This issue of The Drum Beat features a small selection of summaries available on The Communication Initiative website from 4 of our knowledge sections - Programme Experiences, Evaluations, Strategic Thinking, and Materials - which illustrate how communication and media are contributing to positive development action, around the world.
Please send additional project, evaluation, strategic thinking, and materials information on communication for development at any time. Contact Deborah Heimann at dheimann@comminit.com
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EXPERIENCES
1. The Shape of the Future - Israel and the Palestinian Territory
This is a 4-part television documentary series that aimed to portray what a Palestinian-Israeli peace settlement could look like from the perspectives of Israeli and Palestinian citizens. Produced by Common Ground Productions, the core idea was to look to the future and examine the aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians and to show that agreements are possible that do not threaten the national existence of either party. The series was produced in both Hebrew and Arabic-language versions for broadcast in Israel and the Palestinian territories. DVDs and videotape copies of the series are available in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. The series is supported by music, a viewer's guide, and a website.
Contact: Karen Zehr kzehr@sfcg.org
2. Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project - Philippines
This initiative is designed to provide a platform for, and forum for promoting, human rights coverage in the Philippine media. By rooting human rights awareness in Philippine journalism, the organisers hope to create awareness about, provide the tools for, and promote respect for human rights. The use of information and communication technology (ICT) is central to this strategy. Specifically, through its interactive website, the project commissions, publishes, and disseminates papers, analysis, research, and investigative stories and reports on human rights issues in the Philippines. Organisers also plan and implement events and outreach activities, such as specialised training on human rights issues.
Contact: Alan Davis alan@iwpr.net
3. Living with Poverty - Kenya, Mozambique, Pakistan, Zambia
This project is using the internet as a tool to bring to light testimonies from people living in poverty in Kenya, Mozambique, Pakistan, and Zambia. The goal is to communicate the human indignities that lie at the heart of poverty, and to explore approaches to poverty reduction as part of the effort to meet Millennium Development Goal (MDG) #1, which calls for efforts to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. Working with partners, Panos collected a series of oral testimonies from communities in 4 countries. The testimonies illustrate the ways that poverty affects people, the ingenuity and resourcefulness people employ to meet basic needs, and the challenges they face in pursuing their rights. Through these stories, men and women in rural and urban communities present their own perspectives on the factors that impoverish people.
Contact: Keren Ghitis keren.ghitis@panos.org.uk
4. Don't Hide It Campaign - United Kingdom (UK)
Created by ChildLine, this child protection initiative was launched in May 2006 in an effort to encourage children and young people experiencing all forms of abuse to speak out. The 8-week communication campaign involved the creation of radio and television public service announcements (PSAs) designed to reach youth as well as their parents with messages meant to highlight the power of youth online social networks to aid the fight against abuse in the UK. ChildLine also developed a dedicated website which featured a series of case studies based on children's experiences of abuse - but concealing their identities by using the voices of actors and actresses. 5 stories about children suffering from 5 different kinds of abuse were featured. The ChildLine website, still in existence, also provides concrete information about bullying, neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. Some of the radio and TV PSAs created as part of this campaign are also viewable on the website.
Contact: Angharad Brown newmedia@NSPCC.org.uk
5. Scientists Without Borders - Global
This initiative aims to mobilise and coordinate science-based efforts to improve the quality of life in the developing world. As a first step, it has created a web portal. Launched on May 12 2008 by the New York Academy of Sciences in concert with a global network of organisational partners, the Scientists Without Borders website is designed to foster communication and collaboration amongst organisations, projects, and researchers who are facilitating global health, agricultural progress, environmental well-being, energy solutions, and poverty alleviation - and those who would like to contribute to such endeavours.
Contact: Evelyn Strauss estrauss@nyas.org
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EVALUATIONS
6. Impact Data - SDSI [Somos Diferentes, Somos Iguales (We're Different, We're Equal)] - Nicaragua
Implemented in Nicaragua by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Puntos de Encuentro, SDSI is a communication initiative featuring a weekly national edutainment telenovela called "Sexto Sentido" (SS) with a particular focus on HIV risk, a daily call-in radio show, and community-based activities. After controlling for age, sex, region, and education, evaluators of this initiative found that individuals exposed to the intervention were more likely to have talked to someone about HIV in the previous 6 months and were also more likely to know where to find information and services on HIV and violence. Evaluators found that, among those exposed to the show, there was an increase in those who had ever had an HIV test. Also, condom use among casual partners increased for those exposed to the show, compared to those who were not exposed.
7. A Community-Based Health Education Programme for Bio-Environmental Control of Malaria through Folk Theatre (Kalajatha) in Rural India
by Susanta K. Ghosh, Rajan R. Patil, Satyanarayan Tiwari, and Aditya P. Dash
According to this research, Kalajatha, a popular, traditional art form of folk theatre depicting various life processes of a local socio-cultural setting, is an effective medium of mass communication in the Indian sub-continent, especially in rural areas. The document describes using this medium to carry out a community-based health education programme for bio-environmental malaria control. In December 2001, the Kalajatha events were performed in the evening hours for 2 weeks in a malaria-affected district in Karnataka State, southern India. Impact assessments, done 2 months after the performances in both the focus villages and a random group of villages using semi-structured interviews, showed that "exposed respondents significantly gained new knowledge about malaria, its symptoms, transmission and control methodologies."
8. 14th Meeting of the Expert Review Committee (ERC) On Polio Eradication & Routine Immunization in Nigeria
This report shares details from the 14th ERC meeting which took place in Jos, Plateu State, Nigeria, March 12-13 2008. The analysis of Nigeria's strategy to eradicate polio provided here features descriptions of, and recommendations gleaned from, several communication components of the national effort. Approaches evaluated here include: the use of supplementary immunisation activities (SIAs); social mobilisation; and the role of the media in sharing information and sparking action.
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STRATEGIC THINKING
9. Journalists and Health Communicators - They are Not the Same
by Ron Macinnis
This article discusses the HIV/AIDS reporting skills training needs of journalists in an expanding media landscape. "[Because the information technology] revolution is increasingly providing opportunities for airing multiple perspectives and creating space for public discussion, debate and analysis", as stated here, "journalists could play a key role in stimulating public discussion on complex issues and touch the lives of their audience. But to do this they will require the skills, resources and information to develop their potential."
10. The Illusion of Sustainability
by Michael Kremer and Edward Miguel
Published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, this paper shares the details of a randomised evaluation of a Kenyan deworming programme, in an effort to estimate peer effects in technology adoption and to shed light on foreign aid donors' movement toward sustainable community provision of public goods. The Primary School Deworming Project (PSDP) took place in 75 schools in Busia district, an economically poor and densely settled farming region in western Kenya. In the paper, the authors "develop a simple framework in which people adopt deworming if expected private benefits exceed the expected cost... People are linked in a social network and receive signals about adoption, drug effectiveness, and how to use the drugs."
11. A Theory of Social Change and Implications for Practice, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
by Doug Reeler
This paper analyses current development practice and the theories of change that are used to inform this practice. Reeler provides a critique of the 'development project', discusses the theory of change behind a project approach, and describes the increasing difficulties of those involved in managing projects. He outlines an alternative theory of change, proposing 3 different kinds of change which underpin most development processes: emergent change, transformative change, and projectable change. The paper describes the implications of this theory for developmental practice, discussing a selection of approaches and tools.
MATERIALS
12. Tools for Print Journalists
Created and maintained by the Committee of Concerned Journalists (CCJ), Tools for Print Journalists is an archival area of their main website with access to several hundred resources, including tips for conducting effective interviews in the "Loosening Lips" fact sheet, a journalist's guide to the Geneva Conventions, articles on election year reporting, managing time as a journalist, and the relationship between the newsroom and internet website Wikipedia, among others.
13. Guidelines to Assist National Minority Participation in the Electoral Process
This document establishes guidelines for elections that include the participation of minorities in public decision making. It discusses background for and recommendations on election options, the administration of elections, and election monitoring. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) commissioned an international group to develop the Lund Recommendations in June 1999 for use in the prevention of minority-related conflicts. The ODIHR used 4 of the Lund Recommendations concerning elections as the impetus to produce these guidelines, which aim to make the participation of national minorities in public decision-making more effective by enhancing their representation.
14. The Terminology of Knowledge for Sustainable Development: Information, Knowledge, Collaboration and Communications
by Heather Creech
This International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Knowledge Communications Practice Note offers a glossary of terms related to sustainable development communications. The glossary covers: principal distinctions; terminology of knowledge processes; typology of collaborative relationships; and an inventory of communications practices and tools. Examples of this glossary, which is presented in a chart format, include terms such as: Adaptive management; Community of practice; Intellectual capital; K4D: Knowledge for development; Knowledge mobilisation; Appreciative inquiry; and Participatory video, among others.
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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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