The Malaysian state of Sarawak is currently embarking on a transformational journey to bring greater development to its people, with a massive development agenda in the form of the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE). People participation is crucial to ensure a smoother implementation process.
In response to a growing need for better communication among local stakeholders, the Sarawak Development Institute (SDI) is organizing a workshop on Reinforcing Development Communication for Economic and Social Transformation in Sarawak, on 12-14 August 2014 at the Imperial Hotel, Kuching, Sarawak.
This training workshop is organized in collaboration with the College of Development Communication at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (CDC-UPLB) and the Communication for Development team of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as part of the Collaborative Change Communication (CCComDev) initiative.
About 60 senior development officers and local planners are expected to attend the two-and-a-half-day workshop. CDC-UPLB’s Dean Dr Theresa Velasco and Professor Dr Cleofe Torres, also specialist ComDev consultant for FAO, will be conducting the workshop.
The workshop will make use of the Communication for Rural Development Sourcebook to provide participants with hands-on experience in communication planning for development. They will be equipped with appropriate skills and tools for designing and putting into action an effective communication for development strategy: deciding on the priority stakeholders; identifying desired communication and behavioral change objectives to be pursued; choosing the communication approach(es), the key messages and the channels/media most suitable to meet these objectives; defining the organizational set up, budget and timeline for implementing the ComDev plan; monitoring and evaluating the activities.
Specific objectives of the training workshop are:
- To foster commitment to development communication as an approach;
- To alert participants on the crucial need for ComDev in project planning and implementation;
- To equip participants with the knowledge and methodology in developing communication frameworks for development projects; and
- To expose participants to case studies on formulating the appropriate communication strategies for varied development projects to enhance their chances to succeed.
As a follow-up to the workshop, SDI plans to set up a virtual discussion group on CCComDev online community, to establish a channel for continuous learning and knowledge sharing with and among workshop participants.
For more information on the workshop and the follow-up activities, please contact Ms Rosalind Wong rwong@sdi.com.my or Ms Lelia Sim lelia@sdi.com.my
Sarawak Development Institute (SDI) is a non-profit research institute undertaking inter-disciplinary research on pertinent development issues to provide independent and objective inputs for decision and policy-making in Sarawak.