Week 2A: What is meant by collaboration? What kind of collaboration are you involved in?

Archived English Discussions Collaboration
#35

I am Martin Mwape a broadcaster at Breeze FM in Zambia (Listen at 178.netromedia.com:8000/BreezeFM).

Though late, I would like to contribute to week 2 topic.

I take collaboration to be cooperating to do work together to meet one anothers target or goal. I will give an example of a Broadcaster, a farmer with challenges in farming, a farmer making success in farming, an agriculture reseracher, a policy maker etc. A broadcast (Like me) want comuunicate infomration for the benefit of a farmer who is strugling. But the broadcaster may not know clear what strugles the farmer goes through. The strugling farmer also may want to commnuicate his/her strugles to relevant people to help but may not have a platform to do so. These two must collaborate so that the farmer gives the broadcaster the strugles and the broadcaster porvides the platform. Now in the same scenario, the succesfull farmer may have solutions to the strugles of the farmer and the broadcaster may want these soultions. The two must coperate to relay the information. The reseracher may have discovered new technologies and these may be good for the farmers but with no platform, the messages can not go to farmers and hence the need to wiork with the broadcaster. The polciy aker need to know the farmers needs for them to make poilicies for the farmers and so they have to work with broadcaster to know what the farmers needs atre and communictae the governmnt policies. In the end I just see that collaboration is wokrking togetgher in which every stake holder meets thier goals. A win win situation.

In my farmer programme production, I collabirate with stakeholders like the government Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change NGOs like total Land Care and Conservation Farming Unit, Farmers, Agro Dealer and many more.

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#36

I like this and I think you should add “such that both benefit”

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#37

:smile: @rehema
We are together. In collaboration, we all seek to archieve a certain gaol and we all benefit.

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#38

Less I forget, collaboration needs to do with these elements which I named ELEVEN POWERFUL ELEMENTS OF COLLABORATION: vision, communication, brainstorming, trust, support, skill, teamwork, discussion, connection, cooperation and planning.

  1. Vision: Both stakeholders and broadcasters must have the same vision toward the programme they wants to collaborated on.
  2. Communication: Regular communication between them should not be overemphasis time to time.
  3. Brainstorming: This must not eluded on day to day activity of both stakeholders and broadcasters.
  4. Trust: To achieve effective farming programme production, stakeholders must trust the broadcasters and vise vasa. Faithfulness and loyalty are also needed here to establish the trust.
  5. Support: Both stakeholders and broadcasters need to support each others to achieve the goal of effective programme production. At times any of them may need transport fare or voucher’s fee for the purpose of the programme, they should be able to provide such support for each other at this time.
  6. Skill: The skill of both stakeholders and broadcasters is highly needed to achieve a good farming programme.
  7. Teamwork: They must both work in team to achieve a good farming programme.
  8. Discussion: Both the stakeholders and broadcasters need regular discussion to know what next in the subsequent episodes.
  9. Connection: Time to time connection is also vital because this will enhances their planing.
  10. Cooperation: If maximum cooperation is not with them, nothing effective can comes out of their farming programme production.
  11. Planning: Effective programme planning brings meaningful programme production. As we all know that programme planning takes 70% of any presentation, if this fail here the farming programme will be fruitless and the listeners will lose interest on such programme.

With the above I think collaboration in farming programme with stakeholders can be successful.

Mike Kuwoye.

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#39

Hello good people in this group.
I am Victor Asumani a producer working with Nkhotakota Community Radio Station in Malawi Central Africa.
Talking of Collaboration simply it means working together in different ways like but with the aim of achieving something good for the targeted people.
for example there can be collaboration in the work for a particular area where there is a need of constructing abridge.
Like in my country Malawi where there is construction project, the procedure is for the right holder should contribute sand and bricks where the duty bearers or government to provide cement, iron sheets , window and door frames and paint or brick force wires.
so for all the concerned team to fully involved there is a need of collaboration to take part.
the same should happen in agriculture programing where all parties involved in the programing should also be available for the work to be easier. for example farmers extension workers, Lead farmers agro dearls Agri- Organizations plus us media.
If all the parties works hand in hand then all things shall move on well.
the collaboration which i have been involved in is about the distribution of Farm In put subsidized product FISP which Malawi Government is implementing so far for a number of years now.
in our district Nkhotakota the, district Agriculture department involved all of us who are members in in the District Agriculture Executive Committee in the exercise so that we should all appreciate the situation in the. district.

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#40

Good day to every body,Olusina Motiasan from Ejulenen93. 7fm igbodigo, okitipupa, ondo state, Nigeria. A programmer,producer,presenter,reporter and a newscaster.I really enjoyed every body in the house and I thank you all.in fact am more than loaded with what you impacted to me on collaboration thanks so much

#41

But my questions are:is it always advisable to be collaborating is collaboration always beneficial.I stand to be corrected

#42

Hello all,

We have come to the end of Week 2. Thank you for all your contributions. This topic was all about your understanding of collaboration and sharing the kind of collaboration you are involved in.

I believe even those that have been confused now are clear on what collaboration is all about. It all comes down to two or more people working together towards shared goals. This means in collaboration there will be teams involved in processes for a certain purpose.

In terms of the kind of collaboration you are involved in, I will quote just one for now, even though a number of you shared as well:

The list shows different ways one can collaborate with a stakeholder. We should note though that there is a difference between collaboration and cooperation. Some of the relationships radio stations form with stakeholders are more of cooperation than collaboration. When you don’t have an agreement (formal or informal) of working together for a particular goal then you are only cooperating. Inviting an expert to share his or her expertise on a certain topic through an interview with no shared vision or goal is asking the expert to cooperate with you as a radio station. They might pitch up or disappoint you because there is nothing binding them to assist in the program. It is until both parties negotiate to partner or work together on a particular program would you consider it collaborating.

I would also like to thank the resource people @Yakubu and @bfiafor for their input.

Enjoy your weekend!

#43

Fantastic lessons have I learnt so far. Thanks be to FRI for the privilege given to us at Ejulenen Community radio, Igbodigo, Ondo State Nigeria

#44

Collaboration means working in partnership with other stakeholders be it government departments, farmers organisations or committees and fellow radios or non governmental organisations. These collaborations can be according to the areas of specialization or expertise of the entities joined together. Therefore, government departments may be good at organising farmers into meaningful groups, NGO bringing new innovations, famers experimenting the new innovations, and a radio or NGO as is in my case publishing the experiments, success stories and progress through radio, social media, television and other channels.
The example of such collaboration that s Story workshop areas is doing with the department of Land Resources of Ministry of Agriculture, agrodealers in areas of seeds, fertilzer and other farm inputs with support from AGRA. This collaboration is promoting area specific fertiliser.
The other collaboration was on under-five child nutrition issues. Was promoting production and utilisation of locally grown nutritious foods that complete s balanced diet. In case of Malawi, we call them six food groups. This was a collaboration of various ministries that are in a concept of Care Group System. Some of these ministries include, Education, Agriculture and other. The other organisations included the World Relief International, Red Cross, and Catholic Relief Commission. The project of Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) was funded by UNICEF.
The advantage of such collaboration is that they respond to farmers needs and demands to easily from input supplies, innovation information, to production of an end product. It can even complete the value chain by simply add market/processers in the partner making the collaboration even more relevant to the farmer.

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#45

@Busi_Ngcebetsha: Good summary and distinction between collaboration and cooperation between stakeholders and broadcasters.
Critical elements for effective collaboration (a binding agreement, the establishment of clear cut aim/goal, targets, roles and responsibilities of parties and honoring of agreed terms).

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#46

Collaboration means joining hands together to achieve a particular target.
We collaborate with NGOs, experts and agro inputs dealers. Even prominent farmers.
How can collaboration be funded jointly? How can you discontinue a partner who is not abiding by the agreement of collaboration?
Jaspher Okello from Radio Pacis in Uganda

#47

Thank you Yakubu for further clarification too.

#48

Thank you Busi for summary, it is now so clear to me.

#49

In my country, there hasn’t been any meaningful collaboration between stakeholders and broadcasters for better farmer programs. The few stations that include farmers programs in their programming do so because they will be short of content. Despite that, I feel effective collaboration is possible and could work very well if stakeholders collaborate with local media. This is to enable farmers to really understand because the language that should be used is local one. If for example,the stakeholder collaborate with national broadcasters, most farmers are left out because the programs will be in English (that is the case in Southern Africa).

In most cases, subsistence farmers don’t get enough knowledge concerning farming. The local media, community radio, becomes an effective to disseminate that vital information. The main challenge in my neighbourhood is the lack of trust between the stakeholders and broadcasters. There’s no longer a “neutral community”… owing to the political polarisation. At the turn of the century, the country embarked on a fast track land redistribution program which was meant to give many landless blacks an opportunity to farm. Since there was a lot of talk around the program, there is suspicion among stakeholders. There are those who suspect that broadcasters are interested in undermining the agrarian reform program.

#50

The 11 elements are indeed essential and are necessary for improving our collaborations.

#51

I did not tell you people who l collaborate with, though it is obvious that number one are the farmers whom l present programs for; the my managers and fellow preseners/Cohosts, the the extension workers for technical/ agricultural info and advise, Officials from different government and non governmental organisations. Cooperative societies and farm equipment and appliances sellers.

#52

How do l identity who to collaborate with? This depends on the issue at hand. What do l want, what does it concern but most of all it is determined by what the farmers’ needs and inerests are at that particular time. It could be problems that need solutions thus the collaboration will depend on this.

#53

Collaboration is the process of two or more individuals or organization working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. In short, it is a process of different organizations or individuals with common goal of achieving the agreed task.

I can give the example of my institution I work for and Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU). We are working in collaboration with the union in producing quality and more informative agricultural radio programs.

We, as broadcasters provide a platform for the union to talk to its members (farmers) on various issues that affect, benefit or even lobbying on behalf of them.

The program is designed in a such way that it opens and closes with ZNFU sig-tunes but we plan for content. We are the producers of the program.

As broadcasters, we are benefiting from this collaboration with the union because farmers feel like the program is their own hence it has a large audience.

This has led to many stakeholders in agriculture sector to have confidence with us and they are always willing to participate, advertise or feature during the radio program. Of course, this can be at a fee.

The union from time to time, it provides us a reliable resource personal who understands the subject matter or topic to the benefit of the farming community. Farmers are also invited to feature on the program at no fee.

It is a Win - Win collaboration. We are providing the platform for the union to talk to or on behalf of farmers and they are providing resource personal for the radio programs at no cost. We are also using their corporate reputation to source sponsors of the program. The purpose of this collaboration is to reach out as many farmers as possible so that they can be more informed on issues that affect them in their daily lives.

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#54

Collaboration is a production or creation made by collaborating that is to work together with others to achieve a common goal. Before farm radio programme will be successful you have to involve farmers that is visiting them on field or interviewing them. A host collaborating with farmers especially helps the farmers a lost . mine station for instance i normally invite the leaders and few of the farmers within the farmers Association to voice out their problems at the same time Agric officers being on the platform to answer their questions. And one thing I have learnt is you the host got more experience because you are working with the farmers. And also collaboration between a farmer and a host gives them the chance to share their ideas with you. Not only farmers you can try Agric officers ,
Agragators,traditional councils, District Assembly and other resource people to collaborate and that really help the programme forward.

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