Communication Strategies and the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) are inter-linked. This presentation presents a relationship between these factors.

1. The Sustainable
Development
connection
Chetan Thathoo
Indian Institute of Mass Communication

2. Introduction
● Communication is seen as an “enabler” of social change and a way to achieve the
Sustainable Development Goals(or the earlier MDGs).
● Communication has played a pivotal role in the campaigns of international
organizations and local governments as they ensure schemes are implemented
properly by people on ground.
● Communication is as much science as it is art. To communicate and to tackle an
issue, organizations research and provide information to the public.
● Communication is supposed to be localized to be much more effective along with
social science research.

3. Strategic Communication:
An evidence-based, results-oriented process,
undertaken in consultation with the participant
group(s), intrinsically linked to other programme
elements, cognisant of the local context and
favouring a multiplicity of communication
approaches, to stimulate positive and measurable
behaviour and social change.

4. Strategic Communication(contd..)
UNICEF’s Global Communication Team in 1998 developed certain
definitions that have ever since defined how we reach our audiences.
BEHAVIOUR CHANGE COMMUNICATION: It is a research-based
consultative process of addressing knowledge, attitudes and practices
incorporating channels and well-defined strategies.
ADVOCACY: It is a process of gathering, organising and formulating
information into argument, to be communicated to the upper echelons
of administration through various channels, with a purpose to influence
their decision and commitment to a particular cause.

5. Strategic Communication(contd..)
Social mobilisation: It is a process of bringing
together all social partners to raise awareness of,
and demand for, a particular development
objective. This activity is specifically pointed
towards a community and work towards making
them self-reliant and sustainable in the long run.

6. Communication as a Science
● To communicate and to tackle an issue, organizations
research and provide information to the public.
● Communication is supposed to be localized to be much
more effective along with social science research.
● Social Data provides us with information that could help
us tackle the issues like adamant behaviour etc which
can only be understood at a local level and deserves a
tailored solution unlike a universal one.

7. Communication as an art
● The artistic side involves creating beautiful
and creative products that leave an
impression.
● These products vary in terms of groups that we
are focussing and a community’s
pre-disposition to a particular medium

8. Review of Literature
● As a paper by Panos(2008) pointed out that the case for communication
shows that effective information and communication processes are
prerequisites for successful development.
● Communication inventions have to be systematic and planned, to have
as purpose the increasing of knowledge and the changing of the target
audience’s attitudes and practices, in order to protect the environment
beyond the goal to develop above all costs(Bucur, 2011).
● Despite the fact that communication is highly praised by virtually every
major development stakeholder and decision-maker, communication
specialists in this field still complain that it is not applied consistently
and effectively (Mefalopulos, 2003).

9. Objectives
● The primary objective is to understand various strategies of
communication employed by various U.N. bodies especially across Asia.
Even though the strategies are global, it is the localized treatment of
these strategies that differs.
● To explore examples that support these localized yet evolving strategies
which can be emulated across the board.
● To unravel the new face of technology viz a viz Internet and how these
technologies have contributed towards realizing the goals of SDGs.
● To ascertain oneself with various factors that affect this communication
between the sender and the receivers.

10. Governance and Communication
Development involves not just the expansion of resources, skills
and power in any given state but also the political processes of
‘state/society bargaining’ over their distribution that occur
within it.*
● Communication has been defined as central to the existence of
power. The flow of information has been responsible for the fall
and rise of many governments across the centuries.
● It is through various communication channels that the
government reaches out to the people of the country.
*Signposts to more effective states: Responding to governance challenges in developing countries’,
Institute of Development Studies (IDS)

11. Governance and Communication(contd.)
● Various governmental agencies formulate policies and,
then, reach out to the people at the ground via these
communication mediums.
● Communication has moved from being a tool in the
hands of few to a medium of mass consumption. With
the advent of technology, more and more people
participate in the debates and give their opinions.

12. Governance and
Communication(contd.)
● New technologies have made it difficult for state to shy
away from its responsibilities and these platforms have
become new tools for mass mobilization.
● A point in example would be the Middle East Asian crisis
that was born on the Internet and took down
governments across many countries. Thus, this instability
led to havoc in the region and, thus, the unfulfilled MDGs.

13. In the Indian context
● Statistical analysis shows that increased penetration of ICTs and mass media
is associated with lower levels of corruption. Similar researchers have
concluded found that where media and ICT penetration was greater,
corruption levels were lower.
● Monitoring can cover a variety of issues, such as financial management and
quality of services provided. With ICT, the general public can check the
progress of various projects. The availability of public records online can,
also, help people to figure out inconsistencies and corruption in government
sectors.
● Initiatives by Indian Government like the Saubhagya Scheme Dashboard.

14. E-governance initiatives in India
● e-Mitra
● e-Sewa
● UID
● National Land Records Modernization
Programme (NLRMP)

15. The Kenyan example
● In Kenya, the massive use of text messaging crashed
the mobile phone network during the election in 2002
as people used telephones to mobilise fellow being to
vote.
● This idea was, also, used to monitor polling booths as
people messaged the results to various organizations,
thereby, mitigating rigging and other poll-related
issues.

16. Communication and Rural Development
● India is an agrarian country and being a country with high rates of
farmer suicides and a huge rural population, communication can play a
vital role.
● The spread of digital communication technology has made information
and communication services an increasingly cost-effective option for
providing basic information to dispersed rural producers, in particular
to those settled in remote and poorly accessible areas.
● Communication for development strategies and initiatives today are
context specific and reflect values, perceptions and characteristics of the
people and institutions involved. Media technologies and apps that focus
on a local community can help formulate local solutions for local
problems.

17. Communication and Rural
Development(contd.)
● There are very few examples of communication for
development services to improve living standards in rural
areas.
● Providing information about natural resources and
economic development options, improving research in
areas of agriculture, and fostering people's’ participation
and inter-institutional coordination in the rural areas can
set this country on a path of growth and development.

18. Communication for Environment
● Environment sustainability is an issue of concern for most governments
across the globe and a major SDG.
● Communication can show us the way with information programmes to
raise awareness about many issues that can be easily dealt with by these
forest-communities.
● These outreach programmes can play a definitive role in these areas.
Communication for sustainable natural resource management involves
establishing linkages among all stakeholders; developing common
understanding, language and channels for participatory communication; and
responding to information and training needs. Ramirez(1997)

19. Local Appropriation of ICTs
● India faces a lot of equity issues ranging from gender issues
to widening income inequality.
● The issue of equal access to knowledge and information is
becoming one of the key aspects of sustainable development.
This knowledge gap has culminated in difference of access
between the information rich and information poor.
● An enabler in this aspect could be the use of local languages,
so, that more and more people could access the information
which could flatten this “knowledge gap.” This could allow
active involvement of different groups in the process of
decision making.

20. Indian context
● Not much content is available in the local languages with a few
exceptions like PMINDIA which is available in 13 languages.
● However, a good number of state government websites are
available in local languages.
● TDIL,a government entity, has free softwares on their website
fro 22 Indian languages.
● The demand for local content is rising with a KPMG report
quoting that 70% Indians find the content in their own language
more reliable in English language.

21. The Vietnamese example
● A small number of children in certain economically poor
communities in Vietnam were well-nourished and healthy as
compared to most other children who were malnourished in
the same communities. On probing, it was found that
mothers of the healthier children put small shrimps and
crabs, easily available in rice fields, as nutritional
supplements.
● Thus, an existing health-enhancing feeding practice of a
minority group was promoted to the rest of the community
via communication reasearch.

22. Communication and Delivery of services
● There have been multiple examples where the state
governments have tried to speed up the delivery of services in
timely manner, but, the ensuing corruption and red-tape makes
the whole exercise useless.
● The “Digital India” Programme of GoI lists “Governance and
Services on Demand” as one of its core visions.
● The states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have various
schemes like Health insurance and Industrial Policy that
effectively use communication as a tool of delivery. But, India
can take an important lesson from Uganda in this respect.

23. The Ugandan example
● 1996 saw the Government of Uganda increased spending on primary
education, but saw little impact on school enrolment levels. A
system was put in place afterwards called the Public Expenditure
Tracking Systems (PETS) collected data from 250 schools and found
that only 13 percent of intended grants actually reached schools.
● The government published the records pertaining to funds in
newspapers, broadcasting information on the transfers on radio, and
requiring primary schools to post information on inflows of funds.
● The citizens started evaluati g these records and, as a result, instead
of 13 per cent, around 80 per cent of education funds began reaching
schools.

24. Health and Communication
● ICTs have played a major role in terms of awareness
regarding diseases.
● The NHP of India serves as a single point of
information for all recognizable diseases.
● The website features information as well online
registration for appointments across many
government hospitals.

25. Health and Communication
● In a country of burgeoning mobile connections,
the NHP, also, has a mobile app that caters to
the needs of the people and is available in 5
languages at the moment.
● The information can serve as a first point of
contact especially for people in remote areas
where hospitals are a scarcity and diagnosis of
the symptoms can play a vital role.

26. The tools of the revolution
COMMUNTY RADIO: Community radio, according to the strict
definition, is radio that is owned and run by a community (a geographic
community or a community of interest).
● The defining characteristic of community radio is that it provides
information relevant to its audience, local news and a platform for
local voices and debate.
● India itself is host to over 200 community radio stations which
disseminate news and other information to ts listeners.
● These radio stations inform and educate people regarding various
social-evils and have a huge impact on realizing SDGs.

27. Community Radio
● These community radio stations foster characteristics of
inclusive and universal development among its listeners.
● These stations are locally-focused and are technology-driven.
Although, the technology is very primitive, but, these stations
have contributed a lot to the idea of realizing these goals.
● When Ebola hit Guinea, the country faced many challenges to
stop the spread of the virus, including a widespread rural
population and numerous local languages. A network of rural
radio stations helped overcome these barriers of
communication.

28. Singing all the way to protest
Community radio is credited with a major role in the transition to
democracy in Nepal. In February 2005, in response to worsening
conflict n the country, the King sacked the government and banned
news reporting. Nepal’s network of community radio stations found
ingenious ways of defying the ban: for instance, forbidden from
broadcasting anything but music they started to sing the news. Then
they became more openly defiant, informing people of their rights and
the duties of government, hosting talk shows, and encouraging people to
compose protest songs. They broadcast regular messages urging
peaceful rather than violent protest. This contributed to bringing four
million people out onto the streets calling for a resolution of the political
crisis.

29. The tools of the revolution
PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING MODEL:
● Financial security as the most important factor in building strong
public service media. If media are sufficiently well resourced, they
argue, the quality of content will improve and the needs of
audiences will be met.
● Plural ownership of media is essential. Regulation is needed to limit
concentration of ownership, promote competition and perhaps
facilitate the entry of small actors such as community radio stations
into the market. Legislation and licensing conditions should be
independent and controlled by civil society or the media itself and
should be transparent.

30. The tools of the revolution
ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION:
● EE contributes to the process of directed social change as it can
influence audience members’ awareness, attitudes, and behaviour with
regard to specific practices.
● Although first EE to which triggered global interest was in Peru. Back
home, a T.V. show called “Jeena Issi Ka Naam Hai” broadcasted on the
Doordarshan targeted social and behavioural changes in women across
India. The show was praised for its content and was specifically targeted
at the rural audiences.
● An animation programme called “Meena” targeted specifically for
South-Asian female children and the issues related to gender biases in
the continent.

31. Communication for Social
Mobilisation
Social Mobilisation can help to create a climate in which change can
occur. It sets out to garner support from local people so that the
programmes and interventions are accepted and well suited to the
felt need. Well-planned social mobilisation efforts also seek to
empower communities to take control of their own situations,
including accepting or rejecting interventions.
U.N. Report

32. An Example
● The shebikas like the ASHA workers(in Inda) played an
important part in expanding immunization cover in Bangladesh.
Each shebika was responsible for 300 households. Through
door-to-door visits and with their active involvement in
communities, they provided a critical interpersonal link
between health providers and community members. These
shebikas increased the immunization cover in Bangladesh to
over 74%.

33. Right to Information
● The impact RTI has had on the front of accountability in India
has been enormous.
● RTI has opened the doors for general masses to ask information
which in turn leads to pro-active involvement of the masses.
● These involved masses and NGOs ask questions and based on
the replies can formulate their strategies which can have long
term effects on the people.
● This is a form of communication especially in the Indian context
that can help realize the goal of SDG in a greater way than other
modes of communication.

34. ICT4D
Information and communication technologies for development
(ICT4D) refers to the application of information and communication
technologies (ICT) toward social, economic, and political
development, with a particular emphasis on helping poor and
marginalized people and communities. It aims to help in
international development by bridging the digital divide and
providing equitable access to technologies. ICT4D is grounded in the
notions of "development", "growth", "progress" and "globalization"
and is often interpreted as the use of technology to deliver a greater
good.

35. CONCLUSION:
● The whole paradigm of communication-sustainable
development still faces certain issues and raises many questions:
● The importance of open resources and their implementation by
state actors.
● Treating information as “public good” and the idea of investing
in such information infrastructure accordingly.
● Further research and strengthening non-state actors to
strengthen pillars of knowledge dissemination.