Communication for social change

Communication for social change, referred to as communication for sustainable social change and development, involves the use of variety of communication techniques to address inefficient systems, processes, or modes of production within a specific location that has not incurred major technological advances. Different mediums and approaches are used to help individuals among the targeted society to acquire new knowledge and skills. This will allow communities not only to experience change but to guide it as well. Communication for social change, referred to as communication for sustainable social change and development, involves the use of variety of communication techniques to address inefficient systems, processes, or modes of production within a specific location that has not incurred major technological advances. Different mediums and approaches are used to help individuals among the targeted society to acquire new knowledge and skills. This will allow communities not only to experience change but to guide it as well. A possible strategy in achieving sustainability and development places the people of the community in the center of the communication process. This technique is also known as the participatory approach where interpersonal communication is exercised through community media. The members of the culture are agents of change as opposed to the outsiders who may provide any necessary tools. Technology then becomes implemented by people in their social and economic contexts and results in a major shaping process. The participatory approach can be combined with three other types of communicative methods to effectively invoke social change. These include: behavior change communication, mass communication, and advocacy communication. Different types of mediums can be used in achieving governance, health and sustainable development. Old media can be combined with new media to educate specific populations. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) in addition to multi-media are able to address visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners and prove to be an important contribution to economic growth. Questions need to be raised about who the stake holders, policy makers, partners and practitioners are and what their goals might be for the community seeking sustainable development. Oftentimes, those who set the agenda are the ones doing the funding for the project and may include international agencies, bilateral agencies, national authorities, NGOs, and local organizations. Prior to the project, decision makers consider if introducing new technology will disrupt religion, language, political organization, economy, familial relations and social complexity of the targeted society. Other factors have to be acknowledged as well and may include already present policies and legislations, educational systems, service provisions, institutional and organizational constructions (in the forms of corruption, bureaucracy, etc.), socio-demographic and economic aspects, and the physical environment. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are an official set of universal goals created by world leaders and adopted by the United Nations to be completed within a specific time frame (2000–2015). They address various aspects of human development and are categorized into eight objectives: These goals tackle extreme poverty in multiple parts of the world but with already pre-existing setbacks, their feasibility is questioned. Progress in Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa, combined, was a tenth met of the last agreed target. Development in Latin America has been discussed since the early 1950s and began with the diffusion of innovations concept where countries like Brazil and Colombia would incorporate models brought by developed countries to foster economic growth, use media for technological and scientific advancements, address local problems and manage processes of modernization. In the 1970s such type of development was criticized because it responded to the interests of the wealthier, already developed countries. As development efforts continued to fail and socio-economic and financial limitations surfaced, the 1980s were described as La Decada Perdida (The lost decade in Latin America). Development in Latin America is not the same as for countries more economically advanced like the United States. The differences are not only economic but social and cultural as well. Any intervention has to take into account the context in which change can be implemented and address not only the elite culture but the popular one as well. Interactive, digital, and participatory technology is encouraged to take part in the development process more so to educate members of the community and to encompass popular innovations and individual creativity. Public policies in information technologies need to reflect local development in order to guide practices of change for other regions. Concurrently, they need to promote members of the community to stimulate change by finding their own meaning in applications that could potentially improve quality of life. In order to reduce inequality First Human Development Report for Latin America & the Caribbean proposes that policies must affect people (reach), address setbacks that cause poverty (breadth) and empower people to create the change desired (ownership). This type of thinking is a new approach to development and may be one possible solution to combat the eight objectives of human development in Latin America the Millennium Development Goals strive to address. World Bank classifies Latin America in the lower middle and upper middle income range. An estimated 181 million individuals (33.2 percent of the population) live in poverty and seventy-one million of these (12.9 percent) in indigence. Between 2002 and 2008, forty-one million people were able to sustain enough progress to no longer be characterized as poverty but with the current Global recession, this number has decreased by nine million. Ten of the 15 countries with the highest levels of inequality are in the region. Women, indigenous populations and those of African descent are most affected. Females in the region take a greater part in the informal economy and have double the workload than males but are paid less for their efforts. When compared to those of European descent, twice as many members of indigenous and African descended populations, on average, live on US$1 per day. Latin America still faces corrupt political, judicial, and security institutions protective of the interests of the wealthy. The second edition of the Global Burden of Armed Violence report by the Secretariat of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, released in October 2011, characterized El Salvador as being the 'most violent country in the world' during 2004–9, with an average annual violent death rate of over 60 per 100,000 people during that period, just ahead of Iraq. During the first week of November (2011), Manuel Melgar (the justice and public security minister of El Salvador) resigned from his post. The region overall is second to South Africa in terms of levels of crime and violence. Educational practices are also being questioned across the region. Chile has been experiencing five months of protests against the government's attempt to maintain the higher education's private sector model. Students and teachers in opposition hope to revert to a state funded model, under an 'Education for All' slogan in fear of emerging from universities with debts and loans. These street demonstrations, now catching congress' attention, are a threat to Chiles' 2012 budget. Without the proposed spending, potential education, health, training and anti-poverty programs will cease. In Latin America, risks of inflation and excessive currency appreciation are a concern to the region's long-term growth prospects and present instability in the financial sector. Current events such as the European debt crisis, the slow recovery in the US, natural and nuclear disasters in Japan and the implications from the political turmoil in the Middle East stall progress within the region and foreshadow more difficult economic conditions.