A Quest for Hope – Community Capacity Enhancement Programme (CCEP) - Community conversation

This document was presented at the Technical Consultation On Communication for Development, Geneva, Switzerland. It opens with a quotation from Rev. Canon Gideon: “AIDS is not a disease, it is a symptom of the way we relate to one another in the global village. It represents injustice, inequality and marginalization.” It proceeds to characterise the AIDS epidemic using the following: sex, shame, death, fear, stigma, discrimination, silence, and denial, contrasted with hope, understanding, and action.

The presentation suggests a link of human rights violations leading to AIDS and AIDS leading to human rights violations and states that these violations can compromise the effectiveness of communication for development because they undermine attempts to protect people from infection. They both prevent women from protecting themselves in situations in which they are disempowered, and they prevent marginalised and stigmatised groups from seeking care. Fulfilling the human rights of men, women, and children, as stated here, means: "1) vulnerability to HIV infection is reduced and 2) capabilities of individuals, communities, and institutions are enhanced give support people to living dignified and fulfilling lives with HIV....For this to happen, Human Rights standards and principles must inform prevention, treatment and care interventions."

The strategy for a human rights-based response, according to this author, is empowerment, particularly of marginalised and vulnerable people, with "the knowledge and resources to understand, claim, and realize rights." The document diagrams Community Capacity Enhancement Programme (CCEP) - Community conversation as a circular change process including the following steps: "Building Relationship, Identifying Concerns, Explore Concerns, Decision Making; Action; and Review Reflect." It uses a community based, dialogic, participatory approach of co-learning among facilitators, individuals, and communities and is replicable across issues. it incorporates tradition using symbols, motifs, cultural icons as semiotic intervention tools and incorporates the rights-based responsibilities of communication in the areas of gender, disabilities, ethnicity, and class.

The presentation shifts its focus to the role of communication for development on influencing policy and legislation. It differentiates between social engineering, using Apartheid legislation as the example, and social re-engineering, using democracy as the example. The differentiation centres on laws becoming a tool to restructure society around values of equality and human dignity, rather than along racial lines.

The presentation concludes with the obligations of policy and legislation, including:

• "The obligation of equality > not to discriminate between different groups of people in the realization of their rights.
• The obligation of action > to take steps.
• The obligation to monitor progress."

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