Talking points for the
CABE/C4D/GEP 3 workshop April 2019
developed
By
Noel A. Ihebuzor, FSSD
- What is C4D?
- Fefer to processes, strategies, materials and activities conceived and executed to catalyze, galvanize, spur, support development efforts in a given polity
- Is context sensitive and culture informed and incorporates elements of semiotics, marketing, journalism, sociology, psychology, metrics, monitoring and evaluation and business management.
- Grew out of initial beginnings in audiovisual aids and then to IEC, through BCC and to full grown C4D
- C4D is integrated and Deals with both the supply and demand side of development planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation
Excerpt from Unicef
Communication for Development (C4D) is one of the most empowering ways of improving health, nutrition and other key social outcomes for children and their families.
In UNICEF, C4D is defined as a systematic, planned and evidence-based strategic process to promote positive and measurable individual behaviour and social change that is an integral part of development programmes, policy advocacy and humanitarian work.
C4D uses dialogue and consultation with, and participation of children, their families and communities. It privileges local contexts and relies on a mix of communication tools, channels and approaches. C4D is not public relations or corporate communications.
C4D seeks to accelerate achievement of key results in UNICEF’s Medium-term Strategic Plan (MTSP) for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by:
| Increasing knowledge and awarenessImproving and building new skillsMaintaining and increasing demand for products and servicesImproving the performance of service providers Changing individual behaviors and collective practicesInfluencing attitudes, social norms and power relationshipsEnhancing self-esteem and promoting self-efficacyChanging national and local policies and legislation |
- Basic education needs C4D but according to the consultant C4D is under-represented in education unlike in medicine
- And Education?
- Education is core to development
- Education confers so many benefits
- The unplanned benefits are known as externalities
- Externalities include increased earning ability, poverty reduction, break in intergenerational transmission of poverty, drop in fertility, rise in literacy etc
- EDUCATION at both global and local levels is characterized by issues of gender based, social class related and location induced disparities
- Too many kids of the poor are out of school for a host of reasons
- Too many kids in rural areas are out of school – economics, culture, patriarchy, male child preference, parental poverty, ignorance, superstition, religious zeal?
- Key issues in education are ACCESS, QUALITY & ACCOUNTABILITY
- Access issues include limited number in schools OOSCI, absence of school space, low NER and GER, NAR, plus the distance that drive these – fees, distance to school, safety issues
- Quality issues deal with instructional materials and teacher factors in school including teacher training, teacher numbers, and time spent on teaching, curriculum, methods and methodology and a host of CFS related issues
- Accountability challenges relate to general governance issues, stakeholder engagement, school supervision, duty bearer failures – eg not mobilizing communities, not creating awareness, poor service delivery, rights holders not asking for their rights, the externalizing of responsibilities, ignorance, weakness, sloppiness, failures in attendance monitoring, teacher management and general incentives,
- The general theory on which the study is designed around is that all of these are amenable to improvement through C4D
- Is the pitch for Integrating Koranic schools a red herring? What of quality issues involved?
- Study also looks at the mapping of current C4D interventions and suggests how synergies can be achieved through better stakeholder coordination and dialogue
Reflections 