Possibilities and limitations of Zazi community dialogues for social change to women in Zululand.

Abstract

From Modernisation to Participatory Development paradigm, development scholars and agencies have influenced changes in knowledge and practice in the field of economic development and public health communication. Such changes transpired due to realisation of short comings in development outcomes owing partly to critical social factors involved in the facilitation of social change programs. This precipitated adoption of different approaches and strategies from across disciplines which seek to promote participation of targeted beneficiaries in development process. Be that as it may, knowledge and practice of participatory communication still lacks standard qualifying criterion for facilitation of social and behaviour change. Meanwhile, social dialogue as participatory communication process and platform for human development has been applied and criticised for failing to consider critical social factors to facilitation of social and behaviour change. This indicates that social dialogue is not an automatic solution to human/social development. It is in this context that this study sought to examine possibilities and limitations of Zazi community dialogues (Zazi dialogues) in facilitating behaviour change among women in Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal. The findings suggest that Zazi community dialogues are consistent with principles of community dialogue facilitation espoused in the Communication for Participatory Development (CFPD) model initially developed by Figueroa and colleagues (2002). Representation of key stakeholders and women in Zazi dialogues, combined with effective application of critical pedagogical practices create possibilities for critical awareness development for behaviour change among the women. This is not least because they were able to collectively identify causes and effects of their challenges and explored possible solutions. However, persistent unfavourable social circumstances variably affecting married and unmarried women were noted as factors limiting their possibilities of changing behaviour successfully.