Communication for Social and Behaviour Change: A Case Study of Puppetry Animation in Kenya.
Authors: Chebet Mercy , Mathooko Petronilla Mbatha 
Published: November 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over six million lives worldwide (Ritchie, 2022). In Kenya, more than three hundred thousand lives have been lost (Ministry of Health, 2022). Prevention has been the main focus. This has necessitated behaviour change. The government, non-governmental organisations, and private agencies set out to find Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) strategies at the start of the pandemic. Different strategies received different types of feedback. One strategy that has been proven time and time again to be effective in mass communication and education while entertaining is puppetry. It was, however, only partially utilised. This research sought to explore communication for social and behaviour change communication and how it was applied to curb the spread of COVID 19 using a case study of puppetry in Kenya. It attempted to answer the following questions: What types of puppets were used in Kenya for social and behaviour change communication? Which advocacy messages were communicated for social and behaviour change using puppetry? How was puppetry used for social mobilisation for social and behaviour change communication? What factors hindered puppetry's use for social and behaviour change communication? The theoretical base of this research was informed by the health belief model, which provides a framework for designing messaging that targets perceived barriers, benefits, self-efficacy, and threats; the social learning theory, which explains how behaviour is learned through observation; and the social marketing theory, which provides a framework for how behaviour change messages are designed using marketing principles. This study used a qualitative research design. It analysed past studies to give a framework and then used interviews and observation to collect current data by observation and key informant interviews for thematic analysis. The population chosen for this study was all the puppet shows created, digitally recorded, and aired for SBCC to communicate behaviour change as a prevention measure against COVID-19. For this research, the Dr Pamoja show was purposely chosen as the sample as it met all the criteria for this study. Coding was used for thematic analysis of the collected puppetry video samples from the Dr Pamoja show produced by Project hand up to communicate SBCC against COVID-19. The codes were derived using the deductive approach, and the show analysed both the latent and the semantic. The gaps in the data were informed by Key informants, including the Dr Pamoja show’s director, an AMREF representative, sixteen (16) puppeteers, a community leader, a health representative, and ten (10) parents. After collecting and analysing the data, findings showed that the main types of puppets used are glove puppets, and puppetry remains an effective tool for social and behavioural change communication in Kenya. It was found to be efficient in communicating advocacy messages through influence, persuasion, and social marketing, and also in social mobilisation at both the community level and national level by promoting health messaging that is personalised, normative, and identity-relevant and relies on people’s connections and sense of accountability. The data also showed that episodes translated to Kiswahili and Kikuyu were more popular than the other languages. It is, however, faced with social challenges such as perception, motivation, cultural, psychological, and production challenges such as financing. The study recommends better utilisation of puppetry for SBCC and incorporation of puppetry in communication by the government, non-governmental organisations, and mainstream media. It further recommends that further research be conducted on memory retention of new behaviours learned from puppetry, gender issues in puppetry, and the use of puppetry in other areas such as therapy, play, and education.