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C4D Literature

11 comments

Comments on: Communication for Development: A Practical Guide

Thank you authors and SDC for an insightful publication on C4D.  The need for more literature on C4D cannot be over emphasized. I urge all C4D experts, development partners and communication experts in general to be deliberate and intentional about sharing with the world their experiences and thoughts on C4D. The poverty of C4D literature is even more appalling in Africa,  evidenced by the lack of C4D education in most academic institutions. This needs to change.

Skha

C4D Enthusiast

Zimbabwe.Africa

Comments

Submitted by Enock Musungwini on Thu, 01/04/2018 - 08:43 Permalink

I agree with Skha that lack of indepth information and education on C4D is evident in Africa particularly Southern Africa and even my country Zimbabwe. There is need for Universities and Colleges to partner with Development and SBCC related organisations to offer capacity building programmes and short courses. Developments practitioners and accademic practitioners need to work and collaborate together to blend theory and hands on experience.

Submitted by Chancy on Thu, 01/11/2018 - 07:51 Permalink

Hi,

Can someone help with a list of Bibliography with recent C4D publications. At least published in the last 10 to 15 years.

Thanks 

Submitted by birgitte-empow… on Fri, 01/12/2018 - 10:41 Permalink

Dear Chancy,

A good first step is to take a look at the literature lists of Universities offering C4D studies.

 

One example is Malmo Universityin Sweden. There is a list of recommended literature for each of the four semesters:
   

 
CAMECO, the Catholic Media Council, specialising in media and communications in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific. They update their listing of new literature twice a year – and have a search engine to facilitate access:
   

 
This could be a beginning.

 

Good luck,

 
Birgitte

 
EMPOWERHOUSE

Birgitte Jallov

Krogegaard

Gudhjemvej 62

DK3760 Gudhjem

Denmark

 

www.empowerhouse.dk

birgitte@empowerhouse.dk

Skype: birgittejallov

Submitted by Yacoub Adeleke on Mon, 01/15/2018 - 09:55 Permalink

I have read through the trend of discussion on the lack of literature on C4D in Africa and I beg to disagree.

What I have discovered as the fundamental problem in this area of specialization are the several terms or nomenclatures with which this practice is designated: Health Communication, Entertainment Education, Theatre for Development, Applied Dram and so on are geared towards the same objective; reformation of our society but employing different strategies. All these terms are interwoven in their applications.

If we open our search to incorporate these terms, we will find enough materials and project done in this context in Africa but if all we are looking for are courses particularly designated as Communication for Development then we may be overlooking a lot of valuable resource materials that could be of help in enriching our knowledge and understanding of Communication for Development or Communication for Social and Behavioural Change.

Communication for Development is an amalgam of two disciplines: Communication and Development which makes it an interdisciplinary Programme. If we break these terms apart and check for the definitions separately, we would be armed with more than enough definition of communication and development. These are two broad concepts. There are different means of communication including the options that information technology has made available to us in the modern society. If we also check development, we will find health, rural, community, environment and so on.

The question is, how do we apply communication in such a way that it triggers behaviour change and encourages the public to do the right thing? In an attempt to answer this question, we start seeing communication beyond mere conversation, we try to identify the demography and the communication strategy that is contextually relevant. At that point, we are beginning to see communication as a tool for Development.  

I particularly find this year’s conference quite interesting because it's featuring Entertainment Education. I strongly believe that this will open up great debate and broaden the minds of practitioners in terms of the different strategies available to us in achieving a common goal.

I think John Hopkins social-behavior-change-communication programme is a good point of reference when trying to have a good grasp of this practice. Its explanation of what this practice is about is really detailed and I would advise we visit the site. This will broaden our knowledge and understanding

I agree (with Yacoub Adeleke) that the varying nomenclature that we use to describe various elements of C4D definitely doesn't help with finding literature or "evidence" for our field. It's true and I think when looking for literature, it might be worth expanding the search field to include some of the synonyms for our work that he identified- like SBCC or health communication or being specific about what exactly we're looking for, whether it's gaming for social change or behaviour change radio programs.

That said, I do think that there is A LOT more C4D programming going on than available literature might show. One reason may just be there is a lot less scientific research done on the communication aspect of development programs and I feel that with publication, there can be a bias against non-research oriented papers.

The reality is that most development programs have some C4D elements even though they may not highlight those elements and their impacts in literature. I find that when C4D elements of programs go hand in hand with other programmatic elements like service delivery or training, in showing evidence and reporting results, there can be a bias in focusing on these other elements of a behaviour change program which are easier to prove dosage and effect.

I think we as practitioners therefore need to be more creative in designing our C4D programs with elements of operational research that provide opportunities for learning that we can use to expand the breath of knowledge and understanding of what specifically works in our field.

Thank you Jite for the insighful analysis of the landscape - I agree with (Yacoub Adeleke).

I can't agree more when it comes to highlighting C4D/SBCC related questions in other programmatic surveys. For instance Rollback Malaria (RBM) published a guide for SBCC indicators; but the responsibility rests on member countries to ensure we factor these into Malaria Indicator Surveys and demonstrate more results beyond increased knowledge.

 

What we need to do as practitioners is to get more engaged with programs at the level of survey planning. 

Dear Jite,

I agree very much with your point above.

I understood Chancy, who opened this thread to be in need of entry points for the field of C4D - through literature - possibly as a student / active in the academic field. Many of us provided such entry points and Chancy was happy with that. He got what he needed.

I, however, very much agree with you that what in our practical world of applied C4D in all its many forms, it is not necessarily just literature and pre-existing documentation of evidence. What I find is most effective (and efficient) is to use a set of analytical tools and methods to map the area of work one is/we are moving into, identify the context, the urgent needs, past experience in related fields including capacity and good experiences and practice locally to build on - and then together with the people, organisations and communities in question map out how to best get going. In this process evidence need to be gathered in many forms - including relevant and useful pre-existing documentation including 'literature'.

A very good day to you all,

- birgitte