From development by effects to development by contexts via communication

The vision shared by most development scholars and practitioners today is for beneficiary-driven development, the impediment and the means to which both lie with communication. The debate concerns the communication approach that would best realise this vision. This paper examines and critically comments on two major approaches, Development Communication (DC) and Development Support Communication (DSC), though it argues for neither of these. Rather, it draws on the `Another Development - Another Communication' paradigm and proposes a Participatory Communication (PC) approach, which both resonates in people's own moral values, conforms to the reality of many communities in Africa, and offers better prospects of achieving beneficiary-driven development.