The use of the participatory communication assessment at the beginning is exploratory: it is not restricted to a specific area or sector but is open to all areas and issues deemed relevant by one of various stakeholder groups. Conversely a PCA adopted in an on-going project with objectives already set is topical: it is restricted to investigate and probe topics related to set objectives. In this case, topical PCA should be considered a partial participatory approach, since the main priorities/objectives are already defined, and probably not in a participatory way.