"Strengthening capacities in communication for development (C4D) and health communication is critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and other global health and development goals. This chapter presents case studies of recent initiatives undertaken by the United Nations Children´s Fu
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nd (UNICEF) to demonstrate how the organization has evolved a multi-prong and multi-level approach to capacity development. The authors review key capacity development concepts and approaches in the literature and analyze UNICEF’s efforts using a capacity development framework developed for the health sector by Crisp, Swerissen and Duckett (2011) to classify the different approaches of capacity development used by UNICEF and understand the measurement areas to assess their progress. The chapter concludes with a reflection on lessons learned from UNICEF’s experience that the authors hope will be of relevance to other institutions and a set of recommendations for policy and practice related to capacity development for C4D and health communication." (Abstract)
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"At UNICEF, the Technology for Development (T4D) function within the Information and Communication Technology Division (ICTD) provides advisory, implementation and quality assurance services to programmes on technology and digital innovation in UNICEF, and leadership on digital innovation. It helps
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to identify the most promising technologies and digital innovations for application in different contexts, supporting UNICEF programmes to adopt, adapt and scale up the approaches that are most useful, and to quickly identify those that are not. It also helps to institutionalize those technologies and digital innovations that show promise and are ready to be mainstreamed, in close collaboration with national partners, and in support of national goals and sectoral priorities, the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2018–2021 and the SDGs.
In the first three years of the Strategic Plan, ICTD has had a powerful impact on scaling digital innovation and accelerating results for children across the organization. To date, more than 1,400 T4D and innovation initiatives have been catalogued through INVENT – the global Technology for Development and Innovations Inventory – which provides a view of the universe of T4D initiatives by Strategic Plan Goal Area, Stage and Scale. These initiatives span UNICEF programmes across the world and address children’s health, nutrition, education, protection, access to water, sanitation and hygiene, and inclusion.
In health, nutrition and early childhood development, UNICEF has harnessed the power of ICT to support countries to ensure that every child survives and thrives. That means bringing together a multi-sectoral team to use technology, digital innovation and human-centred design to strengthen health systems and the health system enabling environment. For example, in Pakistan, UNICEF has supported the government to use real-time monitoring to strengthen immunization services. The use of the opensource technology, RapidPro, enabled service delivery that helped providers vaccinate more than 37 million children against measles in 2018, according to government reports." (Executive summary)
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"This paper provides an overview of the communication practices that UN agencies working on the migration response in Italy have adopted in their work with newly arrived unaccompanied migrant children. These include IOM, UNICEF and UNHCR. The aim is to present the different objectives and methodolog
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ies of each agency s intervention under an overall framework. This is built both around the agencies respective areas of technical expertise and their commitment towards the principles expounded in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which are applied here in the context of refugee and migrant foreign minors. Recommendations on how to strengthen these practices are offered." (Abstract)
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"This report examines the myriad ways that the agencies and bodies of the United Nations support the development of healthy media systems. Author Bill Orme highlights the role of four UN organizations in particular—UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, and DPO—and makes recommendations targeted to these agencie
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s, as well as to UN member states and donors. The UN should promote greater coordination among the UN agencies active in the media sector, following on the successes from the UN Action Plan for the Safety of Journalists. UNESCO and UNDP, in particular, have untapped synergies in this field. In post-conflict states, the UN’s mandate should explicitly include support for public access to information and the protection of journalists and independent media in those countries. In their support for 2030 Agenda implementation, member states should prioritize a broader and freer flow of public information on both the national and global levels on progress toward every 17 SDGs and their 169 associated targets. Bilateral and multilateral development programs should help accelerate the implementation of the SDG 16.10 (which commits all UN members to “protect fundamental freedoms,” including press freedom) by supporting voluntary national assessments of the status and effectiveness of access-to-information laws and the overall enabling environment for independent media." (Key findings)
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"This publication presents the basics of researching, planning, monitoring and evaluating Communication for Development (C4D) interventions, and offers guidance on how such interventions can be used to address violence against children (VAC). It covers the stages of the C4D programme cycle, emphasiz
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ing the role of research and strategic planning in achieving results." (Overview, page 6)
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"International development stakeholders harness communication with two broad purposes: to do good, via communication for development and media assistance, and to communicate do-gooding, via public relations and information. This book unpacks various ways in which different efforts to do good are com
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bined with attempts to look good, be it in the eyes of donor constituencies at large, or among more specific audiences, such as journalists or intra-agency decision-makers. Development communication studies have tended to focus primarily on interventions aimed at doing good among recipients, at the expense of examining the extent to which promotion and reputation management are elements of those practices. This book establishes the importance of interrogating the tensions generated by overlapping uses of communication to do good and to look good within international development cooperation." (Publisher description)
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"The following report summarizes how UNICEF and its partners have utilized Communication for Development strategies in their work during the period of UNICEF’s Strategic Plan 2014-2017, with an emphasis on 2017. The report captures the impact of these accomplishments on children and the communitie
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s where they live. The report also reflects the tapestry of different facets of C4D – ranging from ensuring rights to sharing information, expression and participation to fostering behaviour change, promoting caregiving practices and abandoning harmful practices to achieving empowered communities and social movements that demand polices and protection – which all have the common aim of strengthening the ability to influence individuals, communities, institutions and policies in favor of development, gender equality and fulfilment of the rights of children and their families." (Foreword, page 5)
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"The author bases her analysis on five years of fieldwork in the conflict zones of Mindanao, the Philippines, where child protection is of critical importance. She works with the Nonviolent Peaceforce, which specializes in Unarmed Civilian Protection in close cooperation with the United Nations and
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UNICEF to report and respond to Child Protection issues in Mindanao and the surrounding islands. In the field, she sought to implement the humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality among the parties to the various conflicts. She established an active presence, and gained access to remote conflict-affected areas. Such work seeks to document and ultimately protect children, civilians and internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are suffering as a result of the armed conflicts. This chapter offers a close examination of UNICEF's communication and media strategies, as well as behind-the-scenes advocacy and in-person contact under difficult physical conditions and terrain." (Introduction to part 6, page 306)
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"The Advocacy Toolkit provides a broadly accepted definition of advocacy and underscores UNICEF’s unique position and experience in advocacy. The heart of the Toolkit provides detailed steps, guidance and tools for developing and implementing an advocacy strategy. The Toolkit also outlines eight f
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oundational areas that can help strengthen an office’s capacity for advocacy, and covers several crosscutting aspects of advocacy including monitoring and evaluating advocacy, managing knowledge in advocacy, managing risks in advocacy, building relationships and securing partnerships for advocacy, and working with children and young people in advocacy. Special focuses examine a variety of specific topics, including human rights and equity approaches to advocacy, theories of change, and conducting advocacy in humanitarian situations." (About the Advocacy Toolkit, page iv)
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"This book includes 17 articles on the current state of communication for development from renowned communication practitioners and scholars. It covers five areas: an introduction to the relationship between development, participation and communication; the theoretical underpinnings of development c
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ommunication; the development communication strategies of international institutions like UNESCO, FAO and UNICEF; concrete experiences in HIV/AIDS communication and the concepts behind; and case studies on community media and media projects in conflict areas. The special value of this book is that the project examples are not just presented in a descriptive manner, but analyzed in detail according to the underlying communication concepts. In addition, various contributions trace the history of participatory communication approaches to development. This is a revised and updated version of a 2003 UNESCO publication called Approaches to Development: Studies on Communication for Development." (CAMECO Update 4-2008)
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"UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Region (EAPR) projects on young people's participation in the media to date have focused on teaching young people new media skills, educating them about child rights issues, encouraging them to have an opinion on issues facing them and their communities and creating a p
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latform for them to "speak out" and have their voices heard through radio, print and television media. The most visible and successful programs would appear to be the ones that incorporate the ideals of "genuine and effective" participation. That is, they create an environment whereby young people are involved in every step of the process from planning to production to evaluation. The main challenges ahead facing "genuine and effective" participation in the media are: getting adults to "let go", creating an environment at school, home and in the community where young people's participation in the media is encouraged and taken seriously and generating enough funds for a sustainable and successful projects. To overcome these challenges more promotion and education on young people's participation in the media and elsewhere is needed to create a more enabling environment." (Executive summary, pages 4-5)
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