G-2831

Tsehai Loves Peace

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Financing

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Project Description

Region: Africa

Country: Ethiopia

Location: Addis Ababa

Total Budget: $150,250

Area of Focus: Peacebuilding and conflict prevention



2. The Project

2.1.1 Description of the Project

This project entitled 'Building Peace for Better Well-being' is a response to maximize the practice of social cohesion, respect, critical thinking and conflict resolution as part of building a peaceful society in Ethiopia. For the citizens of Ethiopia who are mostly young people, peace education has become not only important but a means of survival.

After having ranked as one of the most fragile states countries in the 2017 Fragile States Index (FSI), Ethiopia staged a remarkable turnaround ranking as the most improved country according to the 2019 FSI. Despite these improvements, Ethiopia still faces potential instability from internal and external threats, including conflict in neighboring countries. Some long-held grievances between ethnicities and regions resulted in incidents of bloodshed and significant population displacements. In Ethiopian education, peace building and conflict prevention does not seem to have been given due attention, in spite of the increasing number of conflicts the country has faced in the past years. Thus, peace education is urgently needed to deal with increasing conflicts in ethnically divided societies like Ethiopia; it can alter negative attitudes and perceptions, as well as foster peaceful coexistence, reconciliation, and peace-building.

Whiz Kids Workshop (WKW) uses integrated Social and Behavioral Change (SBC) strategy following a socio-ecological model matched by a Life Cycle (LC) approach to help children develop value and respect for self, appreciation of diversity, a sense of fairness and justice, and an awareness of interconnectedness. This will give young people the ability to become global citizens who engage in patterns of thought and possess world views that are built on an understanding of a peaceful world.

WKW will implement the Peace Building for Better Well-being Project that will be mainstreamed across different audiences using animation mass media production, e-learning, school and community engagement. Using socio-emotional and empathetic learning techniques, as well as Human Centered Design, to form the basis of the production process readies youth to effectively handle any situation they might face. Animation has been used as a communication tool in development programs since the 1960s and is still used by social change organizations today . It is a great tool for development as it has the ability to convey complex ideas in a short time and can appeal especially to young people and can address sensitive issues in an open and non-threatening way.

Peace Building for Better Well-being Project utilizes two successful local animation innovations namely Tsehai Loves Learning and Tibeb Girls as well as general public advocacy strategy to promote peace and social cohesion at household, schools, community and system level. Through Tsehai Loves Learning (TLL) and Tibeb Girls animation series, the project aims to promote peace and social cohesion among children, adolescents and their parents so they become peace ambassadors. Tsehai Loves Learning (TLL) and Tibeb Girls are research proven, technology based and cost effective educational platforms that utilize television and radio broadcast, digital e-learning platforms and printed materials to improve the holistic development of children aged 3-18.

Tsehai Loves Learning is led by a 6 year old female giraffe who is the lead character of the TLL video and radio series. TLL is implemented across the country in six regions and produces content in seven local languages. Tibeb Girls is the first animated series led by three Ethiopian adolescent, superhero girls fearlessly problem-solving real life challenges girls face, and shifting attitudes of social norms that negatively affect adolescents' education, health and wellbeing. The series follows their journey as they model perseverance, strength, courage and wisdom to challenge and change societal injustices. Tibeb Girls primarily targets adolescents ages 10 to 18; they are role models of peace and justice who empower young people to rise up against entrenched, limiting beliefs and practices and present girls and women as strong community and peace builders.

Utilizing the power of music, animation and storytelling, Tsehai and Tibeb girls episodes cover comprehensive topics of peace building such as self-efficacy, emotional regulation, perspective taking, empathy, conflict management, perseverance, responsibility, etc with a lens of gender equality, and disability inclusion to drive holistic learning outcomes. While the TV and radio series reaches millions at home, similar content will be modified and designed for online e-learning platforms, classroom learning support that integrates into the curriculums and school clubs as well as community festivals and digital media campaigns. As Ethiopia is conflict-stressed, the project is needed to promote peace, coexistence and a democratic culture among children and youth who are often a target of polarizing and divisive political narratives and misinformation.

Peace Building for Better Well-being Project targets children aged 3-10 through Tsehai Loves Learning platform, adolescents age 10-18 through Tibeb Girls platform and general public, families and decision-makers through Better Well Being Community Outreach and Advocacy work. Whiz Kids Workshop utilizes a collaborative three-team approach to develop its high-impact education interventions: a Research Team, a Creative Team and a Partnership Team. Utilizing the data, testing, analysis and guidance of the Research Team, our Creative Team produces the storyboards, designs graphics, creates videos and writes scripts, songs and teacher/parent training manual that balance new ideas, variety and repetition of key messages. Utilizing different methodologies, we conduct focus group testing on major stages of the production such as script, storyboarding, manuals and video production. Young people's reaction and feedback on the products gets incorporated and we require a minimum 60% attention rate before finalizing production.

The Partnership Team manages our engagement with our Stakeholder Committee and the Content Advisory Group, who are representatives of key local and international partners, government ministries and donors. Together they contribute in the areas of education, peace and social cohesion, media and digital learning, gender and disability experts along with the Creative Team. With input from the Research Team, the Creative Team mixes together the different segments into complete episodes, story books, e-learning courses and festival activities for media, school, digital and community interventions. The production of all content will be monitored by the Content Advisory Group (CAG), where key technical experts as well as the youth themselves will participate to contribute their expertise and views to refine the final products (TV & radio episodes, story books and comic books, teacher and parents' guide, e-learning module and festival activities). The Partnership Team also focuses on program sustainability by identifying other potential partners to invest in or participate in the program. The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Peace (MoP), the Ministry of Women and Social Affair (MoWS) and the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MiNT) will be the key stakeholders for this project. Whiz Kids has long standing relationships with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health and has signed Memorandum of Understanding. Currently active discussion is happening with MoP, MoW and MiNT about this project and MoU will be signed at the beginning of this project with these three ministries. Additionally, as Peace Building for Better Well-being Project is bringing impact in multidimensional interventions, specific strategies and the integration of different key stakeholders are stated as follow:

Media Intervention: Tsehai Loves Learning and Tibeb Girls 26 TV and radio episodes production will reach between 10-14 million viewers and listeners through national, regional and community broadcasting partners. This high quality content serves both young people at home and the broadcasting institution, who have no means of accessing peace education focused production in the local languages. In order to reach millions of target groups both Tsehai and Tibeb Girls will be produced in Amharic and adapted to Oromo, Tigrinya, Af-Somali , Sidaamu Afoo, Wolayttatto and Hadiyyisa languages. Key stakeholders include Content Advisory Group (CAG) for ensuring the quality of content and the 22 national, regional and community broadcasters for distribution of the TV and Radio content.

School Intervention: Public schools are under-resourced and attended by most children who have no TV at home. By selecting 100 schools in 5 cities which are in 4 regions namely Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Sidama, Whiz Kids Workshop will demonstrate how peace education can be integrated into the school system in a sustainable manner to reach children and young people in highly disadvantaged communities. By establishing Tsehai and Tibeb Girls Peace Corner for KG- Grade 8 schools and launching Tibeb Peace Ambassadors in the primary school clubs, students will have a chance to execute hands-on projects that solidify what they learn in the episodes and books. Each school corner will be equipped with TV, android players, Tsehai Loves Learning and Tibeb Girls Peace education videos, Tsehai's peace children's books, comic books, teacher guides and Peace Ambassadors club facilitation guides. The Ministry of Education, regional education bureaus, teachers, parents and students are key stakeholders for this intervention. While the Ministry and education bureaus review and validate content to be included in the systems, teachers and parents will be trained as learning facilitators for Tsehai and Tibeb Girls Peace Corners in the schools. This intervention will reach between 150,000 - 200,000 school children and these numbers will be validated during baseline surveys at the beginning of the project.

Digital e-learning intervention: Tsehai Loves Learning and Tibeb Girls Peace Education e-learning platforms not only will be used as one of the channels to reach youth but also to promote media literacy. Ethiopia has just opened up for private internet service providers and we have already formed a partnership with one. As the internet price drops, e-learning closes the quality education divide and opens up opportunities for young people to access quality content in school and out of school. Due to COVID-19 and the unprecedented school closure, many young people spend most of their time on social media with very little knowledge about how to digest information. Young people should be inspired to problem solve and have the opportunity to channel their energy for self development rather than be misled or confused and frustrated by fake and/or negative news or misinformation. Our program therefore, will work to raise such youth by providing access to relevant content that helps them acquire life skills and critically assess information before they digest it and act upon it.

The 26 episodes that cover necessary critical skills to foster peaceful citizens will be organized into a total of 10 self paced e-learning modules with additional videos that present instructors and hands-on activities can be downloaded for additional learning. Currently Tsehai Loves Learning has a Netflix-like digital learning platform http://tv.tsehai.com/ which provides multiple local languages educational videos to be accessed from anywhere and at any time. It is currently in beta stage with close to a thousand subscribers who are actively using the platform. The Tsehai peace education e-learning module will be plugged into this platform and a similar platform will be built for Tibeb Girls target audience to reach a total of 5,000 e-learners. In collaboration with the Ministry of Peace, as well as development partners, the e-learning course will be provided to youth across the country. Key partners for this intervention include The Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MiNT), Ethiopia Telecom and Safaricom.

Better Well Being Community Outreach and Advocacy Intervention: Through carefully crafted 6 Public Service Announcements (PSA), digital marketing strategy and annual Annual Better Well Being Family Festival, this intervention will create awareness and advocate peace and social cohesion for the general public and decision makers.

Media ethicists assert that learning to live with free expression in the digital age requires a new movement to help people understand that free speech is not without some responsibility. However, the current scenario in Ethiopia is very different. As recent reports indicate, 18% of the 42 million internet subscribers are social media users. For most people in Ethiopia, Facebook is the main source of internet content, meaning many users rely on this platform to find all the content they need to inform their decisions. In recent years, the trend of political figures using such social media platforms to proliferate their narratives and sow populist sentiments into the fabric of civil society. Such methods have been used to gain the attention of the youth and instigate violence and extremism, debasing democracy and the power of institutions. This can motivate discord and despondence among youth, creating the conditions for protest and instability. There needs to be well designed peace advocacy content and strategy to defuse tension and bring communities to a spirit of peace and reconciliation. The Better wellbeing PSA and digital marketing will address intolerant and malicious discourse fueled by social media propaganda mainly affecting youth. In addition, the digital media strategy includes featuring success stories from the different interventions to amplify positive examples and inspire more people to actions that demonstrate social cohesion and reconciliation. The digital marketing, through organic and paid ads, plans to reach over 20 million Ethiopians on Facebook throughout the life of this project.

The Annual Better Well Being Family Festival themed with peace and social cohesion fun activities will bring officials, peace building institutes, schools, parents, children and young people together. This activity will attract 3,000 - 5,000 attendees in the Friendship Park and is planned for the International World Peace Day, September 18th - 21, 2022. Since most materials and digital learning platforms will be completed by this time, this day can also be served to launch the Peace Building for Better Well-being Project and the partnership of EU and Whiz Kids Workshop. Key stakeholders include the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Peace (MoP), the Ministry of Women and Social Affair (MoWS), the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MiNT), local businesses and schools.

Whiz Kids Workshop has nearly two decades of experience designing and executing innovative and impactful projects. The recent nationwide media scaling project that led to partnerships with five educational bureaus and 22 media partners and the overall strong relationships with government and ministries, positions the Building Peace for Better Well-being Project to succeed.

The ultimate goal and logic of the Building Peace for Better Well-being Project stems from the desire to build a peaceful nation by transforming the culture of violence into a culture of peace. Peace education is one of the long-term methods of conflict prevention and transformation among schools, families and communities. The urgency and necessity of such education was acknowledged by the member states of UNESCO in 1974. The 1974 UNESCO's Recommendation about peace education was still vital in 2020 - a year that had seen the tragic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and continued to see a rise in nationalism and hate speech - as it was when it was first adopted. Peace education directly contributes to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 4.7: "By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture's contribution to sustainable development." Although the Ministry of Education is trying to mainstream peace education into civics, teachers and schools lack adequate teaching and resource materials (including ICTs and audiovisual materials) to teach/deliver the principles of peace, cultural diversity and tolerance. In addition, the protection of women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence is recognized as a priority challenge. War also reinforces and exploits gender stereotypes and exacerbates, even encourages, violence against women. Changing these circumstances, devising a peace system, and bringing forth a culture of peace requires an authentic partnership between men and women.

Building Peace for Better Well-being Project aims to develop the human values of empathy, mindfulness, compassion, and critical inquiry as skills for young people so we can thrive as individuals and society. Such learning can not be achieved without intentional, sustained and systematic education for peace. The project will use a Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) approach and contextualise the The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and the World Bank's Step by Step - Toolkit Promoting Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in children and teens curriculum to promote the culture of peace.

Developing social/emotional intelligence and constructively managing self and intrapersonal conflicts, sustaining positive relationships, and forging the most out of life by making responsible decisions and pursuing meaningful goals are foundational goals of peace education. The activity of forming the Content Advisory Group not only provides additional experts from the ministry on the development of the 26 episodes and supporting materials, but also fosters buy-in and active engagement of the government. Formative baseline assessments follow to ensure the selected skills are relevant for the target community and the level of awareness and practice of specific skills. Through creative arts and consultation of the federal ministries and regional education bureaus, the 26 skills will be turned into Tsehai Loves Learning and Tibeb Girls TV and radio episodes that will be adapted to 6 more local languages; these will be expanded to digital and classroom learning support as well as parents, teachers and community engagement activities. In addition, Building Peace for Better Well-being Project will use Tsehai Loves Learning and Tibeb Girls brand as a unique position to weave social emotional learning skills with gender equality between men and women and the role of women and girls in peace and security to drive empathy and understanding. Activities such as different workshops with MoE and RSEBs to co-create, review and validate the different output of this project will ensure the engagement of educational systems in order to build the culture of peace in a sustainable manner. Furthermore the strong collaboration with the education sector will support the commitment for other institutes such as broadcasters. The training of broadcasters and regular monitoring of aired episodes are key activities for the peace education to be mainstreamed in the informal education system which is the media intervention.

Building Peace for Better Well-being Project utilises a range of approaches for its well curated content including mass media, school, e-learning and community outreach to reach audiences in a coordinated manner. This will help to create a surround sound so key messages, positive behaviors and small and doable actions are reinforced directly and indirectly. As a result the project will build a peace culture among a new generation by promoting peace in children and youth through formal and informal education.

The main risk that might affect this project is delays due to the varied government institutions that need to be involved for sustainability and better buy-in.

Building Peace for Better Well-being Project will improve children's and young people's access to culturally and age appropriate peace education by adapting an SEL world class peace education curriculum to the Ethiopian context. SEL builds a set of life skills that help learners better understand their thoughts, emotions, behaviors and actions and enables them to develop more empathy for others and their community. It prepares children and adolescents to effectively handle any situation they might face, in a manner that supports human dignity. The project utilizes creative arts and award winning Ethiopian innovations like Tsehai Loves Learning and Tibeb Girls animation series to effectively communicate and model peace building skills to young people in a manner that's compelling and engaging. Both Tsehai Loves Learning and Tibeb Girls aim to achieve sustainable, peaceful societies through it's strong representation and participation of girls and women in all aspects of peace-building processes.

The project also directly assists teachers in their efforts to educate 'caring and responsible citizens, open to other cultures, able to appreciate the value of freedom, respectful of human dignity and differences, and able to prevent conflicts or resolve them by non-violent means' (Declaration and Integrated Framework of Action on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Democracy, UNESCO, 1995). Beyond the media intervention, it plans to engage young people to run Tibeb Girls Ambassadors Programs within their school clubs to provide opportunities to practice the principles and concepts of peace building in action.

By designing and introducing the first digital learning platform for social emotional learning, it will enhance young people's, parents' and educators' capacities. The use of technology provides a framework for collaboration, cooperation and positive learning experiences such as supporting and enhancing life long learning in addition to providing opportunities to support and reinforce professional learning and development of teachers.

Finally, by launching and maintaining the annual Peace for Better Well-being Family Festival, the project celebrates and promotes a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity at the community level. Therefore, the Building Peace for Better Well-being Project takes on a more proactive approach, aiming to prevent a conflict in advance by providing access and opportunities to peace building skills at the individual, community and system levels.

All activities will be led and implemented by Whiz Kids Workshop. But this project is designed in a way different institutions can contribute to it in order to increase quality, reach or sustainability. Activity 1.1 and 1.2 Creation and adaptation of SEL episodes of TLL & TG in 7 languages will deliver foundational materials that will be used for all interventions. Sub activities such as 1.1.3 and 1.2.3: Establishment of CAG, signed partnership with broadcasters and ministries are crucial activities as they bring commitment of key partners. As the technology and internet service is getting cheaper, the future of learning will be demand driven. Activities 2.1 and 2.2 Tsehai Loves Learning & Tibeb Girls SEL e-learning platforms development and launch will increase accessibility of engaging content at any time and anywhere in the country.

Sustainable initiatives need to be part of the government system. As activity 3.1 and 3.2 indicates, implementing TLL and TG programs in the schools will give a chance for peace education to be integrated in the education system and frame it for future scale up. Finally public engagement and advocacy is done through two activities; 4.1: PSA and success stories will be used for communication to the public and decision makers and on 4.2: Annual Better Well Being Family Festival activity and sustainable plans will be designed. These activities will address formal and informal key decision makers from different sectors to foster a favorable environment for policy change and to strengthen social cohesion and a culture of peace.

This project will not give financial support to a third party.

Following years of repression for dissent under previous administrations, the new government who assumed office in April 2018, ushered in reforms aimed at opening political and civil space. This allowed Ethiopians to freely express grievances over various issues including perceived discrimination against their community or ethnic group. Fake news and hate speech are often released on social media resulting in mass scale ethnic and religious conflicts that have claimed many lives and displaced millions. Among the most highly affected segments of the population has been youth.

With the current civil war with Tigray Region, Ethiopia's well-earned reputation as a peacemaker and mediator is at risk as a result of the current troubled political, military, and humanitarian crises. (Atlantic Council: Understanding the conflict in Tigray (11 November 2020)) It is evident that Ethiopia needs a sustainable long term solution to promote the culture of peace across the nation.

After analysing the different approaches of building the culture of peace, we refer to CASEL (the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning) and the World Bank's Step by Step - Toolkit Promoting Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), internationally recognized resources for educators and policy leaders seeking information on high quality, evidence-based practices regarding young people's social emotional learning.

2.1.2 Methodology and Implementation approach (max 5 pages)

The Building Peace for Better Well-being Project will follow a Life Cycle approach to drive knowledge, attitude and practice across the target audience. For the purpose of this project, WKW uses its innovations Tsehai Loves Learning (TLL ages 3-10) and Tibeb Girls (TG ages 11-18) and applies User-Centered Design and Content Advisory methodologies. These methodologies and approaches will help reach our target audience through the production and delivery of research-based, culturally relevant, age appropriate, and inclusive SEL. In addition, WKW will implement Better Well Being Community Outreach and Advocacy Intervention to foster a favorable environment for policy change and bring about the desired sustained change in the general public. By utilizing Tsehai Loves Learning and Tibeb Girls peace education content, the project will be implemented in four operational pathways:

1. Mass media intervention

2. School intervention

3. Digital e-learning intervention and

4. Community outreach through social media and annual family festivals

To ensure effective implementation of these diverse project activities we will employ a strong monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system based on predetermined success criteria. M&E allows ongoing learning and feedback throughout the design, planning and implementation stages of our program. Thus our project's output influences the future directions the program may take in its scaling pathway and allows levels of flexibility and adaptability to the changing circumstances in the intervention areas.

The Building Peace for Better Well-being Project will be utilizing Whiz Kids's existing innovations such as Tsehai Loves Learning and Tibeb Girls. The project will build on the strong broadcasters and government partnership that we've exercised for many years. Previous insights captured from the broadcasting partners such as providing training for their technicians and co-creation of some segments will be implemented during this project.

Whiz Kids Workshop's extensive experience working with 425 public schools in Ethiopia and in establishing classroom libraries and Tsehai reading corners will be utilized for the Building Peace for Better Well-being Project. 97% of kindergarten teachers reported that Tsehai Loves Learning materials have strongly motivated students and greatly enhanced their knowledge. In relation to community outreach, Tsehai Loves Learning Read at Home Program engaged 10,000 family members on a regular basis in order to cultivate the love of reading at home.

Building on our achievements and insights, we are determined to provide comprehensive SEL education to young people through media, school, e-learning and community outreach in order to create responsible citizens that respect dignity and differences, and are able to prevent conflicts or resolve them through dialogue.

WKW utilizes a collaborative three-team approach to develop high-impact, research based, education resource materials: a Research Team, a Creative Team and a Partnership Team. The Research Team carries out the development of our innovative pedagogy and the broadcast series and learning materials through participation with international and national education research activities. They rigorously monitor and evaluate the impact of each segment, episode, series, workbook and training.

Utilizing the data, advice and guidance of the Research Team, our Creative Team produces the tv and radio series, children books, comic books, teacher and parents guides, e-learning modules and community festival activities. With input from the Research Team, the Creative Team mixes together the different segments into complete episodes for broadcast or workbooks for distribution.

The Partnership Team manages our engagement with our Stakeholder Committee and the Content Advisory Group, who are representatives of key local and international partners, government ministries and donors. The Partnership Team focuses on program sustainability by identifying other potential partners to invest in or participate in the program.

The overall project will be spearheaded by WKW's CEO, an international award winning producer and educator.

The role and participation in the project of the various actors and stakeholders are as follow

● The Federal Ministry of Education and Regional Education Bureau representatives actively participate in content co-design and approval by assigning their experts. Based on the MoU they have signed with WKW, they will be involved in curriculum integration so that the materials produced align with existing educational outlines given from the government.

● The Ministry of Health has also signed an MOU with WKW to collaborate and actively participate in content development and are expected to provide mental health experts.

● Specific partners like Ethiopian Center for Disability and Development will join the CAG for ensuring people with disabilities and disability issues are represented across the project and continue to recommend the best sign language interpretation services to integrate in the videos.

● Children, youth, parents and teachers represent the beneficiaries, know the context well, therefore participate in the content development process to inform and assist the creative team during the content production and adaptation.

● There will be discussion with the very recently established Ministry of Women and Social Affairs (MoWSA) to sign an MoU with Whiz Kids.

They are expected to participate in the design of content by assigning their gender experts to ensure equal representation of both genders as well as further utilization of the project educational materials to advance girls' and women's empowerment

● Addis Ababa University's role is to lead the baseline and end line assessments, and other related research.

● UNESCO, Rotary, USAID, Catholic Relief Service (CRS) and other developmental partners will provide their technical expertise through joining the Content Advisory Group. They will also participate in scaling strategies and driving synergy with existing projects they have.

● The broadcasting partners will be providing WKW with free airtime for the TLL and Tibeb Girls animation series as a result of the impact WKW's endeavors have had on children's education. WKW recently completed a new national reading program under the Tsehai Loves Learning innovation. As part of this initiative, 22 Television and Radio broadcasters have committed a total of 663 hours airtime so far. The program has been broadcasting on multiple channels consistently for over a year and a half. The estimated dollar value of the committed free airtime to date is $1,128,213.16 USD.

● Private partners like banks and other sectors like embassies will be invited to participate and sponsor the Annual Better Well Being Family Festival for International Peace Day and reinforce global citizenship messaging.

We have an internal Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system that is led and executed by WKW's Program Department. Our M&E Officers are responsible for monitoring the project activities on a regular basis. They visit the schools regularly to check if the resources at TLL Corners are being used appropriately and to give necessary mentorship. The M&E Officers also monitor the performance of its mass media intervention by an Internal Broadcast Monitoring tool that is designed to track the status of television and radio broadcasts across all channels. The Program Director is mainly responsible for overseeing all M&E activities to make sure high-quality M&E data is collected, analyzed and utilized to inform project operations and also provides timely reports and insights.

External evaluation will be conducted by a third party, who will be responsible for the overall evaluation of the program. Beginning with the development of an evaluation plan that articulates the intervention's specific outputs, outcomes and indicators, the evaluator will execute the plan and produce publication quality reports.

WKW will employ a branding plan with strategic messaging to ensure the program is promoted clearly, consistently, and professionally, with a high level of visibility that will work in coordination with the EU's guidelines. We will train the creative staff on our communications and branding approach, and facilitate regular briefings on priority messages and talking points on the role of the partner in improving the lives of children and adolescents. In addition to the branding and visibility in each episode produced and broadcast, WKW will prepare and execute a comprehensive package of communication materials such as success stories, press releases, reports, social media and online materials to increase visibility of EU for its funding.

2.1.3 Indicative action plan for implementing the action (Attached)

2.1.4 Sustainability of the action (max 3 pages)

As a social enterprise Whiz Kids Workshop will extend the impact of the Building Peace for Better Well-being Project through the different pathway of the intervention:

Mass Media Intervention: Both Tsehai Loves Learning and Tibeb Girls productions will be animations which have a long shelf life. Tsehai Loves Learning episodes produced 10 years ago are still rebroadcast regularly educating new generations of children. The 26 episodes produced under this project will be rebroadcast with no additional cost for years to come.

152 million African children - one in four - live in a conflict zone. Some 5 million African children were killed by conflict-related disease or hunger in the last 20 years. Tibeb Girls primarily targets girls ages 10 to 15 and secondarily, ages 16 to 24 representing 16% of 157 million females in Sub-Saharan Africa with little to no engaging and relevant content for them. By adapting the episodes into English, French, Swahili and Housa, most African young people will be able to access well designed social emotional learning content needed in most if not all parts of the continent.

In the meantime, the growing number of 652 African broadcasters are in fierce competition for this underserved audience. Lacking adequate funding to produce high quality content themselves, they are limited to purchasing mostly Western programs, yet they hunger for relevant, attractive programming to secure a sizable audience. Tsehai Loves Learning and Tibeb Girls is now available to fill this void. In this way, WKW supplies its world class products to sustain future content development within the continent while increasing its impact and global partnership through African productions made by and for Africans.

School Intervention: By acquiring validation from the Ministry of Education and Regional States Education Bureaus and modeling peace education in 40 public schools and measuring impact, this project sets up future scale up of the project. Through lobbying and advocating, Whiz Kids will work to integrate this project output to be part of the education curriculum as it will sustain and scale this project at a national level. It will also contribute directly to indicator 4.7.1 which monitors progress towards the achievement of SDG Target 4.7, the extent to which peace education is mainstreamed at all levels in national education policies, curricula, teacher education and student assessment.

Similarly, the Digital e-learning will be endorsed by the MoE and available to schools, young people, parents and educators at a minimal cost to sustain the maintenance of the digital learning platforms and additional content production. In addition, the children's books and comic books can be adapted in multiple local and international languages for sale. The Annual Better Well Being Family Festival on International Peace Day is designed to be a reoccurring event. By implementing public private partnership to sponsor major costs of the event, ticket sales and sales of merchandise, revenue will be generated to continue the impact beyond the life of this project.

Risk analysis

Description of risks Proposed mitigation measures

Risks related to the partners - There is a possibility that the project partners do not meet the obligations of the project. There may be a risk that a lack of responsibility and/or of accountability to the affected population could result in short-lived projects having little impact. An agreement must be made and signed by the parties in order to abide by the set rules and regulations to be followed in the process. Improve mechanisms for sustained dialogue and communication during all stages of the innovation process.

Health and Safety: If the health and safety of the project team is not given due attention regarding COVID-19 protocols, the project will be affected. Create a health and safety policy, identify hazards, evaluate the risks and complete a risk assessment, provide staff training and have procedures for reporting incidents.

Political instability/unrest - armed conflicts may arise in the intervention areas and can have a devastating impact on the children and their education. Schools may be closed because of insecurity. Assess risk in the country, use consultants or government advice, create contingency plans, and address the education needs of children in high-risk areas through creative programming and implementation.

The Building Peace for Better Well-being Project will be made sustainable after completion of the life of the project as follow

Financial sustainability: By collaborating with international media monitoring organizations, WKW will measure audience reach and impact of the project to continue to build evidence for the program. This will help raise more funds to produce additional content or adapt it in more languages to reach more audiences with meaningful resources. Additionally, we intend to generate income through selling TLL and TG full episodes and supporting materials to organizations that educate their beneficiaries by using Social Behavioural Change Communication materials and will reinvest to create more quality content that helps children and youth to become peace builders. Income generated from sales will be used to maintain digital e-learning platforms, annual festivals and advocacy of peace education integration into all schools.

Institutional sustainability: Efforts undertaken in this project will be sustained through close collaboration with the media broadcasting channels to bring about a lasting impact in the lives of the target children, adolescents and their families while still contributing to national peace. The broadcasters will provide free airtime for broadcast and rebroadcast of the episodes and enable access of peace education to millions of children. The Peace corner and the materials can be integrated into school curriculums to enhance the learning process and access to the students. To this effect, WKW will continue to strengthen the capacity of the teacher and school system for successful scale up and implementations. We also ensure the proper documentation of the production content which is shared with the broadcasting agencies for future rerun or when the need arises.

Policy level sustainability: As a result of implementing local and tested solutions, WKW has managed to sign MoUs with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health to bring integrated systemic change in development. By sensitizing the achieved results of this project, Whiz Kids will closely work with relevant government stakeholders so that they will mainstream the peace content in the curriculum and distribute resources on peace education among all Ethiopian schools.

Whiz Kids will share the knowledge and learning by employing a mix of written and electronic means and personal interactions. This includes but is not limited to: impact stories, case studies, regular newsletters, websites, conference presentations, videos and articles on different social and traditional media. Project impact stories will be shared in different local and international media coverage and conferences. An effort will also be made to disseminate the ongoing learning through a quarterly newsletter to developmental partners, Ministries, universities, broadcasters and relevant stakeholders.

2.1.5. Logical Framework (Attached)

2.1.6. Budget, amount requested from the contracting authority and other expected sources of funding (Attached)

2.2. Lead applicant's Experience (Attached)

Primary Host Partner

District: 9212

Rotary Club of: Addis Ababa-West

Primary Contact: Sharon Ann Ashton

Email: ashton.sharon@yahoo.com

Primary International Partner

District: 3211

Rotary Club of: Tangasseri Quilon

Primary Contact: Lester Fernandez

Email: f.lester70@gmail.com

Project Status

Dropped
This project has been "Dropped". Check the history log entries to see why it was dropped.

Project listed for the 2021-22 Rotary Year.

Proposed Financing

Existing Contributions Towards This Project

Date

Cash

DDF

Total

Addis Ababa-West (9212)

19-Oct-21

$3,000

$5,000

$8,000

Tangasseri Quilon (3211)

19-Oct-21

$7,000

$0

$7,000

Remaining Amount to Raise

Additional Club Contribution (Needed) - Add a contribution

$131,250

-

$131,250

Amount Requested from The Rotary Foundation

-

$4,000

$4,000

Total

$150,250

Note: as of July 1, 2015 there is a 5% additional support fee for cash contributions. This fee does not appear in the financials above because it does not apply if the funds are sent directly to the project account (without going through TRF, and therefore without Paul Harris credit). Clubs sending their cash contribution to TRF must be aware they will have to send an additional 5%.

Project Supporting Documents


There are no documents yet for this project.
Go to the administration page to upload documents.

Project Photos


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Go to the administration page to upload photos.

History Log Entries

19-Oct-21

System Entry

System Entry: Creation of project page.

19-Oct-21

System Entry

System Entry: Pledge of $10,000 with $5,000 DDF by Sharon Ann Ashton of the Rotary Club of Addis Ababa-West, District 9212.

19-Oct-21

System Entry

System Entry: Pledge of $7,000 by LESTER FERNANDEZ of the Rotary Club of Tangasseri Quilon, District 3211.

2-May-23

System Entry

System Entry: Project dropped per lack of response to the carry-over notification emails.

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