The practitioner lecture series is intended to give IBEI students an opportunity to engage with international professionals about their personal work experience, the organizations they represent, and to learn about possible career trajectories in international governmental and non-governmental organizations. Each lecture will allow ample room for questions and inputs from the audience. All IBEI students and staff are welcome.

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Roy Head is the CEO of Development Media International, Managing and Evaluating Media-based Public Awareness Campaigns in Developing Countries.

Can mass media save lives in the developing world? Mass media can certainly reach a lot of people. But can it be evaluated as a public health intervention, comparing costs per life saved, in the same way that drugs, doctors or bednets are evaluated? Roy Head, CEO of Development Media International (DMI) and director of some of the largest media campaigns carried out by the BBC and UN, will discuss his experience using media as a tool to make lives better.

DMI is the first organisation to scientifically prove that mass media can change life-saving behaviours. GiveWell and Impact Matters have both ranked DMI as one of the most cost-effective non-profit organisations in the world. Roy started as a BBC television producer, then joined UN Peacekeeping to set up its first radio station (Cambodia, 1992-3) and largest TV operation (former-Yugoslavia, 1994-6). In 1997 he made a simultaneous approach to the BBC and WHO, arguing for a more professional approach to health campaigning. This led to the creation of the BBC’s own charity, where Roy ran the Heath Division for 8 years. In 2005 Roy was awarded the Joseph Rowntree “Visionaries” Award and created DMI, aiming to bring a more scientific approach to health campaigns. He was educated at Cambridge and U Penn.

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