Evaluating Communication for Development

"This book breaks new ground by presenting a powerful and persuasive experience-based statement of the case for recognising communication and its evaluation as central to good development practice and social change. It hits many nails on the head, and draws on many sources and insights. Contriving to do this clearly and coherently is a tour de force. By skilfully drawing together and interweaving the threads and themes of complexity, participation, emergence and holism, and combining these in an approach that is critical, realistic and learning-based, the authors serve the development community well. They present a coherent and comprehensive alternative to the currently dominant approach of donors, adding impetus and credibility to the big push forward to more grounded, cost-effective and sustainable development practice." Robert Chambers, Research Associate, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK "We are told so often that communication for development cannot be evaluated, meaning: crops or cell phones are much easier to count. Weve heard so much about the lack of indicators to measure processes of social change. By experience we know how hard it is for development managers to understand the role of communication as a participatory process and not as institutional visibility or information dissemination. Now, with this book, those who are reluctant to accept the role of communication in development and social change will lack good arguments. It presents a comprehensive framework for understanding how C4D can be evaluated and why it is indispensable for long-term sustainable development. This book is an extraordinary contribution to understandingC4D, not only from the evaluation perspective. It was so much needed." Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron, Communication Specialist, Bolivia "This work valuably weaves together insights from years of experience with emerging trends in related fields, including complexity and systems thinking, to propose a practical framework for evaluating communication for development. It is an indispensable, accessible and much needed contribution, to guide evaluation practice in communication for development contexts and beyond." Ailish Byrne, Learning & Development Specialist, UNICEF Somalia "This is a must read for both academics and professionals in the field of communication for development. For scholars, to understand the real problems in the real world. For practitioners, to learn that muddling through has never been a viable way to sustainable social change." Jan Servaes, UNESCO Chair in Communication for Sustainable Social Change, USA "The authors provide an excellent and accessible framework for a systemic, participatory learning approach to evaluation that fully takes into account the challenges of power and positionality in development programming. This book should be essential reading for busy reflexive practitioners working to support processes of social transformation." Rosalind Eyben, Convenor of the Big Push Forward and Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK "Lennie and Tacchi have written a much-needed, readable and original book, packed with conceptual insights and practical examples. They show the maturation of participatory methodologies in the field of communication and social change, and convincingly demonstrate the implications of recent theoretical debates and conceptual developments for assessing program impact. The analysis shows the authors' breath of practical experience, and nuanced combination of theory and methodology. The book is a trove of ideas for research and practice." Silvio Waisbord, Professor of Media and Public Affairs, The George Washington University, USA "Evaluating Communication for Development is useful for all those engaged in using evaluation to help change the ways in which development is undertake

June Lennie is a Senior Research Associate in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Australia. Her work has focused on the development, application and meta-evaluation of participatory research and evaluation methodologies and ICTs for social change, sustainable community development, and rural womens empowerment. She has co-developed several participatory evaluation frameworks, toolkits and resources. Jo Tacchi is Deputy Dean of Research and Innovation in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Australia. She is a media anthropologist with a special interest in radio, digital media and communication for development. Her work in this area has been centrally concerned with issues around culture and social change, and in developing suitable methodologies for investigating this.

1. Introduction 2. Framework for Evaluating Communication for Development 3. New Thinking and Trends 4. Challenges, Issues and Strategies 5. Evaluation Capacity Development 6. Key Approaches, Methodologies and Methods 7. Conclusion and Implementation