Social Change Communication

Participatory Research Toolkit (Rain Barrel Communications, 2018)

November 19, 2018

This toolkit gathers together a wide variety of participatory research tools developed over a 20-year period and used in multiple social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) projects around the world. Examples are provided from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mozambique, Nepal, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone.

All of the tools presented have been tried and tested. A majority of them have been used with adolescents. However, children, women, men, key influentials and, indeed, whole communities have used them.

The tookit provides an overarching description of the tool as a whole, next, there is a list of topics and countries where the research team has had first-hand experience of working with these tools, and then there is a selection of concrete examples. Finally, each tool is accompanied by suggested “how-to’s” with step by step instructions, tips and techniques that have been employed in real-world settings.

Click here for full toolkit.

Let’s Make it Work! Breastfeeding in the Workplace – Using C4D to make breastfeeding possible among working mothers (UNICEF, 2018)

October 29, 2018

In 2016, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF launched two country-level initiatives to improve breastfeeding practices of infants of working mothers, in partnership with businesses operating in two distinct settings:

• Ready-made garment (RMG) factory sites located in the urban and peri-urban areas of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• A vast tea estate situated in Kericho County, Kenya.

The objective of the mother- and babyfriendly workplace initiatives is to increase working mothers’ demand for and access to facilities and services that support appropriate breastfeeding practices and care in the workplace.” In doing so, the initiatives aim to generate evidence on the operational feasibility, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of supporting breastfeeding in the workplace, and to showcase its benefits for children, families, communities and businesses. UNICEF applied the Communication for Development (C4D) process to design social and behavioural change communication strategies to increase acceptance of, and demand for, workplace breastfeeding programmes in each context.

This document presents accomplishments to date and conceptual thinking in C4D for promoting breastfeeding support in the workplace, emanating from these two experiences and building upon available evidence and lessons learned from former experiences. The document
is intended for programme planners within UNICEF as well as UNICEF partner organizations.

Click here for full report.

Wumen Bagung – Communication for Development and Social Change Bulletin: “Whose Theory Counts?” (RMIT, 2018)

October 22, 2018

This edition of Wumen Bagung explores four key themes, each focused on how communication outcomes are influenced by the role of the community, and whether it is passive or active participant. The first theme brings together analyses from across Asia of different ways of communicating to local communities starting with a review of how water, hygiene and sanitation services are communicated in Cambodia, fresh approaches to communication underway in Myanmar by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the use of cable television in local Philippine communities.

The second theme – which details outside approaches to communication for development (C4D) – opens with Robert Boughen’s challenge for us to rethink Chinese media development investments, not from a neoliberal development perspective, rather through acknowledging that Chinese media assistance in Africa ‘has an active function in a cohesive model of the ‘development economy’. Edwar Hanna and Jackie Davies of C4D Network consider the effects of urbanisation on communication for development, while Sina Øversveen critically examines the Freedom of the Press Index.

The third theme focuses on the lessons to be learned from local communities by directly involving them in C4D. In ‘The Space Between’, Donna Griffin takes us on a journey of learning the Aboriginal way of understanding the world, while Winifredo Dagli reviews the learning development training offered by the University of Philippines Los Banos. Kylie Smith and Melissa Fan close this theme with an examination of C4D in the age of feminism.

The final theme provides examples of the community as leaders in communication and looks at how video is actively being used to interrogate local development challenges in India, followed by an analysis of public art as a critical tool in democratic communication.

Click here for full edition.

Communication for Development (C4D) Promising practices (UNICEF East Asia & Pacific, 2018)

October 14, 2018

Communication for Development (C4D) promising practices are dialogue-driven interventions that lead to the sustainable improvement of living conditions for children and their families, particularly the most vulnerable. This booklet brings together four outstanding examples from Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Viet Nam, where UNICEF-supported interventions by governments and civil society organizations are bringing about positive change.

Click here for full booklet.