SA broadcasters launch joint campaign against HIV/AIDS

ABMP steering committee chair and SABC COO, Solly Mokoetle says, "This is an historic moment of unprecedented collaboration among competing broadcasters to intensify their contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa."

"In our support of this initiative we are putting national interest above business competition to challenge all Africans, and particularly young people, to consider what they can do as individuals, family, communities and nations to realise the vision of an HIV-free generation," Mokoetle adds.

Series of PSAs

The new initiative, which will encompass all types of broadcast media programming over the next three to five years, begins with a series of public service advertisements (PSAs). The PSAs feature outstanding Africans, including first woman President Johnson-Sirleaf and Nobel Laureates Desmond Tutu and Wangari Maathai, promoting the message that individuals can create a personal response to the epidemic.

Subsequent phases of the multi-year initiative will focus on the behaviours and attitudes that drive HIV infection in Africa, including gender inequity and AIDS stigma. The initiative will combine PSAs with longer programming, developed by participating companies that integrate campaign themes across media platforms -- from news and entertainment to drama. Participating companies will co-ordinate messaging and strategies on HIV/AIDS across geographic boundaries and companies, while remaining sensitive to local context and needs.

ABMP is an historic pan-African coalition of commercial and public broadcast companies committed to significantly increasing and improving HIV-related programming throughout the continent, and to promoting leadership against AIDS. ABMP members have pledged to devote a minimum of 5% of daytime programming (approximately one hour daily) to HIV/AIDS themes, one of the most significant AIDS awareness commitments by broadcasters anywhere in the world.

Skills development

ABMP is also working to help develop program production capacity and broadcast skills across member companies, to promote joint production of HIV/AIDS-related content.

Members of ABMP range from Africa's largest and most powerful media companies, such as the South African, Nigerian and Kenya Broadcasting Corporations, to smaller, locally focused broadcasters such as Angola National Radio and Radio Lesotho. Broadcast media is highly influential throughout Africa -- radio is almost universal on the continent, and TV reaches about 40% of Africans, a rate that is much higher in certain countries. New media, such as Internet and mobile phones, are also becoming increasingly popular.

"ABMP differs from many other AIDS awareness efforts both in the scope of its reach, and in the fact that its messages are designed to inspire positive action against HIV/AIDS," notes Solly Mokoetle.

"Broadcast media has played a critical role in building AIDS awareness across the continent, but we all agree that these efforts must be strengthened and better co-ordinated. This initiative will encourage viewers and listeners, especially the young people who are at highest risk of infection, to adopt healthy lifestyles to reduce their HIV infection risk, and to challenge the stigma and discrimination that drive AIDS underground."

ABMP member companies will:

• Integrate HIV/AIDS themes across all of their programming - in news, public affairs, entertainment, and drama;
  
• Develop and share HIV/AIDS-related programming, which includes the key themes and messages of ABMP's strategic communications framework, individually and in collaboration with other ABMP members;
  
• Work together to strengthen each other's broadcast skills and production capacity, improve journalistic standards and operations, and develop editorial policies and quality-assurance guidelines on HIV programming; and
  
• Will evaluate the impact of their efforts on an ongoing basis, using and agreed monitoring framework and benchmarks.

Reinforce message

Through a partnership with the African satellite broadcaster MultiChoice, ABMP will also reinforce broadcast messages through a complimentary SMS number that allows viewers to text on their cellphones what they are doing to advance an HIV-free generation. It is hoped that the SMS number will be used in future phases to provide additional consumer information about HIV/AIDS.

ABMP has been initiated in response to the Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI), a program developed by UN secretary general Kofi Annan, in collaboration with UNAIDS and the Kaiser Family Foundation, to encourage the world's media leaders to develop new strategies and increase their efforts against HIV/AIDS.

The Kaiser Family Foundation provides operational, technical and financial support to the ABMP. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and The Merck Company Foundation provide additional financial support.

"HIV/AIDS has devastated Africa and will continue to do so, unless we use every tool available to educate and change attitudes about the disease, and to promote positive changes in individual behavior," states Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"About 7600, mostly young people become infected with HIV in Africa every single day. We agree with secretary general Annan and with the companies that make up the ABMP that broadcast media can and must play a key role in the global effort to bring us closer to an AIDS-free generation."

For more information, go to www.broadcasthivafrica.org