Radio programmes can help communities to access useful health information, promote behavioural change and widen access to health services. But what kind of information is useful? How can donors encourage community radio while assisting national broadcasters to fulfil a public service role? Can Internet and email be used to support better health broadcasting?

These and other questions are addressed in a paper from the Department for International Development (DFID) which draws on examples of initiatives using radio to promote better health for poor people.

Radio has reach. It is estimated that in 2001 one in four Africans – 205 million people – had access to a radio. While TV signals are often confined to urban areas most of Africa can be reached by radio transmitters. Comparative analysis of the density of radio and television ownership shows that in extremely poor countries such as Rwanda, for every television set owned there are 101 radio sets. However, the cost of batteries remains a constraint on radio ownership and usage.

A significant expansion of radio-based interventions for health at international, national and community levels has occurred in recent years. Radio is showing it can be a cheap and effective means of providing health information and stimulating both community dialogue and national debate on health policy issues.

Among the initiatives described in this DFID paper are:

• Soweto Community Radio in Gauteng, South Africa addresses a range of health issues from HIV/AIDS awareness to child health: a popular and cheaply produced ‘Lovers Plus Talkback Show’ stimulates public discussion of once-taboo sexual topics.
• Haka-Haki Radio (Radio Face-to-Face) broadcast by Radio Nepal deals with issues such as water rights, hygiene, bonded labour, street children and violence against women.
• The ‘New Home, New Life’ radio soap opera in Afghanistan has provided an information lifeline for millions of isolated Afghans, using drama to introduce discussion of neo-natal tetanus, hygiene, diarrhoea, oral rehydration salts (ORS) and injuries from landmines.
• Radio Candip, broadcasting in seven languages in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has transformed passive listening into dialogue and communication by distributing tape recorders to listeners’ clubs and broadcasting cassettes sent back by listeners.
• Sathi Sanga Maka Kura (‘Chatting with My Best Friend’) overcomes the reluctance of young Nepalis to address HIV/AIDS: stories from real life address issues relating to sex, peer pressure, stigma, relationships and discrimination.
• Kothmale Community Radio, Sri Lanka meets the needs of poor people desperate for information but mistrusting the politicised nature of the country’s national media.

Communicators need to work with communities to understand the epidemiological, behavioural and risk taking factors that drive disease and ill health and design communication products that build on this knowledge.

The authors recommend support for:

• popular radio formats such as soap operas and mini-dramas that support and create community dialogue on health issues
• radio listening clubs and distribution of radios in order to encourage communal listening
• building partnerships between specialist health NGOs, UN bodies and health ministries to develop accessible information
• establishing health information ‘clearinghouses’ or ‘content banks’ for health broadcasting/mass media that can be accessed through Internet or CD-ROM and which contain information, scripts, audio clips and radio production guidance
• training radio station staff in broadcasting for health issues and methods.

Source(s):
‘Radio broadcasting for health: a decision maker’s guide’ by Andrew Skuse, Information and Communication for Development (ICD), Department of International Development, July 2004 Full document.

Funded by: Department for International Development, UK

id21 Research Highlight: 15 June 2005

Further Information:
Andrew Skuse
School of Social Sciences
University of Adelaide
Level 4, 10 Pulteney Street
Adelaide
South Australia 5005
Australia

Tel:   +61 883034285
Fax:  +61 8 83035733
Contact the contributor: andrew.skuse@adelaide.edu.au; andrewskuse@yahoo.com

University of Adelaide, Australia

Fiona Power and Nicola Woods
Information and Communication for Development
Department for International Development
Palace Street
London SW1E 5HE
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7023 1743 / 0286
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7023 0019
Contact the contributor: ICD@dfid.gov.uk

DFID Information and Communication for Development

Other related links:
CIDA's Strategy on Knowledge for Development through Information and Communication Technologies

The power of radio

Pro-poor satellite broadcasting: myth or reality