Global Mapping of Communication for Development Interventions in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation

"This mapping examines the use of Communication for Development (C4D) in peacebuilding efforts ....The objectives of this mapping are to identify C4D interventions that might be applicable to peacebuilding and what lessons can be drawn about process and impact."

This United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) collection of examples of the uses of C4D in peacebuilding opens with proposing this definition of C4D in peacebuilding: "a social process that fosters dialogue and meaningful conversations to reduce and prevent the risk of conflict or relapse into it. By using a range of participatory tools and methods, C4D in peacebuilding creates safe spaces for discussing both the causes and consequences of conflict, as well as 'normal and everyday life.' This process generates transformation at all levels by promoting listening, debating, building trust, learning to appreciate differences, sharing knowledge, developing skills, formulating and implementing policies, and learning in order to lay the foundations of a sustainable and durable peace."

The study accessed scholarly literature, peacebuilding experts external to UNICEF, and UNICEF staff. Case studies were selected based upon impact, creativity of C4D principles and approaches, reach, and geography. Most of the projects ranged from the individual level to the community level (rebuilding the social fabric among people) and the national level (formal peace accords, the redistribution of resources, and the provision of basic social services, including education). Communication projects made "strategic use of the mass media" for a wide audience reach, even when directed to specific groups such as children, youth, women, religious leaders, or policymakers. "Mass media, combined with interactive new media tools such as mobile technology and web-based platforms," enabled dialogues "to expand and conversations to be taken to a higher level."

The methodology section begins with a global mapping history, highlighting, for example, the role of partnership as a strategy - such as the approach described in a book entitled Learning to Live Together: Using Distance Education for Community Peacebuilding. With the support of Commonwealth governments, civil society organisations (CSOs), and other partners, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) initiated Learning4Peace, a community-based open and distance learning (ODL) approach to promoting tolerance, respect, and understanding. The book brings together community peacebuilding experiences that have applied ODL approaches, which are frequently used by hard-to-reach communities in informal education settings. They make use of community radio, self-learning texts, DVDs, the internet, and mobile technology.

The document offers the following recommendations for designing successful C4D interventions for peacebuilding:

1. "Enable children and adolescents to experience 'peace' in their everyday interactions - especially in school settings - through participatory and inclusive methodologies;
2. Harness the potential of social media and mobile technology to encourage participation and build resilience among adolescents;
3. Invest in an Early Childhood Education school curricula that builds on social cohesion, conflict prevention and conflict resolution skills;
4. Ensure that strong research backs up any C4D intervention for peacebuilding;
5. Use entertainment, drama and storytelling when designing C4D interventions to support peacebuilding;
6. Let local know-how drive C4D interventions for peacebuilding;
7. Use the mass media as a platform to expand conversations and foster broad-based dialogue as an integral part of the C4D framework; and
8. Integrate C4D interventions early on in the planning and design phases of the Education for Peacebuilding programme."

These recommendations include the following UNICEF C4D principles:

• "Create spaces for plurality of voices and community narratives;
• Encourage listening, dialogue and debate;
• Ensure active and meaningful participation of children and women;
• Reflect principles of inclusion, self-determination, participation and respect by prioritizing, giving visibility and voice to marginalized and vulnerable groups;
• Link community perspectives and voices with sub-national and national policy-dialogue;
• Start early and address the whole child;
• Children as agents of change and as a primary audience;
• Build self-esteem and confidence of children and care providers."

Through case studies and scholarly research from Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, South Africa, Colombia, Guatemala, and Palestine, the document examines:

• The role of children, adolescents and youth in peacebuilding - for example:
  • Voices Beyond Walls grew out of a partnership with youth centres in Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank that led to digital storytelling workshops and new media production to help them weave together "original stories, drama, poetry, photography, music, and digital video...these youth express their own perspectives on Palestinian history, culture and everyday life in the refugee camp." Some of the participating children have been involved in the production of Flying Paper, "a film about kite making in Gaza, which defies the logic of war and elevates the resilient spirit of children."
  • A study in Northern Ireland found that: 1) children, from the age of three, should be encouraged to appreciate and respect difference and cultural diversity; 2) from about the age of five onwards, children should be encouraged to understand the negative effects of sectarian stereotypes and prejudices; 3) nurseries and schools need to find ways of engaging and working closely with parents and the local community.
  • The Communication Collective of Montes de Maria Línea 21 in Colombia established a school of community journalism for children and adolescents to encourage working together
  • Search for Common Ground chose to work with young people who have a strong influence on their peers, also known as "multiplier youth" who can significantly impact an entire community.
  • Conciliation Resources, a peacebuilding non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in the United Kingdom (UK), has been engaged in a partnership that brings together young Azeris and Karabakhis to learn filmmaking skills, tell their stories, and share them "across a divided region". The project is run by three local partners: Internews Armenia, Internews Azerbaijan, and the Stepanakert Press Club in Nagorny Karabakh. The project consists of joint film training, documentary production, and post-screening discussions moderated by local partner organisations that "give people a chance to share their reactions and to talk more broadly about the conflict".
• Mainstreaming C4D for peacebuilding in the education system - for example:
  • The pre-school programme Mozaik in Macedonia provided an eight-month intensive teacher’s training, while host kindergartens were furnished with all necessary materials and equipment, in order to: 1) socialise children at an early age to be free from prejudice and have respect for the diversity of cultures within Macedonia; 2) help different ethnic communities to collaborate and communicate with each other; and 3) provide a positive model of multi-ethnic/bilingual education for education authorities, communities, parents, and children.
  • A Solomon Islands distance learning programme used FM radio and the People First Network, a platform for basic email services, to offer Learning4Peace themes such as leadership skills, human rights, conflict resolution, and domestic violence.
  • In Afghanistan, a teacher training radio programme was accessed by 3,500 teachers.
• C4D for peacebuilding: adding value to education - for example:
  • Mixing communication tools was part of the work of Panos in Pakistan on combining "oral testimonies, participatory theatre, community radio, and work with the mainstream media to ensure that the voices of the most affected people contribute to national understanding Panos and its partners prompted nation-wide dialogue, debate and change."
  • Extensive conflict-sensitive journalistic training by Internews, BBC Media Action, and Search for Common Ground in various countries addressed how to produce fair and balanced programming that responds to local needs and, at the same time, contributes to fostering peace by broadening public debate.
• Most effective C4D approaches used for peacebuilding - for example:
  • Pasolini en Medellin, Colombia, worked with at-risk youth to tell stories as "a the first step in recovering trust, self-confidence, reconstructing memories and identities, and weaving social networks into the public sphere."
  • The Kenyan TV series, The Team, used the story format for addressing sensitive topics indirectly as they are brought up in the context of a fictional plot.
  • Creating safe spaces through participatory interaction and dialogue was the strategy of the Purple Rose of Cairo Itinerant Street Film Project, projecting films on a wall in the central plaza (square) using a DVD player, a projector, and a sound system to draw people of all ages back to the town square.
• Measuring results of C4D initiatives in peacebuilding - for example:
  • Process steps recommended include: do preliminary research; survey a variety of stakeholders; identify multiple entry points; and regularly monitor and evaluate interventions throughout the programme cycle and beyond.
  • This might include such indicators as broadcast audience reach, resonance, increasing mutual acceptance among children, greater willingness to include others, accountability of political leaders, citizens participating in specific activities, whether people are willing to talk about certain issues in public, the kinds of issues that are being talked about at the community level and on the airwaves, and who participates in public dialogues.