YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE reports that the importance of media involvement in advocacy is the focus of discussion at a two-day media training and strategy validation retreat organised by the SCALE project funded by USAID and implemented by the Palladium Group for media practitioners and resource partners in Lagos.
The role of the media as critical partners in influencing society’s way of thinking and facilitating an enabling environment for advocacy issues such as human trafficking, sexual and gender based violence as well as transparency, accountability and good governance in Nigeria was part of issues discussed by media practitioners in the print, broadcast and digital media as well as advocacy experts at a media strategy validation co-creation workshop.
The co-creation workshop which held in Lagos last week at the Southern Sun Ikoyi Hotel in Lagos is one of the activities signaling the commencement of the SCALE (Strengthening Civic Advocacy And Local Engagement) project funded by USAID and implemented by the Palladium Group.
SCALE is a five-year project that supports the efforts of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Business Membership Organisations (BMOs) to influence the development and implementation of key democratic reforms at local, state and national levels across priority development areas for more effective and efficient service delivery in Nigeria.
The media strategy and validation retreat focused on enhancing the capacity of the media as middle men and unbiased umpires between the government and CSOs to amplify key issues in line with SCALE’s project component of improving CSO’s organizational capacity, enhancing capacity for CSO advocacy, collaboration and management, improving policy and regulatory environment for CSOs, secto strengthening and advocacy and countering human trafficking among others.
SCALE operation strategy is based on a theory of change which believes that when CSOs capacity; managerial, financial and advocacy is enhanced, the CSOs can collaborate effectively with each other and the CSOs enabling environment is permissive which ultimately creates a situation where civil societies can effectively engage citizens to improve public accountability, transparency and sustainable service delivery
Participants at the programme agreed that using the media as an advocacy tool is a creative and innovative method that helps to determine what others are learning in communities, amplify specific messages about societal problems to shape public conversation, speak directly to those with influence and apply pressure to policy makers to promote social change.
There was a consensus that the media has a role to play in advocacy that goes beyond the traditional duty of disseminating information to the public; it was emphasised that the media has the duty of giving interpretation to the news they disseminate in a way that will educate, sensitise and allow reorientation of the target audience, bridge the perceived gap in communication and ensure correlation of information, undertake socio- political mobilisation functions, influence public opinion and set agenda through their operations.
The participants further agreed that in advocacy, the media occupies the centre position in the scheme of effecting changes in the society, more especially, in issues where there is a requirement of attitudinal and behavioural change in the people for the purpose of addressing key issues relating to governance and transparency.
Also, the media is expected to engage in wider sharing across sectors especially in identified thematic sectors to aid advocacy activities in a bid to promote a more accountable, transparent, peaceful and democratic Nigeria with more effective and efficient service delivery.
While it was agreed that the media has been doing a lot, there was a call that the media should do more in pushing the activities of CSOs for more impact and beyond the commercial value. Also, the need for a symbiotic relationship between the media, SCALE and its implementing partners was also raised to ensure sustainability even after the term of reference.
It was recommended that the media give more prominence to advocating for issues in line with specific subjects in partnership with the rights-based and civil society organisations as well as BMOs
The media practitioners held that CSOs must identify problems and solutions and place them on the political agenda using the media, which plays a vital role in advancing the conversation around policy debates not only to get leverage, but also to set the public agenda for the discussions of an issue and establish what the boundaries of that discussion will be depending on specific advocacy work.
This assignment, they agreed can be carried out when the media is allowed to play the vital role in increasing awareness about issues using a collaborative approach that combines sensitive reporting together with advocacy and support for  media  personnel was identified as a huge contribution towards attaining success.
Media involvement in advocacy was highlighted as the strategic use of the media to advance public policy initiatives especially on issues that affect the society with the basic aim of promoting healthy public policies as it shifts the focus from the personal to the social and from the individual to the general while addressing the gap between the people and national policies by disseminating policy-related information through media communications especially with the aim to effect action, a change of policy, or to alter the public’s view of an issues.
At the end of the programme, it was agreed that for any advocacy to have impact, media involvement is a must as the media has enormous potential as tools for advocacy due to its attribute as a potent outlet for influencing public opinion and effective communication to a larger audience.
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