Communication for another development : listening before telling

167 Pages·2008·2.17 MB·English

by  Wendy Quarry

Communication for another development

Communication
for another development
Listening before telling
Wendy Quarry and riCardo ramírez

Zed Books
london  new york
Communication for Another Development: Listening before Telling was first
published in 2009 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London n1 9jf, uk
and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa
www.zedbooks.co.uk
Copyright © Wendy Quarry and Ricardo Ramírez 2009
The rights of Wendy Quarry and Ricardo Ramírez to be identified
as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
All chapter title page illustrations by Ricardo Ramírez
Planner gliding illustration on p. ii and in Chapter 3 by Rius
(Eduardo del Río, Mexico)
Designed and typeset in Monotype Ehrhardt by illuminati,
Grosmont, www.illuminatibooks.co.uk
Index by John Barker
Cove r designed by Rogue Four Design
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Anthony Rowe,
Cert no. SGS-COC-2953 Chippenham and Eastbourne
Distributed in the USA exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division
of St Martin’s Press, llc, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or
otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data available
isbn 978 1 84813 008 1 Hb
isbn 978 1 84813 009 8 Pb
Contents

Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
one Communication for Development:
setting the scene 4
part i what we know
two The meaning of ‘another’ development 25

three Planners and searchers: two ways
of doing development 35
four Why communicators can’t communicate 46
part ii what we learned
five Working in the grey zone 57
six Early champions: uncovering principles 70
seven New activists: principles that travel 88
eight The forgotten context 103
part iii what we can do differently
nine Training and negotiating in the
grey zone 117
ten Searching and listening:
good communication, good development 134
Postscript: Cultivating common sense
on the farm 142
References 144
Index 151
acknowledgements

It was Leslie Knott who made this book happen. When she was a
student at Reading University, she went down to London looking
for books that might be able to explain to her what it was that made
Communication for Development so important to so many people.
She arrived at Zed Books looking for help. She didn’t find the book.
What she did find was an interested editor who asked her to suggest
people who might be able to write the book she hoped to read – a
book that might explain to her the potential of Communication for
Development, an applied field of international development.
For Leslie, the search had really begun in Afghanistan. In 2004,
she arrived alone in Maimana in the north of the country with the
unbelievable task of having to set up a ‘women-managed’ radio station
for the local population. She did not speak Dari. She was in a culture
that did not condone women working in a radio station, let alone
managing one. She was 28. She had a diploma in journalism from
a community college in British Columbia and about three months’
experience through a short contract with the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC). She was employed by a now defunct Vancouver-
based organization to set up and operate ‘women-managed’ radio
stations in the post-conflict country. She knew that she needed to
learn more about communication.
viii CommuNICATIoN foR ANoThER DEvELoPmENT
Wendy and her husband Paul were halfway through a two-year
assignment in Kabul. Paul had met Leslie when he went to Maimana,
about a year after she arrived. The next time Leslie visited Kabul she
went to their house for dinner. At dinner in the garden under the
grapevines, another communication colleague pointed Leslie in the
direction of the University of Reading for her communication studies
– and so the story continues. Leslie suggested to Zed that we be
contracted to write the book – and here we are writing away.
Friends, family and colleagues had the patience to edit and critique
our drafts; we are very thankful to Noel Salmond, Barbara Bryce,
Brendan Quarry, Ursula Nathan, Elin Gynn and Jim Shute, who gave
us valuable feedback on the full manuscript. We are also thankful for
feedback from Sarah Cardey, Florencia Enghel, Nancy Button, Leslie
Knott, Gillian Salmond, Ian Smillie and the Zed editors.
Our network of practitioners and colleagues provided encourage-
ment, case studies, ideas, field support, inspiration and critique. We
are thankful to Elena Altieri, Silvia Balit, Brian Beaton, Guy Bessette,
Beverly Castillo Herrera, Ashoke Chatterjee, Nimmi Chauhan, Kavita
Das Gupta, Eduardo del Río (Rius), Minou Fuglesang, Santiago
Funes, Roberta Hilbruner, Kiran Karnak, Paul MacLeod, Gerardo
Martínez, Blythe McKay, Gemma Millan, Chris Morry, Joaquin
Navas, Olle Nordberg, Kajsa Övergaard, Alex and Wilna Quarmyne,
April Pojman, Gaston Roberge, Emrys Shoemaker, Mark Stiles
(author of the letter to the professor in Chapter 1), Himalini Verma
and Santayan Sengupta of Thoughtshop, and Mark Waldron. You have
all helped us inject some ‘good’ communication into the profession.

Good communication is like a good conversation – it is respectful,
mutually beneficial, gives both parties a chance to negotiate and
clarify points and leaves people feeling as though the conversation
was worthwhile. Sending and receiving is not a good metaphor
for communication – communication is not a linear process. It is
the dynamics of interaction and negotiated understanding that
need to be addressed by communication professionals. (Commu-
nication Initiative, 2003)
introduction

We are practitioners. Between us we have more than forty years’
experience either applying communication in bits and pieces through-
out various projects or designing full communication initiatives. We
are part of a professional and academic community that works and
believes in Communication for Development. Yet we have come to
realize that we have been acting like a sect – almost like masons in
a secret society; we recognize each other by our words. If we can
talk so easily to each other, why can’t we explain to our friends and
relatives what it is that we do? We have seen it work: how is it that
we fail to explain its potential?
We recognize the irony: we have been advocates for this field
through the type of publications that only converted communicators
would read. Our writing has been inaccessible, only academics can
endure it, and yet the message was meant for a wider audience. This
book is an attempt to break from that habit.
We share what we have to say through stories. Our stories are
about what we know best – the mistakes, fleeting triumphs and many
frustrations that have dogged us throughout our practice. Like many
of you, we have the experience of reading glowing reports about
projects that did not reflect the reality as we knew it. Who did they
think they were kidding? So we decided to restrict our stories to those