A Compendium of Regional Perspectives in Communication for Development

This 28-page compendium integrates the findings of 7 regional initiatives coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in preparation for the World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD). (Held October 25-27 2006 in Rome, Italy, WCCD was organised by The World Bank, FAO, and The Communication Initiative). The purpose of the process which shaped this compendium is to promote learning experiences and partnerships in communication for development (hereafter, "ComDev"), thereby serving as a guide for participants to the WCCD - and others - who wish to get a sense of the accomplishments and challenges in this applied field, with commonalities and differences across regions, organisations, and projects.

The paper makes reference to 3 functions inherent in ComDev:

• Policy communication and public relations - commonly used by governments to convey new programme directions to the public and promote their programmes;
• Educational communication for training - commonly used in transfer of technology programmes that seek to disseminate proven know-how; and
• Facilitative or participatory communication - commonly used to understand how different groups perceive complex problems and negotiate ways forward.
  

The compendium includes details from reports produced in each region that participated in the WCCD, including the Near East, Southeast Asia, East and Southern Africa, West Africa, the Sahel, Central America and Mexico, and Latin America. Weaving specific insights and examples from each of these regions - and many individual countries within them - the paper is organised into 4 main sections:

1. Main challenges faced by communication practitioners in each region, with the following general observations across regions:

• Lack of knowledge and capacity in ComDev practice on the part of decision-makers: There is little knowledge of the breadth of communication functions ranging from public relations to participatory communication. Nor is there understanding of the need for research-based communication planning to make a communication initiative viable. "This lack of knowledge can result in confusion between communication for development and media, and presents a major barrier to the mainstreaming of Communication for Development initiatives."
• Lack of well-trained communication practitioners in all regions. There is also a certain amount of confusion as to the depth and meaning of ComDev within regions and across regions, making it difficult to find a common language/terminology to indicate the meaning of the process.
• Lack of political will, as evidenced through absence of a supportive policy (for ComDev). "In many regions such a policy is often implicit in those countries that support participatory development (or community-based management) but in others, where participatory development is not the norm, it is almost impossible to find examples of any communication initiative beyond public relations and/or information exchange."
• Need for partnerships - such as those between government bodies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and academe - to bring together the different communication functions within a given programme to good effect.
• Confusion around information and communication technologies (ICTs) and internet opportunities - The growth of internet technology has sparked wider interest in the power of communication, but has led many decision-makers to confuse the internet (which is a tool) with ComDev, which is a process that makes use of a wide array of methods and media tools.

2. Stories on communication initiatives - this section responds to the challenges and provides the evidence of specific accomplishment. To cite one example: "In several countries (Lao, Cambodia, Nicaragua), the FAO Special Program on Food Security incorporated Communication for Development and participatory approaches in its implementation. The benefits of these interventions include the inclusion of gender-sensitive approaches and participatory planning. These projects have the potential to be used as 'policy experiments' if and when the government is involved in a reflection process to appreciate the potential contribution of the approaches and the policy requirements for their continued use and evolution."

3. Lessons learned - details some of the findings from the regional workshops and papers in terms of best practices, methodologies, approaches, and impacts. For example, from Latin America: "'Sin comunicación no hay desarrollo' (Without communication there is no development) is the motto at the top of the Latin American report, and this captures the main lesson learned. The bulk of the development model that has prevailed in the region has created the conditions for a vertical, top-down way of thinking and implementing communication....The Latin American report calls for three strategic directions: 1) citizen engagement to monitor the Communication for Development approaches; 2) international observatories on methods and media for ComDev; and 3) the development of a mechanism for monitoring and exchange of participatory communication within the region beyond the WCCD....A major challenge then is for communication practitioners to become more strategic in identifying when and where there is scope for realistic interventions. Can we advocate for governments to embrace communication functions that are not threatening (policy communication and educational communication) and leave space for others to implement participatory communication until there are spaces to influence regulatory and policy level that shift the overall development paradigm, rather than expect our pleas for participatory communication to be heard from those who support the prevalent development model?...We suspect it is time to move from the broad call for change, to more practical, sobering means to create spaces for change at the policy level."

4. The Recommendations section addresses emerging issues and opportunities for mainstreaming. In brief:

• Countries that foster dialogue, debate, and inclusion while encouraging free and open media are more likely to engage in participatory communication practices than those with more centrally controlled nation states. "The whole notion of transparency is in itself a communication function that depends on the willingness of those in power to share knowledge and information with those who are not."
• The need for policy: "The presence of an enabling environment offers a hook for practitioners to demand the inclusion of communication at all levels of planning. While this may be self-evident, the need to fight for policy has not often been clearly articulated."
• The importance of fostering partnerships between government agencies and other actors - and other actors with each other.
• Methods must be found to broaden the knowledge of decision-makers towards the full communication agenda.
• Capacity development for practitioners is needed - e.g, a global and regional concerted programme to develop - at the very least - regional training programmes.
• The exchange of stories and experiences across regions and within regions has been shown to provide impetus and encouragement to decision-makers, practitioners, and donors to get motivated in support of ComDev initiatives. The call for regional platforms needs to be balanced with the need to make use of what is already available at the global level within the field, and in each region with complementary activities in related fields. "Of particular interest for the future will be the sharing of successful mechanisms to create spaces for dialogue and change with policy makers."

"We hope these perspectives constitute relevant inputs, particularly for the Sustainable Development sessions of the WCCD where cross fertilization among regions appears most promising."