Why have governments and their international partners not placed strategic communication at the centre of post-conflict reconstruction and reform? This article from Conflict Trends outlines how strategic communication can help shift attitudes and behaviours of policymakers and citizens towards development and governance. Often lack of political will and fear of accountability hinders the use of strategic communication in post-conflict situations. However, such contexts provide unique opportunities for integrating strategic communication into reform processes.
The overriding objective of any strategic communication is to create change: a shift in citizens’ attitudes and actions towards and ownership of development and governance processes. There are four interrelated reasons why strategic communication as a change process is not often used in post-conflict reform processes. First, there is a lack of political will for radical internal reform. Second, there is the fear of being held accountable. Third, there is a tendency to use information dissemination and strategic communication interchangeably. Fourth, there is limited capacity to develop a communication strategy.
Liberia and Sierra Leone, countries that have suffered from civil war, provide examples of inadequate communication in reform processes.
- In Sierra Leone, communication regarding the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) focused on one-way, vertical communication, and did not enable communities to make the connection between the PRS and poverty reduction.
- In Liberia, the process of developing a PRS was participatory, but validation was only conducted in the capital city, with little or no participation by those who were consulted in rural areas. The PRS itself lacked a communication strategy.
During transitional post-conflict periods, new governments have much opportunity to incorporate strategic communication into reform processes. The following issues should be considered:
- Diversified media: Integrating information and its dissemination into a communication framework can broaden the participation of diverse actors in the decision-making process.
- Political parties: Fragile as most of the political parties and civil society may be, their presence can help to diversify opinions on governance issues, and multiply the means of communication used.
- Citizens’ desire for participation: Due to their past experience of poor governance, citizens in many countries resolve to engender change through political processes.
- Resources and international actors: Strategic communication requires resources. International agencies must show how strategic communication is used to facilitate the work of the governments they fund.
- Monitoring the effectiveness of strategic communication: Like all other initiatives, no communication strategy is complete without built-in evaluation.
