Professor Eliana La Ferrara on fighting HIV with MTV

What does MTV have to do with fighting HIV?

My guest on this episode Professor Eliana La Ferrara of Bocconi University in Milan knows the answer and she joins me to tell me more about her work as a development economist. Her specialism is in applied work, meaning that she collects and analyses data, mostly from families or individuals in poor or disadvantaged locations. And she tries to understand from this data, which policies might be effective in fighting poverty.


In our discussion, we explore how Eliana became interested in researching the use of TV “edutainment” to change attitudes and behaviours in developing countries. That led her to work with colleagues from the World Bank and MIT, on a study of how MTV Shuga, a television series shown in Nigeria, might change knowledge and attitudes towards HIV and risky sexual behaviour. The good news is that it is extremely effective. Why, how and the lessons we can learn from that, is what Eliana explains to me on the show.

You can find the World Bank sponsored research paper Eliana refers to here: https://bit.ly/3wKjA7u

For more on Eliana and her area of research: https://faculty.unibocconi.eu/elianalaferrara/