Health Policy Issues and Health Programmes in ... - Amazon S3

IEC for Health Programmes in Uttaranchalindividual expertise, institutional experience, and research findings. The strategy should ensurethat communication plays the dual role of providing support and reassurance to those who havealready adopted the desired behaviour change and simultaneously creating demand for healthservices and addressing specific fears, obstacles, and barriers to the same. Promotion offacilities, trained providers, and appropriate behaviours would be a crucial aspect of this role.The IEC strategy should specifically focus on the following.l Looking at existing research to determine specific communication needs as well asmethodology of commissioning additional studies to test themes, ideas, and materials.l Segmenting the population according to its needs and in the context of objectives andpriorities of various health programmes.l Identifying barriers and specific methods of overcoming obstacles to move to the desiredbehaviour.l Working out specific messages for each of the above desired changes.l Developing indicators for monitoring and assessment of each intervention and a system offeedback and assessment of impact.l Establishing a system of selection of experts or agencies and production of communicationmaterial.An operational plan should also be prepared to phase out activities over different time periodsand to quickly move from strategy to action.Establish a Multi-sectoral IEC BureauAn IEC bureau should be established at the state level to plan, coordinate, and implement variousactivities under the state IEC strategy. This bureau should have the capacity to plan and executemultimedia campaigns at state and district levels. Ideally, this organization should be responsiblefor all IEC activities related to public health, family planning, nutrition, disease control, education,and welfare to justify adequate outlays for the small state of Uttaranchal. This would also providefor the integration and efficiency in research, media buying, and implementation campaigns andensure consistency of themes, designs, and messages across various sectors.The IEC bureau should also have a Media and Materials Resource Centre (MMRC) to scan andhouse IEC materials produced by the Government of India, state governments, otherinstitutions or NGOs; and those materials being used in different programmes and states,especially the Hindi-speaking ones. The centre should have the capacity to duplicate, produce,and distribute these items to those who need them. This would obviate the need for “reinventingthe wheel,” and lots of good quality material being used elsewhere could become available foruse in Uttaranchal immediately. The MMRC should also perform the functions of a mass-mailingunit to periodically address providers, village pradhans, and so forth, and publish and distributenewsletters.Involve Private Sector Organizations and ProfessionalsGovernments have to recognize that while they deal with some of the most importantprogrammes, which can make a difference to the lives of their citizens, they do not have much93