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Radio Campaign against Child Stunting

Country

Uganda

Region

Africa

Programme Summary

This campaign against child stunting in Uganda was run by Media for Development (MDF) - formerly known as Radio for Development (RDF) - and forms part of the Nutrition and Early Childhood Development Project, or NECDP (click here for more details about the NECDP in PDF format ). This project aimed to change people's behavioural patterns by educating communities, and families in particular, about children's health. It sought to raise awareness of nutritional issues and address issues such as complementary feeding practices and food security, hygiene and sanitation practices, early childhood development, and positive parental interaction. In order to achieve these goals, MFD was commissioned to set up 25 Community Radio Listening Clubs (RLCs) in 11 districts of Uganda.

Communication Strategies

Central to the NECDP campaign strategy was attention to different stages of behavioural change. According to MDF, communication activities need to progress in distinct stages, from an awareness-building and sensitisation phase to education and information, and, finally, to motivation for trial of new behaviours. MDF developed the following 3-stage strategy:

  1. A magazine-format radio series was designed to create an awareness of the problems that had been identified, and to create a knowledge base to build on.
  2. Key messages from the radio series encouraged new behaviours to address the identified problems; these messages were reinforced by a multi-media resource kit for use in workshop environments.
  3. Discussion of the key issues was generated by a country-wide network of rural RLCs, each of which consisted of audience members, with the expectation that recognition and discussion of their problems would mobilise communities into taking action.

MFD also coordinated awareness-generating campaigns through local and national radio programmes. These programmes were broadcast in two of the major languages: Runyankole and Luganda.

Development Issues

Children, Health, Nutrition.

Key Points

According to a report published by MFD, "Despite Uganda's plentiful food supplies, over twelve percent of its children die before their first birthday because of malnutrition that triggers disease. Surviving children are often chronically undernourished. As a result 40 percent of Uganda's 24.7 million population cope with child-growth stunting on a day-to-day basis. By contrast, this problem is only experienced by two percent of the global population. More than one third of Uganda's children under 35 months are too short for their age with insufficiently developed long bones. The children's physical underdevelopment means that they suffer from a corresponding deficiency in their mental development that leaves them intellectually and socially deprived....

"Although it’s too early to confirm the impact of the communications strategy developed by MFD, ...[f]igures from NECDP Management Information Systems showed that the project reduced malnutrition among children. For example, the malnutrition level for children under 72 months in project areas was reduced from 23.1 percent in July 2002 to 13.5 percent as of March 2003."

Partners

Media for Development, The World Bank, The Ministry of Health.

Contact

James Greenshields
Director, Radio for Development
2nd Floor
19-21 Phipp Street
London EC2A 4NP
United Kingdom
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 7729 8866
Mobile: +44 (0) 7980 272634
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7739 4810
jgreenshields@rfd.org.uk
RfD website

Placed on the Soul Beat Africa site June 26 2006
Last Updated January 18 2008

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