In June 2010, 16 individuals who are leading the way in Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) programs in East Africa gathered in Nairobi to participate in one of PRB’s highly acclaimed policy communications workshops. Through this training, participants learned how to better communicate information about effective PHE interventions and advocate for policy change that promotes PHE linkages and integrated approaches to policymakers in their home countries.
Since 2005, PRB has partnered with the National Coordinating Agency for Population (NCAPD) based in Nairobi, to facilitate these workshops. While the workshop provided participants with a number of take-home messages, three of the main principles of the workshop were: know your audience, use empirical evidence to support your message, and provide specific recommendations that encourage policymakers to act. Workshop activities showed participants how to implement these principles in written formats, when communicating in person, and when providing formal presentations. It was an intensive week-long experience; participants attended panel sessions and group meetings during the day and worked on individual exercises at night.
This year’s workshop, not unlike workshops in years past, brought together a remarkable group of professionals. The participants were from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda and they worked on a diverse range of PHE issues, including public health and endangered wildlife, HIV/AIDS and environmental linkages, and reproductive health advocacy as a conservation strategy. Given the incredible resumes and experience of our participants, I was curious to see how they would respond to the workshop activities. Would the experience meet participants’ diverse needs? Would it be challenging to even the most seasoned professionals? And lastly, would it leave participants more confident in their abilities and energized to reach out to decisionmakers?
The answer to all of these questions was yes. Despite the numerous qualifications and years of experience that participants possessed, the workshop still provided a unique opportunity to spend a concentrated period of time thinking about and practicing communication techniques with constant feedback from policy communication experts and their peers in the field. They learned new skills, built new connections, and reinvigorated their enthusiasm to share evidence and findings with decisionmakers.
On the last day of the workshop, each participant gave a formal presentation to the group. Despite the level of comfort that comes from spending a week together, for some participants, the presentation was still nerve-wracking. The presentations were filmed so that participants could see their own strengths and weaknesses as communicators, and the feedback from the group was honest. Still, every participant rose well beyond the challenge, proving that policy communications is a critical skill that can be cultivated, and that good mentoring, peer support, and hard work pay off. The participants also demonstrated that the process of growing as a communicator is never done. We all can continue to challenge ourselves to be strong policy communicators, and learn new techniques to improve the success of our messages, regardless of where we are in our careers.
Two participants share their thoughts on the workshop:
by Marissa Yeakey, policy analyst, International Programs
PRB’s offices feel a lot quieter this week, now that our 16 2010 Population Policy Communication Fellows are no longer sitting among us. For the last two weeks, this group of outstanding PhD students from Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East were stationed in our conference room, learning PRB’s principles of policy communication, and putting these principles into immediate practice by writing sample policy briefs and preparing policy presentations based on their own dissertation research. saglikli konularmakyaj kozmetik
The Policy Fellows program is one of PRB’s longest-standing programs, dating all the way back to the mid-1980s. Every June, a new group of bright young students, the people who will become tomorrow’s leading researchers and academicians, descends upon PRB for a two-week workshop on how to translate their research into policies and programs. At the heart of all of these Fellows’ research is a commitment to social change; they are researching topics ranging from gender inequality in community-based health insurance to the impacts of childbearing and life expectancy on economic growth. Findings from studies such as these can have profound impacts on policies and programs – but only if the data and findings can be effectively communicated to decisionmakers. A desire to understand this process, and a commitment to seeing research lead to more than just academic publications, is a large part of what drew this group together.
The Policy Fellows come to PRB at the peak of their educational career; on the whole, they are about to dive into data collection and analysis for their dissertations. This type of academic creativity sweeps through PRB’s office during the workshop, as the excitement and potential of research permeates the discussions and activities of the group. This is one reason why the Policy Fellows program can also be a challenge; it’s not easy to completely shift gears, mid-dissertation, and craft key messages and recommendations for policy and lay audiences. But this is what we ask the group to do – to set aside the world of their academic communities, and think and communicate in terms of policymakers and program managers. This year, as in every other, we saw the group rise to our challenge. Over the final two days, the participants delivered their presentations, communicating their findings with a passion and clarity fit for Parliament briefings, not conference sessions.
Effectively communicating research is not something that can take place in a vacuum over two weeks; as many of us know, it is an ongoing, sometimes laborious process. This group took the first step during the June workshop They are beginning a journey as researchers, one that we hope will lead to positive impacts on policies and programs for reproductive health.
The office is quieter, now that the group has dispersed back to their homes and research institutions. But they’ve left their mark on me and the PRB staff; they always make me excited about the future of research, and the potential of that research to change the world.
by Zofeen T. Ebrahim, freelance journalist based in Karachi, Pakistan, and member PRB’s Women’s Edition
They didn’t talk about maternal mortality and they didn’t talk about how it pays to invest in women. They didn’t talk about cost-effective solutions or that pumping another $12 billion a year can deliver for girls and women. No grim figures and no statistics were discussed.
So what were these women doing at Women Deliver, the largest-ever maternal and child health conference, held in Washington D.C. this week if they were not advocating for investing in women’s health and education, the theme of the conference? It was the second plenary of the first day of Women Deliver 2010, and these women in power talked about how they learned to cope with their successes.
These champions of women’s rights, who have worked tirelessly for women’s health issues, included Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile; Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Ashley Judd, actress and board member of the Population Services International; and Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama.
The four women spoke unabashedly about their fears, mostly about the fear of not meeting people’s expectations; the hard task of upholding the “superwoman” title that they never asked for in the first place, and how they dealt with criticism. They talked about their endless quest to find a balance, the juggling of responsibilities for those who had kids, and how those who chose not to have kids had to fight for that right. They talked about the importance of having alliances, of “trusting” friends who would tell them the truth for often when you are at the helm you “lose sense of reality.” Their discussion became all the more real because it was interspersed with real-life anecdotes.
The room was cold and would have grown unbearably colder had it not been for the warmth exuded by the moderator, Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, who put her guests at ease — so much so that Judd took off her shoes and plunked herself comfortably in the chair and pulled her legs up.
Huffington opened the discussion with what she claimed was a “trivial” subject — sleep – of which she had lately become “obsessed.” She said she needed seven and a half hours of sleep to be able to get her creative juices running smoothly. But more importantly, she pointed out that for many women, success meant driving themselves to the ground. “It’s not enough to be successful if there was no joy,” she said.
Bachelet, who was 22nd on Forbes 2009 list of 100 most powerful women, said women in power positions could make a difference. “I went into politics to be able to make people happy,” she said simply. Yet, she said it was not easy and she spent sleepless nights and anxious days because people were looking up to her, many for inspiration, others with aspiration.
The key to surviving at the helm, said Jarret, was to “make room for yourself.” To which Clark added, “believe in yourself,” which was seconded by Bachelet who said “don’t be consumed by work.” But another piece of advice came out during the plenary: abstain from holding grudges. Each speaker said most women were so scared of criticism, they internalized it. “The trick is to get over it,” they said.
by Jason Bremner, program director, Population, Health, and Environment
My mind is often flooded with indicators: population size, percent of the population living on less than a dollar per day, landholdings per household, average family size, and unmet need for family planning are a few that often float around in my head. Statistical research, however, never replaces the wealth of insight that can be gained through visiting communities, talking to people, and connecting faces and stories with indicators, results, and statistical associations.
During this field visit I came to the realization that a field visit is probably as intimate a communications opportunity as a project can have. People aren’t reading a one-pager or watching your perfectly crafted video. They’re actually there, talking with project staff, listening to beneficiaries, and seeing your efforts with their own eyes. Will you ever have a more captive audience? Probably not. Thus, while visiting the projects and talking with community members, I was constantly reflecting on the process itself, and this set of visits presented a whole spectrum of different experiences to reflect upon. So here are a few of my initial quick thoughts on field trip best practices.
Attending a large professional conference serves several purposes for demographers: It is a place to trade ideas with peers working on similar problems and with similar data; it offers a window into interesting projects outside the often narrow focus of one’s own specialty; it encourages us to ponder big, complicated issues, like climate change; and it provides an opportunity to catch up with old friends and colleagues and to meet new ones. Despite long days in stuffy, windowless meeting rooms, attending a conference can be energizing, reminding us why we went into the field in the first place and giving us fresh ideas about how to approach our work.
The IUSSP conference occurs only every four years and is probably the largest international gathering of population scientists. We asked a diverse group of population scientists attending the 2009 IUSSP meetings in Marrakech what they will take away from the experience and what they see as important emerging issues in their field.
This video features:
Ragui Assaad is a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. He recently returned to the university from Cairo, where he served as the regional director for West Asia and North Africa for the Population Council. Ragui has written numerous publications, including a PRB policy brief on the MENA youth bulge. He hosted one of PRB’s Discuss Online sessions on the topic in 2008.
Joel E. Cohen is Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of Populations at Rockefeller University. He heads the Laboratory of Populations at both Rockefeller and Columbia universities. Joel’s research deals mainly with demography, ecology, population genetics, epidemiology, and social organization of human and nonhuman populations, and with mathematical concepts useful in these fields. He is the author of numerous works on these subjects, including the seminal work, How Many People Can the Earth Support? He currently serves on the board of Trustees for PRB.
John F. May is a demographer at the World Bank who tracks population and health trends in sub-Saharan Africa. He recently published the study “Capturing Ethiopia’s Demographic Bonus.” Before joining the World Bank in 1997, John worked on population projects around the world for the UN Population Fund, UNICEF, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the IUSSP, and the Futures Group International. John was a visiting scholar at PRB in 1991-1992 and again in 2005-2006.
Lori Hunter is a professor of sociology and environmental studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and editor-in-chief of the journal Population and Environment. She is part of an ongoing project investigating the links between the environment and HIV/AIDS for people living in specific rural areas of South Africa. Her research interests embrace many aspects of environment, health, and population dynamics, including the public perception of environmental issues and environmental inequality. Lori spent September 2006 to April 2007 at PRB as a Population-Health-Environment Bixby Fellow. During this time, she contributed several articles to our website.
Those of us at PRB who attended this year’s IUSSP International Population Conference had an enlightening, exciting, and wonderful time in Marrakesh. We also had a first-hand lesson in what happens when local political realities meet international population data gathering and reporting.
Sunday morning of the conference brought a shock to us. Representatives of the host government of Morocco had removed all the publications from PRB’s exhibit booth because two of our data sheets included estimates for Western Sahara, the focus of territorial dispute for decades. The Moroccan government considers Western Sahara part of the Kingdom of Morocco. Other organizations’ materials were also removed for the same reason. We retrieved our publications after agreeing not to distribute publications with the Western Sahara estimates.
But the World Population Data sheet is our most well-known publication, and many visitors to our booth asked for it expressly. In the end we did distribute the data sheets with the Western Sahara lined blacked out so that these unique resources could eventually be posted on office and classroom walls around the world. Many participants also took our CD-ROM containing more than 80 recent datasheets and publications in English, with many also in French, Spanish, or Arabic.
In the end, the important thing is that participants from NGOs and academia were able to get our publications with our objective data and analysis, while we also respected the wishes of the host government.
I’m enjoying this week immensely. Of approximately 904 scientific papers or panel presentations and 856 poster presentations, I’ve personally experienced only a small number. Of the 2,700 participants from scores of countries, though, I’ve been fortunate to talk with a great many—old friends and new, visitors at our PRB booth, chance encounters in the halls, and yes, the souks.
Seven PRB staff, three senior fellows, and five members of our Board of Trustees are here in Marrakech:
PRB staff: Jason Bremner, program director, Population, Health and Environment; Nadwa Mossaad, research associate, Domestic Programs; Nazy Roudi, program director, Middle East and North Africa; Fariyal Fikree, senior program director, Global Health; Mary Kent, senior demographic editor; and Bill Butz, president.
Fellows: Tom Merrick, Elaine Murphy, Charlie Teller.
Trustees: Wendy Baldwin, The Population Council; Wolfgang Lutz, Vienna Institute of Demography; Joel Cohen, Rockefeller University; Leela Visaria, independent researcher; and Martin Vaessen, ICF Macro.
This conference is a prime opportunity to stay abreast of the science in our fields and to contribute to it. You’ll be reading—and hearing—some of the results on the PRB website in coming weeks. (And for a fascinating look back at 50 years of IUSSP conferences—how the topics, authors, and regions have changed—see From Vienna to Marrakech: 50 years of Independent IUSSP Conferences, 1959-2009 from the Vienna Institute of Demography).
For several days before the main conference, I participated in a workshop convened by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in collaboration with four European Research Councils: Economic and Social Research Council (UK), Research Council of Norway, Equilibres et Populations (France), and WROTO (Netherlands). Together with African experts, communication specialists, and other funders such as USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we considered how to communicate complex research to African policymakers in the context of an ambitious international program of economic and demographic research just now beginning to produce its first results. We moved at a fast clip. The results are a practical blueprint for action as the scientific findings come on line.
These meeting are beautifully organized and the host government and the King have been gracious and generous. Marrakech is lovely and fascinating, and the scientific enterprise regarding population in its many contexts is vibrant.
by Nadwa Mossaad, research associate, Domestic Programs
Yesterday marked the opening ceremony of the 26th International Union for the Study of Population (IUSSP) in the ancient red city of Marrakech, located in the center of Morocco bordering the Sahara desert on the foot of the Atlas Mountains.
The opening ceremony was impressive, with over 2,300 participants from more than 100 countries — the largest ever in the history of IUSSP. The ceremony was marked by speeches from the International Organizing Committee’s president Ahmed lahlimi Alami, IUSSP president John Cleland, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid, former director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for the Arab States Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, and finally from his Majesty the King of Morocco, all highlighting the importance of demographic research in alleviating poverty, increasing education, and advancing women’s rights and human development while paying close attention to the environment and climate change.
The meeting’s theme is as varied as the history, culture, and demography of the people of the host country this year. The discussions and presentations will range from the usual to the new and groundbreaking to the controversial, but the general sense is to discuss the challenges facing the world today and the upcoming decade, and to explore the renewed commitment of many stakeholders to appropriately address the issues.
So, it was wonderful to see many of my friends whom I found over the years in different international conferences: a Palestinian woman I first met in India, a Lebanese whom I first met in Egypt, a Sudanese I met in Jordan, and a Saudi I met in Tours, France, where the previous IUSSP conference was held four years ago.
The first international conference I attended was in Amman, Jordan in 1993. It was the preparatory meeting of Arab region for the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) that was going to be held in Cairo the following year. The international population conference, a decennial event organized by UNFPA, was held in Cairo in September 1994 and attended by high-level policymakers from 179 countries. As a side meeting, there was a gathering of nongovernmental organizations from around the world, as a way of influencing the high-level policymaking at ICPD.
Today, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid was among the keynote speakers. And again, it is the first time that such a high-level official from UNFPA attended this international conference, which traditionally has been a gathering of academics. There are good reasons for Thoraya Obaid to be here. This year is the 15th anniversary of the Cairo Conference and the fact that the Executive Director is from the region (Saudi Arabia) can explain her participation and support for this conference. But more importantly, such a partnership between UNFPA, the highest policymaking body on population issues at the global level and IUSSP, the largest scientific body for the study of population, is very much welcomed.
On August 12, PRB launched the annual World Population Data Sheetand accompanying Population Bulletin in Washington, DC, highlighting country, regional, and global population, health, and environment data and patterns. This year’s data sheet places special emphasis on youth.
The share of world’s youth population is growing in Africa and shrinking in More Developed Countries (MDCs). In 1950, 9 percent of the world’s youth lived in Africa and 30 percent lived in MDCs (Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan). By 2050, that share will change to 29 percent in Africa and 11 percent in the MDCs. “The great bulk of today’s 1.2 billion youth—nearly 90 percent—are in developing countries,” said Carl Haub, PRB senior demographer and co-author of the data sheet. Eight in 10 of those youth live in Africa and Asia. “During the next few decades, these young people will most likely continue the current trend of moving from rural areas to cities in search of education and training opportunities, gainful employment, and adequate health care.” With the right investments in health, education, agricutlural develomment, and entrepreneurship, a large youth population can be an opportunity for development and change. However, these investments are not being made in many countries. The fundamental question facing many developing countries is whether the needs of their large youth populations will be met. The answer to this question will largely determine the development, stability, and future of developing countries.
The data sheet shows just how stark the contrasts are between rich and poor countries in terms of population growth, life expectancy, income, and other indicators. Stay tuned for a webcast on prb.org of the data sheet launch at the National Press Club over the next week.
We welcome your comments, input, questions on our findings and the implications of this on the world’s future.
Here are just a few stories on the data sheet launch from around the world:
