The First Step Is to Listen: Unlocking Conversations in Development With Radio and Mobile Phones
How can we include the world’s most vulnerable people in the decisions that affect them? It’s simple: We ask them. How? By combining the two most powerful communications tools in the developing world: radio and mobile phones.
The history of international development is rife with examples of good intentions gone wrong. Too often the intended beneficiaries of development projects are simply left out of the planning process. Thankfully, much of the field has moved from top-down approaches to more people-centred, participatory ones that actually engage citizens in the discussion. This is important because connecting with people to understand their needs, learn from them, and engage them as agents of their own development can lead to radically better outcomes in the long run.
Until recently, however, having conversations as part of the development process was really challenging — and expensive. Intended recipients of foreign aid often live in hard-to-reach, far-flung rural areas. They often lack the tools to engage with and be heard by policy-makers and non-profit organizations alike. And they have been limited by their lack of literacy and access to communications technologies.
David Dennis