Blind Spots and Wasted Effort in Caribbean HIV/AIDS Policy Making: Communication and Behaviour Change

Published in the June 2006 issue of Glocal Times, this article is an attempt to examine the communication strategies for addressing HIV/AIDS through a policy analysis of the National Strategic Plans (NSPs) of Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados, the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) Regional Strategic Framework (RSF), and the PANCAP Regional Plan of Action for the Fight against HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean.

Marjan de Bruin begins by asking the following questions: "What role is envisioned for communication and media in the current policy frameworks? What assumptions lie behind those policies? What frame of reference is used? What strategies are proposed? Do policies reflect realistic expectations about the potential of media in the fight against HIV/AIDS? Does the current media industry present options for partnership? And if not, what are the obstacles?"

De Bruin reviews several Caribbean policies, which identify HIV/AIDS as a "complex development problem" and tend to advocate for a multi-sectoral response. In terms of communication, however, de Bruin notes that the strategies identified tend to be simplistic (e.g.: producing and disseminating information and communication materials [Jamaica] and partnering with the media advertising industry [Trinidad & Tobago]), or, when more complex [Barbados], they are not placed within a coherent or consistent framework.

She then goes on to review the language used in the country-specific and regional plans to describe communication strategies and objectives, finding a narrow interpretation of communication; it is generally equated with the use of media. Several assumptions about media underlie these policies:

• assumption: media is editorial-driven; reality: media is increasingly advertisement-driven
• assumption: media practitioners know how to frame a story to affect the greater good; reality: media practitioners know how to frame a story for the "greatest volume of profitable sales". They may not be aware of potential dangers in social message-creation and may inadvertantly provoke resistance to change, instead of promoting change.
• assumption: human interest stories are good; reality: human interest stories may "contribute to serious misinterpretation of problems. They often focus on individual people, thereby implicitly suggesting that problems are not general but specific aberrations, and that solutions are to be sought at the micro level."

De Bruin concludes that "Current local and regional HIV/AIDS policies - as expressed in National Strategic Plans and the Regional Strategic Framework - do not seem to recognize the complexity of HIV/AIDS as a multi-dimensional reality when designing communication strategies meant to be relevant and efficient. Moreover, they do not appear to recognise the complexity of the communication process, or that communication is more than the simple dissemination of cautionary messages. " All of the policy documents reviewed "mention prevention as one of the key areas for focus, and speak about HIV/AIDS as a multidisciplinary problem. However, at the same time, none of the plans elaborates on the use of communication in prevention: none tries to outline a coherent communications strategy at all levels, across all disciplines and sectors, and including a more diverse cast of actors." She reiterates that media practitioners should not be expected to come up with strategic communication messages for HIV/AIDS prevention. "Commercial marketing - as applied by media companies - and social marketing - as applied by social marketers - will almost always tend to choose different audiences and target groups."