Mondo activities March-April 2016

The main activity in March was the preparation of the study trip to Ghana. The inicial plan was to include one journalist from the Media4Development project and quite as a last minute thing we got the opportunity to involve two policy makers as well. A student and a teacher were also a part of the group, but they were able to participate thanks to a global education project supported by the MFA.

The journalist who travelled to Ghana – Bianca Mikovitš – is working in the biggest agricultural newspaper in Estonia – Maaleht. Maaleht is a part of Ekspress Grupp and is mostly read in the rural areas in Estonia. The topics vary greatly, but are usually somehow linked to agriculture or rural life in general. We contacted Maaleht in the beginning of the M4D project, but at the time they were in the process of changing the head editor, so we were put on hold so to speak. Bianca was very interested in travelling to Ghana from the beginning and keen on learning about the major topics in the area.

The policy makers involved were Henn Põlluaas – member of the parliament and also a member of the foreign commission of the parliament – and Kaili Terras from the MFA.

The preparation process was quick and busy, as ERR's film crew also decided to travel during the same time, so our team was also assisting them with visas, background info and other prep-work.

The trip itself was quite successful and the participants seemed to be satisfied. After a call with Bianca, Aliine learned some things that will come handy when planning a study trip next time.

You can see some pictures from the study trip here and read Bianca's articles here:

• Four articles: http://digileht.maaleht.delfi.ee/elu/eestlaste-abikaed-ulatuvad-ghanasse?id=74143505
• One article: http://maaleht.delfi.ee/news/maaleht/uudised/homses-maalehes-kuidas-henn-polluaas-tegelikult-ghanas-kitse-ostis?id=74296001

In March we also started preparing for the next bulletin (Mondo Arengupoliitika Teataja) that will be printed and distributed in May, aiming for the dates prior to the World Humanitarian Summit. Aliine met with Mati Raidma – a member of the parliament and expert on humanitarian assistance – to discuss the possible articles and stories that would form the core of the new bulletin.


Another preparation that started in March was for Arvamusfestival (Opinion Festival) that will take place in August. Aliine went to the first preparation meeting and also had a chat with ERR's coordinator for Arvamusfestival (Tiit Kimmel) – the panel that will be a part of M4D project will be arranged together with ERR. The panel will focus on media ethics and development.


In April we also posted a public call to look for young journalists who want to take part of the Helsinki training in the end of April. The Facebook post was quite popular and reached 5500 people without an extra boost from our side (our regular reach is around 1000-2000 people). We received 7 applications and chose 4 journalists to take part of the Helsinki training: Piia Puuraid, Anette Parksepp, Madle Timm and Rait Roop.

The Helsinki training was a success (as usual for events arranged by Maiju and VIKES :) ) and the four young journalists from Estonia are really promising journalists with a wide perspective to the world. The first one of the group will already take part of the Palestine study trip in July.

Policy-makers trip to Ghana

NGO Mondo organised a combined policy-makers study trip and educators award trip to Ghana in March 16-26. The participants included Kaili Terras: Head of Development Cooperation Bureau, Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Enn Põlluaas, Member of Estonian Parliament; Bianca Mikovitš, journalist from Maaleht; Viktoria Rudenko, teacher from Pae gymnasium, winner of "School World-day" competition; and Margit Saal, gymnasium student from Otepää gymnasium, winner of student essay competition.

Visiting a cocoa farm in Kumasi

Meeting the Nabdam District administration

The aim of the trip was to get an understanding about the opportunities and constraints for development in an sub-Saharan country and to see how EU and Estonian development cooperation works in practice. During one week the participants had the chance to visit the EC Delegation in Ghana, a cocoa plantation and Kuapa Kokoo fair trade cooperative, Kumasi market as well as Mondo's development cooperation work in Northern Ghana. Mondo has worked for the past 6 years in Nabdam district in Upper-East region close to Burkina Faso border which is the poorest part of the country - lately affected also by desertification caused by climate change. The activities in the community include educational support to primary and secondary students, school linking between schools, income generating activities for women and support to schools and health centres. Estonian teachers, nurses, midwives and designers have served as volunteers in the region. The group had the chance of visiting the District administration, schools, local homes and women's cooperatives. At the same time there was also a film crew from ERR filming a documentary about the shea butter and basket makers cooperatives that Mondo helped to set up recently. The documentary will come out in the autumn.

After the trip the participants have been active in speaking and writing about their experiences in both social and traditional media. A Ghana evening was also organised at Mondo on 22 April to discuss the results of the study trip and Mondo's activities in Ghana.

Hon. MP Henn Põlluaas learning basket weaving

Teacher Viktoria Rudenko giving a class in Kongo JHS

Study trip to Kenya, authentic stories in the (social) media, roundtables and travelling exhibition

Study trip to Kenya

By the end of January winners of photo and article competitions in Lithuania - Akvilė Norkute and Vaida Blažytė - as well as journalist Lauryna Vireliūnaitė and project’s media specialist Giedrė Biržytė went on a study trip to Kenya. The aim of the trip was to collect authentic, first-hand stories of local Kenyan communities. Thus, the programme of the trip included a number of visits to distant villages and slums of the capital city Nairobi, meetings with Kenyan NGOs and local people. The delegation visited Ol Pejeta nature reserve, Huruma slum, met women of Samburu tribe, members of self-help groups in Nairobi.

Stories collected throughout the study trip are being publicized in the national media and presented in public discussions.

A meeting with Samburu Women, January 2016

Roundtables with journalists

Three roundtable discussions were organised to foster more in-depth discussions by journalists visiting developing countries with the public.

By the end of January a roundtable on albino situation in Tanzania was held. Vaida Blažytė, the winner of the article competition, shared her insights about the social marginalisation of the local albino community in East Africa and presented her experience while shooting a documentary on the topic. Issues of prejudice and health care were highlighted. Possibilities for Lithuanians to contribute while overcoming these difficulties were addressed as well.

A Roundtable with Journalists, 21 January 2016.

At the end of February the second roundtable took place where participants of the aforementioned  study trip to Kenya presented their experiences there.  The audience was introduced to the socio-political situation of the country as well as stories about HIV-support community and self-help initiatives in Nairobi slums.

A Roundtable with Journalists, 26 February 2016.

In March, the third roundtable was held where Lithuanian journalists and lecturer at Vilnius University Džina Donauskaitė and radio journalist Živilė Kropaitė shared their stories from their recent trip to Nepal organised by the Minority Rights Group. The journalists covered not only the diverse ethnic constitution of the country’s population, but also discussed the reasons behind the ineffectiveness of humanitarian aid provided by the international community after the earthquakes that hit Nepal in 2015.

A Roundtable with Journalists, 23 March 2016.

Additionally, in February another roundtable was organized in order to bring together participants  (professionals and amateurs) of photo and article competitions on development organized in 2015. Prospects for future cooperation and developmental journalism in general as well as the code of conduct for development journalism were discussed there.

Photo exhibition

The photo exhibition The World As You See It continues to be displayed in different venues: Šiauliai Stasio Šalkauskio gymnasium, Institute of International Relations and Political Science at Vilnius University as well as in Education Development Centre. The exhibition will further be displayed in the Lithuanian Parliament and it will travel around the country reaching inhabitants of smaller Lithuanian towns.

Photo Exhibition at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius, March 2016.

Article section

In January a new section was introduced in the national daily Lietuvos žinios in order to reach a wider public and familiarize it with current development issues. Every Saturday the stories of Lithuanian journalists that visited developing countries as well as selected articles from the article competition organised in Lithuania last year are published there. Each article is accompanied by an introduction into a certain aspect of development cooperation disclosed in the publication. 12 articles have been published so far, including those selected by project partners.   

“People of the Ocean” by Berta Tilmantaitė in “Lietuvos Žinios”, February 2016.

Appearances on TV

On the National TV morning programme “Labas rytas, Lietuva” project writer Vaida Blažytė and media specialist Giedre Birzyte appeared respectively on 19 January and 21 March with stories from the Kenya trip.

Social media

Facebook continues to be a priority channel social media communication. The trips and round tables with journalist provide attractive content and the audience steadily increases.  Since March boosting of the stories published in the media enabled to reach wider audience from approx. 4000 to 16 000 users. For example:

Example of Facebook post boost

Currently, the Facebook account has almost 2000 followers. Since January 46 posts with hashtag #M4Dproject appeared on the site.

Since January Twitter was also used as a social media communication channel. The profile has already reached 49 followers and 20 tweets using hashtag #M4Dproject were posted. Twitter is not very popular in Lithuania, however, it is on the rise, especially among policy makers, experts and opinion leaders. So it is these particular groups that are targeted through this channel.

Social media campaign targeting the most common development myths is underway. It will be conducted with the help of videos of a well-known Lithuanian stand-up comedian and special photo series.

Media outputs by Jana Fedakova

Jana Fedakova, one of the VIKES training participants was granted the first grant from the project budget to visit Zanzibar and Kenya in December 2015. She was finding out there what influence the boom of tourism focused on rich foreign tourists has on inhabitants of Zanzibar, how Kenya manages to mobilize domestic resources and what is the business environment like in this country. 

Truth about tourism in Zanzibar

The island on the East coast of Africa has become a holiday destination for a rising number of people and the government is proud of the number of tourists that already reached 200.000. But there is poverty behind the walls of luxury resorts. Not only the inhabitants of Zanzibar do not benefit from the tourism but the West tourists bring to this Muslim island the behaviour not acceptable by local culture.

Photo: J. Fedakova, Zanzibar beaches attract tourists

Kenya offers 10 year tax holidays, investments increased twice

Have you decided to start your own business? Try it in Kenya. If you invest a million of USD you are not obliged to pay the income tax until your profit reaches one and half millions of USD. Dr. Moses Ikiara the Managing Director of the Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest) sees this a good way how to attract foreign investments in the country. Despite warnings of non-profitable organizations that thanks to transactions within own corporations, the multinational companies manage to declare profits close to zero.

African countries overtake each other in tax incentives, says expert

According to Alvin Mosioma, the founding Executive Director of Tax Justice Network - Africa, a lot of African countries face the challenge to collect income taxes from their inhabitants. They are paid only by a small group of inhabitants and the grey economy dominates. In his view, it is not good that countries depend on the consumption tax like VAT because if people do not have enough money for purchasing then the states do not gather enough this way. He does not find this tax fair as the poor and the rich pay the same tax rate.

In Kenya, all employees pay income tax at the rate that depends on how much they earn. Small businessmen like taxi drivers and farmers do not pay income tax because it is difficult to define their income. They pay VAT that is connecting to their business activities. The big companies apply the rule of double taxation - if they operate in two countries they pay taxes in only one. Kenya has got an agreement on double taxation with Mauritius. If a company registers there to pay taxes there, it does not pay taxes in Kenya. But it pays taxes neither on Mauritius because of high tax benefits.

Photo: Archive: Alvin Mosioma