NGO interpretation of participatory communication for rural Cambodia: what is lost in ‘translation’?

Abstract

ABSTRACTAlthough the participatory communication is widely embraced by development agencies, few published studies critically examine how local NGOs interpret and implement the approach at the village level. This article analyses a Cambodian NGO’s attempts to engage grassroots involvement against key tenets of participatory communication for social change. The NGO’s ‘translation’ of the approach is shaped by layers of discourse and replete with paradoxes. Factors hampering fulfilment of the spirit of the participatory model include (1) a lack of deep conceptual understanding of participatory principles among the NGO staff; (2) development strategies supported by international NGOs that are detached from the local context and avoid broader structural issues; and (3) socio-cultural and political deterrents that exist in rural Cambodia. By revealing areas of incongruence between theory and practice and critically examining adaptation of participatory communication in the rural Cambodian context, this case study illuminates localised strategies required for sustainable development and the recurring need for critical analysis of international-development discourse. The author concludes that in order to bring about emancipatory outcomes through rural development, local NGOs and their international partners need to commit to addressing social justice and inequalities as part of the participatory approach.