Communications can be a powerful tool in advancing human rights. Figuring out the best way to support African development initiatives means being willing to talk about sucesses and failures.

I encourage you to check out the report from Atlantic Philanthropies, What We’ve Learned: Lessons From A Communications Campaign for South Africa’s Rural Poor.” It presents some insights from communiction strategies used by a coalition of NGOs who came together to fight the illegal evication of farm workers.

The photographs in the report are incredible and are part of a photography book that helps to put a face on this issue. It is hard to believe that over a million farmers were evicted over the decade between 1994 to 2004. This reports reminds us that overcoming apartheid in South Africa only marked the beginning of the work to be done to reverse generations of injustice. It also reminds us how important it is share what we have learned about what works and what doesn’t.

The Atlantic Philantrophies was founded by Chuck Feeney, who became a billionaire as the co-founder of Duty Free Shops and secretly transferred all of his wealth to The Atlantic Philanthopies in 1984. In 2008 Atlantic made over $34 million in grants to support development efforts in South Africa.