
4 minute read
UNICEF Botswana Youth (U) Reporting For Positive Social Change
By Lorraine Kinnear
In 1989, world leaders made a historic commitment to the world's children by adopting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international agreement on childhood. It’s become the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history and has helped transform children's lives around the world. The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), now known as United Nations Children's
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Fund in Botswana, plays an instrumental role as guardian on matters surrounding the rights of children. The world today not only requires advocacy of children's rights; it allows the youth to be expressive on how organisations may contribute to the betterment of their lives.
Taking us through UNICEF's sought-after programme, U-Report, Kabo Komanyane, Interim Communications Assistant of
UNICEF, was previously the U-Report Program Coordinator.
ABOUT U-REPORT U-Report is a platform designed specifically for young people aged between 10 and 24 in developing countries to speak about issues affecting them. This platform promotes citizen-led development and good transformation at the community level; through the utilization of the cellphone Short Message Service (SMS) and is also supplemented by social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Young people's thoughts and ideas are collected and skillfully used to highlight actionable societal concerns through weekly poll questions. The platform also allows young people's voices to be heard on local and regional media by sending out alerts to relevant stakeholders about issues affecting them while also providing information to U-Reporters.
One of the activities to highlight within the U-report program is the Digital Livelihoods Education Programme. Recently, UNICEF Botswana visited Nata Senior Secondary School, where they met with students involved in this program. The initiative gives young people an opportunity to leverage their talents, build digital and entrepreneurial skills and develop a design mindset.
Kabo Komanyane
Talking about the future of the initiative, Kabo Komanyane said, "Botswana intends to strengthen community-led development and citizen engagement through U-Report. The platform will allow citizens to speak out via SMS and other channels such as polls and unsolicited messages addressing what is happening in their communities. It also provides a forum to amplify their voices through local and national media, send alerts to key stakeholders about the issues they face in their communities, and give feedback to the U-reporters so that they are empowered to work for change and improvements in their localities."
In the Botswana context, U-report stands to serve three complementary outcomes. It intends to engage youth more meaningfully in decision-making processes at national and sub-national levels. This engagement and consultation will enable UNICEF to convene key government counterparts and sister UN agencies around a common initiative. Furthermore, it will also help improve knowledge of key challenges and opportunities facing young people to inform dynamic programming with and for adolescents across Botswana. And it will aid civic engagement in the decision-making process and behavioral change initiatives at a community level.

THE SUCCESS OF THE U-REPORT PROGRAM The success of this program in Botswana can be attributed to partnerships with other parties who have already established youth audiences like Sky Girls BW, the Ministry of Health and Wellness, and other partners that expose the program to the youth. "U-Report allows young people from any community, anywhere in the world to speak out, respond to polls, and be positive agents of change. It takes a data-led approach to select topics to address and leverage digital channels to reach as many young people as possible. The project aims to amplify the voices and views of young people in developing countries in a real-time information system that allows community participation. It’s designed to strengthen community-led development, citizen engagement, and positive change," states Kabo.
The essence of the U-report is to change the lives of young people around Botswana; this is part of the global efforts made to empower young people to use their voices for positive change.
Since its launch in Botswana the U-report has been a useful tool to engage the youth on a wide scope of critical topics such as climate change, health matters such as Covid-19, HIV/AIDS, Gender Equality, Education, and more such as human and child rights. It is far-reaching and spreads to the most remote areas of Botswana, and this can be one way of ensuring that all children's voices are heard, and that all voices are used to have a meaningful, relevant, and positive impact. Children are our future leaders, they need to be empowered. The U-report serves as the right platform for children to learn and understand the issues that affect them and use collaboration to solve such matters.

