Caroline Sugg

One of the first projects I worked on as a young strategy consultant involved supporting a new social enterprise in South Africa. The company were bidding for a mobile telephony licence to bring services to poor parts of the country. It was eye-opening to hear that most people living in townships like Soweto had never had access to fixed line phones and were refused mobile phones due to lack of credit history. Without connectivity, getting hold of relatives in an emergency was impossible and looking for work was frustrating and slow. It was a stark reminder of how critical communication is to people's lives. The dream was that mobile phones would lead to a revolution in terms of access to information and public services.

Fast-forward fifteen years and I was sitting in a village in Northern India talking to new mums about how things have changed as a result of their health workers receiving training via mobile phone. Not internet-enabled smart phones, which are still inaccessible to them, but the most basic of handsets. The women were full of praise for the community health workers who now advise them with skill and confidence, having accessed training on their phones using a service created by BBC Media Action. These women told me that they now have a better understanding of vaccinations, including recognising that the side effects are nothing to fear, and that they are now able to convince their relatives to take them for proper antenatal care. Here, better communication has truly transformed lives.

These stories explain why I’m so proud to work for BBC Media Action. Our work with communication connects and empowers people and supports the strong, independent media that are so critical to democracy. 

At BBC Media Action my job is to ensure that we continually learn from what we do, feeding evidence of what works into our projects. The teams I lead help set the direction for BBC Media Action’s work, provide specialist technical advice to our project teams, forge relationships with valued donors and partners, and communicate about what we do to the outside world. As independent journalism is increasingly challenged around the world and we strive to make sure that everyone feels the benefits of development, this work is more important than ever.