SCOPE
SCOPE is a process of discovery, assimilation of information, creativity, and learning by doing. Through an interactive software interface SCOPE allows people to design, implement, and evaluate effective health communication projects directly on the computer. SCOPE’s substantial database provides the groundwork on which to establish a communication strategy. As SCOPE users interpret information and use it to design their projects, they acquire a practical appreciation of the magnitude and complexity of health communication challenges. The SCOPE experience encourages health communicators to:
  • Appreciate carefully analyzed data as the scientific basis for planning.
  • Acquire a multi-stage approach to communication planning that takes into account the audience, resources, and state of health communication activities in a given region.
  • Achieve a sense of empowerment in using computer simulation and other research and management tools.
  • Understand how these tools can identify and analyze cost-effective communication interventions before trying to implement them on a large scale in the field.

How SCOPE Evolved
We started development of SCOPE in 1992 as a workshop training exercise. The goal was to find a more useful tool to teach participants in "Advances in Health Communication and Advocacy" workshops (in Baltimore as well as in our project countries abroad) how to apply specific methods and frameworks to overall health planning. The paper and pencil exercise that workshop facilitators had been using prior to SCOPE had relied on a fictitious country and data to teach strategy development. Moving the exercise to a computer had three major advantages:

  1. The computer could store a great deal of quantitative and qualitative data along with descriptive graphics, concepts, and photos.
  2. Since these materials could be easily accessed, the strategy development exercise could use real data already available from an actual country project.
  3. Access to colorful photobanks and illustrations could stimulate participants to design creative activities and storyboards. Thus the computerized strategy development exercise became a more powerful, more immediate experience to participants: SCOPE was based on reality based and it was comprehensive in scope, rich in data and illustrations, colorful, and fun to use - even for computer novices.


Since its initial development, we have been testing and using SCOPE to train health professionals in the United States and overseas. The first version of SCOPE was developed using data, graphs, and visuals from Turkey. By 1995, JHU/CCP had responded to increasing requests to develop special country versions. SCOPE country versions are now available for Bangladesh, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, India (Uttar Pradesh), Indonesia, Nepal, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Tanzania, Turkey, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Some versions have been translated into French, Spanish, and Arabic.


The Concept of Teamwork and Participation

JHU/PCS designed SCOPE to reinforce the key concepts of the "Advances in Health Communication and Advocacy" workshop. Advances workshops are held in Baltimore at least once a year for four weeks for high-level decision makers worldwide. Advances workshops are also held in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Near East.

The SCOPE exercise groups workshop participants in teams of three to a computer. Each team acts as a unit of the Ministry of Health and is entrusted with designing a comprehensive strategy for a family planning project. Each team has a budget of US $1 million to design an 18-month project. Every decision the team makes is automatically recorded and calculated on a budget table that shows allocated, actual, and final balance.

A core concept of Advances workshops is the acronym TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More). The SCOPE teams are intended to foster a spirit of teamwork. The teams simulate situations that participants face in their work when they leave the workshop - dealing with different personalities, beliefs, goals, attitudes, styles. When team members work well together they create effective strategies. When teamwork is lacking, their strategies suffer. SCOPE requires team members to agree on decisions before they can proceed to the next stage of strategy development. Team members may even have to deal with persuasive or domineering co-team members, or accept someone else’s idea over their own. The bottom line is they will have to find solutions to disagreements - just as in real life strategy planning situations.

SCOPE teams exemplify the participatory approach to training. Team members spend a great deal of their time discussing and working out ideas among themselves. In fact, in a highly participatory workshop in Bangladesh, participants surprised workshops co-sponsors by rating the SCOPE exercise as the workshop’s most participatory session.

SCOPE Framework Based on P-Process

The framework of Advances workshops is the P-Process, JHU/CCP’s planning model. The P-Process is also the framework for SCOPE. SCOPE architecture runs parallel to the workshop’s progression. SCOPE first introduces participants to the key concepts of strategy development (i.e., hierarchy of effects, the multi-stage approach to planning, and the concept of strategic leverage) and then delves into the five steps of the P-Process: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation & Evaluation, and Review.

High Ratings for SCOPE

Workshop participants rate SCOPE highly. It is very popular and effective even among participants with no previous computer experience. For example, participants in a recent "Advances" workshop in Zambia gave SCOPE a 9.24 on a ten point scale. In the words of SCOPE participants:

  • "The SCOPE exercise is a life-like simulation of the big real world of campaign planning and taught us the imperative of focusing on pretesting and evaluation before going ahead."
  • "No amount of lecturing can give participants the kind of experience one goes through when using SCOPE."
  • "SCOPE forces you to think critically, allowing the user to continually review for consistency and coherence."
  • "It was a great learning and working experience. Immediate feedback. Strengthened self-confidence."


The Future of SCOPE
To enhance the usefulness of SCOPE for training and for planning actual health communication programs, JHU/CCP continuously develops and upgrades the program. The current goals are to:

  1. Improve SCOPE architecture and production procedures which will reduce the cost and time of producing and updating country versions;
  2. Develop and enhance SCOPE features that will be greatly valued by public health planners and managers. This implies bringing SCOPE closer to a performance support system that provides on-the-job access to integrated information, advice and learning experiences.

To achieve these two goals, JHU/PCS is pursuing the following strategies:

  • The integration of the "P"-Process framework with country-specific data sources: The "P-Process framework provides a generic process for any country developing health programs. Integrating that process, as it is depicted in SCOPE, with dynamic, country-specific sources of health data will provide a powerful tool for the health professional. Such a tool would provide program support in such areas as: data analysis, planning, monitoring, and evaluation.

An example is the "Trends and Benchmarks" frame which has already been integrated into the Analysis stage of SCOPE. The SCOPE "Trends and Benchmarks" frame reads, among others, modified World Bank databases. SCOPE turns the raw, on-the-spot data into easily readable graphs and charts that can be revised as databases are updated.

  • Making the Impossible Possible: JHU/PCS is developing SCOPE features that make "impossible tasks" possible. This approach means taking advantage of what computers do best, i.e., fast retrieval, processing and graphic presentation of data.

An example is the "Geographical Mapping" feature, which has been incorporated into the Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Philippines, and Zambia versions of SCOPE. SCOPE displays color-coded maps of districts, provinces or states. The colors show changes in health indicators or progress or impact of health communication programs. When SCOPE users click on a particular region, they can identify a variety of variables specific to that region, ie., contraceptive prevalence, maternal mortality, literacy and educational levels. Using a geographical approach helps the user to identify patterns between health indicators, and subsequently plan a program utilizing such information.


SCOPE continues to expand its parameters. A specific AIDS version of SCOPE has been prepared for the Zimbabwe AIDS program (complete with HIV animation!). A health program in Morocco has requested a maternal and child health version for use by management staff. A version of SCOPE that focuses on youth-related health issues has been prepared for fall ‘97. In the meantime, we are also preparing to release versions of SCOPE in Zambia and in Bangladesh that are designed to be updated by the user, and so have expanded use outside of a workshop setting.

Some of the indicators used in SCOPE are as follows:

Total Fertility Rate
Population, Total
Age Dependency Ratio
Population Growth, Annual%
Urban population (% of population)
Urban Population Growth Rate, Annual%
Population density (population per sq km)
Total Labor Force
Upper poverty line (local currency)
Labor Force in Agriculture %
Labor force in industry (% of total)
Female Labor Force %
Household income share, top 20% (% of income)
Household income share, bot 40% (% of income)
Household income share, bot 20% (% of income)
Food Expenditure, All (% OF GDP)
Food production per capita (1987=100)
Lower Poverty Line
GNP Per Capita
Consumer Price Index
Gross enroll. ratio, sec, tot (% schl age pop)
Gross enroll. ratio, sec, fem (% schl age pop)
Pupil-teacher ratio, primary
Pupil-teacher ratio, secondary
Pupils Reaching Grade 4
Illiteracy Rate Total
Illiteracy rate, female (% of females age 15+)
Newspaper circulation (per thousand population)
Gross enroll. ratio, prim, tot (% schl age pop)
Gross enroll. ratio, prim, mal (% schl age pop)
Gross enroll. ratio, prim, fem (% schl age pop)
Life expectancy at birth, fem advantage (years)
Maternal mortal. rate (per 100,000 live births)
Access to safe water, total (% of population)
Access to safe water, urban (% of population)
Access to safe water, rural (% of population)
Access to health care (% of population)
Population per Physician
Population per nurse
Population per hospital bed
Oral rehydration therapy, under 5 (% of cases)
Pub. expend., basic social services (% of GDP)
Infant mortality rate (per thous. live births)
Under 5 mortality rate (per thous. live births)

Presentations involving SCOPE

SCOPE - Strategic Communication Planning & Evaluation (In Population Software Notes), V. 8-9, July, 1998.

Training Division, JHU-CCP: SEDE symposium, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD, 1996.

Training Division, JHU-CCP: SEDE symposium, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD, 1997.

Bailey, Michael and Lozare, Benjamin: Prevention ‘97, Atlanta GA, 1997

Lozare, B.; Bailey, M.; Wilcox, C. and Khan, O.: American Public Health Association, Indianapolis IN, 1997

Bailey, Michael and Khan, Omar: Population Association of America, Chicago IL, 1998

Bailey, Michael: International Health Geographics Conference, Baltimore MD, 1998

TOP | HOME

111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, MD 21202, USA
Phone: (410) 659.6300/Fax: (410) 659.6266/E-mail: webadmin@jhuccp.org