The Drum Beat 287 - Communication and Change News and Issues
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We send our deepest sympathy to the families of Cristi Gadue, Amy Lynn Niebling, and Carmen Urdaneta, communications professionals from Management Sciences for Health (MSH), an organisation whose work in Afghanistan is supported by USAID. These three women were among the 104 people on board the Afghan Kam Air Boeing 737 who died in the mountain-side crash near Kabul on February 3 2005. The women's work with MSH centered on telling the stories of those who could benefit from better medical care around the world. They are a great loss to the development community.
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1.BaobabConnections - The Netherlands & Africa
Established in 2001 by the Dutch organisation Inzet, this non-profit, Internet-based media project is dedicated to building awareness, stimulating debate, and encouraging action to address profit-driven corporate globalisation. A website and online newsletter are key tools in the effort to foster a worldwide dialogue on globalisation. The project initially sought to include young people in Holland and Africa in the dialogue; the goal is to involve people of all ages in all other countries. Young people write for and about young people in an online magazine on globalisation that identifies problems, possibilities, and practical steps forward. The monthly magazine promotes the de-globalisation of corporate power and the inauguration of south-north development. There are also various online competitions open to young members.
Contact Shamiel Adams [email protected] OR Yehudi van de Pol [email protected] OR Dominique Sindayiganza [email protected]
2.Whatcom Human Rights Task Force (WHRTF) - Washington, United States
Established in 1994, this group of community organisations, religious people, and other citizens in Whatcom County, Washington State, United States works to promote and protect the rights of all people. The organisation was launched to help monitor, respond to, and prevent acts of harassment against targeted groups or individuals. The WHRTF focusses on community education in an effort to create more tolerance for cultural diversity and to involve the local community in efforts to prevent harassment and discrimination. The WHRTF website, which includes a newsletter, calendar of community events, details about local training workshops, and links and resources, is used to inform people about their rights and to motivate action. Local businesses are encouraged to support the Task Force's efforts by displaying the Joining Hands logo as a symbol of respect and welcome to all people. The names of these organisations are posted on the website.
Contact [email protected]
3.HIV/AIDS Workplace and Local Community Education Programme - India
Teddy Exports, through a "Teddy Trust" set up in 1992, has developed an HIV/AIDS workplace and local community education programme to address the needs of its employees in Tirumangalam, India and of their fellow citizens in the broader Madurai district. The programme aims to educate high-risk, largely illiterate groups. Projects include: HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns for people in the local villages; using street theatre and puppetry as a way of communicating the message to a largely illiterate audience; 'truckers booths' on the main highway to southern India and at an oil refinery unit at Manila that provide information on HIV/AIDS and prevention to over 80,000 truck drivers through street plays, slide shows, leaflets, stickers, and condom distribution; HIV/AIDS awareness, medical assistance, and counselling provision for commercial sex workers in southern Madurai, using peer educators.
Contact [email protected] OR [email protected]
4.RANET - Global
This consortium of international organisations works to make climate- and weather-related information accessible to remote and resource-poor populations. RANET combines technologies with applications and partnerships at the community level. Activities include training, pilot activities to demonstrate various community technologies, and development of a dissemination network through partnership and platform development. The goal is to facilitate day-to-day resource decisions and help people prepare for, mitigate against, and respond to natural hazards. RANET works to build telecommunication bridges between scientific-based products and remote communities to foster the exchange of environment-related information. In addition, RANET works to address larger issues of information access by strengthening the capacities of national agencies to produce and disseminate information and advising on how information could be better presented. The programme currently operates in Africa, is developing pilot activities in Asia, and is exploring roles in the Pacific.
Contact [email protected]
5.Vox Iuvenium - Singapore
Launched in 2004, Vox Iuvenium is a non-profit youth activist organisation using the Internet to enhance awareness of Singapore's critical political and social issues through informed discussion and debate, to the end of providing and supporting youth participation in civil society. The ultimate aim is to enhance youth capacity to take political action. Vox Iuvenium consists in an online knowledge base, blog, and monthly newsletter on politics, public policy, and international affairs for Singapore youth. Partnership is a central Vox Iuvenium strategy. It has the support of several political journals and research institutions, which provide access to commentary and research work. The organisation is also working closely with other youth organisations, as well as schools and community agencies, to develop outreach projects.
Contact [email protected]
6.BOTUSA Project - Botswana
Aimed at medical students, this is an effort to expand knowledge of the relationship between tuberculosis (TB) and HIV disease in a resource-poor country setting. The project provides technical assistance, consultation, and funding; implements programmes; and conducts research with the Botswana government and other local and international partners for prevention, care and support, and surveillance of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The hope is that information gleaned from this project can be used to develop prevention strategies for the local and global control of TB and HIV, contributing to "a healthier Botswana". Using this research as a base, BOTUSA programmes have included: facilitating voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) centres, developing prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) educational materials and trainings, producing a Setswana radio serial drama, supporting the Youth Health Organisation (YOHO) to mobilise youth and offer youth reproductive health education, conducting a nationwide door-to-door HIV education programme, and developing Botswana-specific HIV/AIDS materials for students at the primary and secondary levels with the Ministry of Education.
Contact Dr. Peter Kilmarx Tel.: 267 390 1696
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Immunisation Survey!!
The Communication Initiative (The CI) has been asked by one of its partner organisations, The CHANGE Project, to conduct an assessment of the experiences gained over the past two decades regarding three of what CHANGE considers the most common and important challenges that must be addressed in order to improve routine immunisation coverage rates. These are:
- Too many caregivers don't know when and where they should bring their child for his/her next vaccination.
- Too many caregivers are reluctant to return for subsequent vaccinations because of unpleasant experiences in the health facility.
- There is insufficient focus among health staff and caregivers on the need for children to be fully immunised by their first birthday.
CHANGE and The CI would like to find out what health programmes and/or communities have done to address these problems, and obtain assessments of success or failure. It is hoped that the results from the survey will feed into a final report which will provide valuable, hands-on lessons learned for those working on routine immunisation - and will help them take effective actions to improve coverage rates.
Survey closes March 2 2005.
Contribute your experiences - many thanks!
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7.Impact Data - Freedom From Fear - Australia
In 1998, the Domestic Violence Prevention Unit of the Western Australian Government embarked on a community education campaign as part of a 10-year effort to protect women, children, and other victims of domestic violence. Freedom From Fear used television, radio, press, and outdoor advertising to reach out to perpetrators and men at risk of carrying out domestic violence. An evaluation was conducted after 1 month and 7 months of Phase I (Sep 1998 - Mar 1999). The proportion of men aware of where violent men can go for help increased from 21% at Benchmark (Aug 1998) to 52% (Apr 1999). During that time, the proportion of men aware of a telephone counselling line for men who are or could be violent significantly increased from 20% to 69%. The proportion of men who could correctly name the Helpline significantly increased from 0% to 28%.
8.Impact Data - Reducing Maternal Mortality among Repatriated Refugee Populations - Huehuetenango, Guatemala
In 1999 Marie Stopes (MS) Mexico initiated a project with the goal of ensuring the provision and institutionalisation of high-quality, affordable reproductive health services for displaced and static populations in Chiapas, Mexico - including refugees from Guatemala, internally displaced Mexicans, and members of local Mexican communities. From Jun 2001 to Oct 2003 a team from MS Mexico expanded the programme in an effort to provide cross-border services to the returned communities in the state of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Surveys were carried out before and after the main intervention by the project teams. Knowledge of specific problems which can occur during childbirth rose from 53% to 67% among both men and women. Recognition that women can die at childbirth increased to almost 95% from 80% in the baseline survey. Intention to use family planning (FP) methods increased from 36% to 68%, with almost three-quarters of women indicating they would like to use an FP method. FP use increased from 9% to 30%. Organisers stress that "appropriate arrangements for transport need to be made possible as it remains a major obstacle to successful reduction of maternal mortality in rural areas, not just in terms of physical access to services but also in terms of the decision-making process. These results indicate that there is still important work to be done regarding gender equity, female empowerment and communication between men and women."
9.Impact Data - HEART Campaign - Zambia
Designed in 1999 for youth by youth to inform young people about HIV/AIDS and to promote abstinence and condom use in youth aged 13 to 19, this campaign included: 5 television spots with messages ranging from how a girl can say "no" to sex to promoting regular condom use; a number of radio spots and songs adapting the same messages and concepts to the rural context, translated into local languages; and other materials such as posters, book stickers, exercise books, messages on buses, and music videos. A quasi-experimental, separate sample pre- and post-test design was used to evaluate this project. Approximately 74% of male viewers and 68% of female viewers said the health communication spots prompted them to talk with others about the advert, decide to abstain from sex until more mature, or use a condom. Among women who are sexually experienced, 82% of viewers contrasted with 69% of baseline and 64% of impact nonviewers reported they feel confident that they have "the ability to say no to unwanted sex". Viewers were 1.68 times more likely to report primary or secondary abstinence then were non-viewers (using logistic regression and holding sex, age, residence and education constant). There was a dose effect: The more health communication spots recalled, the greater the likelihood that the respondent is abstinent.
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Discussion Forum: Communication for Development in Natural Resource Management (NRM)
Feb 28-Mar 11 2005
The FAO and IDRC are co-publishers of the document "Communication for Development: A Medium for Innovation in Natural Resource Management (2004)," meant to support advocacy efforts with policy makers on the role and value of communication in support of natural resource management. Click here for the document online.
The Communication Initiative, in partnership with 7 graduate students in Rural Extension Studies at the University of Guelph, will host a forum from Feb 28 to Mar 11 2005 to gain an understanding from practitioners and advocates on the various applications and potential effectiveness of this document as an advocacy tool.
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10.Digital Change Process of Gain-for-All: ICT, Development and Volunteerism from a Turkish Perspective
by Nil Sismanyazici Navaie
The Arts For Global Development Network (Art4Development.Net) is an online voluntary initiative that aims to help the creative sector and development stakeholders create global partnerships and help find innovative ways to improve communities worldwide. To support that aim, Art4Development.Net carried out the 'How Voluntary is Turkey?' Project from December 2003 to April 2004. This 32-page paper is part of the organisation's report on Turkey's International Volunteer Day (IVD) Celebrations.
11.Moving from information transfer to information exchange in health & health care
by Renee Gravois Lee & Theresa Garvin
This article is an examination and sustained critique of current approaches to communication and information provision within health settings. The authors argue that current practices are based in a one-way model of information transfer that is characterised by a focus on individual behaviour and responsibility, and which is rooted in power relations that are derived from an expert-oriented, unidirectional pattern of speech. They support their criticisms with evidence from a series of qualitative interviews with different populations being addressed, focusing on different subject areas.
12.FOODNET: Information is Changing Things in the Marketplace
by Shaun Ferris
Farmers in East and Central Africa can now get a better deal for their products as they can have access to market price information on commodities via FM radio, mobile phones, email and the Internet. According to this article, the project, called FOODNET, is benefiting millions of farmers in this region. In this article published in "ICT Update" by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, the author explains how, using a mix of conventional media, the Internet, mobile phones and other ICTs, FOODNET's market information services reached over 7 million people each week in April 2004.
13.A Test of Inequality: Discrimination against Women Living with HIV in the Dominican Republic
This report focuses on what Human Rights Watch believes are the two areas most immediately in need of reform. The first is discrimination against women in the workplace, in particular through involuntary HIV tests administered to workers and jobseekers. The second is a recognition of serious deficiencies in the administration of public health care to women. When women use public health services, especially prenatal care facilities, they are given grossly insufficient pre- and post-HIV test counseling, risk disclosure of their confidential HIV test results, and suffer abusive treatment by health personnel, including the delay or denial of medical procedures.
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NEW ConunDRUM
Talk with the People!
Warren Feek examines the importance of local knowledge. He looks at how Colombian coca farmers and farmer networks, based on local knowledge and communication processes, have significantly challenged the European and North American "War on Drugs", surmising that ignorance of local knowledge and processes can undermine the effectiveness of development initiatives...
Click here to access "Talk with the People!"
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14.Participatory Organisational Evaluation Tool (POET)
POET is two concepts rolled into one: a tool, and a process. As an organisational capacity assessment tool, civil society organisations (CSO) and their partners use POET to measure and profile organisational capacities and consensus levels in seven critical areas, and assess, over time, the impact of these activities on organisational capacity (benchmarking). Based on a methodology called PROSE (Participatory, Results-Oriented Self-Evaluation), POET focuses on the needs of a very specific user population, Southern CSOs and their partners. As an organisational development process, CSOs and their partners use POET to build capacity by bringing staff together in cross-functional, cross-hierarchical groups for open exchange; to identify divergent viewpoints to foster growth; to create consensus around future organisational capacity development activities; and, to select, implement and track organisational change and development strategies.
15.Strategic Planning (Veenema)
Pearl Veenema, Managing Director of Campaigns University Health Network in Toronto, provides a checklist to help organisations choose a planning process to match their time, personnel and budget.
16.Population Leadership Programme (PLP) Leadership Framework
The PLP Leadership Framework was designed for application within global health programmes of the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Federal Agency charged with providing humanitarian and development assistance around the world. PLP's leadership framework draws upon the insights of theorists in transformational leadership. Key assumptions underlying the model include:
- Leadership is based on self-awareness and personal commitment.
- Leading is about action, not position.
- Leading involves a balance between our interdependence and our diversity.
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Pulse Poll
Are communicators able to show their contributions to development programmes in different organisations?
Yes?...No?...Maybe?...HOW?
[For context, please see The Drum Beat 285]
Do you agree or disagree?
JOIN A DISCUSSION ON THESE ISSUES!
To read contributions please click here
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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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