"Kilkari is the largest direct-to-beneficiary mobile communication programme in the world and has reached over 10 million women and their families across 13 states in India. Our study is the first randomised controlled trial conducted to date of a
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beneficiary mobile communication programme at scale. Exposure to Kilkari was significantly associated with improvements in a few important health practices, including the use of reversible contraceptive methods, but not others, including exclusive breast feeding. Subgroup analyses highlight the differential impact among key population segments, including the poorest." (Page 2)
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"This report summarises learnings from BBC Media Action’s landscaping study of the gendered dimensions of social media access and use in India. It addresses 10 questions that have implications for designing digital solutions for women’s empowerment in India." (Page 2)
"There has been exponential growth in the numbers of ‘digital development’ programmes seeking to leverage technology to solve systemic challenges. However, despite promising results and a shift from pilots to scale-ups, many have failed to real
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ise their full potential. This paper reflects on lessons learnt from scaling and transitioning one of the largest mobile health programmes in the world to the Indian government. The complementary suite of services was designed by BBC Media Action to strengthen families’ reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health behaviours. Mobile Academy was a training course to refresh frontline health workers’ (FLHWs) knowledge and improve their interpersonal communication skills. Mobile Kunji was a job aid to support FLHWs’ interactions with families. Kilkari delivered weekly audio information to families’ phones to reinforce FLHWs’ counselling. As of April 2019, when Mobile Academy and Kilkari were transitioned to the government, 206 000 FLHWs had graduated and Kilkari had reached 10 million subscribers. Lessons learnt include the following: (1) private sector business models are challenging in low-resource settings; (2) you may pilot ‘apples’ but scale ‘oranges’; (3) trade-offs are required between ideal solution design and affordability; (4) programme components should be reassessed before scaling; (5) operational viability at scale is a prerequisite for sustainability; (6) consider the true cost of open-source software; (7) taking informed consent in low-resource settings is challenging; (8) big data offer promise, but social norms and SIM change constrain use; (9) successful government engagements require significant capacity; (10) define governance structures and roadmaps up front." (Abstract)
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"The results of this review clarify that increasing women’s digital literacy depends not just on digital skills training, but on increasing their digital access and use. This is not a simple, linear process, and not just
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a case of distributing devices and data plans to women. There are several conditions that need to be in place, and they need to be in place in tandem. Creating women-led environments and peer networks, for example, are key ingredients of success. But these approaches can only go so far to drive women’s digital adoption if the digital literacy training fails to use appropriate technology, or does not overcome women’s time constraints. In a way, creating the perfect conditions for success is akin to a jigsaw puzzle: while some parts of the puzzle may be in place, it seems all the puzzle pieces are required to make an effective whole." (Conclusions)
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"A concise edition of the highly acclaimed Oxford Companion to the Book, this book features the 51 articles from the Companion plus 3 brand new chapters in one affordable volume. The 54 chapters introduce readers to the fascinating world of book hi
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story. Including 21 thematic studies on topics such as writing systems, the ancient and the medieval book, and the economics of print, as well as 33 regional and national histories of 'the book', offering a truly global survey of the book around the world, the Oxford History of the Book is the most comprehensive work of its kind. The three new articles, specially commissioned for this spin-off, cover censorship, copyright and intellectual property, and book history in the Caribbean and Bermuda." (Publisher description)
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"With its rapidly expanding penetration within the developing world, mobile telephony offers major new opportunities to build upon and augment existing health communication efforts. As Usha Kiran Tarigopula of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation India Programmes put it: “It is increasingly… clea
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r that mobiles are an important platform and can be a game changer.” This does not mean that mobile phones are a panacea. There isn’t – nor should there be – a one-size-fits-all approach to health communication. Indeed, a growing body of research indicates the value of a more integrated strategy, one that employs mobile platforms alongside interpersonal communication, community-based activities and mass media. But when mHealth is embedded in a programme design that is equitable, highly-targeted and at scale, it has the potential to enable cost-effective solutions for reaching marginalised populations, many of whom lack access to essential health information and services. This policy briefing has demonstrated how this is possible by examining one particular set of mHealth services in the Indian state of Bihar." (Conclusion, page 19)
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"This survey and report is the result of a pilot project and survey of the reading interests and information use of South African children and young adults. It was carried out in primary and secondary schools in Pretoria, and provides insight into
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children and young adult's reading interests and information usage. The project surveyed a representative sample of over two thousand learners in the age group 10 to 16 of South African learners from Grades 5 to 10 by means of a detailed questionnaire. The survey focuses on identifying why and how young people in South Africa choose books (and other texts such as comics and magazines), as understanding this process may help those involved in writing, publishing and providing texts, from comics to novels and electronic publications. The survey also tried to find ways of identifying what kind of material is most suitable for different types of readers. It was one of the goals of the study to provide a better understanding of the relationship between reading and attitudes to a range of topical social issues such as AIDS and pregnancy; to examine the ways in which children and young adults encounter and choose what to read; to provide information about the reading habits and information usage of children and young adults of different age, sex, class, ethnic background, geographical location and educational sector; and to study the influence and effect on reading of new media such as electronic texts." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 2187)
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"This is a booklet with expenences of drama and theatre practices in Western Kenya. Practices that have in common that they were — in one way or another— aiming at development at a “grassroo
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ts” level. Something else they have in common is that these expenences are only known by a limited number of people. Performers are mostly concerned about the now-and-how and not so much about recording their expenences [...] The overall aim of this booklet is to expose the potential of drama/theatre as a learning rnedium, a working rnethod and a cornmurncation tool. This could inform grassroots NGOs, educationalists, drama teachers, theatre workers, animators, youth groups, community leaders, development organizations and policy makers." (Introduction, page 5)
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