Success Stories- Made by US

AudienceScapes Research Drives Effective Health Communication in Africa

The AudienceScapes Africa survey research was used by the U.S. President's Malaria Intiative and its local partners in Ghana and Kenya to determine the best conduits ford delivering behavior-change communications on malaria to citizens of those countries.

InterMedia's AudienceScapes project (www.audiencescapes.org) provides evidence-based guidance on how people in Africa gather, share and use critical information. It measures acces and use of media, ICTs and word-of-mouth information sources. Research has beenn conducted in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.

The U.S. President's Malaria Initiative uses targeted communications programs to promote use of anti-malarial medications and bednets in several African countries. But the program suffered from a lack of knowledge about what sources of information people in these countries had access to.

The AudienceScapes research project filled this knowledge gap.

Kelly McCorkendale, a USAID official working on the initiative, said, 'we used the [AudienceScapes] data to show that robust behavoir change communications for malaria in Africa should hone in on two major channels - namely radio and personal communication via health workers - instead of spreading it too thinly amongs too many communication channels.'

She continued: 'Overall, we want to encourage a more streamlined, cost-effective approach to BCC delivery, and AudienceScapes is a valuable tool in this respect.'

AudienceScapes is a project of InterMedia, the global research-based consulting company catering to the needs of development organizatins worldwide. AudienceScapes research has been conducted and applied so far in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.

Beyond health, the research also provides a rich base of knowledge in use of mass media, mobile devices and the internet; access to information about personal finance and mobile money services; and access to information about agricultural issues.