Institutional Review of Educational Radio Dramas: Methodology

Methodology

This study was done as desk research, using written project reports and evaluations, supplemented by e-mail exchanges based on a standard questionnaire, telephone calls and a few face-to-face interviews with project holders, if they happened to be in the UK - where the author is based. Preference was given to projects with which the author had personal contacts, in order to obtain greater detail. Needless to say, the face-to-face interviews were the most revealing.

The fourteen cases studied were chosen to represent a wide geographical spread and variety of countries. All are in developing countries, with the arguable exception of Albania, but all present very different environments with attendant opportunities, challenges and difficulties, including violence and insecurity in Burundi, the lack of condoms in Rwanda, the logistical difficulties of island hopping in Vanuatu, and the complexities of a four-country project in West Africa.

The case studies also represent a broad range in terms of size, type of implementer, and source of funding. Most projects are current or very recent, but have been running long enough to have been evaluated. Most have parallel non-radio educational projects. All are attempting, either directly or indirectly, to bring about social or behavioral change.

This study looks at the sources of funding and the ways projects have generated extra revenue. It examines sustainability and, where the information is available, what proportion of budget is spent on evaluation and administration. It attempts to identify the size and internal workings of each project's unique stakeholder network, with special attention to the crucial relationship between the originating organization and the implementing organization.

There are a few limitations to be noted. First, there are gaps in the information collected. For example, budgetary details were sometimes not known by informants or were withheld. It was also not possible, in a public report such as this, to describe the personal or political difficulties experienced by some projects. One of the most interesting aspects of organizational dynamics is the culture of different institutions, which can only be gauged through personal contact and direct observation. Unfortunately, much fascinating detail was missed by not being able to visit each project on the ground.

Readers should not draw conclusions from the length or brevity of discussions on projects' problems. More are identified for projects for which there was first-hand contact, but this does not imply they have more problems than other projects. Difficulties and mistakes are included because they offer useful lessons learned.

Finally, this report was designed and written to match the knowledge and expectations of the target audience, which is practitioners, planners and organizers of entertainment-education media projects. It assumes that readers have some basic prior knowledge of sexual/ reproductive health issues, the theory and practice of educational dramas, and the countries where the case studies took place.