JOICFP Expertise at Asia Regional Workshop
for BCC Skills Development 2006

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The third regional meeting for the UNFPA-supported Asia Regional Project Increasing Male Involvement for RH through Effective BCC Strategies (RAS5R304) was held in Ulaanbaatar from 18th to 22nd September. The regional project, implemented for four years since 2004, aims to develop effective modalities/strategies of BCC for increasing male involvement in and support for RH especially at the community level, with a particular focus on reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity.

This Regional Workshop was jointly organized by JOICFP and the National Center for Health Development, Ministry of Health of Mongolia, with support from UNFPA Mongolia. Representatives from the operation countries of Indonesia, Mongolia and Myanmar, as well as from UNFPA Country Programs in Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, along with resource personnel from UNFPA and JOICFP attended.

The workshop was started with an opening ceremony, where the Vice Minister of Health of Mongolia welcomed the participants and the Representative of UNFPA Mongolia made an introductory remark. A speech by the Executive Director of JOICFP officially opened the workshop with a show of a TV spot developed by JOICFP for Mongolia to promote male participation in RH. The TV spot was edited into several versions to customize for respective use, out of which, the original final edited tapes of three versions each exclusively edited for the use of the Ministry of Health of Mongolia and UNFPA Mongolia were donated from JOICFP to each agency.

The Regional Workshop aimed to:

1. Share the outcomes of BCC media tool development in the operation countries;
2. Share BCC experiences on male involvement in the non-operation countries;
3. Provide technical training on BCC interventions, and how to monitor and evaluate these interventions; and
4. Discuss future activities, including how to replicate male involvement strategies at the country and regional levels.

The three operation countries first introduced their country level project outlines focusing on communication strategies, followed by the non-operation countries sharing experiences of male involvement BCC interventions.

The workshop participants made a field visit to two project sites covered under the project, where they interviewed male educators, local government officials, local health center staff, and community people to gather information for recommendations to strengthen BCC interventions in Mongolia.

All the participants mentioned how useful the field trip was to gather information directly from the community.

JOICFP's Approduction Training

Atsushi Yoshino, Director, Media Communications, JOICFP, conducted sessions on effective BCC communication intervention, emphasizing the Approduction strategy, 'multi-solution' approach, and the need of balanced combinations in communication interventions within a BCC strategy.

The participants practiced how to check balance of various communication tools, and the operation countries demonstrated their use of BCC media tools they had produced.

2007 is the final year of the project, and sessions were held on monitoring and evaluating BCC interventions, including revisiting evaluation indicators already constructed.

The final session saw the participants discuss strategies for replicating and scaling up male involvement in their respective countries. Participants from respective UNFPA country offices of the operation countries made a commitment to incorporate male involvement components in their country programmes as of the next year.

All the participants expressed appreciation for the workshop and its contents, and operation countries stated that they were now better prepared for project end surveys and replication.

The non-operation countries stated that they especially gained knowledge on BCC skills and technologies. Also, as very few programmes and projects tackle the issue of involving men in RH in terms of how men can support women's health seeking behavior, with the aim to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity, they expressed their strong interest in the outputs of the project and hope to be updated on the project progress. JOICFP will continue its efforts to share the information of the project with those participants from non-operation countries through newsletters, websites, and an e-group.