carried out for the promotion of communication through the arts? - How to increase citizens' access to communication? - What is the typology of the barriers facing citizens' access to information? - How can we adapt our educational, social and cultural system to the new mode of communication?' They arrived at 12 solutions. 7 were classified as achievable, 3 as partially so, and 2 as unacheivable. The themes of social division and the importance of education and religion were prominent, and the workshop focused heavily on the problem of urban flooding in Nouakchott. These were detailed in a report written by the research partner. The workshop was represented in a painting by the visual artist; a summary video was created where participants relayed their initial reactions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=X1kTkNu1bqw |
| Description | Citizen Voice Senegal workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This was a national level workshop where policy actors, artists, civil society actors and researchers convened to develop relationships between project participants and discuss the role of the arts in environmental dialogue. Another aim was to co-construct an artistic output, but this was not acheived. A member of the project research team presented the results of a mapping exercise the project had performed. Selected organisations/ individuals presented their work/ experiences whch were relevant to the use of the arts in environmental communication, awareness raising, action or dialogues. A discussion followed, in which participants suggested how to involve citizens better in policy actions through the arts. This was reported on in a workshop report produced by the facilitator. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |