April-June 2015
Editorial
To combat the challenges of the twenty-first century there is no alternative of using state-of-the-art approaches to effective communication process. When appropriate and effective communication process is followed to achieve a specific goal, there is more possibility of success in any activity. In this regard, importance of strategic communication is immense. BCCP has been working in different social development sectors to bring a positive change through strategic communication process. The programs of BCCP that has been remarked in the current issue of Sangjog testify this.
The contents and expansion of Sangjog may be short but the depth of contents, thoughts and ideas are extensive. Our aim is to extend this thought and ideas to the readers of Sangjog.
Best wishes.
Future Search Conference under CACPV held
Community Action for Child Protection from Violence (CACPV) is a European Commission supported project. In this program, BCCP is facilitating community people’s participation in strengthening through the use of social awareness campaign and multi-faceted communication activities to protect children from violence. This program is expected to play an important role in protecting children from violence. In this connection, a Future Search Conference was held on May 28, 2015 at USEP Bangladesh in Dhaka.
Government Officials, representatives of non-government development organizations, School teachers, parents, members of School Managing Committee, Children, religious leaders, civil society and journalists participated in the conference. The plan of CACPV and possible programs and issues of Violence against Children (VAC) Forum were discussed in the conference. The 32-member VAC Forum was created with the representatives of different stakeholders.
Mr. Md. Sayduzzaman Pathan, National Program Coordinator, CACPV Project, FPAB; Mr. Dr. Md. Shahidul Alam, Deputy Director, BCCP and Team Leader of CACPV; and Ms. Dr. Selina Husna Banu, Associate Professor, Neuroscience Unit, Institute of Child Health (ICH) and Shishu Sasthya Foundation (SSF) Hospital spoke in the conference. All the speakers urged to obey social and civic resposibilities for protecting children from violence. Mr. Badal Haldar, Manager (Training) and Mr. Sanjit Kumar Sarkar, Program Officer, on behalf of BCCP, facilitated the conference.
CCP Partners with Bangladesh Forest Department under CRPARP
BCCP has recently signed a new contract with the Bangladesh Forest Department for conducting awareness campaign and developing web-based system to disseminate information on reducing forest degradation and building the long-term resilience of selected coastal and hilly communities to climate change under the ‘Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project (CRPARP). The CRPARP is being jointly implemented by the Bangladesh Forest Department, Ministry of Environment and Forest and Arannayak Foundation with technical support from the World Bank.
The project activities are aligned firmly with the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, and the ensuing Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund, which aims to manage climate change to ensure that citizens are protected from the climate induced adverse impacts. The project is comprised of four components complementing each other which are: Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Program; Alternative Livelihoods to Support to Forest Communities; Capacity Development for Forest Resource Planning and Management; Project Management.
BCCP is specifically responsible for creating awareness, engaging behavior change communication and enhancing knowledge of the targeted as well as the general stakeholders on improving participatory forest management and to reduce the deforestation
The project includes nine coastal districts of Bangladesh. These are: Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong, Noakhali, Laxmipur, Feni, Barisal, Patuakhali, Barguna and Bhola.
Flyer on e-GP Tendering Guideline
Focusing on public expenditure on procurement, Public Procurement Reform Project (PPRP-II, 2nd revised) aims to improve performance of the public procurement system progressively in Bangladesh. At present the project is being implemented by the central procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of Ministry of Planning with funding from the World Bank. Under Public Procurement Reform Project (PPRP-II, 2nd revised), BCCP has again been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting social awareness campaign and communication about on-going public procurements reforms, including Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP).
In this continuation, BCCP has developed a flyer on Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) as user guide titled Road to e-GP: Registration and Tendering with guidance of World Bank and CPTU. To further strengthen the stakeholders’ knowledge, awareness and understanding of e-GP, this flyer contains detail information on e-GP registration and tendering system. This flyer will be distributed among the procuring entities and tenderers and other stakeholders through campaign activities, trainings, workshops, meetings etc.
The field testing of BCC activity monitoring tools completed
Though both the Directorate General of Family Planning and Directorate General of Health Services of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have various established systems for monitoring and reporting different service delivery data, there is no standard system in place for Social Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) activity monitoring. In this backdrop, a Checklist as a SBCC Monitoring Tool was developed and field tested with the Technical Assistance of BKMI project. The tool was developed to monitor field level BCC activities of BHE, IPHN and IEM units. This tool was finalized through a series of meetings and discussion; and was piloted in two upazilas. The tool was used experimentally at field level of Sadar Upazila of Munshiganj and Shibalay Upazila of Manikganj district from July 2014 to January 2015. After the tool had been field tested for six months to see the effectiveness of it, the activities were wrapped up in March 2015.
Five BCC indicators identified for monitoring which were Home visit, Counseling, Courtyard Meeting, Mass Media Campaign & Advocacy and those were incorporated in the checklist.
While field testing it was observed that both the District and upazila managers welcomed the process as they believed that the BCC activity monitoring initiative would ultimately help focus their other ‘important’ activities, which so far were not being reported properly. In a word, positive attitude and awareness regarding the importance of monitoring BCC activities were found.
Several key BCC indicators from the checklist are already incorporated into central MIS system of DGFP. To continue BCC activities properly, there are planning for result sharing meeting of piloting activities with key stakeholders and one-to-one meeting with key person of DGFP and DGHS.
A Media Dialogue held under NHSDP project
More collaboration between the media and health related NGOs can improve the country’s healthcare status, particularly of women and children, said journalists and health experts in a media dialogue.
A media dialogue on Journalism in Essential Healthcare Services was held on April 23, 2015 at The Daily Star Centre. This media dialogue was organized by NGO Health Service Delivery Project (NHSDP) with assistance of USAID and DFID. The representatives of USAID and NHSDP and selected representatives of local NGOs and Surjer Hashi Clinics including 30 journalists of different print and electronic media were present in this occasion.
NHSDP is a five-year program that provides essential healthcare services through its Surjer Hashi Network of 26 local NGOs, 392 static clinics, 10,186 satellite clinics and 7,348 community providers across Bangladesh. The media dialogue also informed that 24 million poor people are provided essential healthcare through this project which include family planning, nutrition, maternal newborn, child health services and basic healthcare.
“The media must play an influential role in promoting availability of essential healthcare services to all Bangladeshis, especially in underserved communities” said Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, editor of the Daily Manab Zamin as a Chairperson of media dialogue.
Journalists at the event said they needed capacity building on health issues, while the NGO officials need to be skilled in communicating with the media. It is mentioned that BCCP has provided technical support for organizing the media dialogue.
A Symposium on online course for the Healthcare Professionals held
The Bangladesh Center for Communication Program (BCCP) organized the 1st symposium to promote an online course titled “Learning from the Experts: an Online Healthcare Professionals Course” of the Institute of Global Tobacco Control (IGTC) on April 29, 2015 in collaboration with the Bangladesh University of Health Sciences (BUHS). The symposium was held at the Auditorium of BUHS, Dhaka.
Prior to the symposium, the event was extensively advertised in different universities, medical colleges and hospitals in Dhaka through promotional posters. Besides three laptop computers with internet connections were set for on-the-spot enrollment to the online course. More than 100 students from different medical, nursing, dental and pharmacy colleges; the principals and deans from those colleges; students of Master of Public Health; and employees of hospitals and clinics attended the symposium.
Professor Liaquat Ali, Vice Chancellor, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences attended the opening program of the symposium. He appreciated BCCP-IGTC’s initiative to organize such an event in order to sensitize the healthcare professionals about their roles in tobacco control. He also expressed his interest to further collaborate with BCCP-IGTC to include the online course into the BUHS’s course curriculum and to motivate University Grant Commission to form Accreditation Council to introduce CME credit for this online course in Bangladesh.
After a brief opening, two presentations were made in the symposium. The first presentation on “Tobacco Epidemic and Its Health Effects” was made by Professor MSA Mansur Ahmed, Department of Community Medicine, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences. The second presentation was on “Role of Healthcare Professionals” by Dr. Nazrul Haque, Team Leader, JHSPH-BCCP Tobacco Control Project.
Mr. Mohammad Shamimul Islam, Deputy Team Leader, JHSPH-BCCP Tobacco Control Project made the final presentation explaining the overview of the course. He then took the participants through online course showing them how to enroll and complete it. Afterwards an interactive Q/A session was held.
The participants, especially the students of medical and public health departments were very enthusiastic about the course and around 20 participants enrolled on-site for the online course. Other participants expressed their desire to enroll for the course as soon as they return home.
The symposium concluded with a vote of thanks by Professor Khurshida Khanom, Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, BUHS. The event was anchored by Kazi Rumana Ahmed, Associate Professor of Health Promotion and Health Education department of BUHS.