Social Change
Social change action with informed and engaged societies
Social Change
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
Time to read
1 minute
Print
a- a+
Published 7 years ago
Last updated 3 years ago
Read so far

STRATEGY AND RESOURCE ALLOCATIONS....What does this all add up to? - Social Shakes

0 comments
Affiliation

The Communication Initiative

Date
Summary

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.

STRATEGY AND RESOURCE ALLOCATIONS....What does this all add up to?

For a long time, most practitioners of the art of communication for the purpose of achieving Development goals, and the people from whom they have requested policy and funding support, have understood communication through its traditional lens of message development and transmission, media channel options and choices, supportive environments for the "real" impact (technologies), the marketing of those products (with learning from the private sector), needs assessments, and formative and summative research. The focus has primarily been on the individual.

But for all that time, it would seem that we missed the real communication boat. The marketing and consumer model of communication was at best a minor player when compared with a set of communication principles drawn from social movements. Be it the real driving force for change on some very sensitive and difficult issues (family size, tobacco, HIV/AIDS, etc.) and/or the social changes in play within societies (urbanisation, gender, digital networking) and/or the data being produced for communication dynamics and impact relative to specific issues (emergency response, education, polio, etc.), there was a substantially different set of communication principles and strategies "in play".

As originally distilled above and then tested by the data, they are:

  1. Negotiate Engagement
  2. Ensure Resonance
  3. Support the Voices of those most affected
  4. Link to "Natural" social networks
  5. Help to build Networks
  6. Foment Conversation, Dialogue and Debate
  7. Introduce Accurate Knowledge
  8. Create the Space

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

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.

Source

Image credit: Warren Feek