Peer-Reviewed Study in BMC Public Health: PMC Multimedia Campaign IMPACT in Ethiopia

A new peer-reviewed study evaluating a Population Media Center (PMC) multimedia campaign in Ethiopia has been published in BMC Public Health, one of the world’s leading open-access public health journals. The study finds that communities reached by the campaign showed measurably higher awareness of, and stronger opposition to, female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage. Just as importantly, the article also documents how deeply these centuries-old practices remain rooted despite decades of legal prohibition.

The article, “Effectiveness of a multimedia campaign in shifting community knowledge, attitudes, social norms, and practices of female genital mutilation and child marriage in Ethiopia,” evaluates a social and behavior change (SBC) intervention that PMC implemented in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) across four woredas of southern Ethiopia (Mareko, Dalocha, Esera, and Dasenech) between January 2020 and June 2025.

FGM and child marriage remain widespread in Ethiopia despite being outlawed, with national prevalence estimated at roughly 65% for FGM (some 25 million women and girls) and 40% for child marriage. The intervention set out to raise awareness, shift attitudes and social norms, and ultimately reduce both practices.

A campaign built on storytelling and scale

At the center of the campaign was Yalaleke Guzo (“Unfinished Journey”), a magazine-style radio talk show broadcast on the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation and local FM stations and reaching millions of listeners across 215 episodes. The broader effort paired that flagship program with radio and television spot messages, community radio listener groups, social and digital media outreach reaching more than three million users, capacity-building workshops with 1,800 participants, and a range of promotional materials.

What the study found

The evaluation used a mixed-methods design carried out in May 2025, combining a comparative cross-sectional survey of 403 participants (205 exposed to the campaign and 198 not exposed) with 70 qualitative participants across eight focus group discussions and eight in-depth interviews.

Compared with those who had not been reached, community members exposed to the campaign showed:

• Significantly higher awareness of FGM and child marriage (93.2% vs. 84.6%)
• Stronger anti-FGM attitudes (90.2% vs. 81.4%)
• Stronger anti-child-marriage attitudes (83.4% vs. 78.1%)

But the study’s qualitative findings tell an equally important story. Interviews and focus groups revealed that FGM has not declined entirely in the ways expected. In many cases it has gone underground, with families covertly relocating girls to other villages for the procedure to evade legal restrictions. Marriageability myths, economic pressures, social acceptability, and religious beliefs all continue to sustain both practices, even where awareness is high.

“The strength of this study is its mixed-methods design,” said Mary El-Afandi, Research, Evaluation, and Learning Specialist at PMC. “Beyond the survey numbers, our qualitative interviews and focus groups reveal why these harmful practices persist–including the sobering finding that FGM has shifted underground in response to legal pressure, with families quietly relocating girls for the procedure. That kind of insight goes well beyond what statistics alone can show, and it points us toward what actually works: moving beyond individual attitude change toward collective, community-level norm change with things like inter-generational dialogue, male engagement, community enforcement, and integrated livelihood programs for girls.”

Why it matters for the field

The authors argue that accelerating the abandonment of FGM and child marriage will require strategies that go beyond changing individual minds: scaling community dialogue, empowering girls and young people, fostering inter-generational conversation, and coordinating stakeholders–in short, shifting collective social norms and the cultural narrative rather than relying on individual attitude change alone. Many of these shifts, like scaling community dialogue, coordinating stakeholders, fostering inter-generational conversation, and more, were part of the overall Yalaleke Guzo program.

“The most important finding is empirical proof that a well-designed, mass-media multimedia campaign can help shift deeply entrenched, centuries-old social norms like FGM and child marriage,” said Kumilachew Melak, Measurement, Evaluation, and Learning Specialist in PMC’s Ethiopia office. “This isn’t just about raising awareness. The data shows a measurable shift in community attitudes. It proves that media isn’t merely entertainment; it’s a measurable catalyst for behavioral change.”

He added that the value of the work extends well beyond Ethiopia, saying, “This study offers a scalable blueprint. By showing how we blended media reach with community accountability, and by backing it with rigorous evaluation, we give other organizations and researchers frameworks they can confidently apply to their own public health and human rights work worldwide. Publication is not the endgame–it’s a launchpad for even more ambitious campaigns to protect and empower communities.”

A respected, high-visibility venue

BMC Public Health is a Q1 (top-quartile) journal in the Public, Environmental & Occupational Health category and one of the largest and longest-running open-access public health journals, published continuously since 2001 by BioMed Central, part of Springer Nature. The study is available to policymakers, researchers, and practitioners.

The publication validates the scientific rigor of PMC’s Research, Evaluation, and Learning methodologies and elevates lessons learned in Ethiopian communities to a global platform.