Making Connections: Participatory Development and Communication for Social Change Symposium

This report presents key outcomes from the Participatory Development and Communication for Social Change Symposium held in London, England on March 22 2006. The Symposium brought together researchers, practitioners, programme managers and funders from the participatory development and participatory communication fields. This report synthesises comments and contributions from presenters and participants in four sections.

• Voices and Power - summarises the basic philosophy that unites participants. Nearly all participants recognised a shared belief in the principle of empowerment. Over the years, each field has also drawn similarly on social movement theory and on post-modern thinking, as well as contributing to understandings of social change through their practical experiences. These common influences, among others, have led communication for social change and participatory development to evolve in parallel though often separately. One of the clear similarities identified by the participants following the presentations was an emphasis on understanding power dynamics with a view toward levelling such disparities, including those between the facilitator and the project beneficiaries. Communication for social change and participatory development also attempt to encourage local forms of knowledge, allowing people to tell their story and ultimately to determine their own development. Meanings and practices of participation have evolved most recently with the growing interest in ways of strengthening citizen participation in policy-making, governance, rights and state
  accountability - a shift which in turn has implications for the role of amplifying voice and using participatory forms of communication.
• Community Building: Bridging Theory, Language and Practice - seeks to capture the essence of the comments related to the challenges and opportunities for uniting the two fields intellectually. One of the concerns expressed by participants is whether members of the group are using the same words - voice, empowerment, communication, participation - to signify the
  same things. A great deal of discussion at the symposium also centred on the difficulties encountered in both fields for understanding change and measuring success in the context of long-term efforts for social transformation. Other participants encouraged the group to consider alternative ways for evaluating social change that departed from a result-based evaluation and took instead a critical look at the process for creating change itself, though there would be a need to convince donors to accept new forms of evaluation.
• Advocacy - relates to discussions around how this group can help to influence policy-makers and donors. For some participants, this means looking at ways to scale up projects to influence national and global forces that affect the lives of the economically poor. For others, this means developing a group policy position for influencing the institutions engaged in ‘development,’ particularly donors and large international non-governmental
  organisations. Another strong theme that emerged from the symposium is how, as a collective,
  practitioners from both fields can more effectively change the way donors conduct
  development projects.
• Communication to Action - describes the next steps and follow-up activities, which
  include:
• Articulating the case for communication in development;
• Creating an electronic space for discussion;
• Working together to influence public policy;
• Conducting a mapping exercise;
• Compiling case studies; and
• Meeting again - with a larger group.

According to the report, the meeting demonstrated a tremendous reservoir of mutual respect and admiration for the learning and experience that existed within and between the two fields. It also resulted in a conclusion that development strategies could benefit greatly by a more determined and intelligent dialogue - and sometimes synthesis - between them.