| Dams, like many infrastructure and energy projects, are habitually quite controversial and often entail
social conflicts. The opponents of these type of projects frequently argue that governments build dams without paying adequate attention to their associated social and environmental costs, that decisions are not transparent and stakeholders do not have the opportunity to participate in the decision-making.
On the other hand proponents of dams deem that their opponents do not understand and often under-estimate the benefits, and are often reluctant to broader participatory processes, while believing that decisions on dams are political and should be resolved through the political process. The conflict is generally not about the dams itself but pretty much about the understanding and the perception of different actors and the governance of the whole process, in other words on the way in which societies express their choices and take decision over a project.
Strategic communications can help bridge these gaps and reach consensus at different levels, by increasing transparency and participation in the decision-making process, explaining costs and benefits to different stakeholders in ways that resonate to them and give them the opportunity and the channels to express their concerns and feedback throughout the whole project cycle.
DevComm is on the front line in mainstreaming strategic communications within World Bank large infrastructure projects, by actively contributing to the debate of the option assessment exercise and providing its technical assistance to government and task teams on communications at project level.
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Page updated September, 2004
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