This issue includes:

•  Selected summaries from our EXPERIENCES section.
•  Help sustain us: CI ASSOCIATES.
•  What's your OPINION? Journalist/reader relationship.
•  Highlights from the EVALUATIONS section.
•  Update: C-Change activities in DRC.

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This issue of The Drum Beat features a small selection of recent summaries available on The Communication Initiative website from 2 of our knowledge sections - Experiences and Evaluations - 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. Hear Each Other - Russia

Developed by the Center for Communication Programs at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, this campaign sought to spur health-related conversations on the part of Russia's men and women aged 19 - 35. Based on the insights from a focus group process, various communication materials were developed, drawing centrally on a humourous and positive approach which was found to be understandable and attractive to this audience. Posters and stickers - featuring images of cartoon-character men and women with tag-lines such as "Each day of being silent can cost a lot" - were placed in medical institutions, pharmacies, movie theatres, and on public transport. Three different booklets were distributed to the intended audience; in addition, a booklet and cue card on counselling couples were developed for medical providers. Regional TV and radio channels showed public service announcements (PSAs).

Contact: Elena Dmitrieva edmitrieva@hr2020.ru OR Ron Hess rhess@jhuccp.org

2. Cyberela Network - Brazil

This initiative builds internet user skills by establishing public telecentres and connecting women's radio initiatives through the internet. It was created by CEMINA - Communication, Education and Information on Gender - a Brazilian non-governmental organisation (NGO) striving to facilitate the integration of low-income, rural women into new information and communication technologies (ICTs). Radio content produced locally is shared with other community radio stations across Brazil, by uploading and downloading content via the project's webpage. The content on the website includes a daily programme which is streamed live. The goal is to: provide underserved communities with access to educational and income-generating internet tools; promote training aimed at narrowing the digital gap experienced by women and girls; and improve the tools for local women's radio productions, mainly in terms of research and editing.

Contact: cemina@cemina.org.br

3. LIVE UP: Love.Protect.Respect. - Caribbean

LIVE UP is a media-led AIDS education effort spanning the entire Caribbean region that involves major broadcasters on every island working together - across different media but with unified messages and a shared approach. Launched in conjunction with the International Cricket Council (ICC)'s 2007 World Cup, LIVE UP includes regular news coverage, PSAs on both television and radio, and other Caribbean-created and -oriented programming. Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership (CBMP) has galvanised a wide range of celebrities to endorse the multi-year campaign; images of these celebrities endorsing the campaign may be viewed on the LIVE UP website, which also features a variety of information and interactive activities designed to engage young people. As part of this process, several in-person workshops and summits were held to gather Caribbean broadcast executives, journalists, and producers in an effort to inspire innovative programming that uses media such as radio and television to heighten HIV/AIDS awareness, address stigma and discrimination, and promote personal action in the fight against AIDS.

Contact: iliveup@kff.org

4. In Kidi Ya Chanza (When the Drumbeat Changes You Must Change Your Dance-Steps) - Nigeria

This project revolves around a 26-episode radio serial drama designed to assist smallholder farmers in northern Nigeria to adapt to climate change. In meeting its objective, the series recognises farmers' traditional knowledge and their adaptive capacity to the harsh conditions of the regions. Besides the multi-plot drama, the programmes include popular music, a narrator linking the components of the programme, and guest experts such as an agriculture extension officer or an experienced farmer. Listeners are encouraged to provide feedback via short message service (SMS), phone, and/or mail, both individually and through listener and farmer groups. Broadcast over a 2-year period starting in 2007, the serial has been produced locally in 2 local Nigerian languages, with scripts available in English and French. A toolkit related to radio drama for development and climate change is available.

Contact: africanradiodrama@yahoo.com

5. Timely Immunization is Your Child's Bodyguard: Nationwide Campaign - Republic of Georgia

Launched in February 2007, this yearlong behaviour change communication (BCC) campaign was designed to improve immunisation coverage to children below 1 year of age and to reduce the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases. Family nurses throughout the country carried out home visits to inform mothers and other caregivers about the benefits of immunisation and to advocate for timely vaccination. Involving children in sparking behaviour change was another interpersonal approach, and was based on the idea that they could serve as "personal sellers" of the immunisation messages in their homes. To educate children about the importance of timely vaccination, lessons were arranged in all schools, and children received school calendars including information on immunisation. There was also a media component. Four advertising segments were broadcast on the radio and on television. Talk shows and a film were aired and video-audio releases were produced. Media feature articles in major newspapers were published, and booklets, posters, and banners with campaign messages were produced and displayed in health facilities.

Contact: Maya Kurtsikidze mkurtsikidze@unicef.org

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BECOME A CI ASSOCIATE

This is a gentle reminder to please raise within your organisation the possibility of supporting The CI's work through the CI Associates process - For details and to sign up, click here. Also, please see Warren Feek's note in The Drum Beat 501 -  Thank you.

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6. Communicating for Advocacy (CFA) Project - Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand

Launched in 2002, this 4-year initiative sought to develop the capacity of community groups in South and Southeast Asia to influence policy and practice change in the regions. The core of the CFA project was its people-centred and rights-based approach to advocacy. Participatory approaches shaped the CFA partners' activities, which revolved around issues such as education, the environment, children's rights, disability, sexual and reproductive health, gay rights, and community health. For example, participants in the CFA advocacy workshop conducted by the Council for Health and Development used the medium of comics - simple pen-and-ink illustration, with the narration in boxes and the dialogues in balloons - to encourage people to seek help when they have medical problems, as well as to take advantage of health education services provided by community health workers (CHWs).

Contact: David Curtis Curtis.d@healthlink.org.uk

7. Winter/Summer Institute in Theatre for Development (WSI) - Lesotho, South Africa, United Kingdom (UK), United States

WSI is a collaborative effort among faculty facilitators and student performers from 3 continents as well as community participants to create issue-based, aesthetically provocative, entertaining theatre around HIV and AIDS. The Institute's primary theatre work takes place every 2 years in sub-Saharan Africa, with residencies, research endeavours, fund raising, and performance projects in participating countries during the intervening period. Specifically, through the use of a variety of shared resources and materials (books, films, articles), Institute participants begin to investigate the agreed-upon focus. Once everyone arrives in Africa, the exploration continues via presentations - including those by people living with HIV (PLWHA). This enables WSI to establish a shared platform from which its multicultural group can work to create fresh, actor-driven, visually dynamic theatre. "WSI strives to be the opposite of 'message' theatre, building our performances through an improvisational process that weeds out anything that doesn't make us laugh or pull us in or cause us to think."

Contact: Katt Lissard kattliss@gmail.com OR maketheatre@aol.com

8. Avian Influenza Control and Human Pandemic Preparedness and Response Project: Public Awareness and Information Component - Tajikistan

Launched in April 2009, this 3-month United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) media campaign was designed to prevent avian influenza in Tajikistan by changing the behaviours of children and women - the ones who take care of poultry and cook it. The project made use of a mix of strategies: advocacy, capacity building, BCC, and community and social mobilisation. For example, 6 television spots and 6 radio spots were developed. These messages were integrated into popular television and radio programmes, and a roundtable discussion, interview with relevant specialists, and updates on the epidemiological situation were broadcast. At the local level, UNICEF partners held community meetings and events with local leaders and the general public to raise their awareness of simple ways to prevent the risk of contracting the virus. The project established an active network of volunteers who are able to communicate correct practice and behaviours to local farmers and households with backyard poultry.

Contact: Alexander Sodiqov asodiqov@unicef.org OR Safina R. Abdulloeva sabdulloeva@unicef.org

9. Focus on the Environment - India

Focus on the Environment was a 2-year initiative to train Indian journalists on environmental reporting and film-making. Led by the BBC World Service Trust and funded by the European Union, the project aimed to develop the Indian media's capacity to cover environmental issues in an informed and accessible way. Efforts to meet this goal involved giving 108 television and print journalists in 9 Indian states the opportunity to produce documentary films and newspaper campaigns in collaboration with international trainers. In September 2006, 18 short documentary films created by participants began airing on Doordashan News' Terraview programme, and may be accessed freely online.

Contact: Rajiv Saurastri rajiv.saurastri@gmail.com OR Ellie Haworth ellie.haworth@bbc.co.uk

10. Children's Soul - Turkmenistan

This UNICEF-funded television show by and for children aims to advance overall child development by increasing viewers' access to ideas and by promoting critical thinking and participation in social and cultural life through media. The episodes take the form of discussion, feature stories, field visits, invitation of celebrities to the show, games, songs, cartoons, short social films, demonstration, and/or discussion of books. "Children's Soul" allows children to learn about issues related to their wellbeing, creating opportunities for ordinary schoolchildren to participate by telling their stories or submitting their creative works to the contests announced during the show.

Contact: Gulyalek Soltanova gsoltanova@unicef.org

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Please VOTE!

What are the best possibilities for journalist-readership connections? (you may choose more than one; please add clarifying comments)

Connection:

•   Readers should hold journalists to a high standard of transparency.
•  Journalists should ascertain topical concerns of readers.
•  Journalists should build support for public risk-taking in the name of media freedom
•  Readers should hold editors, managers, and media owners accountable for journalistic freedom.

VOTE and COMMENT: click here.

RESULTS thus far (July 24):

29%: Journalists should build support for public risk-taking in the name of media freedom.

28%: Readers should hold editors, managers, and media owners accountable for journalistic freedom.

27%: Readers should hold journalists to a high standard of transparency.

16%: Journalists should ascertain topical concerns of readers.

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EVALUATIONS: Methodologies and Indicators

11. Transparency of Process: Monitoring and Evaluation in Learning Organisations

by Nomvula Dlamini

This paper describes a strategy for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) that revolves around attention to, and respect for, dialogue within development organisations. Nomvula Dlamini articulates her vision of a "transformational learning" paradigm for M&E that she contends is better suited to the informal, subjective, and anecdotal material with which developmental organisations' work is primarily concerned. Moving beyond what she conceives as a "stuckness on methodology" involves: cultivating a questioning orientation, transforming power relations, and living the principles of participation and accountability. Although building a culture of critical self-reflection and self-evaluation can be a complex and challenging process, "[w]e should ensure that monitoring and evaluation become a ribbon of rhythm drawn through organisational learning processes. Such a rhythm should be natural to the culture, systems, procedures, structures and processes of the organisation."

12. New Trends in Development Evaluation

by Marco Segone (ed.)

The contributors to this book explore the process of reshaping the evaluation function to cohere with changes in the development framework. Editor Marco Segone notes that the focus of evaluation is shifting from small projects to national programmes and policies. This shift, he argues, requires a systemic approach to evaluation that is shaped by integrated M&E systems that are nationally owned. To ensure the relevance, and thereby the use, of evaluative knowledge, he argues, it is critical that demand from national governments and civil society (not just from donors) drives strategies to strengthen statistical systems. In the second part, Segone proposes strengthening a pro-evaluation culture and a democratic approach to evaluation. In the third part, 6 members of the International Program Evaluation Network (IPEN) analyse the evaluation function in Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Finally, the annexes provide information on how to access international evaluation resources via the internet and present the UN Evaluation Norms and Standards and guidelines on how to develop evaluation Terms of Reference (ToR).

13. Diagnostic Tools and Performance Indicators

by Andrew Puddephatt

This paper examines a diagnostic tool developed for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to identify indicators that assess how the media can contribute to democracy. UNESCO's exercise examined 26 initiatives studying communication in order to find a frequently-cited set of measurable indicators. It chose 5 categories of media indicators. This set of indicators, with its subcategories, identifies those issues by country where change is most needed and where active donor intervention is likely to make the most significant impact and so is likely to be of most value in shaping donor or implementer intervention. "This approach to evaluation does not involve the production of generic performance indicators - rather it requires the development of a system of project management which ensures congruence between the different layers of the organisation and develops internal and external indicators appropriate to the deliverables." It concludes that evaluation is currently a work in progress: "Evaluation is an evolving tool and we must expect it to evolve and change shape as it encounters the real world."

14. Towards Polio Communication Indicators: A Discussion Document

This document is based on field experience, recommendations, and presentations from various partners within the polio programmes of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and several countries where polio is no longer endemic. The draft indicators seek to provide a starting point for discussion towards the adoption of a common framework for measuring impact, tracking trends, and planning for polio communication activities. They have been selected to be simple and relatively few in number. The paper begins by posing a series of questions whose answers determine the overall communication strategies and approaches to be utilised. What follows is a basic framework of base line data, indicators, and data sources to verify impact and develop trend analysis to respond more effectively to the specific communication needs of the programme in high-risk areas (HRAs) and populations.

15. Evaluation Framework for Governance Programs: Measuring the Contribution of Communication

This report from the World Bank's Communication for Governance and Accountability Program (CommGAP) presents a methodology for evaluating the contribution that communication interventions can make to good, accountable governance in countries around the world. The quantitative model presented here - the logic model - illustrates a method for assessing the objectives of the main project, communication challenges, communication objectives to support main project objectives, the communication intervention itself, the outcomes (what change the communication has produced), and the impact (the contribution of communication to desired change(s) of the overall project - which are "argued, not measured"). CommGAP adapts this model to the context of each specific country in which it is working, depending on the objective(s) to be achieved, the strategy designed to achieve it (e.g., strengthen media systems, or support legal and regulatory reforms to improve access to information), and the theory behind specific programme interventions. 

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An Update from C-Change on Activities in DRC

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), C-Change is supporting health service delivery projects to mobilise community participation and utilisation of health services for family planning/reproductive health (RH/FP), maternal and child health, and malaria. Specifically, C-Change is providing technical assistance and capacity strengthening in behaviour change communication to two service delivery projects - Leadership Management and Sustainability (LMS) and Project AXxes - which have been operating for the past 2 years to rebuild health clinics, train health providers, and ensure that health care commodities are available in the eastern part of the country. Activities include designing a community participation strategy to increase use of services and improve the health status of communities these projects are serving. In addition, C-Change is mobilising stakeholders, partners, and the government to reposition RH/FP policy and programming in DRC leading to a high-level meeting in Fall 2009. Click here for additional information.

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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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