Radio Broadcasting for Health: A Decision Maker's Guide

Executive summary

This paper provides an overview of the role radio broadcasting can play in promoting better health for poor people. It has been conceptualised within the context of global efforts to reduce the burden of disease and ill health on poor people and advocates a people-centred and rights-based approach to health communications that emphasises:

• working with poor communities to gain an understanding of the full range of epidemiological, behavioural and risk taking factors that drive disease and ill health;
• designing communication initiatives that build on such interactions and which integrate social assessment data into
  communication outputs at all levels;
• multi-method approaches, i.e. a mix of interpersonal (peer education, counselling, etc.) and advocacy-based approaches combined with mass and community-based media interventions;
• community driven and led interventions that help the 'vulnerable' and 'at risk' to access useful and useable health information and build knowledge for social and behavioural change;
• poor people's rights to information, freedom of expression and access to health services and education;

DFID supports the creation of enabling environments in which radio - especially at community and national level - can flourish. It recognises the importance and popularity of technologies such as radio and supports the production of broadcast material relating to health and human development more broadly (Myers 1998; Slater et al 2002)



Radio broadcasting at community, national and international level contributes to improved health outcomes for poor people
in a number of ways. Through:

• the stimulation of community dialogue and national debate;
• the provision of public information and specialised training about health risks and disease prevention;
• stimulating positive social and behavioural change, increasing community tolerance and decreasing levels of stigmatisation and discrimination;

Further, this paper contextualises the relevance of radio as a strategic tool of human development and poverty reduction and examines its use by poor people. It addresses a range of issues from the role of formative research and evaluation, the
development of health messages, to a range of format options widely used in health broadcasting. It also examines the
community, public and international radio sectors and in the process highlights a range of opportunities and constraints that these sectors face.

Likewise, it highlights key synergies and linkages that could be enhanced to improve access to health information for radio
producers, the poor, the 'at risk' and the vulnerable. In doing so, this paper raises a number of critical questions. For example:

• how can ministries of health, non-government organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) be supported to become better providers of health information to, amongst others, radio broadcasters?
• what capacity needs to be built, especially at community and national levels, to enhance health broadcasting? For example, do broadcasters feel confident in adapting the health information that they acquire from a range of diverse sources for broadcast?
• how can radio be used to mobilise communities towards social action? For example, to claim their rights to relevant health services and voice their needs?
• is the community radio sector the most appropriate mechanism for strengthening both community voice and dialogue on health? What opportunities and constraints face the sector?
• what role does national public broadcasting play in contributing to better health for poor people? Can it maintain a public service ethic in the face of competition from community and commercial broadcasters? How can it best be supported to fulfil a public service role?
• what are the opportunities and implications for the radio sector of the broader availability of new information communication technologies? How can Internet and e-mail best be used to support better health broadcasting? Will radio, as a medium of the poor, remain relevant in the South?