Silvia Balit, in her paper, notes that we are living in an era of radical transformation, which presents a number of new challenges as well as opportunities for Communication for Development practitioners.
International development goals place priority on addressing the needs of the poorest. There is more emphasis on the cultural and local dimensions of development. It is also more widely accepted that human development requires dialogue, interaction and sharing of ideas for social change and innovation to occur.
Information, knowledge and communication are essential for empowering isolated and marginal communities. But how much of the potential of the new information age is directed towards improving the quality of lives of the poorest? Vulnerable groups in the rural areas of developing countries are on the wrong side of the digital divide, and risk further marginalization.
Horizontal people-to-people processes are emerging alongside dominant structures and vertical lines of communication. But global media markets are now dominated by a mere handful of multinationals, and the globalization of communication is threatening cultural diversity and the traditional values of minorities. Modern mass media and alternate or parallel networks of folk media or interpersonal communication channels are not mutually exclusive by definition.
Poverty cannot be divorced from uneven power structures, and communication cannot substitute for structural change.
The paper points out that the communication systems of isolated and marginalized groups include alternative and small media such as video and audio visuals, popular theatre, local and community radio, poetry, proverbs, storytellers, popular songs and music, loudspeakers, in addition to informal meetings in the street, in the market place and at ritual celebrations. They belong primarily to oral cultures.
At the same time, globalization and new information technologies have created new identities, which go beyond the boundaries of the state or geographical communities and traditional institutions. Thus, social movements representing minority and disadvantaged groups make use of new communication networks and information flows to express their concerns, share common interests, and promote social change and action for collective rights. They have created transnational public spheres. These movements are usually based on common issues and interests such as human rights, the environment, labour standards and gender. Examples include women's associations, human rights groups, ethnic minorities, indigenous groups, migrant workers, diasporas, religious movements, victims of AIDS, environmental activists, and Dalits. For example, transnational networks linking small grass root groups were fundamental in coordinating actions to dispute water policies in Bolivia, in challenging Brazilian deforestation policies and drug prices in Africa.
Silvia Balit says that knowledge and communication are essential but not sufficient elements to address poverty. Marginal communities do not exist in isolation from wider contexts of social, political, economic forces and unequal power structures that are barriers to social change. These constraints need to be taken into account. Information and communication can never substitute for structural changes. For example, the extent to which subsistence farmers can benefit from information will vary according to other factors such as ownership of land, proximity of markets, available means of transportation, and their productive resources to respond to the opportunities information sources might provide.
Silvia Balit believes there have been many changes since the discipline of Communication for Development began some 30 years ago. There is need for new directions to respond to a changing environment and new social actors. There is need to create an alternative framework for communication interventions, that is truly people and participation oriented, and not only on paper.
The Challenge for Change Program's work with the fisherpeople of the Fogo Islands off Newfoundland in Canada in the 1960s has often been seen as a turning point in the development of participatory communication processes. The Government wanted to move the fishermen and families onto the mainland. Film footage was used to spark debate among the fishermen and policy-makers. After much dialogue and planning, the resettlement plan was scrapped and a fishing cooperative and other community initiatives were founded.
The Fogo Process was one of the first examples of filmmaking and video as a process to obtain social change in a disadvantaged community. It included a series of working practices that have influenced many participatory communication programmes throughout the world and are still very valid. Key ingredients included:
The paper points out that listening to people, learning about their perceived needs and taking into account their knowledge and culture is another essential prerequisite for successful communication with marginal groups. Listening, the capacity to read reality through the ear is an important skill developed by oral cultures. Listening goes beyond a simple appraisal of needs. It involves listening to what people already know, what they aspire to, what they perceive as possible and desirable and what they feel they can sustain.
Today, compared to many years ago, there are several participatory research methods which have been developed to enable outsiders and communities rapidly to share experiences and learn together about their realities.
Silvia Balit notes that another basic concept underlying participatory communication is respect for the knowledge, values and culture of indigenous people. Far away from global information highways, marginal communities in rural areas contain a wealth of indigenous knowledge and traditional cultural resources, a rich but fragile heritage which risks being lost with the advent of modern technology.
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Mayan values |
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The Proderith rural communication system in Mexico has often been cited as an example of communication approaches for participatory planning, peasant empowerment and sharing of knowledge with indigenous people. Proderith staff had little idea of how to spark a dialogue among and with the indigenous, Mayan-speaking people. The ingenious solution proved to be video recordings with Don Clotilde Cob, an 82-year-old man who could talk about the problems. He was a proud, ex-revolutionary, who had learned Spanish and taught himself how to read and write as an adult. He was articulate and lucid in both Mayan and Spanish. This charismatic old man, with his white hair and neat beard, sat cross-legged in front of a video camera for hours on end. He held forth about the past, about the revolution, about the greatness of Mayan culture, and about life today. He deplored the decline of such Mayan traditions as the family vegetable plot, explained how he cultivated his own maize, and complained that today's young people did not even know to do that properly. He accused the young of abandoning all that had been good in Mayan culture; they would sell eggs to buy cigarettes and soft drinks, and so it was no wonder that diets were worse than they were in his youth. Scores of people sat in attentive silence in the villages as these tapes were played. In the evening, under a tree, the words in Mayan flowed from the screen, and the old man's eloquent voice and emphatic gestures spread their spell. For many, it was the first time they had ever heard anyone talk about the practical values of their culture. It was also the first time they had seen themselves on “television”, and talking their own language. The desired effect was achieved: the people began to take stock of their situation and think seriously about their values, and so the ground was prepared for when Proderith began to discuss development plans to eradicate malnutrition and promote food security”. Colin Fraser and Sonia Restrepo-Estrada “Communication for
Rural Development in |
Silvia Balit's paper points out that communication and culture are closely interwoven. Communication is a product of culture and culture determines the code, structure, meaning and context of the communication that takes place. Culture and history also play an important role in the social development of a community.
New information and communication technologies may be used to enhance cultural self-expression or stifle it through what has been variously labeled as cultural imperialism, cultural invasion, cultural synchronization or cultural homogenization.
To be successful, communication efforts must take into account the cultural values of marginal groups as an avenue for their participation, rather than borrowing communication strategies from outside that promote change without due consideration for culture. Preserving cultural diversity, local languages and traditional systems of communication in the face of globalization is one of the major challenges for communication practitioners in this Information Age.
Silvia Balit says that the advent of new technologies and their convergence now means that new mixes and matches can be made for more effective communication programmes with disadvantaged groups. Communication initiatives should make use of all media channels available, both modern and traditional, and there is merit in combining electronic media with other media that people already like, use and know how to control (Ramirez 2003). These include:
The preservation of traditional forms of communication and social change are not mutually exclusive. Traditional communication systems can be important channels for facilitating learning, people's participation and dialogue for development purposes. Traditional forms of communication can also be integrated with other media such as radio, television, video and audiocassettes. What is important is that they should not be produced only by outsiders. The participation of local artists, storytellers, performers and musicians in the production and use of traditional media ensures respect for traditional values, symbols and realities and, at the same time, ensures that such media productions appeal to communities. It also increases the credibility of media programmes and thus their effectiveness as vehicles to share knowledge and bring about social change. (Balit 1999)
The experience of Soul City in South Africa is a well-known successful example of this approach, which among other themes, has focused on HIV/AIDS. The radio and television series have been complemented with interpersonal communication, printed materials and educational training packages.
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Communicating with nature |
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“Our experience is that when we are talking about communication processes with indigenous native people, such as the Guarani people in Bolivia and Paraguay, they don't have the same concept of communication – why should they? Ours starts with the sender (media or messenger) and ends with a recipient. We consider the receivers of our message are going to be people like us. But for the indigenous people, the receiver of the message can also be nature, not only human beings. It breaks a lot of concepts of Western communication. We consider the best dialogue is when human beings are in equal contact. However, their idea of communication processes in a broad sense is not just a one-to-one process. They can send and receive messages from nature. They believe they can send messages to past time, to people not yet born, to those who have died. You can understand how deep is their concept of sustainability – it is much stronger than ours. We need to realise this is happening if we want to communicate in rural scenarios, because our methods can be very aggressive to the people.” José Luis Aguirre Alvis, Director, Service of Training in
Radio and Television |
Video has for many years been successfully used for participatory planning, empowerment and sharing of knowledge with disadvantaged individuals and communities. Visual images are powerful tools for communicating with illiterate audiences. Cheaper, easy to use video and audio equipment has enabled communities to master production skills thus giving them access to and control over the tools for information and communication generation and exchange. Video Sewa in Ahmedabad, India is a classic example of the use of participatory video for the empowerment of illiterate rural women. Video-based approaches can now take advantage of the digitalization of video coupled with Internet to facilitate production processes and improve networking and sharing of knowledge and information.
Radio remains the most widely available and affordable mass medium for disadvantaged groups. In rural areas, it is often the only mass medium available. It can reach large numbers of isolated populations over widespread and geographical areas. In some rural areas it is the only source of information about agricultural innovations, weather and market prices. It is oral and thus corresponds to the culture of poverty, making it more adaptable to many indigenous cultures. Because of low production and distribution costs it can be local. Community radio enables neglected communities, such as women, to be heard and to participate in democratic processes within societies. It reflects their interests, and plays an important role in reinforcing cultural expressions and identity as well as local languages. It can provide timely and relevant information on development issues, opportunities, experiences, skills and public interests. It thus has the ability to involve rural communities, indigenous people and underprivileged sectors of urban societies in an interactive social communication process.
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Training community radio workers for empowerment |
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A training approach developed in Ghana for community radio workers takes its name from the Kente traditional hand-woven cloth of the Ashanti people. The Kente approach is based on the belief that community radio is a different kind of radio and represents a different theoretical and operational model from public and commercial radio. This implies that community radio requires a new kind of “professional” – a community worker with a specific set of values, skills and standards that are focused on community empowerment. Thus, the training of community workers is woven into the culture of the community and the process of empowerment. It is a practical hands-on approach that integrates theory (development communication, communication and culture, management, etc.) with experience and the practice of broadcasting as it applies to community radio, but context-based. The four elements/modules of the course include: Knowing self; Knowing the community; Knowing development and Knowing media. The empowerment of the trainees is seen as part of the process of community empowerment, which is itself the end-goal of the training. The approach was initially developed for Radio Ada, the first fully-fledged radio station in Ghana, but presently has been extended to other member stations of the Ghana Community Radio Network and to Ethiopia. Wilna W. Quarmyne, “A Kente Approach to Community Radio
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One of the most interesting developments for communication with marginalized people in recent years, says Silvia Balit, has been the convergence of local radio with the Internet, creating new models with potential for providing relevant information and knowledge to the poor. The merging of the two technologies presents many opportunities: Radio can deliver information to many listeners, but the Internet enables them to send back information, to ask questions, to request and seek information, and to communicate with specialists. The Internet enables access to information from both national and international sources, while radio can localize, repackage and translate that knowledge to local audiences. Experiments have been carried out in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Migrant communities are on the increase, and their financial remittances as well as the experience gained abroad are an important contribution to the development of their native communities. Radio can play an important role in linking the migrant communities with their native communities, language and cultures.
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Women's groups in Senegal: moving fast |
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Rural women in Senegal realized they were producing the food, caring for children and the old and running small businesses. They also make up 80 percent of farmers' unions, but all the leaders are men. The women had no political representation in Parliament, or at the village and district levels. So they created the National Rural Women's Network to represent themselves. They needed training on writing by-laws, capacity, and rules for how to organize themselves. They then held a workshop on women's access to land. They got the media, the prefect and sub-prefect on land tenure, traditional chiefs, elders, and academics and included some of them in the work team so that they had to endorse the final document of the meeting. The workshop received national media coverage and the result was a huge impact on the ministries and public administration. They filmed a movie of religious leaders, men and women and what they thought of land tenure problems. In the end they got a seat on the presidential commission looking at land, attended by the President. It was an institutional result of networking and sharing experiences. It happened because the women made so much noise and pushed each other. Women's groups have been moving so fast in the way they communicate, it's so big and powerful, we should use their work as an example. Everyone comes out of meetings feeling strong, because there is no sense of competition and no hidden agendas. Women have understood that if they really share and help each other then they will all benefit from it. Eliane Najros, Project Coordinator, Dimitra |
The paper points out that people engaged in development work have mixed feelings about the impact of ICTs on the alleviation of poverty. It is clear that poverty cannot be divorced from the underlying social, economic and political issues as well as existing power structures. The emphasis on access to the technologies, though important, must be shifted to the more important issues of meaningful use and social appropriation. Deploying these technologies in ways that benefit the poor requires regulatory frameworks and enabling policy environments, which reflect the needs of all sectors of society. In some areas the ICT revolution has served only to widen existing economic and social gaps, as new information gaps threaten to further marginalize the poor, especially in rural areas.
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ICTs and hammocks |
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The use of ICTs has the potential to transform the local power structures within communities. For instance, in Guyana, indigenous women were so successful trading their hammocks on the Web, that the power structures were transformed providing women economic independence from their husbands. The impact on the community was so strong that the indigenous women were forced by the male community members to end the trading of the hammocks through the Web. This case demonstrates clearly that ICTs can also have negative impacts on communities if their use is not managed properly and the key stakeholders are not supporting their use. Bjorn-Soren Gigler, World Bank, 2004 |
The paper asks: What are the barriers for poor rural people to access new technologies, and the Internet in particular?
The rural poor lack infrastructure (electricity, telecommunications). ICTs depend on national policies and regulation for telecommunications and broadcasting licences. ICTs require initial capital investment for hardware and software. ICTs also depend on the skills and capacity necessary to use, manage and maintain the technology effectively.
The rural poor are probably illiterate or semi-literate, with low levels of education. They would not find much in their local language on the Internet.
They would not find much information relevant to their daily lives.
They are not usually offered the opportunity to input their own local knowledge. The Web offers them almost no opportunities for local wealth creation.
They cannot afford the cost of Internet access, and they cannot afford their own computer.
There is a movement in the development community pushing for the widespread rollout of public access points as a means of extending access to the Internet and bringing it closer to disadvantaged communities and the intermediary organizations that provide services to these communities.
Multimedia community centres, or telecentres are a typical example. Among the problems faced by telecentres for alleviation of poverty has been their lack of sustainability. Often they have been parachuted from outside and not adopted from within. Research on the needs of the communities has not been carried out and they do not provide relevant and useful local content. Often information is not translated into local dialects. Sociocultural issues have been ignored. Training in communication and management skills has not always been provided to local personnel, who must act as information intermediaries. Participation on the part of marginalized sectors of the communities has been lacking. And finally, financial sustainability has not been achieved. According to Charles Kenny, “while there is a continued (perhaps growing) role for donors to improve access to a range of ICTs in developing countries, that role probably should not extend to the widespread provision of Internet access – at least in the poorer regions of the least developed countries.” (Kenny, 2002)
The development of the mobile phone as a relatively cheap and powerful tool has enabled communities, even in remote rural areas to spontaneously and locally appropriate it for use. Mobile and satellite telephony are bringing telecommunications within reach not only of the small entrepreneur in developing countries but also of the rural farmer. The Village Pay Phone sponsored by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh is a classical example of a scheme promoting income-generating activities for the rural poor. It enables illiterate rural women to earn income by renting out mobile phones to members of the community for a fee. A Canadian evaluation of the programme showed that the income derived by operators was on average 24 percent of their household income – and in some cases it was as high as 40 percent of household income.13
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Local appropriation and impact |
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FAO compiled two studies to identify whether poor communities and groups had taken ownership of ICTs for their own use: (“Discovering the Magic Box: Local Appropriation of ICTs” and “Revisiting the Magic Box”). The basis for both papers was to identify examples of community-driven and local appropriation of ICTs, to identify what worked and what didn't work, and to contribute to the on-going debate on impact. The studies identify some analytical tools and guiding principles to foster local appropriation of ICTs:
However,
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The working group defined the common characteristics of isolated and marginalized groups and identified a number of obstacles and constraints to communication for isolated and marginalized groups.
In the government context, it noted that communication with the poor is key to meeting the MDGs and yet current government policies and trends are making the voices of the isolated and marginalized even more isolated and marginalized.
Recommendations to governments include ways of creating a plural information society, such as creating space for debate, supporting the transition from state to public broadcasting and creating a supportive regulatory environment, and ways of supporting and including the voices of isolated and marginalized groups in the media.
There is a range of recommendations to communication practitioners, among which are building capacity for community-owned media, in partnership with local media, NGO, professionals and local authorities; building an evidentiary base for decision-makers in donor, development agencies and governments; and setting up a task force to carry out this work by the time of the World Bank meeting in September 2005 and WSIS 2.
Recommendations to donors and development agencies include the need to establish specialist Communication for Development units and to ensure adequate monitoring and evaluation funding (both for programmes and general good practice).
