After traveling to Afghanistan to conduct an in-depth media evaluation, the Center is working with local partners to use edutainment to address the challenges of dealing with Afghanistan’s multiple informal and formal judicial sectors through a serial radio drama. The Center is also using new technology and radio to provide youth with the capability to inform others on legal issues and solutions.
Local media in Afghanistan offers a valuable and effective platform for improving the public’s general understanding of the dynamics and the complexities of the country’s rule of law system. USIP is therefore working with local partners to produce a curriculum-based interactive radio program, which will use edutainment to demonstrate the promise and perils in building satisfactory dispute resolution mechanisms. The series will not only leverage the well documented power of drama to shift attitudes, but it will engage listeners in critical thinking and creative problem solving, by inviting them to contribute ideas and suggestions to the storyline throughout the life of the broadcast. In this way, the program content and production process will work together to reinforce the importance of Afghan participation in charting a path towards successful rule of law.
Publications related to this project:
Afghanistan Media Assessment: Opportunities and Challenges for Peacebuilding
December 2010 | Peaceworks by Eran Fraenkel, Emrys Shoemaker and Sheldon Himelfarb
Commissioned by the Center, this report assesses Afghanistan’s media sector through a new tool developed by USIP, which combines elements of a traditional media assessment with conflict analysis.
Special Report: Can You Help Me Now? Mobile Phones and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan
November 2010 | Special Report by Sheldon Himelfarb with contributions from Cecilia Paradi-Guilford
Based on a meeting that brought together a cross section of the leading innovators in the use of mobile phones in difficult environments with Afghanistan specialists and government policymakers, this report summarizes the key points and expands on them with additional research and analysis.
October 2010 | Special Report by Simon Haselock
This report illustrates the importance of local ownership in peacebuilding and stabilization operations—not just in concept but in practice. It does so by drawing on the author’s personal experiences with post-conflict media reform over the past fifteen years in countries ranging from 1990s Bosnia and Herzegovina to present-day Afghanistan. It argues that the lack of practical local ownership in Afghanistan is a considerable factor in holding back progress there.
Peace Brief: Media and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan
March 2010 | Peace Brief by Sheldon Himelfarb
Following a meeting of experts on media and conflict convened to consider opportunities and challenges for peacebuilding media in Afghanistan, this report was drafted to share the results of the session with featured presentations by distinguished experts representing the full range of media activities in country.
The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s).