COMMUNICATIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT: PLANTING THE SEEDS OF KNOWLEDGE

By - - and Jacques Diouf Reprint | | Print |

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ROME, Oct 27 2006 (IPS) - We have always said, \”Give people fish and they will eat. Teach them how to fish and they will always eat.\” Today, we also say, \”Help people to communicate and you will change their lives\”, writes Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Between October 25-27, 500 delegates from across the world met in Rome at the First World Congress on Communication for Development, organized by the World Bank, FAO and the Communication Initiative, and hosted by the Government of Italy to examine how to share knowledge and information through social dialogue. This is underlined by the participation of many eminent policy and decision-makers, scholars, not to mention communications professionals. One of the most tangible contributions of the United Nations family of organizations, of which we are part, has been to help build the infrastructure for social dialogue within and between all the countries of the world. This has been a good investment, it turns out, because social science now tells us that communication lies at the heart of sustainable development. We are not talking about simply governments talking to citizens, an important responsibility though that is, but a horizontal, two-way process that allows governments to listen to people. A dialogue, not a monologue. It implies all participants in society having a voice, not just the powerful. In the past ten years, an entirely new economy worth over two trillion dollars in terms of goods and services has materialized. Information and communications technologies or ICTs have helped a number of emerging nations achieve phenomenal economic growth rates. But the pace at which the new frontiers are advancing also risks widening the gap between those who have access to the new communications technologies and the one billion of the world\’s population who don\’t. And by extension the danger is to further widen the rich-poor divide.

Between October 25-27, 500 delegates from across the world met in Rome at the First World Congress on Communication for Development, organized by the World Bank, FAO and the Communication Initiative, and hosted by the Government of Italy to examine how to share knowledge and information through social dialogue. This is underlined by the participation of many eminent policy and decision-makers, scholars, not to mention communications professionals.

How can we harness the power of communications to speed progress in the fields of poverty reduction, food security, health, governance and sustainable development? We already know from experience that communication and development go hand in hand. They are actually two sides of the same endeavour … reaching across and bringing people closer together.

One of the most tangible contributions of the United Nations family of organizations, of which we are part, has been to help build the infrastructure for social dialogue within and between all the countries of the world. This has been a good investment, it turns out, because social science now tells us that communication lies at the heart of sustainable development. We are not talking about simply governments talking to citizens, an important responsibility though that is, but a horizontal, two-way process that allows governments to listen to people. A dialogue, not a monologue. It implies all participants in society having a voice, not just the powerful.

This realization is all the more significant because the ongoing, revolutionary advances in communication technology are creating enormous opportunities and corresponding challenges in international development. Just as the rise of industry opened a new era two centuries ago, the digital revolution of the last decade has changed the lives of millions, speeding economic growth in many parts of the world, shrinking the world and creating a global marketplace.

In the past ten years, an entirely new economy worth over two trillion dollars in terms of goods and services has materialized. Information and communications technologies or ICTs have helped a number of emerging nations achieve phenomenal economic growth rates. But the pace at which the new frontiers are advancing also risks widening the gap between those who have access to the new communications technologies and the one billion of the world’s population who don’t. And by extension the danger is to further widen the rich-poor divide.

Is it feasible to wire remote villages that lack roads, electricity and running water to the Internet? It can, in fact, be done, but in a globalized world, access to ICTs is not enough. These data networks have to be integrated with more traditional media that have demonstrated their value in promoting development. Radio programmes, produced with audience participation and broadcast in local languages, are a highly effective channel for information to remote areas. Video, other traditional media and interpersonal communication also play an essential role. But while we recognize the need to use the new tools of communication, relying on them is simply not enough. We must understand that communication is also a tool for managing development, that it must be incorporated at the beginning of development initiatives and not just used at the end to disseminate information.

Nowadays it is becoming increasingly clear that Communication is Development. It is as integral to development as economic, social, and environmental analysis. It is critical to achieving better development outcomes and to issues like governance which is not only about changes in regulations and laws, but also about transparency, accountability and access to information. It is also clearly about technology, the realization of which underlies the work of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus, who after pioneering micro-credit founded a company that has already brought cell phone access to three million rural poor cut off from the main phone network.

More modestly, a South African company is offering a commercial email service to people living in remote rural areas in Africa. The system, the company claims, is robust enough, “to work in a cyclone and with baboons swinging from the antenna.”

But, when baboons swing from antennae feeding Internet to people in remote rural areas, and when governments start to dialogue more with their citizens about development, then the world is indeed changing faster than we suspect. We need to find ways of making sure that those changes, and the momentous advances still in store, best serve the process of development and effectively reach the poor.

As well as supplying seeds for farmers to sow, we can now, through effective communication, also plant the seeds of knowledge and hope among the world’s poor. And in the process, help them to change their lives. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)