UC EVENTS

Presenter

Nandita Dutta

Title

Communicating development benefits: an approach to beneficiary engagement and its challenges

Abstract

Communication and its role in development field is obvious as both the areas focus on people and their integration in the process of development. This is where correlation between communication and the beneficiary understanding of development exists. Importance of mass communication in community development and social change has been reiterated in the field of communication and development. The discussion also centres on people and their participation where communicating development benefits becomes instrumental for engaging communities in the process of development. Given this interdependence, this paper examines how communication impacts the engagement of development beneficiaries in a specific country context and the challenges it entails. To this end, the paper provides a conceptual framework of development communication and its relevance to engaging. It examines qualitative data obtained as a part of a research study conducted in Bangladesh. The paper argues that communicating and understanding of development benefits within development project settings significantly contributes to beneficiary engagement at the field level. While beneficiaries are not restricted to only a project setting, data reveals that communicating development benefits can also be challenging to engaging in presence or absence of certain factors applied to a specific development context.

Biography

In the beginning of her career, she joined Bangladesh Civil Service in 1995. On secondment from the Government of Bangladesh, she joined UNDP country office as a Programme Analyst of Governance cluster in 2005, She was responsible for managing electoral reform, local justice, public administration, and indigenous community development programs. She joined UC as a professional staff in 2012 and started her PhD study at the Faculty of Arts and Design (FAD) which she has just completed. Among various achievements throughout her professional career, a few include PRINCE2 certification, Front Line Management Certificate IV, UNDP recognition as ‘Valued Presenter’ and the research training opportunity from June to December 2020 at the News & Media Research Centre at FAD.