Strengthened Media Strategy Ensured Citizens Engagement

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The Steering CommitteeThe Steering Committee is OGP’s executive decision-making body. Its role is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests; establish OGP’s core ideas, policies, and ru... of the Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More has successfully submitted the Sierra Leone National Action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... on time mainly due to its citizen’s engagement strategy using the media as a major instrument in the engagement plan.

Work on the formulation of a National Action Plan started in earnest in March 2014. During the formulation of the draft, the Committee, with support from the Open Government Initiative, through funding from the World Bank and the Campaign for Good Governance (for the consultations) embarked on national and Diaspora sensitization and consultations in an effort to involve major stakeholders in the process.  All the 14 districts in Sierra Leone were engaged and Sierra Leoneans in the Republic of Guinea, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the United States were sensitized and consulted in town hall meetings. The discussions from these forums was consolidated into a draft, peer reviewed and validated on the 29th April 2014.

To further strengthen the citizen’s engagement strategy, the Steering Committee nominated Ms Yeama Thompson, the Executive Director of the Initiatives for Media Development and also a Steering Committee member to lead the Mobilisation and Media Outreach scheme.  Three other members including Mr. Emanuel Saffa Abdulai of the Society for Democratic Initiatives, Mrs. Marcella Samba Sesay of Campaign for Good Governance, Mrs. Lavina Gbandua of Transparency International and Open Government Initiatives representative Ms Jalikatu Mustapha formed the Media Strategy team.

The team was tasked to help broaden the understanding of the Open Government Partnership and promote the discourse on the challenges identified to foster citizen’s inclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... More on the National Action Plan. A mobilization and media strategy was developed, shared with the team and approved for implementation.  The message was developed with assistance from the Millenium Challenge Corporation and Open Government Initiative and shared with all steering committee members.

Two distinct strategies were identified. These are a community mobilisation strategy and a mass media campaign which includes social media.  With support from the Open Government Initiative secretariat and steering committee members the following were accomplished

1. A Facebook account ‘OGP Salone discussions’  was set up. It currently hosts 230 members.
2. A Sierra Leonean friendly and cost effective social media tool ‘whatsapp’ was effectively utilized to reach as many youths and internet friendly Sierra Leoneans. This promoted focus group discussions on the OGP process. A whatsapp account was also set up for the Steering Committee members.
3. Radio talk shows through media outlets such as Star Radio’s Monologue, Cotton Tree News Inside Salone program, the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation afternoon flagship program, Culture Radio’s Morning Rise Program, Universal Radio’s morning show and the Radio Democracy Radio (98.1 FM) Good morning Sierra Leone programs to name a few, ensured that a majority of Sierra Leoneans were aware and discussed the OGP National Action Plan formulation process.
4. Community radios through the Federation of Civil Society and Media network ensured that these discussions continued at community levels.
5. Through Press Conferences facilitated by the Ministry of Information  a majority of print and electronic media received media advisories on the OGP process.
6. The use of existing structures such as OGI’s ‘Have your say in governance’ television program and SDI’s newsletter were also instrumental in the outreach.
7. The open access meetings of the steering committee by the media also ensured that the press was updated on the NAP formulation.

Feedback from all of these media engagements fed into the NAP development and maximized citizen’s engagement in the process.

The response received from the Global OGP Support UnitThe OGP Support Unit is a small, permanent group of staff that work closely with the Steering Committee and the Independent Reporting Mechanism to advance the goals of the Open Government Partnership.... was inspiring whilst the NAP signals hope for all Sierra Leone.

Image credit: Freetown aerial view, via WikiMedia Commons