Urunana: Creative Communication for Development

This presentation shares the experience of Urunana ('Hand in Hand'), an interactive and needs-based soap opera, that aims to increase awareness and discussion of sexual and reproductive health issues among rural women and youth in Rwanda. According to the presenter, the project is characterised by both education and entertainment components and it has a listenership of more than 65% of the Rwandan population. The edutainment format of this soap opera has enhanced its popularity and led to open discussion of sexual reproductive health issues which were culturally taboo and previously confined to the bedroom. The presenter states that the soap opera broke the cultural barrier associated with discussion of sensitive issues between men and women, and that social and individual behaviour change as a result of listening to Urunana has been reported.

The presentation explores the factors and strategies that have made Urunana a success. Firstly, Urunana is a needs-based and audience-driven production through a participatory process. Writers visit audience groups monthly to carry out focus group discussions, casual interaction, and observation exercises to pretest messages and get feedback about past productions. The audience also provides input for the next productions to make programmes original and reflective of true-to-life health and social priority issues through letters, phone-ins and audience surveys.

The media production also includes a community outreach component. The Urunana production team, actors and health experts go to the community to raise the public awareness about the programme and priority issues. A few skits are acted out and a Question & Answer session follows to gauge if messages are understood. Attendants also ask questions about the past programmes, which is an opportunity for more feedback and suggestions. Urunana writers based in the city of Kigali go and stay in villages for at least a week in a year to get more of a feel of the life of their audience.

This presentation shares the Uranana strategy for programme production, which includes research, stakeholders meetings, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation. The presenter states that research is a key issue in making an effective entertainment-education (EE) programme as it helps to inform the situation at hand and what to do to improve it. The approaches used by Urunana include an initial needs assessment at the beginning of the project, action research on rural youth and HIV/AIDS and on-going impact assessment of the project. During community outreach exercises, audiences also give testimonies of how the programme impacted on them.

The presenter recognises that there are some limitations of EE. Among other issues, these include poverty of the audience - some can not afford to purchase television and radio sets or can not afford batteries (for radio) consistently throughout the year, which means they have to miss some programmes. In addition, some EE providers are inexperienced, and lack knowledge and skills in communication and topical message delivering. There are instances of inaccurate information and/or unintended hidden messages. As well, EE only imparts knowledge to the intended audience; it does not deliver services. People may be highly knowledgeable but they may not have access to the tools that would enable them to put this knowledge into practice.

However, the presenter proposes that despite the limitations, edutainment is an important strategy for social and behavioural change.