This 62-page guide is an attempt to support the formulation of communication strategies that can enhance dynamic, engaging, and sustainable social change processes. Designed for communication practitioners working in the field, this World Bank Working Paper (No. 170) provides perspectives, tools, and experiences highlighting the principles and practice of participatory communication strategies.

Designed for government officials, World Bank staff, and civil society, the guide begins with a discussion designed to allow the practitioner/reader to position himself or herself conceptually, understanding some of the possible implications of opting for one or another strategic approach in their use of communication. The authors stress that stakeholders often have very different visions and definitions of participation in development: Some define participation as the mobilisation of people to eliminate unjust hierarchies of knowledge, power, and economic distribution; others define it as the reach and inclusion of inputs by relevant groups in the design and implementation of a development project. These examples represent two of the main approaches to participation: a social movement perspective and a project-based or institutional perspective. These perspectives share a common understanding of participation as the involvement of ordinary people in a development process leading to change.

In addition to the meaning of participation to each stakeholder, the authors identify the following key questions to ask when applying a participatory approach to communication in development projects:

• What is the development problem to address: information, lack of skills, or social inequality?
• What notion of culture is inherent in the proposed approach?
• Is the catalyst or change agent understood?
• What principles guide the understanding of education?
• Are there active stakeholders or audiences to address? What are their respective roles in the communication process?
• What messages will be communicated: examples, life experiences, or social issues?
• What is the aim of the change: individual behaviours, social norms, power relations, social or economic structures?
• How will outcomes be monitored and evaluated?
• What is the time perspective to achieve the desired changes?

A short excerpt from Chapter 3 of the user guide follows:

"Design of a participatory communication strategy divides into two broad modalities: monologic and dialogic. Monologic, a one-way communication approach, promotes, for example, a public reform, raising awareness of innovation that can benefit stakeholders or designing a health campaign to promote a desired behavior. The level of change addressed by this approach concerns one or a mix of the following: awareness, knowledge, attitudes or behaviours, and practices.

Not everybody might agree to include one-way approaches within the context of participatory communication, however, participation is not an absolute concept - either there or not. Participation does not always mean everybody is engaged in every step of the way. It can also be considered as a way to ensure the opportunity for stakeholders to participate in key steps of the decision-making process...

The second modality, dialogic, concerns strategies requiring a change in the level of collaboration, mediation, conflict resolution, mobilization or partnership, and coalition building. Participatory communication can enhance social accountability and transparency in the growing sector of good governance, which promotes the establishment of common spaces where various constituencies meet to air and negotiate different positions.

In Chapter 1, the distinctions between the dialogic and monologic modalities were introduced in the heuristic framework for communication for development at the conceptual level. In Chapter 2, they were further fleshed out through ten guiding questions and served as guidance for the elaboration of participatory communication strategies. The following elaborates on both modalities of communication.

In a monologic modality the basic steps of strategy design are to define 1) SMART objective/s (SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound); 2) primary and secondary audience; 3) level/type of change (i.e., awareness, knowledge, attitude, or behavior); 4) communication approaches and activities; 5) channels and media; 6) messages; 7) expected outputs and/or outcomes.

In a dialogic modality the steps do not differ significantly. The major difference is that change is not rigidly predefined, but the result of the interaction among the various stakeholders. The basic steps are to define 1) SMART objectives; 2) stakeholders; 3) level/type of change (e.g., collaboration, mobilization, mediation, partnership building, etc.); 4) communication approaches and activities; 5) partners, channels and, eventually, venues; 6) target issues; 7) expected outputs and/or outcomes.

Hence, the main differences reside in a couple of steps. In step two, audiences in the monologic mode are substituted by the more active conception of stakeholders in the dialogic mode. In the third step, the level of expected change differs: in the monologic mode it usually refers to a change in awareness, knowledge, attitudes, practices or behaviors, while in the dialogic mode it can refer to the level of trust, collaboration or partnership established, or even to the outcome of a joint investigation and analysis. In the following section, the steps of strategy design for each of the two modalities are illustrated through practical examples..."

Table of contents:

1. Development Communication
   • Trends in Development Communication
   • A Call for Participation
   • Defining Participation
   • Conceptual Challenges in a Participatory Communication Model
2. Participatory Communication
   • History and Vision: A Snapshot
   • Conceptual Framework
   • Participatory Spaces: The Role of the Media
   • Combining Theory with Practice: The Multi-Track Model
3. Applying Participatory Communication in Development Projects
   • Participatory Communication in Action
   • The Four Phases of the Communication Program Cycle
4. Participatory Communication in Civil Society
   • Women, Healthy Lifestyles and Community Empowerment
   • Youth and Participatory Governance
   • Disability, Social Mobilization and Bottom-Up Advocacy
   • Lessons Learned

Tables included in the user guide focus on: "Lasswell's Theory", "The Conceptual Approaches to Development Communication", "The Main Features of Communication Modes", "The Johari Window", and "Communication Action Plan".

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