Communicating for social change: Identifying fundamental hurdles

The road to social change is always strewn with social, economic, political, psychological and cultural hurdles. Social change programmes and efforts, in addition to problems inherent in change itself, have always faced hurdles that have substantial impact on the outcome of change endeavours. Unless these hurdles are recognised and guarded against, no change effort can be successfully executed, and no executed change plan can endure for long. In this article, the author discusses how communication could serve social development. He identifies and examines factors that would enhance social change. He also identifies and discusses barriers to social change and how social change agents could use them as stepping stones in their work.