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Clemency Fraser is production trainer for , the 成人论坛鈥檚 international development charity, and her work has taken her from Afghanistan to Zambia, with a few more in between. She helps produce a series of TV debates that help people in the developing world hold those in authority to account.

The programmes that I work on are part of wider efforts at 成人论坛 Media Action to help communities raise issues of local concern that are overlooked in the media, or give a voice to those who are often left out of local and national decision-making.

For many of our audiences, it鈥檚 their first ever encounter with people in authority, including politicians. And producing the debates is never without challenges.

This year, I trained and worked with ZNBC, , on a two-part debate series called The Forum, linked to the and .

For the first programme, there was a buzz of activity with a fair share of disasters right up to the last minute, like the set arriving at the eleventh hour with the backdrop printed horizontally instead of vertically! But the show went on and was worth every minute of worry when we saw the debate between the audience and the panel.

One of the biggest issues for Zambians today is unemployment, and the audience really challenged the Minister for Agriculture 鈥� who until recently had been the Minister for Commerce 鈥� about what the government was doing to create jobs. A pre-recorded video segment from the town of Kabwe featured residents speaking about their difficulties in finding work and providing for their families, with one man asking, 鈥淲here are the jobs? We are still starving.鈥� A member of the opposition United Party for National Development, Dr Choolwe Beyani, demanded of the minister that government plans, 鈥渟hould be made available to the citizens so that they understand what government is talking about. Because right now, it鈥檚 like hot air.鈥� This was greeted by pretty enthusiastic applause in the studio!

However, it wasn鈥檛 over.听 International Women鈥檚 Day was just around the corner and this time there was even more pressure.听 As everyone had seen the success of this new format, expectations for the second episode soared and ZNBC senior management told the production team they 鈥渃annot fail鈥�.听 We flew into action, deciding topics and the panel, where our audience was going to come from and what stories were to be told in our video segments.听

But it was not long before the bad luck bug hit.听 The ZNBC producer secured a great panellist who then聽 pulled out, she secured a perfect replacement and another panellist dropped out and so it continued.听 The tireless producer gritted her teeth and chased every contact until finally, less than 24 hours before show time, her panel was confirmed.

Then we learned that the main panellist, a government representative, had just been spotted boarding a flight to Germany. This was a potential show stopper; without a member of the ruling party, we didn鈥檛 have an editorially balanced panel and the programme couldn鈥檛 go ahead.

Our ever resilient producer called the Director General of ZNBC and put out an SOS.听 At 10pm the DG confirmed that we had a top government representative appearing on our programme. We were saved!聽 So episode two went ahead; but what did viewers take from it?

Some of the audience feedback shines a light on why it mattered. One man told us, 鈥淚 was very impressed to see the ruling party and the opposition on the same table [debating]. I have not seen this in Zambia in a long time.鈥� Another welcomed: 鈥渄irect confrontation between the people affected by an issue and those with the responsibility of providing services鈥�.

So the shows are not just about getting the set right, the segments recorded and episodes out the door on time. All these parts 鈥� and the unavoidable near misses and bitten nails 鈥� come together to create something much more valuable. Quite simply, it鈥檚 what Joseph Warungu, presenter of our Kenyan debate show, calls 鈥減roximity between people and power鈥�.

is Production trainer, 成人论坛 Media Action .

• The Forum was made with funding from the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
• Find out more about and .
• Read more about on its dedicated blog.
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