Suggestions for working through this Essential Element:
- Read the text from beginning to end.
- Collect data for your program.
- Complete Worksheet #1 with the data you have collected. If you need help filling it in, refer to the example of Worksheet #1 that has been completed with fictional data from the city of Zanbe.
- Refer to the resources at the end of this Essential Element as needed.
What is the Purpose of this Essential Element?
From this Essential Element, you will:
- Learn about the different types of research you can use to better understand the SRH problem and potential audience.
- Learn about the different types of research you can use to better understand the SRH problem and potential audience.
- Use the data you have collected to complete Worksheet #1: Make Sense of Primary and Secondary Research.
- Determine if any additional information is needed for your SBCC program planning.
Why Is This Important?
Imagine a company is developing a new mobile phone. Before putting that phone on the market, the company conducts extensive research to determine its customer base, or intended audience. Who will buy the phone? What will customers expect the phone to do? Where do customers want to buy the phone and what is a reasonable cost? How do customers want to learn about the phone and what will convince them this phone is better than the one they have?
All of this information is used to create a mobile phone that best appeals to the people that the company wants to reach. From this information, the company can create an advertising campaign, complete with billboards, radio and TV ads—just like the ones you see every day—to convince their intended audience that it needs the phone and must buy it.
The same is true for SBCC. Just like the mobile phone company wants all of the information to design the most appealing and most popular phone, SBCC program designers want to create the most interesting and attractive program to reach urban adolescents with SRH information and services. This means knowing:
- What SRH problem you want to address.
- Which behaviors you hope to influence.
- Whom you want to reach with your program.
- What the lives and environments of those you want to reach are like.
A thorough understanding of the people and the behavior(s) that you are trying to influence provides the foundation of SBCC. Programs that are developed with a complete understanding of the SRH problem, the people affected and their environment are more likely to have greater impact than those that are not. This knowledge can be gained from existing sources of information or by conducting your own research.
Reminder!
Data are crucial for deciding who to reach, which behaviors to change and how to measure the change.
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