Nepal – Page 4 – C4D Network

Strengthening behaviour change communication in western Nepal: how can we do better? (Waterlines 34:4 article 2015)

October 2, 2016

The Government of Nepal aims to achieve full water and sanitation coverage by 2017. The bilateral Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Western Nepal (RWSSP-WN) works with local governments in 14 districts, aiming to declare them open defecation free. This behaviour change communications evaluation explored how to improve RWSSP-WN’s present practices to reach the diverse target population in the Terai districts, where more than 1 million people still defecate in the open.

The study reviewed RWSSP-WN’s present behaviour change triggering tools and related communications strategies. The findings suggest that availability of subsidies seems to change how people think about sanitation and tends to eliminate willingness to pay for a latrine. The authors recommended strong advocacy for a no-subsidy policy, and more attention paid to alternative financing options with targeted support to the poorest of the poor.

The present behaviour change triggering tools do work as intended, but there is a need to develop pre-triggering and post-triggering strategies to increase the overall impact. The pre-triggering strategy would ensure that potential barriers to change are identified and addressed before the actual triggering event, and that the key stakeholders are prepared for the actual triggering event. The post-triggering strategy is needed to continue motivating households to change via messages that tap into the drivers of change, addressing also the barriers which may keep each household from changing behaviour. This paper provides a number of recommendations applicable for those working with local governments and communities to increase the scope and scale of behaviour change triggering.

Communicating with Disaster-affected Children: A Case Study from the 2015 Nepal Earthquake Response (Plan International Report 2016)

September 30, 2016

In disasters and conflicts around half of those affected are children. Despite this, in humanitarian settings children are rarely asked to share their views, provided with adequate information or consulted on what they need and prioritise in emergency preparedness, response and recovery. Plan International’s experience shows that engaging children in humanitarian responses helps them to respond better and in more relevant ways. Girls and boys who are well informed and have opportunities to communicate about decisions affecting their lives are able to make better contributions to safer communities in which their rights are respected.

This new report, released by Plan International and supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency*, looks at communication with disaster-affected children in the preparedness and response after the earthquake that hit Nepal on 25 April 2015.

The report findings show that humanitarian actors should invest in better and more effective ways to provide information to children, communicate with girls and boys of different ages and invest in children’s abilities to contribute to communication and information provision. This report is designed to inspire the reflection and action of all humanitarian actors to increase and improve the meaningful communication with children and young people in humanitarian work. The report also provides concrete recommendations on how this can be done.

Learn more about Plan International’s global work in emergencies

*Plan International is not responsible for content on external websites

Using Social Media Data in International Development Research, Monitoring & Evaluation (DFID Practice Note 2016)

September 25, 2016

Abstract: The global adoption of social media has seen the user base expand to an unprecedented level. Estimates put social media membership at around 2.5 billion non unique users globally, with Facebook, Google+ and Twitter accounting for over half of these. Social media data can add value to international development research, monitoring and evaluation in several ways.

These data are‘transformative’ as they are user generated in real time and produced in large volumes in contrast to the necessarily retrospective snapshots of social trends provided by conventional means such as household surveys and administrative data. As such, they can provide insight into the behaviour and opinions of specific populations that are often unreachable by conventional methods where social media uptake is high.

The examples in this pratice note show cases where social media data were available in high volume in development contexts. However,it is important to note that for some situations and regions social media data may not be available in such volumes, precluding their use to gain near real time insights

4 case studies are included:

Data-Pop Alliance: Big Data for Disaster Resilience
Assessment Capacities Project – Nepal Earthquake
Mapping Refugee Media Journeys
Nigerian Election

Click here for full study.

Are you Listening Now? (CDAC Network briefing 2016)

May 13, 2016

When agencies launch communication efforts to reach people in crisis, or to bring in feedback,’ how are their efforts received by populations? Are the messages relevant to want they actually want to hear? Are the agencies themselves able, or willing, to adjust their programmes to the feedback they are getting from populations? And what is the role of agencies and their communication outreach several months after a disaster when a lot of the information wanted by people relates to government support? These questions are raised by research carried out for the CDAC Network among communities in Nepal about their information needs and which is due to be published in May/June 2016. This briefing papers outlines some of the key findings and lessons.

Amakomaya [Mother’s Love]: mHealth project (Nepal, 2011 onwards)

April 21, 2016

Amakomaya, translated as Mother’s Love in Nepali, was initiated by a dedicated team of local ICT experts and health professionals when they received a USD4,000 grant from the Internet Society in 2011. Committed to tackle the challenges that Nepali women face during pregnancy and childbirth; and equipped with the skills to leverage opportunities, including those that the Internet and mobile communications offer, the team is making a series of breakthroughs, particularly in women’s health education, changing community practices that marginalize women, and the digitization
of health records.

The full details of the case study can be found in the following pdf: CaseStudy-Amakomaya_Nepal

(Source: Christine Apikul)

Communicating with Disaster-affected Children: A Case Study from the 2015 Nepal Earthquake Response (Plan International Report 2016)

Are you Listening Now? (CDAC Network briefing 2016)

Amakomaya [Mother’s Love]: mHealth project (Nepal, 2011 onwards)

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