The Drum Beat 272 - Communication and Change News and Issues
***
EXPERIENCES
1. Voice of Arab Youth (VOAY) - Middle East & North Africa
Established by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), this project aims to give young Arabs the chance to document and discuss their experiences working on community development projects in the Middle East and North Africa. Selected participants receive training and funding to support projects to be carried out in their home countries. VOAY is designed to enable 18-25 year-old Arab leaders to implement community growth initiatives with self-designed projects in the fields of education, income generation, and/or job creation.
Contact Fadi Elsalameen [email protected] OR Gregory Valadie [email protected]
2. Tepeyac Association - New York City, USA
Founded in 1997 by Mexican community leaders, the Tepeyac Association is a non-profit network of 40 community-based organisations based in New York, United States. The mission of this group is to promote the social welfare and human rights of Latino immigrants (especially New York City residents who are undocumented). In addition, the group works to empower Mexican immigrants living in New York City by informing them of their rights and resources and by increasing their capacity to lead and organise. To that end, the Association offers a number of community-based programmes and services, as well as cultural pursuits and activities for youth.
Contact [email protected]
3. Talented Youth Theatre (TYT) - Ghana
A youth organisation that uses drumming, dancing, and drama programmes to share information on youth issues, promote the welfare of youth, and help youth appreciate their African culture. It is interested in the health, economic and socio-cultural needs of youth locally and internationally. The organisation's objectives include promoting cooperation, understanding and friendship between youth of Ghana and other people locally and internationally; creating a framework for solution of social economic and health issues - especially reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, conflict resolution, reconciliation and peace building; and bridging the gap between urban and rural youth by starting village or rural outreach programmes.
Contact Charles Nii Ayiku [email protected] OR [email protected]
4. Os Tos Mhong! Youth Radio Show - Cambodia
In May 2004, Phnom Penh, Cambodia's FM 102 launched a weekly youth phone-in radio show called "Os Tos Mhong!", or "Cool!". Hosted by young people, created and produced by the Women's Media Centre of Cambodia and funded by the UK's BBC World Service Trust, the live broadcast gives Cambodian youth a chance to get on the air and discuss the issues that matter to them. Os Tos Mhong! provides advice and information to young people on personal, health, and education issues that interest them. Os Tos Mhong! features a varied format that includes talk radio, information, advice, music, and competitions. In addition to entertainment, the show provides information about sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS and encourages debate around these topics. The team has also designed a website to personalise the show - photos of the presenters and producers are featured - and to encourage interaction.
Contact Charles Hamilton [email protected]
5. Bridge to Baghdad - United States & Iraq
A programme launched by New York-based DCTV, an independent nonprofit media centre, in which young Americans and Iraqis participate in dialogues about the conflict between their nations using satellite technology. Prior to the filmed interactions, documentary films are created to explore these young people's lives in the context of conflict - and to invite comparisons and contrasts between their experiences. The purpose of the initiative, which has expanded to involve media in the form of the Internet and television, is to foster dialogue between young people and to provide a human perspective on the experience of war.
Contact Benjamin Quinto [email protected] OR Tish Bravo [email protected] OR A'yen Tran [email protected]
***
War, Peace & Poverty on BBC World
In the Wake of War, the story of Burundi's struggle to emerge from 10 years of civil war, premiers Thursday, October 28 on BBC World. The 30-minute broadcast, part of the BBC World series "Life", explores the role that economic development can play in diffusing conflict and building long-term peace in one of the world's most violent regions.
Created by the UN Agency IFAD, the documentary follows the stories of 3 people returning home from refugee camps inside and outside the country. The underlying message of the film is that poverty and conflict are mutually supporting and that without the attention and support of the international donors, war-ravaged economies like Burundi's may have difficulty building lasting peace.
Click here for more details.
***
EVALUATIONS
6. Impact Data - Early Childhood Initiative (ECI) - Pittsburgh, PA, USA
The Scaling Progress in Early Childhood Settings (SPECS) Evaluation Team - part of the Early Childhood Partnerships programme of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and The UCLID Center at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine - tracked the progress of 1,350 children enrolled in ECI between 1997 and 2003. The team observed and profiled progress 3 times each year, focusing on thinking, language, early literacy, social, behavioural, and play skills.
7. New Voices: An Evaluation of 15 Access Radio Projects
by Anthony Everitt
In 2002, 15 groups were selected by the United Kingdom's Radio Authority to take part in the a pilot project that was initially termed "Access Radio" and later renamed "Community Radio". Access Radio was initially suggested to the UK Government by the Radio Authority as an initiative to provide opportunities for a new tier of non-profit radio services to be used in innovative, creative, and socially and educationally constructive ways. This project aims to evaluate different approaches to the concept and to inform the future radio regulator how Access Radio might be licensed, regulated, funded, promoted, and organised.
8. Punishment of Love: Media Impact Survey
In May 2003, Population Services International (PSI)/Cambodia launched a 12-week integrated, multimedia HIV/AIDS prevention campaign featuring a television soap opera called Punishment of Love (hereafter, PoL). In Dec 2003, PSI published an evaluation of the series, with the following research objectives: to measure exposure to the PoL television series and other aspects of the campaign among the intended audience; to evaluate retention and understanding of PoL's messages; and, to evaluate the impact of the campaign on attitudes toward discussion of HIV/AIDS and condoms, risk perception for HIV, and stigma toward people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).
TRENDS
9. Asia's rural poor connect with wireless broadband
Factory workers living in a far-flung industrial estate in China are calling home using a type of wireless technology that could soon be shaking up communications worldwide. They send emails and make cheap voice calls to loved ones in distant villages using wireless Internet technology supplied by a Canadian firm, Wi-Lan Inc. While the technology is expected to lead to new Internet and telephone services in rich nations, Wi-Lan sees huge opportunities for wireless broadband to meet the communications needs of some of Asia's poorest people.
10. Indymedia's Independence: From Activist Media to Free Software
This paper traces trends in "Indymedia", a global, decentralised, grassroots network that applies open source principles to reporting the news. Author Biella Coleman explains that these media centres "are run as local collectives that manage and coordinate a news website; some also operate an affiliated media resource center for local activists.
11. UK Children Go Online: Surveying the experiences of young people and their parents
by Sonia Livingstone & Magdalena Bober
This nationwide survey of 1,500 children aged 9-19 and their parents is part of a research project carried out by UK Children Go Online (UKCGO). Between January and March 2004, researchers conducted in-home, face-to-face interviews, lasting some 40 minutes, of 1,511 children and 906 parents across the United Kingdom. One key finding: Rather than seeing face to face communication as automatically superior, young people evaluate the different forms of communication available to them according to distinct communicative needs.
12. Nollywood points to a future for African film [radio programme]
by Eniwoke Ibagere
In this 6-minute radio programme, InterWorld Radio's Eniwoke Ibagere explores a growing trend that the New York Times has labelled "Nollywood": Nigeria's thriving home-grown film industry. Films are shot in just a few days, often for less than US$10,000, distributed on Video Compact Disc (VCD), and watched all over the continent and beyond. By interviewing actors, filmmakers, and consumers in Lagos, Ibagere learns that Nollywood has really taken off in Nigeria, as producers cannot afford to produce films for the big screen. Nigeria's cultural heritage is highlighted in many of these films, and themes like group governance, democracy, and socio-economic development are undercurrents in some of the stories.
***
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?
***
MATERIALS
13. Increasing Immunisation Coverage in Uganda: The Community Problem Solving and Strategy Development Approach
Published by Basics II in 2003, this 4-page brief aims to describe the Community Problem Solving and Strategy Development (CPSSD) approach as applied in Uganda and its alignment with the Reaching Every District (RED) strategy developed and supported by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). Moreover, it reports on the results of the CPSSD approach, including improvements in immunisation coverage, declines in drop-out rates, and improvements in health worker and parent interpersonal communication.
14. Strategic Innovations for Improving Pastoral Livelihoods in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Highlands
This publication is made up of 2 volumes. Based on a May 2002 meeting organised by ICIMOD and the Tibetan Academy of Agriculture and Animal Sciences these volumes include full papers and summaries of 28 oral presentations on topics ranging from integrated pastoral production research, through various aspects of integrated development approaches, to participation as a driving force in the process of development and conservation initiatives.
15. Guidelines for Evaluating Non-Profit Communications Efforts
Written by the Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC), this paper provides draft evaluation guidelines, tips on how to apply the guidelines to communications campaigns of various sizes, a discussion about the theories of change needed to conduct an evaluation, and an outline of both behaviour change and policy change communications campaigns.
***
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.
Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann [email protected]
To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, see our policy.
To subscribe, click here.