OneWorld South Asia (http://southasia.oneworld.net) recently organised a regional brainstorming on communication for development (C4D) in association with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) on April 14 and 15,  2004, New Delhi. The aim of the meeting, which had participants from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, apart from India, was to look at communication for development in the context of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for development.

The aims of C4D
Participants unanimously agreed that communication for development should bring about a positive change in the lives of people. Communicators should be able to influence State policies on development and mainstream voices of the poor and the marginalised. People should also feel empowered enough to ask for their rights. Tarja Virtenen from UNESCO said, “For c4d to be successful, it should have a meaningful participation in decision making, in managing information and that it does not contribute to the digital divide. c4d communicators also need to sensitise policy makers and should recommend the inclusion of best practices in government plans.” Pakistani journalist, Muhammed Shehzad said mere communication will not impact development. Participants also debated on the expected beneficiaries of C4D. Kishor Pradhan from Panos South Asia mentioned that dalit organisations in Nepal have been provided their own licences for radio for better communication and voicing their opinions on matters close to the community.

Examples of C4D
The participants listed out successful as well as experimental c4d projects which are bringing about a positive change among the communities. Shahidul Alam from DRIK, Bangladesh gave the examples of two most interesting and inspiring projects in the country. He said, “Madarssas in the Sylhet district, which borders India, were persuaded by development organisations to impart computer classes as part of their education programmes. These classes have become so successful that children want to manage the programme and even children from the north eastern of India – Meghalaya - cross over to learn computers.” He also narrated an example in which children used to make programmes for a television channel. The immense popularity of the channel stemmed from the fact that children had total freedom to ask questions from politicians. Unfortunately the channel has closed down. Director, OneWorld South Asia, Dr Basheerhamad Shadrach said a new and a sustainable model for addressing social change is being extensively used in the north Indian states by Janani.

Some lingering questions in the c4d domain
Ashish Sen from Voices added that though the right to information has been provided for, the right to communicate has not been. Shanker Ghose from Charkha raised another point. He said, “It is not only a question of information access. Communication is only a tool for development. We need to understand who controls the button, which switches off and switches on the radio. Why is it that someone has these controls and for what reasons?” Mr Ghose also pointed out that IT excludes a lot of people in India and that infrastructure is a problem, particularly power and Internet connectivity. Bazlur Rehman from BNNRC, Bangladesh said that the priority in his country was to bridge the digital divide. “How do we do that is a big question?”

Pakistani journalist and development practitioner, Mohammed Shehzad raised problems peculiar to his country. He said, “How can development be brought about in the absence of media freedom and how can there be development in the absence of a Parliament?” He added that only one-sided version of affairs are given out by the government and because the media is controlled, development is not possible. “Also, our political society lacks the culture of listening to dissenting views.”

Recommendations for enabling C4D
Enabling c4d requires commitment from the growing range of c4d communicators themselves as well as the support of intermediaries - who contribute capacity building, advocacy and assistance in content production and distribution. The support of international donors and agencies is also vital. The Delhi meet on c4d recommended (1) coordinated advocacy for c4d through international and regional networking. sharing and highlighting c4d capacity building and production resources; (2) sharing of best practice for capacity development of the c4d communicators and for demonstration effect for c4d advocacy; (3) support for intermediary facilitation (advocacy, training, re-distribution) and (4) improving grassroots access and connectivity.