DIGITAL NETWORKS - Policy, Strategy, and Investment Argument 4 from the Direct Impact Evidence

Wed, 05/03/2023 - 06:36

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Perhaps one of the biggest questions in the social change, community engagement, and behaviour change field of work relates to the role and added value of social media. On the one hand, there is considerable scale, with the inbuilt capacity to break down and overcome issues of distance, time, and cost. On the other side of the ledger, social media can be seen as too brief and ephemeral to have the substantive engagement required to address often deep and complex issues.

The impact data collected suggest that social media networks do have a direct impact on key development priorities and are very worthy of strategic and financial investment as a core element of social change, community engagement, and behaviour change action.

Example Data

Strategy	Impact
Interactive Peer Groups and Motivational SMS	Incorrect Malaria Treatment down 4%
Text Messages	Correct Malaria Treatment Increased up to 24.5%
Mobile Phone Networks	Assisted Deliveries Increase of 60% vs. 47%
SMS Reminders	Vaccine Timeliness up by 91%
SMS Messaging	Perinatal Mortality Reduced: 19 vs. 36 per 1,000

Policy Implication: That development organisations, local to international and small to large, adopt overall policies that stress the importance of social media networks as central programming methodologies for effective action on priority issues (not image, promotional, or public relations tools).

Strategy Implication: That development organisations implement strategies that focus staff time and institutional resources on the core roles and capacities required to harness the capacities of online social networks, which involves: identifying the natural spaces where people are gathering online (started and facilitated by people themselves, not development organisations - e.g., the city spaces in Ukraine that developed e-communities around immunisation issues); gaining access to those spaces; engaging as part of those groups; undertaking content analysis to understand perspectives and ideas; introducing accurate information into the dialogue taking place; answering questions and comments in a conversational style; and providing updates on recent developments.

Investment Argument Implication: That the compelling evidence demonstrating the direct impact of social media networks' SBC action across some core, high-priority development issues - for example, perinatal mortality (down 50%) and vaccine timeliness (up 91%) - are advocated to funding organisations as further input to their data-driven investment decision-making.