IMPACT: THE RESEARCH AND EVALUATION DATA - Social Shakes

Below is part of an overall paper called "SOCIAL SHAKES - rethinking the core principles for principled and effective development action" - the full Table of Contents is here.

IMPACT: THE RESEARCH AND EVALUATION DATA

Further support for this strategic approach as the basis for communication policies comes from the research data. Though the strategic approaches outlined above are in a minority when it comes to present communication action, there is sufficient scale and depth of work from the research to provide supportive data for the impact of this kind of work.

Resonance

Political Economy of Government Responsiveness: Theory and Evidence from India ¹²
"The authors provide an in-depth analysis of the relationship between media and government responsiveness. The interactions were found to be significant for both policy responses - a fall in food production yields more public action in situations where newspaper circulation is higher and crop damage from floods yields more disaster relief expenditures when newspaper circulation is higher. The magnitude of this difference is substantial - a 10% drop in food production is associated with a 1% increase in public food distribution in states that are at the median in terms of newspaper circulation per capita, whereas for states that are in the 75th percentile in terms of newspaper circulation per capita, the same drop was associated with a 2.28% increase in public food distribution. These findings are consistent with the authors' theories that a given shock will be responded to more by an incumbent when media is more highly developed.

For further specificity the authors also consider newspaper circulation when disaggregated by language - an important consideration given India's linguistic diversity. The authors have data on newspapers published in 19 different languages, and they believe that it is more likely that newspapers published in languages that are state specific will report localized events and that the readership will be composed of local vulnerable populations (who are typically less likely to read English of Hindi). Thus these papers may have greater influence on state level politicians."¹³

Of course, it is not the local language newspapers per se that are the reason. It is what they represent. They ensure widespread knowledge sharing. They act as forums for debate and dialogue. They become a locus for organisation. Friends, family and local fora are prompted to discuss and debate. The centre-point for influence and "power" is changed. Accountability is increased. Policy developments become subject to critique, review and engagement.

Accurate Knowledge

Power of Information: Evidence from a Newspaper Campaign to Reduce Capture¹⁴
"We examine an unusual policy experiment - an information campaign in Uganda aimed at reducing the capture of public funds by providing schools (parents) with information to monitor local officials’ handling of a large school-grant programme. In the mid-1990s, a public expenditure tracking survey (PETS) revealed that for every dollar spent by the central government, the schools received only 20 cents on average (Reinikka and Svensson 2004).

As evidence of the degree of local capture became known, the central government enacted a series of policy changes. Specifically, it began to publish data on monthly transfers of capitation grants to local governments (districts) in newspapers. We use a repeat PETS to study the effects of increased public access to information as a tool to reduce capture and corruption.

The raw data suggest a large improvement. In 2001, schools received 80 percent on average of their annual entitlements. We first examine outcomes across schools with and without access to newspapers. Intuitively, schools with access to newspapers have been more extensively exposed to the information campaign. The difference-in-differences estimates show that while the degree of capture was similar in the groups with and without access to newspapers in mid-1990s, the more extensively treated schools suffered significantly less from local capture in 2001."¹⁵

What is key here is the dynamic that was sparked. With widely circulated, known and understood knowledge about what communities should receive in terms of funding from government, those local communities can organise. Principals, community groups, parents, local media, teachers and pupils could discuss, debate and organise. It is that process that produced the changes required.

Space

Reducing Violence by Transforming Neighborhoods: A Natural Experiment in Medellín, Colombia¹⁶
"The intervention was associated with significant declines in neighborhood violence: The drop in homicide between 2003 and 2008 was 66% times higher in intervention neighborhoods than in control neighborhoods, while the corresponding drop in reports of violent events was 74% higher in intervention neighborhoods. Residents of intervention neighborhoods also experienced more growth in willingness to rely on the police and perceptions of collective efficacy, although these effects were marginally significant (the latter only in a 1-sided test).

Although our study was not designed to investigate the mechanisms that produced the observed drops in violence, one account that is consistent with the pattern of changes we observed is that by improving public spaces and creating new institutions, the intervention provided more opportunities for neighbors to interact, develop trust, and become willing to intervene when the social order was threatened (5, 6). It also appears that relations between citizens and police improved in intervention neighborhoods, which could increase the efficacy of law enforcement in fighting violence and further deter would-be violent offenders.

Our study illustrates how the benefits of place-based interventions can diffuse beyond their intended areas of impact. The government's principal motivation for bringing effective public transportation to remote areas of Medellín was to improve residents’ access to jobs and attract new businesses to impoverished neighborhoods. Reducing levels of violence, generating more collective efficacy, and increasing reliance on police appear to be downstream benefits of the dynamics set in place by the investment in public works. Another recent study provides a similar example by showing how the installation of a light rail transit system in North Carolina was associated with declining obesity and increasing physical activity in the affected areas."¹⁷

Creation of space is a key element – some would say the central essence – of communication. The prime driving force for transforming Medellín into a comparatively safe, economically advancing and educated city is a set of public policies built around open public spaces, transparent public processes, the culture of citizenship, high quality education for all and striking symbolism including [you need to stick with me here] cable cars, library parks, bridges, budget control and a botanical garden!¹⁸ There is still much to be done, but huge amounts have been achieved. Communication is at the centre.

Engagement

The Effect of Sesame Street around the World: A Meta-Analysis from 15 Countries¹⁹
"Researchers found an overall effect size of 0.29. This translates into an 11.6 percentile gain (in terms of education). That is, an average child who does not watch Sesame Street is at the 50th percentile, whereas a child who watches is at the 62nd percentile.

Moderation by methodological features:

• Effects by outcome category: There were significant positive effects for each of the 3 outcome categories: d [unbiased estimate of the average effect size] = .189 for social attitudes, d= .284 for cognitive outcomes, and d = .339 for learning about the world.
• Effects by country income: 82% of whole-sample effect size estimates came from studies conducted in low- and middle-income countries. The average effect size from these countries was significant and positive (d = .293). Most effect size estimates from low- and middle-income countries came from experimental or quasi-experimental studies (74%).
• Effects by sample SES (socio-economic status): There were 9 studies in which researchers explicitly reported sampling children exclusively from low-SES populations. Overall, the effect of exposure to Sesame Street in low-SES samples was positive and significant (d = .413)."²⁰

Entertainment-education is a key social communication process. It engages first, has to resonate to be effective, supports multiple "voices" and facilitates those different views, opinions and ideas to interact for conversation and dialogue. Through that scale and engagement, it builds networks – including, in this case, an early child development network and movement - and infuses accurate information into that dynamic. And the data show the impact.

Networks

We have already mentioned the CADRE research, but it is well worth a reprise:

Behaviour and Communication Change in Reducing HIV: Is Uganda Unique?²¹

"In Uganda, HIV prevalence declined from 21% to 9.8% from 1991-98, there was a reduction in non-regular sexual partners by 65%, and greater levels of communication about AIDS and people with AIDS through social networks, unlike the comparison countries. There is evidence of a basic population level response initiated at community level, to avoid risk, reduce risk behaviours and care for people with AIDS. The basic elements - a continuum of communication, behaviour change and care – were integrated at community level. They were also strongly supported by distinctive Ugandan policies from the 1980s. We identify a similar, early behaviour and communication response in other situations where HIV has declined: Thailand, Zambia and the US Gay community.

When you go to the villages in south east Uganda first affected by AIDS, they tell you the basic elements of their response: communication, behaviour change and care (Low-Beer & Stoneburner, 2003). It is in these villages that the Ugandan "success" began. The community response always preceded and exceeded interventions delivered to them and in Uganda was distinctively built on by national policy. The quality of their response is now receiving considerable prominence, and stands in contrast to many other approaches which arrived in Africa later and from outside.

Nevertheless, similar characteristics are present in community responses in Africa, Asia and USA, and even in fragmented signs of HIV declines in other African cities. Only in a few situations has this behaviour and communication process been recognized, mobilised and built on by HIV prevention policy. Where this has occurred, HIV prevention success has been greater than biomedical approaches or methods introduced from outside. It represents a social vaccine for HIV from Africa, and available now."²²

The key element here was social networks. They were locally developed and nationally connected. They brought local voices to the fore and were conversation-, dialogue- and debate-focused. There was agreement around both required programmatic and policy responses.

Conversation

"Across the sample, the proportion of households where only one (male or female) respondent reported missed children in past SIAs [supplementary immunisation activities] (24.6%) was considerably higher than those where both (male and female) so reported (8.7%). The difference is magnified when we disaggregate by state and sector of residence. In urban Sokoto and rural Kano, the proportion of households where either male or female reported missed children was high (27.2% and 25.4% respectively). The proportion of households in which both male and female reported missed children was lower in both cases, but also markedly different in scale (21.2% for urban Sokoto and 7.97% for rural Kano). In urban Sokoto, almost three-quarters of households reporting missed children are ones in which male and female caregivers both know that eligible children were neglected. In rural Kano, this falls to around a third.

We found a similar effect for 'propensity to refuse' OPV [oral polio vaccine]. Urban Sokoto and rural Kano have the highest rates of potential OPV refusal, taking either the male or female response (34.98% and 32.25% respectively). Male and female respondents jointly agree on the prospect of OPV refusal in around a third of households in urban Sokoto, but in rural Kano that figure falls to one in 13 households.

High levels of agreement between male and female caregivers on the intention to refuse OPV (such as we find in urban Sokoto) may indicate a more conscious, hence arguably more entrenched, form of resistance to vaccination. Conversely, low levels of agreement (as in rural Kano) may indicate households in which there is either poor communication or genuine difference of opinion on the matter. In both cases, understanding more about gender dynamics and refusal risk (both for OPV and for wider immunisation services) may be helpful in shaping programme strategies that build stronger intra-household alignment on health as a priority issue".²³

There is no more vertical programme in the world than polio. And most perceive that it is a programme totally dependent on a vaccine. The vaccine cures all. As we saw above, that is not the case. Social communication is vitally important. Within that social conversation, communication is the key to progress.

Sebastian Taylor (declaration: supported by The Communication Initiative) studied the dynamics that impact on how households make health decisions in northern Nigeria. There was a particular interest in polio, but the study itself looked very broadly at overall health decision-making dynamics in households.

One of the major findings is highlighted above. In essence, the higher the level of agreement between the male head of household and the "senior wife", then the greater likelihood of their child or children (or the child or children of other wives) being vaccinated against polio - less "resistance" either overt ("no") or covert (e.g., child "not available" or "missing"). The children in the households in which those conversations took place had higher vaccination rates.

¹² https://www.jstor.org/stable/4132482?origin=JSTOR-pdf&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
¹³ http://www.comminit.com/global/content/political-economy-government-responsiveness
¹⁴ http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2004/03/26/000012009_20040326142036/Rendered/PDF/WPS3239.pdf [PDF]
¹⁵ http://www.comminit.com/global/content/power-information-evidence-newspaper-campaign-reduce-capture
¹⁶ http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/04/01/aje.kwr428.full
¹⁷ http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/04/01/aje.kwr428.full
¹⁸ http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/node/274811
¹⁹ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0193397313000026
²⁰ http://www.comminit.com/global/content/effect-sesame-street-around-world-meta-analysis-15-countries
²¹ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/16085906.2003.9626555
²² https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/16085906.2003.9626555
²³ PERCEPTIONS OF INFLUENCE: Understanding Attitudes to Polio Vaccination and Immunisation in Northern Nigeria [PDF] - http://www.comminit.com/files/perceptionsofinfluence.pdf

The next section in this paper is STRATEGY AND RESOURCE ALLOCATIONS....What does this all add up to?.

The previous section in this paper is PRINCIPLES FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES.

Editor's note: Above is an excerpt from Warren Feek's paper "SOCIAL SHAKES - rethinking the core principles for principled and effective development action".

The full table of contents for this paper can be accessed at the bottom of the opening page.