Doing it for themselves: how communities developed messages and communication methods for rinderpest eradication in southern Sudan

This article reports on the Operations Lifeline Sudan (OLS) Southern Sector Livestock Programme which aims to improve food security for war-affected communities in southern Sudan through improving animal health. A change in project strategy recognised as being was required, from mass vaccination to surveillance to see whether diseases re-appeared. This presented a challenge to programme staff to explain the new strategies to the communities and gain their support. The programmes three stages - explaining the new strategy to programme managers and technical staff, developing messages and methods with communities, and scaling up - are described.|The lessons learnt were seen as being:|Despite difficulties in adjustment, artists, songwriters, poets and others were able to grasp the idea and transform it into locally appropriate messages;|Animal health workers have reached a wide audience;|The approach has increasingly moved the responsibility for communication to the animal health workers and away from field veterinarians.