Research Papers – Page 9

Effects of a Media Campaign on Breastfeeding Behaviours in Sindh Province, Pakistan (World Health & Population Article, 2015)

March 12, 2016

Abstract: A 2013–2014 media campaign in Sindh Province, Pakistan, promoted healthy breastfeeding practices. According to data from annual household surveys, 26.7% of mothers saw one television spot and 19.4% saw another. The proportion of mothers who received breastfeeding information via television increased from 8.3% to 29.4% after the campaign (p≤0.05) and the percentage receiving information from doctors, mothers-in-law and relatives/friends nearly doubled (p≤0.05). However, no improvements in breastfeeding practices were reported. The experience in Sindh suggests that, in order to change breastfeeding practices, mass media interventions should be linked with other interventions, such as provider counseling, that involve influential family members in addition to mothers.

Source: World Health & Population, 16(2) December 2015: 39-45.doi:10.12927/whp.2016.24494

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.

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Building Peace through Social Change Communication: Participatory Video in Conflict-affected Communities (Community Development Journal, 2015)

August 19, 2015

This paper draws on the experience of a participatory video (PV) project conducted in the Rift Valley of Kenya after the 2007–2008 post-election crisis when the country underwent a period of intense ethnic violence. After the ﬁghting reached an end, members of different communities who were now enemies had to return to live together as neighbours. In this case study, the author presents the impact that a collection of PVs created from the work of International Non-Governmental OrganisationMercy Corps for programme evaluation purposes, became a tool for peacebuilding and conﬂict transformation for the youths in the Rift Valley.