By Ambika Kapur, Coordinator for Dissemination and Media Programs, Carnegie Corporation of New York

When Andrew Carnegie established Carnegie Corporation of New York to continue his philanthropy in perpetuity, his mission called for the "advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding." Dissemination of learning and information was important to Carnegie: he believed it was imperative that his foundation support ideas, strategies and models that were worthy of being shared.

As part of the commitment by Carnegie Corporation president, Vartan Gregorian, to renew and modernize the work the Corporation does, he encouraged the foundation’s grantees to incorporate dissemination strategies into their work. Through the Corporation’s dissemination program, new grantees are brought together from time to time for strategic communications workshops in the United States and Africa conducted by leaders in nonprofit communications. Curricula include communications fundamentals, mission and message development, media readiness training and Web communications. During the workshop, grantees working on similar issues meet to discuss ways they can collaborate on communications.

Primarashni Gower, Wits University and Amanda Philander, University of the Western Cape.

In Tanzania and South Africa in 2002 and in Ghana in 2003, the Corporation offered grantees who are part of the Corporation’s Strengthening Higher Education in Africa initiative an opportunity to participate in strategic communications workshops. Inspired by the success of these workshops, the Corporation held a conference in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2004 to establish a network of African university public affairs professionals. The program designed for communications officers and senior-level staff responsible for articulating their institutions’ values and messages to wider audiences was attended by twenty-two representatives from Tanzanian, Ugandan, Ghanaian, Nigerian and South African universities.

The Corporation decided to hold the conference in South Africa this year to coincide with the country’s celebration of its ten years of freedom and democracy.

The conference began with a keynote address by Nasima Badsha, Deputy Director General for Higher Education in South Africa. She addressed the delegates about the current state of the higher education system in South Africa and the challenges it is facing in its transformation over the past decade. “The South African higher education system has clear strengths, albeit unevenly distributed,” she said. “Even though, by the mid 1990s, the system was responding to the changed social order in terms of the changing demographic profile of student enrolments, the levels of effectiveness and efficiency of the system reflect a range of systemic problems,” she explained. Some of the problems she noted included the overall quantity and quality of graduate and research outputs; management, leadership and governance shortfalls; lack of representative staff profiles; and institutional cultures that have not transcended the racial divides of the past.

George Debrie, University of Development Studies; Erasmus d'Almeida, University of Education, Winneba; Helen Kawesa, Makerere University; and Stella Amoa, University of Ghana, Legon.

Many participants felt that Badsha’s speech was informative and educational. “It was wonderful to be able to listen to a high-profile person detailing relevant issues we face at our universities every day,” said Nicole Chidrawi from the University of Cape Town.

To end the opening session, the participants took part in a South African drumming session led by The Drum Cafe of Johannesburg. A team of musicians taught the participants how to play the same beat on their drums and how to listen to each other in order to make music as a group. The participants spent an hour playing drums as an interactive team-building experience. “This was a great way to break down barriers, create a common ground between all of us and make us remember the value of listening and learning together,” said Amanda Philander, a participant from the University of the Western Cape.

During the next four days, the conference focused on strategic communications and public affairs related issues such as management, crisis communications and coalition building among university professionals, students, alumni, media and the public.

APCO Africa, a public affairs firm based in Johannesburg with extensive experience working with nonprofit organizations, led the workshop. They were assisted by guest speakers and experts from other institutions specializing in public affairs and communications in Africa.

Pamela Adams and Dasarath Chetty, University of Kwazulu Natal

The conference included a session on crisis communications and crisis management. This session focused on guidelines, examples, tips and tools to deal with a crisis at a university and outlined the principles of communicating with the media during a crisis. The interactive nature of this session encouraged discussion around a case study, which was based on a funding crisis at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa in April 2004. Guest speaker Brian Gibson, a specialist in the field of issues management, expanded on theories covered in the workshop in an address to the participants in this session.

Another session focused on understanding and illustrating the importance of sound media relations and the handling of the media during a crisis. It suggested methods for managing the media in such a situation and explored the media psyche as well as pressures that could be expected during a crisis. The practical exercises here included “ambush” interviews of each delegate such as one might have to deal with in a crisis situation, techniques for maximizing interview opportunities and guidelines for becoming a credible spokesperson. Feedback was given to each delegate and each delegate was presented with a video recording of their interviews. Guest speaker Kenneth Walker, a former journalist, discussed the importance of developing media relationships, the need to establish a database of media contacts and the importance of maintaining those links. “I found tremendous excitement among delegates for several of my suggestions on how to build relations with the press—especially regional data bases of journalist, regional listings of university experts and regional journalism awards,” said Walker.

Titania Fernandez and Nicole Chidrawi, University of Cape Town.

The alumni communications session focused the attention of the participants on a potentially large and in many cases, poorly addressed and untapped university audience—their alumni. This session also aimed to define effective strategies for alumni communications and to draw up guidelines for establishing an alumni association. Patric Mellet, guest speaker from the South African Institute for Advancement, spoke at this session about the need to communicate and how to communicate with university’s alumni, and what the benefits are to both the university and the alumni.

Another session focused on the online environment and the benefits and shortcomings of online communications. The goal to empower the participants to implement effective online communications strategies at their respective universities. A range of communications tools relevant to the online environment and practical exercises on maximizing their effectiveness, as well as practical tips on news and information monitoring, were presented.

The last session at the workshop was designed to address every organization’s need to manage and maintain its reputation at all times and particularly during a crisis. It defined the nature of public affairs and the public affairs environment, public affairs drivers and the skills and tools necessary for effective communications in the public affairs arena. In this session, Derek Swemmer, registrar of the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, provided practical guidelines on reputation management in the university environment.

Susan King, Vice-President, Public Affairs, Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Besides the formal workshop sessions, additional time and forums were allocated for in-depth networking and deeper understanding of common issues shared by African universities. For example, at registration, delegates were assigned to one of four fictitious universities created by APCO Africa so that the participants would work with people from other universities, rather than just with their own colleagues, in order to encourage them to form stronger relationships. The participants worked in their fictitious universities throughout the conference, break-away and feedback sessions and found this format very helpful. As Stella Amoa, a participant from the University of Ghana said, “The workshop was well-structured. The blend between theoretical and practical components ensured learning took place in a vibrant and interactive environment.”

Some of the other informal sessions included, an “off the beaten track” tour of Soweto, an evening at the theatre and site visits to the University of the Witwatersrand and University of Pretoria. Most of the participants were very moved by the tour of Soweto where they visited Nelson Mandela’s house and the Hector Peterson Memorial. “The Soweto tour was very educative about the true South Africa,” said one participant. “It is a clear testimony that true independence for South Africa is yet to come.” Another participant said, “The Soweto tour was definitely the most impressive experience. It was important to see not only the life in the affluent suburb of Johannesburg where the conference was held, but also to get a close look at the real life of Soweto and learn about South Africa’s not-so-distant past.”

The workshop concluded with dinner at a restaurant that featured an address by Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN's Johannesburg bureau chief and correspondent. Hunter-Gault joined CNN in April 1999 from National Public Radio, where she worked as the network's chief correspondent in Africa. As an experienced journalist covering Africa for many years, she told the participants about the importance and role of the media in relating the African story. She shared stories about her experiences as a journalist, giving many examples of important events she had covered. She said it was important for all universities to improve relations between the public affairs personnel at the universities and the journalists who actually cover them, as well as provide academics with a working knowledge of the real concerns and pressures of those journalists. Participants found the contribution she had made as a journalist in Africa inspiring. Some however expressed concerns about relating to journalists in telling stories about their universities. “Hunter-Gault’s speech was inspiring, but the realities of working hand-in-hand with the media for university professionals is a real challenge in Africa. We still have a lot to learn,” said Julius Saule, senior public relations officer, University of Dar es Salaam. Tanzania.

Nasima Badsha and Susan King.

Based on evaluation forms and general comments made by the participants, the workshops were a great success. “The conference has left a lasting memory with me,” said Nasir Bello, a participant from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria. “I thank Carnegie Corporation for the opportunity to take part in this workshop. I met and developed relationships with my colleagues from other universities in Africa and I plan to be in touch with them from now on.” Wilson Yale, another participant from the University of Jos, Nigeria said, “The workshop was a very rewarding experience and I am optimistic that it will improve my job performance in many ways.”

Workshop participants formed an alliance of public affairs university professionals at the meeting and joined the Carnegie Corporation Africa Extranet, an online network for follow-up training and advice that also serves as a forum for collectively sharing experiences and challenges among them.

The Corporation has always encouraged its grantees to incorporate dissemination strategies into their work and is hopeful that the public affairs professionals at the African universities will continue to collaborate on and thereby strengthen their communication strategies well beyond the conference in Johannesburg. The Corporation believes that by investing in the ability of their partners in Africa to “advance and diffuse knowledge,” the mandate given to them by Andrew Carnegie, they will be able to contribute more effectively to creating a vibrant intellectual environment in Africa that will nourish social, political, and economic transformation in the region.

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