Locating disaster communication in changing communicative ecologies across the Pacific

The Pacific Island region is geographically and culturally diverse, with a significant range of communication infrastructures and challenges. Access and use of mobile phones has risen exponentially over the past five years. According to ITU statistics, around 60 percent of Pacific Islanders had access to a mobile in 2012, compared to just 10 percent in 2006. In many Pacific countries mobile phones are, therefore, emerging as a key element of the local communication systems, and are being built into disaster management and communication plans. For these plans to be effective, however, we argue that access to, and affordability of, technologies represent only one dimension of what needs to be considered in effective disaster communication plans. They also need to consider appropriate technologies, local communicative ecologies, systems for the ownership and maintenance of infrastructures, and local knowledge and belief systems. With a focus on mobile and other telecommunications technologies, this paper provides an overview of disaster communication systems and infrastructures, practices and challenges in the region

The rain, the river and the lake

The river feeds into the lake. The lake depends on the river and the river depends on the rain. This explains that for any development work to happen it relies on people, here being represented by the rain. The river represents the information that many organisations bring to the people. The lake symbolises the community, and how all the information that organisations bring to the people might sometimes be overwhelming to the carriers, such that at times it becomes difficult to share. When the river overflows then it becomes challenging for the community to utilize such information. Most of the time, organisations rely on a few gatekeepers in the community without reaching down to the core people within the community.Created in Mangochi District, Malawi, 2024 This object is part of the Metaphors for Un/Making CSC Collection.</p

Different bridges

Donors are like bridges. They are some kind of structures who can fill the gap. Donors have given funds to support the victimized, like on gender based violence, for people to know their rights. All those are being funded by the projects.So in terms of our social enterprise, once it makes enough profits, it will give it to our organisation and they will help the marginalised. So soon our social enteprise will become the bridge, with offering school fees and books and the like. So it's like changing to a new bridge. From donors to our social enteprise.But they are actually different bridges – the first the bridge may have metal reinforcements, which are very heavy. We cannot compare the bridge that the funds from our social enterprise can make with compared with the ones given by the donors. The ones produced by our social enterprise won’t be as huge as the ones by the donors, they will be a smaller. But they can at least make a difference. The ones by our social enterprise are made with local materials, so it is easier to manage and make repairs. For example, if there is a river over there and you want to construct a bridge, we can start with a simple one. It may not be as strong as the donor one, but as time goes by we might say 'ah this one has outlived it’s time, let’s build another one which is bigger and stronger'. So we get those and bring in the reinforcements and make it heavier, more or less like the ones by the donors.Created in Zomba, Malawi, 2023This object is part of the Metaphors for Un/Making CSC Collection.</p

Social Change

This represents the process of social change, where there are always ups and down. At one end is our organisation, and the other end is the end goal. Most people at the top level can only see it from above and they see it as a straight line, they usually can’t see all the ups and downs and obstacles. It is often so difficult because many people don’t understand the social changes that we’re talking about, for example, violence in the family was always seen as a private matter, and a personal issue, but then we started to talk about it and people start to understand it as a social change.Some of the ups and downs happen because of the resources, time and money, economic and social- cultural practices, caste, disasters. Some of the departments are no proactive, and some of the officers keep changing. There are some processes at the grassroots level, those protocols often make women more vulnerable. The gravity, the realities, are pulling this downward, and our organisation is trying to pull it up. Education, information sharing, economic, empowerment, awareness, good strategies in place – all help to pull it upwards.One example is of a woman in a violent relationship, she started coming to the sessions, and she learnt that anyone using violence is illegal, and she has now resisted and the violence from the husband is going down. In our forums we make sure that we are including women from all groups, we are about equality.Created in Mysuru, India, 2023This object is part of the Metaphors for Un/Making CSC Collection.</p

Soundwave

Our media involves working with lots of different stakeholders (for example. women, men, girls, line departments, Sakhis, our team, etc.), we are mobilizing resources from lots of different people, and what comes at the end is the voices from the field – a collective voice, represented as a soundwave. We capture and record voices from the field.One of the main agendas is that everyone can raise their voice. Everyone is equal in the media – all have an opportunity to speak - the arrangement is a bit like in an audio editing software, like in Audacity.This object is part of the Metaphors for Un/Making CSC Collection.Created in Mysuru, India, 2023</p

The burdens [IMG_0737.JPG]

In this metaphor, my body is like our organisation, and I am wearing this necklace which has beads that represent the challenges of the youth, women and children in Malawi, the burdens. Our organisation has taken all the burdens on the necklace: this includes young girls who are being defiled, women who are being abused by their husbands, employees who are facing sexual violence. These problems are so heavy, weighing down the body, because our organisation doesn’t have enough resources to take care of all of it, sometimes we get negative publicity; but still our organisation fights on, and finds a way to carry it. Our organisation needs to become stronger to be able to carry it. When we realized that the amount of funding that we have is not enough to deal with all the issues that, that’s when we started looking at social enterprise and marketing some of the services that we have. So that whatever we have from those ventures can be used to support those things. Because over the years we’ve been adding things to our agenda, for example recently I’ve heard about climate change and mental health, and so we take it on. This object is part of the Metaphors for Un/Making CSC Collection. Created in Zomba, Malawi, 2023</p

Our radio station [IMG_0729.JPG]

This is our organisation and this represents creativity and diversity of our organisation. The beads represent: our radio station, the Helplines, the cultural troop, NGOMA, this is communication team, and the ICTs. They are all connected. Everything has its role to play. This object is part of the Metaphors for Un/Making CSC Collection. Created in Zomba, Malawi, 2023</p

The crocodile

The crocodile in the lake. Donors are a lake, offering a reservoir of funds from which African and economically disadvantaged nations like Malawi can seek financial assistance. Although their support may not always come in the form of direct monetary aid, they often provide essential resources like food, similar to the lake's provision of fish. However, it's crucial to recognize that within this lake, there are also some predators such as crocodiles. Similarly, within donor funding, the presence of corruption and embezzlement by administrators is a constant concern, as the funds are readily available and susceptible to misuse.Created in Songani, Malawi, 2024 This object is part of the Metaphors for Un/Making CSC Collection.</p

Complex structure

Sustainability is like a strong, complex structure, everyone needs to come together. The actions we take are the bricks, and the community that participate are the glue that holds it together by glue. And that’s what keeps it strong, the actions and the participation of the community – without the glue it would fall over, so both the bricks and the glue are needed. You also have to make sure the bricks are appropriate to the community, the community will only participate if it is appropriate.We could also link it to the CSR, where we use our strategies to encourage the funders to provide the raw resources that our organisation makes into bricks with their strategies and processes.What about sustainability of different programmes, for example, comparing Media Champions and the Infocentres. Media Champions are so young they don’t have any decision making power, no money power, they are under the control of parents. Without the backup support of the organisation they can’t mobilise themselves. They are not even allowed to leave the home themselves. The model is sustained only after a few years when they see that these girls who participated have done well, then they have confidence in that model. But when it comes to the women’s group, they are strong, and they can independently run it and manage it successfully.Created in Mysuru, India, 2023This object is part of the Metaphors for Un/Making CSC Collection.</p

Platforms [IMG_0755.JPG]

This is our organisation (left), and this is a hard to reach area (right). So we are using different platforms to reach people in hard to reach area, separated by a river. You can’t reach it by a vehicle. So the radio, represented by the airplane. The radio is both an enterprise to get funds, and a radio to reach people. This object is part of the Metaphors for Un/Making CSC Collection. Created in Zomba, Malawi, 2023</p