Summative and Formative Evaluation of the UNICEF Partnership with Community Radio Programme
Evaluation Report
- English
- Portuguese
Highlights
Evaluation findings: This Evaluation Report is based on the evaluation criteria of OECD, in this sense, we consider the following main areas: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability and gender, human rights and equity. Each criterion was addressed through a set of specific evaluation questions.
Relevance: The UNICEF Radio Partnership Programme with community radios plays an important role in ensuring the reach of tailored SBC messages to targeted communities at national scale with special focus on hard-to-reach areas. The partnership has an adequate level of relevance, as it is closely aligned with the socio-economic context of the country, and its design incorporates the most pertinent topics, such as immunization, birth registration, breastfeeding and others. All contents developed are discussed and approved by the respective line ministries (and their strategic plans) and relevant partners before radio dissemination. Most of the surveyed population have a radio at home (90% rural; 88% urban) and use the radio as their main media communication channel. Community radios are a valuable instrument used by the population, especially in rural communities (88% respondents from rural communities and 83% respondents from urban communities stated using radios frequently). Radios have been found to be adequate means of learning and participation, especially for the most disadvantaged populations, given the low levels of literacy, the geographical conditions (especially for more remote regions), and the diversity of local languages. Radio is considered by communities to be an inclusive space to give knowledge (repeatedly and continuously) and discuss topics that wouldn’t reach some communities in other ways, especially if we consider the high illiteracy rate of the target population and the percentage of the people that doesn't use internet (79.89%).
Effectiveness: The radio partnership objectives were to “support the broadcasting of key messages to communities throughout the national territory”, focusing on the 16 essential family practices. The radios demonstrate adherence to the terms and conditions outlined in the partnership agreements., which includes the production and dissemination of agreed-upon content. However, it has been noted that the programs production by local radios is lacking the desired quality standards due to insufficient training and expertise in the thematic areas. High turnover rates in radios impact the quality of produced content. Testing of campaigns is not always conducted as timings for content production are usually challenging. This means that not all campaigns undergo thorough testing before implementation. Nevertheless, results obtained from the survey applied to the population show that most of the respondents have listened to information about parental practices/childcare on the radio (99% at rural level; and 98% at urban level). The periodicity of listening to those contents on the radio is 76% on a daily basis, 13% on a weekly basis, and 12% less frequently. Given that most radio broadcasting in the country on topics related to SBC on childcare is part of the UNICEF Partnership, one can assume that key messages are reaching the communities. Both Key Informant Interviews (KII) and radio stations concur that communities are benefiting from the key messages broadcasted by radios in a very relevant way, considering the increasing adoption of health campaigns by communities. The type of topic discussed in the radios is the most important factor for listeners to choose what to hear (46%); followed by the language used (e.g., creole) (23%); the ability to understand the content/ language accessibility (18%) and finally the schedule (14%). In terms of language and understanding, the content language used in the radio for topics related to children/parental practices is easy to understand, according to the population, although consulted radios did frequently mention that some of the language used in the contents produced can be quite technical. In terms of interest in the messages disseminated by the partnership, there is alignment with the interests of communities. These interests were consistent across various regions and rural/urban areas, with no significant disparities observed. The partnership has directly contributed to improvements in working conditions at the radio level (84% of the partner radios agreed with this statement), pointing out as the main changes: 1) more material resources (63%); 2) more financial resources (40%); more resources for transportation (37%); more training (30%). The partnership has also contributed to the introduction of new thematic areas and new programs for 52% and 41% of the radios, respectively. Nonetheless, a few constraining factors that hindered the attainment of the partnership’s objectives were identified. Radios have expressed concerns about not having a voice in the partnership, particularly as the collaboration evolves over time. The shared feeling is that they are not adequately consulted at the design phase of each annual partnership.
