Collaborative Change Communication (CCComDev)

CCComDev is an online platform striving to provide a hub for learning and knowledge sharing among ComDev practitioners who are testing new approaches in the field, searching for practical knowledge, or seeking new ways to collaborate in the rural sector. It is designed as an interactive platform where communication and development practitioners can find information on training opportunities, access learning resources, exchange experiences, and explore collaborations. Users are invited to share videos, photos, publications, learning resources, and good practices. CCComDev also maintains a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

Amongst the features:

• An interactive map helps practitioners visualise ComDev training opportunities and providers that have been identified worldwide. The different labels are used to indicate various types of organisations and institutions providing formal (academic courses) or informal training in ComDev (seminars, workshops, etc.). Clicking on a selected item on the map allows one to access the full profile of a training provider, including contact details and more information about the courses and the capacity development initiatives offered.
• The interactive ComDev community is a free area of the site designed to enable people to connect and expand their network, view profiles and add new friends, share photos and videos, and create their own group or join others.
• Various resources are available for download, including training/learning materials, case studies, technical papers and reports, and multimedia. For example, "Communication for Rural Development Sourcebook" is a field-oriented, step-by-step guide on how to design and implement locally relevant and sustainable communication strategies to tackle development issues in the agricultural and rural sector.
• CCComDev also hosts the ComDev Asia portal, which focuses on ComDev experiences and good practices in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Click here to read the first CCComDev newsletter (March 2015), which is designed to continue the discussion initiated at the Forum on Communication for Development & Community Media for Family Farming (FCCM) - see details in the paragraph below - that is taking place in the CCComDev platform in 2015. This newsletter provides updates on joint initiatives of the FCCM working group while sharing new experiences, ideas, and resources, such as information about a series of awareness campaigns on family farming and related themes using community radio to support rural development and the eradication of hunger.

To cite an example of an offline CCComDev activity, in October 2014, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) convened an international Forum on Communication for Development & Community Media for Family Farming (FCCM) in Rome, Italy. Over 100 participants from farmer organisations, community media and communication networks, development agencies, governments, research organisations and academia, development and human rights non-government organisations (NGOs) gathered to discuss the potential of ComDev as a driver for innovation and family farmers' participation in rural development. A set of recommendations and priority actions to advance rural communication services came out of the forum and were subsequently presented during the Global Dialogue on Family Farming (October 27-28 2014). As a follow-up, a group of organisations teamed up to collaborate on strategic areas of work and promote rural communication services in support of smallholder and family farmers. Click here to access the FCCM blog and online forum.

Rural Development.