This document discusses how communications and information and communications technologies (ICT) can strengthen extension programs in developing countries. It emphasizes that successful communication is a two-way process that puts audiences first by listening to their needs and interests. While ICT has potential, simply building infrastructure is not enough - the technologies must meet audience preferences and fill their knowledge gaps. Lessons from communications are equally important for ICT projects, which should involve audiences from the start. Promising new ICT applications could help extension work if developed through an audience-centric process.

1. Communications in Service of Extension.
What aspects of ICT could be a game
changer for the rural poor?
Part 1
Paul Hixson
University of Illinois

2. Background: Where I’m coming from
• 41 years - Extension Communications Specialist
• 25 years – IT and Communications management
• 25 years - multimedia production
• 22 years – International development work

3. Goals of Talk:
• Explore how our experience in successful communications
planning/delivery can inform how we approach ICT in
development.
• Deflate some of the current hype and “easy answers” about ICT.
• Develop a clearer sense of what ICT can do to strengthen
Extension programs in developing countries, and what some of
the most promising new ITC applications are.
• Develop a clearer understanding of how audience-centered
processes and procedures are as every bit as important as the ICT
tools themselves…. And then re-kindle some well-founded
enthusiasm for what’s possible in this area.

4. The Communications Process:
Sender Message Channel Audience Effect
What’s wrong with this picture?
What’s missing?

5. The Communications Process:
Feedback
Sender Message Channel Audience Effect
Successful Communications is ALWAYS a “2-way street”
We forget that at our peril!

6. The Communications Process:
What is the single most common reason
for failed communication efforts?
Sender Message Channel Audience Effect
Being “sender-centric”

7. The Communications Process:
The 1-way “hypodermic needle” model of
Communications
Sender Message Channel Audience Effect

8. The Communications Process:
The 1-way “hypodermic needle” model of
Communications
Sender Message Channel Audience Effect
How many times have you heard someone say:
“we’ve got to launch a communications campaign
to get our message out”?

9. The Communications Process:
The 1-way “hypodermic needle” model of
Communications
Sender Message Channel Audience Effect
How many times have you heard someone say:
“we’ve got to launch a communications campaign
to get our message out”?
As a potential audience member,
how enthused does that make you feel?

10. The Communications Process:
The 1-way “hypodermic needle” model of
Communications
Sender Message Channel Audience Effect
Our farmer audiences are no different.
In order for our Extension communications efforts to be
successful, we need to turn this around and be more “audience-
centric.”
We know this is true, but often don’t practice it.

11. The Communications Process:
Feedback
Sender Message Channel Audience Effect
Audience Sender
(listening) (sharing needs/interests)
Turning Things Around

12. The Communications Process
– Major Lessons Learned:
• Always put audiences (farmers) first
– Listen to them. They are smart people. Discover what they want
to do and what they want to learn.
– Discover what gaps exist in their current knowledge.
– Discover their preferred methods of communications
– Discover who they trust
• Base all plans and actions as an information provider from
the point of view of being a helpful, respectful partner in a
2-way communications process.
• Farmer audiences will sense the difference and respond
accordingly.

13. Debunking Hype About ICT:
• The “Field of Dreams” approach:
– Just build an ICT infrastructure and they will come.
– True, they can’t come until you build it in the first
place, but how do you know you’re building the
right thing in the first place if you haven’t first
gathered farmer input and made them part of the
process?

14. Debunking Hype About ICT:
• Extension is too labor intensive (and therefore too
expensive), but if we just add a little ICT to the
mix, everything will magically work (and it will be
affordable too).
– Again, not just “any ICT” will work – it has to be the right ICT for
the local context. Furthermore, although hardware is
essential, other factors for success are even more critical, such
as inclusive processes, good software and meaningful content.
– And, ITC is NOT cheap ….(although the benefits can be huge)
– If you design it well, much of the cost for building the ICT
backbone infrastructure will be borne by private sector
partners.

15. The Communications Process
- Lessons Apply to ICT As Well
• Always put audiences (farmers) first
– Listen to them. Discover what they want to do and what they want
to learn.
– Discover what gaps exist in their current knowledge.
– Discover their preferred methods of communications
– Discover who they trust
• Base all plans and actions as an information provider from
the point of view of being a helpful, respectful partner in a
2-way communications process.
• Farmer audiences will sense the difference and respond
accordingly.

16. ICT’s Potential In A
Developing Nation Context
• “…in some regards, (ICT) is a simple
concept, just as the Erie Canal is, in a
sense, just a big ditch of water. But, like the
canal, it has innumerable effects that cannot
be anticipated and that will not become
apparent for many years.”
Dr. Gregory Crane, Harvard, 1989.

17. ICT’s Potential In A
Developing Nation Context
• There was no way that Dr. Crane could have
predicted specifically any of the following in 1989…
• Facebook …but he didn’t need to because
he could already see…
• Twitter
• Blogs • Windows OS
• Amazon • eMail
• Smartphones • Hypercard
• iPads • PageMaker
• TelePresence

18. Leading Edge ICT Developments Today:
Tracking the ICT space: Judy Payne and FACET

19. Leading Edge ICT Developments Today:
Tracking the ICT space: World Bank Reports & Tools