The Drum Beat 289 - Development Posers
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OUT OF CHARACTER!
As matter of principle and strategy The Communication Initiative is a platform to support you telling your stories, sharing your ideas, contributing your knowledge and improving your work through the insights of your peers. So this issue of The Drum Beat is out of character. As The Executive Director of The Communication Initiative I am often asked what I think. Some of those ideas follow. I would very much welcome your feedback and critique by completing the page review forms at the bottom of each online page or sending your comments to conundrums@comminit.com or simply replying to your email.
It is my views that follow - not the official views of The CI Partners or the CI process. But I hope that they both stimulate thought and provide you with further arguments to strengthen and expand your invaluable work. Next week normal service will resume - back to your experiences and insights. But just for this week some personal perspectives follow on key questions for international development, the communication response to the Tsunami, direct action, the problems caused by the success on smallpox, local vs. "scientific" knowledge, "best practice" [aaaagh!] and a few other thoughts from the past.
Please do review and critique - it is a vital part of growing and developing more effective development communication action. Thanks.
- Warren Feek, Executive Director, The Communication Initiative wfeek@comminit.com
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Leading Questions 2005
January 14 2005
20 questions for a new year:
- "...Why do development agencies in their communications keep using the word "poor" and the phrase "poorest countries" when they mean "economically" or "financially poor"? Why categorise all aspects of a country or a person's life and being as impoverished?
- Why is there not one global set of development data?
- How is it that even in this global communication age, the most popular radio and TV programmes remain national and/or local productions?
- In 2005, is it possible for a technologically unconnected community - one not wired in any way for internet or television or radio - to become economically rich?..."
Tides of Hope?
January 20 2005
Explores ways to ensure that the long-term development strategies adopted by the international agencies do not compound the immediate tragedy caused by the earthquake and tsunamis of December 2004. Suggests the following as core elements of a communication strategy:
- Cash into Local Hands
- Really Free Trade
- Create and Support Public Spaces
- Create and Support Negotiating Spaces
- Local Media
- Locally Managed Monitoring
The above elements are suggested as a way of "supporting people to redevelop their lives and communities under their control and according to their debated and negotiated requirements."
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PULSE POLL
At the centre of the international development community's response to the Tsunami should have been the direct provision of USD 500 equivalent in local currency straight to each affected person.
Do you agree or disagree? Unsure?
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Miming Development: The Shortest Distance and International Development
January 27 2005
Examines the favoured short-term, rational, "straight-line" approach of most international development agencies, suggesting that this approach may be overly simplistic. Argues for a more creative approach, with a specific example of what took place in the city of Bogota, Colombia. "Just as the mime artists on the streets of Bogota mimed bad pedestrian and driver behaviour, maybe we should muster our communication skills to mime the often poor relevance of the family of "log frame" planning systems in order to encourage more relevant development action. A case of seeing if a pantomimed shake, rattle and roll can win out over patterned planning boxes?"
I Blame Smallpox!
February 3 2005
"Could the superb victory of global international development over the vicious Smallpox disease have sown the seeds of the serious struggles that we have experienced in countering other major health and development issues - particularly HIV/AIDS, malaria, Tuberculosis and the full range of child health issues?" A look at the Smallpox "model" of addressing current health development issues, suggesting that a new model is needed. The "Smallpox approach" focuses on either a proven intervention to mobilise [e.g., condoms] or a new intervention to find [e.g., AIDS vaccines]. Tinkering with the approach is not enough, this piece suggests. Instead, we need an entirely new set of principles - ones that address connections between issues being addressed and the broader political and rights landscape.
Talk with the People!
February 17 2005
"...there is very little provable information to back up the assertion that consistently overlooking local knowledge in development planning is a big mistake. We all have oodles of anecdotal stories. But a good provable story on an important development issue can be hard to find." An examination of the reasons for recent herbicide resistance within coca crops in Colombia points to farmer networks' sharing of local knowledge and communication processes. Based on information from a recent "Wired" magazine article [November 2004], this piece focuses "on how this reveals, in a very stark and impactful manner, the power and role of local knowledge for effective development communication processes. In this provable and demonstrable case it is coca that is the subject of attention. But, we have seen similar instances from wife inheritance and thigh sex related to HIV/AIDS to mushroom selection and pastoral practices in agriculture. Local knowledge is crucial...."
NEW!
The Best of Practices?
March 3 2005
"OK, let's start with a little quiz. Picture yourself in a meeting or just chatting with a colleague. Is there a particular word or phrase which when used by participants in the meeting or by this colleague in an informal chat gets you just a little agitated? Maybe very agitated? I am sure you know the feeling. The blood moves a little quicker. You feel a little more edgy and itchy. You wish you could ban that word or phrase being used - or at least restrict it to, let's say, 5 times a meeting or conversation. Ironically, though internally agitated, externally you may show contradictory signs. You slump a little in your chair. Shoulders droop a little. A "here we go again" feeling gently inhabits you. And it is even worse when you find yourself uttering that very word or phrase that agitates you!..."
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HealtheComm News #2 - Picks, News & Perspectives
February 22 2005
An on-line health communication resource supported by the Health Communication Partnership (HCP), coordinated by The Communication Initiative and developed in cooperation with health communication practitioners everywhere.
Note: this newsletter is no longer supported.
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Also see 7 other archived ConunDRUMs:
Annan and a Talking Stick
May 5 2003
"Why does so much money, time and effort appear to be spent on communication strategies that are probably very foreign to the local communication forms?...Why have such [foreign] processes as message development, focus groups, communication delivery mechanisms and target groups when there are such vibrant and strong [local] cultural communication processes?...Maybe the Talking Stick is now only of symbolic value - years of exposure to western media and communication patterns eroding its role and power along with the communication values it embodies..."
Electing Our Leaders: And I vote for...
June 2 2003
"Imagine the scenario: When the time comes to agree the next Executive Director of UNICEF, the person to fill that post will be elected by children. Everyone aged 10 to 18 years old [0 to 9 is probably a little young!] anywhere in the world will be eligible to vote. All candidates would need to present their manifesto highlighting what they would seek to achieve over the coming 5 years thereby signifying how they wish to be judged and held accountable. In all corners of the world, Children could consider these ideas, engage the candidates and vote..."
Money makes the...?
June 30 2003
Examines the trend of funding global development initiatives, suggesting that this trend ignores the successes of local initiatives and the failures of national or global initiatives to effect change. Questions whether "...it is unrealistic to expect processes that draw local resources into internationally determined programmes and priorities to be resisted in the face of access to significantly increased funding. After all if you were the Government Minister making the decisions in each of these cases what would you have done? Does the availability of the resources over-ride development principles that probably appear remote and theoretical when the cash is in the bag?"
Science Envy?
October 6 2003
An examination and questioning of the current change theory that drive most international development organisations, within the framework of a scientific equation. In prose form this theory reads: Sustainable [long term] Impact on any single development issue or combination of issues results when there is extensive, high quality Technical Assistance [people brought into the relevant situation with the knowledge and skills to address that issue], multiplied by the availability and wide spread application of a specific Intervention - a product [e.g., vaccine] or packaged idea [e.g., structural adjustment] - that is believed [in the judgement of the technical experts] to have universal efficacy, multiplied by the necessary Financial Resources to reach the population scale necessary to impact on the presenting issues. The stronger that each of these elements is the more effective will be the action on the development issue in question. They have a compound effect on each other.
Power of Movement
November 3 2003
Proposes a new change model in the form of a scientific equation. In prose form, the model reads: The degree of sustainable long term impact on any development issue is directly proportionate to the level of leadership by people immediately affected by that issue multiplied by the scale of public debate and private dialogue on that issue multiplied by the extent to which the issue in question is a 'local' action priority in any given context. If there is a high score on these three factors then there is a high likelihood of long term sustainable impact. If there is a low score on these three factors then a low likelihood of long term sustainable impact...
Communication Art!
December 1 2003
A look at some examples of successful creative development through the arts, followed by an examination of recent trends of development communication towards a more "scientific" approach. Suggests considering giving "artistic insight and power a little more development space..."
Communication Wishes for 2004
January 5 2004
20 potentially controversial "wishes" for communicators and all working in development for the year 2004.
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Recent Pulse Poll Results
Are communicators able to show their contributions to development programmes in different organisations?
Agree: 56.25%
Disagree: 31.25%
Unsure: 12.50%
Total number of participants = 16
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This issue of The Drum Beat is an opinion piece and has been written and signed by the individual writer. The views expressed herein are the perspective of the writer and are not necessarily reflective of the views or opinions of The Communication Initiative or any of The Communication Initiative Partners.
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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
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