Amalima “WhatsApp Challenge” Awarded for Innovation in Collecting Beneficiary-Generated Successes
Each year, Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) awards the John H. Costello Innovation Award to a CNFA staff member or team as the winner of an organization-wide competition that aims to inspire innovation. Created in 2015 as part of CNFA’s 30th anniversary, the award honors the impact that CNFA founder, John H. Costello, made around the world during his 29 years as CNFA’s President and CEO.
Under the theme “Creative Solutions to Improve CNFA’s Visibility to Advance our Mission,” CNFA’s Amalima team members Chris Hert and Tafadzwa Nyoni[1] were the 2019 award recipients for their “WhatsApp Challenge” innovation — a competition used to gather and disseminate evidence-based impacts from the USAID Amalima program utilizing short, user-generated WhatsApp[2] videos.
Amalima is a seven-year United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Development Food Security Activity (DFSA) that works to sustainably improve food security and nutrition in Zimbabwe’s districts of Bulilima, Gwanda, Mangwe (Matabeleland South), and Tsholotsho (Matabeleland North). The “WhatsApp Challenge,” which saw a total of 388 video submissions from Amalima’s four operating districts, encouraged beneficiaries to create re-enactments, demonstrations, and short stories that highlighted Amalima interventions in nutrition, livestock management, conservation agriculture, entrepreneurship, WASH and many more.
“The success of the challenge was based on the knowledge and the creativity of the Amalima participants, as evidenced by the videos that were sent through the WhatsApp platform,” said Tafadzwa Nyoni, Amalima Value Chain Marketing Facilitator, “WhatsApp Challenge” leader and John H. Costello Award co-recipient. “While we shortlisted only 15 winners, the footprints of CNFA & its partners — Organization of Rural Associations for Progress (ORAP), International Medical Corps (IMC), Africare, The Manoff Group and Dabane — has been evident in all the videos sent.”
The celebrations at the award ceremony were palpable as representatives from the top 15 groups danced in the halls of the auditorium each time their name was called to receive a prize. Other highlights of the event included a spoken word performance by finalist, Saymore Ndlovu, and closing performance by emcee, Kundai Shamuyarira.
“The ‘WhatsApp Challenge’ was about celebration — celebrating the successes of our project’s many achievements over the last six years through the stories of our farmers, entrepreneurs, Care Groups, Lead Mothers and more.” remarked David Brigham, CNFA Amalima Chief of Party. “Hearing all of today’s testimonials shows us how our Amalima interventions can leave a sustainable impact in the communities where we work.”
The “WhatsApp Challenge” model was a pilot innovation featured in Zimbabwe through CNFA’s John H. Costello Innovation Award mechanism. CNFA hopes to expand this model to its other projects in order to elevate the voices of local communities by continuing to collect user-generated testimonials.
[1] Chris Hert is a Senior Program Officer at CNFA, and Tafadzwa Nyoni is the Value Chain Marketing Facilitator for the Amalima program.
[2] WhatsApp Messenger is a freeware, cross-platform messaging and Voice over IP service owned by Facebook
