Empowering the boy, girl child via SMS

Tanzikwa Guranungo Correspondent
Zimbabwe is one of the 40 countries in the world with an unacceptably high rate of child marriages where girls enter into marriage before they turn 18 years, the United Nations Children’s Fund report has revealed.

UNICEF said according to the 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, 32,8 percent of women aged between 20 and 49 reported that they were married before they were 18 while 24,5 percent of girls between 15 and 19 years are currently married.

President Mugabe, traditional leaders, Members of Parliament, church leaders, child parliamentarians, youths and children have all called for stiffer penalties on perpetrators of early child marriages.

Because of the high percentage of early child marriages taking place in Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Youth Council, UNICEF, child parliamentarians and stakeholders who are in youth and child development came up with an idea of information sharing regarding any harmful social practices being done to children. A platform known as U-Report was established in the country. The platform will not only focus on early child marriages but anything that concerns the girl and boy child in their respective communities.

With one of the youngest populations in the world -60percent aged between zero and 18 years, the U-Report will provide young Zimbabweans with a confidential, individual and interactive platform free of charge via SMS.

The U-Report service will enable demand creation tailored to specific services and referral to a location nearest to all registered young people; and it will track and report on knowledge gaps and emerging issues related to development issues and other programmes around the country.

To date, more than 10 000 U-Reporters have registered and are actively participating on this platform. Harare province so far dominates the registration statistics with 49 percent followed by Manicaland with 46 percent while Mashonaland West is at 44 percent. Matabeleland South and North are at 38 percent and 32 percent respectively.

U-Report is an innovative tool designed to engage young people through SMS on various developmental issues within their communities. U-Report gives young people a platform to speak out on what is happening in their communities and to exchange views with other young people on various issues of concern.

Every week, messages and polls are sent out to U-Reporters via SMS. U-Reporters respond through SMS and their responses are analysed and forwarded to relevant authorities for action. To register as a U-Reporter, one should be aged between 10 and 35 years old.

To register as a U-Reporter is very simple. One joins by just texting the word “JOIN” to “33500”- this number works on all the three mobile network providers operating in Zimbabwe. These are NetOne, Econet and Telecel.

Sending and receiving messages to U-Report is completely free! Registered users will immediately receive a message asking them to provide a nickname, year of birth, gender, province and district. After answering these questions, registered users will receive a message confirming them as a U-Reporter. What is exciting about this service is that , U-Report does not require anyone to register using their real name.

After being registered, on a regular basis, a question will be sent to the registered user via SMS. This question will have other follow-up questions. Once all questions are complete, another SMS thanking registered member for participating and inviting you to check the results on <https://zimbabwe.ureport.in/> will be sent.

U-Report has multiple uses. It can be used to raise awareness on issues such as HIV and AIDS, early child marriages, child abuse, child labour and emergency preparedness to mention but a few. It can be used by policy makers and elected representatives to find out what their constituents’ views are on a particular issue. U-Report also allows for real-time monitoring of projects and programmes based on information collected directly from young people.

The writer is Public Relations Manager for Zimbabwe Youth Council.

U-Report relies on volunteer community members serving as U-Reporters on a free entry, free exit basis to provide information on issues in their communities. U-report allows citizens to speak-out on what is happening in their communities, provides a forum to amplify their voices through local and national media, sends alerts to key stakeholders about the issues their constituents are facing, and feeds back useful information to the U-reporters, so they are empowered to work for change and improvements in their localities themselves.

The U-Report service will enable demand creation tailored to specific services and referral to a location nearest all registered young people; and it will track and report on knowledge gaps and emerging issues related to development issues and other programmes around the country. Apart from offering a way to monitor education and child protection, U-Report has also been a catalyst for more responsible and responsive governance as members of parliament and media are engaging with it.

The U-Report platform is implemented by the Zimbabwe Youth Council with the support of UNICEF. A committee comprising ZYC, Ministry of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, Ministry of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services and UNICEF meets regularly to review progress and propose poll themes. Other partners are invited to participate if they are interested in the results of a particular poll.

So far the Zimbabwe Youth Council and other stakeholders have popularised the U-Report in Midlands, Masvingo, Manicaland, Bulawayo, Mashonaland Central provinces and the Matabeleland region.

Originally piloted in Uganda, U-Report is now being implemented in many countries including Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, DRC, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, sierra Leone and South Sudan. Outside Africa, U-Report is operating in Chile, Pakistan, Jordan, Indonesia and Mexico. Many more countries are lined up to participate.