1. For social mobilization , how can large number of people in the different levels of society br brought into supporting educational reforms and programs?’

2. Agree or disagree on this controversial advocacy on cultural values and behaviors that continued schooling will breed irresponsible relationships, wives and mothers as well as husbands and family man.

3. Most recent opportunities for mass communication in education are provided by new information technologies. Cite examples and support your point of view.

4. How significant the roles of parents/teacher and community association in promoting collaboration among partners in education?

5. Communication for supporting education policies needs to be based on a more strategic approach. How will innovative thrusts be effectively implemented using such approach?

6. Before introducing new legislations on educational reforms, what communication strategies should be undertaken?

7. Give examples of modern and creative methods to be employed in the classroom for a meaningful teaching and learning encounter.

8. What do you think are the opportunities of the recent 2016 graduates in various fields in terms of chances of employment?

9. Design a catchy headline banner recognizing that education is a major source of interesting news for worldwide development.

10. How can communication in education build mutual trust and respect in determining management policies between stakeholders and partners?

11. Why is there a need, or say, a must for teachers, educational planners and administrators to undergo specialized trainings, workshop, seminars, etc. and above all obtain post-graduate degrees?

12. With the breakthrough in information and communication technologies, how will “low tech rebels” be encouraged, reinforced or exposed to keep attuned to information system changes?

Education takes place not only in schools but also within families, communities, and society. Despite the various degree of responsibilities taken by each group, none can be the sole agent to take 100 % responsibility for educating children. Parents and families cannot be the only group of people for children’s education as long as their children interact with and learn from the world outside their families. Communities and society must support parents and families in the upbringing, socializing, and educating of their children. Schools are institutions that can prepare children to contribute to the betterment of the society in which they operate, by equipping them with skills important in society. Schools cannot and should not operate as separate entities within society.Epstein (1995, 1997) seeks ways to help children succeed in school and later life, and focuses on partnerships of schools, families, and communities that attempt to: (a) improve school programs and school climate; (b) provide family services and support; (c) increase parents’ skills and leadership; (d) connect families with others in the school and in the community; and (e) help teachers with their work. She summarizes various types of involvement to explain how schools, families, and communities can work productively together: (1) parenting – to help all families to establish home environments that support children’s learning at schools; (2) communicating – to design effective forms of school-to-home and home-to-school communication that enable parents to learn about school programs and their children’s progress in schools as well as teachers to learn about how children do at home; (3) volunteering – to recruit and organize parent help and support; (4) learning at home – to provide information and ideas to families about how to help students at home with home-work and other curriculum-related activities, decisions, and planning; (5) decision making – to include families in school decisions, to have parent leaders and representatives in school meetings; and (6) collaborating with the community – to identify and integrate resources as well as services from the community in order to strengthen school programs, family practices, and student learning.

The goal of any kind of activity that attempts to involve community and families/parents in education is to improve the educational delivery so that more children learn better and are well prepared for the changing world. There are various reasons to support the idea that community participation contributes to achieving this goal. Extensive literature research has resulted in identifying the following rationales that explain the importance of community participation in education.

Maximizing Limited Resources

Most governments all over the world have been committed to delivering education for their children. Particularly after the World Conference on Education for All, assembled in Jomiten, Thailand in 1990, an increasing number of countries have attempted to reach the goal of providing education for all. However, governments have found themselves incompetent to do so because of lack of resources and capacities. Learning materials as well as human resources are limited everywhere, particularly in developing countries. The focus has shifted to finding efficient and effective ways to utilize existing limited resources.

Developing Relevant Curriculum and Learning Materials

Communities’ and parents’ involvement helps achieve curriculums and learning materials that reflect children’s everyday lives in society. When children use textbooks and other materials that illustrate

their own lives in their community, they can easily associate what they are learning with what they have already known.

Identifying and Addressing Problems

Communities can help identify and address factors that contribute to educational problems, such as low participation and poor academic performance. This is well illustrated in the case of the Gambia, in which the techniques of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) were adapted to education. The work was carried out in order to understand why girls do not attend schools, to mobilize communities around these problems, and to assist them in organizing their own solutions (World Bank 1995a).

Promoting Girls’ Education

Community participation can contribute to promoting girls’ education (UNICEF, 1992). Through participating in school activities and frequently communicating with teachers, parents and communities can learn that girls’ education contributes to the improvement of various aspects of their lives, such as increased economic productivity, improved family health and nutrition, reduced fertility rates, and reduced child mortality rates. Involving parents and communities in discussions as part of school activities also helps to identify factors that prevent girls from schooling. Parents are encouraged to express their concern, and reasons why they are not sending their daughters to school. For instance, many parents in rural areas are reluctant to send their daughters to schools located in distance, concerned about the security of their daughters on the way to and from the school. In addition, since girls are important labors in the household, helping their mothers to do the chores and take care of their young siblings. The time that requires going to and from school seems too much to waste for the parents. These issues are serious obstacles and have to be addressed and overcome in order to promote girls’ education.

Creating and Nourishing Community-School Partnerships

There are various ways to bring parents and community members closer to schools which they serve, including: (a) minimizing discontinuities between schools and communities, and between schools and families; (b) minimizing conflicts between schools and communities, schools and families, teachers and parents, and what is taught in school and what is taught at home; (c) making easy transition of pupils going from home to school; (d) preparing pupils to engage in learning experiences; and (e) minimizing cultural shock of new entrants to schooling (Cariño and Valismo, 1994).

Realizing Democracy

Where schools are perceived as authoritarian institutions, parents and community members do not feel welcomed to participate in their children’s education. They are not capable of taking any responsibility in school issues and tend to feel that education is something that should be taken care of by educational professionals at schools Many people, especially minority groups in many developing countries, develop this kind of negative attitudes towards schools because they are not treated by teachers with respect. For instance, those who do not speak the country’s official language and embrace other than mainstream traditions and culture feel discouraged in classrooms where teachers don’t show respect to their linguistic and cultural diversity. In the history, there were times when children were prohibited from speaking their first language in schools and they got severe punishment when they broke the rule imposed by the school or the government. This educational environment is unfavorable to parents and children and, therefore, contributes to these students’ low participation, poor academic performance, and high repeat and dropout rates. Involving communities in schools is a way of reaching democracy

through identifying and addressing inequities embedded in institutions and society as a whole. In addition, it is a strategy to create an environment in which parents feel comfortable participating in schools.

Increasing Accountability

Parental involvement in education, particularly in school governance, is seen as a means of making schools more accountable to the society which funds them. This has been witnessed in some places such as England and Wales, Canada and the United States. The notion of parental involvement for accountability derives from a more market-oriented concept in which school-family partnerships are viewed rather like business partnership, through which the two parties receive mutual and complementary benefits which enable them to operate more effectively (OECD, 1997).

Realizing Democracy

Where schools are perceived as authoritarian institutions, parents and community members do not feel welcomed to participate in their children’s education. They are not capable of taking any responsibility in school issues and tend to feel that education is something that should be taken care of by educational professionals at schools Many people, especially minority groups in many developing countries, develop this kind of negative attitudes towards schools because they are not treated by teachers with respect. For instance, those who do not speak the country’s official language and embrace other than mainstream traditions and culture feel discouraged in classrooms where teachers don’t show respect to their linguistic and cultural diversity. In the history, there were times when children were prohibited from speaking their first language in schools and they got severe punishment when they broke the rule imposed by the school or the government. This educational environment is unfavorable to parents and children and, therefore, contributes to these students’ low participation, poor academic performance, and high repeat and dropout rates. Involving communities in schools is a way of reaching democracy through identifying and addressing inequities embedded in institutions and society as a whole. In addition, it is a strategy to create an environment in which parents feel comfortable participating in schools.

Increasing Accountability

Parental involvement in education, particularly in school governance, is seen as a means of making schools more accountable to the society which funds them. This has been witnessed in some places such as England and Wales, Canada and the United States. The notion of parental involvement for accountability derives from a more market-oriented concept in which school-family partnerships are viewed rather like business partnership, through which the two parties receive mutual and complementary benefits which enable them to operate more effectively (OECD, 1997).

Ensuring Sustainability

One of the major factors to ensure sustainability of programs is the availability of funds, whether from governments, private institutions, or donor organizations. In this regard, community participation in education cannot ensure the sustainability of schools by itself since communities oftentimes have to rely on external funding to keep the program sustained. However, involving community is a way to ensure that the benefits brought by a development program will be maintained after the external interventions are stopped. Thus, sustainability is dependent on the degree of self-reliance developed in target communities and on the social and political commitment in the wider society to development programs that support the continuation of newly self-reliance communities (Lovell, 1992). Community members

are expected to be actively involved in the process of interventions through planning, implementation, and evaluation. Furthermore, they are expected to acquire skills and knowledge that will later enable them to take over the project or program.

Improving Home Environment

Community participation can contribute to preparing and improving home environment, by encouraging parents to understand about the benefits of their children’s schooling. A World Bank study (1997) which analyzed primary education in India, discovered that families aware of the importance of education can contribute much to their children’s learning achievement, even in disadvantaged districts. It also shows that students from families that encouraged children’s schooling, by allocating time at home for study, encouraging reading, and supporting their children’s educational aspirations, scored significantly higher on tests of learning achievement.

How can community participation improve education?

Community participation can contribute to education delivery through various channels. The following is a list of ways through which communities can contribute to the education delivery

advocating enrollment and education benefits; boosting morale of school staff; raising money for schools; ensuring students’ regular attendance and completion; constructing, repairing, and improving school facilities; contributing in labor, materials, land, and funds; recruiting and supporting teachers; making decisions about school locations and schedules; monitoring and following up on teacher attendance and performance; forming village education committees to manage schools; actively attending school meetings to learn about children’s learning progress and classroom

behavior; providing skill instruction and local culture information; helping children with studying; garnering more resources from and solving problems through the education bureaucracy; advocating and promoting girls’ education; providing security for teachers by preparing adequate housing for them; scheduling school calendars; handling the budget to operate schools; identifying factors contributing to educational problems (low enrollment, and high repetition and

dropout); andpreparing children’s readiness for schooling by providing them with adequate nutrition and stimuli for their cognitive development

https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter21-social-movements-and-social-change/1. sdsds2. aa

To date, the uses of new technology in the teaching of journalism and mass communication education can be broken into four main categories: 1) class instruction, 2) onlinesyllabi/materials, 3) distance learning/online courses, and 4) technological literacy (knowledge and skills of new media technologies) within the curriculum.

1. "Class instruction". Computer-assisted and multimedia instruction are commonly used in American college and university classrooms(Hester, 1999). More and more classrooms are being designed-or retrofitted-with multimedia equipment that allows teachers to combine video, audio, and electronic text in their instruction. Computer-assisted and multimedia instruction is particularly beneficial for journalism and mass communication educators; it can contribute to student engagement and success in skill courses, such as news writing and copyediting. Students rated a computer writing program higher than a paper exercise, while teachers reported that students made great improvement in grammar by using computerized writing tools (Smith, 1990).

2. "Online syllabi/materials". New technology allows teachers to create content and post course information online. Online syllabi are the most widely used teaching tool among college professors. In addition to course syllabi, teachers can put post-class notes, reading materials,assignments, class discussions, student works, tests, grades, and other items that are not easy for students to access in traditional syllabi. In view of this advantage, many universities are developing school-wide systems that offer a website for each course offered.

3. "Distance learning". The virtual classroom is not yet used to its full potential by journalism and mass communication schools. Although some schools offer online courses that allow students not to meet in class, many still require students to live near campus (Arant, 1996). Distance education is still in the trial process, largely because of instruction methods. The major hurdle is not the technology infrastructure, but having effective instruction without a classroom setting (Arant, 1996).

4. "Technological literacy". Panici (1998) describes technological literacy as "understanding both the why and how of new media communication tools." This goes beyond pure technological skills, which are relatively easy to obtain, to encompass critical thinking skills and key issues surrounding the new technology-issues such as privacy, intellectual property, and assessing source reliability. Pavlik (2003) notes that there is

"...something much deeper and more important that our students need to learn in the context of new media, something that goes well beyond the qualities of craft and skill. They need to learn about the ways digital technologies are quietly-and not-so-quietly-transforming the world." (p. 314)

A second trend in curriculum change is toward practical, hands-on training. Numerous schools are developing multimedia labs, online magazines, and digital newsrooms-all of which expose students to technologies, practices, environments that mimic those they will encounter in their professional lives (Nicholson, 2001). Pryor (2003) emphasizes the importance of this kind of technical, nuts-and-bolts training, noting that the publishing of electronic content is inextricably linked to its creation.

As journalism educators rethink curriculum, a number of them are reaching out to other disciplines. According to Smith (1990), as professors have seen the need of acquiring new knowledge and techniques of new media themselves, administrators have responded by hiring new faculty from computer or information science departments. Pryor (2003) argues that this sort of interdisciplinary approach is critical to the future success of journalism education: "On campus, journalism educators will have to make room for new disciplines and build bridges to schools of engineering, design, cinema-TV, business, philosophy, linguistics, psychology, and elsewhere."

5. ICTs in schools provide an opportunity to teachers to transform their practices by providing them with improved educational content and more effective teaching and learning methods. ICTs improve the learning process through the provision of more interactive educational materials that increase learner motivation and facilitate the easy acquisition of basic skills. The use of various multimedia devices such as television, videos, and computer applications offers more challenging and engaging learning environment for students of all ages.4 A study conducted by the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) indicated that 80 percent of its participants felt more aware and empowered by their exposure to ICT in education, and 60 percent stated that the process of teaching as well as learning were directly and positively affected by the use of ICT.5 Twenty-first century teaching learning skills underscore the need to shift from the traditional teacher-centered pedagogy to more learner-centered methods. Active and collaborative learning environments facilitated by ICT contribute to the creation of a knowledge-based student population. Education leadership, management, and governance can also be improved through ICT by enhancing educational content development and supporting administrative processes in schools and other educational establishments.6

5. Advocacy is the active support of an idea or cause expressed through strategies and methods that influence the opinions and decisions of people and organisations.In the social and economic development context the aims of advocacy are to create or change policies, laws, regulations, distribution of resources or other decisions that affect people’s lives and to ensure that such decisions lead to implementation.[1]Such advocacy is generally directed at policy makers including politicians, government officials and public servants, but also private sector leaders whose decisions impact upon peoples lives, as well as those whose opinions and actions influence policy makers, such as journalists and the media, development agencies and large NGOs.By “pro-poor advocacy” we mean advocacy for political decisions and actions that respond to the interests of people who directly face poverty and disadvantage. For those pursuing the goal of equitable and pro-poor ICT access, advocacy as a means to bring about change can be appropriate in a range of circumstances, including:

(a) Where ICT policies could have the effect of reinforcing poverty and discrimination. For example, “e-government” projects that use the internet to improve access to public services may, for those without internet access, have the reverse effect, unless they are complemented by other measures to enable universal access to the internet.(b) When appropriate ICT policy change could be expected to improve poor people’s lives and livelihoods. For example, the adoption of broadcasting policies that enable community-based organisations to establish their own radio or television services.(c) As part of a wider programme of support for pro-poor ICT access. For example, the impact and effectiveness of investment in public ICT access centres may be improved by advocacy efforts to adopt and mainstream good practice such as community participation in management or use of free and open source software.

There is much that has been written on advocacy and how to gain influence. Some of the basic tenets of the art of persuasion, found in political science and communication studies, appear also in early Greek and Chinese philosophy.[2] It is widely recognised, for example, that change comes rarely from force of logical argument alone or from the presentation of irrefutable evidence in support of the changes required. The latter is most starkly demonstrated by the slow response to climate change warnings. Much depends on the character, approach and credibility of those seeking change and the receptiveness of those they are seeking to persuade. Advocacy is inherently political and an understanding of political dynamics is at the heart of effective advocacy.

Even the most clear-minded advocacy for pro-poor ICT policies can meet resistance for various reasons, including lack of political will, bureaucratic inertia, and counter arguments from well-resourced interest groups pursuing their own advocacy efforts. Effective advocacy therefore requires research to map out the policy terrain, the principal actors, the political relations and the interests at stake. In the ICT policy field this terrain typically will include government departments, communications regulators, telecommunications service providers, media organisations, sector associations and growing numbers of civil society interest groups. Careful planning and a strategic approach are therefore needed if results are to be achieved.

Policy change rarely happens overnight and is often linked to broader change in the political environment. Effective advocacy requires long-term as well as short-term thinking, an understanding of the points of resistance and the means to gain traction, the readiness to form alliances, and the flexibility to seize windows of opportunity.

This overview describes some of the more commonly used advocacy techniques, from critical engagement such as policy monitoring and policy dialogue, through organised campaigns for policy change, to pathfinder and demonstrator projects that can inform and influence future policy making. It highlights the importance for people facing disadvantage to be able to assert their own needs and interests. It explains step by step how to devise an effective advocacy strategy for ICT policy reform. It is accompanied by case examples and signposting to further tools and resources.

2.    Techniques for effective advocacy

Policy monitoring and public accountabilityAlmost all effective policy-related advocacy efforts commence with observation and monitoring of the implementation and effectiveness of policies already in place. These might include, for example, commitments to ICT infrastructure roll-out, universal access policies, support for community-based ICT access centres, public interest broadcasting policies, or regulatory mechanisms to ensure fair pricing of services.High profile ICT policy monitoring by civil society advocacy groups can, on its own, contribute to improved policy implementation and effectiveness by highlighting public policy targets and drawing public attention to under performance or to policy failure. Governments and public bodies, especially in democratic societies, are sensitive to critical reports, and more so when these are based on robust evidence and analysis, come from a credible source, and are widely published and disseminated.Policy monitoring by civil society groups may be in the form of one-off investigation into a particular area

of interest; it may consist of a baseline study, perhaps at the commencement of a new policy, and a follow-up study later to establish what results were achieved; or it may be a periodic monitoring report, such as an annual review.Policy monitoring and public accountability are made easier where government departments and other public bodies, including regulatory organisations, maintain and publish data and reports in a timely fashion and undertake research and consultation to facilitate decision making in the public interest. Where this is not the case, where the information is poor or unreliable, or where independent data is needed, civil society organisations and coalitions may organise their own research and data gathering, or they may rely on third party sources such as commercial and academic research.Right to information laws can help and, in countries where such laws are weak or absent, their adoption or improvement has itself been a key demand of civil society organisations, not only those working in the communication policy field. In some cases investigative journalism may be needed to root out and expose policy failings.Impact may often be enhanced by involving citizens and civil society organisations in the process of policy monitoring and review and by gathering demand-side data using techniques such as citizen surveys, social audits and participatory policy review. Such social accountability mechanisms[3]have gained increasing recognition as effective means of strengthening civic engagement in policy making and policy monitoring.

Policy dialogue – ICT and mainstream development policy

Policy monitoring alone may prompt corrections to policy failure or lead to improved policy implementation, but most civil society groups concerned with ICT policy also carry their own ideas about what policies are desirable. They are interested in gaining influence earlier in the policy-making process. At its most straightforward this involves engagement in policy dialogue with bureaucrats and politicians.The Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET),[4] for example, has a core programme activity on “gender and ICT policy advocacy” with a focus on equitable access to ICTs and engendering ICT policy making. Their priorities include not only a focus on existing ICT policies such as the Rural Communications Development Fund (a levy applied to telecom providers to support areas that are underserved by markets) but also engaging in policy development processes such as the review of the National ICT Policy. WOUGNET participates actively in government-organised stakeholder consultations on ICT policy, it contributes its own studies and reports, and it responds to draft policy proposals.Civil society organisations like WOUGNET, whose field of interest is in the development of the use of ICTs, tend to focus their policy dialogue efforts on areas of policy making that are explicitly and primarily concerned with ICT policy: universal access arrangements, national e-strategies, etc. This may seem an obvious strategy but, on its own, it can also have the drawback of limiting policy dialogue to a relatively narrow range of actors – especially those who already share a similar outlook or others perhaps more interested in ICT growth than in pro-poor development.Strategic engagement in policy dialogue on pro-poor ICT access can also be gained by taking, as a primary focus, areas of mainstream development policy – education, health, rural livelihoods, and so on – and contributing to more strategically framed development policy making such as the preparation of National Development Strategies.[5] This perspective can assist in gaining traction for a pro-poor ICT access agenda across a broader political and policy-making spectrum. It can also assist better understanding of the real world policy choices that politicians and their constituents face – cleaner water or faster connectivity, more clinics or more ICT access centres – and better articulation of the role of ICTs in poverty reduction.For effective pro-poor ICT policy dialogue, engagement on both fronts may be the most productive strategy: ensuring that ICT policy making is informed by a pro-poor perspective and strengthening that position by building support across government, especially those most engaged with poverty reduction and pro-poor development.

Campaigns for policy change

In India, in 1996, the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI)[6] was founded by social activists, journalists, lawyers, professionals, retired civil servants and academics. Its goal was to campaign for a national law facilitating the right to information. Its first step was to produce, with the Press

Council of India, a draft right to information law. After years of public debate and the passage in several Indian states of right to information laws, the government of India passed the Freedom of Information Act 2002. The Act was weakly drafted, subject to widespread criticism and never brought into force.[7] Continued campaigning and a change of government led eventually to adoption of the Right to Information Act 2005.Civil society campaigns for policy change rarely achieve rapid results. They require patience, tenacity, courage and conviction. There is no blueprint for success, but there are some common denominators to almost all successful advocacy campaigns.[8] It is essential, for instance, to maintain clarity in communications: goals should be clear and achievable; messages should be compelling for those to whom they are intended; calls to action should be specific and concise. Good planning and organisation must combine with the ability to mobilise broad coalitions of public and political support towards a common goal.Policy campaigning is goal-oriented advocacy in which civil society groups and coalitions aim to set the policy agenda rather than simply to monitor or respond to government policy making. It involves taking action and initiative. It can be exciting and empowering for those involved, but it can also be hard work, frustrating, and ultimately unsuccessful. Before adopting a campaigning orientation it is worth asking whether the goals could be better achieved by dialogue or quiet negotiation.Campaigns for policy change draw on a wide range of tools and tactics, including public demonstrations, protests, letter writing, lobbying, use of media and the internet, and legal action. Campaigning is often confrontational in nature. After all, a campaign would not be needed if the government or private company was receptive to the policies being advocated. Conversely, it is often the dynamic of conflict that gives a campaign momentum, spurring media attention and recruiting public support.Campaigns are often built in response to particular opportunities or threats arising in the context of the process of policy change. For example, the transition from analogue to digital distribution systems for television is moving ahead rapidly worldwide, with only limited time for civil society organisations to gain guarantees of access to the new channels. In Uruguay, a law first drafted in 2005 by a coalition including community broadcasting activists, journalists and labour unions was adopted in 2007, guaranteeing an equitable distribution of frequencies between private, public and civil society organisations. The law has ensured that civil society groups have a legal entitlement to use part of the digital television spectrum.In Ecuador, the process of adopting a new constitution that began in 2007 under the presidency of Rafael Correa was seen as an opportunity by civil society groups engaged in media and ICT advocacy to challenge the existing political economy of the communications environment and to propose a new communication rights framework. The new constitution adopted in 2008 included the explicit entitlement of all persons to universal access to information and communication technologies, together with a right to the creation of social media, including equal access to radio frequencies.[9]Some civil society advocacy organisations may have several campaigns running at the same time, each with distinct goals requiring different alliances and strategies. In other cases a single-issue organisation, or a coalition of like minded groups, may form to campaign towards a single policy goal, as in the example of India’s campaign for a right to information law. International campaigning organisations, such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace, have tested their campaigning methods over many years. Some of the lessons learned are also relevant to ICT policy advocacy.[10]

Building the advocacy capacity of stakeholder groups

As noted in the introduction to this toolkit, poor people face systemic barriers in their access to information and in their means to exercise their right to freedom of expression. The lack of “voice” of disadvantaged groups is a challenge at the core of pro-poor advocacy on ICT access.[11] It is one of the reasons why advocacy for equitable access to ICTs is important. At the same time, it compromises the ability of disadvantaged people themselves to advocate for their own communication needs.This is a critical issue that demands the attention of any organisation engaged in pro-poor ICT advocacy. We stated earlier that “pro-poor advocacy” means advocacy for political decisions and actions that respond to the interests of people who directly face poverty and disadvantage. They are the primary stakeholders. Their lack of voice can be overcome in two distinct ways. As Drèze and Sen describe it: “One is assertion (or, more precisely, self-assertion) of the underprivileged through political organisation. The other is solidarity with the underprivileged on the part of other members of the society, whose interests and commitments are broadly linked, and who are often better placed to advance the cause of

the disadvantaged by virtue of their own privileges (e.g., formal education, access to the media, economic resources, political connections).”[12] There are a great number of “pro-poor advocacy” organisations that are not, by any means, populated by people with first-hand experience of poverty. Rather they are run by well-educated middle-class professionals for whom pro-poor advocacy is a vocation. This is as much a reality in the ICT policy field as in other development sectors. That such people have chosen to work for and in solidarity with those who face the daily struggle of poverty and deprivation is, of course, to be welcomed – social solidarity is very often an important component of advocacy and political action – but, on its own, it is also “a somewhat undependable basis of authentic representation of the interests of the underprivileged.”[13] Solidarity has multiple motivations, is not always accompanied by shared perspectives, and may be more effective at attracting support when it conforms with dominant ideologies.Thus building the advocacy capacity of self-help groups of the disadvantaged and of community-based and working-class organisations is at least as important as doing advocacy for the poor. Effective pro-poor advocacy on access to ICTs must include strategies likely to lead to an increase in the voice and influence of the underprivileged sections of society in ICT and other policy making. This may include, for example, strengthening the communications capacity of disadvantaged people’s organisations and support for development of grassroots communication initiatives like community radio. Such strategies can be effective in enabling people who are disadvantaged and marginalised to speak out directly on the issues that affect their lives and livelihoods.The Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC),[14] for example, is a national network that combines a programme of advocacy in ICT policy areas such as right to information, community broadcasting and e-governance, with practical support for rural knowledge centres and community radio stations.Deccan Development Society (DDS)[15] is a grassroots organisation working with women's sanghams (self-help groups) in about 75 villages in the Medak District of Andhra Pradesh, India. The 5,000 women members of the Society are mostly Dalit, the lowest group in the Indian social hierarchy. As part of a broader strategy in pursuit of “autonomous communities”, the women of DDS established the DDS Community Media Trust, including a video production unit and Sangham Radio, the first rural community radio in India and the first women’s radio in South Asia.[16]The right-to-information movement in India drew, among other inspirations, on empowerment-based approaches to public accountability pioneered by Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) in Rajasthan, including public hearings where accounts, including public expenditure records, were read aloud at independently organised village meetings and local people were invited to give testimony.[17]

Pathfinder and demonstrator projects

New ideas in policy are not always easy to communicate to those who influence or make decisions, particularly where they involve new or unfamiliar uses of ICTs. It may not be until an idea has been demonstrated in action that it is fully understood.“Pathfinder” or “demonstrator” projects can therefore be an effective alternative strategy for ICT policy advocacy. If success can be demonstrated in practice, it can have the dual impact of mobilising further demand and interest and of motivating policy makers to take decisions that encourage replication and scaling-up. Such initiatives can be resource intensive. They may require certain policy decisions before they can proceed, but policy makers may also be more receptive to allowing a limited experiment to test and demonstrate an idea than to agreeing a major policy change.RITS (Rede de Informacão para o Terceiro Setor)[18] was founded in Brazil in 1997 to strengthen civil society organisations’ communications capacity. The organisation has built an impressive network for monitoring ICT policy and campaigning on equitable access. A demonstrator project organised by RITS in partnership with Sampa.org led to the establishment of 128 community-based telecentres in São Paulo, with an estimated half a million users per month. The model offers free public access and training support, is based on free and open source software, and promotes community involvement in management and development of the centres as a space for community organisation. With support from Petrobras, it has been replicated in 50 locations across Brazil. The Brazilian government is now considering investment in 10,000 new telecentres drawing substantially on the experience of the RITS demonstration.The Nigeria Community Radio Coalition, launched in 2003, has mobilised broad support for its campaign

goal of seeing community radio services established in Nigeria. As part of its strategy for opening the door to community radio development, it has proposed a pilot scheme in at least six locations to be distributed across the country’s geopolitical zones. The proposal for a pilot scheme has been supported by the National Broadcasting Commission and by the National Fadama Development Programme, which has committed funding for preparation and infrastructure.

3.    Advocacy planning and implementation

In this part we look at the practical steps involved in ICT advocacy planning and implementation. The stages outlined draw on principles of strategic planning and project management combined with political analysis and communications.[19] For each of the stages we set out some key considerations to be addressed. At several points we pose questions rather than solutions. There is no single template for pro-poor ICT advocacy. The questions are intended to assist the process of planning and design.

A.    Preliminary steps

(i)Identifying the problems and the policy issuesWhat is the pro-poor ICT access issue to be addressed? Why is it important and to whom? This may have been highlighted through research, expressed as a demand by grassroots organisations, or it may have a normative basis, for example, it has been identified by comparison with good practice elsewhere. Does this problem have a policy dimension? What current policies reinforce the problem? What changes in policies could lead to improvement? Who is responsible for those policies?

(ii)Defining the advocacy goalIt can be helpful, at the preliminary stage, to define the goal of the proposed advocacy initiative. What positive change can be expected to result if the initiative is successful? Is the initiative intended to improve access to information, to promote dialogue, or to strengthen voice and influence? Or will it contribute to all of these things? Or to broader development goals? Who will be the primary beneficiaries of the initiative?

(iii)Consulting and building relationshipsBuilding relationships is intrinsic to any successful advocacy effort and should also commence at an early stage. Before engaging in detailed policy analysis and planning it can be important to consult with other organisations, especially those which share similar goals and interests. Has any similar initiative been tried before? If so, what were the results? Is anything similar being considered or planned? Are there opportunities to build a partnership-based approach from the outset?

(iv)Establishing credibility as an advocateThe credibility of the organisation, partnership or coalition that is advocating change is likely to be a key factor in its success. Does it have a mandate to speak on behalf of those who are expected to benefit? Does it have specialist expertise? Does it have influence with decision makers? What could be done to strengthen the credibility of the initiative – for example, further research and consultation, better alliances?

B.    Analysing the policy environment

(i)Identifying relevant policies, laws and regulationsHaving decided, in principle, to consider advocacy as a strategy to achieve pro-poor ICT access and having undertaken some preliminary work to define the advocacy goals, the next stage involves closer analysis of the policy environment, starting with an audit of the relevant policies and political institutions. What policies are already in place (for example, national e-strategies, e-government, media development, digital divide initiatives)? How are these reflected, or not, in current laws and regulations? It is important also to be aware of relevant international treaty obligations, laws and standards.

(ii)Mapping relations of power and decision makingWhere are policy decisions taken and who has influence over them? For example, is the focus on

government policy and, if so, which ministries and departments are responsible? What other ministries have an interest in the impact of the current or proposed policies, for example, rural development, education? Are there other public bodies with relevant influence or responsibility, such as a communications regulator or a national media council? What about the legislature or parliament – are there interest groups in the policy area? Can support be usefully mobilised across different political parties? Who else has influence over the key political decision makers?

(iii)Considering the options for policy changeWould a change in policy alone be sufficient to achieve the advocacy goal? Or might the proposed policy change also require legal and/or regulatory change? What about the economic impact – are there taxation or public spending implications that should be taken into account? Are there alternative approaches to be considered? Could the goals be achieved incrementally or do they require a fundamental change in policy? What policy options are most likely to attract support, or generate opposition?

C.    Developing the strategy

(i)Focusing on the goal and objectivesIn developing the strategy, and in the light of more systematic analysis of the policy environment, it is advisable to return to the advocacy goal and to set specific and realistic objectives that can be achieved within a reasonable, defined timeframe. It should be possible at the end of such a period to say whether or not they were achieved. If the goal is ambitious it may be necessary to set more limited and incremental objectives – for example, raised awareness, commitments of support, pilot projects – that can contribute to achieving the goal over a longer timeframe.

(ii)Identifying the target audiencesIt is useful to distinguish between primary and secondary audiences. The primary target audiences are the institutions, and the individuals within them, who have authority to make the policy decisions that are sought. These are generally determined by the policy goal and objectives. The secondary audiences are those who are best placed to influence the decision makers. These may include politicians, public servants, the media, development agencies, influential NGOs and so on.

(iii)Identifying allies and opponentsIt is important to identify both the potential allies and the likely opponents. What other organisations share similar goals and concerns? Would they support the initiative, be open to partnership or to joining a broader coalition? Are there already coalitions in place? What risks might there be in alliance or coalition building? What groups or organisations might feel threatened by the proposals? Could this coalesce into organised opposition? What can be done to reduce the risk of opposition?

(iv)Selecting the advocacy approachWhat advocacy strategies are most likely to influence the target audiences? Will it be effective to work through dialogue and negotiation with policy makers? What is the likely impact of public pressure – can it be expected to lead to a positive response or to resistance? What sort of treatment can be expected from the media: supportive, hostile, or indifferent? Are there incremental strategies that might be more likely to achieve results? Through what mechanisms might competing interests be brokered?

(v)Identifying the key messagesIn relation to the goal and objectives, what messages are likely to be persuasive with the primary audience? What about the secondary audience – are different messages needed for different audiences? If the approach taken is public or based on a broad coalition, what key messages are likely to mobilise the broadest support, gain traction in the media, or have a viral effect, with the audience itself acting as a multiplier?

D.    Framing the plan

(i)Preparing a plan of actionEffective advocacy requires good organisational planning. Having defined the goal, objectives and strategic approach, it is important to be systematic in mapping out the actions to be taken to achieve results, including timelines and milestones. This is best brought together in a logical framework including measurable progress indicators.

(ii)Budgeting and identifying resourcesCost considerations are likely to influence the approach to be taken. Policy monitoring and dialogue, for example, may be achieved with just limited staff or volunteer time and the means to publicise the results. A media-oriented advocacy campaign might require substantial publicity costs from the outset: preparing news releases and placing stories, commissioning photographs or a video, designing posters and other campaign materials. A capacity-building project or a demonstrator project might require significant investment in equipment and training. Organisations working in ICT policy advocacy will frequently have the skills and know-how to harness new ICTs in their advocacy work – for example, using email, text messaging and Web 2.0 technologies to assist with data gathering, coalition building and mobilisation. Funds and other resources will need to be sufficient to sustain the project for its duration.

(iii)Risk assessmentWhat are the main risks to successful project implementation? Risk analysis involves assessing the impact of each particular risk and the likelihood of it happening. It is useful to rate both impact and likelihood (e.g., low, medium, high). How can the high and medium risks be managed to reduce their impact and/or likelihood? Particular attention needs to be paid to any risk of harm to individuals. In many countries, media workers, internet activists and freedom of expression defenders have faced threats, harassment and violence in the course of their work. Might the planned advocacy provoke state repression? Are there non-state actors that pose physical dangers?

E.    Implementation

(i)Getting the message acrossGood communications is at the core of effective advocacy. This requires attention to the message, the audience and the means of delivery. The message needs to be clear: it should explain what is being proposed, why it is needed, and what difference it would make. It also needs to be compelling: it should be crafted to the interests and knowledge of the audience. The means of delivery must ensure it is received and heard – whether, for example, a written proposal, face-to-face presentation or public demonstration. It is rare that a single advocacy message will be received and acted upon. The message needs to reinforced, by repetition and through the influence of secondary audiences.

(ii)Using the mediaThe media – radio, television, press and online media – have a particular role to play in public advocacy initiatives, especially campaign-based approaches. Not all advocacy work uses the media, and a media-based approach carries risks as well as opportunities. The media can bring a mass audience, potentially increasing profile and credibility, but they can also bring bad publicity and may contribute to mobilising opposition as well as support. Using the media requires planning and skills, including building contacts, knowing the media audience, writing press releases, placing stories, being interviewed, providing visual imagery and organising newsworthy events.

(iii)Building partnerships and coalitionsMost advocacy initiatives involve some degree of mobilising public support behind the proposal. What partnerships and alliances are most likely to assist in mobilising broad-based support? What processes can best achieve trust, collective ownership, and effective collaboration? Should the initiative operate as an open coalition and, if so, what mechanisms are needed to enable participation and to assure accountability? Is support needed to build the advocacy capacity of partner organisations? Media and the internet can also be used to recruit and mobilise broad-based public support.

(iv)Employing tactics and negotiationAdvocacy is rarely a one-way communications process. Some advocacy work is more reactive than

proactive towards policy makers, or is explicitly dialogical. In any case, policy and decision makers may well respond to advocacy proposals with their own questions or alternative proposals. Other interested parties may launch strategies to counter the proposals being made. It may become necessary to modify the proposals to achieve results. What alternatives might be considered? What counter proposals can be expected? What is non-negotiable and what could be up for discussion?

(v)Monitoring and evaluationThroughout the implementation phase it is important to monitor the process, the results and the policy context. Mechanisms are needed to track activities such as meetings and communications and to monitor results such as media coverage and expressions of public support. Data needs to be maintained on the target audiences: contact details, positions they have taken, offers of assistance and so on. The process and results should be evaluated not only at the end of the planned timeframe but on a regular basis so that adjustments, if needed, can be made to the strategy and plan of action. Advocacy invariably takes place in a dynamic environment, especially when the focus is on ICTs. The policy terrain can change for social, political or economic reasons that are independent of the advocacy initiative underway. The ability to react quickly and flexibly, to spot windows of opportunity, and to anticipate new challenges requires close monitoring of the policy context and of broader trends.

https://www.apc.org/en/node/9456

6. SOME PURPOSES OF COMMUNICATION FOR EDUCATION 7. Communication is about people creating, learning and exchanging meaning. In the education sector, one of the goals of communication is to assist each stakeholder group to make sense of its roles and responsibilities while seeking to understand and to accept those of others. Successful partnerships emerge when most of the parties see themselves and the others as moving in the same direction, working for similar interests, sharing the same meanings about educational issues, reforms, programs etc. Mutual trust is a basic requirement and outcome for these relationships. Communication can help build trust. Awareness of mutual interest, commonalities and building of trust are not ‘givens’; they do not just happen, naturally or spontaneously. They can be the result of planned communication. 8. Communication can serve many functions in partnerships for education, among them:Information: providing factual statements and explanations about the common enterprise and how the various stakeholders relate to it. Examples include: (i) how a teacher redeployment program will work, who will be affected, when and where it will be applied; (ii) school enrolments by sex and region; (iii) the performance of schools on national examinations; (iv) pupil unit cost by region; (v) student-teacher ratios by region. Such information levels the playing field when it comes to information used in their dialogue

Dialogue and confidence-building: ensuring that all the various points of view are expressed, providing clarifications and addressing any hesitations about the issues concerned. For example, what do mothers feel about girls’ going to school all day? Will teachers lose seniority if moved to other locations? Will government’s plan of returning management of primary schools to religious organizations not mean blocking certain groups from attendance? A communication strategy will provide for group meetings, person-to-person discussions, workshops, newsletters, etc. to tackle the various aspects of these kinds of situation, and ensure that major misunderstandings are removed, so that partners can be comfortable with their present and future roles.

Consensus: Once stakeholders are informed and have a chance to express their views, and their worries are addressed adequately, it may be possible to get agreement on lines of action, on schedules, on division of responsibility etc. For example, if targets have been set for girls’ education in a community, who will ensure that girls actually show up in school? If special resources are required for this, how will they be made available? What is the role of parents and families, of religious groups, of education managers in meeting targets? Will they agree to undertake their roles? If sanctions for non-performance are to be invoked, are they understood and accepted by all? A communication strategy will seek ways of

effectively managing these issues. It will keep track through monitoring feedback, of the evolution of understandings and the achievement of commonly-decided objectives.

Advocacy: Influential individuals and institutions may be unwilling to change habits of thinking and reacting, and may be inclined to block new ideas, if they consider them threatening or undesirable. Communication can be a means of engaging centers of power and influence to encourage them to ‘move’ with the times; and to lend their influence to progressive directions. For example, will village traditional rulers and family elders allow girls to continue in school rather than be married off at puberty? How can they be reassured, and thus help to reassure other influentials, that continued schooling will not breed ‘irresponsible’ wives and mothers? These are advocacy issues, and some of them can be controversial. There are special communication approaches for advocacy; for enhancing the support of influential individuals and groups for proposed changes, which may be in legislation, policies, regulations, programs, cultural values and behavior.

Social mobilization: How can the large numbers of people at the ‘grassroots’ and periphery be brought into supporting education reforms and programs? For example, how can the EFA ‘movement’ become acceptable and gain majority support in communities across nations, rather than remain only commitments that Ministers of Education made at international conferences, of no relevance to their people? Communication campaigns and structured programs can be created for involving people at different levels of society in decisions about proposed education programs1

CHANNELS AND MODES OF COMMUNICATION 9. From the uses of communication sketched above, it can be seen that various individuals or groups can initiate communication, and can also be the recipients in a communication situation. Ministries of education often feel that it is their responsibility and role to initiate ideas and programs about education programs for which they would need the collaboration of the other stakeholders. Similarly parents or teachers or religious groups may react to curriculum content (e.g. sexuality education modules) and seek to have the Ministry make changes in line with their home and community values2

Participatory communication, which has proved to be effective in building confidence and ownership, involves frequent interchange among people and groups in communication situations. In other words, it is a mode of communicating in which all the parties concerned should feel able to initiate discussion and to respond freely when addressed, rather than be just passive receivers of other peoples’ monologues and commands.

According to Alfonso Dagron: “The main elements that characterize participatory communication are related to its capacity to involve the human subjects of social change in the process of communicating.”3 Dagron goes on to enumerate nine “ issues that distinguish participatory communication from other development communication strategies.” Among these are: horizontal vs. vertical, process vs. campaign, long-term vs. short-term, collective vs. individual, with vs. for, specific vs. massive, people’s needs vs. donors’ musts, ownership vs. access, consciousness vs. persuasion. These bi-polar opposite terms each describe various ways of communicating, the first in each pair being more favourable to participatory communication

Some communication efforts use mass media: press releases, news –bulletins, programs, announcements on radio and television, etc. Some involve group and interpersonal communication through meetings, parent-pupil-teacher conferences, workshops, seminars, rallies, demonstrations, etc. Other communication modalities use institutional channels such as the political/administrative, the school/educational system, development networks, NGOs. Also used increasingly are traditional or socio-cultural channels of communication, involving local opinion leaders, informal groups, indigenous and popular media, such as theatre and festivals, and places and events where people gather regularly,

markets, worksites, marriages, naming ceremonies, wake-keepings etc. Other channels are those used in the commercial system for marketing goods and services, for example, bookstores, neighbourhood stores, kiosks

The most recent opportunities for mass communication are provided by what have been called the ‘new information and communication technologies’, increasingly in use through e-mail, websites, electronic fora, distance learning and other computer-based applications

Mass media tend to reach large, undifferentiated audiences, and are useful for information that is of general relevance. In African countries, radio is the mass medium of choice. It is the most widespread, is accessible to most social classes, including the poor and illiterate, as it uses national and local languages and dialects. In many urban areas local and community radios (especially on fm) are creating a new dynamic, focused channel, more targeted to the realities of specific localities. In some communities, these stations have become channels of broad-based dialogue, cutting across social groups and classes, united in their determination to expose and find solutions for local problems and to hold public officials and institutions accountable.5 More and more these can be programmed through the internet and the wide, wide web.

Television has been used more in urban areas for reaching policy-makers and the urban and peri-urban elite. It also reaches people in lower socio-economic groups. Video clubs and other viewing opportunities are growing in influence in many urban areas; and their use has been experimented in rural areas for social change programs

Depending on what is to be communicated, mass media content may be factual (as in news and documentaries) or oriented towards didactic entertainment, to enable people learn and change, while having a good time. Examples such as ‘Soul City’ show how this can be done in radio and television7

http://www.adeanet.org/portalv2/adea/biennial/papers/en_arusha_opubor.pdf