An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Communication Strategies for Achieving Millennium Development Goals in Zambia

Abstract

According to various reports by the UN and other organizations, Africa is facing big challenges in achieving the world's anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This prompted a study by Muleba Matafwali (2010) which aimed at enhancing the understanding that communication plays a very critical role in the quest to attain development in Zambia. Key findings were that Twenty-Five point Five percent (25.5%) of the respondents indicated that television and radio documentaries were the most useful tool sources of information on MDGs for them. Forty-Three point Six percent (43.6%) indicated that community education on MDGs should be intensified. A total of 16.4% of respondents indicated that radio and television programmes should be prioritized in an effort to accelerate the achievement of MDGs. The findings also revealed that MDG experts and politicians make up 19.1% and 18.2% respectively of people who were good sources of information for them. A total of 126 people were sampled for the study. In the conclusion, the study noted that all key players in the MDG campaign were making significant efforts to reach the wider public with the MDG message. However there was need to accelerate these efforts in order to reach the wider population. The study recommended that MDG campaigners should use more inexpensive communication methods such as folk media alongside conversional means of communication such as radio.