What is Communication?

If you sit ten people down in a room they will agree unanimously on the need to communicate, but will have ten different ideas of what that means. At its crudest, the ability to communicate can simply be seen as the ability to convince other people more quickly, so that they fall in with your own plans as quickly as possible. Other people have some idea that communication is a two way process which involves listening as well as talking - but do not understand the full implications of listening. The most powerful communicators know that the process might result in a wholesale change in their own thinking and plans. Communication is an instrument for partnership and participation based on a two-way dialogue, where senders and receivers of information interact on an equal footing leading to interchange and mutual discovery. Communication is pivotal in the development process because it caters to the human dimension.

Phrases used in Communication

When we talk about IEC in and for the water and sanitation sector we deal with programme communication (also known as programme support communication, or development communication). This is understood by UNICEF as "the planned communication component of programmes designed to change the attitudes and behaviour of specific groups of people in specific ways through person-to-person communication, mass media, traditional media or community communication."

Programme communication is concerned with the delivery of services and the interface between service deliverers and beneficiaries. It may include monitoring the way in which primary health care is delivered, or training water and sanitation engineers in community participation. It recognises that people need to be informed, educated, motivated and assisted in making changes. Providing services does not guarantee they will be used.

We also take in lessons from social mobilisation and advocacy.

Social mobilisation is a process for planning and implementing a variety of mutually reinforcing communication activities to achieve specific goals. In our sector, the process is concerned with mobilising human, financial and technical resources to support large-scale implementation of water and sanitation services that will benefit communities, largely through self-reliant and sustainable efforts. The aims are: getting political commitment and resource allocation from national policy and decision-makers, enlisting the support of senior civil servants, service providers, government agencies and media, enlisting the support of national and international companies, gaining commitment from local political, religious and traditional leaders, and NGOs and, through community participation, mobilising households and individuals in support of clean water and sanitation.

Advocacy is the act of lobbying political, religious and economic leaders for support or pleading a cause. Common techniques involve providing information, persuading people there is a problem which they can solve, indicating possible actions and supporting those in power to take them.

There are other frequently used phrases.

Health and hygiene education promotes beneficial changes in health behaviour by providing health information through all available channels.

Social marketing uses state of the art marketing approaches to increase demand for a service or to encourage behaviour change.

Community participation means empowering people to identify problems, decide how they can be overcome, make plans and seek solutions and to increase the capacity of communities to organise and manage services.

These approaches mutually reinforce behavioural changes that improve the well-being of communities.

Disseminating information is not enough. Water and sanitation planners, experts and field workers must learn to listen to people about their concerns, needs and possibilities. Policy makers need to be personally contacted to benefit from dialogue and interaction to shape opinion and influence decisions. Communication for behavioural change is a complicated process of human action, reaction and interaction.

Communication involves looking at situations from the viewpoint of other people, and understanding what they are looking for. It means understanding obstacles to change. It means presenting relevant and practical options, and it means telling people what the effect is of the choices they make .This is true in the international arena when seeking funds or political commitment, and it is true when installing a pump in a community.

Communication is the golden thread that draws the sector together with policy makers, officials who carry out policy, natural allies in health, agriculture and environment sectors, and the community. It ensures that policy makers, partners and communities are committed to projects and helps to prevent expensive mistakes.

People tend to change when they understand the nature of the change, and view it as beneficial, so that they make an informed and conscious choice to include it in their list of priorities. Unless their circumstances are taken into account, and their felt needs are met, no effort for change will be successful. People need to be informed and consulted, or they do not feel part of the effort. Involving target populations at every level and stage of development - from identifying problems to finding solutions, from resource mobilisation to project implementation - is critical to the success of any development project. Effective communication requires a comprehensive, multi-dimensional strategy. This concept of dialogue and interpersonal communication should apply throughout a continuum of activities. It is as important for advocacy work with legislators as for hygiene education efforts with villagers. The continuum thus provides a framework for mutually supportive activities across a broad range.

Communication helps to design better sustainable projects. It helps to mobilise people for development action, and to promote coordination and linkages. Communication spreads knowledge about successful experiences. It points people to sources of information and advice, education and learning, and planning and decision making. Communication helps to organize and manage systems for exchanging information between rural or urban people, or between technicians, or from planners to grassroots and back from grassroots to planners. Finally, communication improves the reach and impact of training and extension.

Introducing a comprehensive strategy does not mean duplicating elements that are already in operation. The strategy is a framework for action, in which existing efforts - be it fund-raising or hygiene classes for villagers - can be improved through an effective communication approach. New communication efforts may be necessary where a programme lacks some elements in the continuum of activity, whether advocacy, finding out existing knowledge, attitudes and practice, or use of the media.

Decentralisation is a guiding principle. Every segment and sub-segment of audience is different, and each has its own order of priorities and economic, social and cultural perspective on water and sanitation. A decentralised approach to communication activities is better positioned to address the needs of the community and affords a closer aim to solve the problems.

The involvement of the community - in issue identification, message design, dissemination, monitoring and impact evaluation - will provide vital feedback. More important, such involvement will enhance a true sense of partnership, a critical ingredient for the strategy to become successful.

Unfortunately, full and purposeful communication between development specialists and rural and urban fringe people seldom takes place spontaneously. There are barriers to communication, usually of a socio-cultural nature. They involve such factors as the differing uses of language and differing levels of literacy and education. Divergent interests of the parties concerned and their differing perceptions of the realities of a given situation can be other barriers. Appropriate use of communication approaches and techniques can help to overcome these barriers and promote better understanding.