Goals
A project
Supported by
In partnership with
Presentation
The Kouman project aims to reduce the risk of violence during the presidential and parliamentary elections in Ivory Coast in 2025 and 2026. Anchored in the electoral process, it will also lay the foundations for structuring and sustaining action to reduce political violence.
Kouman, which means "to speak" in Bambara and is used in Nouchi, a popular language widely used in Ivory Coast, particularly by young people, illustrates the importance of dialogue in clearing up misunderstandings, solving problems and fostering mutual understanding.
The project is based on the premise that combating violence during election periods requires, among other things,
a) access to objective, inclusive and engaging information that promotes transparency while stimulating interest and restricting the emergence and spread of rumours that can lead to violence, and
b) the implementation of rapid and collective education and awareness-raising initiatives.
It aims to consolidate spaces for civic dialogue and collaboration between the media and young people so that they can help inform the public about electoral processes and issues, raise awareness of the harmful effects of misinformation and hate speech on the emergence of violence, and propose inclusive and constructive discourse that contributes to public debate and social cohesion.
Project beneficiaries
- 15 community radio stations present in places where the PREVEL programme, implemented by Interpeace and Indigo Ivory Coast, will be holding collaboration meetings (CDC)
- 20 young people from the CDC (collaboration meeting) and the European Union's Youth Sounding Board trained in Media and Information Literacy (MIL)
- 2,000 young people who will contribute to online and offline dialogues on electoral issues
- 30 young female and male influencers as partners
- The audience for the media and awareness-raising content produced and the population made aware of the EMI
Actions
Training for local radio stations and support for production
- Awareness-raising seminar for local radio station managers in 15 locations
- Practical on-site workshops on producing awareness-raising programmes for staff at the 15 selected radio stationsand support for programme production
- A partnership with the Union des radios de proximité de Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast local radio Union - URPCI) to supply and run the audiovisual content platform and monitor content use
Encouraging young people to get involved in civic dialogue and the fight against online and offline violence
- Training of EMI trainers among 20 young people from the CDC (collaboration meeting) (16) and the Youth Sounding Board (4) and follow-up training
- Organisation of 20 online and offline dialogue sessions with committed young people
- Monitoring social networks and translating the main ideas from social media analysis into audiovisual content, distribution and broadcasting
- Organisation of 3 training seminars for identified influencers
- Setting up collaborations with influencers and monitoring their engagement
Design and production of innovative media content on the elections for social networks, messaging services and local radio stations
- Design, production and broadcasting of podcast episodes and adaptation into radio format (Istorias Media), animated press cartoons and radio fiction episodes (TACHE D'ENCRE), videos in RAW format.
