National Communications Reference Tool

25 Aug 2005 – 17:29 (modified on 07 Sep 2005 – 12:29)

by Edwin

This document outlines processes for formulating targeted and effective communication efforts within the scope of the World AIDS Campaign (WAC). Rather than providing a definitive framework it aims to list possible considerations and approaches to formulating your communication strategy. The resulting reference tools are neither prescriptive nor exhaustive but will serve to help country focal points choose from an array of appropriate tools and channels to suit their national campaigning objectives.

For the sake of clarity and simplicity we have organised this reference tool around the following 6 points.

1. Checking perceptions
2. Agreeing principles
3. Prioritising audiences
4. Choosing channels
5. Developing messages and branding
6. Planning activities

General tools

There are general tools that can help organizations shape campaigning activities. The "A Frame" for Advocacy gives a step by step guide to advocacy approaches and is for civil society actors and health planners to use when planning advocacy campaigns. Campaigning toolkit for civil society organisations engaged in the Millennium Development Goals is a manual that aims to help civil society organisations involved with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and provides them with a framework to plan a campaign strategy. It touches on MDGs, planning a campaign, toolkits for campaigns and linkages to support organisations. Finally, Civil society planning toolkits is a set of tools aimed at helping organisations with a variety of issues, starting from writing skills and going on to developing media, handling media, planning, evaluation, financial control and budgeting.

 1.Checking perceptions

For the initial step in this communications framework, checking the perceptions, attitudes and levels of knowledge of key stakeholders around possible WAC themes will be useful. Stakeholders include: policymakers, service providers, other NGOs, faith group representatives, business sector representatives, affected groups, young people etc
 tems to check include:

• What kinds of civil society actions have the most impact or influence on each of the groups
• What are people’s reactions to the campaign issue?
• What is their level of knowledge on the campaign issue?
• What are people’s reactions to the organizations moving the campaigns forward?

The logic behind checking perceptions is simple: if any communication strategy has to achieve its objectives it has to be designed keeping audience in mind. There are several tools available that may help guide users in mapping the perceptions of the audience. One interesting example is the Audience Participation Based Message Design, which emphasises the need to assess the topic of campaign and lifestyle of audience(s) in detail to choose the medium of communication.

2. Agreeing communication principles

The World AIDS Campaign approach to communication rely on popular buy-in and strong local ownership. National focal points will be encouraged to incorporate commonly accepted communications principles for country level programming. They will recognise, for example:

• Sustainability of social change is more likely if the individuals and communities most affected own the process and content of communication.
• Communication for social change should be empowering, horizontal (versus top-down), provide a channel for previously unheard members of the community, and be biased towards local content and ownership
• Communities should be the agents of their own change.
• Emphasis should shift from persuasion and the transmission of information from outside technical experts to dialogue, debate and negotiation on issues that resonate with members of the community.

While there is no fixed guidelines for the degree of participation and “affected voice” for this communication reference tool, we stress that all communication approaches should be rooted in commonly owned objectives and should respect the rights and sensitivities of those most affected. A number of tools exist that could be used as templates to achieve the objectives mentioned above.

These include Community Driven Development (CDD) Principles, a set of principles to empower people, entrust responsibility and decision-making in their hands, and make institutions more accountable to them, and Dynamic Facilitation, an approach whereby a facilitator does not steer and manage change but allows change to organize itself along a trajectory by enabling people to appreciate what they desire and how they intend to achieve it are some examples of these tools.

3.Prioritizing audiences and speakers

National strategies and objectives will define audiences. These may include:

• National Governments
• Health ministries and agencies within government
• AIDS Service Organisations financed by public funds and accountable to government
• Non Governmental Organisations delivering AIDS services
• Private sector, differentiated according to size and type
• Faith based, differentiated according to denomination, and level of hierarchy
• People living with HIV/AIDS
• Those directly caring or working with those living with HIV/AIDS
• Broader Civil Society
• General Public

Each of these groups can play a key role in helping achieve the objectives of the campaign/strategy. By bringing these groups together one could provide a platform for working together and breaking down some of the social or political differences between them. Each campaign will have a different set of groups involved.

Some general maps of health systems can serve as a useful reference. To understand how some of these different agencies fit together at the broadest level the Health Promotion: Ottawa Charter can be helpful. Through an illustrated diagram it shows the interlinkages between personal, communal, and governmental action to ensure a healthy life for individuals. Another useful conceptual tool in working out which audiences and speakers one might most usefully work with one can refer to the well known HIV/AIDS Continuum of Care. This is an illustrated diagram depicting the interlinkages between different levels and types of agencies starting from the individual and their peers right up to specialised tertiary health care. Neither of these conceptual tools are framed in terms of campaigning, but they may well provide illustrations for visualising the connections between the kinds of group listed above. In terms of prioritising the needs of individual audiences. AIDS toolkits: HIV/AIDS and community based natural resource management, developed by Development Alternatives Inc and University of Natal may help.

4. Choosing channels

Local knowledge will best determine what is appropriate in different contexts. Understanding the media and communication environment can help. In areas where newspapers have limited circulation, it may not be the best approach to rely heavily on newspaper columns and articles. Organisations such as BBC WST, Internews or Panos may have a nearby country office that may be able to provide advice.

The following channels of communication are just some of those used in campaigning.

• Speeches – are particularly efficient in schools, churches, organisations and workplaces. Speeches/talks are often optimally around 30 minutes long and one should leave sufficient time for questions. Speakers need training so that they understand the issues, the message themes and can answer difficult questions. Speeches are often more effective when speakers are the audience’s peers
• Workshops - a workshop can be a few hours long and is a good way to inform people and solicit diverse viewpoints. Workshops give people a chance to discuss issues in greater detail.
• Plays and songs - can be a very effective way of getting a message across to people who do not want to sit in meetings or workshops. Involve cultural groups in developing education programmes.
• Consultative meetings/community meetings - consultative meetings are meetings of interested people from your community or from a specific target group, where people come together to discuss an issue.
• Door-to-door – this is a labour intensive method, but great for intensive targeting of communities where man power is not an issue.
• Pamphlets - pamphlets are a good way of spreading information about HIV/AIDS and UNGASS as well as information about the campaign.  Pamphlets should be kept short and simple.
• Mass Media – Television, Radio and Newspaper allow for the dissemination of information. It provides a platform for public debate, and can serve as a mechanism for holding policymakers to account. A separate tool for engaging media for WAC may be developed. Meanwhile, local community and regional radio as well as newspapers could be approached to do stories that would educate people about UNGASS. Ask for slot/space to run a talk show or advice column on HIV/AIDS. 
• Posters/pamphlets/graffiti - use posters and pamphlets to raise pertinent issues or give people information. Get them from other organisations or make your own. Get permission from the council to paint an educational mural in a public place.
• Marches, events and culture - marches, cultural events and parties can mobilise community support. Use "Breaking the silence" events where people living with AIDS come to talk about their experiences, or plays and songs that show the reality of HIV/AIDS.
• Protests – protests have, historically, played an important role in many campaigns. Protests usually take place when governments or large private enterprises shun formal communication.
• Prayer meetings, funerals and other community events - special prayer meetings can address the issue of AIDS and the importance of “keeping the promise”. Traditional leaders/authority can call their subjects together to discuss AIDS and UNGASS. Funerals of people who died of AIDS have been used as an opportunity to raise awareness – keeping in mind the sensitivity of the immediate family.
• Loudhailers, information tables - loudhailers can be used to talk in taxi ranks or in other public spaces. Information tables can be set up at busy places.
• Local / Community Radio – Local radio stations are often an effective means of campaigning. Stations may be willing to join the campaign and publicise it.
• Internet – Although poorer countries may have little access, the web is still a useful tool as it lends itself to setting up networks and forums for campaign groups.

Some tried and tested tools do exist. They range from the highly targeted and sophisticated through to the simpler and more adaptable. Edutainment - The Soul City Approach is an illustrated diagram that links education and entertainment to bring about behavioural and social change. Similarly Public Service Announcements is a list of steps, focussing primarily on research and evaluation, which could help in designing an effective public service campaign on social issues. Theatre for Development (TfD) uses theatre as a way to initiate debate, highlight issues, underline power dynamics and give voice to children and youth. How to run a workshop is a list of steps from Network Learning to facilitate the process of organising effective workshops.

5. Developing messages and branding for public information campaigns

The World AIDS Campaign is about supporting those most affected by AIDS in holding their policymakers to account rather than the ‘top-down’ process of sending messages from experts to non experts. Our aim is ‘bottom-up communication’. However as part of the campaign, you may aim to increase general public awareness of an issue. To do this you may want a broad message to communicate and the slogan that sums it up. A campaign message is usually only a few sentences long, but it is used as the basis for all speeches, pamphlets, radio interviews, etc. A campaign will have much more impact if the message is clear and if everyone involved keeps saying the same things. If a campaign is international, national and local it is important to create a campaign identity by using a uniform slogan and message. "Message themes" are the ideas one tries to get across in everything that one says and does.

A message that ignores the characteristics of the audience is highly unlikely to make a desired impact irrespective of its other attributes. There are a number of tools that are available to help with keeping audience at the centre of any message and communication. Audience Participation Based Message Design has already been mentioned. Other similar tools, to use as pointers, are COAST, a model of communication that lays great stress on dialogue among stakeholders, brainstorming to identify alternatives, mutual goal and standards setting and through all this building of trust among diverse stakeholders. Another resource that might be useful is the Communication Programme Planning Work Sheet, a format that systematically breaks down a probable project into sub-components such as identification of partners, identification of problem, target audience, secondary target audience, communication goals and objectives, communication channels and evaluation.

6. Planning activities

Activities may be many and various. Examples noted in the WAC strategy document include:

• Documenting and sharing the relevant political commitments, including the UNGASS Declaration of Commitment, in a style accessible to all civil society groups.
• Developing mini-policy reports, released in staggered instalments and in conjunction with key national, regional and global meetings (such as APEC, G-8, Davos) by issue, by constituency, by region, and by development sector.
• In each country a civil society-led rapid-response centre could deliver strategic information to the media and key strategic partners in a timely fashion, including one-page briefs on frequently-raised questions and concerns
• Engaging with policy processes that impinge on civil society’s scope for intervention. This could include broadening discussions with National AIDS Councils, scrutinising the in-country Global Fund for the fight against AIDS TB and Malaria process and ensuring that donor funds are distributed with due respect to civil society inputs.
• Raising awareness amongst policymakers of the value of the contribution of civil society.
  Each country campaign will be different and not all of these activities will be appropriate for each country.

To see how these communication activities can fit into a broader strategic framework, please see the National Strategy Reference Tool.

Health Campaigns: Stages in Planning is an illustrated diagram depicting various stages of planning and conducting a health campaign. Developed at the National Cancer Institute, USA, this approach could benefit media and planners.
url: http://www.comminit.com/planningmodels/pmodels/planningmodels-43.html