Interview with Christian Clark

The Communication Initiative: Meena has caused quite a stir internationally. How did the idea for the project originate?

Christian Clark:Meena is really the brainchild of Neil McKee, then head of the UNICEF Programme Communications Section in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 1990 he attended a UNICEF Animation for Development workshop in Prague, where there was a group of South Asians who were discussing the possibility of animation being used to promote the rights of girls. Coincidentally, William Hanna of Hanna Barbera Cartoons in Los Angeles was also at the workshop and offered technical assistance for any UNICEF animation project to James Grant, the then UNICEF Executive Director. Neil was then able to go back to South Asia and develop with UNICEF country offices in Pakistan, Nepal, India and Bangladesh the genesis of what is today the Meena Communication Initiative. They decided that this would be a multimedia campaign with animation as a flagship.



The project has been carried out in three stages: the first phase, from 1991 to 1992, entailed the operationalisation of the project including identification of management, research and artistic talent; regional consultations on themes and research methods; design and training workshops with artists from participating countries who produced a set of characters and storyboards for field testing; production and initial field testing of the pilot package of communication materials, and summative evaluation of the pilot episode.



Phase two of the project, from 1993 and 1997 saw not only the development of extensive partnerships for dissemination and outreach activities but also the Meena initiative becoming an integral part of each country programme. This period included the production of a further 11 animated episodes and a one minute spot of the animated film series as well as related support materials including posters, an initial BBC radio series, comic books, flipcharts, educational packages and facilitator's guidelines for organizing group discussion and Child-to-Child activities.



Phase Three of the project was launched this year and involves the mass dissemination and utilisation of Meena materials at the regional and national levels and perhaps the production of a second film series in the region. The question of developing a Meena Foundation for the initiative, in order for it to become sustainable and possibly self-financing outside of the parent organisation, is also being considered in-depth. Additionally, the development of Meena commercial products as well as the licensing and syndication of Meena materials is to be finalized in each of the countries.



CI: What, in your opinion, is unique about Meena?

CC: Very few programme communication initiatives have been launched with the kind of vision that Meena employs. I believe Meena really has the potential to lead a massive and effective social mobilisation campaign to change attitudes and behaviours of millions of people in the South Asia region towards child rights generally and, more specifically, towards girls.



Coming from Children's Television Workshop I would compare Meena to Sesame Street in that we want to harness the incredible power of popular entertainment and popular culture to do for the rights of children what Sesame Street did for the education of children. That is, creating a media vehicle, creating characters that will engage, challenge and most of all, entertain people so that they will want to watch it. There are very few examples either in the education sector or the development sector where you have been able to do something that is both socially relevant and entertaining. For me, Sesame Street is a great example of this in terms of education, and Soul City in South Africa is fantastic in terms of the health messages and the number of people watching it.



CI: Meena was initiated in 1990, and is being launched eight years later. What has it taken so long?

CC: For a while we faced a real funding crisis which slowed us down considerably. In order to bring this initiative to scale we really needed to make a large initial investment for the production of print materials, for training and so on. Luckily in late 1997 we got $2.6 million from the Norwegian government which helped us plan the regional launch and to produce all the essential materials needed to disseminate at the grassroots.



Another factor was the extensive research that goes into the making of each episode. If we hadn't done that we could've been finished years ago. The project is grounded in extensive and detailed formative research and the topic and story line of each episode is investigated in depth in urban and rural areas throughout the region. On the minus side this research is painstaking and time consuming. On the plus side, of course this qualitative research approach - not only is producing invaluable insights into the culture of South Asia but also ensures that the final films are presented from the perspective of South Asian audiences. The result is popular entertainment with a very precise, targeted and effective social messages.



But it is certainly not a smooth process. Sometimes the research is contradictory. For example, while researching for the episode on son preference, one group of experts wanted us to talk about x and y chromosomes; that men were responsible for the sex of the child, as though it's somebody's fault that it's a girl. This raises ethical problems and takes away from what we're trying to do. Needless to say, another group of experts thought this was a terrible idea!



And then there are intra-regional differences in how to tackle issues, as in the case of the HIV/AIDS episode: formative research indicated that almost always people in the villages wanted to know more about it, wanted the facts. But when it came to the "gatekeepers" at the higher levels - such as a few media and governmental partners and even some UNICEF colleagues, it was not the same thing. The head of one state broadcasting network said to me, " We don't have problems such as AIDS in our country - we don't have prostitutes or drug addicts." There are also quite naturally incredible sensitivities regarding anything to do with sexuality. So we really needed to go slow at some points and negotiate with our partners on why were addressing certain topics. There is no point producing something that will only alienate our target audiences or partners. But at the same time we need to be honest and say the research validates the need and desire for information on such and such a topic. It is often a very delicate political balancing act.



CI: The participatory formative research is clearly a key feature of Meena. Could you talk about that a little more?

CC: The extensive research is one of the strengths of Meena. I think seven or eight years ago research was not really well understood or utilised effectively for development education. Meena has, to a great extent, pioneered the use of research as a foundation for UNICEF communication programmes - in attempting to unlock the discussion on sensitive subjects, in getting solid research to feed into creative work of communication initiatives and so on.



The formative research done for the first pilot episode in 1991, for example, was probably the largest ever done in South Asia. We trained and worked with researchers in each of the four countries initially involved with Meena. 2500 people were interviewed in each country through focus group discussions. Artists from all over the region were asked to draw what they thought Meena should look like, the clothes she'd wear, utensils she would use, whether the roof of her house would be made of straw or palm leaves. Ram Mohan [India's best-known animator] did a synthesis of the drawings from the region.



To establish the content for each episode we asked a cross section of audiences - children, adults, families, urban and rural - what they thought were the key issues related to the girl child. Somewhat suprisingly, people region-wide tended to agree on what the basic issues were such as access to schools, dowry and early marriage.



Some issues were a little more controversial, such as the issue of equitable sharing of food within the household. Initially during most focus group discussions people denied that they discriminate in food distribution. And then generally, as the discussion progressed they would elaborate or justify this saying it's because girls do less work. Some issues emerge only during single sex discussions. In fact, in Pakistan a lot of boys admitted that they do less work than their sisters, and that they feel guilty about it. But it is difficult for the kids, boys or girls, to challenge the status quo although there is a lot of sympathy towards the issue. We were able to synthesise these findings into the final script for the film "Dividing the Mango." People really love this particular film and I don't think we could've done such an effective episode without this in-depth formative research. The script solutions are usually actually coming from people themselves, making it more acceptable, culturally relevant and entertaining to the target audiences.



CI: How would you describe Meena in terms of a communication programme approach?

CC: We don't try to programme Meena in any one specific way. The strength of Meena as an approach and as a set of materials is what I would call, for lack of a better word, amorphous. When we do the facilitator's guide we're not saying, "This is Meena, this is how you have to use it. Period." Instead what we're saying is, "Here's some well-researched world class material" and suggest ways it could be used depending on the needs and interests of the users.



Meena is really proving to be a great role model, a popular cultural image of a little girl who's spunky, who faces incredible opposition but ultimately succeeds. In South Asia UNICEF in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and now Sri Lanka and Bhutan is actively trying to create alliances around Meena. The ideal situation, of course would see a regional coalition of groups that would use Meena as a symbol, a pushboard for a massive social mobilisation movement for the girl child. That was the original intention but that hadn't happened partly because it is so hard to do a PPI [Pulse Polio Immunisation] type campaign on the situation of the girl child. So we're programming it down to see how coalitions can be created at the grassroots and also working at a more central level with governments. We are also working closely with SAARC [South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation] which declared the 1990s the Decade of the Girl Child.



Meena is also being used as part of UNICEF's new trend towards rights-based programming. UNICEF is entering a period of working more closely not just with government and NGO partners but the larger civil society. I think we will be seeing Meena increasingly becoming a catalyst for promoting children's rights. In real terms we're now able to be more forthright in using Meena and developing material that doesn't just say "it's not fair" or "girls' education is important for the long term prospects of the nation." Now we're able to more freely say "it's the right of every girl child to have access to schools."



CI: How do governments respond to the increased forcefulness of the rights approach?

CC: Well, in this region they are all signatories to the CRC, so now we have a lot more latitude in terms of getting the Meena material out as strong advocacy material, to start demanding for better school services.



CI: As coordinator for the project, you mentioned the commercialization elements of Meena. What are they?



CC: There are an estimated 350 million middle class consumers across South Asia. That is a huge potential market for Meena products. Already there has been a lot of interest in getting not just a comic book but Meena bags, pencils, stickers, mugs and so on. The best strategy would be to license the Meena image but UNICEF in this region has never done this particular kind of marketing before, apart from selling our greeting cards. Money raised from commercialising Meena could then be put back into the project. This would be great not just in terms of advocacy but also in terms of making the project sustainable.



We are also exploring the idea of setting up a Meena Foundation - a non-profit organisation that would be affiliated with UNICEF but with a board of directors representing NGOs, media groups, education groups and so on.



CI: How far along is the idea for the Meena Foundation?

CC: We're currently looking at the legal and financial ramifications of setting up an initial pilot foundation in Mumbai, which is the media capital of South Asia and a center for animation films. We need to create a vision with the stakeholders - who would be the interested partners, what it would entail, and the funding required for three years. By the end of 1998 we'll have a proposal report on how we could set up such an entity.



CI: The media scenario in South Asia has changed dramatically in the last few years. How does that affect your efforts?

CC: There's been so much change in the media in terms of content, ownership and access. The number of channels in Bombay, for instance, has gone up from 2 to some 55! Traditionally, Doordarshan, Pakistan Television, Nepal Television and Bangladesh TV - state owned media - would have the lock on the market, but now we're able to distribute Meena to private broadcasters as well. State owned media, though, tend to be better in working with us in using the Meena material for social purposes. In India, for example, DD is planning a talk show around Meena.



Media literacy is increasing quickly in the region. Ironically we are now witnessing a situation in which millions of South Asians continue to not have access to education or clean water but have access to television. They also know what good, slick programmes are, so they are not willing anymore to watch dull, boring educational stuff. We're operating in a more sophisticated competitive environment, and development agencies have to find their own space in this environment. There's no contradiction between making programs that are both entertaining and useful.



The Meena Foundation which would be set up on a non-profit, experimental basis would have media, education and government partners. It would be devoted to producing good programming for children, which is desperately lacking in South Asia, and to be a resource for NGOs in terms of training for research and development of information/communication campaigns. So the foundation could be a very useful resource in these two areas. Meena could be a catalyst for that.



CI: What were the difficulties and challenges of the project? What are the key learning experiences that could be used for other such ventures?

CC: I think one mistake we made with Meena was waiting for all 13 episodes to be completed before we officially launched it. We should've launched each episode as and when they were ready.



In terms of what we have learned I would say that perhaps most importantly Meena has proved the social acceptability of animation for conveying development messages. I also think Meena has shown the critical importance of the research needed in such an undertaking. Meena has also proven to be effective in developing the capacity of member countries in communication planning, R and D and production. Certainly the project is a pioneer in exploring the methods of reaching millions of people with strong social messages.



CI: What are future plans for Meena?

CC: The emphasis is now on dissemination of the materials and the creation of country specific materials. We will also soon be launching a big independent summative research project to see how effective the Meena material has been and how we can develop even better material. We also need to decide whether we want to make another 13 episodes or maybe just one new film a year. SAARC has now declared a yearly official Girl Child/Meena Day on September 24. We are thinking we could launch a new episode every year on that date. But first we need to gauge the demand from broadcasters in continuing the series.



We need to continue using Meena as an advocacy tool to focus political and media attention on the girl child. In December, Meena will also become the ambassador of the International Children's Broadcasting Day - reaching some 2000 broadcasters worldwide. Meena is quickly becoming a corporate symbol for UNICEF.