ICT for Development Network is a section of The Communication Initiative (www.comminit.com)
Mission:
To convene the communication and media development, social and behavioural change community for more effective local, national, and international development action
The CI’s Change Principles:
People and organisations are more effective, efficient and work at greater scale when they increasingly:
• Access the knowledge (including research data) they need when they need it;
• Identify the people and organisations that can help them address their particular issues when they need them;
• Develop critical peer review and support relationships with the support network they develop;
• Initiate partnerships with other agencies for joint action on common issues;
• Contribute their strategic thinking for critical review by others and critically review the strategic thinking of others.
Primary Strategic Elements:
➢ Develop and facilitate a social network that provides people and agencies in this field with a common point of reference and a shared relationship.
➢ Create and support a shared knowledge base
➢ Summarise complex knowledge for easy access to help mitigate information overload
➢ Support people and agencies identifying the knowledge and support that best matches their requirements
➢ Strengthen the relationship, interaction and partnerships between people and agencies working on different specific development issues
➢ Provide prominence for the voice, perspective and ideas of people directly engaged in development action
Impact
From the most recent independently conducted and analyzed network survey, 44 questions with 1,155 respondents. This produced much relevant data concerning the impact of The Communication Initiative process. Just 4 examples:
➢ The 3 main reasons people stated for participating in The CI process were: “to learn knowledge that contributes to my work”; “to get more information” and “to enhance strategic thinking”.
➢ 33% of overall respondents rated the social network they developed through The CI process as “extremely valuable” or “valuable”.
➢ Irrespective of who initiated the exchange, the most common themes for the network conversations were: “discussing strategies”; “seeking information”; and, “sharing information.”
➢ 83% either “strongly agreed” or “agreed” with the statement that: “these communication strategies have contributed positively to your work”.
