14,565 The Drum Beat 785, March 18, 2020 The Power of Words

Now, of course our social change, behaviour change, community engagement, and media development initiatives face a major challenge in the clear and present danger of COVID-19. There are many ideas below that could be helpful in meeting that challenge.

By the very nature of this pandemic, many of you are centrally involved in the effort. There are two ways we are seeking to support your work.

First, we are hosting an ongoing dialogue that provides a space for people in The CI network to share the top 3 things they think should be prioritised at this critical time. A recent example is this post from Guillaume Mukenge: “Community engagement, maintenance and strengthened extension services”.

Second, we are looking to identify, summarise, and share the initiatives that people and organisations in The CI network are taking to address COVID-19 in their contexts. These insights will be crucial inputs to inform the strategies that others are taking. How, for example, are you supporting the massive move to social distancing? Please do email info@comminit.com with any links, attachments, etc. that provide information on your work. We will share.

Thanks for contributing to this common resource.

• 1. “US” COMING IN TO “HELP” THEM
  A suggestion from Lorelei Beer
  “Unfortunately, beneficiaries or participants or clients or other terms currently at play perpetuate the ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ dichotomy…”
• 2. COMMUNICATION
  A suggestion from Jane Sherman
  “On the Communication Initiative site, would it be OK to ring some changes on the word communication itself? It is too often used to mean one-way top-down messaging…”
• 3. PARTICIPATION
  A suggestion from Bob Linney responding to the posts by Jane Sherman who herself was replying to Ann Thorstedt
  “I completely agree with your views about the weasel word ‘participation’…”
• 4. PARTICIPATE
  A suggestion from Anise Waljee
  “The youth were clearly sick of being told it was ‘theirs’ but it was other people’s plans, agendas etc. The ‘other people’ were getting paid while the youth provided the information but got…”
• 5. ACTORS
  A suggestion from Tahir Turk
  “I know it is supposed to relate to people taking action but it is more akin to actors in a theatre production who are acting out roles rather than constantly contemplating, trialling, maintaining, rejecting or advocating for a specific behaviour…”

• * The Drum Beat 780 – When People Engage
• * The Drum Beat 721 – Participation and Power

• 6. Andrew Carlson cautioned “Maybe we shouldn’t throw out the baby…”
  I’m reading the above thread with interest and trepidation as we somewhat wantonly decide that we will toss out such hard won victories as ‘participation’…”
• 7. Andrew was supported by Nisar Ahmed, who said “It’s definitely a little alarming to see so many terms that have taken decades to get established being thrown out at the tap of a key board…”
• 8. …and Ann Thorsted, who said “[C]ommunication is more including than information and should be kept – and participation is central as well…”
• 9. …with Jane Sherman also weighing in: “You are probably right that we can’t just dump the terms and post others in their place….With these terms we probably need to keep the names and remorselessly re-brand them. Anyone who claims to be an educator, or a donor, or concerned with social practices should be able to say on the spot what s/he means by them AND how they implement them in their activities…”

We look forward to seeing you there!

• 10. LIMITS
  A suggestion from Denise Gray-Felder
  “A few of the suggested usages are also not acceptable to people in the affected community. For example, many of us believe that the type of LIMITATION should not define the person. Therefore we prefer ‘people living with physical disabilities.’ I have never met a human who does not have some limits…”
• 11. POVERTY
  A suggestion from Carla Conrod
  “[Instead of] the disabled use people who are disabled. [Instead of] the homeless use people who are homeless. [Instead of] the poverty stricken use people who are experiencing poverty…”
• 12. OUTPUT and SCALABILITY
  A suggestion from Neelima Mathur
  “The ‘system’ of development of IEC [information, education, and communication] messages has gotten deeply ingrained and gets skewed further and further with time – as people who create briefs, develop them, strategise dissemination, get more and more distanced from their ‘target groups’ and ‘beneficiaries’…”
• 13. BEST PRACTICE
  A suggestion from Doug Reeler
  “The phrase ‘Best Practice’ is my personal bugbear. Indeed it makes me shiver…”
• 14. IMPACT
  A suggestion from Alice Welbourn
  “The word ‘impact’ too is very militaristic and another word we try to avoid…”
• 15. LEVERAGING, DEMAND SIDE, DRIVERS
  A suggestion from Leila Caleb Varley
  “I also find words from ‘market research’ very annoying like ‘leveraging’ or ‘drivers’ or economics like ‘demand side’ or ‘supply side’…”
• 16. TRANSFORMATION
  A suggestion from khawajah
  “[T]he words transformative, transformation and transformational change have become jargonizing terms in the social sciences, international development and humanitarian aid industry…”