Adopt social and behaviour change communication to fight galamsey

In 2017, the government of Ghana mounted a decisive onslaught against “galamsey” to end the destruction of the nation's natural resource base.

Galamsey, a Ghanaian term for illegal mining, leaves in its wake ruthless destruction of vegetative cover, water bodies, and risks to life and property.

It has left many people battling terminal diseases, resulting in countless losses of life and property.

Through law enforcement, high-handedness, deterrence, and others, the government succeeded in expelling thousands of illegal miners, yet galamsey persists.

There even seems to be a more voracious appetite for galamsey than before.

Our survival is, therefore, under threat, and I couldn't agree more with the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, that galamsey is an existential threat to our beloved country.

The citizenry is deeply worried about the canker, yet only a few have fought tooth and nail to stop it.

While news reports allege authorities have been two-faced in their attempts to stop the threat, most of us have been reticent about it and sat aloof for it to degenerate into such a precarious reality.

It is self-inflicted destruction, and only the "self" can undo it.

The "self" refers to our readiness to change and adopt the behaviour needed to end illegal mining, particularly among illegal miners and their facilitators.

Hence, what we need as a nation is a social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) strategy to complement other interventions to end illegal mining.

SBCC is a development communication intervention that is systematic in its planning process, interactive, evidence-based, and grounded in theory to address change at the individual, community and societal levels.

Therefore, its goal will be to ensure a sustainable behaviour change that will end the practice of galamsey and not just raise awareness about it, as has been the case.

It particularly recognises that behaviour change in an individual is often not enough because human behaviour is understood to be grounded in a particular socio-ecological context, and change usually requires support from multiple levels of influence.

These include intrapersonal (attitude, knowledge, beliefs, etc.), interpersonal (families, friends, peers, social and business networks, etc.), community (chiefs, opinion leaders, media, influencers, etc.), and societal-level enabling environments such as policy, legislation, religion, politics, socio-cultural issues, etc.

There are interactions and relationships between these levels, so interventions must address all the factors influencing the illegal miners and their facilitators concurrently in a multilevel approach to tackle the menace.

Multilevel interventions

Multilevel interventions at each level will address the root causes of these factors of influence that prevent the illegal miners and their facilitators from ending Galamsey.

Some root causes certainly include unemployment, greed, ignorance, impunity, influence peddling, abuse of power, spiritual beliefs, getting rich quickly, illiteracy, etc.

These root causes, whether, are a set of beliefs or negative attitudes require change.

It is not just about law enforcement, legal amendments or social interventions.

The wanton and wilful depletion of our natural resources may not end soon if we rely solely on these interventions without an SBCC strategy.

Behaviour change is a great enabler and the way to go.

We can only achieve this by conducting formative research to identify the behaviour that needs to change, know who is performing that behaviour, understand the motivating factors that can drive the change we need, and identify barriers to the current and desired behaviour.

Thus, understanding the situation, the first of the five steps in designing an SBCC strategy is crucial.

It will provide suggestions for crafting compelling stop-galamsey messages and materials that resonate with current and potential illegal miners.

It will also unearth the most effective channels for communicating with them.

For instance, it may reveal that one-on-one communication is more suitable with the mass media serving as a mop-up for the campaign.

Don’t get it twisted.

Dr Ing. Kenneth Ashigbey and the Media Coalition against Galamsey have done a yeoman’s job raising awareness about the menace.

Today, the public is much more aware of the canker because of their efforts.

It has awakened our consciousness to the disturbing reality.

Inadequate

However, using an information-education-communication (IEC) approach in the hope of ending galamsey will not help our cause because knowledge and awareness alone are not enough to change behaviour, which is the predilection of the IEC.

It is the reason why the SBCC uses three key strategies in its campaigns: behaviour change communication (BCC), social and community mobilisation (SCM), and advocacy to tackle issues.

Nations have used SBCC to fight illegal wildlife trade and other conservation-related issues, as well as malnutrition and Ebola, among others.

We can also do the same.

What we need is behaviour change, not just awareness creation.

The writer is a communications professional and works with GAEC
Email: raymondbaxey@gmail.com