"Examples from Sierra Leone, Uganda, and India show how ‘ignorant public’ framings are used as explanation for vaccine hesitancy through assigned roles for institutions and publics, and the consequences this narrative has for vaccination encounters. These examples are based on ethnographic field
...
work and media analysis carried out before, during, and after outbreaks, of newly introduced vaccines for both human and animal health. Drawing on science communication and development studies, we show how this narrative then positions governmental concern about vaccine hesitancy as being a (largely) imagined issue of public ignorance. We argue that when institutions tasked with strengthening vaccine uptake see public ignorance as the key problem, this can obscure other problems, such as competing interests and experiences, and also minority group treatment. As a result, public governance is rationalised by assigning the ignorance label to certain public groups that stand in contrast to scientific and government expertise, and so accountability for low vaccine uptake is transferred onto the public." (Abstract)
more
"Thailand faces the dual challenge of swiftly navigating the disruptions caused by COVID-19 while also enabling sustainable and inclusive development. To enable inclusive development, Thailand must focus on building resilience and enhancing the productivity of micro, small and medium enterprises (MS
...
MEs), which form the backbone of its economy. Mobile, digital and frontier technologies have a key role to play in this process. Supporting the resilience, growth and profitability of MSMEs and rural communities is therefore critical to meeting Thailand's strategic objective of sustainable and inclusive development. This report explores the role of mobile and frontier technologies in supporting the development, success and resilience of rural MSMEs in Thailand's agriculture and tourism sectors. The adoption of digital technologies can help increase efficiency, improve product/service quality and increase business opportunities, leading to greater productivity, competitiveness and wellbeing." (Executive summary, page 4)
more
"The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which Arab Governments limited freedom of expression and access to information for journalists while they reported on COVID-19-related issues. Design/methodology/approach: Focus group discussions were conducted with 20 journalists from Egypt
...
, Jordan, Libya and Tunisia. Findings: The results of the study indicated that journalists in these countries experience violence in many forms as follows: torture, imprisonment, closure of their websites and censorship of content. In the four countries investigated, the results revealed that there is severe censorship (self-censoring and the governments) of the content presented to the public, an element that is inconsistent with the Arab Constitution, as well as international law, thus violating human rights laws. In addition, governments publish COVID-19 misinformation and at the same time, do little to support an independent media environment. Practical implications: Arab societies are in dire need of freedom of expression and the right to access information to give journalists an opportunity to cover the news during the pandemic. Originality/value: This study is important because it investigates the political changes that occurred after the Arab Spring revolutions in three countries, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya and the freedom of expression and rights is still restricted. In the same way, Jordan is a royal government that is trying to achieve democracy under a dictatorial regime. This study attempts to suggest practical solutions for journalists through various stakeholders by highlighting the importance of access to information and freedom of expression, particularly during the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. These freedoms are critical for journalists to provide health officials with information, improve the efficacy of public health interventions through feedback and prevent the spread of misinformation." (Abstract)
more
"This review was commissioned by CDAC Network to provide a snapshot of the status of Communication, Community Engagement and Accountability (CCEA) in Haiti six months into the earthquake response. The study aims to identify common themes and critical questions that response actors should be asking t
...
o improve sustainable, collective, localised action in CCEA moving forward. Several recommendations are put forward for consideration going forward." (Page 4)
more
"Knowledge sharing in rural agricultural communities is vital to the success of farmers and sustaining high yields. A range of actors in the knowledge landscape participate in knowledge sharing, and with this, a variety of complexities are introduced. In this paper, we report on a set of field visit
...
s, interviews and focus groups in various settings to understand this complex nature of the knowledge landscape. Our study was set within multiple locations within 20 miles North-East of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Our findings highlight the high level of interconnectedness of different actors in the agricultural communities and the complexities involved in establishing trust of information. We report on the importance of fostering successful relationships within the communities and the growing strains of climate change." (Abstract)
more
"This book explores case studies across India, Kenya, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, and global, comparative settings, and asks what positive impact ICT applications (Health Information Systems, Pandemic response systems, Early Warning and Response Systems, Hospital Information System and Smartphone based Ap
...
ps) can have on today’s most pressing challenges. The authors use this lens to discuss a wide range of issues facing communities around the world, including public health and pandemic management; the mitigation of ethnic violence and violence against women; the emergence of an informal economy; and the displacement of refugees. The case studies are analyzed through a wide means-process-ends framework, which is complemented with micro-level observations of people’s experience, such as empowerment, agility and trust within communities. This interplay between the macro framework and micro concepts helps us to understand how and why digital interventions can contribute to positive outcomes, and which stories of hope may inspire other development channels." (Back cover)
more
"The humanitarian Communication, Community Engagement and Accountability (CCEA) coordination structures in Sudan are primarily led by UN agencies with governmental counterparts at the sector level in Khartoum and field sites. These coordination structures have a relatively low level of representatio
...
n of local NGOs, community based organisations (CBOs) and other community and local organisations considering the large number of local entities working at field level. Local organisations are involved in the Sudan Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Network, led by with World Food Programme (WFP) as the Secretariat with support from the PSEA focal point and the Humanitarian Country Team, the Network itself lacks strong linkages with the wider humanitarian coordination and protection forums. The pre-conditions and interests of donors have restricted the capacity of local actors to facilitate and coordinate meaningful CCEA, such as not allocating specific funding for CCEA related activities, and the resulting lack of coordination and availability of information has restricted national NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs) from accessing the humanitarian Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA) system. During the review period up to July 2021 it was found that there could also be an improvement in increasing the level of engagement of media and the private sector for CCEA to share skills and deepen engagement. These media agencies, private sector communication and media companies and organisations outside of the traditional humanitarian space have a great deal of CCEA expertise and despite this, there remains a minimal level of collaboration and linkages between them and the humanitarian system." (Summary, page 6)
more
"This book introduces the potential of gamification and games to solve the great societal and organisational challenges that corporations and public institutions are dealing with today. It is written for innovation professionals, entrepreneurs, game designers, and students who seek to understand and
...
apply the potential of gamification and games in different organisations. The essential insights from this book build on results from the European GAMIFY project: It leverages the knowledge of more than 150 experts we interviewed and the lessons learned from developing games responding to innovation challenges in leading European firms. GAMIFY stands for 'Games as Methods to enhance Innovation and Entrepreneurship'. The project was motivated by the observation that games and gamification have been successfully used to increase productivity within organisations, and in isolated initiatives, also to facilitate the innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) capabilities of organisations." (Preface, page 5)
more
"BBC Media Action’s innovative sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) project - Ma Shet Ne (Don’t be shy!) – was designed to support young people living in Yangon to access quality information and realise their rights. Research findings show that young people are highly engaged with the
...
digital content. They reported learning and becoming more open-minded and confident to talk about SHRH topics." (Page 1)
more
"This electronic publication about smart education strategies for building the resilience of education and training systems in the postpandemic environment provides a framework to develop appropriate policy and strategy in existing and emerging forms of schooling, higher education, technical and voc
...
ational education, and training (TVET), adult education and lifelong learning, including formal, nonformal and informal educational environments. While the discussion takes a historical view, it is also forward-looking and future-oriented. It hopes to contribute to ongoing, evolving conversations and debates on appropriate smart education policy development. The publication reviews the status of smart education policies in 10 countries. It includes 15 case studies within the six policy themes: infrastructure, curriculum and pedagogy, digital education resources and platforms, skills and competencies, governance, management and administration, and partnership. A policy template and a mechanism for monitoring and evaluating smart education policy implementation included in the publication would help the UNESCO Member States adopt smart education policies and strategies." (Back cover)
more
"A survey in Cameroon revealed that journalists are faced with some challenges (such as lack of training and lack of resource persons) in covering environment topics, especially those related to forest and climate change adaptation. In order to address these challenges and contribute to the improvem
...
ent of the journalistic style of reporting topics on forest and climate change adaptation with more scientific knowledge and to create a stronger scientific base of event coverage, pilot capacity-building initiatives were initiated with the specific objectives as follows: (1) training of journalists during workshops; (2) fellowships award for research activities to communication master students; (3) mentoring of senior and junior journalists and (4) open reflection on how to mainstream forests and adaptation to climate change in curricula of communication schools in Central Africa. This last initiative of mainstreaming forests and adaptation to climate change in the school curricula was seen as a possible sustainable way to promote scientific and environmental communication in Central Africa. These activities initiated by CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research) under the framework of CoFCCA project (Congo Basin Forest and Climate Change Adaptation) were pilot initiatives aiming to inspire others on capacity building and research related to scientific and environmental communication in Central Africa." (Abstract)
more
"[...] seven key informant interviews were conducted with humanitarian organizations that have been at the forefront of social listening projects throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we anchored the research in the COVID-19 response, our findings suggest that the uses and impacts of social lis
...
tening are applicable across all elements of humanitarian response besides COVID-19 and even beyond health. The paper is structured around three components: (1) the differences between what organizations are hoping for (expected results) and what they have observed so far (observed results) in relation to the impacts of social listening, (2) the major barriers affecting the utilization of findings derived from social listening, (3) a preliminary brainstorm around recommendations that could mitigate the effects ofthe barriers identified and contribute to a realization of the expected results.
Interviewees expressed expectations for long-term and structural benefits from the ongoing use of social listening findings. The most common expected results include contributions to improved infodemic management that is receptive to community concerns, stronger community engagement, more responsive programming and policy design, and more collaboration between humanitarian and health actors. Our findings suggest that, although some of these structural promises have not yet been realized, significant foundations have been laid. Organizations have observed that social listening findings are already contributing to improvements in RCCE, internal adaptations of program design, growth and acceptance of social listening throughout organizations, and a growing influence on public health policy. Despite these important results, there are still major challenges preventing the realization of social listening as a transformational tool for humanitarian response.
Thirteen major barriers were identified, which exist at every stage of the traditional social listening project workflow. For data collection and analysis, the study found that the qualitative nature of the data, the predominance of a social media-only listening approach without an offline component, a reliance on traditional engagement statistics, limited qualified human resources, and issues around collaboration all hamper the effective use of social listening findings." (Conclusion)
more
"This article focuses on how the construction of ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’ as a social threat is involved in the specific ways in which climate change induced migration is communicated in Western media. It puts a spotlight on a major drawback of climate policies: the failure to make room for t
...
he issue of climate migration. The article explores how a climate justice frame would allow the evolution of conceptual perspectives that are more conducive to safeguarding vulnerable communities’ rights and interests." (Abstract)
more
"This introduction opens a collection of seven articles which investigate how religious communities negotiate demands for physical distance induced by governmental responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in accord with their religious and spiritual aspirations to establish presence and togetherness. Grou
...
nded in ethnography and media analysis, our contributors offer studies on Pentecostal healing, Mormon eschatology, Hindu diasporic rituals, Chinese spirit mediums, the virtual Burning Man festival, Sufi sonic meditations, and televised Shia Muslim mourning. These studies collectively demonstrate that in pandemic rituals (1) Media are reflexive and enchanted; (2) The religious sensorium is sticky and lingers in embodied and mnemonic ways even under new circumstances of mediation; (3) Space and time emerge as modular, transposable, condensed, yet expanding. Ritual innovations can provoke new kinds of mediations, sensory engagements, and temporal-spatial arrangements, while revealing continuities with pre-pandemic cosmologies, theologies, liturgies, and social hierarchies, and relying on memories of previous ritual sensory experiences." (Abstract)
more
"It aims at providing a holistic view of digital transformation in the agriculture sector of 47 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The region’s digital agriculture landscape is assessed through six key themes, namely: infrastructure, digital penetration, policy and regulation, business environment,
...
human capital and agro-innovation. Beyond the analysis of the region against the six focal themes, the report presents both the status-quo and challenges faced by countries in their digital transformation journeys, which can assist policymakers to identify possible areas of intervention to drive the process of agricultural digitalization in the region. It highlights the need to strengthen digital infrastructure for universal connectivity, to connect the unconnected in sub-Saharan Africa and to support the integration of digital technologies to advance digital agricultural transformation." (Foreword)
more
"Drawing on a content analysis of 263 news articles on US development assistance from 2011 to 2020 across three US media outlets, the study investigates the media's performance in covering and representing US development assistance to the public. The analysis reveals that the media focus their cover
...
age of US development assistance based on geopolitical interests and high-profile stories of aid, and fail to critically and comprehensively follow up on them after their announcement. The media dominantly portrayed development assistance in terms of materialistic aid, uncritically justified as “doing good,” while attributing its de-legitimacy to the recipients’ inability and leaving the global North's dysfunctional aid system unquestioned. Such modernistic representation was further supported by the dominance of the Western voice in speaking about what development assistance is and why it matters. To promote better practices for “news about development,” the study suggests that journalism should pay critical attention to the political economy of development communication and adopt a postcolonial communication approach to decenter the hegemonic conventions of journalism grounded in Western experiences." (Abstract)
more
"Key findings: exposure to vaccination information from faith leaders and health facilities was associated with increased likelihood of vaccination uptake; the significant association between exposure to a greater number of immunization information sources and increased likelihood of vaccination upt
...
ake reinforces the need for multiple sources to provide consistent and accurate immunization information to facilitate positive vaccination behavior. Key implications: social and behavior change communication interventions may optimize the promotion of immunization services through multiple information sources such as health facilities and community-based assets including faith leaders and lay community health workers; religion and faith play an important role in how people understand health and make health decisions. In Sierra Leone and other similar settings, interventions to improve uptake of immunization services may be enhanced by proactively engaging faith leaders." (Page 1)
more
"Communicating on climate change is about educating and mobilizing audiences to take action to confront the climate crisis. Everyone can play a part by raising their voice, sharing solutions, and advocating for change – shaped by different experiences, cultural contexts, and underlying values. If
...
you are creating a communications product – such as a video, a podcast, a written article, or a graphic on climate change – keep in mind the following tips to make it a valuable, effective, and reliable piece of content: 1. Use authoritative scientific information; 2. Convey the problem and the solutions; 3. Mobilize action." (https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/communicating-climate-change)
more