Rhoda Karpatkin advocate says it's different in Tanzania

Jehovaness Zacharia, Program officer at the Tanzania Consumers Advocacy Society (TCAS), talks about her experience in the Rhoda Karpatkin Advocate Program with Consumers International.

I arrived in London three weeks ago and I could not believe how warmly CI staff received me, I thought only Tanzanians were that warm and kind! I was proved wrong on that!

I had number of meetings with CI staff and other people from CI member organisations and learnt a lot, I mean a lot, of new things. I got clarity on some issues that were not clear to me and identified new ways to conceptualise ideas – how different. Like when ones talks of ‘Marketing of food to children’ in my country for example (and I believe in other parts of Africa too), one would refer to the marketing of food with low in nutrition; while here, and in other developed countries, it refers to junk food.

I attended a number of informative meetings with people working on issues of Food and Nutrition, Financial Services and Education, Sustainable Consumption and how to conduct and manage a campaign.

I have been amazed at how much people have done in the UK in regards to consumer related campaigns and the whole issue of consumer protection. And I am learning best practices and techniques in protecting consumers’ rights, which is who runs the economy but is the group which is mostly neglected.

I hope when I get back to my country I will have learnt lots and I will be able to implement the good practices gained through the Rhoda Karpatkin programme.

For a developing country to win this battle – if I can call it a battle – we need to congregate our efforts in addressing consumers’ issues. And special call is made to my neighbours in East African countries. These countries have done tremendously well and we have a lot to learn from them.

I applaud CI and Consumer Union’s efforts in building the capacity of consumer organisations in developing countries.

It’s everyone’s duty to bring changes to consumer rights protection – consumers, authorities, manufacturers and consumer organisations. Together we can do it!

Valeria Schvartz - Rhoda Karpatkin advocate compares countries

Valeria Schvartz (Legal Assessor and Project Assistant, Union of Users and Consumers http://www.usuarios.org.ar/ in Rosario, Argentina) talks about her first two weeks as a Rhoda Karpatkin advocate through Consumers International.

A couple of days ago I had the opportunity to visit Brussels, where I met staff at BEUC, Test Achats and  Consumetenbond. I was received very kindly by members of each organisation, who took the time to brief me about their projects and how they achieve their work. The same happened here in London where I was very well received by everybody.

I’ve been reading a lot about junk food and children and adolescents and I believe that Consumers International is doing great in regards to this issue, especially in identifying advertising as one of the most influential factors in food and diet. Children and adolescents are especially vulnerable to advertising techniques.

I believe that food advertising should be given a regulatory level, at least in my country where the incidence of obesity is increasing rapidly. In my city we have a project that is attempting to make some progress in school canteens by swapping junk food for healthy options, such as changing a packet of chips for yoghurt.

Although I now have plenty of ideas to carry out in my country, it is sometimes impossible there, keeping in mind that we are a developing country.

I quite admire how people here get involved with organisations that protect their rights – they buy specialty magazines like Test Achats etc. In my country people are still unaware of their rights.  Here organisations are able to provide a good service because they are listened to by big industry and government, this does not occur in my country, we have no government support.

I hope that with time, things will change in my country and we can achieve greater benefits for consumers. Thanks to everybody for giving me the opportunity to learn so much about your concerns for consumer rights.

My five weeks at Consumers International

Dieunedort Wandji (Rhoda Karpatkin advocate from RACE Cameroon Africa) reveals what he learned working at CI.

How quickly time flies! Five weeks ago I landed in London as a perfect stranger for an internship. Yesterday (9 December, 2009), as I was parting after a cheerful farewell drink with CI London Staff, I surprisingly felt the pain of leaving long-time friends. Then, my mind suddenly drifted to the questions that had haunted me upon my arrival at Heathrow airport five weeks ago: What should I be able to take home? Will I be up to the task? Will the staff be nice? And London? And Londoners?

My first day at CI London office quickly shook off my worries. And by the second day, action started.

There were at least 15 scheduled meetings with UK-based consumer organisations and other civil society groups in France. I enjoyed meeting every specialist – consumer rights advocates, policy professionals and scholars. Each meeting had an added value as it either brought to my knowledge an issue that I was unaware of, or uncover other subtle aspects of an issue that I thought I mastered. The contacts I have been able to make and the literature I received are worth a million pounds.

What’s more, working on specific projects with CI staff has significantly improved my skills in regards to consumer issues, campaigning, interacting with other NGOs and drafting project proposals. This will definitely improve the way RACE works and increase our impact as a civil society organisation.

And what about London? And Londoners? I was relieved to notice that not even Londoners have mastered every corner of the city or know the tube map by heart.

I visited the most famous places in London. It was exciting to not just say, ‘Hey! That’s the Foreign Office’ or ‘This is the House of Commons’. I had professional reasons to step into them and see things from within.

I offer individual thanks to each staff member at CI London office. It was an exciting professional experience and a life-changing human encounter.

Rhoda Karpatkin advocates developing strategies with CI staff

Nadim Berro (Rhoda Karpatkin advocate from Consumers Lebanon) wraps up his time with CI in London.

I finally could put a face to the names I’d heard tens of times!

From the first second I arrived at CI, I felt that the consumer movement was not a myth and that consumer protection organisations can reach high targets if they have a strong desire for changing society.

Inductions with CI staff gave me a clear idea about how CI is organised, its different departments, the various issues CI is working on, who are CI’s allies and ‘enemies’, and how to develop campaigns and strategies. But also what CI’s strategy is vis a vis its member organisations. Most importantly we discussed the role and operations of CI in the globalised world we live in.

Personally I find it very enriching to work in a consumer organisation as I am in touch with new people, issues and ideas every day.

The campaign I developed was on financial services. With the CI Campaigning team and Global Member Services Officer, I worked out the objectives and potential activities that are the most adaptable to the Lebanese situation.

I certainly formed a link with UK organisations, members or not of CI, but I also was able to visit this tremendous cosmopolitan capital.

Between museums, galleries, squares, chic restaurants and pubs, you never get bored in London. Maybe once, in the morning, when you take the underground to work and see everybody almost sleeping, recovering from the night before.

Nadim's first weeks at CI London

Nadim Berro (Rhoda Karpatkin advocate from Consumers Lebanon) talks about his first impressions of London with CI.

Well, having lived in two different capitals, Paris and Beirut. I found out that living in London is pretty much different and even if I’ve been here for only 15 days, one can quickly see that people are very friendly in general!

I came back last weekend from France with a lot of ideas about future campaigns we may monitor on Financial Services. I wrote a brief report on my meetings with UFC-Que Choisir and CLCV on subjects such as food safety and health, social media and blogging. Dispute resolution and complaint centres issues were also discussed during our meetings.

Well apart from London’s amazing architecture and creative aspect, it has always something new to offer me, from its museums to its public squares, from its various communities to its open-air markets and certainly from its English breakfast to its 5 o’clock break…

I would like to know more about how people feel after living here for several years, but what I really appreciate is that things here are always moving – public and private areas are always changing their trends and habits. This is a different way to look at issues like art, restoration and business.

My 2nd week at CI London

In his second week in London at CI, Dieunedort Wandji (Rhoda Karpatkin advocate from RACE Cameroon Africa) finds words are powerful.

 

As the saying goes, knowledge is power! And fortunately enough, just about anybody can become very powerful nowadays, for most of humankind’s knowledge is written. So, reading is power!

The same holds true for consumer issues. After meeting several consumer specialists in Week 1, I found myself with a great deal of notes, brochures, books, magazines, paper files and links to useful websites. I created a special folder in my CI Inbox, called 'Read Again', to save important emails. Week 2 and part of Week 3 are dedicated to digging them all up. 

I read, read and read. And the more I read, the more powerful I grow as a consumer advocate.

My new reading habit made me curious about the free newspapers found in the London Underground. At first, I couldn’t understand why the morning trains were full of people eagerly reading papers they hadn’t paid a penny for.

Oh! I was wrong to think that 'since these newspapers cost nothing, the content is chicken's feet'.

No, it is worth reading the Metro or Evening Standard. It's another great way of tapping into the everyday British life. For instance, I was both shocked and amused when I read that a father of three had died of toothache. He had consistently refused to see a doctor, and instead had been 'having a few hot drinks' to heal himself. I have come across such stupid and stubborn characters in Cameroon as well!

My 1st week at CI London

Rhoda Karpatkin advocate, Dieunedort Wandji from RACE Cameroon, Africa, talks about his whirlwind first week in London and France with Consumers International.

This first week gave me the opportunity to discover Londoners, London and its much entangled tube system. And meeting the entire London staff quenched my thirst for seeing the real women and men behind the dynamics of CI, an organisation I have always looked up to.

Now, meeting them is one thing, but being part of that very staff is yet another tremendous experience. The fact that I was given my own desk (with computer and telephone) and CI email address right from Day 1 further reinforced my sense of belonging to the organisation.

I have been very happy with all that I have been able to achieve in just 5 days! Meeting with 12 people from 4 consumer organisations in the UK and France.

I had read about London before coming here, but I am still sometimes very surprised, as my readings turn out to be less than 100% accurate. For instance, I read nowhere that there were so many people kissing on the streets and trains! That’s not common in Cameroon anyway.

My Rhoda Karpatkin experience

Emma Wanyoni from the Consumer Information Network (CIN) in Kenya writes about her experience as one of CI’s Rhoda Karpatkin advocates:

‘Nerves and excitement
My five-week stay at the Consumers International (CI) London office for the Rhoda Karpatkin Advocate programme was very inspiring…for the number and diversity of the institutions and individuals I met, as well as for the great work that is being done, especially to promote the rights of consumers around the world. It was also challenging…now I am required to put into practice the skills and knowledge that I acquired during that period to strengthen the capacity of my organisation!

(Image: Left to right - Emma Wanyoni, CI Director General Joost Martens and Pelisa Manqoyi of NCF)

I was very excited to have my application accepted; second time lucky as I was not accepted the first time. But I was a bit nervous; as this was going to be the longest period I had been away from home. So I carried two heavy suitcases of clothes….just in case! Even though I had met some of the CI staff before, I was unsure of what to expect…would they be friendly, accommodating, or would they be too busy fighting for the rights of consumers to notice these two girls from Africa…

Capacity assessments
The most impressive thing about the programme started long before we arrived in London. As soon as our application was accepted, we started discussions with the campaigns team at CI to identify our individual and organisations’ areas of interest in which we wanted to have our capacity improved.

These capacity assessment discussions ensured that the programme was clearly targeted towards meeting our capacity needs. The activities that we took part in revolved around the identified needs and I have to say that this was very effective as it kept the whole process focused around the three key objectives of the programme, ie building our capacity on consumer issues and the workings of consumer organisations, campaigning and advocacy and learning about the work of CI and its member organisations.

The programme
Meeting other organisations
To help us understand more about consumer issues and especially in relation to specific issues we are working on, my discussions with Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) and the UK consortium on Aids were very useful. CIN has been involved in Access to Essential Medicines (AEM) issues for a number of years, and is currently coordinating the Kenyan Chapter of a regional Campaign on elimination of stock outs of medicines in health facilities in Africa. (www.stopstockouts.org) It was therefore interesting to learn about successful campaign strategies/tactics around this. Our visits to Which?, Consumer Focus, the International Consumer Research and Testing(ICRT) and the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) also gave me further insight into consumer issues and how different types of consumer organisations working at different levels are able to tackle consumer problems either through campaigning on policy intervention or through empowering consumers through provision of objective information. My lesson from this is that consumer issues are very varied and therefore so are the solutions. Clearly one organisation cannot handle it all and there is need to identify a strategic intervention that will have the most impact in a particular context!

There were also two visits to the British Standards Institute (BSI), the first for training on consumer representation in Standards and the second to learn more about the work of BSI. This was critical in relation to CIN’s interaction with Kenya’s National Standards Body, Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) on standardization and building the capacity of other consumer organisations to participate.

Media
On engaging the media, we visited the Independent Television News (ITN) and the Panos offices in London. These gave us exposure on news coverage and the kind of stories that are of interest to the media. It was also helpful in suggesting how to engage the media in our own countries as they also play a key role in advocacy.

Campaigning and advocacy
On campaigning and advocacy, we participated at a five-day training course on advocacy and policy influencing course run by the International NGO Training and Research Centre (INTRAC) in Oxford. I have been to a number of similar trainings on this topic before, but it was still very enlightening; perhaps because of the calibre of the participants; who were all very much experienced in their respective fields and came from such diverse places as Niger, Benin, Zambia, Uganda, Fiji, Netherlands, Slovenia and Moldova, all already had some practical experience in advocacy and policy influencing and it is the sharing of these rich experiences that made it even more worthwhile. But even with all the diversity in background, areas of interest and experiences, there was agreement around certain facts/ concepts:

• It is important to understand your problem and possible solutions to it and to have so mush conviction about it that you are able to summarize it in 15 seconds, if ever you need to convince a person with the power to make the change you want- The elevator pitch

• A good campaign needs to go beyond educating…it must motivate. In fact, an effective campaign must pass the TEA test…it needs to Touch and make connection with your audience; it needs to Enthuse them to do something about the problem and finally it must prompt them to Act…

• A good campaign must incorporate a ‘plan for success’. Once you achieve your intended objective…then what…do you have a plan of how to proceed?

• A good campaign must also have a monitoring and evaluation component…progress is measured in terms of output, outcome and impact and where the campaign is digressing mid- way, efforts must be put in place to bring it back on track to ensure achievement of objectives.

The training also incorporated group activities and case studies to assist the participants put the theory into context. The most interesting one for me was the drawing of ‘rich pictures’. These are representation of your campaign problem (s) and solution(s) in a pictorial, which enables one to critically analyse and breakdown their complex problem.

CI and Pelisa
Besides these ‘external’ activities, we also got the chance to meet and interact with the staff at CI. This provided an insight into the operations of CI and their interactions with its members. I also had an opportunity to present my organisation and its work to the CI staff. It was clear for me that the context in which the work of CI and its members such is CIN are based is quite varied. For instance, while consumers in developed countries where some of CI members are based are grappling with reducing consumption of some services such as energy through efficient use, consumers in developing countries like Kenya still do not have adequate coverage and access to energy! It must be a challenge for CI to reconcile such extreme situations into global position that would be relevant for and appreciated by all members!

CI staff was also useful in building our capacity around resource mobilisation. This is very important and timely for CIN especially at this time when the organisation is exploring avenues for building its resource base.

Of course this experience would not have been the same without the other successful applicant- Pelisa Manqoyi from the National Consumers Forum (NCF) of South Africa. It was a real pleasure to meet Pelisa and to share this journey with her. I learnt a lot from her and the work they are doing especially in relation to the linkage that they have with consumers through the town meetings they hold and magazine that they print. These are models that we at CIN should learn a lot from! It was also just great to have someone to share, compare notes and chat with…and of course nothing can beat the sense of relief I felt when I looked at her in the middle of a tube ride, just to get that confirmation that indeed we were on the right one!!

Finally, my sincere thanks to the entire staff of CI for their great reception. Every one of them was helpful and accommodating and always ready to help. They wanted so much to hear about our work, opinions and experiences and went out of their way to meet our needs.

I found the programme very useful and my time in London very enjoyable.’

CI’s Rhoda Karpatkin programme – a true eye opener

Pelisa Manqoyi from the National Consumer Forum (NCF) in South Africa, recently took part in CI’s Rhoda Karpatkin Advocate programme.

Here she writes about her stay in London, how participation in the programme has broadened her perspective and enabled her to look at issues from a global perspective:

'Background
The Rhoda Karpatkin Advocate programme is a joint initiative from Consumers International (CI) and Consumers Union to provide training and experience to campaigning advocates from CI member organisations in developing countries. This includes exposure to strategic planning, management and communications, campaigning, advocacy and sharing expertise with other organisations and CI Members.

My acceptance to represent the National Consumer Forum (NCF) in the programme came as a pleasant surprise as I did not expect to be chosen amongst the many applicants. Two applicants were selected from Africa. Emma Wanyonyi from the Consumer Information Network in Kenya was the other candidate.

Advocacy and policy influencing - Oxford
The programme involved attending a course on Advocacy and Policy Influencing in Oxford.

We talked about the importance of strategic planning in advocacy, looked at the challenges, talked about some of the trends that have emerged as a result of advancement in technology and its effectiveness in campaigning, for example how technology-based campaigning tools like e-campaigning, text messaging and social networks like Facebook can lower costs while reaching wider audiences and improving effectiveness of campaigns.

We also looked at specific monitoring and evaluation techniques and the instructor explained how these techniques can be used for various forms of reporting.

We had group exercises to apply what we were learning and had lots of good discussions as everyone came from diverse backgrounds bringing rich experience.

Consumers International
We also spent time at the CI office in London and I gave a presentation on NCF’s work.

We discussed ways that CI and its member organisation can support their objectives, the differences in context from which member organisations in developing and developed countries operate from and how CI can support these and remain relevant to all the members.

We also participated in internal CI activities.

Getting by… A grand adventure
In the beginning it was tricky to navigate around the underground train stations (“tubes” as they are called) but we quickly got the hang of the whole system.

Well, I am sure that Emma and I have interesting lessons like this one that can go in the London 101 guide on travelling.

On this particular day, we joined the late afternoon rush back to Central London, eager to reach the comfort of our apartment and seek relief from the hustle and bustle of London. We took the tube to Russell Square station where we decided to use the stairs instead of the elevator to exit the station. To our astonishment the flight of stairs appeared endless as we carried on flight after flight without any signs of exit point. This continued until we decided to go back to the start, where it then dawned on us, that had we paid attention to these valuable few lines in this photo, we would have saved ourselves miles of exercise and toil!

Organisational visits
One of the objectives of the programme is to build the institutional capacity of participating member organisations. This involved visits to other organisations involved in the areas we are working on in our individual countries.

We discussed the emerging trends in publishing for consumer organisations with Which?. The value of using comparative testing in consumer publications also came out very strongly in the interaction with International Consumer Research and Testing (ICRT). Comparative testing is a key area in the current NCF programme.

We looked at the role of the media with Panos London and Channel 4 TV where we discussed the need to empower journalists to promote change, as well as the key role the media plays in advocacy.

Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), British Standards Institute (BSI), Médecins Sans Frontièrs (MSF), the UK Consortium on Aids and International Development provided valuable resource lists through their online resource centres and brochures.

We had session at Consumer Focus on energy efficiency, sustainable consumption, research methodologies and the role of Consumer Focus subsequent to the merger between Energywatch, Postwatch and the National Energy Council.

The end and thank you
The Programme was of great value and I would recommend it to other consumer organisations.

There is a progressive shift in the way non-governmental organisations operate, from being grant reliant to self-sufficient organisations with innovative ways of achieving sustainability and independence – this programme had broadened my perspective and enabled me to look at issues from a global perspective.

We had a great stay in London and I would like to say a big thank you to all the people at the CI London Office for being such good hosts, for taking us around London and especially to Tom who did a fantastic job in taking care of us.'