This article describes communication for social change (CFSC) in youth programmes in Ethiopia. These youth dialogue programmes provide young people with forums to discuss HIV/AIDS and encourage them to take an active role in preventing the spread of the virus. The article also explains why participatory monitoring and evaluation of such programmes is essential.

Since the 1980s, Ethiopians - and other people around the world - have witnessed vast amounts of message-driven, top-down HIV/AIDS communication, i.e. providing information, with minimal or no impact on HIV incidence rates, particularly amongst the youth. According to the article, this has led to a scenario of ad-hoc programming with major gaps, e.g., a neglect of girls, in which young people have had no voice or stake.

The Youth Empowerment Through Dialogue Programme, led by United Nation Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Ethiopia's HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO), advocates a shift from messages to catalysing and positively changing values, traditions, culture and practice through communication for social change. The programme promotes "Community Conversations" which aim to include more voices and generate as much community dialogue, youth decision-making and tangible action as possible. The programme also seeks to extend the reach of community voices through the mass media and support community action with appropriate information, service delivery and policy.

According to the article's discussion of participatory methods, when young people have the opportunity to discuss HIV/AIDS, they consider issues within their own socio-cultural contexts, identify and prioritise their problems, define their capacity and strengths, and mobilise resources for collective gain. Through these community discussions, there is an attempt at a comprehensive effort to bring CFSC to a national scale, and to monitor and evaluate it in a way that is consistent with a participatory approach.

The programme works mainly through youth clubs. In Ethiopia, youth clubs are widely established as social and educational institutions. These clubs are increasingly finding ways to enter the public dialogue regarding the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. With a variety of partners organisations and the media, hundreds of clubs are now engaged in a nationwide effort to change the norms governing HIV/AIDS behaviour. As one of the adult partners put it: "To change the dance, you must change the music." Young voices are being heard and are active in setting the agenda relating to individual, media and governmental decisions about HIV/AIDS.

UNICEF-trained facilitators work in five regions, focusing on HIV/AIDS within a broader life-context that includes issues of poverty, jobs (or lack thereof), street children, and gender discrimination.
Fundamental CFSC and human rights principles of self-determination, participation and inclusion underlie the initiative. The work encompasses diverse partnerships at strategic levels, including with youth associations, government, the media, NGOs and schools.

Key achievements include more than 400 dialogue sites in five regions, involving more than 20,000 young people engaged in bi-weekly dialogue at youth clubs. Young people are the main facilitators and initiators of these dialogues, which are giving youth clubs greater purpose and support.
The outcomes of dialogue increasingly feed into popular newsletters and radio dramas, many produced by young people.

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Communication for Social Change Consortium website on April 4 2006.