The Program Rationale
Letter From The Dean
Prof. Dato’ Dr. Abdul Mua’ti@Zamri Ahmad
The programme is the outcome of an active partnership between The United Nation Children’s Fund or (UNICEF) and Universiti Putra Malaysia since 2017 .
“The UPM-UNICEF C4D is the first communication programme of its kind in West Malaysia, after the establishment of UMS- UNICEF Communication for Development Research Unit at Universiti Malaysia Sabah.”
We, at Universiti Putra Malaysia, are truly honoured to be part of this wonderful initiative, and we look forward to utilising our capacity as UPM-UNICEF C4D to connect with the community.
We have been hearing countless issues concerning the rights of women and children, and gender inclusiveness. Numerous reports have highlighted the challenges faced by women and children in terms of discrimination, access to health and education, and safety to name a few.
In addition, the recent attention on mental health globally has added to these existing problems, which calls for further communication, research and action among academics and practitioners.
We believe that the time has come for us to play our role in communicating the importance of these issues to the community. Through the UPM-UNICEF C4D programme, we hope to address these matters and create a safer and more inclusive ecosystem in our daily lives.
These become our main motivation behind the formation of the UPM-UNICEF C4D programme. We aim to achieve our objectives by Advocate, Communicate and Empower.
We believe the UPM-UNICEF C4D programme will bring beneficial outcomes to society by providing an avenue to collaborate between university, industry, and community. UPM-UNICEF C4D welcomes any form of partnership from academics and industries to help strengthen our role in aiding the development of our human capital for an advanced nation .
Director Forward
A foreward by UPM-UNICEF C4D Program Director Dr Tham Jen Sern
“If we can encourage individuals to accept a new behaviour, reject a potential undesirable behaviour, modify a current behaviour, or abandon an old undesirable one, we might be able to get some way towards healthier and more inclusive societies.”
Being Malaysia’s first health communication research group focusing on the mental well-being of women and children, the UPM-UNICEF C4D program aims to raise awareness of the importance of social behaviour change in promoting and improving the health of individuals, communities and society.
We are delighted to be collaborating with the United Nation’s key agency, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), to connect researchers, stakeholders, and individuals who share a common interest to influence healthy and inclusive behaviours and provide a supportive environment among the target populations.
We believe that the cornerstone of social and behaviour change is communication. Housed within the Department of Communication, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, we have experts to leverage different communication strategies to catalyse and promote rigorous, innovative and impactful research that informs health communication research, training, practice, consultancy and policy. Our work is theoretically founded and empirically supported. On that note, I believe it is exciting work that can change and improve people’s lives for the better.