3.2.2 What can be done to make it more effective?

Ballyn suggests that the communication process should be carefully planned after detailed surveys and meetings with the receivers within their own space to identify their own requirements. At the same time, the receivers should be trained to take up some responsibility in the implementation of the project as well as identify management deficiencies perceived by and within the community. Safeguards should be built to prevent people in authority from misusing their power or be discriminatory towards certain sections of the population. This will not only facilitate a free-flowing two-way communication, but also ensure equitable distribution of the development process.

Communication can also get stifled when it comes to issues such as funding and evaluation. As such, each stage should be reviewed and analysed, to rectify any unforeseen errors and omissions. Training should also be provided to the receivers on financial management, so that they can themselves monitor the expenses and income.

At the end of the project, there should be a final evaluation by the community as such, which should be followed by subsequent evaluations at regular intervals. Ballyn points out that this is more essential in a design project for market development. After the project has been implemented, the manufacturing enterprise should monitor the sale of new designs every two years. “The resulting figures will provide a useful starting point to review how much of the design and marketing process training has been used, and raise questions about their true value to the producer,” he says.

On a similar note, Dey suggests a CNA (Communication Needs Assessment) among the target group, so that they can identify key messages, issues and preferred modes of communication that need to be addressed. Then, prototypes of the same should be prepared and field tested, and changes can be incorporated if necessary. It is also advisable to use resources available within the community. In this way, a communication plan can be chalked out that is user-friendly.

Dey also points out that a successful project is one which has complete community participation and ownership. Hand-holding is fine for a while, but it cannot go on forever. At the end of the tenure once the project planners move away, the community should be able to continue the good practices.

She cites the example of an RCH (Reproductive and Child Health) program in West Bengal, India, where doctors tried to ensure that pregnant women took iron pills regularly. CARE, the NGO funding this project, decided to use mats wherein the women were asked to put one cross-stitch for every pill they took. This helped them to not only keep track of the number of pills they consumed, but also ensured that they don't skip any. At the end of the month, a nice patterned mat was ready which the women could use in their homes. “This was a very good strategy and worked beautifully. Such innovative methods are desirable,” she says.

Hewitt opines that what really helps is (if you have enough resources) to make the information products more regionally focused and, therefore, more relevant to specific categories of user. This should be supplemented by well-defined, realistic and measurable objectives; only then you can tell whether a project has been a success or not with some certainty.

The project should also be “fit for the purpose”. Hewitt points out, “you may design an excellent and informative new website on child rights, but if your audience does not have good access to the internet, it isn’t fit for the purpose.”

Another method of ensuring efficacy of a communications project is to measure how much the participants have learned from it. He says, “it is not knowing what you know but knowing which questions to ask (or knowing what you don’t know); or to put it in another way, seeing what is there in front of you rather than looking for what you want to see.” As Thomas puts it: “A successful project is one in which the participants are more capable; it should be able to improve their lot.”

But Smyth has a completely innovative suggestion to make. She says that most developmental projects do not consider communication to be an important aspect at all. So, perhaps the best way to deal with this is to think of all projects as “an opportunity to communicate our purposes to those we are trying to influence” — the public, the leaders, the policy-makers et al.

Thus, we can say that an effective development communication programme entails detailed surveys and frequent meetings with the receivers for a CNA, prevention of misuse of power and funds, evaluation of each stage and subsequent omission of errors, relating the information products to the users and thereby making the project fit for the purpose, and ensuring complete participation of the community.