2-DAY creative communication workshop for CSOs ends in ABUJA

With the objective of improving CSO interactions with stakeholders through their various communication channels, a 2-day creative communications workshop with accompanying sessions on Reporting and Data Visualisation as well as Info graphics creation has been hosted in Abuja by BudgIT in collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation

Held at Prixair Hotels, the well-attended workshop afforded participating CSOs and NGOs the capacity to build their websites and social media outreach by making it more vibrant and enhancing their reports and presentation skills.

After the welcome address by Mr. Oluseun Onigbinde of BudgIT, the company’s Research Analyst, Ms. Abiola Afolabi presented the overview of the work of Budgit which she said is based on the objective of enlightening both the literate, semi-literate and illiterate citizens on how his/her taxes are expended in the delivery of public infrastructure and services within the public circles.

Elaborating, she said, “BudgIT is about creative use of government data by either presenting them in simple tweets, interactive format or infographic displays. BudgIT offers mobile and online solution to trigger discussions around the budget and take the budget beyond a news item to a focal point of debate among Nigerians. Our focus also includes a budget monitoring strategy called ‘TRACKA’ through which capital project in the community can be monitored.

In his presentation, the Policy Lead of BudgIT, Mr. Daniel Azike spoke on the importance of data reporting. He stated that data could be referred to as values, raw facts, observations derived from a particular space. He further said that data is vital for both the management staff and the organization itself in decision-making for efficiency and growth.

Blossom Nnodim in her presentation emphasised the vital role of social media platform in communicative creatively, effectively and with greater impact on targeted audience. In making the social media a creative and effective one, she said organizations need to set out objectives/goals, identify the audience to reach, select a social media platform (tweeter, Facebook etc.), appoint a personnel or a team to manage social media presence, develop a social media policy. She advised that organization can create a blog aside from its official website; this she said will allow regular, flexible and faster interaction with target audience which is not affordable on website that is mostly static for a period of time before it is updated.

On presentation skills and digital analytics, Mr. Oluseun Onigbinde stated the importance and proper handling of data in preparing reports. The use of graph, chart, info graphics and object link representation not only makes report brief and concise but also enhances the impact on the audience. In visualisation of a report he said the following rules should be kept: identify a story, define audience, be objective and offer balance, be inclusive in data approach and keep editing and improving.

The last day of the workshop was devoted to the use of tools for info graphic and pictogram in presenting a report. Daniel Azike who led the session said that info graph gives a summary of a written report. Some online platform for creating info graph and pictograph are; piktochart, datawrapper, www.fitila.ng. There was a practical session on how to use the tools online in creating info graphic, which could also be done using powerpoint.

And bringing the workshop to a close, Mr. Dayo Olaide, MacArthur Foundation Deputy Director (Nigeria) explained that the focus areas of the Foundation were: Human Rights, Girl Secondary Education and Population & Reproductive Health. He commended the work of BudgIT in creating a new approach to reporting and presentation of activities of various organizations using unique tools.

The training ended with a personalized session for selected CSOs on how to improve on their respective publications via magazines, internet (website) and other media channels.