Is Anyone Listening?

by Anne Winter

Table of Contents

• AUTHOR'S PREFACE
• COMMUNICATING DEVELOPMENT: PAST AND FUTURE
• PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
• PRINCIPAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR THE PUBLIC
• IMPLICATIONS FOR AGENCY COMMUNICATIONS: NEW APPROACHES AND EMERGING TRENDS
• SOME CONCLUSIONS

COMMUNICATING DEVELOPMENT: PAST AND FUTURE

"The last 40 years can be called the age of development. This epoch is coming to an end. The time is ripe to write its obituary."

This call by Wolfgang Sachs for abandonment of the faith in development and for liberation from the conceptual structures dominating development discourse1 echoes a growing unease among aid professionals. Many have expressed the need to rethink the underlying rationalization, structures and methods of international cooperation. As the East-West divide drifts into a rich-poor polarization, as the nouveaux riche economies 'emerge' to disrupt the established logic of North-South relations, and as protagonists in the post-Earth Summit era question whether the success of the Western model of progress is not in some respects more to be apprehended than its failure, the fundamental flaws in, and tensions between, conflicting notions of development have become increasingly apparent.

Of particular interest to those involved in communication for development is an analysis of this evolution, and indeed potential revolution, in development thinking, including the role communicators might play in reformulating new approaches and in gaining broader public support for them. At the same time, the sector is struggling with its own series of dilemmas. These are based on past as much as future practices--questions about the perpetuation of myths that may no longer correspond to the complex realities of international cooperation, and questions about the efficacy and ethics of some of its traditional modes of operation. These dilemmas have been exacerbated by a growing sense within the aid community that the public has failed to be convinced by its concerns, and by debate over whether the much-vaunted donor fatigue and compassion fatigue of politicians and the public represent a significant trend, or are merely spectres haunting the more pessimistic of aid administrations.

Historically, the importance aid agencies have attached to communication with their donor publics has progressively increased. This attention has generated support for agency concerns and an interest in aid issues. However, in recognition of the fact that aid is ultimately not the solution, increased political emphasis has at the same time been placed by many on the need for change in both international and domestic relations and structures. Current disillusionment or even scepticism over the relationship between aid and development has further corroborated this viewpoint.

This paper explores some of these issues, considers how issues of international cooperation and the realities of the developing world have been traditionally presented to publics in donor countries, and examines some of the links between the potential for maintaining and strengthening political and public support for new forms of international cooperation and the methods of communication used by both aid agencies and the mass media.