The Drum Beat 562 - Polio Communication
- PAKISTAN 2011: Year of Polio Eradication
- NEW POLIO COMMUNICATION RESEARCH - Health Communication: Polio Lessons
- RECENT Strategic Thinking additions to The CI's Polio site
- A NEW LOOK for The CI's POLIO THEME SITE!
- Selected polio communication INITIATIVES.
- Polio in PAKISTAN.
- VOTE in a Poll: Will 2010 be seen as a turning point in the polio fight?
- Selected polio communication RESOURCES.
- Where to look for MORE on African polio communication.
This issue of The Drum Beat introduces you to The CI's newly designed Polio theme site, and highlights just a few of the new features and fresh summaries that have been added. Please contribute more! Contact Chris Morry cmorry@comminit.com
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to observe 2011 as 'polio eradication year'
PESHAWAR (October 05, 2010): The government of KP has decided to observe the year 2011 as the 'Year of Polio Eradication', and a task force, headed by the Chief Secretary will co-ordinate and review all activities in the field through District Co-ordination Officers (DCOs) and other respective government functionaries in KP and FATA... - Business Recorder, 2010
Health Communication: Polio Lessons
As part of its polio programme funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), The CI recently coordinated the publication of a supplement in the Journal of Health Communication (JOHC) which focuses on health communication lessons from the polio experience.
The papers include:
- A Drop of Tension
- Communication for Polio Eradication: Improving the Quality of Communication Programming Through Real-Time Monitoring and Evaluation
- The Complexity of Social Mobilization in Health Communication: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Experiences in Polio Eradication
- Using Data to Guide Action in Polio Health Communications: Experience from the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI)
- Polio Eradication Is Just Over the Horizon: The Challenges of Global Resource Mobilization
- Health Communication: Polio Lessons
PLEASE NOTE: These articles will be accessible free of charge until November 7 2010. After that time, they will be available only for purchase.
Ruchin Sharma recently wrote:
I have worked for over 10 years in social development sector, particularly in programme communication sector in some of the most challenging environments and communities in South Asia, South-East Asia and Africa. This is just to share my experience in the field of Programme Communication with a wider group so as to share the my learnings and to learn from others.
During all of my various assignments, I have dealt with diverse communities in totally different environments and I found that the needs were different but amazingly the demands were almost same in all the high risk groups. Finding the way to better communicate the benefits of the programme/activities was always challenging until I get to learn about the environment and the people, their habits and culture and the most important - why do they do the way they do?
Many of the readers might be interested to comment or share their similar experience, please feel free to do so in this platform. Please join Ruchin and others in a forum focused on improving polio communication through sharing experiences and knowledge.
If you haven't yet joined the forum, please click here to register. Once registered, you will be able to participate fully online and will be able to receive email updates (if you so choose) whenever someone makes a comment. If you have registered, we look forward to your contributions!
SELECTED POLIO COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
1. India Communication Update: Special Edition on the 107 Block Plan
This September 2010 resource highlights the strategic vision of the 107 Block Plan, which is a holistic and multi-pronged approach to address the challenges in the 107 blocks of India's 2 polio-endemic states (Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar), and describes how the communication effort is supporting implementation in the field.
2. Towards Polio Communication Indicators: A Discussion Document
[Editor's note: The GPEI Strategic Plan 2010 to 2012 profiled in #3, below, calls for the establishment of standard global communication indicators, and work is presently ongoing to develop these. This seemed an appropriate time to reflect on some of the work on which this new work is partially premised.] This discussion document, from February 2008, grew from the work and analysis of the Communication Review/Technical Advisory Groups and is based on field experience, recommendations, and presentations from various partners within the polio programmes of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and several other countries where polio is no longer endemic. It was designed to provide a basis for discussion and further reflection towards the establishment of core standard indicators for polio communication. The draft indicators seek to provide a starting point for discussion towards the adoption of a common framework for measuring impact, tracking trends, and planning for polio communication activities. They recognise and build on the significant work underway in each of the endemic countries and make use of data being collected and programme resources already planned or deployed.
"The take-home message for participating country teams is the need for evidence-based and measurable communication interventions to demonstrate results, combined with methodic situational analyses, identification of challenges, and carefully determined formative research to set baselines where data gaps exist. Discussions also emphasized the fact that badly needed resources for communication activities for immunization/polio may be easier to obtain if plans are based on sound analysis and are results-orientated."
4. Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) Strategic Plan 2010 - 2012
The new GPEI Strategic Plan consultative process has led to a broad consensus that this Plan, if fully financed and implemented, can lead to the interruption of wild polio virus worldwide by 2013, setting the stage for eventual certification of that achievement and cessation of oral polio vaccine use globally from routine immunisation programmes. The core message driving the campaign is that WPV is 99% eradicated, but that there is a need for a renewed push to reach the final 1%...
5. Climate Change Migration Could Complicate Polio Eradication Efforts
by Manipadma Jena
This April 2010 news article examines how climate-change-induced migration may complicate polio eradication in India, one of the 4 endemic countries globally still grappling with complete eradication of the infection. As detailed here, whereas in their home villages parents are often aware of how to ensure that their children receive the several rounds of oral polio vaccine needed to achieve effective production, they may be lacking information in the large city to which they have migrated.
Please visit The CI's recently updated Polio theme site!
We have re-organised this theme site, where communication and media are central to the eradication of polio, so that it is easier to use and provides access to more features and information. You will find:
RECENT KNOWLEDGE - What's New: 5 most recently shared pieces of Polio knowledge from The CI network.
POLIO NEWS PORTAL: 10 most recent news online articles related to polio, with the ability to search for additional polio news by keyword.
POLIO GROUPS: The "Polio Communication Forum" is an online space for people involved in polio communication action and strategic thinking to share knowledge and review and support each other's work.
COMMUNICATION REVIEWS: Includes ALL documents from recent Polio Technical Advisory Group Communication Review Meetings
POLIO-ENDEMIC COUNTRY INFORMATION: Includes projects, evaluations, strategic thinking, and resources specific to the 4 polio-endemic countries:
SELECTED POLIO COMMUNICATION EXPERIENCES
6. Polio Social Mobilisation Campaign - Egypt
This communication plan reaches out to all caregivers in Egypt to the end of contributing to the eradication of polio in Egypt (achieved on February 1 2006) by developing levels of public awareness of the National Immunisation Days (NID) campaigns at above 95% and by motivating the public to vaccinate their children. Key communication for development (C4D) strategies have included: advocacy, use of mass media, mobilisation of youth, and the institutional support provided to the Ministry of Health on social mobilisation planning and practice.
7. Polio Storyline: New Home New Life (NHNL) Radio Soap - Afghanistan
From September 8-21 2009, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service Trust (WST) wove polio eradication messages into a radio soap opera created by the Afghan Educational Programme (AEP) of in an effort to teach Afghan people how to survive in a society where public infrastructure and normal processes of health, education, and justice have been destroyed by civil war. The polio storyline focuses on: timely acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) reporting, endorsement from doctors, raising risk perception and emphasising the importance of preventive action among families, and highlighting the mutually supportive role of health centres and polio campaigns.
8. Kick Polio out of Africa (KPOA)
This awareness campaign was launched on February 23 2010 with a symbolic "kick off" of a soccer ball from South Africa, where polio survivor Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was the first person to sign the ball. The ball then travelled through 23 polio-affected countries in Africa, with dignitaries signing it along the way - and nearly 11,000 people "signing" it online. The aim was to create awareness of the polio eradication initiative of Rotary International and its global partners, spearheading massive National Immunisation Days (NIDs) to help mobilise the vaccination of 85 million children under the age of five on the continent of Africa in March, April, May and June, 2010 ahead of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup in South Africa.
Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) staff and resources have been mobilised en masse to support the response to the floods directly affecting 1 in 10 people in Pakistan. All polio-funded technical staff - polio epidemiologists and surveillance officers - have relocated to the worst-affected areas of the country to assist in the recovery. These staff are focused on 3 main areas: a rapid assessment of the extent of damage to health facilities, the establishment of early warning systems for disease outbreaks, and the planning, delivery, and monitoring of broad immunisation activities in internally-displaced persons camps.
Pakistan polio team leader Dr Ni'ma Abid said the extent of the flood damage was "really beyond imagination" and had had an enormous impact on health systems in the country. He said the immunisation cold chain system had been severely affected and would take "a long time" to be rehabilitated. While controlling outbreaks of disease and conducting immunisations were a necessary focus, "the priority is still for food and shelter more than anything else". Dr Abid said that within the health industry, a "significant number of health workers are affected, their houses are affected - it's very difficult, a very big challenge".
POLL: Will 2010 be seen as a turning point for polio eradication?
Floods, outbreaks, reinfections, funding shortages vs. huge reductions in transmission in 2 endemic countries - will 2010 be remembered as a year of progress for polio?
VOTE and COMMENT click here.
Results as of October 8 2010:
YES: 62%
NO: 38%
SELECTED POLIO COMMUNICATION RESOURCES
by Michael Favin and by Lora Shimp
This somewhat old but still relevant resource features 19 checklists and guides that cover communication and mobilisation aspects of routine immunisation and disease surveillance, in addition to supplementary immunisation for polio eradication. The checklists are meant to be adaptable/adapted to specific country contexts. They can be used independently or in combination - they have been laid out in such a way as to make them easy to photocopy and disseminate as stand-alone resource documents - and/or can be incorporated into other materials (e.g., national and subnational guidelines), depending on programme needs.
10. Global Polio Eradication Initiative Outbreak Response Guidelines
These materials from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative are meant to be of help for the preparation of a response to an outbreak of wild polio virus. They can also be used as guidance for the development of materials adapted to specific countries or situations.
11. Afghanistan Polio Communication Update
This bi-monthly e-newsletter from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) outlines innovations and strategic shifts in communication to support polio eradication in Afghanistan. The focus is on the 13 high-risk districts in the southern region that are especially vulnerable because of lack of access due to insecurity.
Interested in Polio issues in the African context? See:
The Soul Beat 97 - Polio Communication in Africa
The Drum Beat 407 - Nigeria: Communication for Polio Eradication
This issue of The Drum Beat was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.
The Editor of The Drum Beat is Kier Olsen DeVries.
Please send material for The Drum Beat to The CI's Editorial Director - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com
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