Dissemination and External Communication

Dissemination ensures that research outputs and general information about the project are available and accessible to target audiences in appropriate formats so that the content can be absorbed and used by the non-scientific community. Dissemination, in contrast to communication, is one-way delivery of information, such as radio, signage, and news articles.  Communication, instead, represents two-way communication and includes community meetings, focus groups, and unstructured interviews.  Dissemination and communication was the phase of research about which scientists spoke the most and expressed the greatest need for further work.  The dissemination of findings beyond the ivory tower of academia is increasingly important and expected by the scientific community.  This reflects changes in the standards of conservation as well as the expectations of communities in which research is conducted.  In the face of new challenges, some conservation scientists have begun exploring various forms of community-based conservation.  This has been accompanied by new commitments to engaging communities in the research process by disseminating the progress and findings of research at the village and district level.  Communities that neighbour parks and host-country researchers have also begun to demand benefits from research that include useful information that address socio-political concerns at the local, national, and regional levels.  If researchers do not discuss their findings after analysis, they may jeopardize their ability and the ability of other researchers to return to an area in the future.  Villagers have begun to complain of research fatigue, and the dissemination of findings is one way for researchers to assuage this.  While this engagement is becoming the disciplinary standard, sincerity is important.  

Beyond demonstrating respect for and interest in the livelihoods of communities, dissemination is an opportunity to share appropriate conservation strategies and to respond to new and longstanding concerns of people who neighbour conservation areas.  It is also a way for researchers to validate data, confirm conclusions, and exchange ideas.  Dissemination also provides an opportunity for researchers to begin to identify with villagers and to create pathways for villagers into formal employment and careers in science.  Field assistants and community facilitators have long been a part of the research process though they were often taken for granted and unacknowledged.  Dissemination also offers an opportunity to include communities in every stage of the research process.

Dissemination, however well-intentioned, is not easy.  It is a meeting of different perspectives, both within villages and between researchers, governments, and communities.  This diversity is valuable, but it also prompts issues of translation, power dynamics, complex exchanges of time and information, and the violent history through which many conservation areas were delineated and maintained.  As a result, dissemination is best done with care.  Below are a few lessons that scientists who work in the Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem have to share.

The following quotations reflect the views of participants in the AfricanBioServices project when asked about the process of disseminating research findings beyond traditional scientific audiences.  After transcribing interviews with scientists, the quotes were thematically organized using the 3Cs—context, cooperation, and communication—as an analytic frame.  This tripartite frame is used below to classify and present the quotations.  The quotations are not free-standing but are diverse individual voices that are grouped and sequenced thematically.  This highlights the variation and consensus among scientists about conducting research in an interdisciplinary and international group.

Dissemination is an area where many researchers have not done very well.  Their thinking is often to get results, write the paper, and have it accepted in a high-impact journal.  This does not help to address the problems in communities, who are suffering.  We, as researchers, must change our mindset to make sure that we give feedback.  First to the communities.  They must be debriefed.  We must explain the findings to them.  Explain the problem and solution to them in a language and vernacular that they understand.  
– Robert Fyumagwa

It is very important that we see that there are cultural differences.  That is fine.  We should not try to minimize the differences and streamline people and their ways of doing things.  People should contribute from these differences to the collective conversation without having to necessarily assimilate.
– Bente Graae

Policy briefs must all shared at various levels of government and should target the appropriate institutions and authorities.  They should not be lengthy.
– Robert Fyumagwa

Dissemination should be understood as feedback to the people who were helpful in gathering information collected during research.  This includes decision makers, planners, management authorities, and the community at large.  They have expectations.  Plans for dissemination should be ongoing from the beginning.  It is not a final step but an ongoing task.
– Janemary Ntalwila

We had expectations that people would want to intensify their production and engage more with the market when gaining access through road development that is taking place in the ecosystem and develop small business. And that this would encourage them to drop or reduce direct reliance on the ecosystem (i.e. harvesting environmental goods).  But, people want to expand and convert more land to agriculture and for cattle rearing. The less a person is educated, the less likely they are to take up business.  They don’t want to increase involvement in hunting or bushmeat, but they don’t want to halt either. Development does not necessarily lead to sustainability. This is a policy concern.
– Martin Nielsen

A good policy brief is targeted to specific districts. Specific districts have different concerns, and they have different approaches and understandings. They cannot be expected to simply accept scientific findings. There are many stories that need to be considered. We teach but we also listen.
– Philip Jacob

Conservation conferences held in the country in which research was conducted should be attended.  They should be a priority for all scientists.  Foreign scientists should prioritize returning to the place in which they collected data to contribute to scientific conferences as much as other international conferences as a way of disseminating scientific findings.
– Flora Magige

In dissemination, one must distinguish between the cultural barrier and the language barrier.  They are similar but distinct.
– Masoud Masoud

Consider primary schools, secondary schools, and colleges about specific issues.  Students represent the next generation of conservationists.  They need to be aware, included, and inspired.  
– Shombe Hassan

What is the so what of this research?  Ask yourself what is the applied value?
– John  Mgonja

Disseminate beyond your discipline, beyond academia.  It is always a good idea to validate your results and your conclusions by presenting them to the people on the ground. Especially if you are doing household questionnaire surveys or have any other interaction with the local communities, to make sure that you understood and analysed it consistently with what they actually meant.  That can be a challenge, but it can also provide some insights that make it a better, more well-founded conclusion.
– Martin Nielsen

Nature connects the world and likewise dissemination must be global, national, regional, and local.  However, although there are some similarities, the magnitude of impact may differ.  Sharing research findings will certainly inform decisions at these described dissemination levels.  The dissemination levels represent different understandings, and consequently, the need for designing common interventions that will engage all parties in the same manner. The suggestion recognizes that every dissemination level has a role to play in protecting nature, sustainable use, and livelihood improvement.  
– Iddi Mihijai Mfunda

We did research at four different sites and the dissemination strategy was different for each.
– Innocent Babili

Communities want research to solve their problems. This has to be understood.  
– Vedasto Ndibalema

Instead of developing conflict between nature and people, we should try to see if this can be developed into mutual benefits.  That is an important message.  As scientists, we are generally careful of saying what the exact societal solutions and policies are that should be chosen because these should be part of a democratic process, involving elected representatives of the people of a country.  As scientists, we try to disseminate our results—this is what we found and these are the problems that need solutions, these are possible directions and solutions to think of.  Then, it is up to decision makers and politicians to make the final choices on where to go.
– Han Olff

Dissemination is broad as well.  We need to include all Tanzanians in the conservation of wildlife.  The context of dissemination is broad as well as targeted towards direct stakeholders such as local communities and government officials.
– Rose Kicheleri

Bilateral and multi-lateral cooperation is paramount to natural resources management and environmental protection despite the differences in policies and strategies. However, the development cooperation negotiations and agreements should always consider interests of both parties. Striking a balance between partners makes easy implementation and likewise achieving the intended goals.  
– Iddi Mihijai Mfunda

One goal of dissemination is motivating policy makers and decision makers to act in ways that contribute to people’s rights and desires for development while nature is protected now and into in the future.  
– Han Olff

The responsibility for protecting the environment is international and benefits the world. In this regard, financing, human resources, technology and innovation, research and sharing of the findings to generate informed decisions and actions is an international effort.
– Iddi Mihijai Mfunda

The final funds of a project should be given after proof of dissemination.  The incentives for publication in scientific journals are there.  The incentives for dissemination must be understood.    
– Julius Nyahongo

We used a board game and posters to interact with people in villages in order to ask people about what they want, what their visions are, what their decisions are based upon.  Through these unconventional methods, people seem more willing to open up, share, and trust one another.  It promotes interaction and facilitates data collection.
– Bente Graae

Policy makers need results that solve social problems.  They are less interested in academic and theoretical framings of issues and findings.  There is a political willingness to focus on conservation, so we need to harness this and address social problems in an ecosystem.
– Shombe Hassan

We specifically thought of dissemination in designing the Bayesian belief network model. A bunch of scientists from different disciplines together built a model that describes the GSME system and enables you to adjust aspects of the system and see what the consequences are.  Then, having built that model, we went back to the communities and presented the model for them and asked for input on the way we had structured it, whether it was how they thought the system actually functioned.  Then, based on their insights, we adjusted the model. Another aspect of this work is that we will use a specific technology that enables you to play with the model yourself.  There will be a specific webpage that you can make small adjustments and choose different scenarios and push a button and see what the consequence are.  It gives people power in their own hands to plan their future. They can make adjustments. If they think we will see more precipitation as a result of climate, they can see what the consequences are, and they can plan accordingly.  I think that is an important dissemination outcome.
– Martin Nielsen

We had people from the village involved.  We had enclosures in the village and the people had to be involved.   We had to engage in discussions about how conservation may have a positive impact on their livelihoods.   This is a continuous process.  It has to be sustained, the process of dissemination because there are changes.  Migrants come in, people age, the landscapes change, the communities are changing daily.  Dissemination is one of the issues and it has to be done more frequently and continuously because people are changing.  
– John Bukombe

Research must be ongoing.  If conservation is to be sustainable, then research must also be sustainable.  New challenges and new opportunities emerge, and they must be studied.  This is where the support of international communities is important.  For local protection of wildlife to continue, local researchers must be supported.  
– Innocent Babili

Dissemination is ultimately about influencing rules.  Rules play an enormous role in the sustainable management of wildlife areas.  The enforcement of regulations and legislation that focus on inclusion of communities is not fully understood.  Translating our findings into rules is a key part of dissemination.
– Rose Kicheleri

I wrote a paper about relating the policy process and outcomes.  It can be exciting, but once regulations are formulated, they become centralized as well.  Local people’s voices are not always carried through the policy process.  This stage is problematic for village people.  This is important in terms of dissemination and policy recommendations.  Conservation policy can be manipulated to limit access to land.
– Innocent Babili

Other disciplines force local communities into the ecological discussion.
– Vedasto Ndibalema

We say let us collaborate, but we must recognize that our agendas are often not compatible.  Coordinators must see three dimensions—civil society, the resource, and bridges.
– George Kajembe

Local officers, agricultural officers, and game officers are particularly important to include in dissemination.  Knowledge exchange is very important at this juncture.  Increasing scientific capacity of local officers is important, and scientists must understand their insights.
– Philip Jacob

Dissemination is for policy makers, students, funding agencies, and communities to use the findings to make decisions.  One must consider many different kinds of outlets—media, social media.  
– Joseph Ogutu

Science can be so abstract that people don’t understand it and, as a result, they don’t trust it and it isn’t incorporated into decision-making.  Perhaps, scientists need to engage communication professionals to translate computational and conceptual models for broader use.  
– Norman Owen-Smith

The best examples of communication have been when the community does the communication themselves. They are only able to do this if they have participated fully in all the previous steps of the research. And, then they are doing this every day by telling their family and friends about the research, but also in more formal community meetings. I have sat, many times, in the back of the room as Maasai co-researchers stand and present information to school classes and to community members in the Maasai language with me staying pretty much silent. I am again going to take these moments with me for the rest my life.
– Robin Reid

Scientific publishing is a form of dissemination but the focus is the scientific community with the goal of influencing the direction of the conversation and gaining in your field.  That is important and, in many ways, a given.  Public dissemination is often prioritized based upon personal preference.  Our group focused on this from the beginning because we felt obliged and committed to share it with communities.  We went to the village and had meetings with the executive committee and the environmental committee.  
– Stuart Smith

People appreciate if you can give them a picture, a picturesque picture.  For instance, how does a tsetse know that wildebeest are near?  It knows by receiving a chemical that is coming from the wildebeests, and the tsetse says there is my target.  Though you cannot see these reactions, you show them in a compelling way.
– Othman Chande

Relevant tools and organizations must be identified for the dissemination of key findings and progress.  There are many tools.  Calendars with images of the project.  Flyers with visuals are another way to engage communities and demonstrate what is going on in the field sites near their homes.  Policy briefs are key for government officials.  Journalists are helpful as well, and press releases should be prepared.  One well done press release can be shared with the entire country through journalists with different specialties from different areas.  
– Janemary Ntalwila

Learning to do interviews and preparing stories with journalists is an important part of science communication.
– Joseph Ogutu

Institutions vary across ecological systems.  In Tanzania, it is public ownership of land.  In Kenya, it is private.  Communicating and disseminating to institutions with different organizations and cultures matters.  
– George Kajembe

Dissemination should be discussed. It should be interactive. It is more respectful and efficient this way. The effort that is put into research should also be put into dissemination.  
– Bente Graae

Simple and easy publicity materials.  T-shirts, local fabric materials, posters for schools, village meetings, briefings for district level government, translating materials for villages are all options.  Scientists must use these and engage community facilitators who understand the skill of communication.  How do we engage and accommodate people who need this information?  If we don’t, when the project ends only scientists have gained knowledge, but the villagers’ understanding and use of the ecosystem have not changed.  
– Janemary Ntalwila

Language matters.  In Tanzania, for example, official languages are English and Swahili, but at the local level, it would be more appropriate to use the ltater for more understanding, appreciation and engagement.  
– Iddi Mihijai Mfunda

We used pictures and records to communicate with people in the village about what we found.  Go directly to villagers through local structures.
– John Bukombe

Translating findings into Swahili is important.
– Hamza Kija

Communicating findings is a difficult task when you target the audience.  For instance, chemistry has its own language, and communicating to other scientists from different disciplines, lay men, and local people is a translation process.   You have to sit down and decide which methods and language fit.  Sometimes one language can suitable for all and sometimes not.  In most cases, visual aids are great because they have wide applicability and they are easily understood.  
– Ophery Ilomo

Econometrics is a language.  It is not a language that all people understand and these findings need to be translated.
– Innocent Babili

Local people asked us why we are doing this research, and this is not always anticipated in the research design.  Resources need to be dedicated to convey information to local people who give us information.  They have a right to learn what was uncovered.
– Innocent Babili

Communicating statistics and models should be done in a simple way that policy makers and local communities can understand.
– Franco Mbise

It is helpful to have ideas about what platforms that you will be using from the beginning so they can be further developed in context throughout the project.
– Innocent Babili

The policy process, development, and review is a lengthy process.  Findings should be shared and reiterated throughout this process.  It is a different way of writing.  
– John Mgonja

Policy briefs are important tools, for taking the message to the decision makers however,   understanding the political context is also very important.
– Flora Magige

Science also fails at dissemination because of miscommunication.  Communicating science in simple and clear ways is a skill that must be represented in a project.
– Philip Jacob

You have to ask— Who will find this information useful?  Who is obliged to understand these findings? Local people should be included in all stages.  Including them throughout the research process makes dissemination easier.
– Philip Jacob

The most important thing for dissemination is to make sure that it is done effectively and thoroughly and the findings are presented in a manner that the audience will understand. It has to be quick and fast for the results to have an impact to the respective area.
– Flora Magige

The Parliament will provide opportunities for scientists to speak, if these opportunities are requested.  Scientists must prepare for these, but they must work for them if they want science to influence policy.  
– Philip Jacob

We collect data in Swahili and analyse and process them in English and then put them back in Swahili to disseminate to local communities.  This is a complex translation exercise.  
– Rose Kicheleri

Dissemination at the national level is much easier because people are educated.  You can present policy briefs in face-to-face meetings and can use technical data to convince them.
– Rose Kicheleri

Often people finish research and then return to their institutions.  The findings and feedback do not return to the local people who are the custodians of these resources.  If the research is only disseminated in scientific language in conference and journals, this is problematic.  Local people should be included in a language that they can understand and in ways they can implement.
– John Mgonja

People want to see wildlife flourish.  This is not the issue.  People need more information about the conditions on the ground for wildlife and communities.
– Rose Kicheleri