PRINCIPLES FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES - Social Shakes

Below is part of an overall paper called "SOCIAL SHAKES - rethinking the core principles for principled and effective development action" - the full Table of Contents is here.

PRINCIPLES FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

So what do we learn from the communication processes inherent in wide-scale improvements at broad scale on issues such as fertility rates, tobacco, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, child health and polio ... and from the communication dynamics that have been integral to some broader social changes that are enmeshed with the improvements that have been made, including urbanisation, representative governance, the digital world, rights of women, growth in civil society organisations and more open interpersonal, family, local community and national dialogue and debate on sensitive and complicated issues such as sex?

When we "mash up" the analysis of why progress has been made on certain Development issues with the social change processes that have in many cases led these change processes, what communication principles emerge? If we are to develop more effective communication programmes to address the major Development issues, what learning do we take from the places where demonstrable progress has been made?

We would suggest that there are 8 key communication principles that emerge from that analysis:

Effective communication requires the following strategic principles as central elements of the overall communication contribution to the issue in question. These contrast with the present, often predominant, individual behaviour change, sender-receiver approach to communication:

1. Facilitate a process of engagement - at present, there is an over-reliance on messages and persuasion.
2. Seek to resonate with local and national, social and cultural contexts - at present, there is an overemphasis on planning processes detached from those realities.
3. Amplify the voices, analysis and ideas of those most affected by the Development issues in question - at present, there is an over-stress on the analysis and ideas of development "experts" and "leaders".
4. Play a support and enhancement role for "natural" social movements that emerge (even in very nascent forms) around priority issues - at present, there is an over-focus on introducing externally developed programmes and strategies.
5. Help to build networks of people concerned about issues they share in common, including connecting self-starting networks to make a larger mass - at present, there is an over-reliance on seeking to get those networks to do what the "experts" want.
6. Foment conversation, dialogue and debate on the key Development issues in local, district, national and regional contexts - at present, there is an over-abundance of messages seeking to persuade or compel people to change something.
7. Into this overall process of engagement, resonance, voice, social movements, networks, conversation, dialogue and debate, introduce accurate knowledge on the Development issues in question - at present, there is an overemphasis on that knowledge as the main, over-prescribed communication response, almost always in isolation from the other processes.
8. In general, create the space - physical, social, cultural, political and family space - for effective action.

The next section in this paper is IMPACT: THE RESEARCH AND EVALUATION DATA.

The previous section in this paper is OVERALL SOCIAL CHANGE - the new terrain we walk.

Editor's note: Above is an excerpt from Warren Feek's paper "SOCIAL SHAKES - rethinking the core principles for principled and effective development action".

The full table of contents for this paper can be accessed at the bottom of the opening page.