The Drum Beat 627 - Communication and Change News and Issues

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627

The Drum Beat - 627 - Communication and Change News and Issues

THIS ISSUE INCLUDES:
EVALUATIONS:	Impact Tools, Climate ICT Action, HIV: Family Role?
ENGAGE IN A NEW INITIATIVE:	Why Poverty?
STRATEGIC THINKING:	Participatory Gov., Stigma-free School, Photo Takes on Torture
JOIN US:	As a CI Associate
EXPERIENCES:	Polio Radio Drama, Youth Films on Dating Violence

From The Communication Initiative Network - where communication and media are central to social and economic development.

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EVALUATIONS
1. Impact Evaluation Toolkit: Measuring the Impact of Results-Based Financing on Maternal and Child Health by Christel Vermeersch, Elisa Rothenbühler, and Jennifer Sturdy
This web-based toolkit offers a guide on how to evaluate the impact of interventions, especially those related to maternal and child health and those involving results-based financing (RBF). It includes: (i) guidelines with best practices for each stage of the impact evaluation (IE) cycle; and (ii) standardised tools that can facilitate cross-country comparisons of the results of RBF projects. [From the World Bank Human Development Network with funding from the Health Results Innovation Trust Fund (HRITF), Jun. 2012]

2. Valuing Cultural Scorecards: What Counts? For Whom? Cultural Scorecards as Communication Measures by Arvind Singhal, Ph.D., Lucía Durá, Ph.D., and Laurel J. Felt, M.A.
Drawing upon research in Uganda, India, Peru, and Senegal, this article discusses the concept of cultural scorecards for research and evaluation projects. It lists and evaluates some techniques that are not from the cadre of Westernised surveys, focus groups, etc. They include: performances; participatory visualisation techniques accompanied by oral narratives and storytelling; and the Most Significant Change (MSC) technique of soliciting participants' change narratives. [University of Texas and University of Southern California, Nov. 2011]

3. PRISM Tools: User Guide by Anwer Aqil, Theo Lippeveld, Traore Moussa, and Alimou Barry
This resource provides a guide to Performance of Routine Information System Management (PRISM), a conceptual framework for strengthening routine health information systems (RHIS) through better data quality and improved information use. [MEASURE Evaluation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Mar. 2012]

4. Building the Evidence Base for Strategic Action on Climate Change: Mexico City's Virtual Climate Change Centre by Olinca Marino
This case study describes a multi-stakeholder initiative that sought to build city-wide climate change information in Mexico. One finding was that information and communication technology (ICT)-based networks and other digital tools have helped create a new set of specific information on climate change effects, causes, and strategic actions for adaptation and mitigation in Mexico City. [From the University of Manchester with funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Feb. 2012]

5. Fostering Accurate HIV/AIDS Knowledge among Unmarried Youths in Cameroon: Do Family Environment and Peers Matter? by Zacharie Tsala Dimbuene and Barthelemy Kuate Defo
This research document assesses the relationships between family structure and family/peer communication about sexuality and accurate knowledge of HIV transmission routes and prevention strategies among youth in sub-Saharan Africa. Findings show that policymakers need to work with families to address the key role of family environment as source of accurate HIV knowledge. [From PRONUSTIC Research Laboratory and Department of Demography, University of Montreal, May 2011]

6. Media Development Impact Dashboard 2012
This annual assessment of the impact the work of the Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF) looks at the financial sustainability of news businesses. "Many of our clients are using social media as a relatively simple method of creating audience interactivity, as well as a way to build traffic to their websites." [Sep. 2012]

7. Build It, and Will They Come? Unexpected Findings from a Study on a Web-Based Intervention to Improve Colorectal Cancer Screening by Linda Fleisher, Venk Kandadai, Eileen Keenan, Suzanne M. Miller, Karthik Devarajan, Karen J. Ruth, Michele Rodoletz, and Eric J. Bieber
The authors conducting this study found low usage of a web-based intervention intended to improve colorectal cancer (CRC) screening in a population of women in the United States. "Rather than simply continue to develop new technology-based interventions, reallocation of resources towards programs designed to understand how the Internet can best be exploited to improve health may have greater immediate effect." [Jun. 2011]

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LOOK AT THESE CLIPS AND TELL US: WHY POVERTY?

The Why Poverty? series of documentary films from STEPS International and Southern Africa is launching in 70-plus countries. These documentaries provide an opportunity and a stimulus for the local, national, and international development community and public to engage in a critical re-think of how we understand and address poverty.

We encourage you to visit the Why Poverty? theme site on The CI and use the social networks links there to reflect on the questions posed in this recent Drum Beat. Thank you for being part of the conversation!

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STRATEGIC THINKING
8. Does Participatory Governance Matter?: Exploring the Nature and Impact of Participatory Reforms by Brian Wampler and Stephanie L. McNulty
"New forms of political engagement are being generated, new networks and relationships are being forged." This publication presents conclusions from a May 2011 workshop held in the United States on the impact of participatory governance on the lives of citizens, the organisation of civil society, the contours of state reform, and most broadly, the quality of democracy. It offers case studies, a new research agenda, and policy recommendations. [Comparative Urban Studies Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Oct. 2011]

9. Our Lives Aren't Like the Lives of Other Children: A Documentation of the Approaches, Process, and Best Practices and Lessons Learned in Ethiopia on How to Combat HIV-related Stigma and Discrimination against Children Living with or Affected by HIV and AIDS by Lotte Ladegaard
This report describes and evaluates Safe Environment and Non-discrimination in Schools in Ethiopia (SENSE), a 3-year project initiated in 2009 with an overall development objective of "a school environment in Ethiopia free from HIV-related stigma and discrimination”. The project has involved children and youth in the design, implementation, and monitoring and includes regularly staged radio broadcasts, narrations, poems, songs, and dramas. [Danish Institute for Human Rights and Save the Children with funding from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jul. 2012]

10. Seeking Accountability for Torture - Photography as Evidence
This is a discussion of the role of documentary photography in providing accountability for torture and depicting the human stories behind these abuses. [Documentary Photography Project initiative of the Open Society Institute (OSI) and National Security and Human Rights Campaign, Jun. 2009]

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Help Sustain The CI: Become a Communication Initiative Associate

The CI Associates are organisations and individuals who recognise the added value of The Communication Initiative toward their work priorities - which may be focused on a development issue, geographic location, and/or population group - and have chosen to provide financial support to this initiative. There are a range of possible payment levels from USD 100 to USD 5,000. The package includes a number of free classifieds listings. A list of present Associates can be seen online here - if you are not there now, please join them!

To sign up, contact Victoria Martin [email protected].

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EXPERIENCES
11. Polio Storyline: New Home New Life (NHNL) Radio Soap
In September 2009, polio-related themes were integrated into the New Home New Life (NHNL) radio drama, which intermingled tales of love, comedy, and human suffering. Amongst the topics: the expected behaviour of families and caregivers of children during polio campaigns, vaccination at border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and routine immunisation. [BBC Media Action]

12. Patrika - Media Action Group (MAG) Education Campaign
In an effort to ensure that economically poor and disadvantaged students in India can exercise their right to basic education, this news and on-the ground campaign's communication activities include: a public campaign launch; use of traditional media; rallies; public dialogue; daily telephone calling to news media; a helpline for parent and community questions; presentations at a national-level convention; advocacy with public officials; banners; and a website, as well as a blog site.

13. World Cup in My Village
This project worked with young people in Rwanda and Zambia to produce radio shows and videos that were broadcast during open-air public viewings of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup 2010 matches in South Africa that included youth football games and activities on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. Many of the young journalists became climate ambassadors, advocating for responsible environmental behaviour in their communities. [United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF), Children's Radio Foundation, Vision Jeunesse Nouvelle (Rwanda), Grassroots Soccer (Zambia), and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)].

14. Fundación Huésped - Huésped Foundation
This Argentinian foundation develops printed materials and public campaigns (graphic, radio, and television materials) in order to make information about AIDS available to everyone in clear, simple, and effective ways. Huésped views its strategy to get prevention messages into the mass media as key to stopping the spread of AIDS and reducing stigma and discrimination.

15. Speak Up & Get Out
Created by then 14-year-old United States (US) filmmaker and activist Jordan Coleman, this film- and internet-based dating violence awareness initiative includes film screenings, town hall meetings, literature, hand-outs, and online resources to teen victims.

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This issue of The Drum Beat was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

The Drum Beat is the email and web network of The Communication Initiative Partnership - Partners: ANDI, BBC Media Action, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Breakthrough, Calandria, DFID, FAO, Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI), Inter-American Development Bank, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, MISA, Oxfam Novib, PAHO, The Panos Institute, Puntos de Encuentro, The Rockefeller Foundation, SAfAIDS, Sesame Workshop, Soul City, STEPS International, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNICEF, USAID, The Wellcome Trust, World Health Organization (WHO), W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

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.

Chair of the Partners Group: Garth Japhet, Founder, Soul City [email protected]

Executive Director: Warren Feek [email protected]

The Editor of The Drum Beat is Kier Olsen DeVries.

Please send additional project, evaluation, strategic thinking, and materials information on communication for development at any time. Send to [email protected]

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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