Planning and Executing Grassroot Campaigns Among Women Groups in Nigeria -A Participatory Communication Approach

Abstract

Women often constitute themselves into groups in Nigeria for the purpose of promoting their interests. What this portend for development is that awareness campaigns can be planned and executed using these group leaders through a participatory communication approach which recognizes the integrity of the women in being able to discuss and resolve intelligently their development problems and the strategies that can be adopted to resolve them. This paper takes a look at the role local leaders can play in such development efforts and the need to involve them in the conceptualization, design and organization of campaign messages so as to remove their flaws. The paper identifies the need for training for both campaign organizers and recipients as a pre-requisite for actualizing the participatory development communication approach and recommends the integration of such approach with the establishment of a community based radio station.