This issue of The Drum Beat features a small selection of summaries available on The Communication Initiative website from two of our knowledge sections - Programme Experiences and Evaluations - which illustrate how communication and media are being used for effective development action around the world.

If you would like your organisation's communication work or research and resource documents to be featured on The CI websites and in The Drum Beat newsletters, please contact Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com

EXPERIENCES

1. Great Lakes Reconciliation Radio Project - Rwanda, Burundi and DRC

This regional reconciliation programme seeks to expand Radio La Benevolencija (RLB) activities in Rwanda into neighbouring countries like Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - an expansion which is seen as crucial for maintaining peace in the region. This project counteracts the role of hate media by developing radio material that sensitises the population to resist mass media manipulation and to focus on unbiased treatment of and critical reading of information. It involves radio programmes, listening groups, and grassroots activities that promote active bystandership, encouraging people to recognise and stand up in the face of incitement and to protest against wrongdoings in the name of hate. The campaign employs what are envisioned as popular and entertaining radio formats to make audiences aware of the similarity of mechanisms at work everywhere in the world where instigation to genocide has happened. The project also shows ways to deal with and heal trauma - thought to be a major factor in both the instigation and the consequences of violence.

Contact Johan Deflander labenevolencija@hey.za.net

2. Vaccine Hunters - Global

This 4-part BBC World documentary series examines the science of modern vaccines, what it takes to deliver them to some of the economically poorest people in the world, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. The television programme features explorations of which vaccines are being developed in the most cutting-edge labs around the world, including labs that are working on vaccines to prevent malaria and HIV. Major developments, such as efforts to produce vaccines that could treat as well as prevent disease, are investigated. A key theme underlying these illustrations is that global partnerships are critical for success.

Contact Lois Privor-Dumm lprivord@jhsph.edu OR Eileen Quinn equinn@path.org OR Benedicta Kim hekim@jhsph.edu OR Ariane Manset amanset@gavialliance.org OR Sandra Scolari
sscolari@gavialliance.org OR Selina Haylock shaylock@ruderfinn.co.uk

3. Tulir - Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse (CPHCSA) - India

Through school-based curricula, training and consultancy, research and resource development, and advocacy and networking, this Indian non-governmental organisation (NGO) hopes to provide information, link individuals and organisations, and - ultimately - empower both children and adults in ensuring that the right of every child to feel safe is respected. Tulir-CPHCSA periodically organises public awareness and sensitisation programmes and campaigns, and makes use of different platforms to bring the issue of child sexual abuse (CSA) to the forefront of public consciousness. The core of Tulir-CPHCSA's work is child-based, and focuses on fostering children's participation in their own protection against abuse. For example, "Personal Safety Education" is a school-based curriculum that focuses on providing age-appropriate information, developing assertiveness and decision making skills, and promoting self-esteem to translate learning into practice. Tulir-CPHCSA also offers sensitisation and skill-building workshops for teachers, social workers, doctors, parents, and other adults. Various research and documentation projects are part of an effort to expand the knowledge base, advance practice, and stimulate new strategies within the Indian context to combat CSA.

Contact tulircphcsa@yahoo.co.in

4. European Week of Media and Diversity - Europe

In 2003, Online/More Colour in the Media (OL/MCM) - a network of NGOs, broadcasters, training institutes and researchers striving to improve the representation of ethnic minorities in broadcasting - launched an annual weeklong communication-centred campaign in an effort to urge more diversity in the media and to start new and constructive dialogue between media professionals, NGOs, and minority audiences. Each year, a theme is chosen to orient country-specific efforts and to lend a focus to public dialogue on the representation of ethnic minority groups in the media; for instance, in 2007 the slogan was "Equal Opportunities for All!". Beyond reaching out to members of the public through network organisation activities, OL/MCM often creates reports and activities highlighting good and bad practices in an effort to expose both journalists and minority communities to new ways to promote fair and inclusive reporting on the multicultural society.

Contact Ed Klute edklut@miramedia.nl OR Maria Garcia Alvarez magarc@miramedia.nl

5. Moyamba District Children's Awareness Radio (MODCAR) - Sierra Leone

The United Kingdom (UK)-based community development agency Plan worked in partnership with Sierra Leone's local communities to establish a child-led community-based radio station in an effort to foster peace and reconciliation in the region. Children's involvement in the radio project is seen as key to reflecting their needs and reaching intended audiences. This involvement is facilitated by consulting children in all aspects of radio production, ensuring their representation in MODCAR decision-making bodies, and developing children's radio clubs. In light of the fact that many children and young people in the district missed out on education during the war, one of the aims is to raise awareness among adults of the importance of children's education to ensure a return to normal life. The station also aims to encourage the process of national integration and trauma healing as well as to raise awareness about children's rights and responsibilities.

Contact mail@plan-international.org.uk

6. Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission in Ukraine - Ukraine

The Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) is drawing on training, community outreach, and information, education, and communication (IEC) materials to address mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV/AIDS in the Ukraine. This initiative draws on face-to-face communication, as well as printed materials, to improve providers' skills in counselling and interpersonal communication and to educate HIV-positive and -negative women and their partners. Underpinning all aspects of the project is an effort to ensure the involvement of people living with HIV and AIDS. Following a participatory research process, organisers designed training sessions emphasising voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) as a key entry point to prevention information and personal risk assessment; partner organisations participate in the trainings, presenting their own VCT initiatives. Based on the belief that community-based psychosocial support is important for HIV-positive individuals, the team is establishing self-sustaining peer-support programmes. Through collaboration with the leaders of these groups and with local partners, PATH has developed various materials and messages for outreach to vulnerable women, especially sex workers and injection drug users.

Contact Zhanna Parkhomenko zparkhomenko@path.org

7. Project Njabulo - South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland

Project Njabulo aims to provide psychosocial relief to both vulnerable children and their caregivers in Southern Africa (South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland) who are affected by poverty, disease, and HIV/AIDS. The initiative involves collaboration between professional artists from the United States and Europe with local artists and community-based organisations (CBOs) in Southern Africa to raise awareness and provide support through edutainment strategies. ("Njabulo" is the Zulu word for "joy and happiness"). The project uses performance, workshops, drama therapy, and professional development to help children and their caregivers develop a sense of emotional well-being and resiliency.

Contact Jamie McLaren Lachman jamie@clownswithoutborders.org

8. Adobe Youth Voices - Global

This global philanthropic initiative is designed to empower youth worldwide to comment on their world using multimedia and digital tools. Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) employs an integrated approach in and out of the classroom in an effort to build global awareness and media literacy by enabling middle- and high-school aged youth to think creatively, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively to take action in their communities. To make these projects possible, in-person training was used to enhance the skills and knowledge of educators to use technology-based tools more effectively with youth. The programme then provides youth with forums in which to share their vision and voice for a public purpose - via travelling art exhibits, at film screenings and festivals, on the internet, in printed publications, and through other local and global venues.

Contact youthvoices@adobe.com OR Lisa Jobson ljobson@us.iearn.org

9. Video and Community Dreams Project - Egypt

New Horizons is a non-formal educational programme designed to provide disadvantaged girls and young women with life skills and reproductive health information. Egypt's Centre for Development and Training Activities (CEDPA) subcontracted Communication for Change (C4C) to provide participatory communication training for development field workers and young women in several "New Horizons" communities. Initially, many participants reported feeling somewhat nervous and self-conscious about filming in their communities, but - following training - many spoke of the confidence gained in shooting, carrying out interviews with diverse individuals, and expressing their views. Several of the teams' tapes focused on topics affecting their community, such as environmental and educational issues. Progressively, the teams took on more sensitive issues, such as early marriage and the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). The resulting tapes are designed to generate change, through advocacy. One of the first tapes produced by the team in Beni Ghani was about a polluted canal that had become a public health threat.

Contact Sara Stuart sbs@c4c.org OR Lauren Goodsmith lauren_goodsmith@hotmail.com OR
info@c4c.org OR pr@ceoss.org.eg

EVALUATIONS

10. Improving Breastfeeding Practices on a Broad Scale at the Community Level:
Success Stories From Africa and Latin America

by Victoria J. Quinn, Agnès B. Guyon, Joan W. Schubert, Maryanne Stone-Jiménez, Michael D. Hainsworth, and Luann H. Martin

This article examines the strategies and successes of large-scale community-level, communication-centred programmes designed to improve breastfeeding practices in Bolivia, Ghana, and Madagascar. The case study illustrates the way in which sizeable improvements in optimal breastfeeding can be achieved at scale and within a relatively rapid time frame using a multi-faceted, communication-focused approach, tailored specifically to meet the demands of each specific country in which the approach was implemented. The authors suggest that a mix of activities, such as interpersonal counselling, community mobilisation, and mass media, contributes to behaviour change when these activities deliver consistent messages. Linking health workers and community health promoters (particularly for referral) is one strategy endorsed here for fostering mothers' receipt of consistent messages. The authors note that creating an overall positive policy environment for breastfeeding and nutrition through effective policy analysis is also key.

11. Impact Data - Youth First - Pakistan

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (CCP) cites research indicating that about 61% of women in Pakistan have a need for family planning, which includes a 33% with an unmet need. In an effort to respond to this situation, CCP joined with Greenstar Social Marketing (GSM) of Pakistan to develop a televised entertainment-education drama called "Kaisey Kahoon" ("How Shall I Say It"), telephone hotlines, and a clinic-based programme that counsels newlyweds on a wide range of health topics, including reproductive health, family planning, and maternal health. When asked about how easy they found it to discuss family planning with their spouse, exposed respondents were significantly less likely to report finding such discussions difficult than the matched unexposed group respondents. To cite one other impact, among those presented here: Respondents who were exposed to the media components of the Youth First Campaign were significantly more willing to personally advocate for the use of newlywed counseling services among their married friends.

12. Crime Prevention and Morality: The Campaign for Moral Regeneration in South Africa
by Janine Rauch

This report charts the development and effectiveness of a national crime prevention campaign initiated by former President Nelson Mandela in 1997 through an engagement with religious leaders of various faiths in South Africa. The approach taken was that moral regeneration could be accomplished through an ideological/political "campaign" - the Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM) - designed to stimulate a mass mobilisation through which a large number of people and organisations would unite against a common enemy: moral malaise and criminality. According to the author, one key challenge facing MRM in moving forward is whether this campaign can be sustained as a civil society initiative in the absence of a popular, organic support base. The movement also faces the problem of defining and identifying activities as morally regenerative; it will be extremely difficult, the author predicts, to empirically demonstrate that its activities actually enhance morality.

13. Role of Media in the Advancement of Science

by Alay Ahmad

In this presentation, Professor Alay Ahmad highlights the educational use of media as a way to cultivate scientific advancement, encouraging curriculum committees to approve the telecast of courses to supplement books. He stresses that instructional TV (ITV) is at its best when it teaches indirectly - that is, when it does not take on a paedantic tone. Keeping ITV simple through a 15- to 30-minute programme supplemented by relevant materials delivered by a teacher helps to engage students - be they "normal" or hearing-impaired. While on the one hand repeating the same objective/topic in different ways to clarify the concept can be effective, Ahmed notes that novelty is another variable to keep in mind; integrating recent news items, for instance, can help to stimulate and sustain an audience's curiosity.

14. Theory and Practice of Participatory Communication: The Case of the FAO Project "Communication for Development in Southern Africa"

by Paolo Mefalopulos

This dissertation was motivated by the observation that participatory communication - characterised by a horizontal flow of communication based primarily on dialogue - is increasingly being considered a key component of development projects around the world. Following an in-depth review and comparison on how participatory communication has been conceived theoretically, the paper presents a practical illustration: a case study analysis of Communication for Development in Southern Africa, a project that was launched in 1994 Harare, Zimbabwe, by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The project was intended to promote the sustainable and systematic use of communication in the development process to help ensure people's participation at all levels, as part of an effort to identify and implement appropriate technologies and policies for the prevention of poverty. Based on a "Results" section, Mefalopulos argues that participatory communication is "a necessary component, consistent with a democratic vision of international development, needed to increase projects sustainability and ensure genuine ownership by the so-called 'beneficiaries'." Lessons and insights learned from this study are also shared.

15. Impact Data - Population Media Center Radio Soap Operas - Ethiopia

Population Media Center (PMC) broadcast 2 social-content radio serial dramas in Ethiopia from 2002 to 2004, designed to change reproductive health behaviours. Yeken Kignit (or, Looking Over One's Daily Life) was broadcast in the Amharic language (257 episodes), while Dhimbibba (or, Getting the Best Out of Life), was broadcast in the Oromiffa language (140 episodes). The radio programmes addressed issues such as HIV/AIDS, family planning, marriage by abduction, education of daughters, and spousal communication. Various impacts are described here; a few of them include: Among married women in the Amhara region who were listeners, there was a 55.1 percentage point increase in those who had ever used family planning methods, while among non-listeners, family planning use increased by only 23.5 percentage points. Female listeners of Yeken Kignit sought HIV tests at 3 times the rate of non-listeners; male listeners of this drama sought tests at 4 times the rate of non-listeners. There were also substantial increases in adoption of HIV avoidance measures among listeners.

The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com



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