The Drum Beat 268 - Communication and Change News and Issues
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We would like to take a moment to honour the life and work of our friend and colleague, Alfredo Correa, from the Universidad del Norte in Baranquilla, Colombia. Throughout his career, Alfredo's commitment to social change and development issues was unquestionable - always under the premise of putting people first. His tragic death was a shock. He will be greatly missed.
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EXPERIENCES
1. Give 1 Minute of Your Life To Stop AIDS - South Africa
This Nelson Mandela Foundation initiative brings together leading music icons to create a new way of donating funds toward, and raising awareness about, HIV/AIDS. The campaign uses former South African president Nelson Mandela's prison number (46664) in a multi-faceted campaign that combines a music concert launch with worldwide broadcast, a website, telephone service, and a CD and DVD. The music is available throughout the world via telephone lines and the website.
Contact Maeline Engelbreachet [email protected]
2. ICTs for the Development of Education and the Construction of a Knowledge Society - Europe & Turkey
As part of UNESCO's "Medium-Term Strategy for 2002-2007", the Moscow-based Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) launched this project involving face-to-face and online seminars, training sessions, and expert meetings in 11 countries. The central strategy includes working to develop a system for the educational use of ICTs for planning and policy-making through multi-country research projects and through the sharing of information. Through this project, policy-makers and decision-makers, trainers, developers of instructional materials and educators will explore the use of ICTs for the development of general, special, vocational, and higher education and they will consider applications of ICTs for the improvement of teacher education.
Contact [email protected] OR [email protected]
3. Drug Demand Reduction (DDR) Programme - Central Asia
In 2004, Population Services International (PSI) launched a network of youth centres on Central Asia's main drug trafficking routes in an effort to reduce injecting drug use and drug-related harms such as addiction, overdose, and HIV infection among youth in 3 countries. The DDR programme addresses young people who have friends or family members who already inject drugs and "troubled" youth (e.g., school drop-outs, youth from broken homes, young offenders, youth with psychological problems) living in communities where drugs are easily found and where drug users congregate. Peer-to-peer education is central: Pre-injecting youth (those most likely to use or inject heroin or other drugs) educate other pre-injecting youth. The programme also provides fun, healthy activities to serve as alternatives to drug use.
Contact Rob Gray [email protected]
4. Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) Project - South Pacific
The satellite-based VMS project, launched in 1999 by the Monitoring, Control & Surveillance (MCS) Division of the South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), is an effort to benefit local fishermen and the tuna industry in the Pacific. The VMS project draws on technology - in the form of an automatic location communicator (ALC) - to ensure that foreign fishing vessels comply with regulations designed to promote the sustainable management of tuna fisheries of the region. The FFA claims that the VMS has proven to be a cost-effective means of providing support to the region's compliance and monitoring programme. The organisation indicates that reported cases of illegal fishing have remained at a consistently low level since its introduction.
Contact Andrew Richards [email protected]
5. Using Cultural Resources to Provide an Alternative to Mainstream Perceptions of Human Rights - Egypt
The Cairo Institute of Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) uses arts and literature to engage people in the human rights debate and to demonstrate that human rights are celebrated in Arab cultures. CIHRS seeks out philosophers and artists who understand the debate between Islam and human rights and who are motivated to respond to conservative elements. The network of artists is also encouraged to create projects that promote human rights in contemporary society. CIHRS engages artists through the promotion of films, essays, and analysis that describe the roots of human rights values in local cultures, literature, and folklore. They organise a monthly film screening called the "Cinema Club for Human Rights" and publish a booklet series entitled "Human Rights in Art & Literature".
Contact [email protected]
6. Youth Internet Radio Network (YIRN) - Australia
Established in 2004 by the Creative Industries Research & Applications Centre (CIRAC) at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), YIRN draws on a number of different media to connect and capacitate youth for thinking and working in the area of new technology. A streaming website will be developed with youth input and hosted at QUT; groups of young people across Queensland will be trained in how to produce content for the website; and, through the network and the website, young people will be provided with a distribution platform for their locally created content. In addition, the network will allow groups of young people to interact with each other and with others (including government representatives) on the topics and issues that are relevant to them - through forums, messaging services, message boards, and emails.
Contact Dr. Jo Tacchi [email protected]
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Request for Proposals:
Making Donor Resources for Developing World Journalism Programmes More Effective
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Society Institute, and the Knight Foundation invite proposals from qualified organisations to help increase the quality and quantity of public health journalism in developing countries. USAID may also consider supporting selected projects.
The chosen organisation will act as a clearinghouse entity tasked with making current and future donor funding in this area more effective by: (1) providing expertise on gaps and redundancies; (2) conducting commissioned research to guide donor investment; (3) helping recruit additional donors; and (4) helping improve the field's approach to monitoring and evaluation.
Deadline: October 23 2004.
For details and the template for producing Letters of Inquiry, please contact Sai Jahann [email protected]
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EVALUATIONS
7. Impact Data - Leprosy Awareness Campaign - Brazil
This campaign included television and radio spots run in February 2003. According to an evaluation later that same year, the campaign had broad penetration across 5 regions, reaching an average of 64% of the 1000 adults interviewed. Levels of hanseniase (leprosy) awareness and knowledge of specific symptoms are approximately 30% higher among those exposed to the campaign, compared to those not exposed. Correct beliefs regarding leprosy treatment and tolerance for people being treated are at approximately 30% higher levels among those exposed to the campaign, compared to those not exposed.
Contact Beth Evetts [email protected]
8. Impact Data - - West Baltimore, MD, USA
Carrying a slogan of "Live Long. Live Strong. Get Tested. Get Treatment.", this multi-media campaign was designed to encourage at-risk individuals in West Baltimore, Maryland, USA to get tested for HIV. According to an evaluation in 2003, the campaign reached a 76% awareness level, with approximately half of those surveyed reporting that they had seen 10 or more campaign advertisements. 40% of providers said they felt that the campaign helped them talk to their clients about HIV testing. There was an increase of 1500% in calls to a referral hotline the month after the campaign began, with 62% of callers citing the campaign as the impetus for their call. The original campaign objective was a 10% increase per year in HIV testing. In Baltimore City, there was a 61% increase; in a 3-zip-code area, there was a 68% increase.
Contact [email protected]
9. Impact Data - Together for a Happy Family Campaign - Jordan
For 2 years beginning in March 1998, the Jordanian National Population Committee (NPC) ran a national multimedia campaign to get men involved in family planning. Project researchers along with staff from the Jordanian Department of Statistics compared the 1996 knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) survey (n=969) to the 2001 Men's Involvement in Reproductive Health Survey (MIRHS) (n=1122) following the campaign. In 2001, higher proportions of men regarded modern family planning methods as safe, effective, and permitted by Islam. Nearly 80% of MIRHS respondents said avoiding unwanted pregnancies is a shared responsibility of both husbands and wives. In 2001, the majority of men and women reported that they decided together on the number of children to have compared to about one-third of those who decided together in 1996.
Contact Alfred Yassa, MD, MPH [email protected] OR Soliman Farah, MD, MPH [email protected] OR Judy Heck [email protected]
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PULSE POLL
If you are journalist then you are a development communicator.
[For context, please see The Drum Beat 265]
Do you agree or disagree?
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TRENDS
10. Which way Nigeria? - Music under Threat
by Jean-Christophe Servant
This report addresses censorship of musicians in Nigeria. Using case studies, it addresses direct acts of censorship while also indicating that self-censorship (an indirect threat to freedom of expression) is pervasive in the Nigerian music industry. Music censorship has been implemented by states, religions, educational systems, families, retailers, and lobbying groups. As the report suggests, in most cases they violate international conventions of human rights.
11. Asia puts faith in mobiles
This brief article reviews the research of anthropologist Dr. Genevieve Bell, who spent 2 years visiting 100 homes in 7 Asian countries. She found that mobile technology is being used and adapted increasingly in ways that cohere with cultural habits or local pursuits such as religious practices. For example, people are using mobile phones to show them the direction of Mecca or remind them of when it is time to pray. "In the West, the phone is considered an information and communication tool. But Dr Bell says that what is happening in Asia is a "re-imaging" of the role of the mobile."
12. Bolivia: Community Broadcasters Win Legal Recognition
In May 2004, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) reported that Bolivian president Carlos D. Mesa Gisbert signed the Decree on Community-Based Radio Broadcasting. This decree gives Bolivia's community radio stations full access to the country's airwaves, including the ability to advertise. For a 2-year period, AMARC's Bolivian chapter worked with other civil society groups to advocate for the signing of this decree, which it claims could bring legal recognition to community radio in the country.
LINKS: Academic
13. Asian Council for Peoples Culture - Schools of Indigenous Knowledge & Traditions (ACPC-SIKAT)
A national network of indigenous schools and community educators from 16 Asia-Pacific countries working on community education and training based on local customs.
14. Community Problem Solving
A learning resource that includes free strategy and programme tools developed to facilitate local problem-solving, plus a portal to links worldwide and a learning community for peer exchange. Provided by Harvard University.
15. Transformations
An interactive site, based out of Central Queensland University, for writers, researchers and artists in the humanities, arts, communication, media and social sciences engaged with regional issues throughout the world.
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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
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