SOCIAL CHANGE PRODUCTION
MTV SHUGA BABI is an Ivorian TV series to raise awareness among youth. Through the story of a group of young people in a dance and music school, MTV SHUGA BABI addresses sex education, AIDS prevention and gender-based violence.
MTV SHUGA BABI
Launched in Nairobi, Kenya in 2009, "MTV Shuga" is a long-running drama series and multimedia campaign that follows the lives of youth on the African continent. Broadcast on MTV channels around the world, the content is also offered royalty-free to third-party broadcasters and content platforms, and used as educational material by educators, health professionals, and local organisations raising awareness about HIV/AIDS around the world.
In eleven seasons, this program has traveled across the African continent from Kenya to Nigeria to South Africa, addressing many topics related to HIV and safe sex, including HIV testing, stigma, living with HIV, mother-to-child transmission, transactional sex, gender-based violence, and condom use.
As a reminder, MTV SHUGA BABI is the first version of the MTV Shuga series to be adapted for French-speaking African audiences, produced by the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, with the financial support and backing of Unitaid. The campaign also includes a radio series, digital content, as well as local events such as school screenings and in several cities across the country.
Behind the scenes, the production companies BOUCAN and MPM Film, which were responsible for producing the series, relied on talented professionals such as director Will Niava and director Siam Marley.
In addition, it is thanks to the support of its partner Unitaid, that the MTV Staying Alive Foundation (MTV SAF).
The MTV Staying Alive Foundation is a movement in the media industry that believes in youth. We tell stories rooted in the lives of young people, stories that can save lives. We produce high-impact content for teens and young people to help them make the right decisions about their health. We cover topics such as sexual and reproductive health (including HIV awareness and prevention), gender-based violence, consent, abortion, and issues related to the LGBT+ community with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unitaid is a global health organization hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) whose goal is to identify, develop and make available affordable innovative solutions to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases rapidly and effectively in low- and middle-income countries. Through its investments, Unitaid contributes to the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and HIV-related co-infections including cervical cancer and hepatitis C. Unitaid‘s initiatives lay the groundwork for the large-scale deployment of new health products, working with governments and partners such as PEPFAR, the Global Fund and WHO. As part of its participation in the Accelerator for Access to AIDS-19 Tools (ACT Accelerator), Unitaid is now leveraging its expertise to identify and enable equitable access to treatments and diagnostic tests in response to diagnostic tests in response to the coronavirus pandemic.