The role of social media in development
Why should development organisations care about social media? Rosie Parkyn looks at social media’s potential to enhance development outcomes in the Global South and how this stacks up against the...
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Five questions our data portal can help answer
There's a lack of data on what ordinary people think, feel and want in developing countries. Our new Data Portal aims to help fix that. Sonia Whitehead runs through five questions the portal can help...
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Health communication changes lives by reaching millions
To mark the launch of our Global Health Stories site, Sophia Wilkinson explains how health communication can make a big difference at scale – for less than the cost of a can of coke per person. “But...
View ArticleDesign thinking and health communication: learning from failure
What do you do when your audience is difficult to reach, tough to keep engaged and doesn’t understand concepts you take for granted? Priyanka Dutt offers some words of advice from her team’s...
View ArticleUsing social ties to make pregnancy safer: insights from Bangladesh and Ethiopia
Following the launch of our Global Health Stories site, Emebet Wuhib-Mutungi explains how influencing mothers-in-law and husbands can help improve the health of mothers and their babies. Over 800...
View Article3 negatives and 3 positives from World Press Freedom Day
Given the troubling global backdrop, World Press Freedom Day arguably needed a name change in 2017. Marked annually by a gathering organised by UNESCO, this year’s ‘celebration’ in Jakarta may not...
View ArticleThree ways of communicating to stop disasters happening
This past March, Peru was hit by devastating floods. Media reports led with death tolls and declarations of states of emergency. People volunteered their help on Facebook and offered refuge in their...
View ArticleThe art of designing surveys about social norms: insights from Ethiopia
How we view our role and relationships within our communities shapes how we behave – with important consequences for development. When widespread, these views constitute ‘social norms’, which people...
View ArticleHealth partnerships in the Global South: more than a marriage of convenience
We use the word ‘partnership’ a lot in the development world. At a global level, we’re all ‘partners’ – a giant family of policymakers, donors, practitioners, academics and companies working together...
View ArticleHow can communication help stop teenagers dying?
While the election of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as the next director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has been accompanied by some controversy, I’ve been heartened by one of his top...
View ArticleThe case for adaptive programming
I don’t like results frameworks. Most demand that you specify exactly what you will do, where, when, and how many times, in order to achieve specified objectives that contribute to overarching...
View ArticleTell me a story: narratives, behaviour change and neuroscience
“Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.” – Native American proverb I recently spent the day in a San Diego...
View ArticleThe rise of edutainment: taking stock of the evidence
Around the world, growing numbers of people have more and more access to endless distractions. Global smartphone ownership is on the rise. Between 2014 and 2015 alone, the number of Nigerians going...
View ArticleLet’s talk about sex: using radio to educate teenagers in Bangladesh
Our world is home to 1.8 billion young people. The majority of these 10 to 24-year-olds live in Asia, with 48 million alone growing up in Bangladesh. And many of these young people are having sex....
View ArticleMotivating ordinary Bangladeshis to respond to extreme weather
This post was originally published on the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) blog. Droughts. Cyclones. Floods. There are few places where such extraordinary events are as...
View ArticleLook beyond numbers: we need to know why change happens
Working in the development sector I am aware that, particularly over the last few years, donors and others expect project results to be quantifiable. Numbers talk. This was apparent at the UN World...
View ArticleSix steps towards a more open media
On the International Day of Democracy, James Deane sets out six ways in which a resurgent public interest media can help improve accountability and foster transparency. Strategies being used to...
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What the development sector can learn from audience segmentation
In the not-for-profit sector we’ve already learned a lot from marketing techniques developed in the commercial world. The best known example is probably the use of social marketing to encourage people...
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Using human-centred design to achieve your goals
This blog was originally posted on India Development Review (IDR’s) Practice blog One can’t talk about design without quoting Steve Jobs. “Design is a funny word," he said, "Some people think design...
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How we attracted women to our shows
As a child and throughout my teenage years in northern Nigeria, I saw men in our neighbourhood shopping for the food needed by the family. To my young mind, this was fascinating, and I thought “how...
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