Effective communication is the key to encouraging healthy behavior. Documenting a revolution in both theory and practice, Johns Hopkins University experts show that communication leads the way to healthy reproductive health and family planning behavior. They explain why communication makes so much difference and how communication programs can be made to work. This book presents a compilation of lessons learned by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs and its partners over 15 years of developing and implementing family planning communication projects campaigns in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Near East. An introductory essay provides an overview of family planning and communication worldwide and outlines the role of theory-based communication programs. The main part of the book presents lessons learned in the field about the process of designing and carrying out family planning communication projects. More than 60 lessons are presented, with descriptions and analysis of projects illustrating each lesson. A final essay explores the current and future challenges confronting family planning educators and other public health communicators.
Sample survey reports from 8 villages in Malaysia, 8 villages in Korea, and 2 villages in India constitute this regional pilot study on the role of community communication networks (cliques) on the acceptance and continuance of family planning (FP). NEGOPY software was used in the analysis. The prototype questionnaire for ever-married men and ever-married women are included in the appendix. The convergence model of communication, which focuses on interrelationships (dyads and cliques) between individuals, subsystems, and systems, and the social network method on acceptance and continuance of family planning practice, were selected to overcome the deficiencies in atomistic and mechanistic models of communication. Several assumptions were made: 1. family planning communication is unique, 2. husband's and wives communication structures are different, 3. interconnectedness based on frequency of interaction is considered to be different from closeness structure, and 4. the number, size, and composition of cliques and individuals communication roles vary based on socio-economic characteristics and the number of users of family planning methods in cliques. The findings are ungeneralizable due to small sample size. In spite of methodological differences, some non-statistical evidence shows that family planning behavior is shaped by cliques. Some of the findings were that other members of a clique where there is maximum connectedness and persons using FP will also use FP, and the converse. Strong clique leadership influences FP and the selection of methods. When clique leaders act as a bridge, they exert more effective influence on other cliques. Young educated women tend to be bridges. There is a need to continue the work through the region on a theoretical and methodological level with some standardization of network concepts. NEGOPY needs to be replaced or made user friendly and accessible. Categorization of cliques, comparison of different cliques, valid generalization of communication roles, diffusion of information within and between cliques, and changes in formation and leadership in cliques require further analysis. Policy implications for long term strategy and service delivery involve the need to improve women's education. FP field staff in training or work settings need to focus on cliques and convergence models of communication, thus increasing individual contact and maximizing effectiveness.
