COMPLETE SCHOOL PROJECT TOPICS & MATERIALS :
CHAPTERS: Chapter 1-5
|
DOC FORMAT: MS WORD/PDF
|
PRICE: ₦5,000
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
There are diverse definitions of social public relations (SPR), ranging from the traditional definition to the modern definition, all in line with the evolutionary practice of public relations. In our context, social public relations (SPR) is defined as the applications of public relations principles, models and strategies in promoting public acceptance and or positive attitude towards some social courses like the national immunisation, HIV/AIDS, anti-narcotics, waste-disposal, anti-crime, anti-smoking and such other public campaign programmes. For it to work, however, it must be anchored on the five basic elements of public relations: research, people, media, messages and monitoring (RP+3Ms).
That is to say, the campaign managers must first conduct a situation analysis research on the subject matter, which would enable them to package a result-oriented SPR programme, manned by the right professionals, targeted at the right publics, disseminated through the right media, with the right messages and media strategies. It must also be adequately monitored for the desired effects (Okigbo, 1999:112). What makes Social PR unique is that the interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and understanding of the topic. (Thomas, 2012; PR-Squared, 2012; Wikipedia.dig, 2012). According to Nwosu and Uduji (2007), the implementers must, however, be open to new ideas and suggestions. That must again be on a two-way communications’ basis with the target publics, Black (1989:72) and with what Nwosu (2007) calls synergistic communications for development (SCD) strategy which emphasizes teamwork amongst the diverse professionals. Mashable (2012) affirms that public relations specialists were some of the first people to embrace the power of social public relations, and as a result they are often the ones leading the way in the social space, including public social health campaigns.
This study was however restricted in scope to the national programme on immunisation against childhood killer diseases in Nigeria. This is because of the low performance of Nigeria in the global immunization
index in comparative terms with other African countries (WHO, 2014; UNICEF, 2014). The situation is worst in the Northern parts of the country, with reports of boycotts, oppositions and apathy to the immunization programmes and in some cases threats or outright attacks on immunization health personnel, like the killing of nine immunization officials, all women, in Kano State in February 2013, which further dampened the country’s national image (Alpert, 2013; The Guardian, 2013; Toronto Star, 2013; New York Times, 2013).
Before 2007, national coverage in Nigeria for full immunization was less than 13%, one of the lowest rates in the world, with some states like Jigawa even recording as low as 1% (GAVI, 2008). According to the 2003 National Immunization Schedule the percentage of fully immunized infants on the States targeted was less than 1% in Jigawa, 1.5% in Yobe, 1.6% in Zamfara and 8.3% in Katsina. The consequences of all these according to Wikipedia (2012), are persistent high rate of infant and maternal mortality in Nigeria from vaccines preventable diseases (VPDs).
This was occasioned by a dangerous rumour, widely spread and accepted in the North that the immunization vaccines were laced with dangerous substance that could render men impotent and women infertile. The perpetrators of this dangerous rumour thus made sure that the programme never saw the light of the day. The rumour even became so bad that immunization personnels were barred from entering some villages and communities in the North, under the allegations that they also had plans to inject their vaccines into public wells and other drinking-water sources (Shekarau, 2011). This resulted in the persistent high rate of infant and maternal mortality mainly in Northern Nigeria from vaccines preventable diseases (VPDs) like polio, measles, tetanus, diphtheria, cholera, tuberculosis, yellow-fever, cerebra-spinal meningitis (CSM), most of which are endemic in the area. The problem thus posed a serious marketing communications challenge.
In the South-West, South-East and South-South of the country, the immunization programme is also beset by mainly the problem of poor awareness amongst the populace. Even amongst needy parents that are aware of the exercise, accessing the services for their babies have been a daunting task, due to the poor distribution
of primary healthcare centres within the populace, while available ones especially in the rural areas seem to have been turned to playgrounds for rodents, snakes and mosquitoes, (Babasola and Aina, 2004: 5).
This, informed our study of the public health problem, as to appraise the effectiveness of the social public relations strategies being employed in the campaigns.
Meanwhile, the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI, 2013), records that routine immunization against diphtheria pertussis tetamis (DPT), measles, polio and tuberculosis (TB) is proven to be one of the most cost-effective interventions for reducing childhood illnesses and mortality, especially with the addition of other vaccines such as cerebra-spinal meningitis, CSM, and yellow fever in endemic areas and IT injections for pregnant women. Yet, before 2007, national coverage in Nigeria for full immunization was less than 13%, one of the lowest rates in the world, even lower than many countries in conflict, such as Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC (WHO, 2012). For instance, in Nigeria, one child in five dies before its fifth birthday. This represented about 872,000 childhood deaths in 2002. Vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) account for about 22% of deaths. Therefore, over 200,000 children a year are dying needlessly of VPDs (USAID, 2003; Transaid, 2007: 1). According to the 2003 National Immunization Schedule the percentage of fully immunized infants on the States to be targeted was less than 1% in Jigawa, 1.5% in Yobe, 1.6% in Zamfara and 8.3% in Katsina. As a result thousands of children were dying as victims of vaccine preventable diseases. However, UNICEF (2013) says that:
Fig. 1.1: Breakdown of Nigeria’s immunization coverage as at 2014. Source: GAVI (2014), “GAVI Alliance Country Tailored Approach for Nigeria 2014 – 2018” www.gavialliance.org/…/nigeria/…/gavi- country-tailored-…
Hence, even though Nigeria has made significant improvement in its immunization coverage, global reports still rates the country low. For instance one of the programme implementers in Nigeria, GAVI (2014), reports that as at September 2013, the performance of the immunisation programme in Nigeria is significantly below regional average (See figure 1.2 below). This is too low to have a significant impact on vaccine preventable diseases such as polio, measles, and meningitis (GAVI, 2014). Outbreaks of measles in four northern states recently, and the relatively high number of polio cases confirm the inefficiencies of routine immunization in these and other areas. In addition, the pool of unvaccinated children is steadily increasing and is estimated at 2,500,000 children (GAVI, 2014).
Fig. 1.2: Source: WHO (2013), Nigeria and Afro coverage rates 2002-2010. Source: Compiled from data published at http://apps.who.int/immunization_monitoring/globalsummary/estimates?c=NGA.
Again, at the global level, Nigeria as at 2013 is the country with the second worst immunization record after India (see figure 1.3 below):
Figure 1.3: Source: WHO (2014), “Immunization surveillance, assessment and monitoring,” www.who.int/immunization_monitoring/…/en.. Estimated number of children who had not received 3 doses of diphtheria-tetanus- pertussis vaccine (DTP) during the first year of life among 10 countries with the largest number of children incompletely
vaccinated with DTP, by country, and cumulative percentage of all incompletely vaccinated children — worldwide, 2012.
The figure above according to the US Center for Disease Control (CDC.gov, 2013), shows the estimated number of children who had not received 3 doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine (DTP) during the first year of life among 10 countries with the largest number of children incompletely vaccinated with DTP, by country, and cumulative percentage of all incompletely vaccinated children worldwide during 2012. Among the 22.6 million children who did not receive three DTP doses (DTP3) during the first year of life,
16.3 million (72%) lived in 10 countries, among which 12.4 million (55%) lived in three countries: 30% in India (72% DTP3 coverage), 17% in Nigeria (41% DTP3 coverage), and 7% in Indonesia (64% DTP3 coverage).
At the family/community level there is a low demand for immunization due to a lack of understanding of its value (Transaid, 2007: 2). All this according to the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2004) is notwithstanding the fact that Nigeria’’s immunization programme is by far the most expensive among developing countries around the world. This represents a waste of scarce national resources, the report says. Could a social public relations (SPR) holistic model and strategy be employed to effectively tackle the problem? This study tried to find answers to that.