Public Agenda (Accra)
Amos Safo
1 September 2008
opinion
According to a West African Manual on "Participatory Development Communication", unless people participate in all phases of an intervention, from problem identification to research and implementation of solutions, the likelihood that sustainable change will occur is slim. Development communication is at the very heart of this challenge. The manual argues that though the term is sometimes used to indicate the overall contribution of mass media to the development of society, it is the planned use of strategies and processes of communication aimed at achieving a specific goal that has attracted academic attention.
But is development communication all about using mass media channels? Within the perspective of development communication, two trends have emerged; firstly, an approach that favours the use of mass media and an approach that promotes community participation in small-scale projects. Proponents of the latter empahise the use of interpersonal communication ( videos, posters and slide presentation and or one-on-one) to achieve results.
For instance in 1992, the UNDP launched a family planning programme in Nima, a predominant moslem community in Accra aimed at educating the people to reduce the sizes of their families. The UNDP initially used mass media messages and their own officials to implement the project. The project backfired because the people could not relate to the messages. This compelled the UNDP to go back to the drawing table and evolve new approaches. The second approach involved the use of interpersonal communication and the community leaders, who wield a lot of influence in the community. Using acceptable messages and quotes from the Koran the leaders explained that even though the prophet Mohammed stated in the Koran that he needed more followers, he also wanted his followers to lead quality lives. And if the prophet's people had to lead quality lives they needed to control the birth rate in the community. The result was remarkable. An evaluation of the project revealed an impressive increase in the use of contraceptives amongst moslems, who initially kicked against it.
Campbell-White and Bhatia (1998) cite the case of Senegal where the privatisation programme came to a halt because it was launched when there was no consensus on privatisation. In analysing the communication aspect of this initiative, the authors noted that there was no public announcement of the policy, weak efforts to involve stakeholders in the reform process and feeble attempts to directly address the people's concerns; hence, the strong resistance to privatisation.
Campbell-White and Bhatia also note the case of Kenya's privatisation programme. In January 1995,41 opposition members of parliament issued a press statement complaining about the 'severely chaotic, blatantly messy, grossly irregular and shamelessly fraudulent manner and the secrecy in which the programme was being conducted.' In analysing Venezuela's economic reforms in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Naim (1993) concluded that the 'missing link' was an effective communication strategy. He lamented that the Venezuelan government did not adequately appreciate the 'need to grant public communication the same attention, resources, and seriousness as the other reforms it introduced.' (4)
The above cases demonstrate how planning without communication can reverse socio-economic development. At the heart of the development communication debate is the failure of the modernisation model to engineer development in third world countries. Due to its shortcomings, stakeholders are now questioning the modernisation theory because they saw that simply communicating modern theories did not lead to development. The experts, especially, those from Latin America observed that the third world countries that were the intended beneficiaries of western development assistance appear to be sliding further into poverty.
Snyder (2003) argues in support of the above assertion that the result of development campaigns and other development activities have been disappointing. Population growth remained high, campaigns widened the knowledge and resource gaps between the wealthy and the poor, while dependence on industrialised nations and multinational corporations was increasing.
In the view of MacBride, the imitation of a development model based on the hypothesis that wealth once acquired , will automatically filter down to all levels of society and that the propagation of communication practices from top to bottom will yield the needed results has turned out to be untenable ( MacBride 1980).
Still, some experts have attributed the failure of top to bottom development programmes to what is commonly called the 'dependency paradigm'. According to the paradigm obstacles to development come first and foremost from external, not internal. That is, either from the west to the north or in the case of countries, from the capital to local level. This argument called for the need to redefine the interrelationship between development and communication. The resulting discussion and recommendations gave birth to the 'New World information order.' Its extension at the national level emphasised the relationship between communication and politicisation (5).
Freire(1973) and his contemporaries identified communication as a process that is inseparable from the social and political process necessary for development. Freire insists that the mere transfer of knowledge from the top to a passive receiver did nothing to promote growth in people because individuals have independent and critical minds capable of making decisions.
Though communication is an essential ingredient for development some analysts have warned against mistaking it as an end in itself. No one, therefore ever disputes the need for communication in whatever name and form it takes- development support communication, development communication, IEC etc, interest in the media can become so strong that creating a 'good' communication product itself becomes a goal rather than the means it was intended to become. This is where the 'trap' lies, notes Subhash Joshi.(6)
Joshi observes that the 'trap' lies in the fact of thinking of communication and media first rather than the development goals. According to him Communication and media can be so attractive, glamorous and overpowering concerns that they become a goal unto themselves. He notes that one should always think first of development goals, objectives and strategy before thinking of the media.
But the fact that Joshi, like other authorities did not entirely rule out communication in the development process reinforces the universal and practical manifestation that there cannot be development without communication.
Where do we go from here? Experience in developing countries over the last 40 years shows that the point of departure for development communication is not the dissemination of an innovation or of new ideas, but grassroots expression of its own needs. It follows that the communication models based exclusively on information transmission are doomed to failure (7).
Several researchers have empahsised the reinforcement of institutional and individual skills, ways of approaching decision-makers and grassroots participation. Beltran (1993) proposed the following notes for a 20th Century development agenda; (a) Combine the best of the development support communication activities with alternative means of communication. (b) Support research into communication aimed at health, hygiene and nutrition. (c) Support the small communities, the NGOs, and union organisations. (d) Insist that political planners and leaders use communication to reach development objectives. (e) Encourage basic communication training and (f) Reinforce institutional regional communication.
In short, the fact remains that to be sustainable, development must take into consideration human factors that make it possible for communities to decide for themselves what they want. Development communication is the engine that makes this process possible.
Though the field of development communication is vast, the different paradigms that marked its evolution are still being debated. In spite of the different approaches however, there is a consensus today on the need for grassroots participation in development and the essential role communication plays in promoting development (8). This is contained in a popular FAO slogan: 'There is no development without communication."
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