Devcom Efforts at the United Nations

When the United Nations was created in 1945, its purpose was thought to be primarily for the maintenance of global peace and security. Of the 18 chapters in the UN Charter, five deal with peace and security issues, while only one (chapter IX) explicitly makes mention of “development.”

In spite of this narrow mandate in the area of development, the past three decades have seen the creation of a large network of UN agencies and programs concerned with humanitarian, economic and social development issues. More than (US)$30 billion flows each year through this system to promote development and eradicate poverty, including $25 billion that is channelled through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The UN secretariat devotes more than 30 percent of its regular budgetary resources to development, three times as much as for peace and security (excluding peacekeeping operations, which are funded separately) (Fomerand, 2003).

The development work of the UN system can be grouped into four broad categories: 1) policy and analytical undertakings that provide the underpinning for intergovernmental discussions and negotiations; 2) facilitation of the efforts of member-states to set norms and standards and build consensus on a range of international issues; 3) global advocacy on development issues; and 4) support of national development efforts through technical cooperation activities (Fomerand, 2003). Development communication plays a vital role in all four dimensions.

Much of the UN's work in the area of development has been placed in the context of the Millennium Development Goals, which were signed on to by world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000 (see Annex A). The MDGs are a set of time-bound and measurable goals and targets for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. As we will see, development communication also plays a critical role in realizing this vision.

Inter-agency and cross-sectoral initiatives to promote devcom

There are a number of initiatives that have been organized within the UN system to promote and support devcom efforts. The following text considers a few of them, beginning with an initiative that was developed by Erskine Childers at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) back in the late 1960s.

Development Support Communications Services

Among the earliest pioneers in the field now known as development communications was an office at UNDP called the Development Support Communications Services (DSCS). It was in DSCS where the ideas came together to form a distinctly new approach to communication as part of development interventions (Colle, 2002). Based in Bangkok , DSCS was led and inspired by Erskine Childers, who, from 1967 to 1975, urged the United Nations organizations and national governments to put more resources into development communication.

Childers recognized that development work, by its very nature, involves a strong communications component. The issue is whether or not to harness that component to support, or obstruct, the development objectives. “From the moment a stranger appears in someone's field bearing government authority, a theodolite, and some stakes,” he writes, “a long chain-reaction of communication has been launched. It begins with the first villager who sees the stake, wonders about it, speculates with a neighbour, and then begins asking questions that ripple out to a rapidly increasing community of profoundly concerned people” (Childers & Vajrathan, 1968).

Childers was active in the field of development communications at the same time that early resistance to diffusion began to appear in Latin America and elsewhere (i.e. Freire, 1970, 1973). However, though critics such as Servaes and Melkote may say his approach was too heavily infused with diffusion-esque methodologies, his ideas did incorporate some elements of participatory communications. “The moment we get away from thinking in purely Western terms,” he wrote, “and consider the total network of communication that needs to be activated for a development project, the point becomes obvious.” He said the network will most certainly involve the mass media, but to be effective, a broad range of audience must be reached, and motivated to participate in the development process.

Childers' six-point plan

Childers laid out a six-point plan for getting the UN more involved in development communications (Childers & Vajrathan, 1968). The first of these was what he called Broad Public Motivation to get the public involved with and take action to address development challenges:

The UN-Family should automatically seek to assist in and encourage development support communication programmes that will motivate the public more effectively.

The second point involved the education of local project staff to be able to communicate in one voice:

UN-Family field personnel presently have to spend grossly wasteful amounts of time simply trying to ensure that even a small number of over-burdened, under-paid civil servants know even the elementary facts about a project…

The third point involves helping different government ministries to coordinate and cooperate with one another, and preparing developing country governments to eventually take over the projects completely as their own:

More and more UN-assisted projects are bi- or multi-sectoral, requiring for their very functioning the coordination of several ministries at national and field levels. This …happens only as a result of consistent, advance-planned, purposive communication — inevitably requiring special materials in one or more media…

The fourth point concerns the training of field communications personnel, and their adequate financial support:

Many UN-recruited instructors have experience in making audio - visual aids: but all too often we learn of such personnel imploring headquarters, from their field posts, for possibly quite minute extra sums of money to finance production of better teaching aids — and of months passing during which the very training course itself expires before authorization is given, if it is given at all… the time has come for decision to invest in communication in order to save UN assistance funds.

The fifth and penultimate point involves the support for the development and dissemination of relevant applied research from local and international universities and institutions.

At the very least, the UN-Family should plan to ensure that the work of the institute and the innovations it develops be made generally known to the public and elite through a communications document (film, brochure, as may be judged best) that can also be used in schools and colleges.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Childers called for more attention to be given to project-level communications support:

We and our partners in national development service have scarcely begun to use the potential of planned, project-attuned communications techniques. At very little extra cost per project-year, we could be helping to equip each such project with a properly researched and phased schedule of information-communication aids.

UN Roundtables on Communication for Development

Erskine Childers was very active in the early meetings of the UN's Inter-Agency Roundtables on Communication for Development. The “Roundtables” are informal international forums for donors and those working in the field of development communications to harmonize approaches, provide news on progress and share good practices. Participants include representatives of UN organizations, bilateral agencies, such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), universities and non-governmental organizations. The roundtables have been held every two years since 1986, under the aegis of a United Nations agency that is chosen by rotation.

Each session has a specific focus. The eighth roundtable, for example, focused on HIV/AIDS. 2 Communication for sustainable development was the main focus of the ninth UN Roundtable on Communication for Development, which took place in September 2004 at the headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome . 3 The participants at the Rome roundtable sought to establish an evolved common vision for development communications. To articulate this vision, a list of seven principles was agreed to (FAO, 2004). These principles clearly establish the orientation of the group more along the lines of participatory devcom than diffusion, though not exclusively:

1. Communication for development is about people, who are the drivers of their own development.
2. Communication for development contributes to sustainable change for the benefit of the poorest.
3. Communication for development is a two-way process – it is about people coming together to identify problems, create solutions and empower the poorest.
4. Participatory communication for development does not only apply to work with communities. It is an approach of equal importance to all stakeholders.
5. Communication for development is about the co-creation and sharing of knowledge.
6. Communication for development respects indigenous knowledge and culture; local context is key.
7. Communication for development is critical to the success of the Millennium Development Goals (see Annex A).

The participants debated and discussed a wide range of issues, agreed on a set of challenges, and drew up a list of ten recommendations (see Annex B). Foremost among these was a widely supported proposal to include a communication needs assessment at the beginning of any development initiative, and an appeal for donor and development agencies to set up well-resourced devcom units (FAO, 2004). Many of these recommendations echo suggestions articulated by Erskine Childers 36 years earlier (Childers & Vajrathan, 1968).

World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD)

The World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD), scheduled for October 2005, will bring together more than 500 participants from around the world, including communication professionals engaged in development initiatives, policymakers, development practitioners, donors and NGO representatives, journalists and academics to share experience and examples of demonstrably successful practice in the field of development communications. It is anticipated that the participants will consolidate a consensus around a common framework and establish a set of principles for the practice. The Congress will be held in Rome , and is being organized by the World Bank, with funding from the Government of Italy.

To help establish a vision and an agenda for the conference, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Communication Initiative (CI) and Britain 's Department for International Development (DFID) organized an E-Forum on Measuring the Impact of Development Communication , during a three-week period between January 17 and February 4, 2005 . The online discussion attracted 650 people from 85 countries, and generated 215 messages (L. Grenna, World Bank, personal communication, February 17, 2005 ).

Ongoing development communication activities at different UN organizations

While the above text addresses a few of the devcom activities at the inter-agency level, the following takes a quick glance at what some of the individual UN organizations are doing in this field.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Development communication forms an important component of many FAO activities, supporting its efforts to raise levels of nutrition and living standards and eliminate hunger around the world. Much of its work in this field is coordinated internally by its Communication for Development Group. In fact, it is one of the few UN organizations to have an office tasked specifically with development communications.

The FAO Communication for Development Group carries out a wide range of activities, ranging from the formulation of methodologies, policies and strategies to project design, implementation and evaluation. Emphasis is placed on giving technical advice to Governments on communication as part of development policy and on the establishment of national communication systems that can support development initiatives. Training in communication skills and methodologies is equally important in order to identify successful and cost-effective communication approaches for specific audiences and messages (United Nations, 2004).

The FAO Guidelines on Communication for Rural Development (1989) frame development communication as the planned and systemic use of communication through interpersonal channels, and audio-visual and mass media to: 1) collect and exchange information among all those concerned in planning and development initiative; 2) mobilize people for development action; 3) enhance the pedagogical and communication skills of development agents; and 4) apply communication technology to training and extension programs to improve their quality and impact.

Over the past three decades, the role of communication at FAO has undergone a dramatic shift from a one-way, top-down transfer of messages by extension agents to farmers, to a social process that starts with the farmers and brings together both groups in a two-way sharing of information (Coldevin, 2002). One of FAO's most significant achievements is a program called Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems for Rural Development (AKIS/RD), which links people and institutions to promote mutual learning and generate, share and utilize agriculture-related technology, knowledge and information (Coldevin, 2002). The system integrates farmers, agricultural educators, researchers and extensionists to harness knowledge and information from various sources for better farming and improved livelihoods (FAO/World Bank, 2000).

United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

The United Nations Capital Development Fund was established in 1966 as a special purpose fund primarily for small-scale investment in Least Developed Countries. 4 It works in two areas of support: to the private sector through microfinance programmes; and to the public sector through the provision of local development grants and capacity building programmes. It is in this second dimension that UNCDF has the greatest need for Development Communications.

Decentralized governance structures, by their very nature, necessitate active citizen involvement. To be effective in meeting the needs and concerns of the poor, such participatory democracy at the community level involves much more than just showing up on voting day to elect members of a council. It involves encouraging people to take precious time away from work, often walking for half a day across rugged terrain, to contribute their voices to meetings that will determine how public funds are spent and provide input on what types of infrastructure and services are needed.

In countries where it is most effective, UNCDF local development programmes have committed a percentage of their budgets to communication efforts. This often involves hiring a full-time communications specialist at the country level. Initiatives involve both “downstream” communication to inform people of the benefits of decentralization and “upstream” communication to keep policy makers at the government level informed of local needs as expressed through local voices, and of progress in meeting those needs. Local development projects begin with a “stakeholders workshop” to which all sectors of a local society are invited to express their concerns, and to contribute to the objectives, goals and operational guidelines of the development project.

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

This agency's primary concern is to address the needs of children in the developing world. It has played a very important role, together with the World Health Organization (WHO), in assisting poor countries to tackle debilitating diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, trachoma, leprosy, and infant malnutrition. It works with national governments to strengthen their health care infrastructure and to expand primary education.

UNICEF considers communication to be a priority in all its programs, and has communication officers in most of its field offices, many with very substantial programs. The organization prioritizes development communication through three main strategies: 1) advocacy to raise resources and political and social leadership commitment for development goals; 2) social mobilization for wider participation and ownership; and 3) program communication for changes in knowledge, attitude and practice of specific participants in development programs (UNICEF, 1999, p. 1).

In its 2002-2005 strategic plan, UNICEF placed increased importance on communication programming. In particular, it is placing a stronger focus on the participatory dimension of communication — meaning a “wider, more conscious, more systematic focus on the active involvement of all stakeholders at all stages of communication programming, from assessment to analysis to planning and implementation; and an effort to focus on reaching the most vulnerable children, women and communities” (United Nations, 2004, p. 10).

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

The UNDP mandate is to promote human development with the objective of helping developing countries attain self-reliance through the building and strengthening of national capacity. The organization adopted Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for development as one of its six main focus areas in 2000 (together with democratic governance, poverty reduction, crisis prevention and recovery, energy and environment, and HIV/AIDS), in the belief that by making ICT an integral part of development cooperation and solutions, developing countries and their partners can work to address the current economic, social and digital divides in more innovative and effective ways (United Nations, 2004). A year later, ICT was removed as one of the focus areas though it remains an integrated part of many of its activities. For example, UNDP is currently providing program and policy support in close to 60 countries through its thematic ICT for Development Trust Fund, which has been operational since early 2002.

Though UNDP was very active in development communications during the era of Erskine Childers, this is no longer the case. The aforementioned Development Support Communications Services no longer exists, and, unlike UNICEF, UNESCO, the World Bank and FAO, it does not have an office tasked with the responsibility of following up on various UN resolutions addressing the need to incorporate communication in the formulation and implementation of all development programs.

United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

UNESCO has gradually moved from a technical assistance agency to a leading organization in the field of development communication, basing its action on partnerships and alliances within and outside the UN system (UNESCO, 2002). It is instrumental in organizing the biannual UN Roundtables on Development Communications, and is recognized as the lead player in the UN system in the area of social communication. Its communication policy is operationalized within three broad areas: 1) the free flow of ideas by word and image: 2) communication for development; and 3) the development of socio-cultural impact of new communication technologies (Mayo & Servaes, 1994).

One of the first substantive studies on development communication was commissioned by UNESCO in the early 1960s when Wilbur Schramm was hired to determine the precise role that the mass media played in development. Stanford University Press published the results of Schramm's research under the title Mass Media and National Development (1964), which provided the solid theoretical foundations for development communication for the following 10 to 15 years.

UNESCO is involved in so many dimensions of development communications that it would be inappropriate to list them all here. It is worth highlighting, however, an important area of UNESCO's work, which involves upgrading the communication capacity of developing countries. It does this primarily through the International Programme for the Development of Communication. 5 This intergovernmental council, enjoying some limited autonomy from UNESCO, is designed to mobilize the international community to discuss and promote media development in developing countries. Top priority is given to projects that promote press freedom and media pluralism, the development of community media such as remote radio stations, enhancing professional capacity and building partnerships for media improvements.

In September 2003, UNESCO organized a meeting of international experts in New Delhi to reassess communication for development programs and to launch new initiatives. The main conclusion of this meeting was that communication remains essential for development and that radio is an important tool for democracy, as it is still the most widespread medium in rural areas. In addition, UNESCO reaffirmed the need to improve the training of journalists by reinforcing learning institutions (United Nations, 2004).

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Summit on the Information Society

The ITU is a specialized agency of the UN that was established to bring together governments and industry to coordinate the establishment and operation of global telecommunication networks and services, and to promote the extension of the benefits of the new telecommunication technologies to all the world's inhabitants. As such, its core operations can be considered an important dimension of development communication.

While the digital revolution has extended the frontiers of the global village, the vast majority of the world remains unhooked and disconnected from this unfolding phenomenon. To address the growing digital divide between knowledge and ignorance, the ITU Council decided to call the world's governments to account in a Global Summit in two phases, the first in December 2003, in Geneva , and the second in November 2005 in Tunis . Called the World Summit on the Information Society , the first phase addressed the broad range of themes concerning the Information Society and adopted a Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action. 6 The second phase will concentrate on finding ways to implement and follow up the Geneva decisions, with particular attention to the challenges facing Least Developed Countries . 7

World Bank Group

The mission of the World Bank Group is to fight poverty and improve the living standards of people in the developing world. The World Bank Group is made up of five closely associated institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IRBD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Together they provide loans, policy advice, technical assistance and knowledge sharing services to low and middle income countries. The “World Bank,” which only refers specifically to two of the five, IBRD and IDA, is a specialized agency of the United Nations.

Exemplifying its commitment to the role of communication in development, the World Bank set up its Development Communication Division (which it calls DevComm for short) to provide its clients with the strategic communication advice and tools they need to develop and implement successful projects and pro-poor reform efforts. DevComm is active in all regions and all sectors of the World Bank's portfolio, offering assistance in socio-political analysis; attitudinal research; devising strategies for message targeting; building consensus around contentious issues and initiatives; behaviour change interventions; communication training; managing and supervising communication processes and media relations. The unit also regularly provides training in devcom to UN personnel worldwide.

For the World Bank's Community Driven Development (CDD) programs, supporting local development is as much about facilitating the flow of information among all groups in a community as it is about facilitating the flow of funds. Mozammel and Schechter, in Strategic Communication for Community Driven Development: A practical guide for project managers and communication practitioners (2004), admit that, while new communication activities are continuously integrated into CDD operations, few are considered and implemented within a broader context of a communication strategy. Such interventions generally focus on very specific, mostly occasional, ad-hoc, and reactionary activities including behaviour change, information dissemination, public relations, promotional activities, and/or public education.

To complete the missing link in effective development, the World Bank believes a strategic communication framework within the CDD context should serve multiple important roles in the development process and take into account psychological, socio-political, cultural, and economic dynamics within and across stakeholder groups directly or indirectly involved in the development process. In their Practical Guide , Mozammel and Schechter declare that strategic communications support should address “information, education, mobilization, behaviour change, and capacity building activities that help facilitate horizontal and vertical relationship building, top-down and bottom-up political action, accountability, process management, social and behaviour change through knowledge and learning.”

The World Bank, in World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty recognized the importance of democracy and the empowerment of the poor in efforts to fight poverty. Emphasizing the political characteristic of poverty stresses the fact that poverty is perpetuated by powerlessness, injustice and exclusion. Empowering the poor through providing both access to information and the ability to participate in and contribute to decision-making processes can help them break free of that poverty.

As mentioned above, the World Bank also is currently working closely with FAO to organize the World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD), to further facilitate the sharing of experiences and best practices in the field of devcom.

Other UN Agencies and Organizations

Most UN agencies and organizations incorporate communications in their development activities in one way or another. While the ones with the largest programmes have been listed above and described in detail, a few others that deserve mention include:

• The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) uses strategic communications in its efforts to integrate population issues in development and to promote reproductive health and rights (United Nations, 2004).
• The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) recognizes the importance of communications programming to promote a social and political environment that is more conducive to HIV/AIDS prevention and care (United Nations, 2004).
• Over the past 50 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) has implemented an aggressive immunization program to help control or eradicate many of the world's most deadly diseases. Communication strategies in support of WHO programs have included the mass media, interpersonal communication and community organization (United Nations, 2004).

Evaluating the Work of the UN in development communication

In 1994, the United Nations commissioned a study on the role of the discipline of communication in the successful implementation of development programs in the UN system (Mezzalama, 1994). The investigation was initiated by UNESCO and carried out by the Joint Inspection Unit of the UN's Economic and Social Council.

Based upon information from contacts with the staff of headquarters and field offices, and from the analysis of replies to questionnaires provided by 15 organizations and agencies, Francesco Mezzalama, the author of the study, came to the conclusion that the situation regarding communication activities in the United Nations system was unsatisfactory. According to his report, the level of inter-agency coordination was not keeping up with the evolution of the discipline. He concluded that most UN organizations attach insufficient importance to communication in operational activities. Furthermore, he wrote, communication is rarely integrated into the entire cycle of development assistance. Mezzalama's report made a number of recommendations aimed at raising awareness and concern among UN organizations, multilateral agencies, academic circles and non-governmental organizations as to the need for effective communication structures for attaining the desired objectives of development and humanitarian assistance programs. Foremost among these recommendations was a call for devcom to be a critical part of any development program, with budgets that contain a specific provision for communication activities.

Mezzalama submitted his report in March 1994. A year later, in March 1995, the Administrative Committee on Coordination (the UN body that tries to ensure coordination between organizations) submitted its comments and feedback, as part of the official record, supporting most of the report, taking issue with some sections. Two years later, in February 1996, a resolution was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly “recognizing the pivotal role of communication in the successful implementation of development programmes,” and requesting the General Secretary, in consultation with the Director-General of UNESCO, to report back to the General Assembly in 2004 on the implementation of the resolution. It also requested a report on development communication on a biennial basis thereafter (see Appendix H, Communications for development programmes in the United Nations , General Assembly resolution A/50/130).

When the Director General reported back to the UN General Assembly in August 2004 (more than ten years after the initial report from Mezzalama), his report (United Nations, 2004b) provided a summary of what various UN organizations were doing, and set out a list of four conclusions and recommendations, as follows:

• Communication for development is instrumental in the success of any endeavour to achieve human development and, consequently, greater integration in the economic and social planning process is called for;
• This, in turn, calls for increased resources redirected towards more effective communication programmes, including increased investment in capacity-building, training and research at the country level;
• The United Nations system, working through a number of mechanisms, such as communication for development round tables, has achieved a certain degree of cohesion in its approach and action in this field. This success calls for enhanced synergy among all partners, at both the international and country levels, including governments, NGOs, donors, the private sector and community leaders;
• Information and communication technologies have become an integral part of the development process. Developing countries and their partners should intensify efforts to address the current digital divide in a more innovative and effective way, based on the enhancement of national ownership and the effectiveness and sustainability of the related initiatives and strategies.