Youth EmpowermentYouth Empowermentthrough Technology, Arts through Technology, Arts

and Mediaand Media(YETAM project Cameroon-(YETAM project Cameroon-

WARO)WARO)

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ICT for Local Governance through YETAM ICT for Local Governance through YETAM project in Plan Cameroon.project in Plan Cameroon.

Plan Cameroon is a member of Plan International:What is Plan?

International humanitarian development organisation with:

◦ children at the heart of everything we do

◦ no religious affiliations

◦ no political affiliations

◦ no governmental affiliations

◦ sponsorship is the foundation of Plan

Plan’s vision and Plan’s vision and missionmission

Vision Plan’s vision is of a world in which all children

realize their full potential in societies which respect people’s rights and dignity.

MissionPlan aims to achieve lasting improvements in

the quality of life of deprived children in developing countries, through a process that unites people across cultures and adds meaning and value to their lives.

We strive to achieve our mission by:promoting children’s rightsaddressing needsbuilding relationships

Plan in Cameroon

Since 1996, Plan Cameroon works in 06 regions (Center, East, North, North West, Far North and Adamawa), 534 communities with 28,000 Sponsored children.

Through the in-country gender equality framework, Plan Cameroon underscores girls’ and boys’ rights, access, opportunities and control over resources by girls and boys to facilitate their being at the forefront of development discussions and decisions, with significant curbing of social- ills that threaten this group in Cameroon through the YETAM project.

YETAM project in Cameroon.

YETAM methodology: YETAM project uses a methodology that was carefully conceived and designed in 2008 to strengthen the capacity of youth 12 – 21 years in decision making processes to advocate for respect, protection and fulfillment of their rights with local and national duty bearers.

YETAM methodology offers girls a space to take on leadership and executive, decision making roles and to speak out, because it generates openness in girls and boys to discuss and begin to share an agenda for change

What is “YETAM methodology”

YETAM methodology has offered an amazing tool for integrating youth – a group that traditionally has been left out of Plan’s methodologies. To use technology and social media to create positive change in their society.

Through the use of technology, arts and media, youth identify issues that are really important to them, and build new skills – both personal, interpersonal and technical – that help them in virtually every aspect of their lives.

What is “YETAM methodology”

YETAM goes beyond simply talking about rights and raising awareness. It’s an outward looking program that offers a platform for youth to define their own issues and then take concrete action to address them with the primary and secondary duty bearers.

YETAM has carved a niche in the use of technology, art and social media in the most innovative manner for balanced and sustainable development.

Target groups

YETAM targets youth and children of ages 12-21years from secondary schools, existing youth clubs & youth organization in communities.

Secondary school teachers and administrators, community members and leaders, local council and government.

Plan staff, staff from other civil society organizations

People globally via the website.

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YETAM 2010

• Change of funding body from NOKIA to Finland

• Incorporation of child protection issues onto child participation done in 2009.

•Increase in budget per year which has facilitated the

inclusion of external meetings and scale up to other communities and

schools.

Youth are empowered, to use these diverse forms of new technology, arts and

media to express the issues that affect them

(violence & gender based discrimination) within

their communities, for the duty bearers (sate, council, local leaders and parents) who have the obligation to fulfill them to understand

and come up with the appropriate solutions.

SCALE UP

- North West- North

Councils Selected for 2010 & 2011

OkolaNdopPitoa

Geographical coverageGeographical coverage

Program objective

To strengthen the active participation of youth, especially girls, in decision making processes and increase their abilities to advocate for themselves and their issues with local, national, regional and global audiences

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Main activities

Community risk/resource mapping Training on 21st century skills, leadership,

gender, violence against children, advocacy, communications, ICTs – Frontline SMS, digital map using GPS (Ushahidi, Map kibera), arts, and media for staff, partners, youth and communities

Youth-led actions and participatory advocacy around these themes (small grants, refresher training, on-going support for youth groups, local/national/global events, arts/media dissemination via web and other channels)

Follow up, peer-peer interaction on the issues through the web site, documentation of their follow up, resolution & projects they are doing.

The power is shifting from traditional media to social media

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Using alternative, simple, mostly free media channels and lower cost

equipment, youth produce, consume and share news, music, art,

media, opinions across the globe via the website www.planyouth.org and www.openstreetmaps.com

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YETAM youth collecting way points and tracks in Pitoa

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Use of ICT for good governance

Several ICT and other participatory processes are used in YETAM including;

Community risk and resource mapping Global Positioning System (GPS) for digital maps Flip video cameras, mobile phones for video

documentaries and digital cameras for photography, the internet and social media.

Youth led actions, dialogue and participatory youth led advocacy with primary and secondary duty bearers.

Youth were able to use GPS to collect way points and tracks and produced 03 digital maps for 03 council areas (Ndop, Okola and Pitoa).

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Digital maps and good governance

Digital maps influence decisions of community authorities, council and local government authorities. It clearly shows socio-economic infrastructure (schools, health centers, water points, markets and administrative buildings) that are found in the area where the youths live.

The data base on the map presents facts and figures that expose the realities of the communities.

Mayors of municipal Councils are using this information for strategic planning and to allocate resources during the annual budgetary process to enable balance and sustainable development in their municipalities.

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Ndop area before digital mapap

Ndop area after digital map

Data base of a school on map

Data base of a hospital on the map

Digital maps for Rural Development

Community leaders and Mayors are now working closely with the youth during the planning process and budgetary sessions to prioritize children’s and youth’s rights and allocate projects and resources to needier areas based on the information analyzed from the digital map

Since the digital maps are to be updated in a continual process, the right holders can monitor the implementation of projects and evaluate the effectiveness of their leaders in the use of the budget allocated to them by the government.

http://www.openstreetmaps.com

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Achievements of YETAM project

youth and children gained self-esteem, confidence, research, communication skills and public speaking through the use of several ICT and social media tools;

Improved dialogues in the community facilitated by the youthYouth led actions in communities (clean up campaigns in

collaboration with councils) Improved collaboration with government partners and

dialogue in the communities facilitated by the youth through sensitization meetings.

Advocacy actions, the focused in 2010 was mostly at local levels using arts materials and videos as tools.

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Achievements continues:

Better opportunities for youth and exposure in international conference and events (participation in VAC conference in Ghana and CSW in New York).

Awareness raising to the general public through celebration of the national event on CRC (Child Rights Convention) broadcasted twice over CRTV.

Youth capacity enhanced in project planning and management and they prepared 03 proposals for funding. Proposals have been review by Plan and funding will be done in 2011.

Lil Shira addressing over 250 member states during CSW in Lil Shira addressing over 250 member states during CSW in New York:New York:

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Success stories

Changes in local laws and customs:Abolishment of early marriage by the traditional council

of Bamessing community. Sanctions are well defined for any perpetrator.This was achieved through youth led actions (-

community sensitization meetings on early marriage in gar houses (quarter halls) in all the quarters in the community, staging of drama on early marriage brought out clearly the causes and consequences of early marriage especially on the girl child.

Youth are currently carrying out peer to peer education on early marriage to raise youth awareness on the issue.

Drama on early marriage acted by YETAM youth in Bamessing:

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Success stories continues

Open space for girls and women participation: Girls and women given 10 seats out of 50 seats in

the traditional council for them to participate in the decision making process.

This happened through awareness raising campaigns done by youth on the importance of girls and women participation in the decision making process. Women and girls will contribute greatly on decisions that concern them.

Advocacy actions were done by the youth to the local leaders and traditional council members and today youth, girls and women are represented in the traditional council which was unheard of in the past and in neighboring communities.

Success stories continues

Fund raising opportunities:Ndop giant water supply project has gained

214,000,000cfa ($428,000) from FEICOM (Fonds special d’equipment et d’intervention intercommunale) which will benefit other communities (Bamali, Bambalang and Bamunka Rural).

Water crisis was identified as one of the most pressing issues affecting children in Bamessing community during the community risk and resource mapping process.

The youth produced a video documentary on water crisis which they used as an advocacy tool to dialogue with local leaders, traditional council, development union and the Mayor of Ndop municipal council.

Success stories continues

The mayor and development union (NSEICUDA- Nsei Cultural and Development Association) presented the issue to SNV who accepted to cover the cost of the feasibility studies of the Ndop giant water supply project at a cost of 2,500,000CFA.

The feasibility study was presented to FEICOM by the Mayor of Ndop and after careful study; the project gained $ 428,000 (214,000,000CFA) to support the Ndop giant water supply project with spill over effects to neighboring communities (Bamali, Bamunka and Bambalang communities).

Child protection standard:

Children are kept safe through the use of:Consent forms for children below & above 18 years

and adults for photos and video interviews, Insurance was bought for all children and youth

when they have to move out of their communities.Chaperones (men and women) were assigned to

male and female youth when travelling out of their communities.

Children, youth and partners were trained on safe use of internet for children.

The civil society organization, government partners

and Plan staff were trained on Plan Cameroon child protection policy. All local contracts are signed with the child protection policy attached.

Lessons learnt

ICT cannot be seen as a stand-alone tool for good governance.

ICT tools will achieve better results when used with other participatory processes like the community risk and resource mapping (hand drawn maps), community dialogue, participatory advocacy and youth led actions involving primary and secondary duty bearers.

The ICT tools should be selected according to the development goals and context, and they should serve a clear purpose in the process.

Lessons learnt

Involvement of all stakeholders at all stages with clear explanation of the role of each stakeholder is key for the success of the project.

We faced lots of difficulties in buying-in of government officials and Mayors during YETAM project implementation because they were not consulted at the planning stage of the project.

This was a major handicap identified during the reflection meeting after the first phase of the project.

We adopted continuous sensitization of all stakeholders on YETAM methodology as a way forward and successes were registered in the second phase.

Lessons learnt

Constant availability of energy supply, computers, internet with adequate knowledge of all stakeholders on usage and how to access information on internet is prerequisite to ICT4D and good governance.

Some of our area of operations are facing frequent light cuts, there are limited computers in the schools with a majority of them non functional and the absence of internet access in most of the council areas is a major challenge.

These have to be clearly assessed before the initiation of the project to inform the proposal write up.

Future Prospects Plan Cameroon have submitted a grants proposal for

additional computers and other ICT equipment (Solar panel for electricity and internet) to be purchase for the schools.

Training sessions have been programmed with youth, community leaders, government partners and Mayors on basic computer and internet usage to enable continuous access to information and update of information on the data base of the Open Street Maps.

Outsourcing for possible grants funding is ongoing to generate more funds and scale up the project to all Program Units. The scaling up process will take into consideration lessons learnt and recommendations from the external evaluation that is ongoing.

YETAM project recognized as the most innovative use of technology and social media:

YETAM project was declared winner in the 2011 Global award with a crystal trophy.

Plan International Global award team headed by Mr. Paul recognized the fact that YETAM project has proven beyond reasonable doubts to be the most innovative use of technology or social media in Plan.

The YETAM project, is a ground breaking Project that caught the attention of the communities, Local Traditional, Administrative and school authorities and also had an overwhelming impact on the international scene.

Thank you for your kind attention

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