Research collected from more than 200 people in earthquake affected communities in Nepal has highlighted how efforts to communicate in emergencies have to go deeper, be far more long lasting and pay considerable more attention to the needs of different groups. Details were given at an event at City University, hosted by the Department of Journalism’s Humanitarian News Research Group. Margie Buchanan- Smith, the lead researcher for the work, ‘Are You Listening Now?’ said that while it was evident that there was a close correlation between what people wanted to hear in the immediate aftermath and the information coming from international responders, this was not the case seven months later when people wanted to hear about government cash handouts or shelter provision. This raised the question about the relationship between international aid agencies producing information and the government. Another lesson from the research, which was commissioned by the CDAC Network, is that most people, particularly women, stated a preference for face to face engagement but the main channel for dissemination for international agencies tended to be radio. Sitting and listening to the radio was simply a luxury in terms of time that is not available to most women in rural Nepal. A briefing paper on the research is available here .
Nev Jeffries, a Humanitarian consultant with UK Aid (Dfid) said that the agency was committed to communicating with communities as it was an issue, not only of effectiveness, but also accountability. Long standing problems remained however. Bringing communication into emergency preparedness was still an issue, and there was a need to integrate it into the humanitarian system. On this Stijn Aelbers from Internews illustrated how the ‘Open Mike’ project in Nepal tracked rumours and brought this knowledge about what people were thinking and saying into the policy level as the humanitarian response was developed. A final presentation from Theo Hannides of BBC Media Action showed the methodology they had developed to evaluate effectiveness of activities based on four recent emergency interventions, including the Ebola response in West Africa (here).
The conclusion from Margie however was sobering. In the end, none of those they met felt that they had been involved or engaged about the relief effort. ‘Are You Listening Now’ is expected to be published by CDAC at the end of May. The foreword is in the words of Kumar B.K a 16 year old wife and mother who spoke of her fears, the rumours that added to the stress and who, yes, would have liked to have heard more information that related to her daily questions..