Which Future Role for Communication in Danish Development Aid?

This paper was written in response to the "Partnership 2000" report published by the Danish government's aid department, Danida.

"The Danish government aid department, Danida, approached the new Millennium launching a consultative process of revising its overall strategy for future development cooperation. But when the process was over and the final strategy document called “Partnership 2000” was published in October 2000, it sparked off a question, which really puzzled me and became the starting point for this study:

How was it possible that a document outlining the strategic directions for Danish development assistance in the new Millennium did not contain asingle reference to communication? The strategy emphasised poverty alleviation, democratisation, empowerment and participation. Yet it made nomention of the necessary ingredient to make all this happen - communication."

In response to the absence of communication strategies in "Partnership 2000", Larsen addresses the following question in this paper: "How is communication for development perceived by policy-makers in Danida, and what are the prospects for this concept in future Danish development co-operation?" Larsen uses a "methodology of qualitative inquiry in the form of gathering written data as far as possible, of studying and discussing various theories, of focus group interviews, bilateral interviews and of participating observation at an international meeting."

In this paper, Larsen refers to a Danida-supported community radio station programme in Ghana, Radio Ada, as an example of a programme using releveant communication theories and approaches. Radio Ada is a communication rights programme in West Africa supported on behalf of the Danish NGO Ibis. They were initially supported by Danida both via the embassy in Accra and via the Danida-supported IPDC programme of UNESCO.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations

1. Introduction
2. Background
   • 2.1. Definitions
   • 2.2. A historical overview of development paradigms
   • 2.3. A historical perspective on communication theories
3. Formulation of purpose and chosen perspective
4. A discussion on methods
   • 4.1. Qualitative interviews
   • 4.2. Analysing the interview material
   • 4.3. Discussion of the validity of the applied method
5. Findings and observations
   • 5.1. Danida's achievements so far
   • 5.1.1. Development of communication
   • 5.1.2. Communication for development
   • 5.1.3. Lessons learnt
   • 5.2. The absence of communication in Partnership 2000
   • 5.3. Barriers for integrating communication
   • 5.4. Development of indicators
   • 5.5. Communication in Sector Programme Support
   • 5.6. Different positions in the Danish resource base
   • Case: "Sometimes slow news are better..."
6. Analysis and discussion
   • 6.1. Theoretical starting point
   • 6.2. The limitations of Danida's development paradigm
   • 6.3. Implications for the role of communication
   • 6.4. A critical discussion
   • 6.5. Communication as an invisible element
   • 6.4. Future options?
7. Conclusion
8. Epilogue

References

Click here to download this paper in PDF format [412 KB].
Click here to read the Radio Ada case study online.