Poverty Reduction with Strategic Communication: Moving from Awareness Raising to Sustained Citizen Participation

This document, published by Communication for Governance and Accountability Programme (CommGAP), updates a 2005 review of communication in Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) and explores how the use of strategic communications has expanded beyond the PRS and is now being integrated into national development planning and implementation. As stated in the document, many of these strategies are shifting their focus from a "dissemination and publicity strategy" to a "communication program" that emphasises information intervention beyond the traditional campaign, workshop or seminars. Specifically, the study looks at Communications in PRS processes in Ghana, Tanzania, Moldova and Nepal, and in Latin America and the Caribbean, providing an analytical framework and lessons on communication policy and practice. The publication is geared towards anyone interested or responsible for communication and participation processes in support of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) national development strategies.

As stated in the document, compared with the 2005 review, "the main difference is the institutionalisation of communication, moving beyond the one-time experience for the first set of PRSs to broader, deeper sustained communication in support of poverty reduction and national development strategies. A second major difference is expanding beyond communication and participation in PRS formulation to PRS implementation, monitoring, and evaluation." This means a type of "communication programme" that emphasises interventions beyond the traditional campaign, workshop or seminars. Enhanced communication evolves along with greater citizen participation to include policy planning, budgeting, and other government processes, as well as citizen monitoring. The document discusses some of the challenges to coordinating with stakeholders in a more participatory approach to PRS and recommends that: 1) there must be clear lines of communication between the central PRS unit and other parts of government (ministries and local government); 2) clear links must be articulated between the PRS and other national development strategies and processes.

The document also cites some important factors for strengthening communication and participation:

• Give the PRS process a strong institutional home with power and prestige enough to lead the process; this could include a committee in a central agency;
• Organise sector working groups to facilitate coordination between PRS participants such as ministries, local government, civil society organisations (CSOs), and donors;
• Design a communication strategy specifically for Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) to serve as the basis for considering how all the relevant groups can be encouraged to participate most effectively in the formulation of the PRS;
• Include capacity building in the long-term and ongoing package of support for PRS communication strategy design and implementation; and
• Use new information technologies to bring civil society into a more central role in the national development debated; improved communication can help to reconfigure relationships among government, donors, and civil society.

The Communication for Governance and Accountability Programme (CommGAP) of the World Bank is dedicated to exploring and documenting the role of communication tools and approaches to improving governance and, as a result, development effectiveness. The project was concluded in October 2011.
See Related Summaries below for further publications by CommGAP.