| CFSC Consortium Body of Knowledge |
Are you looking for articles, books, essays, journals or reports on communication for development and social change? Is your interest HIV/AIDS, human rights or rural development? No matter what your issue, as long as it deals with communication for social change, you should be able to find useful references in the Body of Knowledge, the CFSC Consortium’s searchable database.
The body of knowledge has more than 3,000 references from around the world now registered. We invite you to consult the database for your use. And we encourage you to submit any reference you consider relevant to helping our database continue to grow. |
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| Inviting Guest Contributors |
Do you know of interesting examples of successful applications of communication for social change principles within your community or country?
Mazi is looking for good case stories of CFSC at work: illustrations of the process of dialogue leading to community decision-making, action, implementation, monitoring, assessment and evaluation. We’re especially interested in examples of how communication processes have been strengthened or established at a community level by people who have been traditionally marginalised.
Help all of us build a better understanding of the many and varied ways that public dialogue leads to community decision-making and action. Describe for us where it takes place and why. Explain how CFSC is working. Inspire us all by telling us your community’s story.
Please e-mail your contribution of at least 250 words to mazi@communicationforsocialchange.org
Please make sure your story includes the CFSC elements: catalyst or catalytic event, problem identification, dialogue, decision-making, community action, monitoring and evaluation, and assessment of change at the individual and societal levels. Include your name, phone number, fax (if available) and email address.
The facts of all submissions will be verified. Once verified, they may be included either in Mazi or on the Consortium’s Web site. |
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| Inviting Artistic Images, Songs, Poetry Showing CFSC In Action |
Mazi invites your original images showing communication for social change in action. Whatever your medium—photography, painting, sketches, mosaics, murals, songs or dances—if you have an image showing people working together to give everyone a voice—we will consider publishing it in our online magazine. Unfortunately, we are unable to return your submission. We also reserve the right to crop and/or edit your work for style and content. Each creator will be credited online for his or her submission.
Please e-mail your contribution to mazi@communicationforsocialchange.org |
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| Please Support Us |
Your tax deductible contribution to the Communication for Social Change Consortium will be used to support our work in a number of areas including HIV and AIDS globally and in Africa and the United States, polio communication, communication for empowerment, case story development and evidence gathering, participatory monitoring and evaluation, publications and research, Body of Knowledge and curriculum development and training.
All contributions made are fully tax deductible in the United States to the full extent of the law. The Consortium is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organisation working throughout the world.
To make a donation online, please click here. Or, contributions can be mailed to: CFSC Consortium, 14 South Orange Avenue, Suite 2F, South Orange, NJ 07079. We can accept bank drafts or cheques in U.S. dollars, British sterling, euros or South African rand.
Thank you for your support. |
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The Complexity of Humanity
Message from Denise Gray-Felder |
| From the rolling hills of Rwanda's countryside to the busy streets of Jamaica's capital, the communication for social change challenges being addressed by the CFSC Consortium are complex and require complex systems thinking. In this letter, Consortium President Denise Gray-Felder reflects on communication for social change and humanity. |
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Future Connect: Social Networking and AIDS Communication
by Pete Cranston and Tim Davies |
| Digital natives, young people aged 15-25, are always connected through online social networking sites and services. It's how they keep in touch with one another about issues important to them. Research shows that social networking technology directly impacts their activities, behaviours and even their sense of identity. The implications for communication for social change and the future of the AIDS pandemic are enormous. The following is an abridged version of a longer research report posted on the Consortium's Web site. We invite Mazi readers to post their comments. |
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aids2031 Examines Long-Wave Phenomena
by Denise Gray-Felder |
| After nearly two years of work, aids2031, a consortium of institutions and individuals who have come together to examine what the world has learned about the AIDS response in its first quarter century, will issue its recommendations by year-end. By taking a close look at the implications of what has worked, what has not worked and what's necessary in the future, aids2031 working groups have focused on the following thematic areas: programmatic response, financing, social drivers, leadership, countries in rapid transition, hyper-endemic countries, science and technology, modelling the epidemic and communication. In addition, initial public dialogues and conversations during a San Francisco kick-off event led to an aids2031 Young Leaders Network that continues to focus worldwide attention on the needs of young people, who are at greatest risk of AIDS. |
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Pushing the Boundaries: New Thinking on How We Evaluate
by Ailish Byrne |
| Evaluation experts today are challenging conventional thinking and coming up with innovative approaches. The Consortium recently has been working with UNAIDS, Panos-London and other organisations to strengthen how we evaluate social change communication programmes and processes. Last May, Ailish Byrne, the Consortium's senior associate for research and evaluation, facilitated a meeting of experts in the field. Here Byrne highlights emerging trends, challenges and concepts that an upcoming publication will detail. |
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| Monitoring and Evaluating U.N.-assisted Communication for Development Programmes by Andrew Puddephatt, et. al. |
| U.N. agencies recognise communication for development is essential to supporting development. In fact, the United Nations has focused on enhancing its understanding of communication for development principles and on embedding those principles in its agencies' structure. Following is a backgrounder, including noteworthy case studies and best practices, for the 11th U.N. Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development, which took place in Washington, D.C., from March 11 to March 13, 2009. |
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Why Uruguay? Proving That Media Reform Is Possible
by Silvio Waisbord |
| Recent events in Uruguay prove that media reform is possible when civil society promotes strategic coalitions and it links up with sympathetic government allies. In the past two years, the country passed laws on community broadcasting, access to public information and national information archiving. This past June, Uruguay's Chamber of Deputies passed a bill to reform its penal code and press law. Silvio Waisbord, assistant professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, originally wrote this piece for the World Bank's blog, "People, Spaces, Deliberation." |
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| Media in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding: An Opportunity for E.U. Leadership by Bernardo Monzani |
| Media often promote violence. Example: the role Radio Télévision Libre des Milles Collines played in spurring the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. But text-messaging and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter actually have the potential to foster peace. Bernardo Monzani, a Europe-based representative of Search for Common Ground, a nongovernmental agency dedicated to transforming the way people deal with conflict, describes how recent events have heated up the discussion of the media's role in the 21st century. This piece originally appeared in the April 2009 edition of the European Union's report Institute for Security Studies. |
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| London’s Africa Gathering Explores Using Technology to Advance the Continent by Karen Merkel and Mazi Editors |
| In London, people are talking about Africa. And technology. While this may not seem unusual to some, bringing technophiles together with African development specialists is creating something of a buzz. Named Africa Gathering, this relaxed, non-industry confab of people who care about Africa and how technology might help move the continent forward, has gathered some steam. |
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| Transforming the Kenyan Dairy Feeding System through a Communication for Social Change Approach by Patrick Papania et al. |
| Scaling up development impact is a constant challenge for people working on development projects. Going beyond "islands of success" and reaching hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries often seems an elusive goal. Patrick Papania, senior communications advisor at the Washington, D.C.-based Academy for Educational Development,(AED) with Zachary Fonner, Sam Bringhurst and Laurence Mach, describes a communication for social change methodology known as SCALETM that successfully scaled up a technology transfer by a leading international research organisation to benefit hundreds of thousands of dairy farmers in Kenya, transforming the nation's small farmer dairy supply chain. |
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Exclusive Special Preview for Mazi Readers
Communication for Social Change Anthology: Historical and Contemporary Readings Excerpts from the English and Spanish Versions |
The Communication for Social Change Anthology is the first-ever collection of historical and contemporary readings on the subject of communication for social change. With 150 contributors from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Pacific Region and North America, this is essential reference for universities and research centres. The anthology—now available in Spanish as well as English—is a practical, comprehensive and definitive guide to the critical role communication plays in helping people make positive changes in their lives and their communities.
To order Spanish version, click here
To order English version, click here
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| DVDs: “Women of Pastapur” and "Voices from the Magdalena" Show Power of Community Media Ownership |
| A new, 27-minute documentary, a DVD directed and photographed by Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron, the Consortium's former managing director of programmes, shows that, when people who are poor own their own media, they have the means to raise their voices as a community, address problems and improve their lives. In the villages around Zaheerabad, an impoverished area in the state of Andhra Proadesh, India, a handful of Dalit women, illiterate and mostly dedicated to farming, took communication into their own hands, using video and radio in their struggle for self-reliance. Achieving local, national and global impact, the community's broadcasts show CFSC in action. Rich in beautiful images, this DVD is a must for anyone seeking to demonstrate the power of local community ownership of media and how they can achieve positive social change. Available now for $10 USD. Special offer: If you order this DVD, along with its companion DVD, "Voices of the Magdalena," the price is $16 USD for both. |
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| Useful Links |
Africa Gathering, sharing ideas for positive change: http://www.africagathering.org/
Aptivate: International IT Development with a focus on Africa. http://www.aptivate.org/
Future Connect: How is social networking influencing the development of self-identity in youth and what are the implications for AIDS prevention? Read this entire research report on the CFSC Consortium web site: www.cfsc.org with future links to aids2031
Cambridge University: Read more about learning, public engagement and knowledge transfer from Cambridge University's Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies. They specialize in applications of technology to learning, public engagement, and knowledge transfer, with a particular focus on the effective production and use of open educational resources, as well as video and audio. Visit: http://www.caret.cam.ac.uk/
ColaLife: http://www.colalife.org/ ColaLife is a campaign to get Coca-Cola to open up its distribution channels in developing countries to save lives, especially children's lives, by carrying much needed social products such as oral rehydration salts and high-dose vitamin A tablets.
Prantakatha: Voices of Margin: This youth group from Kolkata, (Calcutta) India supports a CFSC initiative that promotes media advocacy strengthening among civil society groups. Prantakatha means "voice of margin." (www.prantakatha.org). They aim to help create media spaces for civil society groups within mainstream media, working with a number of regional, national and international humanitarian organisations. They also have anti-child trafficking initiatives as part of their "Discourse on Counter Human Trafficking Communication Programme" for use with community-based organisations working at the India-Bangladesh border.
Kiwanja.net: Run by Ken Banks who has lived and worked in West Africa. http://www.frontlinesms.com/ Frontlines is free software that turns a laptop and a mobile phone into a central communications hub. Once installed, the program enables users to send and receive text messages with large groups of people through mobile phones.
Movirtu: http://www.movirtu.com This is run by Nigel Waller, who works with phone companies across DRC and W.Africa.
The World Bank's Blog: Exploring the interactions among public opinion, governance and the public sphere, "People, Spaces, Deliberation" comprises a broad variety of news, commentary and discussion about a host of development issues, including communication for social change. For more information, including how to sign up for regular updates, visit http://blogs.worldbank.org/publicsphere/
Young Leaders Shaping the Future of AIDS: The aids2031 Web site updates Mazi readers on how young people today are navigating and driving change. Read the blog covering the most recent aids2031 Young Leaders Summit. Follow the Summit on Twitter. Visit: http://www.aids2031.org.
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