Communicating development through Spore

Information is essential to improving livelihoods, food security and agricultural development in general. However, information alone is not enough; to be used efficiently it must be communicated properly in order to foster development.

"In order to make communication effective media professionals should understand who it is that should be receiving the information, what the recipient wants to know and what information process and media is the ideal one to be used," said Paul Osborne, editor of Spore a bi-monthly publication focusing on agriculture development issues for countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Spore is the flagship magazine of the Technical Center for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) funded by the European Development Fund and under the management of the European Union and 77 countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The editor of Spore also participated in the Stakeholder Design Consultation for the Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD) Initiative recently held in Rome representing the AMPACTA group, which is a task force of agricultural media professionals. This task force seeks to mobilize its professional resources with the objective of optimizing SARD's and especially agriculture's place in the media, said Osborne.

Communication in development is a powerful tool that in many cases creates a process that can include the creation of awareness, the exchange of information and the enhancing of knowledge with one result: the fostering of development.

To read the latest on-line version of Spore in English and in French, please click here.