The Radi-Aid research project is a collaboration between the Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (SAIH) and the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia.

Since the 1990s, SAIH has been exploring issues around one-sided and unnuanced aid communications that use stereotypes and oversimplifications. Through its work with Radi-Aid, it has aimed to challenge Western storytelling about Africa, contributing to a public debate about the consequences of using stereotypes in aid communications, and looking at how to change the way we communicate global issues.

Ever since its 2012 satirical spoof video Africa for Norway went viral, the campaign has taken on a role of an international watch dog for the aid sector. The campaign has focused on arranging the Radi-Aid Awards (2013-2017), celebrating the best - and the worst - of development fundraising videos. Along with this, it has produced several satirical, awareness-raising videos, and in 2017 developed the Social Media Guide for Volunteers and Travelers.

The Radi-Aid research report moves this important work one step further. From the introduction:

With this year’s Radi-Aid project, we have taken a leap with a new approach, while still focusing on promoting nuanced aid communication. When addressing aid communication and charity advertisements in the past, we have often thought about the recipients of aid and the people who are portrayed in the advertising imagery. What do they think of the adverts? How do they feel about the portrayal of African countries? What would they do differently if they were to run similar fundraising campaigns themselves? What would happen if we allowed voices from the South to truly be the narrators of their own stories?

In this project, we have aimed at deepening our understanding of international aid communication and how it is perceived. By listening to the thoughts and opinions of youths and adults from six different African countries on various issues relating to aid communication we get confirmations, contradictions, we find ourselves amused, astonished and curious but, most importantly, eager to learn and listen in order to broaden our minds. The findings of this report don’t lead us to a single conclusion. We are not critiquing or promoting the different extremes of aid communication. Rather we are inviting reflection, to increase awareness, to challenge existing assumptions, and to open ourselves to a multitude of stories.

The Report can be found here.