 It intended to clearly demonstrate to policy and decision-makers the effectiveness of "Communication for Development" in helping meet today's most pressing development challenges and to advocate among them for the systematic inclusion of communication in development policy and practice.Communication for Development — as a process of dialogue, information sharing and building mutual understanding — is a powerful tool to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of development interventions, to assess and mitigate the political and social risks of those interventions and to build social ownership and sustainability.The WCCD, the first event of its kind, brought together more than 500 policymakers, development practitioners, NGO and CSO representatives, and academics/researchers active in the field.