"The paper synthesises findings from quantitative and qualitative data from across African, Asian and Middle Eastern countries. The second section draws on baseline data from Bangladesh, Burma, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Palestinian Territories and Sierra Leone to explore the media and governance contex
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ts in the countries where we work. The third part then summarises what we are learning about who is being reached by BBC Media Action interventions. The fourth section, firstly, reports regression analysis conducted on baseline data from Sierra Leone and midline data from Kenya to build up evidence on the impact of debate and discussion programmes on audiences’ political knowledge and participation. Then findings are presented from a qualitative study assessing how Nigerian drama Story Story is promoting dialogue as a means of reducing conflict. Comparing findings across countries is helping us to learn more about the governance and media contexts in which we work and inform programming. A first glance at key governance outcomes across countries attests to the centrality of country context in shaping how political knowledge, discursive participation, political participation and interest in politics relate to each other. Disaggregating these outcomes by demographic variables underlines the importance of gender in structuring them, with women reporting lower levels of political knowledge and interest in politics, and discussing and participating in politics less than men. However, disaggregating political participation by income reveals less consistent results: in Nigeria and Bangladesh, those with more resources are more likely to participate, whereas in Kenya and Sierra Leone, those with more resources and less likely to participate." (Executive summary)
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"The Gama Cuulu radio serial drama is written and produced in Zambia's Southern Province. It promotes behavior change and service use to prevent HIV transmission. The authors evaluated the effects of Gama Cuulu on intermediate outcomes (e.g., perceived norms), as well as number of sexual partners, c
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ondom use, and HIV testing in the past year among adults between 18 and 49 years of age. The authors used a pretest/posttest assessment with a comparison group design, with Southern Province as the intervention area and Western Province as the comparison area. Approximately 1,500 in-person interviews were conducted in both provinces in 2006 (pretest), 2007, and 2008. Regression models included terms for province, time, and the interaction of the two. Outcomes improved in both provinces (e.g., by 2008, 37.6% of participants in Southern Province and 28.3% participants in Western Province tested for HIV in the past year). Pretest-to-posttest changes in condom use (from 20.2% to 29.4% in Southern Province) and 5 intermediate outcomes were significantly different in the 2 provinces. However, changes in condom use were not associated with listening to Gama Cuulu and changes in other outcomes were similar in both provinces. Weak intervention effects might be attributable to implementation challenges or the saturation of HIV programs in Zambia." (Abstract)
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"Martin Chautari (MC) has been researching various aspects of Nepali media for almost a decade now. In this study, MC’s focus is on one of the major components of the media sector in Nepal, namely, media training, a subject which has so far been neglected by academics and other researchers. In thi
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s study, we focus on various aspects of the current practices of media training in Nepal: institutions involved in media training, training curricula, trainers, trainees, as well as the financial aspects of the training business. Though the research was largely concentrated in the Kathmandu valley (the capital of Nepal) where a majority of the media training providers are located, field research was also carried out in six other urban centers—namely, Nepalgunj and Dhangadi in western Nepal, Butwal and Pokhara in central Nepal, and Dharan and Biratnagar in eastern Nepal (see appendix 3 for a map of Nepal where the field research sites are shown). Hence major cities for media training in all the five development regions of the country were covered in this study. To assess the quality and availability of the media trainings, our research team visited most of the institutions involved in media training in Nepal and interviewed 166 persons in total (see appendices 1 and 2 for lists of the institutions and individuals) between September and November 2009." (Preface, page vi-vii)
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"Training programs of NGOs can help low-income youth effectively adopt ICTs. There is no doubt that acquiring ICT skills in demand in the current market can help these young people find jobs. They face obstacles such as a poor education, lack of ICT skills and the necessary social capital to identif
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y the most attractive ICT positions for their professional development. They also lack support networks for finding jobs or starting businesses. Training in ICT offers socially and economically excluded groups the chance to enter the knowledge-based economy. We wanted to explore whether individuals enrolled in the selected NGO training programs had taken advantage of these opportunities. To this end, we conducted a comparative study among countries to determine whether youth (primarily) ICT training courses had an effect on beneficiaries’ labor participation, in terms of job searches, employment obtained, establishment of a business or improvements to an existing business. For this study, training beneficiaries and NGO staff members were interviewed and surveyed to learn about their perceptions regarding the usefulness of ICT training for employability. We also analyzed how the organizational tools of the NGOs have supported beneficiaries in finding jobs, setting up businesses, or increasing employment opportunities." (Introduction, page 9)
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"Since it was launched in 2000, the Bolivia Country Programme known as TICBolivia has helped over 50,000 people, mainly small farmers, teachers, students, indigenous leaders and local officials, use ICTs to improve their lives and contribute to their country’s development. All the ICT activities g
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enerated under the Country Programme have been developed by and for local people, with support and guidance from IICD and its enabling partners. The strategy has been to give local organisations the tools they need to develop the skills, knowledge and communications infrastructure required to set up a critical mass of locally-owned, sustainable ICT projects and activities in a specific sector such as education or good governance. Today, TICBolivia consists of fifteen projects, a training programme, networking activities, and monitoring and evaluation. The programme is active in three sectors: good governance, education and agricultural livelihoods. Among the participants in the programme are grassroots organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), government bodies, and private companies. By the end of 2004, 86 information access points had been set up throughout the country, 4,400 individuals had been trained in the use of ICT, and a national ICT for development (ICT4D) information network called ‘Red TICBolivia’ was sharing knowledge, working on sector strategies, generating national visibility for the programme and raising awareness of the important role that ICTs play in the nation’s development." (Introduction, page 3-4)
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