Research Communication & Uptake – Page 5

Being a Man in Nigeria: Perceptions and Realities (Voices 4 Change – Nigeria Research Report, 2015)

September 16, 2016

Understanding men’s attitudes and practices to family, community life and relationships is crucial to improving and encouraging more equitable relationships between men and women. This research report is a synthesis of a total of five studies – four qualitative and one quantitative – exploring how the culture of masculinity shapes how men see themselves, behave and its impacts on their health/wellbeing as well as on their interpersonal and social relationship with women, girls and the society. The studies were conducted in selected states across the six geographical regions of Nigeria

Key findings:

*Traditional gender attitude and behaviour may be changing in Nigeria as evidence by responses garnered during the studies

*At the broadest level, widely held ideas about masculinity and femininity are powerful “root causes” of gender inequality and violence against women in all its forms.

*Rigid gender stereotypes of men and women create individual tensions, which find expression through negative social voices and interpersonal conflict and violence.

*Gender equitable and non-violent masculinities can bring important benefits to men and women alike, for example; better relationships, less stress, happier children, and future generations who reject violence against women and children in all forms.

*Positive, non-violent role models and education for men and boys (as well as women and girls) help ensure better gender equitable attitudes and behaviours. If these behaviours are inculcated in childhood and young adulthood, they last into adult life with family and possibly community-wide benefits.

Click here for full report.

Data visualisation: Contributions to evidence-based decision-making (SciDev.Net Learning Report 2016)

July 24, 2016

Data visualisation – the visual representation of data in charts and graphs – has grown in popularity in recent years. Media outlets and research communication organisations alike have invested in the production of data visualisation, committing to the belief that visualisation is an effective form of communication.

While a number of claims have been made around the potential of data visualisation as a communication tool, there has been a relative lack of informed discussion around the role that data visualisation can play in the research communication sector.

This report builds on SciDev.Net’s experiences of producing data visualisations and in data journalism more broadly, and brings together lessons learned with insights from the broader sector of research communication. What follows will help researchers, research communication managers and journalists to make more informed decisions about when to invest in data visualisations in order to meet research communication goals.

Click here for full report.

Can behaviour change approaches improve the cleanliness and functionality of shared toilets? A randomised control trial in Dhaka, Bangladesh (WSUP Discussion Paper 2016)

May 21, 2016

Households living in densely populated urban slums often lack the space for their own toilet, making shared sanitation the only viable solution. This is the situation in Dhaka, where many of the city’s low-income residents depend on one of the city’s enormous number of shared compound toilets: a recent study by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh (icddr,b) estimated that 4.3 million people in Dhaka use such facilities. While shared compound toilets can play a central role in urban sanitation provision, it is notoriously difficult to keep these facilities clean and well-maintained, leading to an unhygienic and unpleasant user experience and often to under-use or eventual abandonment.

As part of its 2012 – 2015 DFID-funded research programme, WSUP commissioned a research project in Dhaka to explore behaviour change strategies to help users keep their toilets clean and functional. The study aimed to design, pilot and rollout low-cost behaviour change messaging approaches and associated simple hardware provision. The research team used a randomised control trial (RCT) design to evaluate the impact of the intervention on toilet cleanliness and other metrics. The results indicate that this type of behaviour change approach can be strongly beneficial to shared toilet cleanliness and functionality.

This Discussion Paper presents the context, methodology, results and conclusions of the study. The paper is derived from the final report of researchers from icddr,b, Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Click here for full details.

Learning how to harness Information Communication Technologies for Development (DFID Research Analysis, 2015)

September 3, 2015

The ICT4D programme, which was co-funded with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), examined the positive and negative impacts that ICT can have on the lives of the poor. Research findings are helping to inform emerging policy that looks to empower the world’s poorest people through technology. For example, in Bangladesh, action research effectively demonstrated how a planned national tax on mobile phone usage would have effectively ‘cut off’ half of the poor population. The programme has improved the global knowledge base of how connectivity can be positively harnessed for social and economic development.

Click here for full findings.