HIV/AIDS Communication (from Danida - Communication and Development Euro-American Donor Seminar)

Presentation by Andrew Skuse, Social Development Adviser, DFID.

Lack of communication within the organisation of DFID has in general stalled the development of commu-nication policies. This partly owes to the fact that the 2 departments, which deal with communication, are separated and do not co-operate. Additionally, there exists no explicit focus on communication for development.

The field of communication is in DFID dominated by a focus on New Technology, the Digital Divide and mass media at the cost of programmes that relate to social development and participatory communication at community level (See attachment for types of communication activities carried out by DFID). It is in general difficult to raise funds for small participatory communication programmes.

With respect to HIV/AIDS communication, DFID has just come out with a new publication, which describes the present strategy on the theme. The medical model is still at the centre of support, but efforts are made to raise awareness of the importance of communication. The future work will include focusing on increased participation and localisation of outputs, stronger recognition of cultural factors in communication and research on target groups' information needs, media uses and preferences and sexual knowledge/behaviour. In terms of research there is additionally plans to look more closely at the connections between information exclusion, culture, poverty and social behaviour.