Brief for Safe Male Circumcision (Traditional) Communication Campaign Concept Testing
Background
Health Communication Partnership in partnership with the Ministry of Health is in the process of designing materials for its upcoming Safe Male Circumcision Communication Campaign in Traditional Circumcising areas. HCP together with Lowe Scanad the AD Agency contracted to help with the running of the campaign have developed threecampaign conceptsfrom which one will be chosen to guide the development of the materials. The concepts include:
- Cultural Pride
- Maturity/Responsibility
- Parents Talking
In order to identify the concept to guide in the development of the materials, HCP will conduct a concept test exercise among selected members of the campaign’s target audience.
Objectives for the Concept test
The objectives of the concept test exercise are:
- To establish which overarching concept is most convincingand appealing to the audiences.
- Find out if the audience understands the developed campaign concepts.
- To establish whether the audience relates to the campaign concepts.
- To establish whether there is anything that is offensive/ confusing in the concepts.
Methodology
Six Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) will be conducted in two districts ofMbale (urban respondents) and Sironko (rural respondents). The groups to be included in the FGDs include in and out of school male circumcision candidates and male opinion leaders including parents, clan heads, politiciansand traditional circumcisers (targeted as custodians of culture). The FGD respondents will be mobilized in the two districts by STAR E.
The FGDs will be conducted in thetwo districts as follows:
- FGD 1; In schoolmale circumcision candidates aged 14–19 years.
- FGD 2; Out of school male circumcision candidates aged 14–19 years.
- FGD 3; Male Opinion Leaders. (Parents, clan heads, politicians and traditional circumcisers)
The focus group discussions per district will be organised as follows:
District / Language / Type of FGD / No. of FGDS / No. of Respondents*Mbale
(Urban) / English / -In school male circumcision candidates aged 14–19 years. / 3 / 36
Lugisu / -Out of school male circumcision candidates aged 14–19 years.
-Male opinion leaders
Sironko
(Rural) / English / -In school male circumcision candidates aged 14–19 years. / 3 / 36
Lugisu / Out of school male circumcision candidates aged 14–19 years.
-Male opinion leaders
Total / 6 / 72
As seen in the table above, the study will purposively have a mixture of rural/urban and in/out of school young people since they will form part of the target audience. The opinion leaders are custodians of culture and special materials will be developed to target them. The FGDs will be conducted by the male Research Assistants (university graduates) who will be recruited from the pool normally used by HCP. The research assistants will under go training where they will be oriented to the campaign, concepts and tools to be used in the concept test exercise. The research assistants will also be oriented on how to write the concept test report.
Selection and screening of FGD respondents
The identified mobilizerswill invite participants of the following characteristics depending on particular FGDs.
- In school circumcision candidates (uncircumcised males) aged between 14–19 years.
- Out of school circumcision candidates (uncircumcised males) aged between 14–19 years.
- Opinion leaders (clan leaders, parents, politicians and traditional circumcisers).
- Should not be peer educators or health educators.
The screening criteria will be sent out to mobilizers before identification of FGD respondents takes place.Before beginning the group discussion, Research Assistants will screen the mobilized FGD respondents for the above characteristics and those who do not qualify will not be allowed into the FGDs.
Focus Group Venues
The Local Mobilizers with the help of Partner Staff in each of the Districts will also be tasked with identifying and hiring the FGD venues. The venues for the FGDs will be:
- With in the locality of where the FGD respondents live
- Devoid of interruptions like noise and people
- Private to allow people to express their opinions without fear
Focus Group Discussion Procedure
The FGDs will be conducted as shown in the table below
Step / Activity / Purpose and DescriptionScreening of respondents / Ensure that the right audiences participate in the discussion
Introduction and explanation to the respondents about the activity / This is to ensure that the respondents understand their role and the purpose of the focus group discussions
Cultural Pride / Group discussion about the concept guided by the RA.
Responsibility/Maturity / Group discussion about the concept guided by the RA.
Parents Talking / Group discussion about the concept guided by the RA.
7. / Selection of the best concept / After discussing each of the developed concepts the FGD respondents will then be asked to choose the best concept among thethree.
The respondents will also be required to give reasons for their choice
Timelines:
Activity / DateDraft Methodology/ Budget / March 15, 2011
Approval of Methodology/Budget / March 16, 2011
Mobilization of Concept test Respondents / March 17- 21, 2011
Training of Research Assistants / March 18, 2011
Conducting of the Concept test / March 22, 2011
Concept Test Debriefing / March 24, 2011
Presentation of preliminary Reports for Districts. / March25, 2011
Presentation of Final Report for the Concept Test / March 29, 2011
Safe Male Circumcision (Traditional) Communication Campaign Concept Testing
FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDE
Date: ______
District______Location: ______
FGD Facilitator: ______Note Taker: ______
No of Respondents: ______
INTRODUCTION:
Good morning/ afternoon my name is ______and my colleague is ______we are working with the Health Communication Partnership (HCP).Health Communication Partnership in collaboration with the Ministry of Health is in the process of designing materials for its upcoming Safe Male Circumcision Communication Campaign in Traditional Circumcising areas.Today we are here to share with you the concepts that were developed and to seek your views and input into them before we select the best concept for use in the campaign.
We are going to show you one concept and thereafter have a discussion around it using the developed questions. The same procedure will be used for the remaining concepts. Finally the three concepts will be shown to you so that you can select the best and give reasons for your choice. Remember this is just a discussion and therefore there are no wrong or right answers. We therefore expect you to tell us everything you think about the concepts. We shall use the feedback that you give us to select the best concept for the campaign.
Note that the concept on cultural pride has two executions which need to be shown to the respondents so that they can choose the best execution.
FGD Discussion Questions for the developed Concepts:
Instruction: Show respondents the concept and proceed to ask the following questions:- Please tell me what you see in this poster? What does it look like to you?
- Do you think it is asking you to do anything in particular? If Yes elaborate.
- Who do you think this poster is made for? (Describe the person’s age, sex, marital status, economic status, rural/urban etc).
- Are there any words or phrases that you do not understand? If Yes mention them.
- In your own words, what do you think this poster is saying?
- Is there anything about the picture or the writing that might offend or confuse you or some other people? If Yes elaborate.
Selection of the Best Execution for the concept on Cultural Pride:
Instruction:The question below should be asked when pretesting the concept on cultural pride.
- Which of these executions do you like most? (Probe why)
Selection of the best concept:
Instruction:Show the three concepts to the participants and proceed to ask the question below;
- Which of these concepts do you like most? (Probe why)
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Assuming each Focus group is comprised of 12 respondents