Strengthening Communication for Development

From SOUL BEAT AFRICA - where communication and media are central to AFRICA's social and economic development

In this issue of The Soul Beat:

* Publications highlighting the IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT
* Reports and strategic thinking on the CHALLENGES AND THE WAY FORWARD
* BLOG ON COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT - "Another Development"
* A selection of RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING on Communication for Development

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Soul Beat Africa, through our website and e-publications, seeks to create a space to share communication for development knowledge and experiences in Africa and to support discussion and debate on the topic. Our objective is to strengthen the practice and thinking around communication for development and to advocate for more effective integration of communication into development planning and practice.

This issue of The Soul Beat offers a selection of strategic thinking documents and resource materials included on the Soul Beat Africa website, which seek to highlight the importance of communication for development and the need to improve the integration of communication into development planning and practice. It also looks at some of the challenges and opportunities, and offers a selection of resources for further reading.

If you would like your organisation's communication work or research and resource documents to be featured on the Soul Beat Africa website and in The Soul Beat newsletters, please contact soulbeat@comminit.com

To subscribe to The Soul Beat, click here or send an email to soulbeat@comminit.com with a subject of "subscribe".

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THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT

1. At the Heart of Change: The Role of Communication in Sustainable Development
by Mark Wilson, Kitty Warnock, and Emrys Schoemaker
This document, written as a call to development strategists and advocates, argues the case for the centrality of communication to the field of development and sets an agenda for action by governments, donors, and civil society. According to the document, published by Panos London, communication is being introduced into programmes too little, too late, and in a fragmentary way. It argues that communication needs to be included from the very start in all analysis of development problems, in the establishment of development goals and policy, in planning, and at all levels of programme implementation.

2. Communicating the Impact of Communication for Development: Recent Trends in Empirical Research
by Nobuya Inagaki
This study, part of a process of providing background research in support of the First World Congress on Communication for Development (held in October 2006 in Rome, Italy), is a survey of empirical research on communication for development based on a sample of peer-reviewed English-language articles from academic journals published between 2000 - 2005. The purpose of the analysis is to collect evidence from academic research to highlight the impacts of communication on development initiatives and to present current trends in theoretical underpinnings and communication approaches. As outlined in the document's introduction, communication has the potential to make development programmes, including those related to furthering the Millennium Development Goals, more effective by, for example, making interventions more specific to local contexts; empowering people through enabling dialogue, raising awareness, and fostering self-reflection; and in particular, by giving voice to marginalised and disenfranchised populations.

3. The Case for Communication in Sustainable Development
This paper, published by Panos London, intends to show that "effective information and communication processes are prerequisites for successful development". It is a longer, more detailed exposition of the arguments set out in At the Heart of Change: The Role of Communication in Sustainable Development (see above) and is based on background research and a literature review, along with a series of interviews in the United Kingdom (UK) and other countries. The paper addresses the challenge of using communication more powerfully as an agent of change to establish faster, more sustainable development. After a short chapter setting out the context, the document explores the roles information and communication processes play in all of the key elements that foster development.

4. Advocacy and Interventions: Readings in Communication and Development
by Royal Colle
This is a book of communication for development ideas, case studies, issues, models, and field-tested methods from the practitioner perspective. It is written for policy makers, project planners, and students of advanced courses in development communication or rural development. The author explores how the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) could accelerate progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The book contains examples and case studies that illustrate ways that carefully planned and implemented communication interventions have produced positive results. It shows how approaches such as social marketing, extension, participation, and entertainment have contributed to development initiatives. Many of these have used media and new information and communication technologies. The book also includes ideas from people who have experienced the challenges of communicating effectively in development programmes.

CHALLENGES AND THE WAY FORWARD

5. World Congress on Communication for Development: Lessons, Challenges and The Way Forward
The first World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD), held in October 2006 in Rome, was an opportunity for dialogue among three key stakeholders: policy makers, practitioners, and academics. It aimed to highlight the necessity of incorporating communication for development into development policies and practices. The experiences recounted in this report are drawn from the various sessions of the Congress and emphasise the value of using Communication for Development to engage stakeholders in a professional and systematic manner for more effective and sustainable project design and implementation. The report also highlights some of the challenges facing communication for development and offers recommendations on the way forward.

6. Summary Results of GKP Consultation with Practitioners for the 10th Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development
by James Deane
This report summarises the results of a consultation that the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) carried out with communication for development practitioners in January 2007 for presentation at the 10th United Nations (UN) Round Table on C4D in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from February 12-14 2007. The theme of the Round Table was "Towards a Common UN System Approach for Harnessing Communication for Development to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals". The purpose of this consultation process was to obtain practitioner, civil society, and other external perspectives on the issues highlighted in the Round Table agenda. The need for such a consultation is highlighted by the opening remarks of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, who explained that "we need to establish a common strategy to assist Member States to integrate communication for development as a key component of development planning. Previous round tables have consistently observed that there is an inadequate focus on communication for development in development planning. If there was any, it was usually limited to mere publicity for the plans and failed to recognize the importance of sharing knowledge with the purpose of reaching consensus on development planning, implementation and evaluation."

7. Communication for Development Programmes in the United Nations System
Prepared by the UNESCO, this report responds to General Assembly Resolutions A/50/130 of 23 February 1996 and A/51/172 of 3 February 1997, and includes recommendations from the tenth United Nations Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development. While recognising "the important role of communication for development programmes in the United Nations system", the resolutions acknowledge "the need further to facilitate inter-agency cooperation and to maximize the impact of the development programmes". The general recommendations of the United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and, in particular, those reached at the tenth UN Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development include the need to impress upon senior-level decision makers of United Nations specialised agencies, programmes and funds the importance of prioritising communication for development principles and methodologies in all programmatic areas, and the need to allocate human, technical and financial resources for this effort, as well as to establish a formal inter-agency mechanism promoting and enhancing communication for development within the United Nations system.

8. Communication and the MDGs: No Magic Information Bullets
by Silvio Waisbord
In this paper, the author explores what he sees as a rather strange and surprising phenomenon: the absence of communication in the MDGs. The reasons for this exclusion may range from failure on the part of the 'communication' community to make a persuasive argument to convince power-holders to take communication goals seriously, to decision-makers' lack of sensitisation to the merits of communication goals. However, the "why" is not Waisbord's focus here. He seeks, rather, to explore the way in which communication's absence from the Goals exacerbates its relegation to an auxiliary, instrumental role to achieve other objectives. In short, Waisbord is concerned that - when seen as simply a group of information dissemination tools - communication as a strategy for fostering development in the fullest sense is radically shortchanged and misunderstood.

9. Media & Glocal Change: Rethinking Communication for Development
Edited by Oscar Hemer and Thomas Tufte
This book presents a collection of writings from the broad field of communication for development and from closely related areas of research and practice. The editors' aim is to present "an integral reflection upon where the still-emerging field of communication for development is coming from and, particularly, where we believe it should be heading." This book aims "to integrate reflection on epistemology, theory, methodology and successful case studies in order to move the field towards a new phase, enabling media and communication practitioners to respond better to the realities of a glocalized world."

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BLOG ON COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT - "ANOTHER DEVELOPMENT"


by Ricardo Ramirez and Wendy Quarry

Click here to read and contribute to this blog.

Click here for further blogs which offer analysis, ideas and debates on Development Policy Issues from Communication and Media Perspectives.

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RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING

10. Development Communication Sourcebook: Broadening the Boundaries of Communication
by Paolo Mefalopulos
This book from the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank is intended to be a source of knowledge and practical advice for all those involved in development communication, a compendium of reference material for courses and workshops in this field, and an advocacy piece to promote the discipline to managers and decision makers who have an interest in learning why and when to adopt development communication. The two factors guiding the rationale for writing this sourcebook, according to the introduction, are: "First, despite the growing recognition enjoyed by the discipline of development communication, its nature and full range of functions are still not fully known to many decision makers and development managers who tend to identify this field merely with the art of disseminating information effectively. Second, because of the recent shift in the development paradigm (that is, from one-way to two-way communication) and the related changes in the field of development communication, many communication practitioners are not entirely aware of the discipline’s rich theoretical body of knowledge and the wealth of its practical applications—which are growing in relevance for the development context."

11. Monitoring and Evaluating Information and Communication for Development (ICD) Programmes
by Mary Myers, Nicola Woods, and Sina Odugbemi
Published by UK DFID, this document is designed to provide guidance on monitoring and evaluating information and communication for development programmes that utilise: face-to-face communication or information activities such as counselling or extension visits; community-level communications such as theatre, role-playing, workshops, posters, and other print materials; television, radio, film, and video; internet and email communications programmes; and telecommunications-based projects.

12. The Terminology of Knowledge for Sustainable Development: Information, Knowledge, Collaboration and Communications
by Heather Creech
This International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Knowledge Communications Practice Note offers a glossary of terms related to sustainable development communications. The glossary covers: principal distinctions; terminology of knowledge processes; typology of collaborative relationships; and an inventory of communications practices and tools. Examples of this glossary, which is presented in a chart format, include terms such as: Adaptive management; Community of practice; Intellectual capital; K4D: Knowledge for development; Knowledge mobilisation; Appreciative inquiry; and Participatory video, among others.

13. Communication for Social Change Anthology: Historical and Contemporary Readings
Edited by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron and Thomas Tufte
Published by the Communication for Social Change (CFSC) Consortium, this anthology brings together thinking by more than 150 communication for social change experts to review the evolution of communication for social change from the early 1960's to the present. This collection of approximately 200 texts looks at where the field has been and where it is headed, as well as the principles that have characterised communication for social change from the beginning.

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