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Some thoughts on the process and results
There are several points which are thought-provoking and worth sharing for discussion:
- This is a first scan and not a definitive inventory. We agreed with the Foundation to limit the results per country to a specific number of realistic deliverables given the reduced time frame.
- The Communication Initiative and La Iniciativa´s technical and content platforms were indispensable for the present research results and presentation formats.
- This exercise needs to be approached as an on-going, dynamic process, where the use of the new technologies and its interactive potential are basic tools. We can certainly provide and develop them . The Communication Initiative and La Iniciativa have positive experience using on-line research for its partners.
- The dialogue and sharing of information triggered by the email communication shows that people and organizations are out there wanting to have their work known to colleagues and peers and,of course , to potential funding organizations like the Kellogg Foundation. This was a very positive outcome which needs to be capitalized on.
- Nevertheless, the email communication should have been accompanied by a formulary adapted to the specific formats of the site , as well as a technical strategy to process the information. We unfortunately did not have the time or the resources to do so, affecting our capacity to include all the new data for this deadline.
- Language and cultural barriers: this was a major lesson, which we foresaw given our experience in the global and Spanish sites. Lets look at the case of Brazil: after a general mail out, personalized emails were sent to more than 80 key contacts in Brazil, and despite the fact that in our network Brazil has one of the largest number of entries ( 1200 aprox), the response has been comparatively slow. Why? Several possibilites: a) Portuguese should have been used for all the communication processes; b) a leading local expert should have been involved to research via other platforms ( interpersonal , telephone, etc); c) Brazil has a strong regional diversity, and the Nordeste needs to be approached from different angles in order to capture its real potential in communication, where all sorts of strategies are used very creatively and effectively, (many using arts and interpersonal approaches, particularly in youth related initiatives) and many local initiatives do not publish their activities on line; d) access to email and internet in these areas is clearly more difficult than in the Sao Paulo-Rio axis or in the south.
- We had identified these obstacles since we designed La Iniciativa in 2000 and one of the main challenges for 2003 is to develop the Portuguese language version, in order to capture the rich experience of Brazil in communication and development. This is essential , as Spanish speaking Latin America and the Caribbean tend to ignore what happens in the subcontinent.
- Haiti: language and in general its lack of infrastructure and poor communication with regional networks is a major drawback for achieving quality results . We feel that Haiti deserves a specific consultant on the ground in order to capture this country´s urgent needs in accessing communication experts and communicating their needs. The political fragility and complex security issues involving community leaders show us that Haiti should be approached strategically.
- Central America: with the exception of Nicaragua, where La Iniciativa has a high quality network, feedback was slow from countries like El Salvador and Honduras. We feel this is another case of the need for a field trip or a strategic alliance with the Kellogg Foundation;s local contacts in order to complete the scan.
- Impact Data and Evaluation: very little feedback from the network in this aspect, confirming what we have been working on with The Communication Initiative since its creation: regional and local organizations, unless they are funded by international donors, do not evaluate the impact of their communication interventions. And if they do, they very seldom share the results. Collecting information, disseminating the debate, triggering discussion about measuring up and indicators for evaluating communication interventions, is a central interest to The Communication Initiative and La Iniciativa (see our current issue of Drum Beat #163, Drum Beat #122, Drum Beat #77 and Son de Tambora #13)
- A regional panorama: based on this initial scan, it would be adventurous to come to any sort of conclusion on the communication resources and installed capacity found in the target countries, and even less to offer a comparative overview. The diversity of the region, the dimension of the countries, its economic and political differences as well as its technical infrastructure and communication trends are obvious elements, which we did not explore and may be determinant. O Haiti nao é aqui, as Caetano Veloso from Brazil sings.
- Variables that may have affected our preliminary research process itself are important to keep in mind, which could include: a) the quality of the network information; b) the category of the contacts (which ranges from decision makers to consultants to students, and it varies in each country); c) our working relationship with certain countries (Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua and Brazil are countries where we have worked directly and visited, thus the information available is more comprehensive in the sites and the network) ; d) the interest persons and organizations may have in accessing funds from the Foundation, or simply becoming part of an initial network it is building ; e) the amount of responses or the existence of information available on line should not be a definitive factor of quality or impact: for example, we know there are leading experiences in the state of Ceará, or in rural Honduras, which we need to bring out to the surface, and internet and email are not the vehicles.
- It is worth noting that there are countries where the invitation to send information triggered a lot of interest., even if there were not part of the initial country scans: Argentina, for example, produced a significant amount of responses.
- Qualification: our policy in The Communication Initiative and La Iniciativa is not to define best practice or rank consultants and experts. We have become a nodal point for summarizing and facilitating information on effective use of communication for social change and triggering peer to peer dialogue , sharing of information and debate on improving communication intervertions. . Nevertheless, we should highlight the high level of information sent as a result of the email invitations. This is most evident in the human resources inventory, where we requested CV´s: skilled people, with extensive academic and field experience, not in the loop of the usual consultants circle. Thus our suggestion of creating the consultants section in the site ( see proposal).
- The relevance of the exercise: there was constant feedback from the network on the need for an Inventory of this sort , the need to have it constantly updated and published. It is worth noting that the mini homepage we have created to upload the Kellogg research online is not public.
- Last but not least: we feel that in order to make this Inventory useful for the Kellogg Foundation and its grant recipients, it would be necessary to introduce the grantees to the need for an effective and integrated use of communication to support their development programming and actions. The challenge is to sustain their interest thru interactivity and the constant flow of simple information that caters to their specific needs. The Communication Initiative´s recent technical developments (see Drum Beat #162) would be very useful for a specific approach to the Kellogg Foundation´s network and respond to the recipient organizations´ strategic planning needs in communication.
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