Masoko: Engaging citizens through experiential marketing :: Partners Tanzania :: Programs

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Children attempting Uwezo Tests Posted by Twaweza

Twaweza partnered with Masoko, a leading ‘experiential’ marketing company, to distribute popular materials and show films across about a third of Tanzania. Masoko, at their initiative, distributed Twaweza materials free of charge by piggybacking them on marketing visits they were doing for commercial companies, using specially designed trucks with platforms for staging shows and showing films. The Masoko facilitators then engage audiences of between 800-2000 at a time with entertainment and discussion of the issues raised in the materials, with a staff person assigned to record feedback. At the end of the year, Masoko also arranged to distribute the Twaweza/Uwezo calendars to thousands passengers traveling from Dar es Salaam to upcountry for the new-year holidays. Distribution and feedback was monitored and photographs taken. Through these approaches, materials reached rural audiences that usually do not have access to newspapers, libraries or other print materials. About 1.2 million people were reached in this way.

Building on the success of this work in 2010, in 2011 Twaweza and Masoko are partnering on an effort where Masoko will visit 27 districts in Tanzania (about a quarter of the country) to inform and engage citizens on two issues: the capitation grant meant to improve quality in primary and secondary schools, and publicizing the Uwezo tool to enable citizens to test their own abilities in literacy and numeracy. Among others, a total of one million copies of three popular materials in Swahili will be distributed to citizens – a story booklet about how a community deals with discovering that their children are not learning, and two pamphlets “My money, my schools” and ‘Are you learning’.