Delivering Life-saving Information: The Blue Messenger Bicycles Initiative in South Sudan

Promoting access to essential and accurate information, especially in development and humanitarian contexts, is an integral component of promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In South Sudan, over 80 per cent of the population grapples with high levels of poverty, resides in rural areas, and lacks information that is vital to their lives — including information on public services, health, and basic rights. Local and international actors have increasingly implemented Communication for Development (C4D) strategies to help promote access to information in South Sudan and elsewhere, using strategic communication mechanisms and curated information to achieve positive social and behaviour change.

In recognition that the most vulnerable communities in South Sudan have limited access to information, a group of young innovators launched the Blue Messenger Bicycles (BMB) initiative in early 2020. BMB includes a team of 50 volunteers who travel in and around Juba on blue bicycles mounted with a megaphone, battery, and GPS to broadcast life-saving information to citizens in five different languages. In partnership with organizations such as the UNDP Accelerator Lab and UNICEF South Sudan, the BMB initiative prioritizes the information needs of the most vulnerable communities to help address infectious disease outbreaks, conflict recovery, and natural disasters.

Through a series of seven semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from five organizations actively involved in C4D efforts in South Sudan, we explore local and international perspectives on the implementation of C4D programs there. The BMB initiative, one of the first of its kind around the world, serves as an illustrative case study to examine the use of local communication mechanisms, the sustainability of operations as a grassroots organization, and the outcomes of C4D initiatives.