Assessments

Stakeholders’ assessments of information and communication for development (ICD) situations and capabilities are a prerequisite for designing appropriate interventions. They cover the current state of affairs as well as ways in which information and communication have been used historically to support rural development.

National Assessments

National assessments should focus at the policy and operational levels to fully “map” the ICD context in a country. Such a map would describe the different dimensions of ICD use at the international, national, sub-national and household levels in relation to rural livelihoods. Five topics should be considered:

• the physical ICD infrastructure;



• institutions and their information needs;



• policies, regulatory frameworks and plans;



• research, extension and other knowledge processes; and



• cultural, political, economic, social, environmental and technological factors.

Such assessments can then be used to design suitable policies and interventions to enhance ICD.

Local Assessments

FAO and partners have developed a package of methodologies and tools, called Participatory Rural Communication Assessment (PRCA). Participatory assessment techniques enable the needs and demands of rural communities to be adequately assessed in a local context. The output from such assessments can be used by communities themselves and by rural service providers to design appropriate information and communication strategies, networks, services and products. PRCA is a participatory communication research methodology used to involve rural people in identifying the essential elements for designing effective communication strategies and programmes for development. It uses field-based visualization techniques, interviews and group work to generate information needed for communication strategies, materials and messages, while creating a sense of ownership among the rural people. PRCA also facilitates dialogue among rural people themselves as well as between them and development workers in order for all stakeholders to reach mutual understandings and plans of action.