Strategizing the Societal Leader Approach in HIV Communication Roy Wadia Executive Director

Background Heroes Project (HP) launched a decade ago in India by Parmeshwar Godrej and Richard Gere National initiative to work with media organizations and societal leaders on HIV Coordinated campaigns to address HIV and help reduce stigma and discrimination by influencing public perception and policy through two platforms: advocacy and communications HP uses societal leaders to educate and sensitise the wider public, and to support and empower vulnerable populations HP is one of the NGOs under Avahan/BMGF HP expanding to other social, health and development issues: Maternal and child health; empowerment of women; education

Who is a Societal Leader? From celebrities (movie stars, athletes) to civil society and community leaders – anyone with the ability to attract significant audiences and bring about positive change via advocacy and communications

The Key Population Societal Leader Matrix Survey

Rationale of the Study Although Heroes Project (HP) has worked with societal leaders for many years, key questions remained unanswered: Do societal leaders really make a difference? Are they the most suitable advocates and spokespersons for a particular cause? Do they resonate with the intended audience? When it came to HIV, this question was all the more urgent, as much of the work HP does is to help empower particularly vulnerable populations and communities, including FSW, MSM, transgender persons and PLHIV

Rationale of the Study (contd.) Are celebrities successful in this regard -- or is there a disconnect between their larger-than-life image and the hugely challenging realities that our key populations face? Are certain societal leaders more successful for specific issues for specific audiences? And if so, can we identify these categories better to ensure that our advocacy and communications campaign are a better fit? Hence we initiated research into the KP/SL Matrix for the four states where we work under Avahan/BMGF: Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh

Objectives of the Study To ascertain the effectiveness of the societal leader (SL) approach for social communication in general and HIV in particular To identify appropriate SLs for behaviour change communication to promote health-seeking behaviour among key populations and the general population

Methodology Person to person interviews using peer group investigators with the help of a fully structured questionnaire A two-day workshop was conducted in each of the four states to train the investigators in administering the questionnaire Group discussions and in-depth interviews were also conducted with the peer group investigators during the workshops

Sample Spread – Key Populations The survey was carried out in three districts in each state A total of 6 FSW, 6 MSM, 3 transgender persons and 2 HIV positive people were recruited as investigators in each state

Focus of Study The four major enquiry areas addressed were: Ratings of interest and relevance of HIV communications overall received by the target audience Rating of a list of celebrities on entertainment value and credibility Perceived relevance of celebrities in HIV communication by the target audience Suitability of different types of societal leaders in HIV communication on different topics related to prevention and care

Select Key Findings

“Interesting” and “Relevant” are closely related While some “interesting communication” may be judged “not relevant” and some “uninteresting communication” may be judged “relevant”, what emerges is that “interesting” communication has a significantly higher chance of being registered as “relevant” communication compared to “uninteresting” communication

Stars add “entertainment value” and make the communication “interesting” Stars are generally effective communicators on “prevention communication” and “stigma and discrimination” But it may be far more effective and relevant if Education Entertainment is created using doctors, community leaders and other civil society opinion leaders

Summary The bulk of HIV communications to date have been neither appealing nor judged relevant and useful by the key populations Communication efforts have been clearly more successful for people actually living with HIV TV is the most preferred medium across all segments, but inter-personal communication also remains significant, especially for PLHIV and transgender persons Celebrities do not enjoy much favour among key segments in some of the states surveyed as spokespersons in HIV communication, except among PLHIV

Summary (contd.) Male and female screen stars have significant relevance only on communications for condom promotion and stigma reduction respectively Community leaders rated strongly on stigma reduction for MSM and transgendered population segments Across all key population segments, health care providers and community leaders scored significantly over film and TV stars as preferred societal leaders for communication on all other topics Cricketers received very low preference scores as societal leaders for HIV communication Conclusion: Design segment-specific communication to address individual population segments appropriately, and involve health care providers and community leaders

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