RESILIENCE
Our projects focus on food and water security, economic security and disaster risk reduction
RESILIENCE
Our projects focus on food and water security, economic security and disaster risk reduction
Amrai Pari RESILIENCE / BANGLADESH
We had separate theories of change for all areas of our activities, to make sure everyone understood what we were trying to make happen. By making the process inclusive with everyone involved and being engaged means it’s more likely the work will be focused and true to what’s going on.”
Richard Lace, Country Director, Bangladesh
Amrai Pari RESILIENCE / BANGLADESH
We had separate theories of change for all areas of our activities, to make sure everyone understood what we were trying to make happen. By making the process inclusive with everyone involved and being engaged means it’s more likely the work will be focused and true to what’s going on.”
Richard Lace, Country Director, Bangladesh
BACKGROUND STORY
Bangladesh experiences extreme weather conditions frequently. Some 80% of the land is on a floodplain and relatively small disasters have lasting impacts on its 164 million people. Regions of Bangladesh are at risk from earthquakes, droughts and cyclones.
BBC Media Action’s challenge was to provide communication support for communities to work together to improve their incomes and to be more prepared for disasters.
Our response was to create the TV programme, Amrai Pari (Together We Can Do It) since TV is watched by the majority of Bangladeshis. From 2013 -16, Amrai Pari aimed to inspire people by airing examples from across the country of communities adopting simple, cheap techniques for growing different types of vegetables, adapting their houses working together as a community to build bridges and storing food.
THE MEDIA IN ACTION
Launched in 2014, the first series of reality TV programme Amrai Pari, went out on state broadcaster Bangladesh Television (BTV). Two series followed in 2015 and 2016 and broadcast on cable and satellite channel ATN Bangla.
Alongside, we broadcast public service advertisements/announcements ‘‘Working Together” on TV and eight radio magazine episodes of Amrai Pari, set up a Facebook page and launched a large-scale outreach partnership with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and other NGOs.
The ‘stars’ of Amrai Pari were communities – sharing stories of overcoming hardship together. Amrai Pari travelled across the country, filming communities as they worked with local government disaster management committees. Audiences saw them strengthen storm defences in fishing areas, build dams, and make cyclone shelters child-friendly.
The programme used its format to show how communities could gain the support of key decision-makers to be ready and able to tackle practical projects. Amrai Pari was inspiring as it gave information and showcased how communities shared their knowledge to safeguard their welfare and build their livelihoods. These activities included training local NGOs to improve their communication on environmental issues, disaster response and preparation.
IMPACT
Amrai Pari reached an audience of 22.5 million across the series.
Our Climate Asia research pointed to where, why and how people would be moved to take action. People did not know how to act, felt the government should support more, didn’t have enough resources to respond and thought that no-one else in their community was doing anything. Our viewers most valued the content that helped them to improve their food security and increase their incomes. Almost half (47%) said they had taken action as a result of watching Amrai Pari or our PSAs.
Our research fed directly into the programme design. For example, in series two and three, there was more focus on actions that would be of economic benefit to viewers and focused on increasing the audience’s awareness of support that local authorities could provide. During these two series, the percentage of people who reported taking action as a result of watching the programme increased from 36% to 47%.
Our future generation will be better able to cope with the natural disasters if they watch Amrai Pari.”
Male viewer, rural south west
Amrai Pari won the Community Mobilisation category in the 2017 Social Media for Empowerment Awards.
Watch an episode here:
For more about Amrai Pari, watch this:
BACKGROUND STORY
Bangladesh experiences extreme weather conditions frequently. Some 80% of the land is on a floodplain and relatively small disasters have lasting impacts on its 164 million people. Regions of Bangladesh are at risk from earthquakes, droughts and cyclones.
BBC Media Action’s challenge was to provide communication support for communities to work together to improve their incomes and to be more prepared for disasters.
Our response was to create the TV programme, Amrai Pari (Together We Can Do It) since TV is watched by the majority of Bangladeshis. From 2013 -16, Amrai Pari aimed to inspire people by airing examples from across the country of communities adopting simple, cheap techniques for growing different types of vegetables, adapting their houses working together as a community to build bridges and storing food.
THE MEDIA IN ACTION
Launched in 2014, the first series of reality TV programme Amrai Pari, went out on state broadcaster Bangladesh Television (BTV). Two series followed in 2015 and 2016 and broadcast on cable and satellite channel ATN Bangla.
Alongside, we broadcast public service advertisements/announcements ‘‘Working Together” on TV and eight radio magazine episodes of Amrai Pari, set up a Facebook page and launched a large-scale outreach partnership with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and other NGOs.
The ‘stars’ of Amrai Pari were communities – sharing stories of overcoming hardship together. Amrai Pari travelled across the country, filming communities as they worked with local government disaster management committees. Audiences saw them strengthen storm defences in fishing areas, build dams, and make cyclone shelters child-friendly.
The programme used its format to show how communities could gain the support of key decision-makers to be ready and able to tackle practical projects. Amrai Pari was inspiring as it gave information and showcased how communities shared their knowledge to safeguard their welfare and build their livelihoods. These activities included training local NGOs to improve their communication on environmental issues, disaster response and preparation.
IMPACT
Amrai Pari reached an audience of 22.5 million across the series.
Our Climate Asia research pointed to where, why and how people would be moved to take action. People did not know how to act, felt the government should support more, didn’t have enough resources to respond and thought that no-one else in their community was doing anything. Our viewers most valued the content that helped them to improve their food security and increase their incomes. Almost half (47%) said they had taken action as a result of watching Amrai Pari or our PSAs.
Our research fed directly into the programme design. For example, in series two and three, there was more focus on actions that would be of economic benefit to viewers and focused on increasing the audience’s awareness of support that local authorities could provide. During these two series, the percentage of people who reported taking action as a result of watching the programme increased from 36% to 47%.
Our future generation will be better able to cope with the natural disasters if they watch Amrai Pari.”
Male viewer, rural south west
Amrai Pari won the Community Mobilisation category in the 2017 Social Media for Empowerment Awards.
Watch an episode here:
For more about Amrai Pari, watch this:
Nyakati Zinabadilika RESILIENCE / TANZANIA
The stories were believable, the audience trusted the contributors and the topics were practical and not that complex. When you plant sunflowers do it X far apart – this is not so hard. It was a combination of local, doable, socially uncomplicated activities that gave the programme the traction that it had.”
Colin Spurway, Country Director, Tanzania
Nyakati Zinabadilika RESILIENCE / TANZANIA
The stories were believable, the audience trusted the contributors and the topics were practical and not that complex. When you plant sunflowers do it X far apart – this is not hard. It was a combination of local, doable, socially uncomplicated activities that gave the programme the traction that it had.”
Colin Spurway, Country Director, Tanzania
BACKGROUND STORY
It is accepted that Tanzania’s weather patterns have changed. Our research showed that people had felt the impact of changes in the weather. We also learned that people recognised that the climate was changing, but didn’t necessarily understand why. They felt helpless about how to respond or adapt to it and that they had limited capacity to make any changes themselves.
BBC Media Action’s challenge was to produce communication that reflected people’s everyday lives, and that would be most likely to result in people taking up useful, new practices and actions.
Our response was to create the Nyakati Zinabadilika radio show (The Times/Winds are Changing), designed and developed to be delivered by three partner radio stations in particularly affected regions.
THE MEDIA IN ACTION
The Nyakati Zinabadilika radio show was about crops and related social issues, and the possible, achievable agricultural responses. We had three radio partners in the affected regions and different versions of the programmes were made – sometimes on the same topic but not always.”
We implemented our project in Dodoma, where droughts are getting longer, and Morogoro, where floods and droughts are becoming more extreme. Our three partner radio stations in the Morogoro and Dodoma regions – Abood FM, Dodoma FM and Ulanga FM, each had one of our mentors working full-time and providing training and programme-making and management support.
The shows explored ‘climate-smart’ farming, drought-resistant crops and terracing, and ways people could diversify their incomes through leather and honey production, and chicken keeping, for example. Along with these, we ran broadcast debates, discussion programmes and road-shows to emphasise and promote the message of resilience in the face of climate change.
Our outreach programme included open day events to discuss how stakeholders and communities could work together with radio station partners to address issues of climate change. Through our partnerships with 12 civil society organisations there were 25 listening groups meeting weekly to listen to and discuss Nyakati Zinabadilika.
IMPACT
The programmes reached 31% of the population in Dodoma and Morogoro and 86% of them said that it had inspired them by showing how others were coping in similar situations.
The impact results from Tanzania were very encouraging. A range of research methods showed that people who had been exposed to BBC Media Action’s programmes had improved their knowledge of resilience-related issues, were more motivated to discuss those issues with people around them, felt more confident about their ability to act and, ultimately, took simple actions that could support them to adapt to the shocks and stresses they were experiencing. Furthermore, all of this happened at scale.
From the listening groups, one group of pastoralists from Kilosa (whose livelihoods had been dependent on livestock), successfully cultivated cassava and sweet potatoes for security in times of drought.
One listener told us:
I formed a group. We decided to go to our agricultural officer and asked him to advise us how we could succeed in agriculture although we had no capital. He helped us organise the group and we registered it and opened a bank account. We are now planning on growing mangoes, coconuts and oranges.”
Listen to an episode here:
Watch a case study here:
BACKGROUND STORY
It is accepted that Tanzania’s weather patterns have changed. Our research showed that people had felt the impact of changes in the weather. We also learned that people recognised that the climate was changing, but didn’t necessarily understand why. They felt helpless about how to respond or adapt to it and that they had limited capacity to make any changes themselves.
BBC Media Action’s challenge was to produce communication that reflected people’s everyday lives, and that would be most likely to result in people taking up useful, new practices and actions.
Our response was to create the Nyakati Zinabadilika radio show (The Times/Winds are Changing), designed and developed to be delivered by three partner radio stations in particularly affected regions.
THE MEDIA IN ACTION
The Nyakati Zinabadilika radio show was about crops and related social issues, and the possible, achievable agricultural responses. We had three radio partners in the affected regions and different versions of the programmes were made – sometimes on the same topic but not always.”
We implemented our project in Dodoma, where droughts are getting longer, and Morogoro, where floods and droughts are becoming more extreme. Our three partner radio stations in the Morogoro and Dodoma regions – Abood FM, Dodoma FM and Ulanga FM, each had one of our mentors working full-time and providing training and programme-making and management support.
The shows explored ‘climate-smart’ farming, drought-resistant crops and terracing, and ways people could diversify their incomes through leather and honey production, and chicken keeping, for example. Along with these, we ran broadcast debates, discussion programmes and road-shows to emphasise and promote the message of resilience in the face of climate change.
Our outreach programme included open day events to discuss how stakeholders and communities could work together with radio station partners to address issues of climate change. Through our partnerships with 12 civil society organisations there were 25 listening groups meeting weekly to listen to and discuss Nyakati Zinabadilika.
IMPACT
The programmes reached 31% of the population in Dodoma and Morogoro and 86% of them said that it had inspired them by showing how others were coping in similar situations.
The impact results from Tanzania were very encouraging. A range of research methods showed that people who had been exposed to BBC Media Action’s programmes had improved their knowledge of resilience-related issues, were more motivated to discuss those issues with people around them, felt more confident about their ability to act and, ultimately, took simple actions that could support them to adapt to the shocks and stresses they were experiencing. Furthermore, all of this happened at scale.
From the listening groups, one group of pastoralists from Kilosa (whose livelihoods had been dependent on livestock), successfully cultivated cassava and sweet potatoes for security in times of drought.
One listener told us:
I formed a group. We decided to go to our agricultural officer and asked him to advise us how we could succeed in agriculture although we had no capital. He helped us organise the group and we registered it and opened a bank account. We are now planning on growing mangoes, coconuts and oranges.”
Listen to an episode here:
Watch a case study here: