UNICEF, Osun Govt Uplifts Community For Development To Social Behaviour Change On Child Survival
By Abisola Ariwodola,
United Nations International Children Education Fund UNICEF and Osun state government through the Ministry of Information and Public Enlightenment has uplifted the tool of Community for Development C4D to Social Behaviour Change SBC on Child survival in the state.
The decision was disclosed at a two-day Capacity Building meeting on Cross Sectoral Interventions for Child survival and development in Osun state, organised by Osun state Ministry of Information and Public Enlightenment in Conjunction with UNICEF Lagos Field Office, held at SUBEB Hall, Abere.
The capacity building meeting which has relevant stakeholders drawn across Osun state, was to bridge the gap around human centered design, positive deviance, collective change, behavioural insights and gamification.
In his opening address, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi appreciated every participants for attending the programme.
The Commissioner who spoke through the Programme Director, Mr Raphael Ojo appreciated UNICEF and other relevant agencies for their pragmatic efforts in making sure SBC is sustained, and he charged participants to take the message to various communities so that, development and well-being of children will be achieved.
In their separate goodwill messages, UNICEF representative, Mrs Aderonke Akinola-Akinwole, Comrade Abisola Ariwodola Chairperson Nigeria Women Journalists NAWOJ Osun Chapter, Mrs Odeniran Janet from SUBEB, Damilola Arowolo from Value Reorientation for Community Enhancement, Nigeria, and Iyaloja General of Osun State, Chief Mrs Mary Oyebode, charged participants to take the message of the programme serious and endeavour to share it with all concerned communities in other to jointly promote child development and well-being across the state.
They appreciated UNICEF for their numerous children and women friendly programmes and assured their efforts in serving as ambassador of acceptance of the immunisation programmes in the state.
In her presentation, the UNICEF representative, Mrs Aderonke Akinola-Akinwole, represented by Fatima Shittu Kuranga highlighted the shift from Communication for Development C4D to Social Behaviour Change SBC, which over the years maintained a leading role in deploying strategies and results-based communication for development strategies in advancing the rights of children globally.
She noted that the use of C4D by UNICEF indeed achieved results for children is the eradication of polio in many parts of the world including Nigeria, but to increase participation in immunisation on Measles Rubella and HPV among others, to favour beneficiaries the Social Behaviour Change became a necessary strategy.
Pointing out that knowledge is not enough to change behaviour, she said there is a huge gap between intent and action, where community participation is beyond seeing the community members as beneficiaries only, but added that the SBC will enhance community development and positively influence social behaviour change.
Emphasising on tools used, such as; advocacy, community engagement, social mobilisation, edutainment, etc, she stated that with SBC finding out reasons why people act the way they do; focused on changing the environment and not the people; more people centered interventions, and communities as key actors and not just beneficiaries, etc can be identified.
In his discuss another facilitator, Gideon Adegboye who spoke on how to share C4D success story, using STARL model, pointed out that, when telling a success story in Social and Behaviour Change, the STARL format will help to tell the stories in a simple, clear and organized way.
Mr Adegboye broke down the STARL acronym as Situation, Task, Action, Results and Lessons, while he maintained that the strategy used for the Social Behaviour Change will reflect the results and lessons learnt, and areas of improvement to make mobilisation faster and more effective.
In her second presentation, the UNICEF representative, Fatima Shittu Kuranga spoke on Gamification, positive deviance, collective change and behavioural insights, where she described Gamification as using the logic and techniques of video games to inform the design of programme and or interventions.
She further highlighted the importance of Gamification as motivating participants and encourage loyalty to a brand, programme or process. It is frequently used in marketing and only recently used in social change contexts. E.g. Air Senegal, google maps, etc.
She further highlighted tactics to be adopted, which includes; points, levels and badges, and also gave general tips on activities: and visible contributions to make progress, celebrate milestones, and be generous with recognition, while pointing out that it is important to avoid giving economic or material incentives to motivate people for wrong reasons; avoid a system you cannot sustain – she opined.
She maintained that the immunisation is for the benefit of the children, therefore Social Behaviour Change strategy must be utilised to convince parents/ guardians of children in the vaccination category on acceptability of the vaccines.