EatSafe – Evidence and Action Towards Safe, Nutritious Food Interviews with Social and Behavior Change Communications Media Professionals This EatSafe report presents evidence that will help engage and empower consumers and market actors to better obtain safe nutritious food. It will be used to design and test consumer-centered food safety interventions in informal markets through the EatSafe program. Recommended Citation: Pierce Mill Entertainment and Education 2020. Stories from the Forefront: Interviews with SBCC Media Professionals. A USAID EatSafe Project Report. Acknowledgements: The interviews were conducted and the essay written by Gil Weinreich, with feedback provided by Walker Lambert, Karolina Jasinska de Benavides, Nedra Kline Weinreich, and Eva Monterrosa. This document is produced by Pierce Mill Entertainment & Education as a consortium partner under the EatSafe program led by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). EatSafe is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Its contents are the sole responsibility of Pierce Mill Entertainment & Education and do not necessarily reflect the views of GAIN, USAID, or the U.S. Government. COVER PHOTO: IMPACT(ED) SEPTEMBER 2020 EatSafe – Evidence and Action Towards Safe, Nutritious Food Interviews with Social and Behavior Change Communications Media Professionals TABLE OF CONTENTS ACRONYMS ......................................................................... 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION ............................................................... 4 METHODOLOGY ............................................................... 5 STORIES FROM THE FOREFRONT: Interviews with SBCC Media Professionals .................... 6 The Producer ................................................................ 7 The Executive Director ............................................... 9 The Marketer .............................................................. 11 The Rainmaker ............................................................ 13 The Evaluator .............................................................. 15 The Motivator ............................................................. 17 IMPLICATIONS .................................................................. 19 EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 1 ACRONYMS Below is a list of all acronyms and abbreviations used in the report. CCSI Centre for Communication and Social Impact COVID Coronavirus Disease (2019-nCoV) DIME Development Impact Evaluation Department, World Bank MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology NGO Non-Governmental Organization PMC Population Media Center PSA Public Service Announcement EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 2 PHOTO: AISHATU MADINA MAISHANU FOR PIERCE MILL EXECUTIVE SUMMARY USAID ’S FEED THE FUTURE EATSAFE – Second, human connection is essential for a successful Evidence and Action Toward Safe, storytelling intervention. This connection begins with the Nutritious Food (EatSafe) tests whether the consumer and program staff and in-country media personnel creating the their behaviors and actions can shape informal markets to intervention. SBCC media has unique requirements and adopt better food safety behaviors. The EatSafe project will know-how in media in general (news, entertainment, etc.) explore using a variety of media-based SBCC interventions does not equate with SBCC expertise. This gap can be to reach market vendors and consumers to help change addressed by close working relationships between SBCC attitudes and behaviors around food safety. technical experts and local media personnel. This essay presents stories from top practitioners in The human connection theme continues with the audience. the field of media-based Social and Behavior Change Any successful media-based SBCC program must be rooted Communication (SBCC) worldwide – including executive in learning from the audience about what kinds of stories directors, country directors, producers, and researchers – in would appeal to them and consistently returning to the order to uncover the nuances of program development that audience to refine the productions. It is essential not to rely can guide more effective EatSafe media programs and help on assumptions about an audience, even those that might implement more sustainable programs. seem obvious. At the conclusion of interviews with six professionals with Finally, distribution is critical and should be considered at extensive experience in media-based SBCC, three broad the beginning, in part, through connection with local groups, themes emerged that have practical implications for the associations, and leaders who help get the word out. Their design of not only EatSafe interventions, but also other buy-in can help market the media in effective and cost- interventions seeking to change behavior through media. efficient ways. First, storytelling works and can be an effective tool to influence behavior change, particularly when expert storytellers work closely with behavioral experts. Storytelling can emotionally engage the audience through immersion within the storyline. This emotional engagement, in turn, can help make an audience more receptive to a core food safety message. Stories can also allow the audience to identify with characters and learn from their successes and failures. And when done appropriately, stories can lead to self-efficacy by showing the audience, through the vehicle of a recognizable character, that a behavior or action is doable and can lead to a better outcome. EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 3 PHOTO: AISHATU MADINA MAISHANU FOR PIERCE MILL SS O C I A L A N DB B E H A V I O R CCH A N G E C O M M UCN I C A T I O N INTRODUCTION SBCC is a relatively recent term in the health communication Our approach to this exploration was journalistic in nature field, debuting in the early 2000’s. It evolved from the term and was grounded in Pierce Mill’s Story Sourcing practice. behavior change communication (BCC), which focused only Through Story Sourcing, we seek to uncover scenes and on changing behaviors of individuals. BCC Practitioners situations that are typical of life in the community but that quickly noted that if behavior at the individual-level was to also may include some kind of conflict, theme, or emotion be sustainable and become habitual, other changes in the within them. We look for vivid descriptions of various individual’s spheres of influence, such family, peers, community, situations that the audience has experienced; these are then social and structural factors, were required to support and used as the basis for writing original stories for an SBCC enable individual-level behavior1. Thus, the ‘S’ (social) was media intervention added to BCC so that community mobilization and advocacy would be included along with communication strategies aimed Here, we looked for stories and anecdotes from the global at changing behaviors. Central to SBCC intervention planning community of SBCC media professionals, not to inform the and design is the socio-ecological model (SEM), which is a writing of scripts for a specific media intervention, but to framework used in human development and health promotion2. refine the craft of producing effective SBCC media for EatSafe. The SEM posits that individual-level change is complex and Through our conversations with the field’s top practitioners occurs over a long period of time because it is influenced by we distilled their most important observations about how to multiple factors across multiple levels. The levels of influence succeed in media-based SBCC on the basis of the following are individual level factors (attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, premises: that there is no wisdom without experience, and perceptions, preferences), family and peer networks, that it is easier and cheaper to learn from the mistakes, community (settings and services offered), and the broader challenges, and successes of others than to reinvent the wheel social and structural level (religion, cultural values, social each time. norms, policies, regulations, etc)33. BCC and now SBCC is a label for interventions that rely on the strategic use of communication activities and multiple channels in different socio-ecological levels of influence. The aim of this USAID-funded report is to better understand this process through detailed interviews with top SBCC practitioners throughout the world. This report intends to provide a resource for understanding key practical insights of how to do SBCC media and do it well. 1 https://www.fhi360.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/Module0-Practitioner_2.pdf 2 Glanz K, Rimer BK, Viswanath K, editors. Health behavior and health education: theory, research, and practice. John Wiley & Sons; 2008 Aug 28. 3 McLeroy KR, Bibeau D, Steckler A, Glanz K. An ecological perspective on health promotion programs. Health education quarterly. 1988 Dec;15(4):351-77. EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 4 PHOTO: WALKER LAMBERT FOR PIERCE MILL METHODOLOGY During the summer of 2020, six professionals with extensive The aim of the interviews was to elicit stories and anecdotes experience in media-based SBCC were interviewed to about SBCC media productions. The project team prepared gather novel insights into the craft of producing SBCC media a set of eighteen initial questions that served as a starting programs. point to the interviews and as lead-ins to discovering relevant stories. Questions were tailored prior to each interview to As media-based SBCC programs have been produced around reflect the expertise of the interviewee. In addition, since the the world with numerous goals and in numerous forms, we interviews were done sequentially, the project team reviewed selected interviewees based the following criteria: transcripts on an ongoing basis and identified questions of • geographic diversity of program implementation interest that were still lingering. These questions were then • specific and complementary expertise within SBCC asked of subsequent interviewees or in follow-up emails. media production (program design,production, funding and sustainability, formative research, and evaluation) • willingness (and organizational permission) to speak openly • extensive experience working on SBCC media programming in LMICs The project team identified interviewees based on the above criteria, contacted them by email, and communicated that the interviews were part of the USAID-funded EatSafe project related to food safety, and that EatSafe was ultimately looking to use media to encourage behavior change among food vendors and consumers in select Feed the Future countries. We mentioned the possibility of this report being published for a wider distribution. All interviews were conducted via Zoom video chat. Participants were asked for their permission to record the conversations for purposes of ensuring accuracy. Interviews lasted 1-2 hours. Interviewees also responded to follow up questions via email. EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 5 PHOTO: WALKER LAMBERT FOR PIERCE MILL PHOTO: WALKER LAMBERT FOR PIERCE MILL Interviews with SBCC Media Professionals THE PRODUCER THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THE MARKETER THE RAINMAKER THE EVALUATOR THE MOTIVATOR EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 6 PHOTO: RAJAN PARAJULI THE PRODUCER Stevan Buxt | Freelance, SBCC Film Producer | Cape Town, South Africa “I sometimes lose my cool and I just said: ‘Everyone off set – except the actor, the sound guy and the DOP [director of photography], and the director!” Upset about the lack of a safety protocol there, or at any available alternative film production site, Buxt determined to press on as quickly as possible. His earlier training in development work for groups such as the Red Cross gave him the confidence to adapt and upgrade occupational health and safety standards. He completed the shoot successfully, indoors and outdoors, with no casualties, earning the appellation “Monsoon Man.” But his greatest challenge in Myanmar was not the incessant rain amidst the suffocating tropical heat, nor even his mosquito-infested apartment. It was, as it often is, human relationships. A film crew has to work harmoniously, and it did not help that there was discord between Buxt and one of the senior local crew members. The rain was pouring down, as it did every day during the The Burmese fellow was resistant to learning how to perform his role. He had Yangon television shoot. The program’s producer, Stevan extensive film production background, Buxt, struggled to get all of his scenes shot. His main challenge but in news, yet they were shooting a drama, and this colleague was reluctant was that the 2018 production lasting from May to July to accept Buxt’s authority as producer. coincided neatly with the start of Yangon’s monsoon season, That changed when the two of them yet some number of scenes in this series about drug abuse went out to purchase a few items in the had to be shot outside. In those three months, the Myanmar city. Buxt’s colleague offered to help him find what he needed, apologizing for not capital gets three times the rain that London gets in a year. being conversant in English. Recalls Buxt: “We’re in the city. We were “You basically watch AccuWeather,” with the weather, but faced tougher out. ‘Let us have a beer,’ Buxt said. “We Buxt explains. “You have your outside battles still. Among them, he had to started talking and I said, ‘What music shoot [gear] ready and you watch somehow protect his crew on an unsafe do you like?’ Suddenly, he started to talk AccuWeather by the hour. Then, set. English: ‘Punk music.’ suddenly, if the rain stops, it’s boom: Let us stop now the inside shoot and use “Literally the roof could have come ‘What punk music do you like?’ the sunshine.” down in this place…I walked in and then I see this whole thing is balancing. I am ‘I love the Ramones.’ The South Africa native, who prides just like: There’s rain coming down and himself on shooting all of his projects on there’s rust in the roof. We have got I said, “I’m a big fan of the Ramones.” I said, time and within budget, won that round cables everywhere with electricity! ‘Do you know much about British punk?’ EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 7 PHOTO: STEVAN BRUX ...his greatest challenge in Myanmar was not the incessant rain amidst the suffocating tropical heat, nor even his mosquito-infested apartment. It was, as it often is, human relationships. “He said, ‘No.’ I started talking about The Clash, because I’d actually…managed to interview the late Joe Strummer. There was a sudden connection about music.” Things changed immediately from this point onward. Suddenly, Buxt’s colleague, along with speaking a confident English and showing off his tattoos, began taking instruction in drama production and became a core part of a cohesive team. In retrospect, it was not the influence of alcohol or their common interest in punk rock that broke the ice between them, so much as the simple act of sharing a meal together. “There was just this comfort of enjoying his favorite food and my favorite food. It was not after the beer or whatever, it just started immediately. There was just this comfort of sitting in the rain and breaking bread…Because if you’re able to break the bread, that’s when the barrier moves.” Stevan Buxt is a film/tv producer and media educator with two decades’ experience in international development, innovation, and education. He has run major campaigns globally, including Search for Common Ground, a 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee TV Web Series for Nepal. EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 8 PHOTO: STEVAN BRUX PHOTO: STEVAN BRUX COVER PHOTO: IMPACT(ED) THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PG. 2 PHOTO: AISHATU MADINA MAISHANU FOR PIERCE MILL PG. 3 PHOTO: AISHATU MADINA MAISHANU FOR PIERCE MILL Babafunke Fagbemi | Executive Director | CCSI | Abuja, Nigeria PG. 4 PHOTO: WALKER LAMBERT FOR PIERCE MILL PG. 5 PHOTO: WALKER LAMBERT FOR PIERCE MILL PG. 6 PHOTO: RAJAN PARAJULI PG. 7 PHOTO: STEVAN BRUX PG. 8 PHOTO: STEVAN BRUX PG. 9 PHOTO: THE CENTRE FOR COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL IMPACT PG.11 PHOTO: KATIE MOTA PG.12 PHOTO: KATIE MOTA PG.13 PHOTO: IMPACT(ED) PG.14 PHOTO: IMPACT(ED) PG. 15 PHOTO: VICTOR OROZCO PG. 16 PHOTO: WALKER LAMBERT FOR PIERCE MILL PG. 17 PHOTO: RAJAN PARAJULI PG. 18 PHOTO: RAJAN PARAJULI PG. 19 PHOTO: AISHATU MADINA MAISHANU FOR PIERCE MILL PG. 20 PHOTO: MUSTAPHA MUHAMMAD FOR PIERCE MILL The Centre for Communication and Social Impact (CCSI) vulnerable group of women and children is one of the leading social and behavior change organizations paradoxically required generating a high degree of male involvement. in Africa, and Babafunke Fagbemi has been its executive director since the Nigerian NGO’s inception in 2001. In addition to its “In [Nigeria’s Muslim] north, if you do not get the husband involved, you can highly trained professional staff, the nonprofit makes use of an empower the woman as much as you army of 10,000 volunteers, to convey some sense of the scope of want to. If the husband is not supportive, she is not able to take the action,” this Abujabased organization. Fagbemi says. To facilitate having discussions with a CCSI’s impact is of similar magnitude. “It’s not just the team in Abuja sitting vulnerable target population that does One recently completed evaluation down and deciding that, ‘Oh, yes, we want not normally go out in public, CCSI staff found that more than 400,000 women to work with [an image of someone who and volunteers organized meetings in who would not otherwise have done looks a certain way],’ she says. “Who their residences where the women could so sought out family planning services. determines that? It’s the interactions have these conversations comfortably. What brings this accomplishment into with the audience…We always have view in our lineup of SBCC stories from a consumer-lens perspective and use “We could not expect them to come out the field is the extraordinary degree of human centered design.” to a public place and hold community sophistication with which CCSI designs dialogues and listen to some of the its programs. The NGO applies human-centered video screens or the radio programs design in its recent malaria-education that we had. We had to go into their Fagbemi credits her team’s initiative. The group’s research found that communities.” meticulousness and creativity in crafting pregnant women and children under five messages for CCSI’s successes. were the most vulnerable. Reaching this This was no mere tea break. EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 9 PHOTO: DAVID ALEXANDER Aisiri Adolor, tasked with monitoring and the most impressive feature of the NGO’s things to happen. If the environment is evaluating CCSI’s projects, emphasizes approach to behavior-change intervention not there, why is it not there? Because the extent to which the NGO’s detailed is its emphasis on impacting consumer the money that was supposed to be planning makes the difference between demand. After all, Economics 101 tells us used for that has probably gone into success and failure. that supply rises to meet demand, and somebody’s bank account.” hence fostering a desire for a certain “For every campaign that we do… public good could be a more reliable And the effects of such corruption we make sure it’s guided by science. way to attain it than just lobbying public reverberate, Akioye adds: We usually do formative research…to officials. understand the audience better so that “Those who are visually impaired…don’t we do something that is targeted. This has One more example of the CCSI have a guide dog that can help them go been our principle across all the projects approach: An anti-corruption campaign through our usually congested and traffic- we do.” in which CCSI targeted its messaging to prone streets and roads. They have to find increase demand for essential services for a way to move around using just probably In the malaria education program, that the disabled. a stick, or sometimes a child is holding meant sending in trained volunteers who them. Now the child that is holding them spoke the language – over 300 are spoken cannot go to school, cannot do other in Nigeria – and who were female; having things that he is supposed to do, and is male instructors interact with these ...the most impressive busy holding these people probably to go married women would breach Islamic out and beg in the street.” etiquette. feature of the NGO’s approach to behavior- To address this pressing social problem, But much groundwork was needed CCSI and its partners began with to pave their way. CCSI works with change intervention is its formative research which indicated that “advocates” who first legitimize the many disabled people did not appreciate message with key influencers, or emphasis on impacting that corruption affected them. In order gatekeepers, as Fagbemi calls them. These advocates meet with the husbands in the consumer demand. to build this awareness, CCSI first needed to show how the failure of legislators to places they gather, in a relaxed fashion, in fulfill their promises affected this group’s the evenings, and even at soccer games. health and education. They encouraged Informing the chief of the community and the disabled to make their voices heard getting his endorsement is also key. “The goal of the project from a demand- through formal and informal associations, generation standpoint is to change the and to reach public-policy decision The sensitive issue of family planning mental mindsets of Nigerians around makers through religious and community provides a good example of this. corruption,” Fagbemi says. “For us not to leaders, whose voices are generally strong sit down and think, ‘Oh, corruption has in Nigeria. “The project set up an advocacy core come to stay, there is nothing I can do, group…made up of religious leaders, and it does not affect me.’” “Then, for some of the models that and in the north, that was really key,” say we use for our messages, especially for Fagbemi of a 10-year project in which Public corruption has consequences some of the animation, we make sure CCSI was a partner. “That was the first across society, but it has enormous that the stories are centered around barrier that had to be broken by the implications for disabled persons in a hardships that persons with disability management of the project itself.” country lacking the infrastructure that would actually encounter, just because Western societies take for granted. Some they are disabled,” Fagbemi says. Without The religious leaders felt it would be Nigerian states have no laws mandating CCSI’s understanding of the root of the improper for the campaign’s messaging access to public transportation for the problem, these messages would likely to imply there were economic benefits disabled, and thus public transportation have fallen flat. to family planning but removed their systems that are privately owned have no objections if the campaign emphasized the incentive to help this minority; in other health benefits to the family. instances, laws that exist on the books are not enforced. As the Founding Director of CCSI, Babafunke has “We took that advice, and that really paid had over 25 years of developing, implementing and managing strategic health communication initiatives off,” Fagbemi says. Corruption lies at the root of such in various thematic areas of integrated health and problems, explains CCSI’s senior media social development. She is globally acclaimed as one CCSI’s campaign management is officer Seun Akioye: of the leaders in Africa on Social Behaviour Change exemplary, yet of course every SBCC Communication. She has worked on key health and development projects in Nigeria with Johns Hopkins practitioner understands that cultural “The government has not provided the SuNMaP project, DAI’s PATHS1, Netherlands Leprosy awareness is make or break. So perhaps enabling environment to allow these Relief, and the United Nations Population Fund. EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 10 THE MARKETER Katie Mota | Co-Founder | Wise Entertainment | Los Angeles, CA Katie Mota’s got the same roots as other SBCC media which if you know Hollywood, usually it’s producers. She produced a successful telenovela for millions.” MTV Latin America. She worked extensively in Papua New “We in two days had more viewers than Guinea, Mexico, Brazil and other low- and middle-income Grey’s Anatomy…not on ABC, but on the platform, which was still massive,” countries. Mota continues. “Within a month, we brought in more than a million Latino viewers to their Latino platform. [A But those roots branched out differently, shopping for a distribution partner budget of] less than $100,000 doesn’t because of her determination to that would be convenient for its target buy you that.” transport the same sort of social impact viewers, which the firm found in the objectives she used in international then-new streaming platform, Hulu. Indeed, that is an awful lot of eyeballs for development projects to Hollywood, this such a modest budget. So, what accounts time portraying underrepresented people But there was a trade-off. for this marketing magic? Mota offers or subjects. She and husband Mauricio generous detail. In essence, in the same Mota cofounded Wise Entertainment, “It needed to be a free platform, it way that Babafunke Fagbemi’s CCSI which became a significant new player needed to be digital, something to watch painstakingly procured the endorsement on the Hollywood scene with its path- when and where they wanted...That was of religious leaders and the support of breaking teen drama East Los High, part of the reason we chose to go with husbands before reaching out to their featuring an all-Latino cast. The show Hulu,” Mota recalls. true target audience, pregnant mothers became an overnight sensation – and and their children, in the traditional lasted four seasons, which is a huge “Then because they were in their communities of northern Nigeria, and in accomplishment and contains valuable infancy, there was like zero marketing the same way that Stevan Buxt discovered lessons for SBCC practitioners. dollars. They spent less than $100,000 in that good relationships was the sine In 2013, Wise Entertainment was targeted marketing to launch in Season 1, qua non of a successful film shoot, Mota EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 11 PHOTO: KATIE MOTA The moral of Mota’s story... is to be, as she put it, to “pump out” to their networks, and “our own best marketers.” the rest is history. As an example of the potency of this effort, the film company had embedded a partner organization’s find-a-clinic widget into the show’s discovered that strong community Specifically, Wise Entertainment website for the show’s debut, whose connections was the fuel that propelled developed relationships with more subjects included teen pregnancy. East Los High to unpaid-for prominence. than 30 nonprofits in Los Angeles and across the United States. The upstart “Within the first month…it was “There’s so much marketing that can… entertainment company partnered with something like 20,000 people had used be done for free if you have good these groups as part of their feedback that widget to find the clinic from the relationships with people that have mechanism in developing stories. East Los High website...Again, less than already built-in communities,” Mota $100,000 doesn’t buy you that.” says. “By using the nonprofits, and the “It wasn’t this thing we did at the last community leaders and the people that minute of like, ‘Hey, will you help us? We The moral of Mota’s story, one that will we’re already working with and talking like you. Will you come market our show?’ ring true for media producers who have to about the show, about the characters, It was a multi-year relationship that we been stung by disappointment in their about the issues, you actually can really had built and authenticated through, distribution reach, is to be, as she put it, create a groundswell that way. again, coming back to our beginning point “our own best marketers.” of real meaningful dialogue where we “Because we’re not only influenced by actually made changes to our program Katie Mota is an Emmy-nominated showrunner, billboards, we’re actually even more based on what they told us,” Mota says. writer, producer, and director who recently served as influenced by when our friend says, ‘Hey, executive producer and co-showrunner for East Los you should watch this. Check this out. On the basis of these collaborative High, which ran for five seasons, making it Hulu’s longest running original. She has produced shows in Wow, I have never seen this portrayed in relationships, Wise Entertainment countries all over the world, including the 70 episode this way.’” created marketing materials for them telenovela Ultimo Ano with MTV Latin America. EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 12 PHOTO: KATIE MOTA THE RAINMAKER Aric Noboa | President | Impact(Ed) | Washington, DC While movie classics may be great for the same cinematic reasons – the intricacy of their plots, stagecraft and high production values – the business model employed by Hollywood and SBCC media are worlds apart. Generally, the former relies on ticket- paying customers, the latter on government, corporate or foundation funding. Hollywood’s business model is for-profit film studios bankrolling projects with the expectation of earning a big profit off of their capital-intensive investment. Washington-based Impact(ed), on the other hand, is a non-profit that manages its film production with grassroots partners but funds its operations from donors such as USAID, Chevron, and Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa, just a few of the donors credited with sponsoring Inside Story. As a veteran of media-based projects in Africa, Impact(ed) President Aric Noboa served as executive producer of Inside Story. And though he remains deeply involved in the creative side and every other aspect of SBCC production, our Success in Hollywood is measured at the box office. discussion here is geared toward getting the inside story of procuring funding, And while international development projects are which is likely the first concern of any designed and evaluated on the basis of their impact on SBCC media producer since, it goes without saying, nothing gets produced health and social outcomes, let us not delude ourselves without financial backing. Many people produce SBCC media, but very few have that their equivalent of box-office performance is not put together coalitions of 11 major also closely scrutinized. By that measure, Impact(ed) donors to achieve Hollywood-sized film budgets. Noboa is one of them. International is the Walt Disney of SBCC media and its award-winning film “Inside Story” the “Star Wars” of What he has found in the labor-intensive work of putting these consortia together entertainment-education. What “Star Wars” and “Inside is that they are very issue-oriented. Every donor has got its priority projects. Story” have in common is viewership in the hundreds Backers of Inside Story – about a rising of millions. A tale of soccer and romance, “Inside Story” Kenyan soccer star and immigrant to South Africa whose world is upended is the most watched film in Africa and possibly its most when he tests positive for HIV – were all interested in health. But try to do a media influential source of instruction about HIV/AIDS. project on the environment and it’s back to coalition-building again. EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 13 PHOTO: IMPACT(ED) “What we’re trying to do right now,” Other minor conflicts occur when “But when you actually talk to them, Noboa says, “is really think about Impact(ed) is seeking to follow an they were actually very excited about upending that business model and trying optimal SBCC media production path, for exploring those topics,” Qureshi says. “I to see, can we get donors to come in as example by creating and then discarding think that was insightful for us, because initial investors, and perhaps build a media some scripts after testing the concept sometimes we’re afraid to take a risk, but fund that could fund a number of projects with their audience. That sort of ideal the local communities are not.” or even a whole new media brand, so iterative process may be at odds with that we’re not dealing with one-offs the donor’s timeline. Donors were also Risk aversion and donor timelines are and not solely dependent on the donor uncomfortable when Impact(ed) made relatively minor, nettlesome issues. A community. Can we build a revenue some wardrobe changes between Seasons revenue-based media fund remains an structure such that we are at least 1 and 2 of another program, again after unachieved dream that most SBCC supplementing, if not, supplanting at some audience testing. media producers likely have never even point the donor community? Because considered. But there remains one issue that would be a way that we can make “It would be great to have a donor that of major consequence in the here and sustainable change and ensure that we are was willing to really do some testing and now that is likely the biggest funding- being driven by impact, not only driven by take some risks, see some failures and related hurdle in the SBCC world, and donor needs and interests.” then move on,” Noboa says. That again that is obtaining money for evaluation. “It’s not easy to get production money, but it’s even more difficult to get evaluation money,” Noboa says. “Some donors will say, ‘If we can’t have the gold standard” – which will be like a randomized control trial, which is very expensive – ‘If we can’t have that, then we might as well not have anything.’ “I know of projects in the SBCC realm that essentially have had – it’s a million- dollar project and a million-dollar evaluation to really get at impact. It’s that expensive to do some of these really intense trials and randomized controls.” Despite this cost, quality evaluation is needed in order to isolate impact. More stable funding and greater focus on is why he aspires to establish a media “If you put something on TV, and people impact? Perhaps the SBCC community fund, where the risk for each investor is start calling, for example, an abuse hotline: should be rooting for Noboa’s success. lessened by its participation in a broad Well, was it because that show was on But while that kind of forward thinking funding pool. TV or was it because there was a drought may drive future progress, for now the and more people were at home and SBCC community must reckon with “If we have an effort that is more actually rates of abuse increased? That is differing perceptions of what should be revenue-driven than it is donor-driven, especially true right now during COVID. funded. According to Noboa, the donor then we can take those risks and learn We’re having a very difficult time trying to community gives its media partners those lessons and we’d be able to do it on isolate causality when there are so many appropriate latitude in the creative our own without having to kind of drag really earthshattering things happening process, without interference, but other the donor along with us,” he says. simultaneously,” Noboa says. sorts of conflicts can arise, even if well intentioned. Impact(ed)’s communications manager, Madiha Qureshi, added an interesting Aric Noboa is responsible for the vision, growth Noboa relates one situation in which a irony to this discussion, which is that the and management of Impact(Ed), a non-profit organization using the power of media to transform donor said: “We don’t really want you to audience that Impact(ed) and its donor education and improve lives in underserved do research. We just want you to dive in. partners are targeting suffer much less communities around the world. Working with We know what the issues are.” He ably risk aversion, commenting on “just how Discovery Communications and other public and parried that thrust by getting the donor’s open communities were to explore topics private sector partners, Impact(Ed) has created dynamic learning environments in schools in 16 agreement to invest in a more defensible that might have been considered more countries, improving student learning, teacher budget item called “story development.” taboo [such as child marriage]. effectiveness, and community engagement. EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 14 PHOTO: IMPACT(ED) THE EVALUATOR Victor Orozco | Senior Economist | The World Bank | Washington, DC We only need widen our angle within Washington, “Did an intervention work and by how much? Some call it the gold standard.” D.C., if our objective is to achieve that “gold That gold standard is what funders, as well as SBCC producers, want. But that standard” in SBCC research evaluation. To that end, meet is not what they generally get. Victor Orozco, a senior economist with the Development “Compared to other development fields Impact Evaluation (DIME) department at the World like microfinance, like education, like Bank. Orozco’s job is to perform randomized control conditional cash transfers, like health, where they have a lot of evidence trials, following the logic of clinical trials, where groups – especially randomized controlled trials of large-scale programs run by or individuals are randomized, assigned to treatment and governments or by NGOs – unlike to control groups and where the question of program those sectors, the SBCC sector lacks this large scale impact evaluation to test effectiveness is about causality – “not association, effectiveness,” Orozco says. observation, correlation, but causality,” Orozco emphasizes. This hurts the business case of SBCC as a cost-effective tool and can lead to the EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 15 PHOTO: VICTOR OROZCO ‘This educational drama worked, and in addition, the unique mechanisms of character identification and program immersion of edutainment narratives are an advantage over information-only campaigns.’” And, SBCC media producers ought to know, their edutainment narratives work where billboards, manuals, books and PSAs often do not succeed. The difference, says Orozco, is the immersive experience of storytelling where the reader or viewer comes to identify with a character. When SBCC media producers ought to know, that happens, the brain is likelier to absorb new information, meaning that their edutainment narratives work where billboards, inner voice saying, “No way, I’ll do the manuals, books and PSAs often do not succeed. opposite,” weakens. Orozco offers “The Queen of Katwe” as another example of the impact SBCC the perception of waste. Some donors especially teenagers, feel they’re being media can make. may not want to squander their funds preached at, you could have boomerang on scripts that are written and then effects,” Orozco says. “They’re like, ‘Wait, “It’s a real story of a Ugandan girl thrown away after audience testing, as this short video clip is trying to change who makes it to the Moscow Chess Impact(ed) does, yet Orozco insists this my deep-seated beliefs about the world? World Championship because one of may be necessary. No way. I will do the opposite.’” her teachers realized she had a lot of potential and helped her. There’s a “The SBCC field, like all fields, needs to Not so with MTV Shuga. randomized control trial that shows combine formative research and focus that just by showing this movie, groups with randomized controlled trials “The scriptwriters showed us that they immediately after people get excited.” of pilots to see what’s worth scaling up.” knew what they were doing, and the randomized control trials showed, yes, That part is not surprising. What is, And yes, such testing costs money. they knew what they were doing. HIV however, surprising is that the math testing doubled; chlamydia infections scores of viewers after a week – “But then they give you clean estimates were halved. This is a good example especially lower-achieving students – of what is the impact of an innovation, about expertise of edutainment experts, go up and the likelihood of their failing a crucial input for credible cost- behavioral experts working on the script.” math declines by over 10 percentage effectiveness and cost-benefit yardsticks.” points. Orozco emphasizes that these statistical Orozco, along with Nobel Prize-winning health outcomes were objective “There’s no math teaching [in the economist Abhijit Banerjee of MIT measures of behavior change, not film], but it just tells you the power and Eliana La Ferrara of Universita’ mere self-reporting based on answers of improving non-cognitive skills of Bocconi, evaluated a popular education to surveys. These dullest of details believing in yourself,” Orozco says. entertainment program serial in Africa produced by left-brained analysts may “Now imagine if that emotion is called MTV Shuga. Despite their looking offer the greatest validation possible sustained and makes you study more at the script with a healthy scientific for right-brained media producers because now you believe more in skepticism, thinking its HIV prevention because they show that their creative yourself…Just by making it salient.” message might backfire, their findings efforts work – that, as Orozco puts provided a huge boost for SBCC media it, “knowledge, attitude and behavior and its scriptwriters. outcomes were greatly driven by Victor Orozco is Senior Economist at the character identification and program Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) Department in the World Bank Research Group. To change hearts and minds of audiences, immersion. His research focuses on development economics, scriptwriters need to camouflage behavioral economics, and mass media and behavior the educational messages in an “Now, the scriptwriters, the artists change. He founded and led the World Bank’s entertainment format. “There’s a lot of have known this for millennia, but this impact evaluation program on Entertainment-Education and the use of media entertainment with evidence out there that once people, is experimental evidence that is saying, development objectives. EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 16 PHOTO: WALKER LAMBERT FOR PIERCE MILL THE MOTIVATOR Rajan Parajuli | Country Director | Population Media Center | Kathmandu, Nepal Getting people to believe in their power to change, local culture and doing formative research, which is typically arrived at via focus group taking an important issue…and making it salient. discussions and similar methods. In short, What is that secret sauce at the heart of the storyteller’s Parajuli is preoccupied with qualitative research in proportion to Orozco’s craft? We can find it in the heights of the Himalayas, obsession with quantitative evaluation. where Rajan Parajuli serves as Nepal representative “It’s all learning. It’s all how seriously you for South Burlington, Vermont-based Population Media take the local people, how seriously you can observe…That is why PMC [hires Center (PMC), a major player in SBCC media. local] staff, because behavior is so deeply rooted with culture, so deeply rooted with local religions, local tradition, local A January 2019 PMC report assessing the to child marriage, gender-based violence values, and no other people than local impact of PMC’s two radio serial dramas and girls’ education in Nepal since 2016, experts, local people can understand.” (Mai Sari Sunakhari and Hilkor) includes and he describes that methodology, which impressive data, including clinic visits PMC has been deploying for some 20 Even a native-born Nepalese like Parajuli where 11% of visitors cited the former years, as “scientific and proven.” must check himself. and 18% the latter as the motivation for their visits. He credits PMC for tightly monitoring “As a communicator what happens is, implementation, and is confident in its we make two, three early mistakes. First, “It was not a prompted question. It was an efficacy, such that that is not what keeps we think that we know our audience. We unprompted question,” Parajuli says. “We him awake at night, so to speak. think that we know what they want. We never named our drama when we asked think that we know what they need and that question. They named our drama as a “The thing is that methodology is very we do not go back to them and look at motivating factor for visiting the clinic.” simple. It is very simply articulated. But them. That is the biggest mistake normally putting stories, putting drivers into that we do all the time.” The robustness of these results did not methodology, is the difficult part.” surprise Parajuli. He says he and his team He cites as an example PMC’s child have been using PMC’s behavioral change Determining those drivers, Parajuli says, is marriage campaign in Nepal. PMC ended communication methodology in regard heavily dependent on understanding the up creating two separate programs after EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 17 PHOTO: RAJAN PARAJULI its research indicated that the drivers for early marriage were completely different in Eastern and Western Nepal. In Eastern Nepal, parents were the key drivers, seeking to lessen the amount of dowry they would have to pay to marry off their daughters. In mountainous Western Nepal, PMC’s research found that adolescents themselves were the key players in early-marriage decisions, often eloping at a young age out of fear their parents would later choose the wrong spouse for their children. The key here is that Parajuli’s team of researchers and focus-group moderators get at these issues prior to and then in tandem with the writing and production of the shows. Once clarity about the target audience is achieved, “then producers and writers create an imaginary situation which is…based on the real ground-based formative research. That makes the audience “At the end of the program…every time the transitional think: ‘Oh, this family in the drama looks like me. They have been facing the character is the most popular character. same situation that I am facing in my community.’” Why? Because that character represents our listener. They win at the end. They do the right thing. ” To get the audience beyond the threshold of behavior-change contemplation, PMC’s plots are built on three types of characters. There are positive characters, “The more drama goes on, they tend SBCC media producers have many possible heroic or admirable types; there are to get curious about this transitional outlets for their creative talents. But they negative characters, the classic villain. And character,” he says. “At the end of the have entered this unique field to make a then there is “the transitional character,” program…every time the transitional difference in the world. The satisfaction of neither hero nor villain. character is the most popular character. helping someone is reward in and of itself, Why? Because that character represents but when your audience takes it upon “They’re somewhere in the middle. That our listener. They win at the end. They itself to help their peers, that is akin to is the secret sauce of our behavioral do the right thing. They come out of this compound interest, where you get a rate change communication,” Parajuli says. dilemma that our audience is normally of return not just on your principal but on in…We give them that confidence.” your interest too, thus rapidly magnifying “We tell our story from the perspective the total return. It is more than stopping a of this transitional character. This Indeed, PMC’s program has inspired a vicious cycle; it is starting a virtuous one. transitional character is the people in markedly high level of confidence in one the crowd that we are trying to change. group of 10 to 15 teens, who – with In a phone call, the teen volunteers told People…who want to do good in life, no bidding from PMC or anyone else – Parajuli they succeeded in preventing a but they do not know how to do it. They formed an independent group to fight number of child marriages. That is success have been doing it bad assuming that that against child marriage in their community. in SBCC media. makes their life better. Our transitional character represents the society that we “They always meet together and listen are working for, working on.” to our drama, Mai Sari Sunakhari. Rajan Parajuli leads the PMC-Nepal team. Rajan is a prominent journalist, media trainer, and Then whenever a child is forced for communication activist in Nepal. For several years Parajuli says audiences of PMC’s radio marriage in their community, they go to he has worked in radio and television production, programs at first are drawn to the that home, talk to their parents, try to organizing mass awareness campaigns in poor positive and negative characters. They convince them to delay the marriage, and marginalized communities, and training young journalists of Nepal. He served as Program Director find their virtues or the exciting things and talk about the consequences of early at Antenna Foundation Nepal (AFN), an innovative they do charming or intriguing. marriages,” Parajuli says. media organization of Nepal. EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 18 PHOTO: RAJAN PARAJULI IMPLICATIONS for MEDIA-BASED SBCC PROGRAM DESIGN Not unlike other development programs aiming to 2. STORYTELLING works and should be used to help influence behavior, EatSafe’s work centers around motivate behavior change, particularly for a topic that understanding and then potentially shaping the motivations, ties in deeply with attitudes, values, and mores of a attitudes, beliefs, and practices of consumers and food culture, such as food. vendors through various interventions, including through media programs. • Stories can often provide an advantage to information- only campaigns in behavior change communications, The ideas shared in this article can be of value to those particularly when expert storytellers work in tandem planning for impactful, timely, and cost-effective media with behavioral experts. programs, particularly entertainment-education programs, in service of bringing about social and behavior change. • Character identification is a key element of storytelling and connects the audience to the action in the story. HERE WE SHARE A SUMMARY OF THOSE IDEAS Working with the audience in advance helps to discover the kinds of characters that will resonate with the 1. HUMAN CONNECTION is an essential component target audience. of successful media-based interventions and should form the backbone of the process. • Make use of positive and negative characters to initially attract attention to the story, but then use “transitional • Learn the audience. Do not assume that you know characters” who share the target audience’s struggles to what they want. This is often the biggest mistake in a illustrate ways to move along the path of behavior change. program: assuming something (even something that seems obvious) about the audience and then creating a media product around that assumption. • Provide hands-on technical assistance to the local crew throughout the production process. It is important to develop strong working relationships with on- the- ground production teams and not to assume that media production expertise equates with SBCC media production competence. Media programs designed for behavior change have specific production needs and use techniques which can differ from typical media productions (news, entertainment, etc.). • Don’t shortchange the need for iteration in the program design process. Although deadlines are aggressive and budgets are tight, testing of scripts with the audience, and re-writing scripts when needed, is key to making an effective and useful program EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 19 PHOTO: AISHATU MADINA MAISHANU FOR PIERCE MILL The ideas shared in this article can be of value to those planning for impactful, timely, and cost-effective media programs, particularly entertainment- education programs, in service of bringing about social and behavior change. • Story immersion (also sometimes called “transportation” 3. DISTRIBUTION is key and should be considered into the world of the story) allows the audience to at the beginning of the process, not at the end. become emotionally engaged and consequently more open to the core messaging of the program. • Make distribution an integral piece of the project from the design phase on. Do not let it be an afterthought of • Demonstrate self-efficacy. The audience must feel that a well-designed program. they are able to change their behavior. If it seems too difficult or too out of reach, success is unlikely. • Engage early and collaborate often with local groups, associations, and leaders, as they can become your best Although full scale randomized trial studies have been used “marketing agents” within a community and can make in other fields to establish causality (e.g. education, health, each marketing dollar go that much further. microfinance), evaluating storytelling as an SBCC intervention tool using full scale randomized trials is rarely done due to cost • Carefully consider the cultural context when determining and timing constraints. Still, as the World Bank’s Victor Orozoco where the intended audience is to hear/watch/see the mentions above, “The SBCC field, like all fields, needs to SBCC media. For example, some programs might need combine formative research and focus groups with randomized to be viewed in a private setting to reach the target controlled trials of pilots to see what’s worth scaling up.” audience. EatSafe | Stories from the Forefront 20 PHOTO: AISHATU MADINA MAISHANU FOR PIERCE MILL FEED THE FUTURE feedthefuture@usaid.gov @Feedthefuture Feedthefuture Pierce Mill Entertainment & Education 3121 South St NW Suite 200 Washington, DC 20007 piercemillmedia.com