CDATA[Author: siminyx
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 3:44 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 6

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. For information on how to participate or unsubscribe to this forum, and to
view the discussion forum online, please visit the following link:
http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
===

I maybe late....but I have to add my two cents worth!!!
ah development world and its endless yards of paper trails probably going
many times around the world........the rhetoric about communication that
says nothing the endless stream of ideas that are written in donor friendly
language......all this communicates nothing to the people who are actually
in need of help.......we communicate and design for people like us..
there are however people who are in touch with the reality of others lives
and their lives are all about communication these are the people who are not
owned by agendas or organizations and their passion is humanity.
lets not design elaborate programs lets just each of us really truly realize
why we do what we do.........are we looking for self
gratification........for larger platforms....for funding......or are we
looking to create a safer ,peaceful cleaner world for our children?
how can there not be development????!!when we look around what do we
see??........but human morality suffers from severe apathy and though we may
become literate and effluent we as a people have chosen to be apathetic.
do any of you have ideas and programs to kick start the morality of
humanity??

simi raheal
r-vision international
pakistan



Quote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Warren Feek" <drumbeatchat@comminit.com>
To: <drumbeatchat@comminit.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 10:53 PM
Subject: [DrumBeatChat] Impact of Communication and Media Development Interventions

My best wishes to everyone.

I wanted to quickly follow up on Deborah's recent note for this Drum Beat
chat which is based around the three recent Drum Beats derived from the
joint World Bank/CI paper ""Communicating the Impact of Communication for
Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki


Those of us in the Communication and Media Development Field are so often
criticized for not having impact evidence - failing to demonstrate the
impact relationship of a communication/media intervention on a development
issue [from HIV trends to freedom of expression].

Working with The World Bank, we took this initiative to address that
issue.
Nobuya was asked to identify recent PEER REVIEWED [and hence legitimate]
journal articles on this theme and to assess, based on that review, the
state of play for the impact of this field. The relevant links follow.

We are very interested in your assessment and response to the knowledge in
Nobuya's paper. Building on Deborah's overall questions [see her previous
email] I would pose these specific questions for response:

- Is this a compelling impact case?

- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the papers/data he has
identified
and summarised?

- Is his contextual [eg modernization] and category [eg behaviour change]
approach helpful and accurate?

- Did he miss any important journal articles?

- What does this analysis tell us about where and how we need to
strengthen
the impact data to support he claims of our communication/media field?

- Do the data and arguments in this paper [links below] help you to make
your case to policy makers and funders?


Thanks - we look forward to your contributions - Warren


***

LINKS

"Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends
in
Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki:

* The Drum Beat 445 - Background Studies: Trends in Impact Evaluation of
C4D
[Part 1] Now archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_445.html
reviews the peer-reviewed articles which served as background evidence for
Mr. Inagaki's analysis.

* The Drum Beat 446 - Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 2] Now
archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_446.html focuses on
Chapters 1-4 of the actual analysis, looking at theory, trends, and
evidence.

* The Drum Beat 447 - Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 3] Now
archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_447.html focuses on
Chapters 5 and 6, looking at discussion of the trends and evidence and
presenting conclusions.


Warren Feek
Executive Director
The Communication Initiative

');document.write('wfeek');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//-->
1-250-658-6372 - office
1-250-588-8795 - mobile
www.comminit.com




]

CDATA[Author: Javed
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:32 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 6

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. For information on how to participate or unsubscribe to this forum, and to view the discussion forum online, please visit the following link:
http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
===

Dear Warren,
 
I am particularly interested to get your feedback on my comments on Inagaki's paper. I wrote those comments specially in response to your e-mail. Any agreement or disagreement? I welcome all! I will be happy to correct my views if there are better arguments.
I realize that these days, not many people have time to read long papers, even if they are about their job. Most people carry out their jobs without consulting literature, so long their bosses and donors are satisfied. Those who write papers, are also doing their job. Right?
Regards. Javed

 
On 6/24/08, Warren Feek <drumbeatchat@comminit.com (drumbeatchat@comminit.com)> wrote: Quote:
My best wishes to everyone.

I wanted to quickly follow up on Deborah's recent note for this Drum Beat
chat which is based around the three recent Drum Beats derived from the
joint World Bank/CI paper ""Communicating the Impact of Communication for
Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki


Those of us in the Communication and Media Development Field are so often
criticized for not having impact evidence - failing to demonstrate the
impact relationship of a communication/media intervention on a development
issue [from HIV trends to freedom of expression].

Working with The World Bank, we took this initiative to address that issue.
Nobuya was asked to identify recent PEER REVIEWED [and hence legitimate]
journal articles on this theme and to assess, based on that review, the
state of play for the impact of this field. The relevant links follow.

We are very interested in your assessment and response to the knowledge in
Nobuya's paper. Building on Deborah's overall questions [see her previous
email] I would pose these specific questions for response:

- Is this a compelling impact case?

- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the papers/data he has identified
and summarised?

- Is his contextual [eg modernization] and category [eg behaviour change]
approach helpful and accurate?

- Did he miss any important journal articles?

- What does this analysis tell us about where and how we need to strengthen
the impact data to support he claims of our communication/media field?

- Do the data and arguments in this paper [links below] help you to make
your case to policy makers and funders?


Thanks - we look forward to your contributions - Warren


***

LINKS

"Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends in
Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki:

* The Drum Beat 445 - Background Studies: Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D
[Part 1] Now archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_445.html
reviews the peer-reviewed articles which served as background evidence for
Mr. Inagaki's analysis.

* The Drum Beat 446 - Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 2] Now
archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_446.html  focuses on
Chapters 1-4 of the actual analysis, looking at theory, trends, and
evidence.

* The Drum Beat 447 - Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 3] Now
archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_447.html  focuses on
Chapters 5 and 6, looking at discussion of the trends and evidence and
presenting conclusions.


Warren Feek
Executive Director
The Communication Initiative

');document.write('wfeek');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//--> (wfeek@comminit.com)
1-250-658-6372 - office
1-250-588-8795 - mobile
www.comminit.com






--
Javed S. Ahmad
Health Communication Consultant
Fresh Meadows, New York
(718) 969 6202
]

CDATA[Author: shassan
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 5:34 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 2

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. For information on how to participate or unsubscribe to this forum, and to
view the discussion forum online, please visit the following link:
http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
===

Dear All

Just wondering if there's an elegant (?!) statistical approach in
dealing with metadata/metasources/metadiversity type of information delivery impact!
can be mind-boggling...

Best Wishes

syed ts hassan
0931h, 10 Julay 2008




On Wed, July 9, 2008 20:10, scarlett wrote:
Quote:

Dear colleagues,

I of course agree with Leela that it is extremely difficult to measure the
impact of any particular health information for it is almost impossible to
isolate the impact that any one specific communication has had on a target
society. I have found it useful to conduct CULTURALLY-ADAPTED SOCIAL
MARKET
RESEARCH (CASOMAR) to find out how a particular message was perceived by
the
different segments of the target society and what they think of it.
Scarlett
Dr. T. Scarlett Epstein OBE
Director: PEGS (Practical Education & Gender Support)
5, Viceroy Lodge, Kingsway, HOVE BN3 4RA England
Tel: +44 (0)1273-735151
e-mail: ');document.write('scarlett');document.write('@');document.write('epstein.net');document.write('');//-->



>
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> A few quick thoughts on this issue:
>
> On the issue of impact: we continue to grapple with this too. Numerous
> organizations are engaged in information dissemination but it is very
> difficult to measure its impact on health. Quantitative data are hard to
> come by. I think we need to define impact more broadly since we cannot
> measure the health outcomes so precisely. In a rigorously controlled
> study
> in a specific community it may be possible to measure, for example,
> improvement in malaria outcomes given a particular intervention. We tend
> to
> focus on the health care provider and try to assess any change in
> practice,
> improvement of knowledge base, improvement in skills, etc. based on the
> information they have received. This is difficult too as people are
> getting
> information from a variety of sources which confounds the influence of
> our
> content.
>
> I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
>
> Kind regards,
> Leela
>
> __________________________________________________
>
>
> Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
> Director of Information Services
>
> AED-SATELLIFE Center for Health Information and Technology
> 30 California Street, Watertown, MA 02472, USA
> Tel: +617-926-9400 Fax: +617-926-1212
> Email: ');document.write('lmccullough');document.write('@');document.write('aed.org');document.write('');//-->
> Web: http://www.healthnet.org>




--
Professor in Biostatistic, Biology(Ecology,Entomology).
B.Sc(Hons First Class) Univ New England.
M.Sc. Univ of Queensland.
Ph.d. Univ of Queensland.
Laureate in Science WCASC, Cambridge.
Adviser in Science to DG IBC, Cambridge.
FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR.
Royal Military College.
]

CDATA[Author: Javed
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:08 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 6

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. We are currently discussing the issues brought up in Drum Beats 445, 446, and 447, which focus on World Bank Working Paper (#120), "Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki. For the opening note of this discussion, please see: http://forums.comminit.com/viewtopic.php?t=104018&style=2 For information on how to participate in or unsubscribe from this forum, and to view the archives of the forum online, please visit the following link: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
===

Dear Colleagues:
 

Nobuya Inagaki in his seminal paper has beautifully and scholarly summed  up the state of the art on the impact of communication for development, that was a joy to read.  I have nothing but praise for the treatment and arguments presented and conclusions reached that show beyond any doubt that development process benefits from communication activities, may they be using  interpersonal communication, entertainmenteducation/social marketing, or group communication approach. The scholastic style of the paper clearly shows its approach is professional and aimed at those critics of communication effort who are 'educated consumers' yet not fully convinced of the added value of investing resources on IEC type activities.  I believe that many of them will be satisfied after reading and digesting this paper.
 
I can see the limitations as well as strengths of the paper that it only analyzes reliable and published papers. Otherwise, it would be interesting to know some cost-benefit analysis, even from the 'grey' world.  An astute project manager may want to know how much is adequate to allocate for communication activities? What criterion should be used to select channels of communication that could be cheap (Radio) to most expensive (inter-personal)? How can be the incremental impact be determined by adding or subtracting funds for the communication effort? How important it is to evaluate a project with full blown social research quantitative methodology? Can sales and service statistics alone be good indicators of success?
 
My other comments are, perhaps, outside the realm of the discussion covered in the paper, or may be not, unless we take a broader view of the field which goes beyond what published papers cover. Since I am also a student of Everett Rogers Diffusion of Innovations theory, (ably highlighted by Inagaki), I find it fascinating that how often we forget the basics of his great work when designing or evaluating communication effort. By doing so, in my view, we undersell and undermine our own work and do not inform the donors the full extent of the return they receive on their investment, and that is besides making poor choices in our strategies. Let me clarify. 
 
Rogers argued that the decision of accepting or rejecting a new idea is made through a process that a receiver passes through "from first knowledge to forming an attitude, to a decision to adopt or reject, to implementation of a new idea and to confirmation of this decision." These are five steps or stages of the process: 1) Knowledge (comes through awareness of the idea) (2) persuasion (when an individual forms a favorable or unfavorable attitude towards the idea; (3) decision (when individual decides to try out activities and accepts or reject the idea; (4) Implementation ( when an individual put the idea in use and (5) Confirmation (when adopting individual seeks confirmation form others of the new behavior. Upon receiving negative feedback, may discontinue the practice.) 
 
If we agree on these steps, our communication strategies should be built around these simple steps. In other words, in any given population, intended target audience can be segmented using these five criteria. Using a HIV/AIDS prevention program, as an example, the segments may look like: (1) people who are not knowledgeable or those who have never heard of the disease or its consequences and method of prevention; (2) People who are generally knowledgeable and either believe or do not believe they are at risk; (3) they have a positive attitude and decide to try out condom or not to use condoms; (4) those who begin the practice of avoiding risky behavior by using condoms; and (5) adopters needing reassurance that what they are doing is ok and others in their reference group endorse.
 
If communication strategies are built to target these five categories of people and their subgroups, it will have numerous ramifications and advantages for communication planners. For example, communication needs of each group will differ and  messages, channels and activities will vary accordingly, to suit each group's needs. This discussion is another story and will require a whole new book. I would love to know of any programme that uses such an approach.  
 
This approach will also be extremely helpful when planning monitoring and evaluating communication projects.  For instance, the impact of communication program may be on all five groups and distinguishable.  Only judging of impact on the rate of adoption would be like underselling your results, because the percentage of persons who became knowledgeable or changed their attitudes should also count as achievements. I believe most evaluation exercises leave all that out. This is the reason that Inagaki's careful scrutiny of the research papers have found several nuggets as additional and unexpected outcomes (e.g., empowerment of women).
 
Concerning those who wants to be convinced of the impact of communication programs, they should look into the multi-billion dollars advertising industry.  Businessmen who are always looking for ways to cut their expenses, would not spend a penny on advertising if they could do without it.  But research has shown clear and unmistakable positive relationship between adverting expenses to product and service sales.  This is now a fine art in the business world. However, in public health, we still keep wondering about the impact while we should be spending same energy and resources on refining our communication strategies.
 
An important observation that should not be lost in the shuffle from Inagaki's paper is the too short a time given for communication projects that require demonstrated results.  Also, planning of communication projects that must show results should be given extra time and resources for better planning and evaluation. Only outsiders should evaluate projects.  Results should be specified from the beginning in clear terms and relate to the entirety of the communication efforts made by the program.
 
As part of my services, I offer Communication Audit that can inform a donor if the project is on the right track, its strategy is well designed and how likely it is to attain its intended goals, much before the end of term evaluation breaks the news.
 
Last but not the least, I like to acknowledge and commend Warren Feek for running a very useful service for the communication professional's community. That is a big plus itself. Keep the beat on!
 
Regards.
Javed S. Ahmad
Health Communication Consultant
New York
 


 
On 7/8/08, leelamccullough <drumbeatchat@comminit.com (drumbeatchat@comminit.com)> wrote: Quote:

Dear colleagues,

For more than 15 years, AED-SATELLIFE has been engaged in creating access to, and supporting the exchange of, health information through our e-newsletters and e-forums on crucial health topics.  We continue to grapple with the issue of the impact of the information on health providers and health.  Numerous organizations are engaged in information dissemination but it is very difficult to measure its impact on health. Quantitative data are hard to come by. Perhaps we need to define impact more broadly since we cannot measure the health outcomes so precisely. In a rigorously controlled study in a specific community, it may be possible to measure, for example, particular malaria outcomes given a specific intervention(s).

Our audience is composed of  wide range of health workers: doctors, nurses and midwives, policy makers, pharmacists, medical students, academic faculty, etc. in both low and middle income countries and the industrialised world. To measure the usefulness of the information they access, we tend to focus on the health care provider and try to assess any change in practice, improvement of knowledge base, improvement in skills, examples of use, etc. So far, we have done this through email surveys and when we had some funding we conducted focus groups in one country. And yes, the surveys show that the information is useful, people use it, and it makes a difference in their work. But,  funders want to know about the number of lives that are saved or the healthy baby that one can hold at the end of day or the number of people vaccinated.

I would be interested in hearing the experience of others on this list.

Kind regards,
Leela

--------
Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
Director of Information Services
AED-SATELLIFE
Email: ');document.write('lmccullough');document.write('@');document.write('aed.org');document.write('');//--> (lmccullough@aed.org)
Tel: 617-926-9400 Fax: 617-926-1212
Web site: http:/www.healthnet.org






--
Javed S. Ahmad
Health Communication Consultant
Fresh Meadows, New York
(718) 969 6202
]

CDATA[Author: scarlett
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:03 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 2

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. For information on how to participate or unsubscribe to this forum, and to view the discussion forum online, please visit the following link: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
===

Dear colleagues,

I of course agree with Leela that it is extremely difficult to measure the
impact of any particular health information for it is almost impossible to
isolate the impact that any one specific communication has had on a target
society. I have found it useful to conduct CULTURALLY-ADAPTED SOCIAL MARKET
RESEARCH (CASOMAR) to find out how a particular message was perceived by the
different segments of the target society and what they think of it.
Scarlett
Dr. T. Scarlett Epstein OBE
Director: PEGS (Practical Education & Gender Support)
5, Viceroy Lodge, Kingsway, HOVE BN3 4RA England
Tel: +44 (0)1273-735151
e-mail: ');document.write('scarlett');document.write('@');document.write('epstein.net');document.write('');//-->


Quote:

Dear colleagues,

A few quick thoughts on this issue:

On the issue of impact: we continue to grapple with this too. Numerous
organizations are engaged in information dissemination but it is very
difficult to measure its impact on health. Quantitative data are hard to
come by. I think we need to define impact more broadly since we cannot
measure the health outcomes so precisely. In a rigorously controlled study
in a specific community it may be possible to measure, for example,
improvement in malaria outcomes given a particular intervention. We tend to
focus on the health care provider and try to assess any change in practice,
improvement of knowledge base, improvement in skills, etc. based on the
information they have received. This is difficult too as people are getting
information from a variety of sources which confounds the influence of our
content.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Kind regards,
Leela

__________________________________________________


Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
Director of Information Services

AED-SATELLIFE Center for Health Information and Technology
30 California Street, Watertown, MA 02472, USA
Tel: +617-926-9400 Fax: +617-926-1212
Email: ');document.write('lmccullough');document.write('@');document.write('aed.org');document.write('');//-->
Web: http://www.healthnet.org

]

CDATA[Author: fomi
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 10:28 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 6

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. We are currently discussing the issues brought up in Drum Beats 445, 446, and 447, which focus on World Bank Working Paper (#120), "Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki. For the opening note of this discussion, please see: http://forums.comminit.com/viewtopic.php?t=104018&style=2 For information on how to participate in or unsubscribe from this forum, and to view the archives of the forum online, please visit the following link: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
===

Colleagues,
 
There is no thorny issue in a project cycle than measuring change/impact. But who should measure change? When it comes to participatory approaches of impact assessment, traditional paradigms are revisited in favor of inverting the pyramid. The trend over the years has been what AED-SATELLIFE has described: funders asking for numbers of beneficiaries. But is all change described in terms of figures and charts? Without wanting to betray my own bias for qualitative approaches to assessment, I would like to champion the idea that through personal experience working in developing countries, personal stories of both the beneficiaries and implementors of a project have often provided the much needed definitions of what change is when it comes to embracing an intervention. Community involvement in defining how they know that they are making progress has not only been an effective way of gauging change but has also provided an opportunity to reverse the assessment roles. The onus is not only on the project implementor and the donor to determine change and progress, communities too have a say in what they consider to be progress. This is not to throw all caution of quality and adherence to standardized evaluation processes to the dogs but rather that all stakeholders should have a say on what they consider to be indicators for change. Expert opinion only comes in to verify the processes used. So, in short Leela, it could be high time, that project implementors and donors revisited assessment paradigms/approaches if real change can be measured in situations where figures and charts alone cannot do so.
 
Fletcher Ziwoya
Doctoral Student
School of Communication Studies
Ohio University



 
]

CDATA[Author: rramirez
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:47 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 6

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. For information on how to participate or unsubscribe to this forum, and to view the discussion forum online, please visit the following link: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
===

For Leela:I find the attached approach particularly relevant in that it maps our short and middle term outcomes while acknowledging that they are contributors to long term impacts. 
Have a peek at the diagrams on pages 15 and 16 for a quick overview.
Ricardo










Ricardo Ramirez Communication Consulting
(Adjunct Professor, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, University of Guelph)
Home office: 44 Caledonia St, Guelph, ON, N1G 2C9 Canada
Tel/Fax +1 519 824-5519
Email: ');document.write('rramirez');document.write('@');document.write('uoguelph.ca');document.write('');//--> (rramirez@uoguelph.ca)
Skype: ramirezricardo




On 8-Jul-08, at 12:47 PM, leelamccullough wrote:
Quote:
Dear colleagues,


For more than 15 years, AED-SATELLIFE has been engaged in creating access to, and supporting the exchange of, health information through our e-newsletters and e-forums on crucial health topics.  We continue to grapple with the issue of the impact of the information on health providers and health.  Numerous organizations are engaged in information dissemination but it is very difficult to measure its impact on health. Quantitative data are hard to come by. Perhaps we need to define impact more broadly since we cannot measure the health outcomes so precisely. In a rigorously controlled study in a specific community, it may be possible to measure, for example, particular malaria outcomes given a specific intervention(s). 


Our audience is composed of  wide range of health workers: doctors, nurses and midwives, policy makers, pharmacists, medical students, academic faculty, etc. in both low and middle income countries and the industrialised world. To measure the usefulness of the information they access, we tend to focus on the health care provider and try to assess any change in practice, improvement of knowledge base, improvement in skills, examples of use, etc. So far, we have done this through email surveys and when we had some funding we conducted focus groups in one country. And yes, the surveys show that the information is useful, people use it, and it makes a difference in their work. But,  funders want to know about the number of lives that are saved or the healthy baby that one can hold at the end of day or the number of people vaccinated. 


I would be interested in hearing the experience of others on this list.


Kind regards,
Leela


--------
Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
Director of Information Services
AED-SATELLIFE
Email: ');document.write('lmccullough');document.write('@');document.write('aed.org');document.write('');//--> (lmccullough@aed.org)
Tel: 617-926-9400 Fax: 617-926-1212
Web site: [url=http:/www.healthnet.org]http:/www.healthnet.org[/url]








]

CDATA[Author: leelamccullough
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 5:26 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 6

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. We are currently discussing the issues brought up in Drum Beats 445, 446, and 447, which focus on World Bank Working Paper (#120), "Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki. For the opening note of this discussion, please see: http://forums.comminit.com/viewtopic.php?t=104018&style=2 For information on how to participate in or unsubscribe from this forum, and to view the archives of the forum online, please visit the following link: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
===
Apologies from your moderator - the previous message from Leela McCullough was sent through in error. Below is the message that she sent through today for response from this forum. Sincere apologies to Leela and to the Drum Beat Chat forum for this error in moderation.
===


Dear colleagues,

For more than 15 years, AED-SATELLIFE has been engaged in creating access to, and supporting the exchange of, health information through our e-newsletters and e-forums on crucial health topics. We continue to grapple with the issue of the impact of the information on health providers and health. Numerous organizations are engaged in information dissemination but it is very difficult to measure its impact on health. Quantitative data are hard to come by. Perhaps we need to define impact more broadly since we cannot measure the health outcomes so precisely. In a rigorously controlled study in a specific community, it may be possible to measure, for example, particular malaria outcomes given a specific intervention(s).

Our audience is composed of wide range of health workers: doctors, nurses and midwives, policy makers, pharmacists, medical students, academic faculty, etc. in both low and middle income countries and the industrialised world. To measure the usefulness of the information they access, we tend to focus on the health care provider and try to assess any change in practice, improvement of knowledge base, improvement in skills, examples of use, etc. So far, we have done this through email surveys and when we had some funding we conducted focus groups in one country. And yes, the surveys show that the information is useful, people use it, and it makes a difference in their work. But, funders want to know about the number of lives that are saved or the healthy baby that one can hold at the end of day or the number of people vaccinated.

I would be interested in hearing the experience of others on this list.

Kind regards,
Leela
_________________
Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
Director of Information Services
AED-SATELLIFE
Email: ');document.write('lmccullough');document.write('@');document.write('aed.org');document.write('');//-->
Tel: 617-926-9400 Fax: 617-926-1212
Web site: http:/www.healthnet.org
]

CDATA[Author: leelam
Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 6:47 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 2

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. We are currently discussing the issues brought up in Drum Beats 445, 446, and 447, which focus on World Bank Working Paper (#120), "Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki. For the opening note of this discussion, please see: http://forums.comminit.com/viewtopic.php?t=104018&style=2 For information on how to participate in or unsubscribe from this forum, and to view the archives of the forum online, please visit the following link: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
===

Dear colleagues,

A few quick thoughts on this issue:

On the issue of impact: we continue to grapple with this too. Numerous organizations are engaged in information dissemination but it is very difficult to measure its impact on health. Quantitative data are hard to come by. I think we need to define impact more broadly since we cannot measure the health outcomes so precisely. In a rigorously controlled study in a specific community it may be possible to measure, for example, improvement in malaria outcomes given a particular intervention. We tend to focus on the health care provider and try to assess any change in practice, improvement of knowledge base, improvement in skills, etc. based on the information they have received. This is difficult too as people are getting information from a variety of sources which confounds the influence of our content.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Kind regards,
Leela

__________________________________________________


Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
Director of Information Services

AED-SATELLIFE Center for Health Information and Technology
30 California Street, Watertown, MA 02472, USA
Tel: +617-926-9400 Fax: +617-926-1212
Email: ');document.write('lmccullough');document.write('@');document.write('aed.org');document.write('');//-->
Web: http://www.healthnet.org
_________________
Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
Director of Information Services

AED-SATELLIFE Center for Health Information and Technology
30 California Street, Watertown, MA 02472, USA
Tel: +617-926-9400 Fax: +617-926-1212
Email: ');document.write('lmccullough');document.write('@');document.write('aed.org');document.write('');//-->
]

CDATA[Author: nmathur
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:52 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 2

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. For information on how to participate in or unsubscribe from this forum, and to view the archives of the forum online, please visit the following link: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
===

dear deborah, this is neelima mathur from india (formedia). the issue under
discussion is immense, the perspective given by mr. inagaki phenomenal and
warren's further thrust even more challenging. nonetheless i am, as always,
perturbed that the gamut of examples and theories are still far away from
the mechanisms that govern the implementation process of development
communication. especially since the context of development communication
within the working environment of a developing country is often at great
variance to the thought processes of the 'developed', 'western' world. the
issue whether the modernisation-diffusion theory is better / more successful
/ appropriate or not is not the core issue to my mind. in essence, the
theories develop out of existing practice and therefore to an extent have a
relevance in themselves. further practice, based on the analysis - and then
institutionalisation - of academic theories emanating from existing
practice, is the area of concern for me. it is then that one really sees how
the mechanisms of the implementation process fall like a pack of cards.
development communication has many flaws at the human level when
communication is put into the hands of content creators on the basis of
theoretical / mathematical / institutionalised models. it is an area of
anamolies, dichotomy and often questionable credentials. we still have to
start discussing how this is what often affects the impact of a
communication strategy, which lays claims for behaviour change - and
therefore intrinsically also and equally needs deeply knowledgeable,
instinctive, human elements. i don't say this from the strength of any
empirical data because no such data exists in my knowledge. that may be the
precise reason why this platform could be a starting point to develop a
discussion in future on how the mechanisms by which development
communication are implemented are critical to the creation and impact of
content and development communication strategies.

Quote:

In case you are just joining us, our June discussion stems from the paper
that was outlined in 3 recent Drum Beats, "Communicating the Impact of
Communication for Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research" by
Nobuya Inagaki:

* The Drum Beat 445 - Background Studies: Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D
[Part 1] Now archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_445.html
reviews the peer-reviewed articles which served as background evidence for
Mr. Inagaki's analysis.

* The Drum Beat 446 - Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 2] Now
archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_446.html focuses on
Chapters 1-4 of the actual analysis, looking at theory, trends, and
evidence.

* The Drum Beat 447 - Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 3] Now
archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_447.html focuses on
Chapters 5 and 6, looking at discussion of the trends and evidence and
presenting conclusions.

---

You may download a PDF version of the full paper at
http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?cimo=1&r=http://www-wds.worldbank.org/e
xternal/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2007/08/10/000310607_20070810123306
/Rendered/PDF/405430Communic18082137167101PUBLIC1.pdf

You may download a plain text version of the full paper at
http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?cimo=1&r=http://www-wds.worldbank.org/e
xternal/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2007/08/10/000310607_20070810123306
/Rendered/INDEX/405430Communic18082137167101PUBLIC1.txt

---

The initial questions posed here on June 10th were:

1) Does the diversity of communication and media for development
interventions defy a generalised analysis of impact?

2) What do the communication examples highlighted in the paper and in DB 445
suggest to you about our ability to measure communication impact?

We still welcome your thoughts. However, in the absence of reflection on the
above, how about the below?

3) Is it possible to measure the impact of communication outside the context
of a specific intervention? Is it possible to look across interventions to
distil trends in approaches, shifts in methodologies and, perhaps most
importantly, to tease lessons from these that will help strengthen and focus
the field?

We look forward to your comments. Please reply to this email or send a
message directly to ');document.write('drumbeatchat');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//-->

Many thanks!

Deborah Heimann
Moderator - Drum Beat Chat
');document.write('drumbeatchat');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//-->


]

CDATA[Author: Warren Feek
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:56 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 6

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. For information on how to participate or unsubscribe to this forum, and to view the discussion forum online, please visit the following link:
http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
===

My best wishes to everyone.

I wanted to quickly follow up on Deborah's recent note for this Drum Beat
chat which is based around the three recent Drum Beats derived from the
joint World Bank/CI paper ""Communicating the Impact of Communication for
Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki


Those of us in the Communication and Media Development Field are so often
criticized for not having impact evidence - failing to demonstrate the
impact relationship of a communication/media intervention on a development
issue [from HIV trends to freedom of expression].

Working with The World Bank, we took this initiative to address that issue.
Nobuya was asked to identify recent PEER REVIEWED [and hence legitimate]
journal articles on this theme and to assess, based on that review, the
state of play for the impact of this field. The relevant links follow.

We are very interested in your assessment and response to the knowledge in
Nobuya's paper. Building on Deborah's overall questions [see her previous
email] I would pose these specific questions for response:

- Is this a compelling impact case?

- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the papers/data he has identified
and summarised?

- Is his contextual [eg modernization] and category [eg behaviour change]
approach helpful and accurate?

- Did he miss any important journal articles?

- What does this analysis tell us about where and how we need to strengthen
the impact data to support he claims of our communication/media field?

- Do the data and arguments in this paper [links below] help you to make
your case to policy makers and funders?


Thanks - we look forward to your contributions - Warren


***

LINKS

"Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends in
Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki:

* The Drum Beat 445 - Background Studies: Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D
[Part 1] Now archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_445.html
reviews the peer-reviewed articles which served as background evidence for
Mr. Inagaki's analysis.

* The Drum Beat 446 - Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 2] Now
archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_446.html focuses on
Chapters 1-4 of the actual analysis, looking at theory, trends, and
evidence.

* The Drum Beat 447 - Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 3] Now
archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_447.html focuses on
Chapters 5 and 6, looking at discussion of the trends and evidence and
presenting conclusions.


Warren Feek
Executive Director
The Communication Initiative

');document.write('wfeek');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//-->
1-250-658-6372 - office
1-250-588-8795 - mobile
www.comminit.com
_________________
Warren Feek
Executive Director
The Communication Initiative
1-250-658-6372
');document.write('wfeek');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//-->
]

CDATA[Author: Deborah Heimann
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:23 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 2

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. For information on how to participate or unsubscribe to this forum, please see the footnotes below.
===

In case you are just joining us, our June discussion stems from the paper that was outlined in 3 recent Drum Beats, "Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki:

* The Drum Beat 445 - Background Studies: Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 1]
Now archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_445.html reviews the peer-reviewed articles which served as background evidence for Mr. Inagaki's analysis.

* The Drum Beat 446 - Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 2]
Now archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_446.html focuses on Chapters 1-4 of the actual analysis, looking at theory, trends, and evidence.

* The Drum Beat 447 - Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 3]
Now archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_447.html focuses on Chapters 5 and 6, looking at discussion of the trends and evidence and presenting conclusions.

---

You may download a PDF version of the full paper at http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?cimo=1&r=http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2007/08/10/000310607_20070810123306/Rendered/PDF/405430Communic18082137167101PUBLIC1.pdf

You may download a plain text version of the full paper at http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?cimo=1&r=http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2007/08/10/000310607_20070810123306/Rendered/INDEX/405430Communic18082137167101PUBLIC1.txt

---

The initial questions posed here on June 10th were:

1) Does the diversity of communication and media for development interventions defy a generalised analysis of impact?

2) What do the communication examples highlighted in the paper and in DB 445 suggest to you about our ability to measure communication impact?

We still welcome your thoughts. However, in the absence of reflection on the above, how about the below?

3) Is it possible to measure the impact of communication outside the context of a specific intervention? Is it possible to look across interventions to distil trends in approaches, shifts in methodologies and, perhaps most importantly, to tease lessons from these that will help strengthen and focus the field?

We look forward to your comments. Please reply to this email or send a message directly to ');document.write('drumbeatchat');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//-->

Many thanks!

Deborah Heimann
Moderator - Drum Beat Chat
');document.write('drumbeatchat');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//-->

===

To view the discussion forum online, please visit the link below:
http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2

You may also participate in this discussion forum via email, by sending your contributions or replies to the "drumbeatchat@comminit.com" email address.

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To unsubscribe from this discussion, simply uncheck the box in your profile information next to the discussion title. You can access your profile by visiting the link above (note that you must login before you can access your profile information). Alternatively, you may reply to this email with UNSUBSCRIBE as the subject.
_________________
Deborah Heimann
Director, Editorial Policy & Content
The Communication Initiative
http://www.comminit.com/
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]

CDATA[Author: Deborah Heimann
Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:34 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 2

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. For information on how to participate or unsubscribe to this forum, please see the footnotes below.
===

Welcome to our June 2008 Drum Beat Chat discussion. This discussion will run through the end of the month.

This month we focus on World Bank Working Paper (#120), "Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki. This paper is a survey of empirical research on communication for development based on a sample of English-language articles from academic journals published between 2000 and 2005. The purpose of the analysis was to collect evidence from peer-reviewed academic research to highlight the impacts of communication on development initiatives and to present current trends in theoretical underpinnings and communication approaches.

We have issued 2 Drum Beats that highlight the background studies and analysis of this paper:

* The Drum Beat 445 - Background Studies: Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 1]
Now archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_445.html this issue reviews the peer-reviewed articles which served as background evidence for Mr. Inagaki's analysis.

* The Drum Beat 446 - Trends in Impact Evaluation of C4D [Part 2]
Now archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_446.html focuses on Chapters 1-4 of the actual analysis, looking at theory, trends, and evidence.

We will be issuing the final Drum Beat focusing on this paper over this coming weekend (publication date is June 16th); it will focus on Chapters 5 and 6, looking at discussion of the trends and evidence and presenting conclusions.

We at The CI, as supervisors and collaborators on the research that went into this study, and Mr. Inagaki, the writer, are seeking your opinions, feedback, discussion, and ideas on the analysis and conclusions that he presents.

Many thanks to Syed Tsh, from Malaysia, for sending through initial thoughts already. For anyone who missed them, Syed said:
"just thinking aloud; with so much diversity in background infrastructures, infostructures, rate of changes etc... etc, and hug[e] differences between countries and regions, can we validly justify commonalities and similarities in trends etc.?"

So - to launch this discussion, we'd like to post two initial questions:

1) Does the diversity of communication and media for development interventions defy a generalised analysis of impact?

2) What do the communication examples highlighted in the paper and in DB 445 suggest to you about our ability to measure communication impact?

Please either reply to this email or send your thoughts to ');document.write('drumbeatchat');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//--> - we look forward to hearing from you!


Many thanks,
Deborah Heimann
Moderator - Drum Beat Chat


===

To view the discussion forum online, please visit the link below:
http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2

You may also participate in this discussion forum via email, by sending your contributions or replies to the "drumbeatchat@comminit.com" email address.

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To unsubscribe from this discussion, simply uncheck the box in your profile information next to the discussion title. You can access your profile by visiting the link above (note that you must login before you can access your profile information). Alternatively, you may reply to this email with UNSUBSCRIBE as the subject.
_________________
Deborah Heimann
Director, Editorial Policy & Content
The Communication Initiative
http://www.comminit.com/
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]

CDATA[Author: shassan
Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 8:27 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 1

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. For information on how to participate or unsubscribe to this forum, and to view the discussion forum online, please visit the following link:
http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
***


just thinking aloud; with so much diversity in background infrastructures, infostructures, rate of changes etc... etc, and hugh differences between countries and regions, can we validly justify commonalities and similarities in trends etc.? syed tsh, malaysia, 7 june 2008.javascript:emoticon('')


Deborah Heimann wrote:
This note is to let you know that we will launch a discussion of World Bank Working Paper (#120), "Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki, on Tuesday, June 10th.

The Drum Beat #445 (now archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_445.html) reviews the peer-reviewed articles which served as background evidence for Mr. Inagaki's analysis. It includes summaries of the 35 key studies, with access to the full articles through The CI website.

The next two Drum Beats, scheduled to be published on June 9th and June 16th, will focus on (#446) Chapters 1-4 of the actual analysis, looking at theory, trends, and evidence and (#447) Chapters 5 and 6, looking at discussion of the trends and evidence and presenting conclusions.

The study is a survey of empirical research on communication for development based on a sample of peer-reviewed English-language articles from academic journals published between 2000 and 2005. The purpose of the analysis was to collect evidence from peer-reviewed academic research to highlight the impacts of communication on development initiatives and to present current trends in theoretical underpinnings and communication approaches.

Please forward this note to any of your colleagues and peers who you think might be interested in discussing this paper and the conclusions it presents. They can register for the discussion at http://forums.comminit.com/profile.php?mode=register&style=2, and either participate online or send their contributions via email to ');document.write('drumbeatchat');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//--> (you must be registered to participate). If connectivity is an issue for them, they may also send their contact information via email to me at ');document.write('dheimann');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//--> and I can assist them with the registration process.


Thank you,

Deborah Heimann
Moderator - Drum Beat Chat forum
]

CDATA[Author: Deborah Heimann
Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:45 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 1

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. For information on how to participate or unsubscribe to this forum, and to view the discussion forum online, please visit the following link:
http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
***

This note is to let you know that we will launch a discussion of World Bank Working Paper (#120), "Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research" by Nobuya Inagaki, on Tuesday, June 10th.

The Drum Beat #445 (now archived at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_445.html) reviews the peer-reviewed articles which served as background evidence for Mr. Inagaki's analysis. It includes summaries of the 35 key studies, with access to the full articles through The CI website.

The next two Drum Beats, scheduled to be published on June 9th and June 16th, will focus on (#446) Chapters 1-4 of the actual analysis, looking at theory, trends, and evidence and (#447) Chapters 5 and 6, looking at discussion of the trends and evidence and presenting conclusions.

The study is a survey of empirical research on communication for development based on a sample of peer-reviewed English-language articles from academic journals published between 2000 and 2005. The purpose of the analysis was to collect evidence from peer-reviewed academic research to highlight the impacts of communication on development initiatives and to present current trends in theoretical underpinnings and communication approaches.

Please forward this note to any of your colleagues and peers who you think might be interested in discussing this paper and the conclusions it presents. They can register for the discussion at http://forums.comminit.com/profile.php?mode=register&style=2, and either participate online or send their contributions via email to ');document.write('drumbeatchat');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//--> (you must be registered to participate). If connectivity is an issue for them, they may also send their contact information via email to me at ');document.write('dheimann');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//--> and I can assist them with the registration process.


Thank you,

Deborah Heimann
Moderator - Drum Beat Chat forum
_________________
Deborah Heimann
Director, Editorial Policy & Content
The Communication Initiative
http://www.comminit.com/
');document.write('dheimann');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//-->
]

CDATA[Author: Deborah Heimann
Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 4:03 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 0

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. For information on how to participate or unsubscribe to this forum, and to view the discussion forum online, please visit the following link:
http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2

===

Greetings to Drum Beat Chat members (drumbeatchat@comminit.com).

We are now closing the discussion of the commentary from Robin Vincent on communication within and from social movements. Thanks to all who contributed to this discussion. You can find the archived issue at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_436.html and the archived discussion at http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2

Many thanks from us at The Communication Initiative to Robin for providing his thoughts as fodder for discussion through this forum.

Our next discussion will focus on a June 2007 paper by Nobuya Inagaki, "Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research". Please watch for announcement of this discussion through The Drum Beat. To subscribe to The Drum Beat, please register at http://www.comminit.com/en/user/register or send a message to ');document.write('drumbeat');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//-->

If you received this message from a colleague and you'd like to register for the Drum Beat Chat forum, please send a message to ');document.write('drumbeatchat');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//-->

Thank you,
Deborah Heimann
Moderator - Drum Beat Chat

===

To view the discussion forum online, please visit the link below:
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You may also participate in this discussion forum via email, by sending your contributions or replies to the "drumbeatchat@comminit.com" email address.

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To unsubscribe from this discussion, simply uncheck the box in your profile information next to the discussion title. You can access your profile by visiting the link above (note that you must login before you can access your profile information). Alternatively, you may reply to this email with UNSUBSCRIBE as the subject.
_________________
Deborah Heimann
Director, Editorial Policy & Content
The Communication Initiative
http://www.comminit.com/
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]

CDATA[Author: Javed
Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 4:39 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 2

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. We are currently discussing the issues brought up in The Drum Beat #436, which takes a look at communication within and from social movements. For the opening note of this discussion, please see: http://forums.comminit.com/viewtopic.php?t=101851&style=2 For information on how to participate in or unsubscribe from this forum, and to view the archives of the forum online, please visit the following link: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
***

If I understand Robin's questions correctly, I would have to look for tangible examples of social movements within the sphere of development and then determine if they were a help or a hindrance. In my very limited knowledge and recollection, I cannot think of a clear social movement that helped or hindered sustainable development anywhere in the developing world. The movement in recent memory that comes close to this description would be gender awareness and empowerment of women that I believe will be sustainable development if it achieves its goals.
 
This movement is still in its infancy, far from attaining any noticeable success in any country. Appointment or election of a handful of women in the parliament or top offices does not count, because not only those women behave the same way as men do when in power; they also rarely go beyond a few publicity driven show-off projects. We cannot blame them for this failure because changing male attitudes towards women needs a paradigm shift in education, economic status of women and the integrity of the legal and social protection systems. Nevertheless, this movement was and still is alive, and aided by donors and supported by both pubic sector and NGOs.  
 
In my humble view, if the HIV/AIDS money (outside of treatment costs) is rather invested in education, financial security, and social protection of women, instead of ABC, the disease will be eradicated slowly but surely.
 
The problem with the movement was and is that the object of change is the populations of males, who have no intention or even capability of letting their reigns, lose. Male attitudes towards women are deep rooted in cultures and partially reinforced by women themselves when they play their roles as mothers and sisters. This is a highly complex social issue but not impossible to solve. Of course, we experience some obvious signs of women empowerment around us, but these are mostly high or middle income and highly educated modern urban women.
 
The second question has been answered more than once. It was basic principle of social work to help people help themselves. Change agent creates awareness of the issues in the community and identifies available resources but let people decide their priorities. Any time ready made solutions are thrust upon people they become suspicious. Then they don't own development even though that was the best solution for them. It is again a slow and difficult process but in the long run effective and sustainable. I realize this process is also threatening to vested interest of the ruling class because ordinary people are empowered. I do not know any other method to bring change. If there has to be a social movement, that has to be of self help. However, governments do not want people to start solving their own problems because that can tear into their hegemony. If governments take a positive view and facilitate community initiatives, development can be faster and sustainable.


On 4/28/08, Deborah Heimann <drumbeatchat@comminit.com (drumbeatchat@comminit.com)> wrote: Quote: This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. We are currently discussing the issues brought up in The Drum Beat #436,  which takes a look at communication within and from social movements. For the opening note of this discussion, please see: http://forums.comminit.com/viewtopic.php?t=101851&style=2  For information on how to participate in or unsubscribe from this forum, and to view the archives of the forum online, please visit the following link: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
***

This will be the final week of our discussion focused on Robin Vincent's examination of communication within and from social movements. Our thanks to Javed Ahmad, Numfor Alenwi Munteh, "Rowan", Warren Feek, and Peter Stegman for their contributions on various aspects of social movements, development, and social movement approaches to development.

This note is a reminder of the two specific questions Robin asked at the end of his commentary:

* How are social movements a help or hindrance for sustainable development?
* How should development be done differently to recognise and engage with people's movements and their methods of communication?

To conclude this discussion, we'd welcome responses throughout this week to either of the above questions or to any of the previous contributions.

For the previous contributions to this discussion, please see: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2

For the Drum Beat featuring Robin's full commentary, please see: http://www.comminit.com/drum_beat_436.html

Please either reply to this email, reply to the previous contributions through the online facility, or send your thoughts to ');document.write('drumbeatchat');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//--> (drumbeatchat@comminit.com) - we look forward to hearing from you.


Many thanks,
Deborah Heimann
Moderator - Drum Beat Chat




]

CDATA[Author: Robin.Vincent
Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 9:12 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 2

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. We are
currently discussing the issues brought up in The Drum Beat #436, which
takes a look at communication within and from social movements. For the
opening note of this discussion, please see:
http://forums.comminit.com/viewtopic.php?t=101851&style=2 For
information on how to participate in or unsubscribe from this forum, and
to view the archives of the forum online, please visit the following
link: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
***

I wanted to touch on some of the useful and insightful comments from a
range of contributors to this discussion exploring what can be learned
from social movements and how they can contribute to (or
hinder) development.

Many people have recognised the energy and momentum of social movements
in motivating social change, and Warren rightly asks how development,
with its own institutional baggage and patterns of intervention can
promote action that complements social movements. How can we 'programme'
such an approach, he asks, before suggesting a need for approaches that
are locally determined and owned, decentralised, and with an emphasis on
local experience and initiative. Many other contributors seem to agree
with Warren's suggestions

But of course, doing this in practice - 'programming' such an approach
is the challenge. Here we come up against the differences and
similarities between the more emergent dynamic of social movements and
the more planned nature of participatory development work, (not to
mention the more top down external and technical interventions). In
recent critiques of participatory development, there is acknowledgement
that so-called participation can often amount to co-optation of local
people into powerful predetermined development agendas. Equally however,
there is recognition that people may make use of such spaces of
participation to contest agendas or develop new ones. The devil is often
in the detail.

In practice however, there is often a very pragmatic approach by people
who recognise both the constraints and opportunities of development on
the ground. Jose Migeul's example of community workers in the
Philippines working with a specific development agenda around family
planning and reproductive health AS LONG AS there was also room to work
with other self-determined community priorities, shows this pragmatism,
as well as the importance of community ownership.

But there is quite a difference between participatory projects where
local people are invited to join particular development efforts - what
Andrea Cornwall in her work calls 'invited spaces', and social movements
that develop an agenda and sometimes spaces and means of communication
of their own through collective action. The creativity and more emergent
character of social movements seems quite distinct form the more linear
planned nature of development projects, no matter how participatory

Conversely, social movements, in developing a particular 'movement
culture', distinct symbols and demands to mobilise around, are not
always transparent in the traditional sense of political accountability
- and charismatic leadership may play an important role. In contrast,
participatory work in the Freireian tradition builds on more explicit
and concerted local reflection and critical thinking with a more
formally democratic intention.

My aim is not to set up an either-or here, just to highlight some of the
distinct process of social movements where collective action appears to
generate new ideas and forms of action in a way that is not only due to
rational calculation and planning. In fact, much of the new thinking in
complex systems or complexity theory points in this direction. Both
Rowan and Javed highlight the complex factors behind any particular
development issue, and the fact that life often won't submit to the neat
lines of development timeframes and budgets. Complexity theory
recognises this and suggests that particular development outcomes can
not be too closely or narrowly planned, but must emerge on the basis of
a broader set of enabling social processes (This is something I have
written about elsewhere, but see Samir Rihani's work on this or a useful
recent summary paper produced by the Overseas Development Institute
available on their website).

Peter Stegman made some interesting suggestions about practical
engagement of movements, making use of his distinction between the more
organic, often single-issue 'tactical' movements, and what he called
'strategic' movements with a broader social agenda that are usually
longer lived. On this basis he suggests that forms of direct support may
be appropriate for more tactical movements, while indirect support may
be the way to go in the case of his 'strategic' movements - in this
latter case, perhaps aligning development efforts with movement
priorities.

As I noted in my commentary (drawing on the work of Bebbington), direct
support for social movements risks promoting one part of the movement's
agenda and perhaps one position within it, above others, and therefore
risks splitting the movement or derailing it. And even if there was a
more conscious and transparent political support for certain kinds of
social objectives on the part of development interventions, the same
risks would apply. This is why I concluded - in line with my comments
about complexity above - that ensuring an enabling communication
environment that ensures rights to expression, distribution of the means
to communicate, and media pluralism are all important indirect ways to
support social movements: So that inclusive movements can emerge
independently on this foundation. But Peter's notion of indirect support
seems like a productive one.

Ultimately it seems that to 'programme' something that is more emergent
in character - that is, a social movement - is perhaps a contradiction.
But it might make us continue to ask questions of a development practice
that tends to be linear and often externally defined, when the reality
it addresses is complex and driven by multiple influences.

I'd better stop there as this is already a long email.


Robin


Robin Vincent
Senior Adviser, HIV/AIDS Programme
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Quote:
This will be the final week of our discussion focused on Robin Vincent's
examination of communication within and from social movements. Our
thanks to Javed Ahmad, Numfor Alenwi Munteh, "Rowan", Warren Feek, and
Peter Stegman for their contributions on various aspects of social
movements, development, and social movement approaches to development.

This note is a reminder of the two specific questions Robin asked at the
end of his commentary:

* How are social movements a help or hindrance for sustainable
development?
* How should development be done differently to recognise and engage
with people's movements and their methods of communication?

To conclude this discussion, we'd welcome responses throughout this week
to either of the above questions or to any of the previous
contributions.

For the previous contributions to this discussion, please see:
http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2

For the Drum Beat featuring Robin's full commentary, please see:
http://www.comminit.com/drum_beat_436.html

Please either reply to this email, reply to the previous contributions
through the online facility, or send your thoughts to
');document.write('drumbeatchat');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//--> - we look forward to hearing from you.


Many thanks,
Deborah Heimann
Moderator - Drum Beat Chat

]

CDATA[Author: Rowan
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:33 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 3

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. We are currently discussing the issues brought up in The Drum Beat #436, which takes a look at communication within and from social movements. For the opening note of this discussion, please see: http://forums.comminit.com/viewtopic.php?t=101851&style=2 For information on how to participate in or unsubscribe from this forum, and to view the archives of the forum online, please visit the following link: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
***

How are social movements a help or hindrance for sustainable development?

Social movements are a double edged sword. They can help bring people together to move to a greater good by tackling larger causes such as discrimination, HIV/AIDS and other challenges that in the long run threaten the development, cohesion and existence of society However, they can easily splinter into sub-factions and subgroups that have varying understandings of how to reach the same goals. These subgroups then actually begin competing for limited resources and the competition because more important than the cause, resulting in a waste of time, energy and other resources and may eventually totally detract society from ever reaching the original goal.




How should development be done differently to recognise and engage with people's movements and their methods of communication?

This is not an easy question. Leaders of the different voices need to understand how to engage conflict in a positive manner, which is why more progress seems to be made under a moral visionary such as Gandhi, or Martin Luther King; who in turn were servant leaders for those seeking a better life. People are political by nature, and even the most important cause lead by the best visionary results only in short term gains. We have good concepts and ideas, what we need is a system to help people understand the consequences of each action and teach people how modify and change outcomes of decisions they make – in manner that is sensitive to their unique culture and sense of place. (Environmental cognition) So development needs to be somewhat flexible and not always oriented on rigid activities or organizational inclusion and organizations engaged in “development” must do a bit of self-reflection about their role in the process and ask are they engaged in the process for the greater good or for self preservation of the organization. I think each player in development needs to critically reflect there role and ensure that they are in line with greater goals, and then learn to live with the decisions they make and if the results are not what they envisioned earn to build change improvement process into their movement that allows them to get back on track. And to remember that a symphony is made up of many different instruments that can work in harmony to create beautiful music - we need to start working towards creating the music, and this can be done by rewriting the score so that it balances and incorporates the strength of each voice.

Rowan E. Wagner
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
]

CDATA[Author: Deborah Heimann
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 1:23 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 2

This is a contribution to the Drum Beat Chat discussion forum. We are currently discussing the issues brought up in The Drum Beat #436, which takes a look at communication within and from social movements. For the opening note of this discussion, please see: http://forums.comminit.com/viewtopic.php?t=101851&style=2 For information on how to participate in or unsubscribe from this forum, and to view the archives of the forum online, please visit the following link: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2
***

This will be the final week of our discussion focused on Robin Vincent's examination of communication within and from social movements. Our thanks to Javed Ahmad, Numfor Alenwi Munteh, "Rowan", Warren Feek, and Peter Stegman for their contributions on various aspects of social movements, development, and social movement approaches to development.

This note is a reminder of the two specific questions Robin asked at the end of his commentary:

* How are social movements a help or hindrance for sustainable development?
* How should development be done differently to recognise and engage with people's movements and their methods of communication?

To conclude this discussion, we'd welcome responses throughout this week to either of the above questions or to any of the previous contributions.

For the previous contributions to this discussion, please see: http://forums.comminit.com/viewforum.php?f=49&style=2

For the Drum Beat featuring Robin's full commentary, please see: http://www.comminit.com/drum_beat_436.html

Please either reply to this email, reply to the previous contributions through the online facility, or send your thoughts to ');document.write('drumbeatchat');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//--> - we look forward to hearing from you.


Many thanks,
Deborah Heimann
Moderator - Drum Beat Chat
_________________
Deborah Heimann
Director, Editorial Policy & Content
The Communication Initiative
http://www.comminit.com/
');document.write('dheimann');document.write('@');document.write('comminit.com');document.write('');//-->
]