Prabhakar S. Mishra
IEC specialist, Nagpur
Whenever we are working on development front we need to put communication at heart place. Worldwide past experience suggest that modernization approach of development communication fail to sustain impact on stakeholders due to its vertical one way format based on prejudice which fix responsibility of being backward on under develop class. Till end of 20th century mostly communication in development sector was argument and advocacy based. Also efforts initiated with expectation of switch effect behavioral change, that outcast trust from communication.
Last decade observe substantial shift in paradigm of development communication. Now days participative, both way and horizontal communication is gaining acceptance worldwide. Saga of Jalswarajya project is a milestone in participative approach toward development communication, which is also recognized by World Bank by awarding People first award. Information Education and communication (IEC) in Jalswarajya intend to create sustainable behavioral change, not just to facilitate project implementation, but to ensure long term successful water supply scheme run by village itself and hygiene practice in village.
Participative approach of development communication is more democratic, logical and scientific then modernization model. Conversation, discussion, and exploration of audience from initial stage make communication process more reliable and effective.
Voluntary sustainable change in behavior can only being obtained by active participation of audience during communication. Audience cannot be treated as passive recipient of message. There feedback and perception need to be considered for success of communication process.
IEC in Jalswarajy project is land mark to show a path to other such initiatives. Past experience of vicious failure of water supply and sanitation sector result in adoption of new demand driven and public contribution base system. Also first time due emphasis was given to social processing. IEC and capacity building activities were recognized as foundation for sustainability. But it is just first step toward a long journey ahead.
In Jalswarajya IEC include developing strategies, approaches, campaign and methods that enable individual, families, groups, organization and community to play active role in achieving sustainable development. On the basis of experience of Jalswaajya project it can be said that IEC have very wide perspective and Need of communication is vast and multi dimensional for water supply and sanitation department.
There is need of IEC strategy to cover all dimensions efficiently to compliment organizational objective.
In development communication field there are varieties of literature available making contradictory claims about basic concepts of fundamental. It is almost impossible to generalize one experience to world at large. For WSSD following conceptual guidelines can be draw on the basis of vibrant experience of Jalswarajya project.
This question probably has as many answers as there are diverse populations and cultures. Some key factors are as below.
To make an effective IEC strategy for water supply and sanitation sector following measures are suggested.
Following infrastructural addition may prove useful in state IEC cell.
Divisional IEC hub
Cultural, environmental and political diversity of different region of Maharashtra need variety of communication pattern. To coordinating decentralize micro communication initiatives a Divisional IEC hub should be there. A divisional IEC coordinator with an assistant content editor will be sufficient to channelize the district level efforts. Even such structure will be helpful in campaigning, research activity, cross learning and high qualities centralize documentation.
There is variety of IEC material available in WSSD, but it is not easily accessible to public at large. IEC need an independent web portal with administration software support at district and divisional level. Such portal can be used as IEC warehouse. Also it will prove effective mean of cross learning among IEC professionals from different locality and different projects. It should have following contents.
IEC professionals in WSSD have different level of skills and personality traits. They can complement each other by Specialization of skills. Efforts should be made to promote versatile specialization.
World is moving ahead on information super highway. Every day there are update in technology and skills. In this competitive environment if we want to match pace, we need to keep our work force equipped with latest knowledge and skills. Following efforts are suggested for HRD.
In last seven year Jalswarjya project have redefined IEC activities in water supply and sanitation context. Outcomes of project are self explanatory. Government need to adopt the fundamental finding of the projects experience for betterment of other initiatives of department.
Existing infrastructure of WSSD, of government of Maharashtra is in need of a comprehensive and complementary IEC strategy.
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