Programs and Activities of Population Media Center

Programs and Activities of Population Media Center

November 2011

In its first decade, Population Media Center (PMC) has initiated projects in Brazil, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, nine island nations of the Eastern Caribbean, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Mexico, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, the United States and Vietnam. PMC has new projects in development in Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Uganda. In 2007, PMC was recognized by the Population Institute with a Global Media Award for having the Best Electronic Communications Service for its entertainment-education television and radio dramas, featuring family planning, gender equality, and reproductive health issues. In 2009, PMC won third place in the Peter F. Drucker Awards for Nonprofit Innovation. Following is detailed information about PMC’s work.

As of August 2011, Population Media Center has been funded by the UN Population Fund (UNPA) to develop two 156-episode radio serial dramas for promotion of family planning use. One of the programs will be in the Mooré language and one will be in Djoula.

In Burkina Faso, the barriers to use of modern methods of contraception are largely informational and cultural.  Among sexually active, fertile women in union, the top reasons for non-use are the desire for more children (18%); personal, partner, or religious opposition (17%); fear of health effects (10%); and not knowing a method or a source (10%).  Cost is cited by only 2.5%, and lack of access is cited by only 0.7%.

The annual population growth rate in Burkina Faso is 3.4 per cent, which means that the population is doubling every 20 years.  The total fertility rate is the 8^th highest in the world at 6.0 children per woman.  The majority of the population is young: 46% of the population is under the age of 15.  Population growth and population dynamics are important challenges that must be addressed in order to reduce poverty.

Childbearing begins early in Burkina Faso: almost half of all women in union less than 20 years of age have already given birth to at least one living child. The actual fertility rate closely follows the desired family size for women: Married women interviewed during the 2003 Demographic and Health Survey in Burkina Faso said they would like to have about six children on average. Married men would like seven children.

Although knowledge of contraceptive methods in Burkina Faso is high (92% of those interviewed know at least one modern method) only 13% of married women are currently using a modern method of contraception.

In June 2010, Population Media Center began broadcasting its sixth radio serial drama, Mieraf (“New Beginning”) in Amharic. The program, which ran through June 2011, was funded by UNICEF and addressed rural health care, including family planning, and the role of the 30,000 health extension workers serving rural communities. The program was designed to model positive health care and client rights to information on their health status. In addition, starting in October 2010, PMC began broadcasting a magazine style program, Finot (“The Right Road), focused on the Health Extension Program of Ethiopia. The program carried interviews with health extension workers and neighborhood health officers and gave listeners information on various health issues.

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  The first workshop was “The Role of Journalists and Media Practitioners to Address Violence against Women in Ethiopia.”
  
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  Workshop 2 was for women leaders of all regions.
  
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  Workshop 3 was for youth leaders from all regions.
  
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  Workshop 4 was for law enforcement bodies from all regions.
  
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  Workshop 5 was for senior writers of all regions.
  

For several years, PMC-Ethiopia has also worked in partnership with Save the Children-Norway (with funds from the Norwegian government) and the Oak Foundation to produce a social-content radio serial drama project, along with continuing production of a radio talk show for youth; production of various print materials on reproductive health; and capacity building programs for journalists, playwrights, religious leaders, women leaders, youth associations, and reproductive health professionals. In addition, the project included specialized activities for Ethiopia’s Afar and Somali Regions addressing female genital mutilation (FGM). The project includes extensive monitoring and evaluation. It was written up by Women’s E-News as being highly effective at stopping the practice of FGM.

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  Listeners were 5.4 times more likely than nonlisteners to know at least 3 or more family planning methods. (Adjusted odds ratio with p<.00001 controlling for age and education).
  
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  Among married women in the Amhara region who were listeners, there was a 55 percentage point increase in those who had ever used family planning methods, while among non-listeners, the change was only 24 percentage points. A similar increase occurred among male listeners in the Amhara region.
  
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  Among married women in the Amhara region who were listeners, current use of modern family planning methods went from 14% to 40% among listeners vs. 25% among non-listeners.
  
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  Listeners sought HIV tests at 2.5 times the rate of non-listeners*.
  
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  Among married women who know of a method of family planning, spousal communication about family planning issues climbed from 33% to 66%.*
  

*These findings remained significant after running statistical controls for all significant socioeconomic and demographic variables.

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  Listeners were 3.2 times more likely to know about STIs than non-listeners.
  
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  Listeners were 2.5 times more likely to discuss issues relating to HIV/AIDS than non-listeners.
  
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  Listeners were 1.8 times more likely to take measures to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS infection than non-listeners.
  
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  Listeners were 3.2 times more likely to know about voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) than non-listeners.
  
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  Listeners were 1.4 times more likely to be tested for HIV/AIDS than non-listeners.
  

This same project involved production of a talk radio program aimed at youth. The program, Alegnta, began in October 2005, with youth-led panel discussions with experts. The Alegnta project also involves production of print materials for youth on reproductive and sexual health issues. A total of five booklets have been published and distributed in 32,000 copies each, along with four leaflets distributed in 40,000 copies each.

The West African country of Mali has among the highest fertility rates in the world (6.6, according to the 2006 Demographic and Health Survey). The DHS showed that only 6.9% of married women currently use modern methods of contraception. The top reasons for non-use included: personal opposition to family planning (22.1%), wanting as many children as possible (17.6%), male opposition (9.0%), and not knowing a method (8.6%). Among non-users, 33.7% say they intend to use contraception in the future, while 54.5% do not.

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  Listeners were 2.6 times more likely than nonlisteners to know at least two methods of contraception. (Adjusted odds ratio with p<.0001 controlling for age, sex, education, and urban/rural location).
  

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  Listeners were 2.6 times more likely than nonlisteners to know one or more places to obtain a method of contraception. (Adjusted odds ratio with p<.0001 controlling for age, sex, and education).
  

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  Listeners were 1.5 times more likely than nonlisteners to say “yes” when asked if they have “ever used a contraceptive method.” (Adjusted odds ratio with p=.0032 controlling for age, sex, and education).
  

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  Listeners were 1.8 times more likely than nonlisteners to say they “currently use something to delay or avoid pregnancy.” (Adjusted odds ratio with p=.00121 controlling for age, education, marital status, and urban/rural location).
  

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  Listeners were 3.4 times more likely than nonlisteners to say they “approve of using contraceptive methods.” (Adjusted odds ratio with p=.0005 controlling for age, sex, marital status, education and urban/rural location).
  

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  Listeners were 2.1 times more likely than nonlisteners to say that the “health of the mother” is the reason they approve of using contraceptive methods. (Adjusted odds ratio with p<.0001 controlling for sex and education).
  

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  Listeners were 2.1 times more likely than nonlisteners to say they “discussed birth spacing with their spouse/partner in the last 12 months.” (Adjusted odds ratio with p<.0001 controlling for sex, education, marital status, and urban/rural location).
  

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  Respondents who were not using contraception at the time of the survey were asked if they “intend to adopt a method of contraception in the future.” Results show that listeners were 1.5 times more likely than nonlisteners to say “yes.” (Adjusted odds ratio with p=.0123 controlling for age, sex, and education).
  

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  Listeners were 1.8 times more likely than nonlisteners to say they “favor equality between the sexes.” (Adjusted odds ratio with p<.0001 controlling for age, sex, education, and urban/rural location).
  

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  Listeners were 1.8 times more likely than nonlisteners to believe AIDS is a fatal disease. (Adjusted odds ratio with p<.0001 controlling for sex and urban/rural location).
  

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  Listeners were 2.4 times more likely than nonlisteners to say they “approve of condom use as a means to prevent AIDS.” (Adjusted odds ratio with p=.0008 controlling for sex, education, marital status, and urban/rural location).
  

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  Listeners were 1.7 times more likely than nonlisteners to say “yes” when asked if they will “use a condom in the future.” (Adjusted odds ratio with p=.0125 controlling for age, sex, education, and marital status).
  

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  Listeners were 1.8 times more likely than nonlisteners to say “yes” when asked if they “discussed HIV/AIDS with anyone in the last 12 months.”(Adjusted odds ratio with p<.0001 controlling for sex, education, and marital status).
  

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  Listeners were 1.7 times more likely than nonlisteners to say that “people with disabilities have a right to prosthetics.” (Adjusted odds ratio with p<.0001 controlling for sex, education, marital status, and urban/rural location).
  

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  Listeners were 1.9 times more likely than nonlisteners to know of a source of information for people with disabilities. (Adjusted odds ratio with p=.0003 controlling for age, education, and urban/rural location).
  

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  Listeners were 3.3 times more likely than nonlisteners to have spoken with someone they know about rights of people with disabilities. (Adjusted odds ratio with p<.0001 controlling for age, sex, and education).
  

Previously, in West Africa, PMC produced a radio serial drama to address issues of child slavery and the link between this problem and poverty-inducing factors, such as unwanted pregnancy and HIV/AIDS. Formative research was completed, and training was conducted for the producer and writers in June 2004. The radio serial drama went on the air in November 2004 and was completed in October 2005. The program, Cesiri Tono (“Fruits of Perseverance") was done in partnership with First Voice International, which distributed the program via WorldSpace satellite to 169 community radio stations. These stations then broadcast the program throughout Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso. PMC received a grant from USAID to support this work. The Ashoka Foundation awarded PMC the Changemakers Innovation Award (one of three worldwide) in their global competition for the most creative programs designed to prevent human trafficking.

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  22.4% of respondents listened to the drama.
  
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  Listeners in Mali were half as likely as non-listeners to prioritize educating boys over girls (11% vs. 22%).
  
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  31% of listeners in Mali had discussed exploitative child labor during the period of the program, compared to 17% of non-listeners during the same period.
  
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  The belief that it is acceptable for women to work outside of the home was 53% higher among listeners than it had been at baseline.
  

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  In Burkina Faso, 23% of listeners had taken action against exploitative child labor, compared to 9% of non-listeners.
  
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  96% of listeners could identify at least one place that provides family planning/reproductive health services, compared to 80% of non-listeners.
  

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  43% of listeners in Côte d’Ivoire had discussed children’s rights in the 12 months before the end of the program, while only 25% of non-listeners had discussed children’s rights in the same period.
  
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  32% of listeners knew at least three factors that can lead to child trafficking, compared to 14% of non-listeners.
  

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  Listeners in all three countries were substantially more aware of child trafficking than non-listeners.
  

Thanks to a Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina Faso, Cesiri Tono is now being rebroadcast over six stations nationwide.