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Warren Feek's blog

Lancet: Early Child Development - Your Analysis and Implications?

Hi and thanks for being engaged with The Communication Initiative/Drum Beat network with a particular interest in children and development. (posted to Children, Equity and ECD networks)

The Lancet has just published two papers and a comment on Early Child Development. See http://comminit.com/clickthru/c6be81fd19613cbe68c465fc01075e2c?node= This series "aims to identify gaps in implementation and coverage of interventions, calculate the economic costs of missed investment in early learning programmes, and present new evidence on the causes and effects of developmental inequities in early childhood."

As this is such an important issue and these are such substantive papers it would be excellent if you could share your reaction to below. What is your assessment of these articles for your work, strategic thinking, research, media coverage or other actions related to Early Child Development? From these papers (links below) what prompted you to reflect on your work? What changes might you consider making to that work - if any? (Please share those thoughts by simply replying to this email or clicking on the Read More link below and posting as a comment. Thanks).

Lancet: Early Child Development - Your Analysis and Implications?

Hi - much strength for your important work and thanks for being engaged with The Communication Initiative/Drum Beat network with a particular interest in children and development. (Cross-posted to Children, Equity and ECD networks)

The Lancet has just published two papers and a comment on Early Child Development. See http://comminit.com/clickthru/c6be81fd19613cbe68c465fc01075e2c?node= The Lancet series "aims to identify gaps in implementation and coverage of interventions, calculate the economic costs of missed investment in early learning programmes, and present new evidence on the causes and effects of developmental inequities in early childhood."

The key conclusions and links to the papers follow.

As this is such an important issue and these are such substantive papers it would be excellent if you could share your reaction to below. What is your assessment of these articles for your work, strategic thinking, research, media coverage or other actions related to Early Child Development? From these papers (links below) what prompted you to reflect on your work? What changes might you consider making to that work - if any?

African Journalist Grants

Hi to everyone in the Soul Beat Africa Media and Science Development network. Just wanted to quickly bring below to your attention in case it is of interest. Greer had shared in another of our networks. Best wishes - Warren.

Reporting Grant: Proposals sought on Reproductive Health, deadline 4 October

The Pulitzer Center seeks applications from African journalists to participate in a collaborative reporting project on reproductive health in Africa. Based on a model developed to cover water and sanitation in West Africa, this collaboration will partner four African journalists and one journalist with strong ties to leading international news organizations (currently under recruitment) who will serve as project leader. Together they will produce a body of reporting focused on reproductive health that will be distributed in African and international outlets.

Grant Description

The selected journalists and Pulitzer Center staff will travel to Dakar, Senegal to attend the International Conference on Family Planning (Nov. 28-Dec. 3, 2011). There they will attend conference sessions and press briefings, refine the reporting plan for their individual projects and participate in a multimedia training workshop led by the lead journalist and Pulitzer Center staff. In January/February 2012 the lead journalist and Pulitzer Center staff will travel to report alongside the African journalists in their respective countries. Individual projects will contribute to a collection of reports from the region to be published in the journalists' outlets and in US-based and international news media. Additionally, the work will be featured on a special Pulitzer Center web platform. All expenses at the conference and during reporting in Africa will be covered by the Pulitzer Center.

Impact of HIV/AIDS Communication

Hi and thanks for being part of The CI/Drum Beat network with an active engagement and interest in HIV/AIDS issues.

A recent issue of The Drum Beat (see http://comminit.com/global/drum_beat_595.html ) highlighted these evaluation results from the Soul City process in South(ern) Africa.

...Proportion of those who used a condom at last sex increased as exposure intensity to Soul City media increased...

...Those that were exposed to 4 Soul City media were almost 3 times more likely to be tested for HIV compared to those without exposure...

...There was a 17% increase in non-stigmatising attitudes attributable to exposure to Soul City 7 TV...

...Increase in non-stigmatising attitudes in children on 6 items was attributable to Soul Buddyz TV.

(The presentation that these came from is attached as a file)

In your opinion is this compelling data for the impact of communication strategies and action related to HIV/AIDS issues?

Please share your thoughts with the network by replying by email or opening the Read More link below and replying online. I would be very interested in your views.

Thanks - Warren

Social Network Platform

Susan/Peggy/Jane

Hi - if you open the "Read More" link below and have recalled your user name (above) and password (see previous communication) then you will access the draft social network for the conference. Below a few insights re core functionality. Please note that you are all Managers so have more access and rights to facilitate then the normal authenticated users. Can I suggest you respond with questions etc through this platform as will give a feel for how it all works.

OK - some basic orientation:

Here are some hints to help you navigate around the site: can I suggest you do some of the tasks - we can delete them all before launch.

NB - Dashboard is home both for this network community and on your own personal site

  1. To Create Content please click on Create Content
  2. General Forum contributions go here
  3. Groups for specific purposes - eg the 4 Conference Tracks have been set up through Groups in Create Content
  4. Topics are specific items/themes you wish to raise with a group 5. Create a Poll? Comment on a Poll
  5. Submit an event to the Calendar
  6. On any item, reply or comment to start threads
  7. Assign to someone if you want a specific reponse from one person
  8. To see all Recent Activity across all of these see Recent Activity below
    1. There are two ways to access your account - right side top or click on your username top left
    2. In those links please do put up a photo and enter your profile - click on Account settings/edit my Account
    3. Click on members at top (the person!) to see who is in the group
    4. Click contact to contact them directly (click to send self a copy)
    5. To log out, click on your user name top left - see the left column under My Account - log out is at bottom

Play around!

Thanks - Warren

Hidden Violence: Protecting Young Children at Home

Thanks for being part of The Drum Beat network with an interest in Children related issues.

Given the high priority we all place on issues related to violence and children I wanted to quickly share the link to a new knowledge summary shared by the network.

Hidden Violence: Protecting Young Children at Home http://comminit.com/global/content/hidden-violence-protecting-young-children-home

A key theme is that "violence is often "hidden": "This invisibility, and the deeply entrenched social norms and taboos that allow it to be perpetuated, speak to the injustice that violence in young children's lives represents."

Some key recommended messages and actions follow http://comminit.com/global/content/hidden-violence-protecting-young-children-home

There is link to the full Bernard van Leer Foundation report.

(Please do not reply to this email. For any related communications please email Warren at wfeek@comminit.com )

Thanks - Warren

Wits test - Blogs

Wits test - Blogs

Thanks - plus Review and Added Value?

To: Participants (in the room and in the virtual space)

Impact: Social and Behavioural Change - March 29, 2011

From: Warren Feek

Many thanks to everyone for your engagement in the Impact Meeting - to UNAIDS for hosting; the Presenters for your ideas and insights; the Participants in the room on the day for your review and questions; and, to many of you who have indicated you were reviewing the presentations on line.

Some review questions related to this day on which I would very much welcome your feedback, shared with others in this network. Please click on the link below "Read More" in this email below, open this full note, scroll down, enter you replies to the questions below in the Comment Box and Save to send!.

Review Questions

  1. What are two items of impact research and evaluation data that attracted your attention and why?
  2. What were two strategic insights you took from the day and why?
  3. Overall, how would you describe the added value of the impact day for your work?

Thanks - really appreciated - best wishes - Warren

Warren Feek Executive Director The Communication Initiative

www.comminit.com wfeek@comminit.com

1-250-658-6372 - work 1-250-588-8795 - mobile 1-250-658-1728 - fax

Agenda -Impact: Social and Behavioural Change

Good morning - we look forward to seeing all those who will be attending this event in Geneva this morning in person and others who will be joining through this online forum. Attached is the final agenda - best wishes and thanks - more soon - Warren

Venue reminder: The Kofi Annan Room at the UNAIDS Secretariat 20, Avenue Appia, CH-1211, Geneva 27, Switzerland. Telephone: +41 22 791 36 66. The contact person is Els Klinkert. We commence at 9am.

Expectations: from Sibambene Development Communications

Hi - Patrick Cockayne and Janine Simon-Meyer from Sibambene Development Communications asked me to post this for them re expectations for the Impact: Social and Behavioural Change day in Geneva (and virtual) on 29th March

"The need for a comprehensive typology of approaches

We are development communication practitioners, who, over the past five years, have developed an approach to implementing locally owned communication interventions to promote health in migration affected sites in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique (for the International Organization for Migration's PHAMSA initiative). The conceptual and implementation work is currently being written up for academic publication.

Going back to basics: our experience is that, at the local level, there are innumerable opportunities for communication, and a rich range of possible tools, processes and approaches that might be appropriate. The question is to use those which will most effectively address the situation at hand, given the specific resources, needs, and intended outcome. The situation is surely the same at any other level of implementation. You wouldn't attempt to speak face to face with an entire population to inform them of the South African Health Minister's campaign to have 15 million people test for HIV; but then neither could you expect that people who have limited access to media (or, for that matter, HCT services) to internalise, or respond to, the vital new direction taken by national leadership. A national media campaign tells most of the population what is afoot; those who can will respond. Those in the corners of the country, with rickety district health services, limited access to radio, and facing a stack of social, cultural and economic conditions that make it unlikely that HIV will be top of their agenda, are unlikely to respond, despite that in many cases they are more vulnerable.

The Media Development Network