Development Communication - Development Communication Policy

Development Communication Policy

Development communication is a process that builds consensus and facilitates the sharing of knowledge to achieve positive change in development initiatives. It is not only about effective dissemination of information, but about using empirical research, two-way communication, and dialogue among stakeholders. It is also a key management tool that helps assess socio-political risks and opportunities. By using communication to bridge differences and take action towards change, development communication can lead to successful and more sustainable results.

Development communication is envisaged as a response to particular historical, social, and economic factors that characterize freedom of access to information and citizen participation. This includes socio-economic problems such as high levels of poverty and unemployment, low standards of living, poor access to basic services, remote settlement patterns, lack of access to technology, lack of information, poor health services, lack of education and skills, and lack of infrastructure.

A decisive role can be played by communication in promoting human development in today’s new climate of social change. As the world moves towards greater democracy, decentralization, and the market economy, conditions are becoming more favorable for people to start steering their own course of change. But it is vital to stimulate their awareness, participation, and capabilities. Communication skills and technology are central to this task, but at present are often underutilized. Policies are needed that encourage effective planning and implementation of communication programs.

The implementation of communication policies and practices requires joint action among those involved in the social, economic, scientific, educational, and foreign affairs of each country. Their role is not to be conceived as a superpower set up to control the media. They can be successful only in constant contact and consultation with the communicators and the citizens whose direct participation in the formulation and implementation of communication policies and plans is both essential and vital. Today, the decision makers and the citizens of these countries cannot but pay close attention to the role that communication currently plays in society, and explore how communication may best contribute to all aspects of human and national development.

The UNESCO has provided the groundwork for development communication policies. It has conducted a series of studies on communication policies as part of the resolutions adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO during its 16th session in 1970. Its objective was to promote an awareness of the concept of communication policies at the governmental, institutional, and professional levels of selected member states. The selected countries were Ireland, Sweden, Hungary, Yugoslavia, West Germany, and Brazil. Two years later, a UNESCO meeting of experts on communication policies and planning defined communication policy as a set of norms established to guide the behavior of communication media. According to these experts, the basic requirements of communication policies are:

• The values that determine the structure of communication systems and guide their operation
• The systems of communication, their structures, and operation
• The output of these systems and their impact and social functions

The Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) was commissioned by UNESCO to do a feasibility study on "Training in Communication Planning in Asia" in 1974. It organized the first AMIC Regional Conference on Development Communication Policies and Planning in Manila, Philippines in May 1977. Attended by delegates from ten countries, it drew up basic recommendations including the setting up of national development communication councils by each country's governmental, educational, and media groups.

According to Habermann and De Fontgalland (1978), the difficulties in the adoption of a viable development communication policy have to be simultaneously analyzed at the horizontal and vertical levels. The horizontal level consists of diversified institutions such as government agencies, semi-governmental offices (e.g., rural extension service), independent development organizations, and private media outlets, which are all active in communication. The coordination of these institutions becomes a major item of a meaningful development communication policy. The vertical level is defined by the need for mutual information flows between the population base and the decision-making bodies. On this level, even more institutions are involved because of the local and supra-local administrations that are active in handing out directives and in feeding back reports to the government. Coordination of development communication initiatives becomes a more difficult task on this level because, with the exception of government extension bureaus, no institution is really prepared to pick up information from the grassroots levels and feed them back meaningfully to the national administration.

Nora Quebral, on assessing the relevance and currency of development communication training values in 1986, has stressed the importance of systematic practice being equally recognized along with formal research as a legitimate basis for decisions on development communication policy. According to her, in the well-ordered world of Western academics, research precedes policy, and is the foundation of policy.