An evaluation of North West Provincial government's communication system towards rural development: a multisectoral approach

Abstract

The notion of development particularly rural development, brings forth responsibilities for the government, more precisely the local government to implement development programmes aimed at improving the livelihood of local communities. The national government established the National Development plan (NDP) vision: 2030, with the sole purpose of improving service delivery and development towards its constituencies. The North West provincial government (like all other eight provincial governments in South Africa) uses municipalities as third tier of government responsible for the implementation of development initiatives, policies and programmes aimed at rural development and poverty alleviation. The study emphasised the importance of communication in the development of rural communities and its role in fostering a conducive relationship and environment for effective and efficient community development. Theories provide ways of how communication is viewed, they also provide direction or views of analysing aspects of communication such as participatory communication and multisector approach. The research interests concern the subject matters relating to participatory communication, multisector approach and rural development. The local population are custodians of their development as they have indigenous and relevant information about their circumstances and needs. As theories are made up of concepts, the present research deals with how communication, development communication, participatory communication and, the multisector approach could all play a major role in efficient and effective development processes in rural areas. Fundamental to the success of a multisector approach to rural development is community participation, collaboration and coordination between all stakeholders in the development process. Development is about community empowerment from environment scanning of the needs of communication and the active participation of local communication. ICTs herein based on telecentres as central to empowering the local communities by providing basic tools to empower themselves through education and economic benefit through technological intervention. Telecentres form part of an integration of for sustainable rural development and community upliftment. ICTs are also known to transform communities; it is also critical to determine the implications that these changes will have for the poor communities that ICTs are supposed to transform. The nature of the study is based on whether the North West communication system is effective and efficient in fostering positive communication and participation between the government and communities. The researcher used qualitative methods to gather and analyse the data so as to ascertain the extent to which the system is performing to its optimum capacity. An effective system is one which creates a conducive environment for participatory governance and improvement of rural development and service delivery. It is thus concluded by the study that, a multisector approach is best suited as a communication/development strategy, in creating an environment for sharing information between the provincial government and communities and also enhancing public participation.