“Stories Mirror Our Society Here”: Connecting People Real Life to Motivations for Change in an Education-Entertainment Radio-Drama in Mozambique

Rooted in cultural traditions knowledge, attitudes and practices, unequal gender relations and poor access to information are pointed out as key factors that influence children rights and well-being in Mozambique (UNICEF, 2014). In this context, it is relevant to use effectively communication in order to produce inclusive and sustainable socio-cultural changes. After an initial pilot phase, in 2014, UNICEF partnered with PCI Media Impact to produce and broadcast the Entertainment Education (EE) radio drama Ouro Negro (Black Gold). It is the story of the village of Jambolane, a traditional community in Mozambique. When the residents of the village are confronted with the arrival of a foreign mining company they must negotiate the resettlement of the community and their ancestral spirits in order to extract coal from their land. The setting includes rural and urban residents, adults and adolescents, in order to communicate key messages on health and children rights to diverse target audiences.

In 2017, an exploratory study, through phone in-depth interviews, was conducted in order to assess Ouro Negro listeners opinions and practices related to radio-drama and to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme. Quantitative data from other M&E tools were also explored.

Results show that listeners follow regularly the radio-drama and talk about it with family members and friends and the audience satisfaction is very high. Looking at inner motivations for change, strong linkages were identified between findings inputs from formative research, content analysis of stories and findings of audience research. Conclusions point out that Ouro Negro has been successful in reaching the target audience, reinforcing interpersonal communication, and achieving behavior and social change contributing to promote children rights. Key findings circle around the inner motivation of the target audiences and enabling them to make choices that allow them to live their lives as they wish.