An overview of communication planning and implementation

Note: The material in these annexes is for development planners and project formulators who, having read the main part of the guidelines, would like to have fuller information about planning and implementing communication activities, and about the pros and cons of the various media.

I. The main elements of communication planning are the following:

a) Situation Analysis and Communication Research

No communication activities can be expected to succeed without a prior understanding of how the people to be affected by a project perceive their own problems and the development options being proposed, what they aspire to, how they obtain and exchange information, which media sources and interpersonal channels enjoy the most credibility, and so on.

Such information may already be available when a project is being formulated, but if not, it will need to be obtained, for it is this information which determines many of the features of a communication plan, including the message design, the most appropriate media and channels to use, and how and when to use them.

Part of the research may consist of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practise (KAP) survey regarding the innovations being proposed by the project.

This research will also identify constraints involved in people changing their attitudes and behaviour in respect of these innovations.

Mention of KAP surveys and audience research of this nature often sends development planners into a state of shock, for they envisage an operation that will take many months, if not years, and they are under pressure to get the project underway-- even if such haste may result in a project of faulty design.

In the reality of the day-to-day world, however, quite rapid investigations among sample audiences, carefully selected as representative of the sectors of the population to be involved in the development initiative, will usually reveal enough data as a basis for making a start.

b) The institutional framework

The institutional framework for development communication is a factor requiring a careful consideration. Development communication is a field of activity that is a mixture of disciplines: it is part science, in that it draws heavily on social and behavioural sciences, psychology, and diffusion theory; it is part art, in that draws on the talents and skills involved in media production; and it is part craft in that it uses a wide variety of aids and technical equipment.

This, plus the fact that development communication should cut across and intermingle with all sectors concerned with rural development if it is to yield its full potential, means that there is no one organizational location for development communication that is valid for every situation. Ministries of information certainly have the media infrastructures, but they do not always have appropriate staff for development communication, whereas the opposite may apply at the ministry of agriculture.

The notion of creating national-level development communication service, has not yet caught on. Yet, it would seem logical in many countries to institutionalise communication for the war on under-development, perhaps in the form of a social communication department in a ministry concerned with rural development, or attached to the cabinet.

For large-scale development projects, it is often economically viable to set up a special communication unit which forms part of the project itself. Experience shows that the investment for properly organized, and effective communication in a large-scale project will usually require from 8% - 15% of the total budget.

For smaller projects which cannot justify the establishment of their own communication unit, the institutional framework will require more thought. It may be possible to group several projects in the same, or even in different sectors if they are working with the same rural populations and create a communication unit that will work with them all.

Sectorial ministries (e.g. agriculture, health, social affairs) in some countries have existing information or communication units that can provide communication inputs to rural development projects, but they may need strengthening in terms of their human and material resources, orientation in their conceptual approach to the task, and staff training, if they are to make the contribution required by the project. Assistance to such units may constitute communication projects per se of the type mentioned in the main body of this paper.

c) An inventory of communication resources

Resources to carry out audience research and KAP surveys may be scarce in a typical developing country. However, after an appropriate methodology has been selected and tailored to suit the specific needs of the situation, such activities have been successfully been carried out in a number of cases by government field staff, by students from faculties of social sciences, by staff of marketing and advertizing agencies, or by NGO staff chosen for their aptitude for this type of work. Normally, some orientation and a little training will be required. The interpretation of the findings in the field is usually more difficult than actually collecting the information. This part of the research may require inputs from specialists.

d) The physical and technical environment

The physical circumstances in which the communication activities are to function will have a strong influence on the plan. For example, if movement in a project area is severely restricted by the rainy season for several months a year, mass media such as radio will probably play a greater role than projected audio-visual aids in a group setting. Or if ambient temperatures regularly soar into the mid-40 C. range, it may be difficult to use video cameras except in the cool of the day, or in the cool season when it may not be possible to record material required by the project.

The technical environment is equally important. For example, visual aids requiring a laboratory process that is not available in the country may be impractical. Or relatively sophisticated media for which there is no servicing available locally may cause complications. Such factors need to be weighed carefully in the balance of a communication plan.

e) The type of communication required

The communication plan will be influenced by the type of communication support that is to predominate in the project. It will be remembered from the main body of this paper that development communication encompasses various types of activity. These include communication for participatory planning, for mobilisation, for facilitating project implementation, and for grassroot level training. These various media and the approaches in using them lend themselves differently to these activities.

II. The main features and steps of implementing communication activity are as follows:

1. Ideally, before a plan for a rural development project has been finalised, there will have been a communication process for participatory planning with people in the project area. This should lead to a mutual agreement on the action to be taken, broken down into a series of clearly defined stages. The first step may, with advantage, use media such as video recording and playback to help people towards a clearer awareness of their reality and the development options open to them. However, it can also be implemented by sensitive people using inter-personal channels only, if they are prepared to spend time listening to rural people and trying to understand their perspectives.
2. Once development actions have been decided upon, the various groups within society that have a role to play in realizing those actions will be identified. These groups become target audiences; each will have a different role to play and will need to be reached with different messages and through different channels.
3. Objectives are set for the attitude and behaviour necessary from each audience to help the development initiative to succeed, (e.g. better understanding of and greater use of fertilizer by small farmers; or positive and active involvement of school teachers in talking about plant nutrition and fertilizer use with their pupils; or better informed and more active promotion of fertilizer use by community leaders, and so on).
4. Audience analysis carried out with techniques such as KAP surveys and focus group discussions. The latter are discussions with groups that represent a typical target audience, for example rural women in the child bearing age, or rural health workers, or male subsistence farmers in a certain area where the farming conditions are similar. The discussions, involving a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 12 people at a time are "focused" on a certain topic by the researchers through a well-prepared guide but are then allowed to run as freely and as widely as possible. The intention is that members of the group spark ideas off each other while the researchers take a back seat and note the main points of view and opinions that emerge. Subsequent analysis of these will lead to a quite distinct picture of how a particular audience views a given issue.
5. A communication plan for each target audience is made, identifying the channels to be used, the materials to be produced, by whom, and when.
6. Message design i.e. deciding, on the basis of the audience research, how a message should be presented to that audience, talking into account the particular concerns and perceptions of that audience. For example, if it has emerged in a particular area that women agricultural producers are mainly concerned about having a sufficient supply of food for their families from one harvest to the next, any message on a farming theme, such as for example the planting out of rice in rows rather than broadcasting the seed, should stress the fact that extra food will result. In another context, a main concern might be extra cash income, an the message would centre on that aspect, and so forth.
7. The production of materials and their pre-testing. Materials should always be produced in a "draft: form and tested with small groups of people who are representative of the target audience for which the material is being produced. This pre-testing, and modification of the materials if necessary, is often neglected, in part because it is assumed that it will take a long time-- which is not necessarily the case-- and in part because producers sometimes lack the humility to subject their work to possible criticism from their audience, and the flexibility to modify it or re-do it if the audience does not understand or appreciate it.
8. Training of field agents to use the materials and to back them up properly with good interpersonal communication.
9. Implementation of the communication plan through production and use of the materials.
10. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation in conjunction with the implementation. Even when pre-testing has been routinely carried out, continuous monitoring and evaluation may reveal that the communication activities are not having the desired effect, and that misunderstandings exist.
11. The information resulting from the monitoring is fed back into the implementation. In other words, message design and materials are revised, repeatedly if necessary, to reflect the needs being revealed by the ongoing monitoring and evaluation and until such time as the communication work is being generally appreciated and understood. (The communicators' jargon for this process is "formative evaluation").
12. A final, or "summative", evaluation of the impact achieved, problems encountered, etc. is carried out at the end of each communication activity so that the lessons learned can be incorporated into the next activity.

The various media in rural development

No single medium is better than any other. Circumstances and the requirements of the development project dictate which should be used. Audience research concerning what media the people have access to and which enjoy credibility, and what is actually available or could be realistically established, greatly influence the choice. However, it should be remembered that a message arriving in a slightly different form and through different channels has the most impact in helping people towards behavioural change. Hence, multi-media approaches are usually the most effective.

It should be stressed, however, that behavioural change is seldom the result of exposure to media alone; most people require face-to-face discussion with someone more knowledgeable or experienced than themselves before they can make their own judgement and try an innovation. In effect, any information received has to be absorbed and evaluated for its usefulness and appropriateness in the recipients' circumstances before they will act on it. Discussion is an essential element in this process.

The pros and cons of the various media are set out in the following section.

Radio

Video

Slide sets/ film strips

Audio cassettes

Flip charts

Printed materials

Folk media (Theatre, Puppetry, Storytelling, etc)

PROS	CONS
Does not require capital investment	Requires skilled crafting of development messages into the fabric of the folk media
Does not depend on technology that is liable to break down	May lack prestige vis-à-vis more modern media in some societies
Intrinsically adapted to local cultural scene	May be difficult to organise, and calls for close working relationship between development workers and folk media artists
May be highly credible and persuasive where folk media has a strong tradition

Summary: Creative use of folk media-- in cultures where it is popular and well entrenched-- can be a subtle and effective way of introducing development ideas and messages. Care required to ensure that the mix of entertainment and development is appropriate, so furthering the latter without damaging the former.

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N.B. Cine film has been deliberately left out of this overview. Experience has shown it to be too expensive, complex and slow in production, and inflexible for use in rural development. Video has replaced it.