Advocacy and Interventions: Readings in Communication and Development

Advocacy and Interventions is a book of communication for development ideas, case studies, issues, models, and field-tested methods from the practitioner perspective. It is written for policy makers, project planners, and students of advanced courses in development communication or rural development. The author, Royal Colle, explores how the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) could accelerate progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to Dr. Colle, the book contains "examples and case studies that illustrate ways that carefully planned and implemented communication interventions have produced positive results. It shows how approaches such as social marketing, extension, participation, and entertainment have contributed to development initiatives. Many of these have used media and the new information and communication technologies. Advocacy and Interventions includes ideas from people who have experienced the challenges of communicating effectively in development programs." The book includes the author's insights from almost four decades of communication and development experience in countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, including Guatemala and Western Samoa.

Contents include:
Part I. Approaches to Communication and Development

• Introduction to Development Communication.
• The dominant paradigm and development communication.
• Participation in development communication.
• Information, education, and communication (IEC)in health initiatives.
• Communication in social marketing.
• Information and communication technology for development (ICTD).
• Gender issues and communication for development.

Part II. Communication Strategy: Techniques and Tools

• Designing communication strategies.
• Tools for communication initiatives: about media and methods.
• Research and evaluation.

In chapter 7 on Communication Strategy: Techniques and Tools, the author first lists seven benefits to an organisation which builds a communication strategy. He then cites problems that may be encountered. He gives 9 generalisations distilled from past campaign studies by Everett Rogers and Douglas Storey, followed by a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) summary on theories of designing and managing communications programmes, especially focused on knowledge, opinion, and behaviour changes from "Involving People, Evolving Behaviour. The UNICEF Experience".

The section "Designing Communication Strategies: A Guide to Decision-Making" advocates for focus, precision, and accountability in carrying out effective information campaigns and communication programmes. It suggests that policy should come before communication planning. It then outlines "The P Process" developed by the Agency for Educational Development, designed for carrying out health communication projects. The components detailed by the author are: analysis; strategic design; development, pretesting, and revision; implementing and monitoring; and impact evaluation and replanning.

Dr. Colle includes the following 6 steps in developing a communication strategy, each step detailed with both issues and strategies:

1. Situation analysis;
2. Setting communication objectives;
3. Identifying stakeholders;
4. Decisions on channels and media;
5. Decisions on content; and
6. Making decisions about evaluation;