C4D Network

Global community of professionals working in Communication for Development

Entertainment, Education, and Attitudes Toward Domestic Violence

Entertainment education (“edutainment”) is a communication strategy that works through mass entertainment media with the aim of promoting a better context for behavior change than the delivery of information alone. We experimentally evaluate season 3 of the edutainment TV series MTV Shuga, produced by MTV Staying Alive Foundation and filmed in Nigeria. Shuga 3 consists of eight episodes of 22 minutes each. While the main focus of the series is HIV, a subplot involves a married couple with a violent husband.

In this paper, we focus on this theme and assess the impact of Shuga on attitudes toward domestic violence. We find broadly positive effects. Moreover, the effect seems to be concentrated among people who recall the show and the narrative around the characters well, consistent with the idea of edutainment.

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Manual for developing intercultural competencies: story circles

This book presents a structured yet flexible methodology for developing intercultural competence in a variety of contexts, both formal and informal. Piloted around the world by UNESCO, this methodology has proven to be effective in a range of different contexts and focused on a variety of different issues. It, therefore, can be considered an important resource for anyone concerned with effectively managing the growing cultural diversity within our societies to ensure inclusive and sustainable development.

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Improving Development Outcomes Through Social and Behavior Change Communication: Applying a Governance Lens

This a summary of an analytical study that can be found on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) website at this URL. Governmental engagement with citizens on issues that affect their daily lives can be critical for addressing development challenges across sectors. Yet distrust of government and/or the international community and their motives can hamper development efforts. The field of social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) holds lessons for actors seeking to address these challenges. By presenting many of the frequently-used practices from the SBCC field, this study aims to inform and strengthen USAID’s work in Africa across sectors such as health, food security, conflict, economic growth, education, and the environment.

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Getting girls’ voices heard on the global stage: progress since the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action

Author: Nicola Jones

Much progress has been made since Beijing in 1995, when ‘The Girl Child’ was singled out as one of 12 priorities for advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment. Improvements in girls’ access to education and empowerment have accompanied reductions in child marriage. But there is still a long way to go to ensure that all adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) can exercise voice and agency in their families and communities.

My recent fieldwork trips to Azraq camp in Jordan (home to Syrian refugees) and Ethiopia’s pastoralist Afar region really underscored this. It is not just that girls need opportunities to exercise voice and agency within their families and communities; there is also the urgent and daunting collective task of ensuring that governments and development partners translate these voices into adequate support and resourcing.

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