The 3 C4D strategies advocated by Neil - interpersonal communication at scale, community and media mobilisation and community-based management of information would be, if they work and profit from each other, a nice way for communities to have ownership of communication processes around health issues in their communities. It is a complicated strategy to operationalise and to monitor, especially if it is put in place (together with the communities) from the national level, it doesn't show results right away, but in the long run, provided this strategy is kept going on for a long time, it could bear fruits and have a spill over effect on other fields of concern for the community. For such a strategy to work, I do thing that there is a need for an open dialogue in the community so that the community can check the work of the groups (be it NGOs or CBOs or any of the community level networks cited by Neil as potential partners) that are going to ultimately do the communication, mobilisation and information management work. Those groups need to be accountable to the communities. They should deliver to the community and the communities - especially the beneficiaries of the services delivered (care-givers) should be the one who decide whether or not they have done a good job. On the other hand, the groups who are going to do the work need to be equipped with the tools and capacities to do the work. Engagement and sense of responsibility cannot be acquired though, but are necessary to be able to deliver the required services and build trust in the community to be accepted and reach their targets. The engagement of the groups would also be greater, if they know that they can use the skills acquired as part of C4D activities in other areas of concerns in the communities, like sanitation or education. By being competent, accountable to and acknowledged by the communities, the groups selected to do the work will be less dependent on short term top-down "contract" (as in campaigns) and be able to be considered by both communities and UNICEF or other contractors as dependable, trustworthy and therefore able to reach results.
Dominique Thaly