Resources - Findings and research papers
Our findings and research papers are snapshots of research and debate in key
areas of health and development communication. They are designed to inform
development practitioners and policy makers and to stimulate critical reflection.
The list below includes our latest findings and research papers:
Findings paper, February 2007
What's culture got to do with HIV and AIDS?
This findings paper examines why the global strategy on HIV and AIDS needs to adopt a cultural approach in which dialogue, participation and empowerment are central.
Download the PDF (8 pages, 1 MB)
Findings paper, October 2006
Treatment literacy: Empowering communities to access AIDS treatment
This findings paper focuses on treatment literacy and the role of communication in ensuing that people, individually and in communities, understand anti-retroviral therapy (ART).The paper, which draws on research from across the world, explores the issues of access, uptake and adherence. It urges that learning from community responses is recognised as important for maximising access and impact of treatment.
Download the PDF (8 pages, 483 KB)
Research paper, October 2006
Universal Access to HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and care: Communication
Challenges
This paper reviews a range of communication approaches that can be used separately or together to increase the effectiveness of communication. It identifies communication challenges inherent in achieving documented international commitments on universal access. It warns that universal access will fail as long as people who are most affected by HIV and AIDS are isolated from their communities through stigma, discrimination, violence, gender inequality, poverty and location.
Download the PDF (14 pages, 123 KB)
Research paper, July 2006
Electronic resources for media on HIV and AIDS
The past two decades have seen the advent of two significant global developments; the spread of HIV and AIDS, and the creation of the Internet. Both of these factors have had a profound effect on many societies, and both are areas of conflict and controversy. Electronic resources offer media workers a wide range of information about HIV and AIDS, but evidence suggests there is a significant gap between the resources provided and what media workers find useful in their local contexts...
Download the PDF (8 pages, 207 KB)
Findings April 2006
Communicating health research: how should evidence affect policy and practice?
Stronger links between researchers, policy makers and practitioners and increased southern research capacity are the keys to relevant evidence being taken up. Recent studies exploring the factors that affect the influence of research on policy suggest there is both the potential to negotiate and communicate more effectively in policy networks, and at the same time address the dominance of policy making processes by powerful elites...
Download the PDF (6
pages,169 KB)
More on communicating
research (What We Do)
Findings, October 2005
Participatory communication in malaria control: why does it matter?
Community level communication can engage the most vulnerable people in strategies to prevent and treat malaria. Current malaria control strategies rely predominantly on individuals and communities to take action to protect and treat themselves. Such strategies will only succeed if there is effective communication and genuine understanding around the causes, symptoms and means of preventing and treating malaria to protect the most vulnerable people.
Download the PDF (6 pages, 142 KB)
Findings, March 2005
What do we do with culture? Engaging culture in development
By engaging cultural processes at all levels, development practitioners
can encourage local initiative and better understand social change. Increasingly
practitioners argue that culture needs to be taken into account in development
work. In particular recent HIV and AIDS communication approaches take social
context and culture more seriously and show that engaging culture can strengthen
development communication programming.
Download the PDF (6 pages, 90 KB)
Findings, July 2004
HIV and AIDS: What about very young children?
The situation of very young children in HIV and AIDS affected communities
is often overlooked. Fifteen percent of orphans in Africa are aged 0-4
and 35 percent are aged 5-9. Recognising the lasting impact of both positive
and negative experiences in early childhood , some early childhood development
organisations are starting to address the impact of HIV and AIDS on children
under eight years old.
Download the PDF (6 pages, 78 KB)
Briefing paper, May 2004
Learning in partnerships: Improving learning between north and south
Learning is integral to a meaningful understanding of 'partnership' in
international development today. Yet it is easy to divorce the concept
of learning from the reality of partner relationships and to feel overwhelmed
by over ambitious aims. This paper highlights some of the fundamental
issues and demystifies the 'learning organisation' to enable development
practitioners to feel more confident about taking simple practical steps
towards becoming better learners in organisations and in partnerships.
Useful to anyone who wants to explore the dynamic of partner relations
and their influence on learning
Download the PDF (12 pages, 450 KB)
March 2003
Learning to share learning: an exploration of methods to improve and share learning
An illustrated literature review which draws on studies in the field of education, pyschology, organisational learning, personal learning, and participatory approaches to explore understanding of good learning practice. It includes over 15 case-studies that demonstrate methodologies and approaches.
Download the PDF (42 pages, 247 KB)
Findings, July 2001
Improving health, fighting poverty: the role of information and communication technology
New information and communication technologies offer potentially powerful tools to improve health, contribute to poverty elimination and speed up the process of human development. But there is a real risk of marginalising poor people and poor countries. Moving from potential to real benefit is a challenge. How can ICT activities foster empowerment rather than lead to new dependencies?
Download the PDF (4 pages, 129 KB)
June 2001
Beyond circles in square boxes: Lessons learned from health communication impact evaluations
This paper looks at the lessons of Healthlink Worldwide's work with partner organisations engaged with the provision of health information and health communication in different developing country settings. It sets the work in a wider context of the issues and trends in monitoring and evaluation practice.
Download the PDF (13 pages, 217 KB)
2000
Networking and communication
This paper explores three questions: Why is networking important for communication? Why is networking important in research? Is networking important in communicating research?
Download the PDF (5 pages, 175 KB)