1. Brief overview of the chapter

Before the launch of the Scenarios from the Sahel contest, our perception of the significance of it all was blurred by two things. First of all, there were our personal associations with the concept of a "contest": games, fun, prizes _ an entertaining sideshow that was somehow different and somewhat distant from really serious activities in the realm of HIV/AIDS. Secondly, we had a tendency to think and talk about the Scenarios contest as a means to an end, a step toward what we viewed to be the truly important part of the project, namely the production of the films.
We were way off the mark.
Furthermore, in the run-up to the launch of the event, we had an extremely narrow understanding of what a "successful" contest would be. Instinctively, we spoke in terms of numbers of contributions.
This chapter is dedicated to the prevention of myopia among Scenarios replicators. A close, 20/20 look at the contest phase of the project reveals a mind-boggling number of significant potential outputs, including the development of powerful partnerships and synergies that transcend geographic, professional and generational frontiers. These are the subject of the next section of the chapter.
The methodologies section is devoted to three main subjects: determining the specifics of your own contest, preparing the contest documents, and distributing prizes. It is followed by a brief section on Monitoring and Evaluation.

2. Potential objectives and outputs of this phase

Please remember that these sections on objectives and outputs can also provide you with arguments which you can incorporate into fundraising documents and firepower for direct dialogues with funders.

In addition, please bear in mind that the following can be expressed as explicit project objectives subject to monitoring and evaluation.
The Scenarios contest is an amazing opportunity:

a) to foster reflection and dialogue among young people and their entourage on the subject of HIV/AIDS,
b) to empower young people as actors in their own prevention,
c) to develop personal contacts between young people and specialized resources in their area,
d) to allow trained prevention workers to apply their previously acquired skills and knowledge in a fascinating context,
e) to reinforce local structures in many different ways,
f) to strengthen a sense of project ownership among the various partners,
g) to generate the scenarios and completed questionnaires which later serve as the basis of the selection process and of quantitative and qualitative research,
h) to discover valuable human resources for subsequent phases of the project,
i) and to expand and improve existing Scenarios contest methodologies.

a) The Scenarios contest fosters reflection and dialogue among young people and their entourage on the subject of HIV/AIDS.
Writing a story or a scenario for a short film on HIV is not a five-minute exercise. It takes plenty of time and lots of thinking. The Scenarios contest provides an engaging, motivational framework for young people to move forward in their personal reflection on HIV and AIDS. It gives participants an opportunity to formulate their thoughts and express their feelings so as to establish a certain level of clarity for themselves. It also allows them to personalize the epidemic and situate it within a variety of circumstances which they themselves may some day encounter. This leaves them better armed for the future.
In the Sahel, as in many other parts of the world, it is extremely difficult for young people to carry out an in-depth discussion on the subject of AIDS. Taboos pertaining to death and sexuality often make it impossible even to start such a discussion. Stockpiles of unasked questions fill young people's minds, and the prospect of conducting "that discussion" with one's daughter or son leads parents to fine-tune their procrastination skills.
The Scenarios contest is a welcome pretext for young people to ask the questions they have been wanting to ask for so long, and it gives parents a certain amount of cover and room to maneuver in answering those questions. "After all, it's for this contest, and there are some really neat prizes, and everybody else is participating, and we heard about it at school, and_" In addition, the young participants have the opportunity to express themselves _ and formulate their questions _ under the guise of characters of their own invention. This allows them to avoid embarrassing or incriminating themselves.
We strongly recommend that you organize the contest in such a way as to encourage young people to work in teams. In the Scenarios from the Sahel contest, the vast majority of participants opted to create their scenarios in team settings, and most of the teams included both boys/young men and girls/young women. That meant that young people were talking with one another about their perspectives on the epidemic, their concerns, and the strategies they envisage to protect themselves. They were building consensus on appropriate behavior and developing communication skills.
Take, for example, the case of a mixed-gender team creating a scenario on condom negotiation within a couple. On an individual level, it is an opportunity to _preview_ a situation and imagine how it might feel. On a team level, it is a chance to understand one another_s perspectives and to learn which arguments are most likely to influence whom. The very fact of having discussed condom negotiation with a person of the opposite sex is likely to make you feel more comfortable about it when you find oneself in that situation.
"Scenarios from the Sahel has succeeded in generating a broad debate. Many young people worked in teams. We even saw teams that had over a hundred people in them. I believe that the debate is continuing even today. Now, it's up to us _ we, the NGO's, associations and other structures _ to pick up the ball and continue what Scenarios began. I mean, the fire has started, and it's now our job to fan the flames of prevention by stepping up our activities in the field."

Yaya Touré, Association Jamra, member of the pre-selection committee in Senegal

The participants thus took the opportunity to rehearse behavior and develop skills, which they could then apply in potentially risky situations. The scenarios themselves reveal participants experimenting with a range of behavioral options for specific situations, and exploring the outcomes.

b) The Scenarios contest empowers young people as actors in their own prevention
"It's the forum of the voiceless. For the first time, in three countries of the Sahel, we've given young people a chance to speak out on a topic of such great concern to them."

Gabriel Diouf, field caseworker at ACI, youth leader at AJCD, IEC consultant for the GTZ (German development), member of the pre-selection committee in Senegal

At school, pupils listen to teachers deliver lectures on AIDS, during which the teacher draws on a booklet drafted by specialists at the Education Ministry. On television, young people watch a doctor tell them about the epidemic. The latest multi-media campaign against HIV looks as if it was designed and is being carried out by gray-haired fellows at the ministry. The religious leader instructs the neighborhood's youths on the prescribed path to follow in the face of the epidemic.
In short, when it comes to HIV and AIDS, young people are always kindly requested to listen.
Scenarios allows them to be heard.
"Nobody ever listens to us. We participated in the contest because it finally gave us a chance to say what we think and what we feel. It's an opportunity for us to share our knowledge with other people our age across the region. It's a chance for us to make a difference in something that matters an awful lot to us. We have good ears; this contest allowed us to prove that we have good voices, too."

Ms. Khady Ly, 18, at a focus-group evaluation of the contest in Thiaroye, Senegal

"Scenarios from the Sahel has been a platform for young people. I think that it's very rare that we give them the floor so that they can say what they want, not only about HIV, but also about society's problems in general. Scenarios from the Sahel has been an opportunity for thousands of young people to express their point of view about today's society."

Yaya Touré, Association Jamra, member of the pre-selection committee in Senegal

It is rare for young people to be invited to write about their intimate experience or their vision of how a relationship might unfold. It is rarer still for that intimate experience or those intimate visions to be recognised as profoundly important _ not only for the young person, but also potentially for those around them.
The contest encouraged young people to make expectations of (among other things) what different kinds of relationships or intimate situations might entail. It was designed to validate this kind of reflection and acknowledge it as an important element of preventive health.
During the selection process of Scenarios from the Sahel, each juror read scores of the participants' creative contributions. Looking back at what they had read, and bearing in mind the work of the AIDS-prevention community in this region, the jurors were convinced of young people's potential to be powerful actors in securing not only their own protection against HIV, but also that of the community at large.
"This contest is extremely important for us, but also for young people. It is made for young people, and it is made so that they help us to put an end to the AIDS pandemic."

Wéléba Bagayoko, Coordinator of the school-based EVF/EMP Project, organiser of the Malian contest and national selection

"Sometimes, we use terms that are too complicated to get messages across. But these young people, in a simple, clear manner, often get the job done better than we do."

Laokein Combo of Chad, vice-president of the NGO MAT-Senegal, member of the pre-selection committee in Senegal

"Having kids teach the adults would be ideal. It's clear that the idea of adults teaching adults just hasn't worked."

Moulaye Ismaël Dicko, audio-visual specialist at CESPA/Mali, member of the Malian national jury and the final regional jury

c) The contest fosters the development of personal contacts between young people and specialized resources in their area.
In the Scenarios from the Sahel contest, participants were strongly encouraged to seek out and make use of sources of pertinent information in their areas (documentation, human resources_). Feedback from local partners tells us that a great many young people did just that; many were discovering those resources for the very first time.

PLAN International/Senegal provided invaluable support during the contest, mobilizing _ among others _ its associated women's groups. A leader of one of those groups reported that, throughout the contest, young people dropped by her place in the evenings to ask questions about HIV and to ask her opinion on their proposed scenarios. She said that many of those discussions lasted well into the night.
In the realms of HIV/AIDS prevention and reproductive health in this region, excellent resources are often dramatically underused because of taboos associated with those subjects or due to the simple fact that people are not aware of the existence of those resources. By providing a taboo-busting pretext and incentive for young people to explore existing resources, the Scenarios contest contributed to the development of an enabling environment in the project area. That is to say, Scenarios enabled communities to make use of the resources they already have.
d) The contest allows trained prevention workers to apply their previously acquired skills and knowledge in a fascinating context.
Throughout the region, hundreds of people have received training related to Information/Education/Communication in the realm of HIV/AIDS. A great many of them work for grass-roots associations on a voluntary basis and sought out training because they want to make a real difference, a significant personal contribution in efforts to stop the epidemic. They are eager to make practical, meaningful use of what they have learned. The Scenarios contest provided them with an exciting opportunity to do just that, both in the course of the campaign to distribute materials and encourage young people to participate and by providing support to participants as the latter went about creating their scenarios. For many volunteer prevention workers in the project zone, the Scenarios contest was an extremely validating experience.
e) The contest reinforces local structures in many different ways.
The structures involved in organizing and implementing the contest emerge from the experience with:

C heightened visibility, both in the eyes of their communities and those of potential funders;
C new media contacts, which could be drawn on to enhance the visibility and impact of their future activities;
C an extensive network of partnerships and friendships with other organizations involved in the field of HIV/AIDS;

C first-hand knowledge of a proven effective contest methodology that they can subsequently modify and apply as they wish in their own local context.

f) The Scenarios contest strengthens a sense of project ownership among the various partners.
During the planning phase and the run-up to the Scenarios from the Sahel contest, project partners tended to refer to the project by its name or as "the project being coordinated by such-and-such an organization". In the course of the Scenarios contest, that changed magically and definitively; partners spoke henceforth of "our project". It was during this phase that the broad-based and team-oriented nature of the project was really taken to heart.
g) The contest generates the scenarios and completed questionnaires that later serve as the basis of the selection process (and, in the case of the winning scenarios, the films) as well as the basis of quantitative and qualitative research.
Against the backdrop of all the other things the contest can achieve, this self-evident output almost seems paradoxically out of place.
h) The contest is an opportunity to discover valuable human resources for subsequent phases of the project.
During the contest, the team will come in contact and become familiar with people who could play valuable roles in the project later on. If team members keep their eyes open, they just might come across, for example:

C individuals who would be outstanding jurors in the selection process, or
C people who could help out with the distribution of the films.

i) By taking note of and sharing lessons learned from the experience, the contest is an opportunity to expand and improve existing Scenarios contest methodologies.
At present, we know of several initiatives to replicate the Scenarios process in countries around the world. By sharing information on lessons learned and by making suggestions about how the process can be improved, you could have a major impact on the effectiveness of other Scenarios projects.