• This issue includes: 
•  Selected summaries from our STRATEGIC THINKING section 
•  Vote in a POLL on e-Health directions 
•  Highlights from the MATERIALS section 
•  Sample programming EXPERIENCES from around the world

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This issue of The Drum Beat features a small selection of recent summaries available on The Communication Initiative website from 3 of our knowledge sections - Strategic Thinking, Materials, and Experiences - 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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STRATEGIC THINKING

1. The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers

by John Nichols and Robert McChesney

The premise of this March 2009 article is that journalism in the United States (US) is collapsing and that "with it comes the most serious threat in our lifetimes to self-government and the rule of law..." They trace newspapers' disintegration not to the internet luring away advertisers and readers or the economic meltdown but, rather, to newspaper owners who in the 1980s began to seek short-term profits over long-term viability. Looking to the future, the authors propose a mix that "would vary, with more not-for-profit and subsidized media in rural and low-income areas, more for-profit media in wealthier ones. The first order of any government intervention would be to assure that no state or region would be without quality local, state, national or international journalism." The role of the state and public policy would be to help subsidise the resources for journalism as a public good, rather than a profit centre.

2. Hiding in Plain Sight: The Role of Contraception in Preventing HIV

by Susan A. Cohen

Published in the Guttmacher Policy Review (Winter 2008), this article calls for renewed attention to the role of contraceptive services in fighting AIDS. Author Susan Cohen articulates the need for progress on prevention and lays out her vision of what it would mean to legitimise contraceptive services as a core HIV prevention intervention: ensuring that HIV treatment programmes also provide contraceptive services directly or by referral, making family planning services more widely available through prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programmes, and (in high-prevalence countries) promoting greater integration of HIV counselling and testing services into family planning programmes.

3. Communication for Development Programmes in the United Nations System

Prepared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), this report responds to General Assembly Resolutions A/50/130 of 23 February 1996 and A/51/172 of 3 February 1997. While recognising "the important role of communication for development programmes in the United Nations system", these resolutions acknowledge "the need further to facilitate inter-agency cooperation and to maximize the impact of the development programmes". The report also stresses the need to support two-way communication systems that enable dialogue and that allow communities to speak out, express their aspirations and concerns, and participate in the decisions that relate to their development. The document emphasises that communication for development is more than a tool for generating and disseminating content and should be used to facilitate relevant social change processes. 

4. Poor Countries' Media Must Tackle Climate Change

by James Fahn

The author of this article asserts that improving media coverage of climate change issues, particularly in developing countries, is critically important for tackling the challenges of global warming, but that climate-change reporting is inadequate because too often editors lack interest and assign writers without expertise. James Fahn suggests that better support - from "research institutes, who could do a much better job at outreach; from national and international climate-related agencies, who should try harder to accommodate the media's need for locally relevant information; and, in particular, from multilateral, bilateral and private aid agencies" - would help media organisations and journalists in the developing world.

5. HIV/AIDS: A War on Women

by Alice Welbourn

In this article published online at the Open Democracy website, the author discusses public health policies and legislation which are not rooted in the experience of women and are damaging the rights of women, particularly HIV-positive women. What is lacking, as stated in the article, when legislation binds every pregnant woman to take an HIV test, is social responsibility on the part of the state and health institutions for the welfare of people in challenging socio-economic situations so that they can continue to live normal and healthy lives. The author discusses a project called "Parliamentarians for Women's Health", which is designed to allow women, including HIV-positive women, to join with members of parliament to address the spread of judgmental, punitive laws, and policies which negatively affect them and their children.

6. Collective Learning for Advocacy: Building Alliances in Mexico

by Julián Portilla and Sylvia Aguilera

This article from Mexico's Centro de Colaboración Cívica grew out of lessons learned from a workshop to find a basis on which 14 organisations active in sexual and reproductive rights issues could develop their collective advocacy strategies. Participants agreed that collective analysis can generate a process of learning that is not possible in other settings, especially when a common document or proposal is used to organise the group discussion. Context analysis is important, but is not often done, and consensus, while useful, should not be required. "The importance of building coalitions across party lines cannot be overstated", and the narrative constructed around the possibilities for action matters.

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Please VOTE in our current ICT4D Poll:

• In what direction should current e-Health research and technical development go? Direction: 
•  Diagnosing through mobile phones.
•  Certifying phone services as coming from authentic health providers.
•  Building a menu of types of health providers (e.g., MD, traditional, clinic, pharmacy) into mobiles. 
•  Linking remote clinics with specialists. 
•  Linking communities in "the last mile" with hospital or clinic diagnosis and care centres.

VOTE and COMMENT click here.

RESULTS thus far (June 19):

49%: Linking communities in "the last mile" with hospital or clinic diagnosis and care centres.

23%: Linking remote clinics with specialists.

20%: Diagnosing through mobile phones.

6%: Building a menu of types of health providers (e.g., MD, traditional, clinic, pharmacy) into mobiles.

2%: Certifying phone services as coming from authentic health providers.

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MATERIALS

7. Job Aids for Immunization

by Tasnim Partapuri

This February 2009 resource describes and provides illustrations of a series of job aids developed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)'s IMMUNIZATIONbasics project in India. It includes details on the format, sites for use, intended audience, and expected outcomes. It also contains examples of the pictorial job-aids (posters or stickers). The rationale behind these job aids, which cover various aspects of immunisation, is that - if communicated in a user-friendly format for frontline health workers - job aids can effectively complement training to strengthen programme management, improve health worker performance, and enhance community demand. The utilisation of the materials has transcended local and programmatic boundaries.

8. Dialogue Circles Glossary: A Quick Reference for Consultation and Dialogue

This alphabetised glossary is designed to answer questions about dialogue circles, small groups of people who meet multiple times to discuss an issue. Dialogue circles intend to provide a safe space to engage in a facilitated dialogue, sometimes across difference.

9. Speaking Books

Books of Hope, in association with SADAG (the South African Depression and Anxiety Group), design and produce these interactive, multilingual Speaking Books that can be seen, read, heard, and understood by the reader regardless of their reading ability. Initially created to meet the health care education needs of Africa's rural and disadvantaged communities and as a means of overcoming low levels of literacy on that continent, the series is now being used worldwide. Speaking Books are made to order and to meet any health care or community need. 

10. Data Demand and Information Use in the Health Sector, Strategies and Tools

MEASURE Evaluation is offering this document and series of core tools on Data Demand and Information Use (DDIU), a strategy to identify opportunities for and constraints to effective and strategic data collection, analysis, availability, and use. This strategy begins with an assessment that helps stakeholders, policy-makers, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practitioners determine points of entry for DDIU intervention.

11. Building National Campaigns: Activists, Alliances, and How Change Happens

by David Dalton

This book draws on Oxfam International's experience in supporting national labour-rights campaigning initiatives at local and national levels. It includes learning points, examples of good practice, and a menu of approaches and activities (so that readers can choose those which are appropriate and useful to their situation - whether labour-related or not).

EXPERIENCES

12. Side-by-Side - Israel, Palestinian Territory

This photographic dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian teenagers is designed to spark understanding and conversation across lines of conflict, as well as to give voice to those living in the conflict zone. Beginning in January 2007, PhotoVoice and the Families Forum guided a group of young people in documenting their lives using digital cameras through a series of workshops which encouraged them to reflect on their own lives and not be afraid to ask difficult questions about sensitive topics. In between workshops, local facilitators provided participants with additional guidance and support, and small-group meetings also took place. Participants posted their work on an interactive website, and were able to view and comment on the work of others. In addition, a selection of the work created by the young people was made public through a travelling exhibition and a booklet.

Contact: info@photovoice.org

13. Development Dilemmas - South Asia

This Panos Radio South Asia (PRSA) programme brings together multiple voices twice a month on a single theme in an effort to draw the attention of policymakers as well as ordinary citizens to the nuances that characterise our development models. The half-an-hour-long radio discussion aims to capture the voices of economically poor and marginalised people in South Asia on issues including Panos South Asia's 5 thematic areas: media pluralism, public health, conflict, environment, and globalisation. The idea is that radio programmes - made accessible to all through online listening options - can facilitate a multi-directional information flow when complemented by the interactivity facilitated by online features such as a discussion forum. The goal is to create inclusive policy paradigms by sparking debate, in recognition of the conviction that there are multiple perspectives that need to be considered in any policy decision.

Contact: Satish Jung Shahi satish@panossouthasia.org OR prsa@panosradiosouthasia.org  

14. Getting Straight Through - Spain

Developed by the Spain-based El Teatro de Mimo, this project draws on the art of mime to convey messages about alcohol use and abuse to 14- to 18-year old youth. By means of several sketches - some comical and others characterised by a dramatic tone - different situations where alcohol is the trigger for action, are represented. Teachers may use the performance as a launching point for classroom activities - whether didactic or reflective - that address the issue.

Contact: Peter Roberts peterroberts@teatromimo.com

15. Children's Radio Bridges: Radijojo - Global

Based in Germany, Radijojo World Children's Radio Network is an international non-profit initiative producing educational and entertaining radio and online content for and with children aged 3-13 on all 5 continents. Its core emphasis is on bringing kids from Europe (particularly Germany) together in joint radio-based projects with peers throughout that continent - as well as in more distant places like Africa and North America. Children are encouraged to send in audio files, radio shows, photos, videos, drawings, plain text emails, and/or printed letters that may be of interest to their peers in different places. Participation is key; children create their own shows with educational and cultural content focusing on topics such as early music education, transnational understanding, health education, ethics, environmental education, science programmes, language learning, promotion of peace, political awareness, children's literature, children's rights, family life, etc. They interview peers in other countries through face-to-face meetings/exchanges, sharing the connection they have made through various internet sites featuring audio files, photos, and written details about how each particular "radio bridge" has been built and sustained. The ultimate goal is to foster intercultural understanding.

Contact: Thomas Roehlinger troehlinger@radijojo.de OR transatlantic@radijojo.de

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The Editor of The Drum Beat is Kier Olsen DeVries.

Please send material for The Drum Beat to The CI's Editorial Director - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com

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.

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