Communication for Development: Demonstrating Impact and Positioning Institutionally

"Communication for Development is a social process based on dialogue using a broad range of tools and methods. It is also about seeking change at different levels including listening, building trust, sharing knowledge and skills, building policies, debating and learning for sustained and meaningful change. It is not public relations or corporate communication." - from The Rome Consensus Communication for Development: A Major Pillar for Development and Change [PDF], January 2007.

This 96-page report presents the proceedings of the 11th Meeting of the UN Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development held in Washington, DC, United States (US) March 11-13 2009. The World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) together convened the meeting to discuss 2 central themes: how to better position communication for development (C4D) - understood to be defined as quoted above - as an integral component of aid and development programmes, and how to strengthen monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of C4D. The meeting offered an opportunity to review current C4D activities across UN agencies and the invited partners, discuss challenges and courses of action to strengthen the institutional position of C4D, and further improve monitoring and evaluation of C4D programmes.

The report is divided into 4 sections. The first summarises presentations by UN agencies on their activities in C4D. The second presents key challenges and proposes actions to further institutionalise C4D in the UN system. The third analyses the challenges and proposed actions to strengthen the M&E component of C4D. The fourth presents recommendations and proposed next steps.

The methodology used in the meeting consisted of plenary and small working group sessions to discuss challenges and recommend actions to demonstrate impact and strengthen the institutional position of C4D in UN agencies. Background papers were commissioned to highlight key themes and identify questions to further inform the discussions. Abridged copies of the papers - one of which ("Fitting the Glass Slipper! Institutionalising Communication for Development within the UN CI") was prepared by The Communication Initiative (The CI) - are included in the Appendix, while full versions are available here.

A common challenge voiced by participants is raising awareness among key stakeholders about the richness of communication and its manifold contributions to programmatic goals. "Participants agreed that decision-makers' persistent lack of a comprehensive understanding of communication and limited awareness about its added value are key challenges. They agreed to design and implement advocacy actions to demonstrate how C4D could be better integrated into efforts towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and improving aid and development effectiveness. With these goals in mind, participants discussed the need to produce a series of indicators of communication impact that are valid across agencies and programmes. They agreed that it was important to have compelling impact data to demonstrate the contributions of C4D, and improve the effectiveness of C4D interventions. Actions are needed to make Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) an integral part of communication programmes, and to utilize indicators that measure the impact of communication on technical goals."

Based on the diagnosis of the challenges, participants agreed on the following 4 recommended actions to strengthen the institutional position of C4D: 1) develop a UN Round Table advocacy strategy for C4D that includes materials documenting good practices in key C4D programmes; 2) develop and implement a common learning framework on C4D in order to enhance the capacity of UN agencies, governments, and external actors; 3) conduct advocacy actions to promote C4D at country and regional levels; and 4) coordinate common efforts closely with other inter-agency mechanisms.

Two recommendations were adopted to strengthen M&E in C4D: 1) establish an inter-agency working group to develop a common M&E framework for C4D; and 2) conduct an agency-level review of existing national capacity development activities to assess ways to integrate M&E for C4D.

The recommendations of the UN Round Table reach all Heads of Agencies, including the office of the Secretary General and the United Nations General Assembly, in a biennial report that encapsulates good practices and other valuable examples of C4D from within the UN system. This report (expected to be completed by the end of 2009) provides updates on C4D thinking in the UN system, and it also serves as an advocacy tool.