Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the role of communication in rural development. The paper is primarily intended as orientation and briefing for those responsible for identifying and formulating agricultural and rural development projects and programmes.

The main body of this paper covers the conceptual aspects of development communication, the problems that can be alleviated by a well- conceived and executed communication programme, and a check list concerning communication for those formulating rural development projects, The annexes provide supplementary information, of a more technical nature, on communication planning, and on the various media that are commonly used for rural development.

What is the idea behind development communication, and what is it?

Development communication rests on the premise that successful rural development calls for the conscious and active participation of the intended beneficiaries at every stage of the development process; for in the final analysis, rural development can not take place without changes in attitudes and behaviour among the people concerned.

To this end, Development Communication is the planned and systematic use of communication, through inter-personal channels, audio-visuals and mass media:

to collect and exchange information among all those concerned in the planning a development initiative. with the aim of reaching a consensus on the development problems being faced and the options for their solution.
to mobilize people for development action, and to assist in solving problems and misunderstandings that may arise during development plan implementation.
to enhance the pedagogical and communication skills of development agents (at all levels) so that they may dialogue more effectively with their audience.
and last, but by no means least, to apply communication technology to training and extension programmes, particularly at the grassroots level, in order to improve their quality and impact.

What are the problems that develop communication can help to overcome?

1. Problems of designing projects that take into account the perceptions and capacities of the intended beneficiaries.

Development communication can help to ensure that the design and action plan of a development project take into account the attitudes, perceived needs and capacities of the people which the project is trying to help. Many projects have failed in the past because assumptions were made about the willingness and capacity of rural people to absorb new technology and development infrastructures into their way of living and working. Abandoned irrigation schemes and settlement programs, broken down equipment, and the slow adoption of improved crop varieties, are example that bear witness to this failure to bring about attitudinal and behavioural change.

As an adjunct, and complement, to the usual situational analysis that is done for project formulation, development communication helps to identify attitudes, felt needs, capacities, and constraints to the adoption of change. And through the dialogue and consultation process it employs, it naturally elicits the participation of the intended beneficiaries of a development action.

An example of a project using a Communication for Participatory Planning

In Mexico in the 1980s, a major initiative to develop the tropical wetlands through drainage systems, roads, bridges, and other infrastructures, including new settlement villages, was launched in Tabasco State, under the title of Plan la Chontalpa. However, the Plan was frustrated by the unwillingness of the local communities to conform to the plans laid down for them by the authorities. The result was an enormous investment in infrastructures that were never properly utilized or maintained.

Today, the Government's Integrated Rural Development Programme for the Tropical Wetlands (PRODERITH), which is supported by the World Bank, and by FAO for its development communication aspects, has created a rural communication system to help avoid repeating the errors of the Plan la Chontalpa, which , in effect, built "cathedrals in the desert". This system helps PRODERITH to reach consensus with local communities concerning the development actions to be taken.

In practice, before PRODERITH becomes involved in development activities with a community, an approach is made by its communication team. A video is shown to the community to explain PRDERITH and its action, and following this, the community id asked whether it wished to co-operate with the Programme. After an affirmative response-- it is not unknown for a community to refuse-- the people are asked to chose 10-12 persons from among them to represent them during a series of planning meetings that take place in the following weeks.

These planning meetings make intensive use of video recording and playback to trigger and stimulate an internal debate about the past history of the community, its present situation, the problems facing it, and possible options for development initiatives that could be supported by PRODERITH. The outcome is a Local Development Plan, about which a video is also made and which is passed to the management of PRODERITH.

The Local Development Plan, drawn up with the community as the result of a communication process facilitated by the use of video, is the basis for all the interventions subsequently made by PRODERITH. The World Bank considers PRODERITH to be among the most successful project it supports and is on record as having stated that the rural communication system has been instrumental to that success.

2. Problems of Mobilizing Rural People for Development Action and ensuring an Information Flow among all Concerned with a Development Initiative.

If a rural development project has been planned with its beneficiaries, their participation and mobilization are almost certain to follow quite naturally. However, in any event, communication support during project implementation keeps people informed, helps to mobilize them, and to stimulate the more conservative to action. This is especially so when communication, (in the form of audio-visual presentations for example) is used to spread knowledge of successful development action taken by some communities and individuals in other communities and individuals that have not yet mobilized.

Furthermore, even the best project, designed with its beneficiaries, cannot be cast in concrete; as it progresses, there will be an inevitable need to fine-tune its activities and introduce changes of emphasis. A good communication system can keep a dialogue open between all those involved in a development project, thereby nipping problems in the bud as they arise. Such an ongoing information flow can also help to ensure co-ordination and proper orchestration of inputs and services to a development initiative.

Development communication spreads information about successful development experience as a stimulus to others, keeps a dialogue open between all concerned in a development project, and helps to smooth project implementation.

Examples of some Projects that have used Communication for Mobilization and Dialogue during implementation.

The Mahawell Ganga irrigation and settlement project in Sri Lanka established a radio station using a small and cheap transmitter that covered the whole of the project area. This informal community radio station provided an excellent channel for information exchange between project staff, field technicians and settlers. It made known and facilitated debate about successful initiatives taken by individuals, thereby stimulating others, and generally provided a forum for discussion, and for the creation of a sense of community and of shared experience.

PRODERITH, mentioned above, regularly records video tapes in communities working with it and then shows the tapes in other communities where progress is less advanced. This is a powerful means of stimulating people and of giving them the confidence to follow in the footsteps of what others similar to them, and facing similar problems, have already successfully done. PRODERITH's communication system also feeds information from the project areas to the management on Mexico City concerning questions and problems that people are raising at the community level. This allows the management, which is prepared to listen and is flexible in its outlook, to take appropriate remedial action and to plan and co-ordinate the required inputs together.

A Swiss bilateral project that was promoting dairy cattle development in the Amazon area of Peru bogged down in face of general apathy among the local people. A communication team went in and carried out an analysis of the attitudes and perception of the local population, through video recording and playback. It revealed that the people had never been able to identify with the project strategy of introducing exotic cattle and relatively high technology methods of milk production. So, it was completely re-cast along the lines suggested by the analysis, and thereafter it progressed well.

3. Problems of improving the Reach and Impact of Rural Training Programmes

Training at the grassroots level had become a major priority in recent years. At the same time, communication technology has been improving and becoming even cheaper and easier to use in rural areas. Audio-visual media make It possible to:

help overcome the barriers of illiteracy and incomprehension (by conveying ideas and practices in an audio and visual form);
illustrate new ideas and techniques more effectively than by word-of-mouth alone, and this improve the impact of extension and training;
compress time (a whole crop cycle can be shown in a short presentation);
compress space (events and practices in distant locations can be transferred to other places where they can be useful testimonials);
standardize technical information (by creating audio-visual materials that illustrate the best available advice to farmers and having these materials used throughout the extension and farmer training chain, thereby ensuring that the technical information will not become distorted during its passage from its source to the smallest and most remote farmer).

Development communication applied to training and extension in rural areas increases their effectiveness and reach, and ensures that the best available technical information is standardized.

Some Examples of successful use of Communication Technology in Rural Training

Many Projects have successfully used communication technology for training, Projects all over the world use slide-sets or filmstrips on a wide range of agricultural and rural development topics. Other projects use video-based systems for farmer training, notably in such countries as Peru, Mexico, Mali, China, Brazil, Honduras, South Korea. The UNDP/FAO assisted project in Peru that pioneered the approach has now produced some 2 000 training programmes on video and used them with about 450 000 rural people.

All audio-visual materials for farmer training are backed up by simple, printed materials, and by discussions with the extensionist or technician using them.

What are so-called "communication campaigns"?

Campaigns bring together all the communication functions we have discussed into an intensive and relatively short period of time, usually a few months. They aim to promote a few clearly defined objectives. These might be, for example, improved cultivation techniques for a certain crop, or control of a pest.

Indispensable preconditions for a campaign are that the proposed technology package be truly appropriate to the socio-economic needs of the people, and that the required farm inputs and services be readily available.

Campaigns are based on a careful analysis with the rural people concerning their knowledge, attitude, and practice in respect of the proposed innovations, the information channels they sue and find credible, other groups of people who may influence them, and so on.

The campaign itself uses a variety of different communication channels to reach its audience with the same basic messages, but in slightly different forms. Specially trained and motivated field agents play a key role in interpersonal communication for the campaign, and they are backed by a well-orchestrated use of group and mass media. Campaign activities are constantly monitored for their impact and any errors in approach put right, thereby fine-tuning the messages and their delivery.

Campaigns of this sort, which draw heavily on marketing techniques, have proven remarkably successful in providing people with the information they need as a basis for attitudinal and behavioural change.

What types of development initiatives require communication inputs?

Any development initiative which, if it is to be successful, depends on rural people modifying their attitudes and behaviour, and working with new knowledge and skills, will normally benefit from communication support. So also will projects that have a multi-disciplinary nature, that is to say those which involve a number of subject-matter ministries and authorities, and which are therefore inherently difficult to manage. Communication can provide the linkages that will ensure co-ordinated management.

Are development communication activities always planned as part of a development project?

Not necessarily. There are also development communication projects per se. This is the case when, for example, assistance is being provided for institution building such as creating or strengthening an agricultural or rural development communication unit, or providing assistance to a number of agricultural and rural development projects in a country.

What are the overall considerations when planning communication inputs?

Successful development communication calls for a well-defined strategy, systematic planning and rigorous management. Experience has shown all too clearly that ad hoc communication inputs such as the provision of some audio-visual equipment, or the stand-alone production of some audio-visual or printed material has seldom made any measurable impact.

At has also become clear that communication activities require a certain critical mass-- of resources, intensity, and duration-- if they are to realize their full potential in mobilizing people for development action and becoming self-sustaining in their role. This explains the scanty results when lip-service has been paid to development communications by the inclusion in the project of some token equipment and expertise.

A communication plan must always be tailored to the particular conditions being faced. There are so many variable of a human, cultural and physical nature that a communication plan that worked for, say, irrigation development in an arid zone of one country can never be transferred lock, stock, and barrel to another country, For even if the principles may remain the same, the details will almost certainly call for differences.

Who should plan communication inputs?

Communication planning is a specialised field and calls for people who, in addition to a knowledge of communication processes and technology, also have an understanding of development issues and a familiarity with conditions in developing countries.

Development communication planners cam often be made available by international development agencies, either from among their own staff or by calling in consultants.

Communication planners may also be found locally in developing countries. There are increasing numbers of universities and institutions that are becoming involved in development communication and can provide expertise. Many NGOs in developing countries also have communication expertise that can be called upon.

Summary guidelines for project formulators

If you are responsible for formulating an agricultural and rural development project, you may like to pose the following questions during the course of your work as a means of checking on the possible need for communication inputs and ion how they might me implemented.

Will the project depend for its success on the intended beneficiaries making considerable changes in the way they live and work?
Has research been done among the intended beneficiaries, or put more simply, have they been systematically consulted regarding their knowledge, attitudes and practice, and their capacity to carry out the changes foreseen for them?
Will there be a need for people, especially of a low educational level, to acquire new knowledge and skills on a wide scale?
Apart from the immediate project beneficiaries, are there other sectors of society whose informed and positive action could contribute to the success of the project? Typical examples are the religious and educational authorities, but there may be others with influence over the beneficiaries. Might it be possible to enlist the support of these influential groups by communicating with them about the need for their help.
Is the government staff who will be responsible for implementing the project at all levels sufficiently informed, motivated, and well-trained.

If it emerges from the answers to these first five questions that there is a need for communication inputs, further questions need to be asked concerning how these inputs might be planned and implemented.

Is there any prior in-country experience of development communication? If there is, and it was successful, who planned it, and could the same organization or institution be called in to help plan the present communication activities?
Is there an agricultural or rural development information or communication unit that could do the communication planning for the project?
Are there any institutions such as university schools of communication, private communication/advertizing organizations, or NGOs that could be called in to help with the planning? (Be cautious when considering journalists and media people with a primarily urban focus in their work; they may not have the feel and insight for development communication.)
If you locate a suitable communication planner, make sure s/he is briefed to look into the following aspects:

What could be the institutional framework for communication activities for the project?

Is the project so big, and are its communication needs such, that it warrants its own development communication unit?
If the project is relatively small, what existing communication facilities in the Courtney could service its needs?
Might it be possible to group several rural development projects together and create a unit to service them all?

What existing communication resources are there that could be called upon to assist, and do they need strengthening?
Who, or what institution, could help with audience research and evaluation?
Will there be a need for external communication expertise, and if so, of what nature and duration?
What communication equipment, and vehicles, will be required, for producing material and for using them in the project area?

(Bear in mind the advantages of choosing equipment that is compatible with existing equipment in the country, especially because of the related maintenance and repair issue).
What operating budget will be required?
What, if any, are the training needs for national communication staff who will be working with the project?

If you cannot locate a communication planner in-country, and if you are still at the stage of project identification-- rather than detailed formulation-- can you obtain the services of an external communication planner in time for the detailed formulation? (The Communication for Development Group, SDRE, in FAO HQ, will be able to help you).
If you have reached the stage of a detailed formulation before the need for communication has been identified, can you leave enough budget flexibility to allow for the communication component to be formulated later?

(As a rule of thumb, allow about three weeks for a HQ staff member or consultant to plan the communication component, Again as a rule of thumb, and since experience has shown that a well-organized communication component for a project usually costs between 8-15% of the total project budget, include a provisional 10% for communication support pending the formulation of a detailed communication input).