Communication for Another Development

Wendy Quarry and Ricardo Ramirez are both independent consultant practitioners in Communication for Development, they have worked together on field projects, evaluations and publications over the last years, and they have been involved in relevant academia and development circles.

'This is a book about development and why it too often goes wrong. Wendy Quarry and Ricardo Ramirez argue that the development sector mainly uses communication to tell people what to do or think, rarely to listen and learn what people think and know. Because of this, too little development addresses the real needs of people it is designed to help. The authors are candid about their own struggles in using communication in development and polemical in assessing those of the development sector. Personal funny and entertaining, this book provides a better insight into the value, potential - and ultimately hugely frustrating practice - of using communication to listen rather than tell than any I've come across for a very long time. Anyone interested in development will learn much from this book. Those working or interested in using communication in development could usefully place it on their required reading list.' - James Deane, Head of Policy, BBC World Service Trust 'Quarry and Ramirez have written a highly readable, information-packed, lucid book on the challenges and successes of communication for international social change. Drawing from their extensive expertise, they patiently dissect the lessons from numerous programs showing how grassroots communication contributes to sustainable change. "Another development" is possible, they argue, if international aid organizations follow the basics of good communication: listen and learn from local knowledge. Yet such approach uneasily fits the dominant bureaucratic mindset. The need for quick, predictable, expert-led interventions that meet institutional requirements runs against the needs of communities and the slow pace of long-term social change. What is easier, rather than what is needed, gets done. Quarry and Ramirez find silver linings in the cloudy skies of international aid. In a clear, conservational style, they tell the stories of champions who managed to achieve results while working in the "grey zone" in which communication exists. The authors are neither wide-eye optimists nor frustrated pessimists; they are reasonable realists who tell us that, yes, plenty of evidence shows when and why communication is central to processes of empowerment and social transformation. From Canada to Mozambique, scores of examples suggest that when bureaucracies cooperate and support, programs show that people participate, identify problems, and find solutions. This provocative and inspiring romp through decades of communication experiments shows that it can be done. Quarry and Ramirez might as well have called their book "Beating the bureaucracy against the odds."' - Silvio Waisbord This should become required reading for communication for development practitioners! This highly personal reflection by two experienced advocates of participatory communication lays bare the reasons why we are so often frustrated with the outcomes of our work, while showing clearly the opportunities for creative support of empowering development from good deployment of communication processes. The stories from their own and others' professional experience demonstrate the power of narrative in bringing us face to face with our preconceptions and misunderstanding.A" - Chris Garforth, Reading University

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionAbout this book1. Communication for development: Setting the scenePart I: What We Know2. The meaning of Another Development3. Planners and searchers: Two ways of doing development4. Why communicators can't communicatePart II: What We Learned5. Working in the grey zone6. Early champions: Uncovering principles7. New activists: Principles that travel8. The forgotten contextPart III: What We Can Do Differently9. Training and negotiating in the grey zone: A collection of touchstones10. Searching and listening: Good development breeds good communicationPostscript: Cultivating common sense on the farmReferences