Methodological approach (EUGAD)
From Eugad wiki
By the way one communicates social patterns are established; if communication is successful a sense of "we" is established, and the people who are communicating start feeling a sense of common purpose.
At Eugad we aim at opening patterns of communication between people belonging to different communities, who believe that the culture of each community is contributory to the culture of the others and that all get their specific identity reinforced through reciprocal understanding.
Before moving towards the search for a communication style fit to Eugad objectives we all agreed on three basic considerations:
- that in talking to different communities it is a mistake to target directly the general public; it is better to target first the opinion makers who are already trusted by the public and built a relationship of reciprocal trust with them. This approach is also in line with the spirit of international cooperation, where providing aid should be accompanied with a reinforcement of existing social patterns and not with an attempt at replacing them.
- that any effort, from somebody external to the community, to influence the culture and the behaviour of a community is an act of violence (even if done in a "seductive" manner.) True awareness is always generated in a process of dialogue.
- that typically communication products for sharing knowledge appear pedantic and doctrinal. We would instad like to make media products that are sincere and reflect the culture of the countries we visit.
For these reasons the project stakeholders as involved as partners in carring out the project activities. And a combination of Internet media, paper publlications and televison will be used to boost the vitality of each media.
In Eugad this dialogue will first take place between development actors and opinion makers. Then it will open up and involve other development actors with the aim of generating a riple effect that will achieve a wider impact.
see more in ⇒ Management of Eugad project
Guidelines ⇒ Project Team Management Guidelines
back to ⇒ What is Eugad
