Behaviour Change Communication

Open defecation (OD), an age-old practice in India, impacts the health of individuals as well as their communities. To tackle the problem, the Government of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in 2014, aimed at making the country open-defecation free (ODF) by October 2019 by giving more attention to community-based approaches. However, while such approaches have helped solve the sanitation riddle in many countries, curbing OD in India is much more complicated: the root of the problem is a combination of lack of sanitation infrastructure and deep-seated habits. So far, India's sanitation policies have used the top-down approach, focusing on financial assistance for latrine construction. While this is necessary, considering the social determinants at play, the emphasis must be on changing collective behaviour through participatory methods, a component that has been largely absent from past policies on sanitation. Demand-driven approaches must be adopted, keeping in mind their strengths and weaknesses and ensuring equity-focused actions through community-monitored, locally appropriate and culturally sensitive interventions.

Privatizations of health care have changed the functioning and demand of health care system. As today's competitive environment leaves no scope for error, we need to delight our patients, look for new ways to exceed their expectations on continuous basis, with a focus on improvement in technical skills, human skills and to develop cost effective methodologies. To meet challenges, implementation of six sigma is the utmost solution. The concept is still in its nascent stage in Indian health care system. Six sigma is a scientific concept, provides measurement of every activity in the hospital by using various statistical tools. Alternatively delay in discharge of patients was a chronic problem at a leading Indian Hospitals. Good discharge management is vital to ensure patient satisfaction; bed availability for emergency and elective admissions; and quality of patient care remains high. This paper attempts to study six sigma aspects in the discharge process of a corporate hospital.

acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: a. Their words have been re-written but the general information attributed to them has been referenced b. Where their exact words have been used, then their writing has been placed in italics and inside quotation marks, and referenced.

The study was aimed to obtain baseline data on KABP of the community related to water, sanitation and hygiene. The survey population was chosen from four GPs and six municipal wards of Kandi block of Murshidabad (WB). The study was taken up in conjunction with SPADE, a West Bengal based renowned NGO. A sample size of 503 households was considered for this study.  It was conducted from September to December 2011.The result conclusively shows that possession of toilet at home  has a significant association with caste (p<.05) and so do the water treatment. There was not much difference among the APL & BPL card holder in terms toilet possession. Rather populations with exposure to audio visual media are more likely to have toilet at their house. With the increased distance of the water source the sanitation coverage get reduced (p<.05) which again proves that without accessibility of water the sanitation coverage cannot be improved. Water based vector borne disease like Chikunguniya was found strongly associated with poor drainage. Among water borne disease Dysentery was found associated with the presence of toilet at home.    From the overall survey results it reflects that there is a great need for revisiting the Behavioral Change Communication strategy of govt. (Managed to spend only 7% of total allotment in 2011). A community equipped with proper information and education can only adopt hygienic behavior and contribute in operation and management. With 40% of population defecating in open and 8% population unaware about the implications of the unsafe water are more likely to suffer from water borne diseases.  A variety of factors viz. socioeconomic, socio-demographic, pathogenic conditions were taken into consideration. Composite KABP score was calculated in corresponding to different factors. Based on the score several inferences were drawn and suggestions were made.

A B S T R A C T At the core of the knowledge inquiry about behavioural differences is the nature versus nurture debate which has been central to the development of various theories of human personality. The metaphor of a pendulum, swinging back and forth between nature and nurture, has been used to depict the opinion of scholars and practitioners in the social sciences and psychology in this debate. Nature / Nurture debate seeks to proffer answers to the following questions: why do people differ significantly in temperament, approach to challenges and level of intelligence even when they are siblings sharing from the same pool of genes? The debate also seeks to understand why people with different genetic trait behave alike within a group. How does our physical environment affect human behaviour and what role does communication play in the development of human personality? In the context of street children in Nigeria, should we attribute human personality to nature or nurture? These are issues this paper seeks to deconstruct. Methodologically, the paper examines critical theories of human personality and utilises a mix of review of relevant literature, comments and observations to discuss the role of communication in the formation of human personality. It concludes that though nature contributes towards human behaviour and personality, communication, which is the tool that drives socialisation, is central to the development of personality among the street children of Calabar. Thus, if communication can influence personality negatively, then the street children of Calabar have a chance of being rehabilitated through a different kind of communication aimed at behaviour modification.

ILO under its Towards Gender Parity awarded us to operationalize an innovative concept that involved conducting baseline of attitudes, designing behavior change training and communication intervention, and an end-line of control versus intervene groups to establish credibility of visible positive results attained.

The purpose of introducing women-friendly public transportation was to encourage women to step out of their homes into the public sphere, for work and social life. It was believed that by having women-friendly
rather than women-exclusive transportation facilities, the external environment can be made more conducive to women's mobility.

While research was designed by me, the project was led and implemented by Shahzad Bukhari.

Abstract In the context of increasing focus on sustainability and climate change issues, we provide a critical analysis of policy assumptions regarding information provision and its links to behaviour change. We identify a number of barriers to effective communication that must be overcome before behaviour change interventions can be implemented.

High rates of maternal death from unsafe abortion persist in India despite passage of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act in 1971. 1 This relatively liberal law permits a woman to obtain abortion services from a registered medical practitioner at any approved facility for many indications: to save her life, to preserve her physical and mental health, for economic or social reasons, in cases of rape or incest, when fetal impairment has been determined or, for married women, when pregnancy results from contraceptive failure. Amendments to the MTP Act in 2002 and 2003 aimed to expand access to safe abortion services by decentralizing abortion service regulation, including the monitoring of service delivery and the accreditation of private facilities providing first-trimester abortions; the amendments also allowed for delivery of medication abortion drugs by trained providers working in facilities not approved for surgical abortion. Forty years after the passage of the law, many women in India still seek abortion care from unqualified providers and die from unsafe abortion. Of the 6.4 million abortions performed every year in India, an estimated 3.6 million (56%) are unsafe. 3 It is estimated that 8-9% of maternal deaths are due to abortion-related complications, 1 and almost 10,000 abortion-related deaths occur each year in India. 4 Public health facilities are certified to provide abortion services; however, rural women may not use facilities with trained and certified providers because of difficulties reaching facilities 5 or lack of awareness of the legality of abortion or the availability of services and providers. 6,7 On average, there are only 10 certified abortion facilities per one million population in India, 8 and one trained medical doctor per 224,000 rural population. 6 In addition, many women are not aware that abortion is legal and available at government facilities, or do not know which facilities are certified by the government to provide abortion services. It may be possible to improve women's knowledge of and access to legal abortion services through behavior change communication interventions. Behavior change communication interventions have been used in many different areas of public health and with varied populations, 9 and the scale of these interventions ranges from one-toone communication to mass media campaigns. Behavior change communication interventions have successfully been used in India to increase knowledge of contracep-CONTEXT: Although abortion became legal in India in 1971, many women are unaware of the law. Behavior change communication interventions may be an effective way to promote awareness of the law and change knowledge of and perceptions about abortion, particularly in settings in which abortion is stigmatized. METHODS: To evaluate the effectiveness of a behavior change communication intervention to improve women's knowledge about India's abortion law and their perceptions about abortion, a quasi-experimental study was conducted in intervention and comparison districts in Bihar and Jharkhand. Household surveys were administered at baseline in 2008 and at follow-up in 2010 to independent, randomly selected cross-sectional samples of rural married women aged 15-49. Logistic regression difference-in-differences models were used to assess program effectiveness.

Location: Vietnam

What we know: A quarter of children under five years old are stunted in Vietnam; prevalence is higher amongst ethnic minority groups.

What this article adds: Community-based infant and young child feeding (IYCF) support groups were established in a remote northern region of Vietnam from 2012 to 2017 to provide breastfeeding support, complementary feeding support and IYCF information to community members. An impact evaluation was carried out in July 2017 using propensity score matching to compare changes in IYCF knowledge and practices and prevalence of stunting in children under two years old between a group that received the intervention (149 households) versus a control group (227 households) from 37 villages. Findings showed some impact on IYCF knowledge (among mothers and caregivers on breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices), but limited impact on practice (significant impact only for minimum dietary diversity and handwashing) and no impact on stunting or acute malnutrition. In future, the authors propose that similar interventions should be informed by barrier analysis; care groups should be delivered at greater intensity; and multiple channels should be used to delivery social and behaviour change communication interventions (including antenatal clinics and health facilities).

Field Exchange 58, September 2018. p71.
Authors: MM Rana, HV Nguyen, TN Nguyen

Introduction: This study examined the effects of Coronavirus pandemic on remote learning in the Eastern and Northern Regions, Ghana. It also focused on the challenges junior high school students face on remote learning during the lockdown period of the pandemic. Methods: This study employed a descriptive cross-sectional online survey design. The study population comprised of 120 Junior High School students from 10 districts towns and selected via purposive and convenient samplings technique. The instruments used for data collection was a structured questionnaire design from google forms and administered by the researchers. Data collected was analyzed using simple tables with frequencies and percentages, graphs and charts. Results: The study found that majority of the respondents were learning at home and engaged in self-learning. The respondents learn 1-2 hours a day at home and had access to Joy learning television program and lacked access to electronic devices for learning due to lack of money, electricity and internet accessibility. Also, the respondents were challenged with a high workload at home and there was a lack of home learning activities. The study concludes that remote learning is relatively new at the Basic school level and recommends further research into the effectiveness of self-learning under lockdown restriction.

Theatre Arts is a course that many would like to study. It seems as the burden of unemployment weighs more on theatre artistes more than other professionals. But the truth is that while our schools provide us with the requisite skills in the art, they hardly provide us with the necessary competency on how to survive in the business world. This paper explains the business angle of theatre arts, the proposal writing technique for development for undergraduates in Nigeria Universities.

In the context of increasing focus on sustainability and climate change issues, we provide a critical analysis of policy assumptions regarding information provision and its links to behaviour change. We identify a number of barriers to effective communication that must be overcome before behaviour change interventions can be implemented.