Communication for Sustainable Development. Indicators for Impact Assessment in USAID Project “Educational Reform in the Classroom in Guatemala”

Abstract

This article presents an overview of the emergence of sustainability themes in communication for education and development and uses a framework of sustainability indicators for communication for development and social change projects to assess the Guatemalan “USAID/Reforma Educativa en el Aula” (REAULA) project. The article fills a crucial gap in the growing body of literature by first synthesizing the most relevant data currently produced by global and local institutions, NGOs, UN-based organizations, academics and professionals regarding assessment indicators for development projects, and secondly presents the framework of sustainability indicators that can be used by a wide variety of people in the field to assess the sustainability of existing projects and the sustainable potential of planned ones. Thirdly, it then tests this framework in the case of the Guatemalan project.   Keywords: Communication for Social Change, Sustainability, Education Rreform, Participatory Project Evaluation, Impact Assessment, Guatemala.   Submission date: 2011-07-31 Acceptance date: 2011-09-06