C-Capacity #12 - Using Voice for Capacity Strengthening

Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC): Using Voice for Capacity Strengthening Image credit: Community women in Nepal participate in the Family Health Project's Partnership Defined Quality (PDQ) process, a partnership approach involving community members and their health workers in an effort to improve the quality of services. © 2005 Saroj Nepal Upadhyaya, Courtesy of Photoshare Capacity strengthening is most commonly viewed as a process in which development professionals perceived to have particular skills, knowledge, insights and tools (e.g. planning instruments) seek to increase existing capacities in "others". The "others" are most often people in local communities and/or developing countries. But there seems to be an increasing recognition that when the focus is on strengthening the action required to effectively address development issues at local, regional, national or global levels, the people in the contexts experiencing those issues have unique capacities and strengths that are essential for effective action. By sharing those capacities they strengthen overall development action. From this perspective an essential communication element for capacity strengthening for more effective development action is to provide space (physical, emotional, social, and perhaps financial) for the people directly experiencing development issues to voice their perspectives, experiences, analysis and ideas as a central part of the planning and implementation steps that condition development action. For example, a situation analysis undertaken, managed and analysed by "local" people may produce very different results than one undertaken by "external" development professionals. This issue of C-Capacity explores and shares examples of development action and thinking that raise issues of "Voice" in capacity strengthening. In the Core Resources section of this issue, you will find some samples of projects and tools that draw on local voices as part of situation analyses used to plan the implementation of SBCC.

News C-Modules Training C-Capacity ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK Register to participate Share your knowledge Worth Reading Mobile Video for Community Health Workers in Tanzania Connect Community members have voices, let's lend them our ears! Core Resources Through Our Eyes FUTURECONNECT™ Forum in Taiwan

Core Resources... Silence Speaks: Multimedia Storytelling in Republic of Congo Utilizing Peer Education to Stimulate Behaviour Change at the Community Level Are International Aid and Community Participation Inevitably at Odds? Inviting - Not Requiring - Social Change Report Shows Internews Radio Stations in Southern Sudan Most Trusted by Communities Community Video for Social Change: A Toolkit Public Conversations for Social Change: A Learning DVD Social Accountability and Social Change: A Toolkit for Small-scale Farmers Further Journal Reading A list of articles for those interested in exploring this topic further Training Applying Social and Behaviour Change Theory to Practice The 2012 Summer Institute on Integrated Marketing Communication for Behavioral Impact (IMC/COMBI) in Health and Social Development

About C-Capacity

C-Capacity is an e-magazine supported by C-Change and prepared by The Communication Initiative in cooperation with C-Change partner Ohio University. It is dedicated to alerting you and your organization to resources, training, links, and other opportunities for capacity strengthening in social and behavior change communication (SBCC), all vetted for quality and relevance by FHI 360 and Ohio University.

The C-Capacity Online Resource Center is a living resource designed to provide the best resources and training opportunities available and we welcome your contribution. We are looking for case studies, strategic thinking, support materials, trainings, meetings, and other resources relevant to SBCC capacity strengthening. To contribute, please contact cchangeorc@comminit.com

C-Change Capacity Strengthening News

1. C-Modules Training

C-Change completed the first of three C-Modules training in The Bahamas with 19 participants in early December. The first training covered C-Modules 0-2 with a special emphasis on providing participants with tools for situation analyses, including a "problem tree" and "people and context" analyses. The workshop emphasized the importance of gathering and using information to make decisions on program design. The second training on C-Modules 3 and 4 are being held in early January with the same participants. The C-Change Project in The Bahamas provides SBCC technical assistance aimed to improve the quality and scale of The Bahamas' current response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, working towards the overall goal of a national-led, sustainable, integrated, and coordinated HIV prevention effort that enables programs to plan, implement, and evaluate evidence-based, comprehensive programs for most-at-risk populations (MARP), including men who have sex with men (MSM) and sex workers.

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C-Channel is an e-newsletter produced by C-Change that showcases the impact of social and behavior change communication (SBCC) by presenting a selection of current, peer-reviewed journal articles about SBCC around family planning, reproductive health, HIV prevention, malaria prevention and control, and social and gender norms. C-Channel makes abstracts and full journal articles available free of charge to readers in the developing world, via email. Issue 37 - Changing Gender Norms, Engaging Men in Reproductive Health and HIV Prevention Programs, and Reducing Gender-Based Violence for more information. To subscribe, please go to the C-Channel main page and follow the instructions in the right column.

Announcing C-Capacity ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK

Register to participate

If you are active on or interested in building your own or your organisation's capacity in social and behavior change (SBCC) please join the C-Capacity Strengthening Network. This social network is a forum to exchange ideas and resources with others working in SBCC. Click here to register.

Share your knowledge

Do you have programme descriptions, strategic planning documents, training manuals or other resources you think are useful to others working to build SBCC capacity? If you do please go to the knowledge sharing area of the C-Capacity Strengthening Network where, once you've registered, you can upload the resources you want to share.

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Worth Reading

2. Mobile Video for Community Health Workers in Tanzania

This project involved the creation of a series of health education videos that could be played on cell phones by BRAC Tanzania's community health volunteers (CHVs) during home visits. Project organisers first met with CHVs to discuss the project and identify video concepts: tuberculosis and HIV; malaria and diarrhea; immunization; family planning; safe drinking water; and entrepreneurship. Selected speakers in the videos were nurses, doctors, BRAC staff, and members of the community who could provide testimonials and focus on communicating a few concrete actions that viewers could both remember and execute to improve their health. The organisers provided the CHVs with the videos and also provided basic training on how to use them - for example, to pause the videos and check for understanding. The idea was for the videos to serve as a conversation starter, increasing community interest in discussing and learning about ways to improve their health.

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Connect

In this issue, we have chosen to offer a report from Karen Greiner, Facilitator of the online C-Modules Course on Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC), a self-paced course from C-Change and Ohio University designed for journalists, researchers, students, and government and non-governmental organisation health and development practitioners. The goal of the 6-module course is to develop and strengthen competencies in the planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of SBCC activities. In the following report, Karen reflects on what course participants are discussing on “voice”.

3. Community members have voices, let's lend them our ears!

"I feel like I'm attending Social Change University," I told a colleague, Andrew Carlson, the other day. Andrew and I have both facilitated online training modules of the C-Change Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) learning package. The "university" I've been attending of late is the online discussion forum for training participants, who over the course of several weeks have shared their experiences, challenges and successes. It has been instructive to learn how the resources, tools, models and theories have been received by course participants, each of whom brings a wealth of professional and practical experience to the online discussion.

Two topics that consistently inspire lively exchange as we proceed through the training materials are inclusion, and its related "cousin," voice. The participant-practitioners accept, without question, the ideals of inclusion. They agree that community members should have a say (have voice) in all phases of the communication interventions, ranging from formative research to design, implementation and measurement. What participants cannot agree upon, however, is how best to include community members when time or budget constraints come into play.

What I've learned from participants and their online discussion exchanges about inclusion is that community members have always had "voice" - it's the ear that is often lacking. In other words, community members are speaking, but who is listening? Are political leaders and policy makers listening? Perhaps what community members need - since they already have voices - is a microphone - or a video camera - or their own radio show. Instead of informing and persuading community members, or trying to change their behavior, attitudes or practices, perhaps we could listen more and then ask what is the relationship between behavior change at the individual and community level and the actions and decisions of other actors such as politicians, donors and decision makers? Some of us have recently been discussing the issue of aid effectiveness on The Communication Initiative's Policy Blog; how much more effective would the last five decades of aid have been had we listened to, and acted on the voice of members of the communities in which we were working?

The wise practitioners, my instructors at "Social Change University," have figured out the importance of supplementing efforts to influence behavior with advocacy aimed at changing structures and systems. A training participant recently told me of a theater performance staged by street children in Zambia. The principle of inclusion took a creative turn when policy makers, rather than the street children, were deemed the "object" of the intervention. The policymakers - were invited to attend the performance so that they might learn something of the children's lives. These children had voices; what they needed was an audience willing to include them in decisions affecting their lives.

"Nothing about us without us."

I have embraced this saying, which originates with the international disability movement and Jim Charlton's 1998 book of the same title. I think these words make a great mantra for a new era – an era of working with people rather than for them. The creative communicators I've been learning from at "Social Change University" have shared what inclusive intervention design looks like: They've shared activities including performance advocacy, youth reporters, peer researchers, inter-active community radio and contest mechanisms for generating content, to name just a few.

These "inclusive models" for a new era of working with community members are being shared, but is anyone listening? Are donors and decision makers listening and are they willing to act on what they hear? How can inclusive models of social change become the norm, rather than the exception? I think one key "next step" is essential for increasing the listenership of, and response to, the creative and powerful voices that already exist within communities.

This next step is creative and extensive impact measurement. To truly enter a new era of inclusive social and behavior change communication, we need new models for measuring how, beyond process, community voice and action matter. We need to measure the impact of inclusive SBCC efforts and share our results and methods. Let us hope that these voices become louder and more numerous so that they can be heard in ways that change the world around them and make the next 5 decades of aid more effective and inclusive than the last.

Suggested reading for alternative measurement:

Singhal, Arvind, Lucia Dura, and Laurel J. Felt. "Valuing Cultural Scorecards: What Counts? For Whom? Cultural Scorecards as Communication Measures." ["Tarjetas de Valoracion Cultural: Un Llamado para Desarrollar Sentidos Participativos de Monitereo y Evaluacion"]. Folios, 23 (January-June): 161-180. [in PDF format in English or Spanish]

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Select Core Resources:

Below you will find a selection of core resources. These resources support work with the C-Modules training coursework from C-Change.

4.Through Our Eyes

"Through Our Eyes" is a multi-country participatory media programme designed to address the issues of gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS, harmful traditional practices, and related issues within conflict-affected communities. As part of the project, local teams comprised of American Refugee Committee (ARC) field staff and community members create video dramas and documentaries that reflect local realities and highlight positive models of change. Video screening/discussion sessions spark a process of dialogue through which community members share experiences and gain information about available services and resources.

This project draws on the power of participatory video to effect social change. According to Communication for Change (C4C), the video medium surmounts the barrier of illiteracy and generates excitement, both because it is an inherently dynamic form and because people tend to be keen to see their own community and its members on screen. Applied to the prevention of gender violence, organisers say, local video helps amplify voices for change from within the community, expands ARC's outreach activities in an organic way, and fosters peer-to-peer education in a context of collaboration and self-empowerment.

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5. FUTURECONNECT™ Forum in Taiwan

This article from MAZI, an online publication of the Communication for Social Change Consortium (CFSC), describes a forum in Taiwan designed as a dialogue of not-for-profit organisations on the challenges and opportunities of social networking for communication professionals working in HIV/AIDS. In 2009, aids2031 and the CFSC commissioned research on the impact of social networking on AIDS communication. The resulting report, "Future Connect: A Review of Social Networking Today, Tomorrow and Beyond, and Challenges for AIDS Communicators" explores how young people rely on and trust social networking sites as reliable sources of information on sexuality and other important aspects of their lives. To prompt discussion about the findings of this research, the Consortium is sponsoring a series of dialogues around the world, starting in Asia. In this article, Lourdes Margarita Caballero, a communication associate at the Consortium, describes one such dialogue in Taipei, Taiwan.

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6. Silence Speaks: Multimedia Storytelling in Republic of Congo

Silence Speaks is a global digital storytelling initiative supporting the telling and witnessing of stories that often remain untold. These stories are narratives of survival in the wake of abuse, war, and displacement. They challenge stigma and marginalisation. Silence Speaks workshops blend oral history, popular education, and participatory media production, enabling people to tell their life stories. Methods are modified to accommodate languages, literacy levels, and technologies in a given setting, and emphasise reflection on the implications of bringing sensitive personal narratives into the public sphere. Following careful informed consent processes, stories are shared locally and globally, as strategic tools for training, community mobilisation, and policy advocacy to promote well-being, gender equality, and human rights. As an example, the Silence Speaks: Multimedia Storytelling in Republic of Congo project, implemented in November 2009, brought together seven women affected by the country's recent civil wars to share their experiences through digital storytelling.

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7. Utilizing Peer Education to Stimulate Behaviour Change at the Community Level

Communication for Development Foundation Uganda (CDFU) provides strategic communication support focusing on network-based community mobilisation and behavior change utilising peer educators (also known as Popular Opinion Leaders in some communities). "The peer educators are selected by the community. They usually belong to some network, ...like: Village Health Teams, farmers' groups, women groups and Post Test Clubs... and are therefore able to pass on information to peers....The objective of the peer education intervention is to bring about significant and sustained positive change in behaviours and practices through the efforts of peer educators who encourage positive change. They further promote use of specific health products and services among groups of peers....

CDFU develops training guides specifically designed to empower peer educators with skills and knowledge to: initiate discussions with peers in communities, use social events and 'conversational' approaches to talk about health issues, and mobilize people for individual and social change. ... [E]xperience has shown that interpersonal communication is powerful in stimulating behaviour change among individuals and the communities they live in. The process involves working with districts to select community based organizations to partner with so they can monitor and directly supervise the activities; meetings with the community to select the peer educators; training of trainers to build capacity at the district level and training of the community volunteers. The innovation of working through existing community structures addresses sustainability and ownership of the intervention."

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8. Are International Aid and Community Participation Inevitably at Odds?

In this article, Silvio Waisbord asks the following questions: "If community participation is, arguably, the glorified ideal of international aid, why do international programmes often relegate it to a minor role? Why are communities rarely involved in making decisions? Why is participation so good for waxing poetic and not for bringing it to the centre of aid programmes? Why is the aid mindset fixated on finding the next "magic bullet" to address social problems if we know that mobilised, committed citizens are essential for sustainable change? " He argued that our challenge is to envision how community participation can be institutionalised in a system that: rewards bureaucratic procedures; worships technical thinking; and finds local politics toxic; and, to do that, we must shift from promoting the virtues of participation to finding ways to institutionalising in agencies oriented by a different set of bureaucratic priorities and technical approaches.

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9. Inviting - Not Requiring - Social Change

The authors begin by providing an overview of how communication has been used historically (after the Second World War) to foster social change. Then, they introduce their core claim: "we propose the notion of 'invitational social change' to supplement, rather than supplant, participatory communication approaches. The term is meant to describe a new orientation, one that both encompasses and reframes participation." In short, invitational forms of social change seek to substitute interventions that inform with calls to imagine and efforts to inspire - cultivating narrative imagination through, for example, creative activity, including theatre, dance, and other forms of entertainment. As the authors explain, "[i]nvitational social change interventions employ 'pull' rather than 'push'....[A] highway billboard or a radio campaign with the message 'AIDS kills!' would be the equivalent of push: The message is unavoidable and unsolicited. A 'pull' approach, in contrast, relies on creativity and functions only by consent."....The purpose of this article is to propose a model to help guide future Internet intervention development and predict and explain behavior changes and symptom improvement produced by Internet interventions ....By grounding Internet intervention research within a scientific framework, developers can plan feasible, informed, and testable Internet interventions, and this form of treatment will become more firmly established."

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10. Report Shows Internews Radio Stations in Southern Sudan Most Trusted by Communities

According to audience research surveys conducted by BBC Media Action (formerly the BBC World Service Trust), three radio stations in Southern Sudan, established and supported by Internews, are the "most trusted and important sources of information in their communities". The radio stations, staffed by local Sudanese trained by Internews, broadcast a variety of news, information, and music programming in local languages, including Dinka, Nuer and Arabic, for an average eight hours a day.

The report includes strategies on building station capacity for enabling participation, for example, Nhomlaau FM: "...Mobile phone usage is quite high in Northern Bahr El Ghazal county, with almost half of respondents using a mobile regularly.... Nhomlaau FM could incorporate more audience participation by providing opportunities for listeners to text or phone in to discussion shows, send in community announcements for their areas, give feedback on programmes, etc. "

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11. Community Video for Social Change: A Toolkit

This toolkit, published by the American Refugee Committee and Communication for Change, is a guide to planning and implementing participatory video activities in conflict-affected settings, with a focus on gender-based violence prevention and response, harmful practices, HIV/AIDS, and related health issues. The toolkit comprises two documents. The first outlines practices and approaches related to using community video for social change in conflict-affected development and humanitarian settings. It also outlines steps for planning and designing a community video project, as well as implementation, ongoing support, ways of integrating community video activities into broader work, monitoring and evaluation, and opportunities for sharing experiences.

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12. Public Conversations for Social Change: A Learning DVD

This Communication for Social Change Consortium (CFSC) DVD discusses how to facilitate public conversations on sensitive community issues that may not be readily discussed in communities. It includes examples on how to create safe spaces for discussions from public conversations held in Mexico, Cameroon, Senegal, San Francisco (United States), and Jamaica. The DVD is particularly designed for those facilitating conversations about AIDS and how communities can address stigma, youth engagement, and people who engage in behavior that makes them vulnerable to HIV and AIDS.

The DVD is a learning tool for facilitators who want to explore public conversations as a way to build the communication capacity of stakeholders. It can be used to discuss critically the challenges and opportunities of conducting dialogue with vulnerable groups, young people, and advocates, among others. It also includes tips on how to organise and facilitate public conversations effectively and offers suggestions on follow through.

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13. Social Accountability and Social Change: A Toolkit for Small-scale Farmers

This toolkit provides a structured programme of activities and worksheets designed to be used by facilitators working in and with small-scale farmers' associations in central, west, and southern Africa. It was produced to empower organisations with skills, such as budget monitoring and the use of community scorecards, to improve their situations, grow their organisations, and ultimately contribute more effectively to ensuring food security for themselves, their communities, and the whole region.

The toolkit provides a set of workshop outlines designed to help farmers' associations to focus on and find ways to address some of the immediate problems farmers face, as well as some of the structural issues that tend to keep small-scale farmers on the periphery of government and civil society's attention. The session guidelines include discussion topics, group work, role-plays, and individual exercises, as participants are guided through a process of analysis and action planning. The toolkit also provides background information to assist facilitators in planning the programme.

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Further Reading

In addition to the above core resources on social and behavior change communication theories, models and approaches, included here are materials for those interested in exploring these topics further. Certain articles may require a membership to the journal to access the full content, but the abstract summaries are available free of charge: Caballero, Lourdes Margarita. (June 2010). "Photo Essay: How Does Communication for Social Change Impact the Lives of Women Refugees." MAZI, Issue 21. Gumucio Dragon, Alfonso (2008). "Vertical Minds vs. Horizontal Cultures: An Overview of Participatory Process and Experiences. "Communication for Development and Social Change. Edited by Jan Servaes. Sage. Kirshner, M. (2008). I Live Here. New York: Pantheon Books. McCall, Elizabeth. (June 2010). "The Communication for Empowerment: Global Report." MAZI, Issue 21. [Return To Top]

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The C-Picks e-magazine, supported by C-Change and implemented by The Communication Initiative, is an e-magazine that highlights social and behavior change communication (SBCC) case studies, reports, analyses, and resources in the health sector (HIV and AIDS, family planning and reproductive health, malaria, and maternal and antenatal health).

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Training

Select training opportunities.

14. Applying Social and Behaviour Change Theory to Practice

Date: February 27 to March 2 2012

Location: School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

From the course description: "Theory is fundamental to understanding the factors that underlie and influence human behaviour and social change dynamics. Skills in applying theory are critical to capacity development in designing, implementing, and evaluating programmes that address health issues. This course will develop the capacity of professionals to:

• Describe predominant behavioural and social theories and models that are linked to health outcomes such as HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases at individual, interpersonal, community and societal levels. Examples include: Health Belief Model, Transtheoretical model, Social Cognitive Theory, Diffusion of Innovation, Social Networks, Gender & Power and the Socio Ecological model
• Assess the effectiveness of different theories or models in achieving change.
• Apply theories to the design and evaluation of health communication interventions."

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15. The 2012 Summer Institute on Integrated Marketing Communication for Behavioral Impact (IMC/COMBI) in Health and Social Development

Date: July 9-27, 2012

Location: New York City, United States

This World Health Organization and New York University course focuses on strategic communication planning for behavioral impact in health and social development. A core principle of the course is that "behavioral results are the primary end-goals of health and social development programs" and as such the course stresses that behavioral impact comes with effective communication programs purposefully planned for behavioral results, and not directed just at awareness creation, advocacy, or public education.

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The C-Capacity Online Resource Center continues to seek new knowledge and experiences in support of capacity strengthening for social and behavior change communication - your case studies, strategic thinking, support materials, and any other relevant documentation. Please contact cchangeorc@comminit.com

Please visit the C-Capacity Online Resource Center for more resources on SBCC.

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Development of the C-Capacity Online Resource Center is guided by C-Change partner Ohio University in cooperation with The Communication Initiative. C-Change is a project implemented by FHI 360 and partners and funded by USAID. Click here for a complete list of C-Change Partners.

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This publication is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of Agreement No. GPO-A-00-07-00004-00. The contents are the responsibility of The Communication Initiative and the C-Change project, managed by FHI 360, and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.