Communication for Social Change Practitioner Network

The CFSC Practitioner Network was developed largely in response to an identified need to strengthen capacity to undertake communication programmes, and also as an answer to development policies that often do not recognise the importance of communication. The Practitioner Network is part of an initiative of the CFSC Consortium to engage in the following four interventions, which aim to move communication for social change to the centre of development thinking and practice:

• consistent advocacy to overcome hurdles to the understanding of CFSC, requiring extensive and intensive work and discussions with a range of development agencies;
• demonstrating a stronger evidence base for the impact of communication for social change;
• thinking and theoretical credibility - help develop greater credibility and evidence of the strength of the theoretical foundations on which the communication field is built; and
• capacity to transform theory and principles into effective practice.

Though the Communication for Social Change Consortium is involved in building each of these areas, "communication for social change will continue to struggle to become a mainstream component of development programming unless development agencies become more convinced that the principles, thinking and community of practice can be translated into a series of practical, implementable set of strategies."

The Communication for Social Change Practitioner Network is being developed to address this need for development organisations to have a better understanding of CFSC. The network of practitioners working internationally will be able to advise development organisations on the development of effective, practical communication for social change strategies, while remaining faithful to the principles and processes that underpin the field. The first meeting of the Communication for Social Change Practitioner Network took place at the College of Development Communication at the University of Los Baños in the Philippines in September 2005. The network is designed to be a semi-formal grouping of individuals committed to and expert in communication for social change who can offer advice and support to organisations seeking to transform principle and theory into practice.

The Practitioner Network agreed to:

• develop a strategy to provide mutual training and technical support to those in the network in order to attain a common level of CFSC proficiency;
• identify and develop training and technical needs and materials for development agencies interested in using communication for social change principles;
• make the expertise and knowledge of this network available to international agencies planning to develop communication for social change strategies;
• explore an accreditation standard for communication for social change practitioners.

Accreditation was considered to be extremely important, as it contributes to developing the seriousness and credibility of CFSC practice and distinguishes communication for social change skill sets from those of other communication approaches (social marketing, strategic communication etc.). Accreditation was also considered to create a stronger level of commitment to the participatory and process focused principles underpinning communication for social change practice and provide people working in this field with a qualification/standard that agencies and partners can trust and value.

In order to facilitate communication between Network Members, a CFSC Practitioner Network Intranet has been created on the CFSC Consortium website.

The Practitioner Network was created because, "the arguments for investing in communication strategies that provide a voice to people living in poverty rather than seek to tell them what to think or do; that empower people rather than simply inform them; that take advantage of all that is best in the rapid, dynamic and contradictory elements of the information revolutions currently evolving in most developing countries, and understand and ameliorate all that is worse - these arguments have never been stronger, and their relevance to current development challenges have never been greater. Despite this, understanding and support for this field within the development community remains sparse, fragmented, inconsistent and fragile. Arguments still need to be won. A combination of advocacy, evidence gathering, investment in the theoretical underpinnings of the field, and the provision of the capacity to implement and translate theory into practical action are required. Much remains to be done in each of these spheres. "