Immunization and Child Health Materials Development Guide

1 Elizabeth Younger Scott Wittet Carol Hooks Heidi LasherImmunization andChild Health MaterialsDevelopment GuideImmunization andChild Health MaterialsDevelopment GuideApril 2001 Bill and Melinda Gates Children s Vaccine ProgramPATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health )4 Nickerson Street, Seattle, Washington 98109 and Melinda Gates Children s Vaccine ProgramProgram for Appropriate Technology in HealthApril 2001 Elizabeth Younger Scott Wittet Carol Hooks Heidi Lasherimmunization andchild Health materialsdevelopment guideAcknowledgementsThis Guide is based on a popular and widely used book produced by PATH in 1989 and revisedin 1996: Developing Health and Family Planning Materials for Low-Literate Audiences.

2 A have expanded that Guide to include information on developing radio, video, andcomputer-based Materials and shifted the focus to Immunization and Child Health . We havealso expanded the scope beyond low-literate audiences to include writing for policy-makers,providers, fieldworkers, and others targeted for training or advocacy efforts. We hope you willfind the expanded topics and resources in this Guide useful and thanks to Anne Wilson, Margot Zimmerman, and Jude-Marie Alexis for reviewing earlyversions of this document and offering their advice and would also like to acknowledge.

3 Sue Carrington, editingKendall King, design, layout, and select artworkRichard Franco, cover and title page photographsGordon Perkin, cover photographyScott Wittet, title page photographsVeronique Kouame, word processingKharin Kirkpatrick, proofingAnd the authors of the original Guide :Margot ZimmermanNancy NewtonLena FruminScott WittetAny part of this Guide may be photocopied or adapted to meet local needs without permissionfrom PATH, provided that the parts copied are distributed free of charge or at cost and thatcredit is given to of ContentsPageA Letter from the Director of Advocacy, Communications, and Training1 How to Use This Guide3 Eight Steps to Effective Materials DevelopmentStep 1.

4 Plan Your Project5 Step 2. Identify and Study Your Audience11In-depth: Effective Qualitative Research19 Step 3. Develop Messages37 Step 4. Create Draft Materials41 Print Materials41 Radio Materials44 Video Materials45 Computer-based Materials48 Step 5. Pretest and Revise Draft Materials57In-depth: Effective Pretesting63 Step 6. Produce Materials83 Step 7. Distribute Materials and Train in Their Use87 Step 8. Evaluate Materials91 Endnotes95 References97 Glossary of Acronyms99 Resources100 Appendices103 Guide Feedback FormPage 1A Letter from the Director of Advocacy,Communications, and TrainingInvolving Your Audience in Materials Development Why Bother?

5 Sometimes, the Health Materials Development process happens sitting around a table in theoffice. Someone writes a draft, then calls in technical advisors to check the facts andproofreaders to check the punctuation. Unfortunately, the Development team neglects toconsult the most important experts of all the decision-makers, Health care providers, or parentswho are supposed to understand, appreciate, and use the material result? Sometimes it can be disastrous! Consider these true stories: An American beer company translated its slogan Turn It Loose into Spanish, but staffdidn t test the translation carefully enough.

6 Many potential customers in Mexicounderstood the Spanish slogan to mean Suffer From Diarrhea. Needless to say, beersales did not improve! When a well-known soft drink company first translated its name into Chinese, staff tried tofind words that sound like the English words. They settled on Kekoukela, but soon learnedthat it means either bite the wax tadpole or female horse stuffed with wax, dependingon the Chinese dialect! Finally, the company decided to do audience research, usingmany of the same methods described in this book.

7 After investigating 40,000 Chinesecharacters, a phonetic equivalent was found kokou kole, meaning happiness in themouth. What a great solution!These examples focus on problems resulting from poor translation a relatively simple error toavoid. Other problems can be harder to predict. But there are low-cost, relatively easy-to-usemethods that can help make your Materials more effective and attractive. The purpose of thisbook is to help you master those with creating better Materials , there are other reasons to invest in the process: Audience research provides a window into the minds of the people you are trying toinfluence.

8 You will have a better understanding of their world their information needs,their concerns, and their motivation for changing behaviors. This knowledge makes youa stronger Materials developer. As you move through the pretest and revision process, you ll see the material improvebefore your eyes. You ll feel confident in your product and proud of it! And you ll beable to justify your Materials Development decisions with actual field data, instead ofassumptions or general 2 Materials Development is especially challenging when the typical intended audience memberhas a different level of education, or comes from a different background than the peopledeveloping the Materials .

9 Consider these statistics: Worldwide, an estimated 27 percent of adults cannot read or In the least-developed countries, the situation is worse over 50 percent of adults havelow or no literacy skills. An even higher percentage of people have not taken a high school Health or biologycourse, and, therefore, might not understand basic Health does this mean to someone developing Health Materials ? First, it suggests that whentrying to reach the general public, we cannot assume that they can read brochures,newspapers, or posters.

10 And even if our intended audience can read, we had better makecertain that the text is easy for them to understand and does not use sophisticated technicallanguage or these methods, then use your best Materials Development situation is different. Sometimes you have enough time and moneyto do the job; sometimes time and money are in short supply. Sometimes you have a team towork with; sometimes you don t. There is no single strategy that works in every situation. Whateverthe challenge, the best person to decide how to solve it is advice: become familiar with the techniques presented here, try them out, then use theones that work well for you.