Activista Zim engages artists on State accountability
LOCAL non-governmental organisation, Activista Zimbabwe is inviting young artists to enter the Accountability Creative Activism Awards aimed at adding creative voices to the call for State accountability.
The awards ceremony will be held on November 25 at a yet-tobe announced venue.
The organisers of the initiative said interested artists should create any form of artwork that includes music, skits, drawings, poems, cartoons or drama.
The different pieces of artwork to be produced are guided by five themes namely: Investigating State accountability, the use or misuse of COVID-19 funds by the government and its departments, effects of poor public finance management, calls for implementation of the Auditor-General’s recommendations and the need for sound public finance management.
The leader of the campaign Wendy Makaza told NewsDay Life & Style that they partnered Global Platform Zimbabwe in the initiative and used art since it is a communication tool that reaches everyone and is easily understood by many people. “We chose art as it is a language that cuts across gender, age and any other social division. For most, it is for entertainment, but art communicates a message, and this is one tool that will better engage young people more than speeches and articles do,” she explained. “Our goal is to have more young people involved in national processes, particularly public finance management, in relation to adequate public services such as health, water and sanitation, transport and education.”
To avoid any possibility of bias, Makaza highlighted that the judges for the awards are two sets of three civil society leaders who will score all the entries independently and their results will be harmonised to choose the ultimate winners.
“Participating artists are to post their work on social media and tag @ActivistaZw with the hashtag #AccountabilityZw. Assessment will be based on the number of views, likes, comments and content relevance to campaign themes. The first prize winner will walk away with US$200; second prize will get US$150 while the third prize is US$100,” Makaza said.