Soap Operas to End Child Trafficking in West Africa
PMC uses a specific methodology of social-change communications developed by Miguel Sabido of Mexico, in which characters in long-running radio and television serialized dramas evolve into role models for their audiences.
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Ubicación
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
tu idea
Sector Focus
Civil society
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2004
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Posicionamiento de tu iniciativa en el diagrama del mosaico
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Cultural acceptance of enslavement
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Mobilize peer groups and communities to raise awareness
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic
Barrier: The link between child trafficking and poverty-inducing factors such as unplanned childbearing. Another barrier are the underlying issues (such as insufficient family income) that put children at risk of being trafficked.
Name Your Project
Soap Operas to End Child Trafficking in West Africa
Describe Your Idea
PMC uses a specific methodology of social-change communications developed by Miguel Sabido of Mexico, in which characters in long-running radio and television serialized dramas evolve into role models for their audiences.
Innovación
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
PMC uses a specific methodology of social-change communications developed by Miguel Sabido of Mexico, in which characters in long-running radio and television serialized dramas evolve into role models for their audiences.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
The design of the serial drama is critical to its potential success in terms of behavior change. Sabido-style serial dramas achieve results because they are developed using an empirical and reproducible approach to behavior change communication via mass media. In fact, every detail of a Sabido-style serial drama is developed according to a theoretical and empirical research-based formula in order to reinforce a coherent set of interrelated values that is tied to specific prosocial behaviors. The Sabido methodology is also a replicable methodology that, although formularized, is still adaptable to the individual values and cultures of each country where it is used.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
The steps involved in the development of a PMC program are as follows:
1) Formative Research
2) Advisory Committee
3) Writing, Production and Broadcast
4) Promotional Campaign
5) Monitoring
6) Evaluation
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
PMC’s vision for the next ten years is to expand to 50 countries. Among the highest priority countries for PMC are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. PMC has received invitations from governments and NGOs in each of these countries to undertake project development. Other countries of interest, where we have already trained radio station personnel or made exploratory visits, include Afghanistan, Angola, Botswana, China, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. We also have interest in working in Algeria, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea, Guinea, Haiti, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Zambia. We have received inquiries from a number of these countries.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them?
In every country where we work, PMC forms an Advisory Committee of representatives of relevant government ministries, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other institutions working on the issues addressed in the program. The Advisory Committee meets throughout the life of the project, and will serve two purposes:
• To oversee the content of the serial drama as the scripts for the episodes are written, to ensure that it remains technically correct and in line with the program’s objectives; and
• To ensure that demand for services generated by the program can be met by the service infrastructure throughout the program.
Impacto
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
Sabido-style dramas are designed to motivate changes in attitudes and behaviors on a wide range of issues, including child trafficking, women’s status, environmental protection, and HIV/AIDS.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
Funding for large-scale communication programs using mass media is becoming increasingly difficult.
How many people have you served or plan to serve?
PMC's programs are generally the most popular programs on the air, and typically attract over half of the population as listeners.
Directly
Our program about child trafficking in West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast) attracted 5.5 million listeners. Over half (62%) of the population in Niger were regular (5 times per week) listeners to our program about child trafficking.
Indirectly
Sabido-style dramas are designed to generate discussion. In Mali, 31% of listeners had discussed exploitative child labor during the period of the program, compared to 17% of non-listeners. In Ivory Coast, 43% of listeners had discussed children’s rights in the 12 months before the end of the program, while only 25% of non-listeners had discussed children’s rights in the same period. In Niger, 40% of listeners had discussed exploitative child labor during the broadcast period, compared to 19% of non-listeners. Through these discussions, even non-listeners benefit from the information provided by the drama.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation?
Listeners will continue to talk to each other and to non-listeners about the anti-trafficking values covered in the program. Ideas of prevention regarding poverty and family planning will have taken root and will continue to grow among West African citizens.
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation?
Although there is not a direct policy objective to our programs, since PMC dramas attract such large audiences, policy makers are likely to be listeners. Also, since the programs often spur heated public debate about the issues they address, policy makers will become aware of the issues through these discussions.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation?
The general public. For our anti child trafficking programs in West Africa, the primary target audiences were children at risk of being trafficked, and their parents.
Esta presentación se trata de
Sustenibilidad
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
Since its founding in 1998, PMC’s work has been recognized and supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office of the Government of Ethiopia, Norwegian Save the Children, the Danish Embassy in Vietnam via UNFPA-Hanoi, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Rotarian Action Group on Population and Development (with funds from Rotary International Foundation, Aventis Foundation and the German Government), the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Pfizer Inc’s Public Health Group, the Kaiser Family Foundation and many other foundations and individual donors.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization
Currency = U.S. dollars.
Annual budget: $3.6 million
2008 Revenue: $3,587,795
2008 Expenses: $3,652,045
Number of staff (worldwide, excluding creative talent): 49 employees
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
PMC’s vision for the next ten years is to expand to 50 countries. Among the highest priority countries for PMC are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. PMC has received invitations from governments and NGOs in each of these countries to undertake project development. Other countries of interest, where we have already trained radio station personnel or made exploratory visits, include Afghanistan, Angola, Botswana, China, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. We also have interest in working in Algeria, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea, Guinea, Haiti, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Zambia. We have received inquiries from a number of these countries.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
The cost of a three-year serial drama project, including formative and evaluative research, training and technical assistance, writing, acting, production and broadcasting, varies, depending on which medium is used. The typical cost of a radio project is about $450,000 per year.
La historia
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
PMC was founded in 1998 to bring the Sabdio methodology to countries that had not yet benefitted from it. In its first ten years, PMC has initiated projects in Brazil, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Mexico, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, the Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, the United States and Vietnam. PMC has new projects in development in Botswana, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Eastern Caribbean, Egypt, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, the Western Pacific, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It has continuation projects in development in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and the Philippines. In 2007, PMC was recognized by the Population Institute with a Global Media Award for having the Best Electronic Communications Service for its entertainment-education television and radio dramas, featuring family planning, gender equality and reproductive health issues.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material
Kriss Barker is Vice President for International Programs at Population Media Center, an international organization that works with broadcast media to produce entertainment-education programs. Kriss has assisted production teams throughout the world to develop entertainment-education serial dramas. She has trained numerous media and health communciation professionals in the Sabido methodology for behavior change communication using the mass media. She oversees management of PMC programs in over 20 countries worldwide. Kriss has authored several papers on the Sabido methodology, including manuscripts, journal articles and chapters in edited books. She is considered an expert on application of the Sabido methodology for behavior change.
Emphasis of Work
Prevention and protection
 | 208 weeks agoShivanna Lalla said: Hello Kriss, I am currently at an International HT Conference, where I just learned of a similar project being done in Argentina. A ... about this Competition Entry. - leer más > |
| 208 weeks agoDana Frasz said: Hello Kriss, This sounds like a really neat idea. I would love to learn more about what you are doing. It would be great if you could ... about this Competition Entry. - leer más > |
| 210 weeks agoAlyssa D said: What an interesting approach--get the valuable behavior-changing lessons into an entertaining and engaging format that is familiar and ... about this Competition Entry. - leer más > |