AIDS communication approaches

AIDS communication approaches reflect a variety of communications methodologies that have also been applied in other areas of health. Communication approaches used to address HIV and AIDS range from those focusing on information for individuals, to those concerned with broad social and environmental factors for change. The main approaches currently used in this field can be summarised as follows:

Behaviour change communication
Social marketing
Health education
Health promotion
Participatory development communication
Social change and human rights based communication
Social mobilisation
Enabling health communications environments

Behaviour change communication

Behaviour change communication (BCC) involves the development of tailored messages and approaches in order to develop, promote and sustain individual, community and societal behaviour change. BCC takes cultural difference and audience reception into consideration and employs a variety of communication channels. BCC can enhance knowledge, ensuring that people are given the basic facts about HIV and AIDS in a medium that they can understand and relate to. It can also encourage community and national discussions on the basic facts of HIV and AIDS and the underlying factors that contribute to the epidemic. The Change Project provides information on a range of behaviour change tools and approaches.

Social marketing

Social marketing draws on the principles of commercial marketing to bring about behaviour and social change. It is based on the premise that individuals and organisations are willing to exchange resources for perceived benefits, and that commercial techniques can promote healthy behaviour and ideas. The basic components of social marketing include: creating an enticing product, minimising price, and promoting the product in appropriate ways, through appropriate channels and in appropriate places. Population Services International have successfully used this method to promote condoms in Cambodia, for example.The Social Marketing Institute also provides further resources and links.

Health education

Health education is designed to improve health literacy, including improving knowledge, and developing life skills conducive to individual and community health. One form of health education known as "edutainment" combines entertainment and education to disseminate information. This can take the form of soap operas, songs, cartoons, comics, theatre and other forms, which carry messages that lead to healthy behaviour. This approach can reach huge numbers and have a rapid impact. The South African initiative Soul City is a renowned example of successful "edutainment".

Health promotion

Health promotion enables people to increase their control over, and improve, their health. As defined in the Ottawa Charter, health promotion is an approach that involves the population as a whole in the context of their everyday lives, rather than focusing on people at risk for specific diseases, and one that is directed towards action on the determinants or causes of health and well-being. Interventions may be topic-focused (for example, sexual health promotion) or arena-focused (for example school-based health education). Health promotion can include policy advocacy, health education and a range of other communication approaches.

Participatory development communication

Participatory development communication shares much with communication for social change and focuses on facilitating exchange. It has a strong capacity-building and empowering component, since the participants are responsible for informing and sensitising their peers. Communication is the means whereby the individuals within a larger group or organisation can ensure that they (1) agree that there is a problem; (2) agree on the major causes of the problem; (3) agree to pull their resources together in addressing these causes; and (4) agree on the major lessons learnt in the process. An example of this approach is the CIME programme developed by the International Development Research Centre.

Social change and human rights based communication

Social change and human rights based communication further stresses the process of communication and the centrality of affected groups. Here, the aim is to bring all individuals (or “rights holders”) into the process of decision-making about HIV and AIDS. Both these approaches involve a process of dialogue through which people themselves define who they are, what they need and how to get what they need in order to improve their own lives. This dialogue leads to collective problem identification, decision-making and community-based implementation of solutions to development issues. Visit the Communication for Social Change Consortium website for further resources.

Social mobilisation

Social mobilisation is another example of a participatory method emphasising political coalition-building and community action. Wide community participation is necessary for members to gain ownership, so that innovations are not seen as externally imposed. Social mobilisation is closely interlinked with advocacy. It strengthens advocacy efforts and relates them to social movements and social marketing activities. The People's Health Movement is a unique social mobilisation exercise that begun around five years ago.

Enabling health communication environments

This approach enables better health communication by fostering vibrant public debate, social cohesion, advocacy, free media, responsive government and an engaged civil society. It focuses mainly on creating supportive policy environments, facilitating dialogue between civil society, policymakers and the media, and encouraging the development of an informative, responsive and accountable local media. This includes the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and media capacity building. The Local Voices programme in Kenya, for example, is building the capacity of local media to effectively cover the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

There is considerable overlap between these approaches and they are best used in combination. Those aiming to develop a communication programme may want to start with the basics – the behaviour that causes risk – using approaches such as behaviour change and health education. Complementing these more clinically orientated approaches are those based on social change and participation, which empower communities to make changes for themselves. Such approaches help to create deeper-rooted change, and can avoid the entrenchment of a range of dynamics that could be unsustainable and even create dependency.