Subject: New Paper on contribution of social networking and mobilization to development
Greetings from The Communication Initiative
There is considerable development community interest in the role and effectiveness of community-focused action on key development priorities.
We would like to draw your attention to new research supported by The Communication Initiative Successful polio eradication in Uttar Pradesh, India: the pivotal contribution of the Social Mobilization Network, an NGO/UNICEF collaboration”, which we feel provides substantive insight into community networking issues and approaches regardless of the area of development practice you work in.
The CI supported this research as part of its polio programme partnership with USAID. While the research focuses on polio communication, it does so with three central goals in mind. The first is to produce high-quality, peer-reviewed communication knowledge. The second is to ensure that this knowledge is timely and relevant to those working on communication within the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). The third is to share that knowledge with those working in other areas of health, and, more broadly, development communication. It is in this spirit of making knowledge available in a timely fashion to those who need it most and sharing that knowledge across sectors that we wanted to draw your attention to this new resource.
The paper written by Ellen A Coates, Silvio Waisbord, Jitendra Awale, Roma Solomon, and Rina Dey is now available in the inaugural edition of the journal Global Health: Science and Practice. It looks at how, in response to low routine immunisation coverage and ongoing poliovirus circulation, U.S.-based CORE Group members and local non-governmental organisations partnered with UNICEF to create the Social Mobilization Network (SMNet) – a network which has played a pivotal role in stopping transmission of polio in India. It also looks at how important this network remains as India struggles to remain polio free in a world where the virus continues to circulate and 27 million Indian children are born each year.
We feel there are lessons in this paper for everyone working in communication and media for development and social change.
Here is a brief excerpt from the paper’s abstract:
«The SMNet’s goal was to improve access and reduce family and community resistance to vaccination. The partners trained thousands of mobilisers from high-risk communities to visit households, promote government-run child immunisation services, track children’s immunisation history, encourage vaccination of children missing scheduled vaccinations, and mobilise local opinion leaders. Creative behaviour change activities and materials promoted vaccination awareness and safety, household hygiene, sanitation, home diarrheal-disease control, and breastfeeding. Programme decision-makers at all levels used household-level data that were aggregated at community and district levels, and senior staff provided rapid feedback and regular capacity-building supervision to field staff. Use of routine project data and targeted research findings offered insights into and informed innovative approaches to overcoming community concerns impacting immunisation coverage. While the SMNet worked ! in the highest-risk, poorly served communities, data suggest that the immunization coverage in SMNet communities was often higher than overall coverage in the district. The partners’ organisational and resource differences and complementary technical strengths posed both opportunities and challenges; overcoming them enhanced the partnership’s success and contributions.»
We trust that you and/or your colleagues will find this useful to your work. The CI has created a summary of this paper on our website, which you can access on the CI Polio website by clicking here. You can also access the full article from Global Health: Science and Practice.
For other CI-supported research on lessons from polio communication, see:
Health Communication: Polio Lessons
Polio: is it too late for participation?
Communicating with Context: Polio Eradication and the Political Economy of Vaccination
The polio killings – Lives lost in vain?
External Support – Useful? Effective?
Many thanks for reviewing this knowledge. Please do contact me by reply email with any reactions, queries or questions. And please do use the comment, social networking and email-to links on The CI platform to share this knowledge with your networks
All the best,
Chris
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