Development is going digital and INGOs like Oxfam have a vital convening role to play. This paper draws on ICT for Development in Oxfam’s programmes in the Horn, East and Central Africa to consider what this role is. In order to realise the opportunities associated with the digital landscape, Oxfam will need to build internal and external capacity to implement ICT in programmes to enhance quality, accessibility, and efficiency.
Malaria Social & Behavior Change Communication National Strategies (collected and mapped by HC3 2016)
HC3 has analyzed, collected and mapped a number of national malaria communication strategies. A number of countries are updating their malaria communication strategies as they prepare concept notes for the Global Fund. The strategies include those written both and after 2010 as well as current strategies.
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Methods and approaches to understanding behaviour change (GSDRC Helpdesk Research Report 1,389 University of Birmingham 2016)
There are a large number of theories and approaches towards behavioural change derived from disciplines such as psychology, sociology, communication and political science. These theories focus on a number of different levels: the enabling environment; the community; the interpersonal; or the individual. What matters is not only which behaviour change intervention or policy is implemented, but how it is implemented.
Key findings of this rapid review include:
Evidence suggests that behaviour and behaviour change can be best understood when an open theory approach is adopted. This approach acknowledges that the translation of theoretical methods to specific contexts, populations, and cultures is complex.
Information alone is insufficient to support behaviour change. Influencing healthy behaviours and creating a supportive social environment requires the stimulation of learning and participation through regular dialogue with, and within, the target community. Relationships with partners, families, the wider community and society more broadly, can substantially affect how an individual behaves.
Examples of behaviour change approaches in international development are drawn from UNICEF, ActionAid and FHI360.
Efforts to affect behavioural change within the context of Karamoja have focused on nutrition, health and hygiene interventions.
Strengthening Community Platforms to Address Gender Norms (AIDSFree Technical Brief 2016)
In 2014, there were 25.8 million people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, more than half of them women. Several studies have reported that girls’ and women’s risk of HIV infection is associated with gender inequality and violence. Harmful gender norms can lead to risky behaviors, violence, substance abuse, pursuit of multiple sexual partners, and domination of women. These norms affect not only men and women but also families and communities.
This technical brief describes the elements of programmatic approaches to strengthen community platforms to address gender equality and harmful gender norms. It draws examples from successful community platforms for addressing GBV and more specifically, from the SASA! program in Uganda designed by Raising Voices.
Freedom HIV/AIDS: The use of mobile technology to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS, (Star Programme, East and Southern Africa, 2006)
Background: Freedom HIV/AIDS is a company specialising in mobile game development with the aim of trying to combat HIV/AIDS through the use of ICTs. Their original project was based around educational games created for mobile phones. The success of this project in India led to Freedom HIV/AIDS collaborating with the Africa Reach Programme in 2006 to create the ‘Star Programme’. This programme was implemented in six countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Namibia, countries of high HIV/AIDS prevalence. The focus was on adolescents and young people, although the games could be used by anyone.
The Star programme aimed to use technology to create HIV/AIDS awareness and sensitivity amongst young people in the target countries. By increasing awareness, the programme aimed to reduce the spread of HIV.
What did the programme involve? Two mobile games were created, in both English and local languages: AIDS Penalty Shoot Out – a football game where players save and shoot penalties whilst receiving information and messages on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention – and AIDS Fighter Pilot – where a village boy and girl who area peer educators, dedicate their lives to fighting HIV/AIDS as they fly around their village and region, distributing knowledge, condoms and red ribbons.
Why that particular approach? Mobile technology was used due to its prevalence in the target countries. The number of people with mobile phones – especially young people – was rapidly growing and as youth were the target demographic this made focusing on mobile phone technology a logical move. Using technology to communicate information and raise awareness was also deemed to be more cost effective than using health workers, and it was felt it would allow information to reach rural areas that might otherwise be excluded.
Games were used as ‘edutainment’ rather than as just information packages, because edutainment methods can often be more effective at spreading messages and creating awareness than just presenting large amounts of information to target audiences. The games engaged and entertained making it more likely that young people would retain knowledge gained whilst playing.
Results observed: Assessing the results of the programme is difficult. However, in 2006 there were six million downloads of the game, which suggests that the game is both popular and being used widely.
When the games were first launched there was no evaluation system in place to study the impact of the games. However, since then during the game play the score, variety of messages delivered, message weights, levels and replay history were recorded in order to assess the impact. Using this information, it has been suggested that games have increased players’ knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Freedom HIV/AIDS is developing more games and rolling out the initiative to other parts of the world, which suggests the organisation views the edutainment games as a success.
Lessons learned: The Star Programme highlights the importance of formative research. Through connecting with local NGOs the programme initiators learnt about cultural and regional sensitivities, allowing ‘tailoring’ of the games. Formative research also highlighted the popularity of football across Africa which determined the focus of one of the games. However, the lack of evaluation system when the games were first implemented has made it more difficult to evaluate the impact of the project. This highlights the importance of continual monitoring and evaluation.
(Source: Freedom HIV/AIDS website)
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