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Paul Mitchell, Chief of Regional Operations, External Affairs Department, World Bank
On 26 April 2000, the Carnegie Economic Reform Network convened the second lecture in its series on Economic Reform: Anchoring Public Support. Paul Mitchell, Chief of Regional Operation in the External Affairs Department of the World Bank spoke about the Bank's new Development Communications Unit. Including communications in a development strategy is important, he said, because the development agenda is no longer strictly economic in nature. It is socially and politically sensitive, and involves building awareness and consensus across a broader range of stakeholders. In addition, with the growth of civil society and the expansion of democracy, development is becoming a more democratic, open and participatory process. Development communications helps to build public understanding and support, and contributes to a more holistic approach that involves financial, social, political, institutional, cultural and environmental aspects to development.
The development process is about the transformation of societies. It combines sound technical policy with delivery and implementation, including the issue of ownership, and the existing political economy and social conditions. Until recently, development formulae focused on sound institutions, rational policy, technical knowledge and available resources. Now, however, the World Bank sees a continuous communications strategy as vital for achieving development.
Development communications helps to overcome obstacles to reform through building consensus and local capacity to communicate about development programs, as well as encouraging local ownership of the process. Communications strategies need, also, to be two way; not only to disseminate information but also to listen and bring people into reform. In many cases, governments understand that they need to develop a communications strategy but they often do not know how. Many attempts to reform developing economies have been impeded by, among other things, lack of consensus, transparency, ownership and certainty rather than faulty technical programs.
A good communications strategy begins with market research to understand the political, social, cultural and economic aspects behind a given situation, as well as to identify the stakeholders, their interests and their importance in the process. Next, the government must agree on the objectives of the strategy and define a strategic, targeted message. Design of the process and tactics follows, and finally the strategy is implemented and followed with constant evaluation and refinement. In this process, there are five essential management decisions. First regards audience: Who needs to be reached? Second regards behavior: What change in behavior is required. Third regards message: What message will be appropriate? Fourth regards channels: Which channels of communications will be most effective in reaching the audience? The final management decision regards evaluation: How will the success or failure of the communications strategy be measured? There is no cookie cutter approach to development communications. These key decisions are party of a methodology that will lead to different results for each country and each objective.
Mr. Mitchell used the example of Niger to point out the importance of market research, called by his unit an audit. Niger is one of the worlds poorest countries but is trying to change with an ambitious set of economic and social reforms. The audit revealed that, because of a very low rate of literacy, traditional vehicles for communication are very important. The existing government communications was poorly conceived and the message lacked unity because there was no coordination between different parts of the government. The public based its opinion on those groups with the loudest voice and the clearest message. This led, for example, to the opposition of reform by rural women, who were a key constituent in the reform. They were against the reforms because they falsely believed that they would lose benefits. During the privatization program, the general public was not aware that the benefits, such as lower prices, were actually linked to the privatization, nor did they understand how privatization was to occur and that they could buy ownership shares. Instead, they followed the leader of the workers unions and opposed privatization out of concerns for employment. In Niger, there is widespread public opposition to reforms, but this is largely because of the failure on the part of the government to communicate effectively the benefits and costs.
The Development Communications Unit (DevComm) at the World Bank is involved in many projects throughout Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America. Often, Mr. Mitchell said, the unit will start on one reform project and the governments come back asking for DevComm involvement in other projects. DevComm tries to build up a number of aspects about a country that will help not only the specific reform, but the health of democracy and public engagement. This includes building a free, independent and professional media, encouraging institutional capacity to deliver strategic communications, building up mechanisms and technology to deliver information and allow public access, reforming the state controlled media and reforming the regulatory system to make it more transparent and accountable. This will help to create a culture of listening.
In closing, Mr. Mitchell said that this idea has been around for a long time. In 1792, French revolutionary Marie Roland said "The feeble tremble before popular opinion, the foolish deny it, the wise judge it, the skillful direct it."