Global community of professionals working in Communication for Development
Communication for and about development are significant components of international development cooperation, interlinked in practice though separated in research. This article examines their interaction in donor-driven aid through the lens of journalism.
BBC Media Action has been supporting 15 local radio stations across Zambia to cover local governance issues and improve accountability in the delivery of critical services including education, sanitation and access to water through two projects: Radio Waves (since 2014) and Zambia Speaks! (since 2016).
This case study shows how the programmes helped to improve engagement between citizens and local authorities, resulting in examples of governance issues being addressed, as verified by listeners, station staff and local stakeholders.
Click here for more detail and full case study.
In areas with high, moderate, low, and very low transmission alike, use and uptake of malaria interventions rely heavily on community awareness, demand, and acceptance of essential commodities and services. While the WHO has recently developed a malaria elimination
framework and has a number of established policies, manuals, and recommendations, detailed guidance does not yet exist for social and behavior change (SBC) in different transmission settings. While the Roll Back Malaria Strategic Framework for Malaria Social and Behavior
Change Communication provides standard approaches, best practices, and indicators, it does not do so in malaria elimination contexts. This document describes the landscape of current SBC programming in such contexts and provides a number of considerations for future inquiry
and research.
This document describes ways in which program planners and implementers might tailor their efforts to specific malaria transmission strata and suggests a number of operational research questions. Three case studies exemplify considerations raised and describe the role of SBC in
strengthening the fight against malaria:
• The first case study from Zambia describes a successful interpersonal communication (IPC) approach paired with community-owned surveillance.
• The second case study from the Greater Mekong sub-Region describes multi-channel, cross-border initiatives.
• The third case study from South America describes the Amazon Malaria Initiative’s regional coordination.
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Abstract: From the bustling cities of Zambia to the most rural parts of Lesotho, HIV/AIDS is a raging epidemic that affects over 15% of the adult population in many regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. Public health interventions often take the form of media campaigns, which utilize television, radio, and print advertisements to spread awareness and inform the population of risk factors, prevention methods, and treatment options. This paper will focus on HIV/AIDS radio programs in Malawi, Zambia, and other countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. It will analyze these programs’ air times, audience, presentation style, and content, and identify how these factors influenced behavioral changes in the audiences. Additionally, this paper proposes promising techniques to ensure the success of future campaigns based on previous findings. Given these reviews of broadcasts of the past and their strengths and weaknesses, radio stations can better understand the reasons behind the programs’ respective impacts on the target populations. Further, this methodology can be applied when considering new radio programs for health education for HIV/AIDS and beyond.
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Fostering civic action and agency to ensure that citizens have voice and choice in relation to the food they eat is vital. However, food systems are complex and many actors help shape and influence them at local, national and international levels. By lobbying from the grassroots up, systemic changes to food systems can be made in order to address local and national challenges. This toolkit aims to provide essential guidance and ideas to advocacy professionals and civil society organisations wishing to mobilise and support low-income citizen groups to advocate for improved diets. It is ideal for civil society organisations that work with those most affected and neglected by food policy, low income consumers, producers, traders, processers and vendors – the people who form the backbone of informal food systems, but whose needs are rarely factored in by policy makers.
Click here for full toolkit.