*Health and Development Communication Conference*

*June 27-29 2011, Nairobi, Kenya*

Most of the challenges facing countries of the Southern hemisphere are
rooted in either lack of information or poor utilization of available
information. These problems are, in turn, driven by inadequate information,
inaccessibility of information and poor skills in communicating the
available information. This situation is particularly pronounced in the
field of health, where basic information in areas such as public health,
disease prevention, health promotion and policies on health care is not in
the public domain. Those who generate this information have limited avenues
to disseminate it to the public while those in the media with the capacity
to communicate the information sometimes lack the necessary skills to access
or appropriately communicate the information.

The availability to the general public of information on health is critical
for social development, yet in many cases, information that would be most
useful in the public domain, or in the hands of those who provide health
services to the public, is stored in the vaults of scholars, researchers and
experts. Often when the information rich communicate with the information
poor, unnecessary barriers in terms of education, language, class, gender,
culture and attitudes make it near impossible to reach those who need
information the most. This discrepancy should provoke those who generate
health information and those in charge of disseminating information to
devise ways through which the information will reach those who need it most.

In recognition of this gap between the information rich and information
poor, several institutions, namely Daystar University, African Population
Health and Research Centre (APHRC), INTERNEWS, Population Reference Bureau
(PRB), Institute for International Journalism at Ohio University, The
University of Nigeria at Nsukka, the SBS Center Communication for
Sustainable Social Change (CSSC) at the University of Massachusetts, and
Orbicom-UNESCO project on “*Future Imperatives of Communication and
Information for Development and Social Change*” are jointly organising a
three day conference in Nairobi, Kenya to consider, among other issues, the
general status of health communication in the countries of the South, and
how such communication can be improved in order to effectively empower the
people.

However, because this Conference is being held in Kenya – which is a year
away from general elections – it would be an omission not to interrogate the
impact of politics, elections, democracy and governance on development. Many
African countries have retrogressed after general elections. Kenya itself
was on the brink of disaster in 2007 after botched up elections.
Communication has a role to play in ensuring that development gains are not
destroyed by, incidences such as, and poor communication as the case may be
in highly charged political periods. For this reason the conference will
also seek to interrogate how communication for development can be utilized
in pursuit of political stability, without which even health communication
is futile. This will also be an opportunity to engage journalists covering
politics, build their capacity to communicate for development in politically
uncertain times and initiate conversation on the media’s role in
safeguarding development through responsible reportage.

This unique conference will be a combination of presentations on the
theoretical underpinnings of communication (health communication in
particular), a sharing of practical experiences in communication for
development, capacity-building and mentoring sessions with respect to
research communication and political reporting; and an opportunity to set a
rational tone for the coverage of the 2012 elections in Kenya. The rich
conference program will ensure that some critical sessions are held jointly
while others will be parallel.



The conference, scheduled for June 27-29, 2011, will bring together
participants from policy formulating agencies, academic institutions,
research institutions, and practitioners in the health and journalism
sectors with the purpose of exploring these gaps and considering avenues
through which to narrow them.  The organisers are therefore inviting papers
that address the following among other topics:

1.     Theory and theoretical issues on health and development
communication, critiques, new perspectives and practical applications
amongst others

2.     Fundamental hurdles in health and development communication

3.     The role of communication research and evaluation

4.     In-depth reviews of contemporary strategies or models of health and
development communication

5.     Policies in health and development communication, be they legal,
financial, human or technical

6.     Gender issues in health and development communication

7.     Case studies from rural and urban settings

8.     Culture and cultural contexts in health and development communication

9.     New media technologies and social media in health and development
communication

10.  Strategies and case studies of translation of communication research
into policy and action

11.  Pedagogical issues in health communication or development communication

12.  The impact of politics, elections, democracy and governance on health
and development.

13.  Future imperatives regarding ecological and environmental issues and
green communication

14.  Future imperatives regarding communication and social development

15.  African public health issues for journalists



Prospective presenters at the Conference are each advised to submit an
abstract (500 words) for a paper based on any of the above topics by April
15th, 2011 to Communicationafrica@daystar.ac.ke. All abstracts will be blind
reviewed and those whose abstracts are selected will be notified by April
30. Completed papers should be submitted by June 1st, 2011 for inclusion in
the conference proceedings.



At the end of the three-day meeting, it is hoped that the conference will:

1.     Equip and engage policy makers in the formulation of people-friendly
health policies

2.     Generate ideas and practical tools for health practitioners to use
when communicating their information and expertise to the public,

3.     Establish networks between health researchers and communication
sector

4.     Equip communicators, especially journalists, with skills and
knowledge on how to communicate health information appropriately.



For any questions regarding this Call for Papers or the Conference please
contact the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) at
Communicationafrica@daystar.ac.ke