Document(s) 7 of 16

The consultation meeting held in Toronto on 10 and 11 February 1995 provided a fine opportunity for exchanging views on a great variety of experiences in participatory communication.

More specifically, during the workshop sessions, my group delved into current practices and theories surrounding new processes of communication, in an attempt to ascertain what contributions these practices and theories might hold for the field of nonformal education in particular, and for development in general, and to identify the questions that must be addressed to make these contributions operational and efficient.

Discussants adopted a forward-looking approach, which was well suited to the occasion given the diversity of outlooks and contributions offered by the various participants, who were either directly involved in, or were working to develop, research in participatory communication.

Looking at the responses to the questions that were posed, two points on which a degree of consensus was reached stand out:

• the need to apply participatory communication as an instrument for promoting democratic experimentation, liberating productive energies, and creating a sense of community within any developmental program of education and training, if it is to be workable, appropriate, and worthwhile; and
• the importance of taking into account the sociocultural factors peculiar to each situation when introducing and updating methodologies and techniques for harnessing participatory communication in the service of development.

Nevertheless, in light of the many common features exhibited by developing countries in Africa, we can make some generalizations about the what is needed for applying participatory communication to support education and development on the basis of:

• testing or confirming procedures for training a new type of field worker, who will no longer be regarded as a "specialist whose job is to transmit knowledge," but rather as a facilitator helping people appropriate the knowledge, talents, and attitudes that are so indispensable to integrated community self-development;
• taking advantage of traditional techniques and support mechanisms for inspiring commitment and active involvement on the part of the under-privileged layers of society, in particular women, who are generally excluded from education and training, but who are in fact not only the keepers of tradition but also the main agents for introducing and promoting progressive ideas within society; and
• looking for new occasions and frameworks for dialogue in an environment where the innate logic linking possessions, power, and knowledge often determines the whole set of relationships, and leads to the one-way flow of information from the makers of decisions to those who merely carry them out, thus impeding the economic, social, and cultural emancipation of the masses.

Document(s) 7 of 16