Communicating Agricultural and Health-Related Information in Low Literacy Communities: A Case Study of Villagers Served by the Bougoula Commune in Mali
Assa Kanté, Florence V. Dunkel, Ashley Williams, Haoua Traoré, Abdoulaye Camara · 2015
When villagers in Bougoula Commune in Mali were asked to rank their preferred ways for receiving information about problems related to water, new technologies and communication, and mass media channels ranked the lowest. The respondents preferred interpersonal communication channels with the chief of the village followed by meetings, Extension agents and peer farmers, which were rated equally. Both genders seemed equally concerned about disease, ranking malaria as the highest concern. The study showed gender differences, however, in water-related infrastructure issues. Men were more interested in dams, wells and bridges. Women were interested in issues that affected their traditional and daily duties, such as water pumps, access to water and pollution by pesticides. Therefore,, issues may need to be addressed separately according to gender. Careful attention also needs to be paid to the channels through which the educational information is sent. The authors recommend the empowerment of opinion leaders to transmit appropriate information effectively to villagers because of referent power and their influence within their gender groups Introduction and Conceptual Framework People living in the United States of America (USA) or any other industrialized nation take safe drinking water for granted. The World Health Organization reports, however, that more than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean water, and that more than 5 million die every year from contaminated water or water-related diseases (Cain and Gleick, 2005). Also, the World Bank estimated in 2004 that 1.5 billion people in the world lacked quality water. This global water crisis poses a serious threat of illness and death from tainted water or from water-borne disease (Cain and Gleick, 2005). A growing awareness exists that the water crisis undermines economic growth in developing nations, can cause conflicts over resources and can affect global security by worsening conditions in states already economically weak (Collier, 2007). In developing countries, because millions of people suffer or die from poor drinking water, one of the United Nations’ millennium development goals (MDGs) is to ensure clean water for all. Absent that, it is predicted that tens of millions of people will probably perish from tainted water and water-borne diseases by 2020 (Cain and Gleick, 2005; World Bank, 2004). African researchers reported water contaminated with coliform bacteria, excess salt, atrazine, enteroviruses and pesticides (Du Preez et al., 2004; Ehlers, Grabow and Pavlov, 2005; Faye et al., 2004; Gasana, Morin, Ndikuyeze and Kamoso, 2002 Kusiluka et al., 2004), including some studies in Mali. In Mali, water-borne intestinal diseases were found to be public health concerns (Plate, Strassmann and Wilson, 2004); therefore, access to potable water has become an urgent issue. The knowledge and technology already exist to access clean water, so what is important currently is to assess and understand the needs of populations lacking these opportunities, and to identify effective communication channels for disseminating appropriate information to those people who suffer from unclean water. In rural areas of Mali, as in many developing countries, external information to solve local problems is notoriously hard to obtain. The eighth MDG encouraged regions and countries to develop global partnership strategies that included information and communication technologies (ICTs) (World Bank, 2006). Subsequently, ICTs have gained widespread adoption worldwide, including in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Meso, Musa and Mbarika (2005) noted the pronounced proliferation of ICTs in SSA. In that trend, Community Learning and Information Centers (CLICs) were established in Mali to promote communication and openness to the world and provide community-based information access as well as learning facilities (USAID, 2003). Communicating Agricultural and Health-Related Information in Low Literacy 2 Unfortunately, many villagers did not view the CLICs as information centers, and the resources available were often poorly used (Fofana, personal communication, March 2005). Cartmell, Orr, and Kelemen (2006) indicated that the effective use of new information depends on the way the audience prefers to receive that information. In another study, Bardon, Hazel and Miller (2007) found an association between the communication channels and the sociodemographic characteristics of landowners in the United States. Rogers (2003) observed that those who are poor may be more localized in their choice and use of local communication channels. The purpose of this study was to describe villagers’ perceptions of water-related issues and their preferences for receiving information, and to determine if villagers’ preferences were influenced by their gender. Purpose and Objectives The study aimed to achieve the following objectives: rank the water-related problems in order of their importance as perceived by the villagers interviewed; and rank villagers’ preferred ways of receiving information about waterand health-related issues. Materials and Methods To increase participation in educational programs by those for whom the programs are intended, it is imperative to collect their perspectives to develop strategies to meet their needs (Duncan and Marotz-Baden, 1999; Waters and Haskell, 1989). The methodology of data collection for this study was a participatory process (Girara and Abela, 1991; Gueye, 1993) developed by the researchers using focus groups. Focus groups are “small groups of 6-12 participants of similar or varied characteristics” (Duncan and Marotz-Baden, p. 2). The study was conducted in 13 villages in Mali during 2004 to determine the villagers’ preferences regarding available communication channels including interpersonal channels (chief of the village, peer farmer, extension agents and meetings) and mass media (radio, book and CLIC); and a ranking of water-related issues according to their importance. The villages studied in the Commune of Bougoula were araco, Tadianabougou, Tamala, Falan, Safecoro, Kangole, Biron, Koren, Tadianabougou, Nianzan and Bougoula. The villages studied in the neighboring Commune of Dialadoroba were Sanambele and Dialakoroba. A set of pictures representing the main issues and various communication channels was laid out for voting by two groups that were divided on the basis of gender. The list of issues was proposed by researchers, and the villagers were invited to add or remove items from the list according to their perceptions of the relevance of the items. Stones were used to indicate a group’s vote: the villagers placed more stones in front of the issues about which they were more concerned, fewer stones in front of issues attracting less concern, and none if the issue was not a concern. Bardon, Hazel and Miller (2007) used a similar method when asking participants to rank their preferences for information delivery methods. In the water-related issues portion of the study, the female and male groups were interviewed separately. Then the males and females were brought together and given the 23 stones for water-related diseases to vote as a village. For infrastructure questions, 14 stones were used for voting. Males and females negotiated according to the importance of the issues for both genders and decided the number of stones to be assigned to each issue presented. In the negotiation process, each gender group tried to persuade the other group. Regarding villagers’ perceptions on communication channels, the villagers were given 20 stones