IEC (Information, Education and Communication) - the Success Mantra in Community-Driven Development

This paper attempts to review theoretical perspectives on the conceptual changes concerning development and the ascribed role of communication since the 1940s to the new millennium. The development projects implemented in the third world from the 1950s to the 1980s followed a top-down and expert-driven communication approach. However, the widespread disappointment over the West-dominated views resulted in a policy shift and in the realisation that people cannot be developed; they have to develop themselves. Community-driven development (CDD) has emerged as one of the fastest-growing mechanisms since the 1990s, riding heavily on the information, education and communication (IEC) components. This paper underlines the factors that triggered the transition from ‘aided development’ and one-way communication to ‘community-driven development’ and participatory communication. Terming CDD as a resurrection of the long-ignored ideology of ‘swaraj’, this paper explains why IEC has emerged as the success mantra in community development.