COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS ON HIV/AIDS: THE

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COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS ON HIV/AIDS THE
SUPERMAN APPROACH?

• Reflection on the theoretical aspects of
  community conversations method
• For the Nordic Network on Media, communication
  and popular culture in Africa seminar
• By Sintayehu Ch. Assefa
• 7 Nov. 2008, Malmø University

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Background

• Community conversations approach, has emerged
  from the work of the Salvation Army (Zambia) and
  Enda Tiers Monde/Sante, (Senegal) in the mid
  1990s, and improved by UNDP in 2001 (Community
  Capacity Enhancement Handbooks, 2004 2005).
• Community conversations facilitated dialogues
• To provide a platform in which people can engage
  in open discussions about sensitive issues like
  HIV/AIDS in their community.
• People are supposed to identify their concerns as
  well as strength and agree where specifically
  they need external support.

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• In Ethiopia- in 2002/03 in two pilot areas in
  Southern part of the country - as an initiative
  of the UNDP in collaboration with the local
  NGOs.
• The evaluation study funded by the same agency
  (UNDP) revealed that the CC method is playing a
  significant role in bringing the intended change
  processes in HIV/AIDS related community attitudes
  and practices (Ayalew Gebere and Yeraswork
  Admissie, 2005).
• Afterwards, the method begun spread widely
  through out the country, especially in Amgara
  regional state.

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• What strikes me to initiate my study?
• The feasibility of the premises of CC method in
  the context of cultural, social, economical and
  political aspects of Ethiopian society in general
  and the Amhara community in particular.
• (Has the CC method really brought/bringing what
  it intends to? How CC method is going on in
  Amhara society? What the practice of CC looks
  like?)

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Some facts about Ethiopian society

• Ethiopian society in general (and the society
  residing in Amhara Regional State in particular)
  are highly conservative, patriarchal and agrarian
  society in which 80 out of the 79 million
  population is living in the rural areas.
• (Zenebe N. Bashaw,?, Central statistical
  Agency of Ethiopia, Feb. 2008)
• Adult literacy rate (ages 15 and older) is
  estimated to 35.9 which put the country 169th
  out of 177 countries world wide.
• (The 2007/2008 UNDP Human Development Report)
• Dictatorial governments of the near past and the
  current one forced the society to be fearful,
  suspicious and not to trust government officials
  and their policies.

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Steps in CC methods

• At the center of this method there are six
  steps to facilitate the community conversations
  sessions
• 1. Relationship building
• 2. Identification concerns
• 3. Exploration of identified concerns
• 4. Decision making and commitment to action
• 5. Implementation
• 6. Reflection and review
• It is assumed that adhering to the six
  systematically arranged processes strictly in CC
  sessions will bring the desired outcome.

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The premises of Community Conversations method

• There are a lot of efforts to integrate and use
  elements of different models and strategies of
  development communication interventions
• Some of the concepts
• Dialogue or Horizontal communication
• Stimulus changes within
• Empowering the grassroots
• The role of people as agents of change
• The need for negotiating skills and partnership

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• The ultimate goal of CC method is to help people
  show transformation in many aspects of their
  life.
• But it is questionable whether the actual CC
  practice has the capacity by itself to help
  communities to transform.
• How the transformation of the community can be
  measured? Or how the characteristics of the
  community transformed by community conversations
  sessions can be manifested?

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• CC method- a magic bullet or superman
  strategy?
• The Community Conversations approach
  promotes human rights principles. Dignity of
  individuals and families are preserved and
  enhanced in an environment that promotes
  compassion, acceptance and accountability, where
  people are free from stigmatization, coercion and
  violence. UNDP has identified a core group of
  human rights principles that are guiding
  responses. The principles include equity,
  equality, non-discrimination, human dignity,
  non-violence, participation, inclusion,
  accountability and responsibility.
• (CC concept paper, 2004 3)
• Too ambitious- the method has given
  responsibilities to solve multiple social,
  cultural, economic and political problems which
  seem difficult to achieve easily.

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• Question remains- whether the actual CC sessions
  can bring such complex socio-economic and
  political responses or not.
• Few CC assessment reports, from countries where
  CC method has implemented so far, have disclosed
  that the method is mainly successful in raising
  awareness (?) and encouraging the participants to
  express themselves.
• Obstacles
• Local people are often too busy running their
  daily business to become involved in
  participatory activities and even questioned the
  value of investing time and effort in a project
• The legitimacy of those who chose to participate
  representing the views of the wider community is
  questionable.
• Communities are often loaded with divisions,
  tensions and conflicts, and certain vulnerable
  groups may be unwilling or even unable to
  participate
• Some communities are already experiencing the so
  called conversation or participation fatigue
  in which facilitators have faced the challenges
  of motivating community members to participate in
  the scheduled sessions
• (Parry Wright, 2003 and Cecilia Strand, July
  2008)

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Main Objectives of my study

• 1. How the theoretical framework and premises of
  Community Conversations method can be explained
  in the context of different development
  communication theories and approaches?
• 2. To what extent the premises and guidelines of
  community conversations method are implemented in
  the process of community conversations sessions
  going on in the Amhara Regional State?

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Research Methodology

• To address the research questions, an unedited
  audio data on the actual CC sessions retrieved
  from Amhara regions radio programs will be
  analyzed using qualitative method supported by
  social constructionist approach.
• Extensive critical review literature will be
  conducted to reflect on the concepts of community
  conversations in the context of development
  communication theories and models, particularly
  from community participation perspective.
• To support the whole analysis process, different
  documents such as UNDPs CC Handbooks, CC concept
  paper, implementation guidelines, facilitators
  manual, annual reports on CC, different
  statistics, etc retrieved from different sources
  and will be consulted.
• I have planned to go to the actual places where
  CC sessions are currently running so as to
  conduct interview, focus group discussion as well
  as observations.