The Drum Beat – Issue 529 – Communication and Change News and Issues
February 15 2010
===
This issue includes:
* Selected summaries from our EXPERIENCES section.
* CI ASSOCIATES support The CI Network.
* SOCIAL NETWORKING through The CI!
* Highlights from the STRATEGIC THINKING section.
* C-CHANGE update: DRC.
* A few items from the TRENDS section.
* CALL FOR ENTRIES: award for development media.
===
From The Communication Initiative Network – where communication and media are central to social and economic development.
Subscribe to The Drum Beat: http://www.comminit.com/en/user/register
Access this issue online at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_529.html
Drum Beat Subscribers: 45,083
CI Portal User Sessions, past 12 months: 2,956,704
===
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 – Experiences, Strategic Thinking, and Trends – 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
===
EXPERIENCES
http://www.comminit.com/en/experiences.html
1. AIDS and Disability Campaign – Central America
In honour of World AIDS Day (December 1) and International Disability Day (December 3) 2009, the Inter-American Institute on Disability and Inclusive Development (IIDI) carried out an outdoor poster campaign in cities within 6 Central American countries. The purpose of the awareness/advocacy effort was to communicate – in a visual, public way – that people with disabilities should not be excluded in HIV prevention and care efforts; the assumption that they are not sexually active and therefore are at little or no risk to infection is, according to IIDI, erroneous and problematic. The colourful poster, in Spanish, says at the top: «AIDS does not discriminate. All of us have a role in its prevention.» and it features illustrations of people living with various disabilities.
Contact: Rosangela Berman Bieler RBbieler@aol.com
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/307502/347
2. Molato ke eng? (What’s the problem?) – South Africa
Created by SABC Education, this 13-episode television documentary series addresses conflict within South African families. Inspired by the real-life stories of ordinary citizens, Molato ke eng? is about intervening and facilitating discussion and reconciliation between estranged family members who are looking for help. The programme presenter enters the families’ world and tries to understand the real issue causing the problem. The idea is that, through a process of questioning, discussion, and sometimes shouting and walking out, the real issue, which has often caused family members not to speak to each other for years, is unpacked.
Contact: Lesley Fahey lesfahey@vodamail.co.za OR faheylk@sabc.co.za
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/133725
3. Mobiquitous – Switzerland
In 2005, a small team from the University of Lugano began investigating different approaches and contents for practical use of the personal mobile phone for educational activities. Throughout the regular classroom-based courses, researchers interspersed distance learning activities (LA), during which the participants accomplish an assignment (homework) through the use of their cell phones. During the academic year 2006/2007, 5 classes of students aged 16 to 30 participated. Research to date has led to the finding that the LAs are more effective if the didactical contents are previously discussed in class. In contrast, new kinds of content require LAs to be methodologically structured in a different way, in which students have the possibility to work with conceptual aspects together with practical exercises.
Contact: Marco Sassi marco.sassi@lu.unisi.ch
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/279710/307
4. Radio Ndeke Luka – Central African Republic (CAR)
Radio Ndeke Luka (RNL) aims to provide humanitarian information to local CAR populations and to strengthen the local media environment through capacity building and training. RNL broadcasts news bulletins, magazines, and music programmes designed for the CAR population and other countries of the sub-region. The station also serves as a «bush telephone» for the local population of Bangui and its surroundings. RNL aims to: contribute to peace-keeping, to democratisation, and to economic and social development; highlight issues related to human rights, the search for peace, and initiatives in favour of peace; inform the population of the country; promote vocational training for journalists and technicians of CAR; and create a positive impact on local media.
Contact: info@hirondelle.org
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/134455/2754
5. World Laughter Pledge – Global
This initiative draws on the power of experiencing joy and levity with others to dissolve tensions within and between people that can lead to pain and strife. The pledge aims to get people of the world laughing every morning, for a few seconds or a few minutes, to send a wave of laughter around the world. The idea is that friends and family who live apart can link with laughter and remember each other. An interactive website provides dates and locations for planned group laugh events, details about the strategy behind facilitating laughter, and a place for those who have participated, such as a group of over 200 girls at Kasturbha Gandhi Balika Vidiayala Hostel in India, to share their experiences.
Contact: Robin Graham robin@writelaugh.co.uk
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/277449
6. Nuevas Ciudadanas, Nuevos Ciudadanos: Hagámosle al Cuento (New Citizens: Let’s Make Up the Story) – Colombia
Cormujer, a small non-governmental organisation (NGO) working in Florencia, Caquetá, Colombia, engaged in a 4-year edutainment project to engage young men and women in creating a paedagogical package focused on gender equality. Participants were trained in the basics of moviemaking and provided with basic equipment; in addition, teachers and tutors honed their singing, dancing, and acting skills. Based on this training, the young men and women wrote, acted in, produced, directed, and edited the materials. The 6 notebooks and 5 short movies are designed to communicate to young men and women that they have the power to speak out and change patriarchal customs that exclude women – by, for instance, using their power to vote.
Contact: Marvel Barón Medina colectivo_minga@yahoo.com.ar
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/278152/348
===
SUPPORT FROM CI ASSOCIATES
http://www.comminit.com/ci_associates/members
Our thanks to the following organisations for once again supporting The CI Network, The Drum Beat, and all of our interactive platforms through their RENEWED CI Associates contributions:
* Communication and Information Sector of UNESCO (UNESCO-CI) – http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?m=777029081af147f1826ec17b2d3448d8
* Strategies for Hope Trust – http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?m=268afec6ad2ff14e13fc56b1f0f7d0c0
Please consider joining these and other CI Associates who are helping preserve, sustain, and advance this growing knowledge sharing and social networking process. Many levels of participation are open!
For a full list of current CI Associates, please see http://www.comminit.com/ci_associates/members
For details and to sign up, please see
http://www.comminit.com/ci_associates/register Thank you.
===
SOCIAL NETWORKING THROUGH THE CI
We have recently expanded the capacity of The CI platform to support your social networking relative to your social and economic development goals, objectives, and strategies!
Got something you want to discuss with peers and colleagues? Want to find people across the world working on similar issues? Join an existing group on a topic of interest or start your own!
Groups that might be of interest (click on «join» or «request membership»):
* Journalism in Crisis Coalition – http://groups.comminit.com/node/309395
* The Future of ICTs and Development – http://groups.comminit.com/ict4d
* Multiple Concurrent Partnerships (MCP) – Changing Social Norms –
http://groups.comminit.com/node/301025
* Students – Communication for Development –
http://groups.comminit.com/node/299455
* Improving The CI’s Social Networking Platform –
http://groups.comminit.com/node/309713
* Gender, Education, and HIV/AIDS – http://groups.comminit.com/node/300766
===
STRATEGIC THINKING
http://www.comminit.com/en/thinking.html
8. The Climate Change Lobby
by Marianne Lavelle
This February 2009 article explains the proliferation of lobbyists on climate change in the United States (US) and examines their agendas. The article focuses on strong lobbying organisations, such as the clean coal industry lobby, representing mining firms, coal-hauling railroads, and coal-burning power companies, which promotes coal power with restricted emissions as a source of electricity. «The danger is that special interests will dilute and torque government policies, causing the climate to pass tipping points, with grave consequences for all life on the planet.» The article concludes that lobbyists are «reading the tea leaves» to predict the energy legislation future of the US.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/291614/306
9. Champions of Participation
by Alison Dunn, Jane Foot, John Gaventa, and Tricia Zipfel
This document reports on the 5-day «Champions of Participation» event in May 2007 that brought together 44 people (24 from the United Kingdom (UK) and 20 from 14 other countries) involved in local government. The aim was to look at the challenges local governments face in responding to growing demands for citizen engagement and more participatory forms of governance. Some of the approaches discussed include: participatory approaches to budgeting, participatory planning, partnerships, public scrutiny, consultation and inclusion, and participation in service delivery. The first of 16 summary points of learning that emerged is that community involvement is at the heart of sustainable change and is central to the task of revitalising democracy, improving service delivery, tackling poverty, and building strong, resourceful communities.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/290909/348
10. Using Geographic Information System Tools to Address Disparities in Access to Family Planning Services and Commodities in Latin America and the Caribbean
Published in December 2008, this paper from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) | DELIVER PROJECT demonstrates a methodology for geographically identifying and focusing on scarce resources to improve access to family planning (FP) amongst vulnerable populations in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Geographic information system (GIS) technology and geo-referenced survey data, used in Guatemala have allowed policymakers to «visualise multiple variables simultaneously and identify where Guatemala’s greatest disparities exist between wealthy and poor, urban and rural, indigenous and non-indigenous, and more educated and less educated. It also facilitates a much more geographically disaggregated analysis of disparities in health care…»
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/292051/307
11. Information, Education, and Communication and Advocacy
This January 1999 document examines the role of information, education, and communication (IEC) and advocacy in opening up public debate on the issue of gender violence. Because, as the document states, the debate «will need to engage all the key opinion-makers such as religious and community leaders, teachers, school administrators, politicians, and entertainers…[in order] to eventually shift gender-based violence from a taboo issue and a private matter to one that is an issue for public policy…,» it recommends and describes the following strategies: building a constituency, involving young people and men, sensitising community-based workers and traditional birth attendants, and creating a public will for change.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/304335
===
C-CHANGE: SBCC AND FAMILY PLANNING IN DRC
http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?m=34e3897097fc0768e180f32d1c054c4c
Strengthening Capacity in SBCC
In December 2009, C-Change conducted a 2-week training workshop in Nigeria (see http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?m=2342b4a0bbfe84d612f1260a48f986da) for NGO-based health professionals working in HIV prevention using the C-Change learning package Understanding Social and Behavior Change Communication. This training is part of a larger focus by C-Change to build effective and sustainable SBCC capacity of local institutions and their professionals. See http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?m=de5f66ddf86a843e26c95b9c919fe412 for additional information about the SBCC learning package, which is currently being field tested.
Repositioning Family Planning
C-Change hosted the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) National Conference to Reposition Family Planning in Kinshasa in December 2009 with support from USAID and UNFPA and in cooperation with DRC’s Ministry of Health (see http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?m=292d307ea92778233b7f1f13559d4672). Unmet need for family planning in the DRC is greater than 24% (DHS 2007). First Lady Mme. Marie Olive Lembe Kabila officially launched the conference saying, «it is inadmissible [that] women continue to die as they are giving life.» See http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?m=9c97c2c34ebbe9eb2721d4f652f68123 for additional information on the DRC programme.
C-CHANGE PICKS
http://www.comminit.com/en/cchangepicks.html
The C-Change Picks website and e-magazine both feature selections of case studies, initiatives, resources, and thinking included on The CI website that have been specifically highlighted by the C-Change programme. The C-Change Picks e-magazine is published regularly and focuses on an issue of particular interest to C-Change – HIV/AIDS, family planning, reproductive health, or malaria. See http://www.comminit.com/en/cchangepicks/newsletter
SUBSCRIBE by contacting cchange@comminit.com
===
TRENDS
http://www.comminit.com/trends.html
12. Information Communication and Technology (ICT) in Education for Development
by Brian Gutterman, Shahreen Rahman, Jorge Supelano, Laura Thies, and Mai Yang
This July 2009 paper explores the current state of how ICT is being used in education and how it can better benefit current and future users. Analysing examples of ICT in education (ICTE) from around the world, the authors share lessons learned and recommendations. For example: «Mobile devices extend desktop-based online learning into the mobile and wireless environment, students with personal mobile phones to access educational materials from anywhere at any time. Mobile technology also gives teachers a new means of education delivery, and allows them to connect with their students at anytime. Teachers in rural areas can interact with experts in developed countries in real-time using a basic mobile phone.»
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/308185/307
13. High-Speed Internet Gap between Rich and Poor Widening, UN Official Warns
According to this November 12 2009 United Nations (UN) News Centre piece, while the «digital divide» between rich and economically poor countries may be shrinking overall, the gap is widening between the developed and developing worlds in the availability of broadband or high-speed internet. «A person in a developed country is, on average, 200 times more likely than someone in a least developed country to enjoy high-speed access to the Internet.» However, at the start of 2009, there were about 4 billion mobile telephone subscriptions worldwide. According to one official quoted here, «Mobile phones have become one of the most equitably distributed ICTs.»
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/307992/307
14. The Perfect Device for the Developing World is Not the PC
by Clive Longbottom
This August 2009 article points out that computers are not part of the daily life of many people in less developed countries. As stated here, though markets in developing countries may have an increasing demand for personal computers (PCs) – more so than the markets in more saturated developed countries – the real demand and focus of simple and effective technology usage is the mobile telephone, which: needs less physical infrastructure ; has a lower cost than a PC and generally a higher level of environmental resistance than a PC; uses less power than a PC; and is not dependent on being tethered to a main power outlet. Furthermore, «the recycling of mobile phones is simple and cost effective.»
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/307998/307
15. Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive Intercommunication for Knowledge
This October 2009 report is the product of a collaborative methodological and scholarly effort to study the Arab knowledge landscape. «Despite the Arab region having spent 5 per cent of GDP [Gross Domestic Product] and 20 per cent of government budgets on education over the past forty years…many…key problems still form a major obstacle to the establishment of the knowledge society.» With regard to ICTs, «it is evident that the Arab states have made reasonable progress…» The report indicates that there has been an increase in science collaboration between Arab states and the rest of the world, but not all researchers benefit from this. In short, the report advances the core conclusion that more funding and freedoms are needed if the Arab world is to reach its goal of becoming a knowledge-based society.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/307770/307
===
Call for Entries: Special Award for Development Media
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/284811/2754
This award aims to recognise an outstanding media project or organisation working on the ground in the developing world that has made a real impact on the lives of those living and working near it. The award is for local radio/TV initiatives, print media, or new media; advocacy media initiatives working at a grassroots level involving staff from the local area are also eligible to enter.
See http://www.comminit.com/en/node/284811/2754 for further details on the entry criteria and application process.
Deadline: February 26 2010.
===
The Drum Beat is the email and web network of The Communication Initiative Partnership – ANDI, BBC World Service Trust, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Calandria, CFSC Consortium, CIDA, DFID, FAO, Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, Ford Foundation, Healthlink Worldwide, Inter-American Development Bank, International Institute for Communication and Development, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, MISA, PAHO, The Panos Institute, The Rockefeller Foundation, SAfAIDS, Sesame Workshop, Soul City, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNICEF, USAID, WHO, W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Chair of the Partners Group: Garth Japhet, Founder, Soul City garth@heartlines.org.za
Executive Director: Warren Feek wfeek@comminit.com
===
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.
To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, see http://www.comminit.com/en/editorialpolicy/global for our policy.
To subscribe, see http://www.comminit.com/en/user/register
To unsubscribe, reply to this message with «unsubscribe» as the subject.
Blog de Octavio Islas 