MEDIA PLAN ON OPEN DEFECATION ASSIGNMENT

This is a media plan on open defecation of Kosamba Village in the Volta Region. The plan considers the key strategies and tactics that could be used to address the challenges to open defecation in in the village, and by extension in Ghana.

This plan contains:-

SITUATION ANALYSIS

Open defecation (OD) is defined as defecating in fields, forests, bushes, water bodies or other open spaces (UN Water Sanitation drive 2015.org) Globally, 1.1 billion people openly defecate daily because they do not have access to any form of toilet facility. In Ghana, 4.8 million have no latrines and regularly engage in the practice.

According to statistics from the Water and Sanitation Monitoring Platform (WSMP) about 5 million Ghanaians defecate openly daily with the Upper East Region topping with 81.9 percent followed by Upper West Region with 78.7 percent. The Northern Region of the country is listed as having the third open defecation rate in Ghana at 72.9 percent. The central Region is fourth highest on the table with 18.1 percent while Volta Region placed fifth with 13.8 percent. The water and sanitation program indicate that ,Ghana economy loses GH420 million, 1.6 percent on Gross Domestic Products (GDP). Additionally, Water aid Ghana emphasize out of the over 25million people in Ghana, nearly 21 million representing 28 percent are without access to safe and improved toilet.  For the purpose this project, our focus will be on Kosamba Village in the Volta Region. The target audience is Kosamba.

BACKGROUND

Kosamba is a small community in the Kadjebi District in the Volta Region of Ghana. It has a population of about 115 people in the community. The native of Kosamba are Ewe speaking people with farming as their main occupation.

The total number of household in the area is only 22 with the number of houses that one can count in the community are 14.

PROBLEM  STATEMENT

The problem pertaining in the community is that out of the 22 household in the community, none if the household could boast of a single latrine.

Zero percent of each member of the household practice hygienic  hand washing measures after visiting the toilet. Already existing latrine in the community which has been improved is only three.

SENSITIZATION OBJECTIVES

The sensitization objective is about what the community would be sensitized on in relation to the subject matter of open defecation.

The general sensitization objective of the project is to reduce the rate of open defecation in Kosamba, and by extension the Volta Region.

Specifically, the project or campaign is:

1. To educate the residence on dangers of open defecation.
2. To sensitize the people of Kosamba village to put up make shift latrines devoid of financial burdens to help check the practice.
3. To sensitize the residence on how to prevent sanitation related diseases.

ADVERTISING OBJECTIVE

To create awareness of about 75% of the people of Kosamba on the need to adopt make shift latrines instead of defecating in the open by the end of 2017.

MEDIA OBJECTIVE

To create awareness among children (5-12 years) and the elderly on the dangers of open defecation and the need to desist from the practice.

MEDIA STATEGIES

With regards to the people of Kosamba, the media strategy that would best communicate to the people is broadcast and the print. For print, we will use a lot of posters which would communicate to the people in Ewe language. The reason is that, the area is typical Ewe community.

For that of broadcasting, we selected radio (FM stations) with emphasis on three major radio stations in the area, namely Heritage FM, Lorlornyo FM (all in hohoe) and Spkpple FM (in Jasikan).

These radio stations usually communicate in Ewe language. As a result of this, the information that would be broadcast to the people through such FM stations would be done in the Ewe language which would be easily understood by the people in the area.

To achieve this, a minute documentary on open defecation would be recorded and played on the selected FM stations during their 6:00am and 6:00pm news bulletins.

EVALUATION, SUMMARY/ASSESSMENT

The entire media plan will be successful due to the target audience and the media strategy adopted. It is important to mention that having identified the kind of media  which can be used to reach the people, the key messages on open defecation will be communicated in Ewe language to the people. Knowing what we seek to achieve, adequate finances have been provided to cover the entire project.

Indeed, the project will be pretested on a small scale before the final project will be rolled out in its entirety.

CHECKLIST

Due to the nature of the project, we went to embark upon, a thorough research which was conducted about the people and the challenges they are facing currently.

Essentially the appropriate time for the message have also been adequately implemented in the plan. By this, the message will be a continuous process all year round to ensure the objectives are achieved.

 ¨CHARLES EHUN ANDOH ---- BACS 17784

 LEVEL 400 PUBLIC RELATIONS WEEKEND