Thanks to DJ Titus Twish, a slice of #sfrome makes it to The Economist

One of the best moments of the week, is when I get around to read one of the latest issues of The Economist, as typically I have to catch up with two and sometimes three issues!

What ever the case may be, I love that fraction of a second when I go the pile in my room and pick the latest issues, because I know I’ll be spending a couple of gratifying hours.

The readers of IFAD Social Reporter blog will remember our coverage of the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair and Rob Burnet’s keynote address “Sex and Money”. 

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when in reading the Christmas issue of The Economist, I came across the story entitled “Kenya and Charles Dickens: Great expectations - Some parts of Kenya can justly be called Dickensian”. 


In this issue, The Economist covered the story of  DJ Titus Twist -  the very person at the heart of Rob's keynote speech. The very person who kept 400+ participants in a state of awe for over 40 minutes. The very same person who came to life thanks to the artistic talent and creativity of our very own Nancy White.


I was so happy that the story of DJ Titus Twist had made it to The Economist! Kudos to Well Told Story, kudos to Shujaaz, kudos to DJ Titus Twish, and kudos to Rob and all the team.

And as I was reading the article, I thought to myself thanks to DJ Titus, a slice of Share Fair and #sfrome also made it to The Economist!

For those who missed Rob Burnet’s keynote address: “Sex and Money”, you can remedy by watching the inaugural ceremony of the Share Fair. Rob’s keynote is around 50th minute to the recording.   

Also make sure you read the blogposts from our army of social reporters and check out issue 3 of the Daily Corriere

• http://ifad-un.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-can-we-make-agriculture-more.html
• http://blog.sharefair.net/2011/09/well-told-story-effective-communication.html

For us at IFAD, the Share Fair was one of the many highlights of 2011. We would like to finish the year by paying tribute to all our keynote speakers -  Etienne Wenger, Rob Burnet, Mark Davies and Michele Payn-Knoper; to our army of social reports; to the insightful presenters; to the wonderful facilitators; to our sister-agencies; to the steering committee members; to all our partners; to the 700+ participants who for four days energized our building, to the volunteers  and to the wonderful share fair support team, who on 21 December received one of the 2011 staff awards,  for their instrumental role in making this event such as memorable one.

In closing, we wish you all a Happy New Year. May 2012 be a peaceful and prosperous one for everyone and let's join forces to keep the spirit of #sfrome alive. 

Daily Corriere issue number 3 - The Share Fair newsletter

View more documents from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

How can we make agriculture more attractive to young people in Africa?

by Anna Spiteri

Rob Burnet very aptly entertained the audience at the Fair Share this morning by weaving a well told story about the characters he helped create in the ever popular comic series in Kenya.

Searching for ideas in the media space amidst election tensions in the country, he realised that half of the Kenyan population of 39 million, were under 18 years old, and that nobody was reaching these youths. So the story of Boy or DJB evolved...a young man, clever, unemployed..without tertiary education..and living on the peripheral slums in Nairobi... Rob told us that ...DJB did not want to join his friends who left school and eventually turned into gangsters....because he had a secret...in his bedroom he had built an FM radio, called shu jazz. And every evening he broadcasted to other young listeners, all young, young girls and boys determined to make things better for themselves, rather than succumb to ganghood.

So together with DJB other characters were invented and a whole team came together to produce stories with a message in a comic format, 32 pages long on recycled paper...with excerpts appearing in the Daily Nation. The whole team of script writers and graphic artists are all young talented people from 18 to 23 years old, many of them coming from the slums..so they have first hand knowledge of the stories they portray. They also go and test their stories in the field..in spaces where the young people they are portraying actually live...The 10 million comics produced so far are very popular with young kids and are written in the new speak of the Kenyan youth....This success led to the setting up of a dynamic show ...where smses and phone ins and jokes are all part of the show with a record of 97 million contacts since last year and 45000 conversations a day. There are 20 FM stations every day reaching half of Kenya s youth with tens of thousands of sms messages streaming in .....creating this level of illusion in a cyber space where this young man and his friends live... a magical world...carried away with a good story..with a message...

Rob understood that young people are not interested in development talk..they are interested in having fun and making money.....as his encounters with groups of young people in rural spaces taught him...but he found a way...He showed excerpts from the comics where the story ends with a message inserted inside the story.....messages on planting seeds ; or how to vaccinate baby chicks against the Newcastle disease or how important it is to soak your seeds!

His final shot was a Chicken of Change...also a character in a comic ...giving the messge that more attention should be given to livestock..partly aimed at the government to do more about livestock. Rob messages were simple...but very important for anyone who wants to follow in his steps 1. It s not the what..it’s the how.....it s urgent and it needs to happen 2. Push does not work..it has to be Pull.. 3. Research must go all the way to the user 4. Need to communicate, it does not happen by accident...requires professional media people ; and money. One needs to invest to achieve impact.....