Shujaaz – growing while shrinking some reflections from Keith Sones, head of communications at RIU
27 July 2010
Keith Sones
When I saw Chapta 4 of monthly Shujaaz comic - published at the end of May 2010, it had shrunk to a new format. It is now A5 size, having previously been A4, and thanks to a new printer it is now has a very crisp, clear print quality. But it has more stories and information than ever.
Keith Sones
When I saw Chapta 4 of monthly Shujaaz comic - published at the end of May 2010, it had shrunk to a new format. It is now A5 size, having previously been A4, and thanks to a new printer it is now has a very crisp, clear print quality. But it has more stories and information than ever.
The new pocket-sized format has proved very popular with readers. And, as well as being aesthetically pleasing, the new format offers additional benefits in terms of cost saving as it requires a third less paper to produce - and yet has more pages! Although Shujaaz is printed entirely on recycled paper this is a very welcome environmentally-friendly benefit as the print run is now 600,000 copies a month.
While the Shujaaz comic has become physically smaller the Shujaaz phenomenon is growing fast.
In addition to the regular monthly comics, Well Told Story, the company behind Shujaaz, has been commissioned to produce three special issues to focus on the referendum on the new Kenyan constitution (being held on 4 August) - a total of 3 million copies to be distributed during July. By early August nearly 5 million copies of Shujaaz will have been produced since the first issue in February.
The comics are now supplemented with daily Shujaaz radio programmes broadcast Monday to Friday on 15 local radio stations. Some excellent animated versions of stories from Shujaaz have been produced and are available on the website, for example, growing sukuma wiki (kale) in containers. There are plans to broadcast these on local television stations as soon as a sponsor can be found. If this could be you, contact Well Told Story: Rob.Burnet@wts.co.ke.
Shujaaz has a number of points of interactivity. The SMS responses from readers to featured stories are encouraging: more than 4,000 text messages were received in response to Chapta 4 alone. The Twitter and Facebook following is also growing. In the month after the Facebook link was established, more than 1500 people signed up as friends and the number continues to grow daily. And when a feature on the School Bursary Fund mentioned a website, the following week that website had more than 12, 000 hits.
What Shujaaz has discovered is that the weak distribution channels for some of the innovations they have featured, is jeopardising research uptake. So, for example, the readers in 86 districts in Kenya who asked for information about where they could access improved varieties of sweet potato were directed to only a handful of sources of planting material. Distribution is a real challenge we at RIU need to address if we are to see research in use at scale. Plans to run a feature on cassava in Shujaaz are being put on hold in recognition of the fact that there simply isn't adequate supply of planting material of the improved disease-resistant varieties available to meet the likely demand that would be generated.
However two forthcoming featured innovations should not experience distribution problems. The agricultural story in Chapta 5, which promotes the benefits of vaccinating chickens against Newcastle disease, will put interested readers in touch with both FIPS-Africa's agents as well as their commercial partner, a local veterinary pharmaceutical company. There are also plans to distribute a free packet of maize seed with copies of Shujaaz in the near future.
Plans are also underway to hold a 'coming-of-age' launch for Shujaaz, to be hosted by the British High Commissioner in September. This will be an opportunity to present Shujaaz, already Kenya's largest circulation publication, to business and development leaders in Nairobi, which, it is hoped, will lead to additional support from the commercial and development sectors to enable Shujaaz to become more sustainable. By then the results of an ongoing market research study should be available which will provide independently verified figures for audience size and profile.
RIU is about helping promote the private sector interventions - so I was really interested to see that Shujaaz is being sold at the side of the road by some enterprising young people. Whilst they are making 600,000 copies free and many copies are circulating around family and friendship groups - the fact that Shujaaz can also command a price in some instances is interesting and shows that the private sector comes to find us in ways we don't always expect.
While the Shujaaz comic has become physically smaller the Shujaaz phenomenon is growing fast.
In addition to the regular monthly comics, Well Told Story, the company behind Shujaaz, has been commissioned to produce three special issues to focus on the referendum on the new Kenyan constitution (being held on 4 August) - a total of 3 million copies to be distributed during July. By early August nearly 5 million copies of Shujaaz will have been produced since the first issue in February.
The comics are now supplemented with daily Shujaaz radio programmes broadcast Monday to Friday on 15 local radio stations. Some excellent animated versions of stories from Shujaaz have been produced and are available on the website, for example, growing sukuma wiki (kale) in containers. There are plans to broadcast these on local television stations as soon as a sponsor can be found. If this could be you, contact Well Told Story: Rob.Burnet@wts.co.ke.
Shujaaz has a number of points of interactivity. The SMS responses from readers to featured stories are encouraging: more than 4,000 text messages were received in response to Chapta 4 alone. The Twitter and Facebook following is also growing. In the month after the Facebook link was established, more than 1500 people signed up as friends and the number continues to grow daily. And when a feature on the School Bursary Fund mentioned a website, the following week that website had more than 12, 000 hits.
What Shujaaz has discovered is that the weak distribution channels for some of the innovations they have featured, is jeopardising research uptake. So, for example, the readers in 86 districts in Kenya who asked for information about where they could access improved varieties of sweet potato were directed to only a handful of sources of planting material. Distribution is a real challenge we at RIU need to address if we are to see research in use at scale. Plans to run a feature on cassava in Shujaaz are being put on hold in recognition of the fact that there simply isn't adequate supply of planting material of the improved disease-resistant varieties available to meet the likely demand that would be generated.
However two forthcoming featured innovations should not experience distribution problems. The agricultural story in Chapta 5, which promotes the benefits of vaccinating chickens against Newcastle disease, will put interested readers in touch with both FIPS-Africa's agents as well as their commercial partner, a local veterinary pharmaceutical company. There are also plans to distribute a free packet of maize seed with copies of Shujaaz in the near future.
Plans are also underway to hold a 'coming-of-age' launch for Shujaaz, to be hosted by the British High Commissioner in September. This will be an opportunity to present Shujaaz, already Kenya's largest circulation publication, to business and development leaders in Nairobi, which, it is hoped, will lead to additional support from the commercial and development sectors to enable Shujaaz to become more sustainable. By then the results of an ongoing market research study should be available which will provide independently verified figures for audience size and profile.
RIU is about helping promote the private sector interventions - so I was really interested to see that Shujaaz is being sold at the side of the road by some enterprising young people. Whilst they are making 600,000 copies free and many copies are circulating around family and friendship groups - the fact that Shujaaz can also command a price in some instances is interesting and shows that the private sector comes to find us in ways we don't always expect.
HHH Yes, the design of national policy is important, how our economic development plans for the next five years, how the implementation, how to make our economy even faster. Are designed to advance our focus to invest money in what ways it should be carefully arranged.
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