Communication for Awareness, Development, Social & Behavioural Change

Communication for Social Change is a process of public and private dialogue through which people themselves define who they are, what they need and how to get what they need in order to improve their own lives. It utilizes dialogue that leads to collective problem identification, decision making and community-based implementation of solutions to development issues. Development communication involves creating mechanisms to broaden public access to information on reforms; strengthening clients’ ability to listen to their constituencies and negotiate with stakeholders; empowering grassroots organizations to achieve a more participatory process; and undertaking communication activities that are grounded in research. Globally, there has been a paradigm shift in recent years from sporadic awareness-raising information, education, and communication (IEC) activities to strategic, evidence-based behaviour change communication (BCC) strategies. It is imperative for project officers and government agencies to continually seek new and better ways to communicate with citizens to encourage positive behaviour change. It is therefore important that communications professionals and other project members are able to design programs based on evidence and analysis; develop interventions and materials systematically and creatively; effectively manage implementation and program monitoring; and use research consistently to monitor, and measure outcomes. This training workshop is carefully designed to impart knowledge on the effective use of various communication resources to engender change and enhance the delivery of essential health services especially to the poor as well as to provide those working in government communications with an update on some of the latest thinking about what drives human behaviour.