AN EVALUATION OF COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES OF UNICEF’S CHILD RIGHT PROMOTION IN SOUTH-SOUTH NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Communication has continued to play significant roles in human communities. It is an important vehicle for sensitization and societal transformation. Notably, Nigeria is deficient in modern communication infrastructures, which is one major vehicle for the promotion of developmental programmes. Many people do not have adequate access to communication messages and the long-term price Nigerians pay is the entrenchment of poverty, ignorance and general under-development.
In Nigeria’s peculiar development circumstances, communication media (indigenous and modern) should be employed in creating awareness, mobilization, resolution of conflicts/problems and empowerment of the people. Knowledge, as a popular adage goes, is power and what the people need critically, is the freedom to access information for development at minimal cost. Children need knowledge through communication to stay in touch with the changing trends in a globalized world to fight poverty, disease and more importantly, ignorance and lack of fundamental freedoms, one of which is the rights of the child. The issue of child rights has come to the fore as democracy grows in many parts of the world.
Unfortunately in Nigeria, child abuse, neglect, discrimination and deprivation continue to engage the attention of individuals, groups and organizations. Adeyemi (2000:2) commenting on the rights of the African child, says: … “The situation of most African children remains critical due to the unique factors of socio-economic, cultural, traditional and developmental circumstances – natural disasters, armed conflicts, exploitation and hunger”.
Children seem to be the most vulnerable in the battle to overcome poverty and under-development. Adeyemi (2000) further reported that the rights of the child are enshrined in several United Nation’s Charters, such as the Geneva Declaration on the Rights of the Child – 1924, the international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and most recently in 1989 the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which was ratified by Nigeria on March 21, 1991. But despite these Charters and conventions, child abuse, neglect and discrimination appear to be on the increase.
It is on this premise that Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) has been introduced by UNICEF Child Right Intervention Programme because it is viewed as the process of injecting communication strategies into any development process inorder to bring about social change in individuals, societies and communities thereby fostering development. It is a process because it is interactive, research-based and planned. It applies behaviour change models and theories to find an effective tipping point for change.
The United Nations Convention on the rights of the child adopted by the General Assembly on November 20, 1989, recognizes a child as “a person below 18 unless under the laws applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”. In the same vein, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, adopted at the 16th ordinary session of the Heads of States in Monrovia, Liberia, on July 17-20, 1979, defines a child as “every human being below the age of 18”.
Child rights issues actually evolved when the international community became sensitive to the need to uphold and enhance the status of human rights and when it became so clear that these rights which have been made applicable to the generality of the members of the human race were not, and still are not, child specific and consequently are not sufficiently protective of children who have been recognized as having special needs for protection. Such rights are recognized in various instruments as earlier mentioned.
Adeyemi (2000) catalogued the following as the rights of the child, as enshrined in various United Nations and African Charters on the rights of the child. They include:
i. The right to life, survival and development
ii. the right to a name, family and nationality
iii. The right to associate or peaceful assembly according to the law.
iv. The right to freely express opinions on any subject, subject to restriction under the law
v. The right to protection from any act that interferes with his/her privacy, honour and reputation.
vi. The right to leisure, according to age and culture
vii. The right to education and equal opportunity for higher education
viii. The right to good health, protection from illness and proper medical attention for survival, personal growth and development.
ix. The right to protection against all forms of torture, cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. Protection against all for physical violence injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment of exploitation, including sexual abuse. Protection against denial of parental care, and family life. Protection against drug abuse, harmful social and cultural practices, adduction, sale or trafficking. Protection against violation of human rights and non-observation of due process in the administration of juvenile justice.
x. The right to protection against any form of discrimination irrespective of ethnicity, origin, birth, colour, sex, language, religion, political and social beliefs, status and disability.
xi. The right to protection against forced labour, early marriage and betrothal, infliction of tattoos and skin marks, female-genital-mutilation, exposure to use, production and trafficking of drugs and psychotropic substances, use of children in any criminal activity, exploitative labour, domestic helps, begging and prostitutions.
Much as the formal documentation of these rights is commendable, the problem however, is enforcement in the face of severe poverty and general under-development. This has engaged the attention of the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), as the problem of child abuse grows in our society.
The task of the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in ensuring that children in Nigeria enjoy most of the rights mentioned above appears a huge one. As in other countries, the UN agency works in collaboration with the government to implement its programmes.
In Nigeria, a 7-year co-operative programme, which started in 2000, lasted till 2007 having covered the scope of implementation objectives and plans set by them. Most United Nations programmes are implemented within stipulated time frames. It could be 5 years, 7 years or 10 years depending on the scope of work to be done or problem areas to be covered for example (EPI) immunization Programme Implementation in Nigeria which is done in phases and spread over a period of time, based on its original plan of action and the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the implementation process or mechanisms.
The programme, a joint multi-sectored intervention with government and other civil society groups had the following measures/approaches:
i. Child survival and early child care (CEC)
ii. Integrated growth and development (IGD)
iii. Protection and participation phase (PPP)
iv. Planning and communication (PC)
v. Community development (CD)
These approaches rest heavily on adequate utilization of communication to break the barriers of illiteracy, customs and poverty; factors that severely hinder the promotion of child rights (Adeyemi, 2000). The strategies to attain these goals remain a key issue in the success of UNICEF’s programmes.
In Nigeria, laudable programmes like the one UNICEF is pursuing, often failed to yield results because of inadequate planning, wrong choice of target groups, poor co-ordination and strategies adopted. Such programmes end up in the big cities and are hardly able to address the concerns of the rural majority.
A programme of this magnitude certainly should “go beyond slogans, radio jingles and television commercials. It should involve people at the interpersonal level and offer alternatives to address their concerns” (Adeyemi quoting Dare, 2000:6). This is why an evaluation of the communication strategy of UNICEF’s child rights promotion is important.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Child rights have become a topical issue frequently among government and international agencies. Much of the interests come from a growing evidence of children drafted into the international conflicts and the commercial sex trade. Others are the growing evidence of child labour and the problems caused by HIV/AIDS in many parts of the developing world.
In Nigeria, the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has embarked on a co-ordinated programme to tackle child abuse, abandonment and neglect. It has devoted considerable resources to government and civil society groups to tackle growing cases of abuse of children’s rights. However, Nigeria is yet to be described as a child-friendly country, with several documented cases of abuse, abandonment, deprivation and neglect.
Although, the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and other organizations have carried out commendable campaigns for the promotion of children’s rights, it appears that most Nigerians are yet to appreciate the rights of children. The problem may be attributed to many factors including inadequate communication to reach the critical groups that are responsible for most of the problems of children.
Therefore, this study sought intends to find out if the communication strategies adopted by the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) are adequate and effective?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The study has the following objectives:
1. To identify the communication strategies adopted by UNICEF in its child rights advocacy.
2. To examine the appropriateness of the communication strategies adopted by UNICEF in its child rights promotion in south-south Nigeria.
3. To determine the level of awareness of UNICEF’s child rights messages
4. To assess the effectiveness of UNICEF’s communication strategies in promoting children’s rights in Nigeria.
5. To examine the cultural relevance of child rights promotion messages in south-south Nigeria.
AN EVALUATION OF COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES OF UNICEF’S CHILD RIGHT PROMOTION IN SOUTH-SOUTH NIGERIA
