The government used radio messages to publicize its merits, downplaying the negative aspects and the fact that local people had not been consulted. It is costly to produce information and exchange it. There is reluctance by donors to fund information dissemination and exchange projects for local communities and their needs in Africa. Projects designers often ignore the information exchange component at the planning stage. There is frequently no provision for continuous learning or exchange of information with facilitators or project managers, for example.
Few projects have an integrated learning, visibility and replicability.
Some NGO projects are very effective, but few people know about them. There is severe lack of awareness about existing programmes and projects which result in wasted potential and duplication of efforts. Language is a serious barrier to communication. For example, environment and development conventions are conducted in languages that most local people cannot fully understand. Local people are not familiar with terms and concepts used, which cannot be easily translated since they represent experiences which are not culturally pervasive.