In 2019, I was tasked with concocting a name and brand identity for an embryonic movement that I co-founded, and that would become Catalyst 2030, a global network of social innovators. A serendipitous result of this endeavour was the birth of LESA Communications.
For over 20 years, ‘my real job’ was working in African rural communities and diverse radio communications initiatives. I focused on education, agriculture, health, and economic development through a social enterprise I founded in the late 1990s, Lifeline Energy. In collaboration with local NGOs and international aid organisations, these projects lie at the heart of Lifeline Energy’s mission to arm communities and schools solar and wind-up radios and MP3 players, enabling 24/7 listening access. More than just providing tools, we invest in people, training local trainers to use and maintain these devices effectively.
Power of communications in development
The power of communication was immediately evident to me, particularly in development coupled with community radio. I witnessed it offering a local language megaphone for underserved communities to voice their concerns, exchange vital information and drive community development. I wasn’t the only one to recognise this potential. The 1990s and 2000s saw an explosion of African community radio stations. Organisations such as BBC Media Action, Farm Radio International, and Internews played a pivotal role in this growth, training community members as journalists, producers, and writers. Also, professionals from national broadcasters, including Radio Mozambique and the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, contributed to this wave of capacity-building. Women’s voices were being heard in a way never before.
Equally, I saw how well-funded US and UK organisations produced misguided radio content to be loaded onto our solar MP3 players. One US-government-funded company astonishingly created an English language series for South Sudanese set in a trendy fictitious coffee shop in Juba. Surely, relevant English training, without cappuccinos and debit card payments, could have been produced for the world’s poorest and least-literate country. A British NGO created a multi-country English language lesson series set amongst the hustle of London’s Victoria Station – an oddity for people more concerned about clean drinking water than the 10:15 to Bristol. Millions were spent with few benefitting.
I also saw the real dangers of bad communication. For example, in South Sudan during an outbreak of Ebola along its southern border with Uganda, pictorial Ebola information posters were everywhere created by international agencies in English, which most people didn’t speak and the imagery was a bit confusing. All over Africa I’ve seen vital health posters created in English or French, when the targeted audience doesn’t speak the language or the people in the posters don’t look like them. Whenever I’ve needed posters or instructions to accompany an initiative, local cartoonists can best determine how people will relate to the messages.
Like anywhere, both good and bad communications exist, but in a development context the consequences of poor communication could be a matter of life or death.
When serendipity calls, you don’t just let it go to voicemail
In Q3 2019, I nestled into my Zoom square with a mosaic of social entrepreneur faces when Jeroo Billimoria, the de factor founder of a new global movement of social innovators, challenged me to create a name for it. In collaboration with the other 50 or so co-founders, we did – Catalyst 2030. The Lifeline Energy team, which also became the LESA Communications team, went on to create the tagline, brand colours, brand identity guidelines and a starter website, all before its launch at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2020. We have our Creative Director, Karen Vollaire, to thank for much of that.
Our all-star all-women LESA team is made up of professional writers, designers, editors and technologists who care deeply about the power of effective communication. Each is outstanding at what they do. LESA is the culmination of years of learning and a testament to the transformative power of community-focused communication, shaped by the voices and stories of the people it serves.
We thrive in the social innovation/entrepreneurial space and this is where Africa’s new narratives will be told.
Radio, the ‘grandmother’ of African communications, is still rocking the airwaves as the most used communication medium in Africa. That said, no single technology serves all needs. It’s essential that good communication across appropriate media is utilised. This ability to thoughtfully link the audience and message is LESA’s strength. I like to think of us as an orchestra where we play all the instruments and hit the right note for our audiences.
2024 is already shaping up to be interesting year and I’m excited for what it will bring.
