Abandoning FGC CAddis Ababa, August 25 – September 5, 2003ommunicating Information and Better Practices to Policymakers In June 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored a meeting on female genital cutting (FGC) for representatives of 10 African countries. During the meeting, participants identified a need for training in policy-level communication and advocacy. To address this need, the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) supported a two-week regional policy communication workshop. The workshop, Abandoning FGC: Communicating Information and Better Practices to Policymakers, was conducted August 25-September 5, 2003 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in collaboration with the National Committee on Traditional Practices of Ethiopia (NCTPE), and CARE/Ethiopia. The workshop was sponsored by the USAID Bureau for Global Health through PRB’s MEASURE Communication project and by the USAID Bureau for Africa. The workshop was based on the model currently used in PRB’s regional policy communication training program, focusing on policy-level communication, as opposed to community-level advocacy, and was intended to help local program officials reach high-level policy audiences. Sessions helped participants identify the policy and program implications of available information, understand how research findings and information can influence the policy process, explore how to present sensitive information using culturally appropriate messages, and communicate these messages in simple and compelling formats. The primary goal of the workshop was to help participants increase the use of available data and information on better practices for establishing or improving policies to abandon FGC. The workshop trained 13 researchers, program officials, and policy advisors from seven Anglophone African countries (Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria and Sudan) in strategic planning and communication skills to improve FGC abandonment policies and programs. The group consisted of key individuals who are directly involved in promoting or implementing FGC abandonment programs or who are in positions to influence high-level decisionmakers on this issue. This included: representatives of national FGC “focal point groups;” national government staff from the Ministry of Health; journalists responsible for disseminating information on FGC; representatives of national committees for harmful traditional practices and the Inter-African Committee (IAC); researchers and project managers from USAID contracting agencies and universities who are working on FGC activities. The workshop combined plenary sessions, small group sessions, and individual work, emphasizing hands-on participation. Sessions covered nine main areas: · Exploring barriers to abandoning FGC and promoting alternatives to the practice · Fundamentals of the policy process · Exploring the research-policy gap and designing policy-relevant research · Developing a framework for action · Developing communication strategies and action plans · Working with the media · Preparing policy memoranda and briefings · Making effective oral presentations using PowerPoint · Preparing and delivering oral presentations Other highlights of the workshop included: · Site visit to Awash: On Saturday, August 30th, CARE/Ethiopia arranged a site visit to the Afar region to the CARE/Ethiopia’s Afar FGC Eradication Project site. Here participants visited the Awash-Fentale district, which consists of 29 rural communities with the Awash town as its capital. CARE/Ethiopia arranged a town hall meeting in which participants and men, women and children from the community were able to meet to discuss FGC, barriers to FGC abandonment, and changes occurring in their communities. · Visit to Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital: In response to participants’ requests, PRB scheduled a visit to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital on Friday afternoon, September 5th. The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital has served over 20,000 women since 1974, and has become a major teaching institution for surgeons all over Ethiopia and the developing world. Participants toured the hospital ward, operating theater, therapy department, hostels and facility grounds through a guided tour with hospital staff. Workshop Evaluation In general, participants were very positive about the workshop content, the quality of the materials, and the anticipated long-term benefits. All participants gave specific examples of how the workshop would contribute to their work at home. Ideas ranged from increasing individual skills, such as increasing work with the news media and making effective presentations of research results, to training other IAC staff in PowerPoint. During a mid-workshop assessment, participants stated that they felt “empowered” and “active” and that the workshop was “participatory”, “highly organized,” and that they were “impressed with the workshop materials and resources available.” In the final workshop evaluation, on a scale of 1 (not informative or useful) to 5 (very informative or useful), only 1 out of 24 sessions scored under 4. Many participants stated in the workshop evaluations that the workshop should be reproduced in other countries and that other participants could benefit from similar workshops of its kind PRB is planning to seek funding to replicate the workshop in Anglophone or Francophone Africa or the MENA region.
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