C-Capacity #13 - Creative Uses of Communication and Innovative Technologies
A newsletter from C-Change partner Ohio University in cooperation with The Communication Initiative Issue 13 | March 2012
About C-Capacity C-Capacity is an e-magazine supported by C-Change and prepared by The Communication Initiative in cooperation with C-Change partner Ohio University. It is dedicated to alerting you and your organization to resources, training, links, and other opportunities for capacity strengthening in social and behavior change communication (SBCC), all vetted for quality and relevance by FHI 360 and Ohio University. The C-Capacity Online Resource Center is a living resource designed to provide the best resources and training opportunities available and we welcome your contribution. We are looking for case studies, strategic thinking, support materials, trainings, meetings, and other resources relevant to SBCC capacity strengthening. To contribute, please contact cchangeorc@comminit.com C-Change Capacity Strengthening News 1. C-Change Develops Tool to Assess Individual Capacity in SBCC The SBCC Capacity Assessment Tool (SBCC-CAT) is the third in a group of C-Change Capacity Strengthening Measurement Tools that assist individuals to measure their efforts to strengthen capacity in SBCC. This SBCC-CAT for individuals accompanies SBCC-CAT in two versions--one for organizations to measure their technical capacity and needs in SBCC and the second for donors and networks to assess their own capacity and that of the partners they support and manage. Pretested with partners in Southern Africa and Jamaica, the SBCC-CAT for individuals helps assess the impact of capacity strengthening efforts and inform further capacity strengthening assistance that may be appropriate at the individual level. The SBCC-CAT for Individuals also can be used as a pre/post test on SBCC training to measure how participants have increased their SBCC knowledge and skills/competencies immediately after the training. 2. C-Change Hosts Meeting in Lesotho Highlighting Dialogue and Community Action to Prevent HIV C-Change hosted a meeting on February 23, 2012, in Maseru, Lesotho, to disseminate the results of an evaluation of the C-Change-led intervention in community dialogues that addressed concurrent sexual partnerships and other major drivers of Lesotho’s HIV and AIDS epidemic. This community-based intervention, implemented by local partner Phela Health and Development Communications was launched in 2009 and focused on promoting open dialogue and community action around concurrency of sexual partners and other drivers of HIV. Quotes from study participants indicated that they felt community dialogues had an overwhelming positive effect on furthering more open communication on sexual issues, relationships with partners, health-seeking behavior, and bringing about a personal sense of contribution and empowerment in their communities. A few dialogue participants, most often male, were more critical, finding the intervention to be culturally taboo, leading to community and interpersonal conflict, and unacceptable to religious institutions. Input from the dissemination event’s audience and presenters on recommendations for the ‘way forward’ included obtaining more substantive buy-in and participation in the dialogues by community leaders and involving key institutions such as schools, prisons, and churches. Click here to read more online.
The Communication Initiative and C-Change hope you can take just a little time to answer a few questions about the role the C-Capacity website and newsletter play in helping you and your organization build SBCC capacity. Worth Reading 3. Using Docudrama in Entertainment-Education While many initiatives applying entertainment-education methodology use the fictional drama to communicate, the Health Information Project (HIP) in Tanzania uses docudrama, drawing on journalistic tradition, real life testimonials, and human interest stories. In the book "Media & Glocal Change: Rethinking Communication for Development" (Chapter 24), Minou Fuglesang analyzes the docudrama approach of the Swahili-language magazine SiMchezo! "Anyone who has a story to tell, whether celebrity or street vendor, will be heard through interviews, testimonials, letters and short essays from readers", according to Fuglesang. The power of SiMchezo! Magazine is its ability to foster open discussion about sensitive issues surrounding sexuality and HIV/AIDS in rural areas of Tanzania. Connect In this issue, we have chosen to offer a report from Andrew Carlson, Facilitator of the online C-Modules Course on SBCC, a self-paced course from C-Change and Ohio University designed for journalists, researchers, students, and government and non-governmental organization health and development practitioners. The goal of the 6-module course is to develop and strengthen competencies in the planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of SBCC activities. 4. Creative Uses of Communication "If you’re reading this, then you’re probably also using social media tools like Facebook, YouTube, and perhaps Twitter, and possibly through a mobile device, such as a cellphone or Internet-enabled mobile. This intersection of relatively low cost, mobile connectivity, and free online networking tools, such as those discussed in the Core Resources section below, have provided SBCC developers opportunities to reach broader audiences for significantly less cost, with more focused messages and better designed strategies. Below you will find a selection of core resources. These resources support work with the C-Modules training coursework from C-Change. In this 50th issue of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Update, the multiple uses of mobile phones are featured. The issue describes mobile phone usage, including SMS (text messaging), as a clear choice amongst communication methods in the global South. The advantages of mobile usage include the ability to receive, usually free of charges, text messages. For example, The Praekelt Foundation of South Africa has developed a way to use the space available in "please call me " (PCM) messages to deliver targeted health information via SocialTxt, which adds messages of up to 120 characters to fill the unused space in a PCM. 6. Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership (DCGEP) is a United States-based organization that, since 1997, has been working in under-resourced schools around the world, using the power of television to increase student learning, increase teacher effectiveness, and increase the community’s access to information and involvement in their children’s schools. With partners from the private and public sectors, the initiative is locally-managed, and involves a collaborative process of educational video programme development that combines contributions from experts and documentary footage from Discovery focused on the needs of educators. NightWatch, launched in Senegal in 2010 and Cameroon in 2011 with plans for Tanzania and Chad in 2012, uses 30-second messages radio/TV public service announcements (PSAs) and SMS (text messages) to encourage the use of mosquito nets in malaria-endemic communities. Malaria No More, implemented by Lalela Project and Malaria No More, began the malaria fight in 2009 with the Twitter Race to 1 million followers which raised funds for nearly 100,000 mosquito nets for Senegal. The strategy is to produce creative and compelling multimedia content featuring popular celebrities and broadcast it through distribution channels: television, radio, SMS, concerts, school curriculum, and billboards. NightWatch airs nightly in malaria-endemic communities across Africa at the time when the malarial mosquito comes out to bite. The NightWatch campaign asks families in Africa: "It’s 9 p.m... are you and your family safe under your mosquito nets tonight?" The program has engaged both local and international celebrity spokespeople, corporate sponsors like the ExxonMobil Foundation, African political leadership, and leading cell phone companies TIGO Senegal and MTN Cameroon which have committed to spreading millions of SMS texts with malaria messaging to their subscriber base. As of March 2012, 27 million SMS were sent in Senegal and Cameroon reaching as many as 8.8 million people. 8. Mobile Media Toolkit: Making Media Mobile The Mobile Media Toolkit, published by MobileActive, is a resource to help professional and citizen journalists, news outlets, and media development organizations find, evaluate, and deploy tools for reporting and sharing content on and to mobile devices. The web-based toolkit contains a set of five primary sections, supplemented by additional features and resources, which offer users articles and examples specific to certain elements of mobile media production. Articles focus on taking photographs, recording video, recording audio content, creating location-based reports, and using smartphones to create content. They also include: sharing mobile content (content created on mobile phones) on the web, including using microblogs, blogs, and various online sites that host multimedia content; sending content to users' mobile phones or making content accessible on mobile phone; engaging with audiences on their mobile phone; and securing content, including analyzing the risks of mobile use. 9. SMS Software Helps Women Identify Fertile Days each Menstrual Cycle Georgetown University’s Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH), has used FrontlineSMS, an open source software for sending and receiving SMS, to provide a service called CycleTel™ to provide women with reproductive health information. CycleTel used a simple fertility awareness-based method, the Standard Days Method (SMD), to help a woman identify her fertile days each menstrual cycle and avoid unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy. 10. Changing Perceptions of HIV/AIDS in Vietnam The Center for Community Health Research and Development (CCRD) and the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (VME), Hanoi, Vietnam, in collaboration with Columbia University, New York, United States (US), organised a museum exhibition "20 years - Changes and Challenges" in Vietnam on HIV/AIDS through creative paintings, sculptures, photographs, digital media, and interactive performance. The purpose of the exhibition was to generate public discussion and debate and reduce stigma against people with HIV/AIDS. The exhibition has become a long-term installation at the VME. This project with Ugandan women affected by obstetric fistula resulted in a group of communication materials highlighting their stories including: a video, stories, photos, drawings, and a facilitator's guide, which describes and demonstrates the outcomes of this participatory media initiative. The ACQUIRE Project of EngenderHealth partnered with the Silence Speaks Project of the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) and St. Joseph's Hospital in Uganda to coordinate a workshop for Ugandan women who experienced obstetric fistula. During the workshop, the women shared their stories about the experience for use as part of ongoing training about fistula treatment and care. At an orientation session held one month prior to the workshop, participants were given disposable cameras, taught how to use them, and asked to take photos of their homes and villages. During a subsequent 4-day workshop, they shared their stories with one another in a group process, recorded narration, and drew pictures to illustrate their lives. A team of trainers combined the photos with the drawn images, as well as a video filmed on location. While editing was underway, participants visited the hospital where they had been treated and offered advice and support to women awaiting repair. The workshop ended with a screening of the stories and testimonies by participants about their increased sense of self-worth and desire to speak out in their villages about fistula repair and prevention. Hen Mpoano, meaning Our Coast in Fante, is a community campaign designed to address the existing threats to fisheries and coastal biodiversity, while also helping communities adapt to climate change in the western region of Ghana. Hen Mpoano uses a three-pronged strategy comprising a serial radio drama, talk shows, and a My Community campaign for community awareness and engagement. During the first year of Hen Mpoano, research was conducted that engaged partners and community members, incorporated local stories and knowledge, and envisioned mechanisms to maintain and enhance coastal regions. Based on findings, in January 2011, programme partners launched the entertainment-education (EE) component of Hen Mpoano to include a radio drama series and associated radio call-in shows designed to improve knowledge, change attitudes, and influence behaviors of coastal communities to favour sustainable fishing and ecosystem management practices. The five-year project, running from 2010 to 2015, is a collaboration between the United States Agency for international Development (USAID), the Coastal Resources Center (CRC) of the University of Rhode Island, SustainaMetrix, Friends of the Nation Ghana, the World Fish Center, and Media Impact. 13. The Girl Effect The Girl Effect is a movement driven by girl champions around the globe making use of creative and social media. It is devoted to the idea that the empowerment of girls is the key to significant social and economic change in developing countries. "When a girl has the right tools in place, a chance to use her voice and systems set up to work for her, she will transform the lives of everyone around her ", according to the website introduction. Studies show that when you improve a girl’s life, you improve the lives of her brothers, sisters, parents, and beyond. Her individual effect will multiply with the 600 million girls in the developing world to make a huge impact. Using social media (Facebook, Twitter and Youtube), the movement now has more than 278,933 people "like " on Facebook; 22,247 followers on Twitter and more than 3 million times for the video being viewed on Youtube. All the creative communication tools such as interactive website, videos, social media, media kit, fact sheet, poster, photos and logos can be downloaded for free at the website. 14. Mobile for Development (M4D) Mobile for Development (M4D) is a not-for-profit technology initiative designed to help development organizations leverage the ubiquity of mobile phones to increase the effectiveness of their social change work. M4D is a project of ZMQ Software Systems, a Delhi, India-based company specialising in using information and communication technology (ICT) to develop communication solutions, with a focus on entertainment-centered, interactive learning to raise awareness about issues such as HIV/AIDS. ZMQ's goal in establishing M4D is to guide communication for development (C4D) organisations in effectively reaching the groups their work is designed for, thereby empowering them with information and enabling them to access the world. M4D hopes that such a process will help organisations contribute to the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). 15. Dance4Life Dance4Life is an interactive, international project that draws on the medium of dance to unite young people around the world in pushing back HIV and AIDS. Founded in the Netherlands in 2003, the initiative is now present in 25 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the U.S. In Vietnam, Dance4Life project started in 2006 with the cooperation of World Population Foundation Vietnam as its main partner. The project was implemented in city high schools using four components: kick off "heart connection" tours, life-skills training, "action for life'" and "dance for life". In 2010, Dance4Life reached 6,000 Vietnamese youths through tours; another 6,000 received life skills lessons in which 2,490 became agents4change. Also in 2010, Dance4Life held a photography contest titled "Living together, eliminating stigma against people with HIV". In December 2010, a live broadcast television show invited youth to join a group dance with 24 participating countries connecting young people internationally on the issue of HIV/AIDS. Biennial events like this one are linked live via satellite so that the youth can see that they are dancing together, all over the world, for life. ICT is also used here as a strategy for attracting attention about the cause from politicians, members of the media, and many others. 16. mBCC Field Guide A Resource for Developing Mobile Behavior Change Communication Programs Developed by mHealth Working Group, this field guide is an attempt to take stock of what we know today about the power of mobile communication tools to influence health behaviors at both the consumer and healthcare provider levels. While this guide focuses on applying mobile strategies to health problems, the same principles can be used to address issues in other sectors, such as agriculture and the environment. The primary audience for the field guide is behavior change communication (BCC) practitioners at the field level, who may not have access to resources that provide tactical strategies for mobile BCC programs. A secondary audience for the guide is donor organizations, who will be able to scan resources to gauge various types of programs, examples of innovation, as well as potential sustainability of programs. Further Reading
C-Capacity ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK If you are active on or interested in building your own or your organisation's capacity in SBCC, please join the C-Capacity Strengthening Network. This social network is a forum to exchange ideas and resources with others working in SBCC. Click here to register. Subscribe to the C-Picks SBCC E-magazine The C-Picks e-magazine, supported by C-Change and implemented by The Communication Initiative, is an e-magazine that highlights SBCC case studies, reports, analyses, and resources in the health sector (HIV and AIDS, family planning and reproductive health, malaria, and maternal and antenatal health). Jobs 17. Communications Manager (Global Focus) - UNITAID - Geneva, Switzerland Application Deadline: March 28, 2012 Select training opportunities. 18. Research Ethics Training Curriculum: Second Edition Date: Ongoing The Research Ethics Training Curriculum (RETC) developed by FHI (Family Health International, now FHI 360) was first published in the spring of 2001. Since that time, according to FHI 360, there has been an evolution of thinking about research ethics, not only within FHI 360 but also within the global research community. Also, experience gained through trainings using the RETC, the review of research by the FHI Protection of Human Subjects Committee, and FHI 360’s experience in implementing a global research portfolio resulted in the writing of this second edition. 19. Planning and Implementing Social and Behaviour Change Communication Date: June 25 to 29, 2012 From the course description: "Communication is commonly used to promote health and motivate change at multiple levels, from motivating an individual to eat healthier foods to changing social norms and influencing legislative frameworks around smoking. Much has been learned through these efforts over time and in different contexts. This course introduces participants to essential frameworks and tools to enhance both the planning and implementation of SBCC. 20. Mastering Social Media - RNTC Date: August 27 - September 7 2012 The first week of the course will focus on using new and/or social media as a source for reporting. Social media provide an abundance of information that needs to be screened for trustworthiness and reliability. Topics will include: The C-Capacity Online Resource Center continues to seek new knowledge and experiences in support of capacity strengthening for social and behavior change communication - your case studies, strategic thinking, support materials, and any other relevant documentation. Please contact cchangeorc@comminit.com Please visit the C-Capacity Online Resource Center for more resources on SBCC.
This publication is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of Agreement No. GPO-A-00-07-00004-00. The contents are the responsibility of The Communication Initiative and the C-Change project, managed by FHI 360, and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. | ||||||||||||
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