Improvement of the system of communication for behavior and social change in development communication strategy of the organization
Table of contents: The Kazakh-American Free University Academic Journal №12 - 2020
Authors: Ghafary Narges, Kazakh-American Free University, Kazakhstan, Herat, Afghanistan
Madiyarova Elvira, D. Serikbayev East-Kazakhstan State Technical University, Kazakhstan
Novitskaya Yuliya, Kazakh-American Free University, Kazakhstan
Introduction
Currently, Development
Communication (DC) is defined at the Women Empowerment for New Horizon
Organization in Afghanistan (WENHO) as being the strategic use of communication,
research, and participatory community engagement to promote positive and
measurable behavior and social change. DC is an evidence-based process that
utilizes a mix of communication tools, channels and approaches to facilitate
participation and engagement with children, families, communities, networks for
promoting positive social and behavior change in both development and
humanitarian contexts. It draws on learnings and concepts from the social,
behavioral, and communication sciences. That definition of DC is rich with
meaning, but when it comes to implementing it, some organizations such as WENHO
fall short on doing it effectively. A first strategic decision has to do with
the relative priority of audiences and focus of capability development (whether
internal or external) to be covered under the scope of the DC system. Non-DC
related staff in WENHO play a critical role in the development of DC interventions.
Governmental and NGO counterparts provide essential roles in DC delivery. Over
time, WENHO will have to decide how best to coordinate capability development
in relation to these many constituencies. Secondly, a third strategic decision
regards the speed at which DC capabilities need to be developed. As stated
above, there are many staff members with different needs and opportunities for
growth. It will take resources - time, energy, and money - to build the
infrastructure, systems, and staff to make best use of the capability building
programs. It will require a long-term, sustained investment - a sustained "push
on the flywheel" for WENHO to grasp the greatest return on its DC capability
development investment.
Overall, the paper
emphasizes significant tensions, challenges and issues related to the effective
and demanding evaluation of DC within WENHO. The research identified many
contextual, structural and institutional challenges, issues and barriers, including
problems with communication, attitudes towards DC and evaluation in general. It
also identified issues related to conceptualizing, managing and of DC
operations and results. The research found a lack of skills and capacities in
evaluation related specifically to the DC practices of WENHO, including a lack
of appreciation, funding and support for alternative evaluation approaches that
are more appropriate for DC. Moreover, the paper highlighted that the
organization has not used a mix of long-term communication channels,
particularly participatory approaches for community mobilization and engagement
due short-term projects and lack of funding. WENHO requires investment on
informative research to learn from the target audiences what values and social
norms to appeal to. Further, community leaders must be engaged and feel that
they are full partners in the effort to improve the lives of community
members. Moving forward, the organization needs to develop a more structured
and systematic approach to government capacity development that engages with
the factors that are preventing DC from being better integrated into government
planning. Finally, the paper is concluded with the overall recommendation for
further consideration while developing a DC strategy for the organization.
Purpose, objectives and
scope of the research
The purpose of the
research is for WENHO to adopt a more effective Development Communication
strategy in order to better achieve and strengthen the organization's future
action and results."
Research objectives:
1. Gain a broader and
more expert understanding of Development Communications
2. Examine DC theories
and their applicability in order to develop an assessment framework to measure
organization DC capacity and effectiveness
3. Become familiar with
WENHO's current DC system and utilize the framework by assessing the system's
strengths and weaknesses
4. Present recommendations
for a more effective DC system to be considered by WENHO
In short, in this paper
the researcher will step away from talking about WENHO decision makers in fact
viewing development communication as public relations and branding despite
their rich definition of it. Instead, the focus is on guiding the organization
on how to increase its resources mobilization for DC by increasing its DC
visibility and Evaluability. In this context, it is important to also know what
the expectations of the decision makers are who are external to WENHO itself
and what kind of tangible and visible DC results and impacts they are looking
for. The key decision-makers include the donors who usually fund the DC
programs as well as other programs in the organization. Some of the
organization partners such as ministries and other local NGOs, use only those
DC approaches that focus more on messages, billboards, posters, and media
campaigns that usually look and feel best for reporting to donors, but in fact
contribute little to actual social change.
Executive Summary
Communications for
Development (DC) is the application of practical communication principles to
further development objectives. WENHO is one of the NGOs in Afghanistan that promotes and uses DC it all its programs strategy to drive positive behavioral and
social change in the community. In recognition of the importance of DC, WENHO
has made a substantial investment in developing both its internal capacity and
its partners' capacity in designing and implementing DC strategies. Many
efforts have been made towards better integrating DC as a cross-cutting program
strategy into systems, policies, and plans.
This is a case study
report for Afghanistan. The country case study had four main objectives:
1. Assessing the connection,
effectiveness, and efficiency of the WENHO's efforts to (a) develop the
specific knowledge and competences of staff in DC and (b) enhancing the
organization's overall capacity.
2. Assessing how
appropriately DC has been integrated into the organizational structures and
programs;
3. Assessing how proper
DC-related planning and implementation has been to the contextual needs of the
country program, and identify factors driving or constraining the relevance of
DC-related planning and programming.
4. Reviewing DC-related
performance monitoring and knowledge management and assessing the availability
of results (outcomes and impact) achieved through programs using DC
interventions.
Findings
Concerning the survey
and internal document review analysis, it appeared that there had been a good
investment in building DC capacity when one considers the organization's
relatively small size. The DC staff training has been the initial investment to
date, with excellent follow-up by participants on their return. They replicated
their knowledge with other colleagues in the organization. All training has
been relevant to the needs of the participants, which effectively came quite
recently when it was realized there was a need for DC capacity building.
The training and
workshops targeted the right staff members and used the right mix of learning
methodologies. Likewise, the courses have contributed to improving DC knowledge
and practice. The risk, however, is that without follow-up, the capacity gains
achieved through these courses will erode. Moving forward, the organization requires
to look at more efficient ways of building internal skills. Sending staff to
the courses was an effective way of building DC capacity, but it was costly and
benefitted only a minimal number of staff. In the future, more emphasis is
needed on facilitating the transfer of knowledge and skills between peers. This
will be less costly and will reach more people. This also will help distribute
DC capacities more widely across the organization. Organizing such training and
activities for both the staff and the partners would pool experience from
across the country, would allow WENHO DC professionals to network and share
experiences and would make training cost-effective.
Another challenge the
organization encounters in strengthening its DC capacity is human resources.
There is only one DC specialist working in the entire organization, which is
not enough to service all of the sections effectively. There have been many efforts
to increase capacity through a network of focal points embedded in sections,
but it will require investment in building their ability to be effective.
There is strong support
for DC in the organization, but it is still not adequately considered in the
planning process. The fact that there is virtually no reference to DC in either
the 2011 or the 2015 Situation Analysis documents is indicative of this, as is
the poor integration DC into core planning documents such as the RAM and RWPs.
However, the recent development of a new DC strategy is an important step and
presents a real opportunity for embedding DC into the structures and processes
of the organization. The establishment of an internal DC task force, chaired by
the Deputy Country Director, to lead the coordination of DC across the country
program and provide consistent senior-level oversight and backing for DC is
already a step in the right direction. One of the significant challenges the
organization needs to grapple with to better integrate DC into programming
relates to financial resources.
Current levels of
financial allocations for DC are insufficient to meet the needs of the country
program. There are no quick fixes to this problem, but more consistent involvement
of the DC specialist in resource mobilization will help collect more evidence
on the impact of DC interventions. Another challenge that the organization will
need to tackle in the future is how to manage the integration of DC and
external communications as WENHO shifts away from community engagement towards
more upstream advocacy work based on the reviewed minutes meetings. Currently,
there are demarcated roles and responsibilities between DC and external
communications, but this may not remain the case. There is likely to be
increased blurring of functions, and there is a real risk that DC could find
itself losing prominence. DC will need to monitor and navigate these shifts
carefully if it wants to remain relevant.
DC has been a respected
cross-cutting discipline in the organization and is implemented with increasing
professionalism in terms of DC implementation. Considerable attention to DC
effectively began in 2012; since then, many programs have been implemented with
significant DC components integrated into them. How DC is applied across
sections tends to fall into one of three modalities: DC and program sections
work in parallel on an initiative; DC leads the action, and the sections
provide technical support, and sections lead the effort, and the DC team offers
technical support. Each modality has benefits and challenges.
There has been a notable
amount of activity around DC in the organization. However, against the DC
indicators that are considered proxies for quality implementation, performance
is mixed. This indicates a lack of consistency in the quality with which DC is
being designed and implemented. A key area for improvement relates to the
organization taking the lead in establishing multistakeholder taskforces that
can coordinate and plan for DC nationally and sub-nationally. There has been
limited DC capacity support provided to partners to date; the delivery has been
ad hoc and opportunistic. While NGO partners already have a little bit of good
DC capacity, government partners do not. In government, there is a reluctance
to move away from DC as being posters and pamphlets and to embrace the view
that DC is evidence-based and participatory. Moving forward, the organization
needs to develop a more structured and systematic approach to government
capacity development that engages with the factors that are preventing DC from
being better integrated into government planning.
Given the current
monitoring and reporting structure within WENHO, it would not be possible to
assess the aggregate effects of DC programming across the organization. The
reason behind this is a lack of clarity on how DC activities link to program
outputs and outcomes, and data on behavior changes are not systematically
collected. This suggests that, in the future, were WENHO to invest further in
evaluating the impacts of its DC work, the unit of analysis should be the
individual DC programs rather than the overall country program.
This study found that
WENHO has a general preference for participatory community approaches for
achieving behavior change objectives. Community participatory approaches lead
to better behavioral outcomes. However, WENHO requires investment on
informative research to learn from the target audiences what values and social
norms to appeal to. Further, community leaders must be engaged and feel that
they are full partners in the effort to improve the lives of community
members. Government officials and partners do not have the necessary
interpersonal communication skills to establish a productive relationship with
target audiences. WENHO Interventions seeking behavior change need to provide
the partners with tools and interpersonal communication training that will help
them stay on message and convey empathy and concern. Effective interpersonal
communication supports to promote the perception that community elders and
community members are in more equitable relationships with those representing
their community and is part of the process of enhancing the trust in the
community. When community members are listened to and respected, and when they
feel that they are being responded to, the behavior change adoption is more
likely to occur.
Recommendations
DC Capacity Building
- WENHO should consider
providing relevant capacity building to the new DC focal points. DC focal
points are technical officers, who have been trained in DC, with
responsibilities for advocating, mainstreaming and quality assuring DC
activities within their zones. Currently, there are new DC focal points in the
organization that are in the process of forming a network of DC champions
within each Section who require relevant capacity building programs on DC.
- It would be
ideal for DC staff to also take courses with a sectoral focus (i.e., Child
Protection, Women Empowerment, etc.) to apply DC approaches effectively in a
specific field. As a result, each focal point would form a strong DC network
around him/her and that should take some of the workload off the DC Specialist.
- The organization
should consider establishing long-term partnerships to support DC capacity
development as well as focusing on building the capacity of partners and the
government on DC. Additional capacity building will still be needed, and partnerships
with a number of local organizations will help. These partners could work
across sections in delivering DC capacity development services and support
create productivity.
- The Communications
team in WENHO should instigate regular learning events for Section staff across
the organization. For example, these could be quarterly meetings run by the DC
Specialist, but broader learning/workshop opportunities for Section staff could
also be considered. This would make sure that there is follow-up of capacity already
built and would continue to share new approaches, new methodologies, new lessons
learned, and best practice examples.
- WENHO should consider
facilitating capacity building activities for DC staff members, focal points,
its partners, and other stockholders. Arranging such activities would pool
experience that would allow DC practitioners to network together and share experiences.
It would also make training more cost-effective.
DC Integration
WENHO should address the
need to define, design, and implement some effective standard operating
procedures (SOPs) to consolidate the process of integration of DC, which has
already begun. This should include SOPs for routinely integrating the DC
Specialist into program planning and resource mobilization; identification of
focal points in sectors and ensuring that their responsibilities are well
described in job descriptions and performance reviews.
WENHO should make sure
that all Sectors are provided with documentation to provide support on how to
best integrate DC in planning, monitoring, and evidence gathering.
WENHO should renew its
efforts to improve monitoring and documentation of DC results. To make this
happen, it is recommended that DC should be explained and highlighted clearly
in all RWPs as well as in all future planning and monitoring frameworks as is
appropriate.
Through making a clear
articulation of the links between activities and outcomes, the logic gaps
between DC activities and higher-level results/outcomes should be addressed.
The indicators should be clearly written for internal monitoring and assessment
of the DC interventions within programs. Finally, all the results should be
more clearly attributed to DC efforts where it is appropriate. Good human
interest stories should be written and publicized that illustrate the impact of
DC practices. This will partly help to aid fund-raising for evidence
generation.
DC Implementation
The organization should
consider conducting a DC capacity assessment of key government partners to
better understand their current knowledge, skills and practice and the major
blockages they face in better integrating DC into government planning and
implementation.
WENHO should develop a
clear strategy and plan for building DC capacity in the organization. This
should mobilize a range of capacity development strategies, such as training
and mentoring to ensure all programme staff have a solid foundation in DC
methods, theories and principles.
WENHO should assess the
demand for DC support in each Section and develop realistic staffing
arrangements, which ensures adequate support both within WENHO and to its
partners. The nature and number of DC programs and the number of government
partners varies across sections and as such, so does the required level of DC
support.
Senior management and
Section Chiefs should be required to support the DC Specialist in funding and
coordinating cross-cutting DC initiatives. The implementation of cross-sector
DC initiatives has been challenging because of limited support and funding from
Sections and problems in coordinating planning and implementation. Resolving
these problems will require Section Chiefs to show genuine support for
cross-sector initiatives and commit to resourcing them adequately. It will also
require the Country Director and Deputy Director to see the value of
cross-sector DC initiatives and to drive cross-sector working forward across
the country program.
DC Human Resources
To help better
coordinate the DC capacity development efforts, WENHO should consider working
with a limited number of organizations that could provide support across the
office.
WENHO should consider
recruiting a full-time DC adviser, who could be pro-actively in touch with the
DC Specialist in Kabul and in the zone, as well as sector specialists, to
provide in-depth DC knowledge and experience.
WENHO should ensure a
better resource allocation for DC. Current funding for DC is insufficient to
meet programmatic needs. This can be addressed in two ways: (a) Identify
processes to make sure the DC Specialists have the opportunity to review and
provide input into all proposals that have a significant DC component, starting
from the inception phase and all the way through. Currently, the level of DC
specialist's engagement with the proposal process is ad hoc and piecemeal. As a
result, DC activities are under-resourced, which undermines the quality of
delivery. (b) WENHO could make sure that the current guidance on financial
allocation to DC is followed. When developing proposals, the existing guidance
on allocation resources to DC activities should be strictly followed.
Redouble efforts to
ensure DC initiatives are grounded in evidence. While research and evaluation
are being used to inform DC interventions, this is not being done
systematically. Ensuring communication strategies are evidence-based is central
to ensuring there is capable DC.
DC Visibility
WENHO should continue to
document best practices, innovations, and learning in DC. The products should
be communicated externally, both in-country among partners and with WENHO staff
at different levels. WENHO has significant experience implementing DC in Afghanistan, and it is viewed by partners as the primary source of expertise on DC
domestically.
More effort should be
put into actively sharing learning, best practices, guides, and toolkits to
build the capacity of others and improve the implementation of DC. This will,
in turn, help attract resources for sectoral and cross-sectoral DC
interventions.
DC Evaluability
Ensure that DC results
are presented clearly in the results framework for the new CPD. This should
include: a clear causal logic in how DC activities link to Section results at
output and outcome level, a clear articulation of specific behavior changes results
where relevant, clear indicators and baseline data collection.
Any research/data
collection efforts on behavior/social change that have been achieved by means
of DC initiatives should be more routine.
DC Communication
Channels and Partnership
While developing the new
DC strategy, the organization should consider a strategic approach or mix of
methods and models to reach the target audiences. The types of communication
channels that will maximize the reach and effectiveness of the messages should
be identified. No matter how much the communication messages and materials are
wonderfully and cleverly designed, they will not be valid if they do not reach
the intended audience.
Utilizing a variety of
linked communication channels is more effective than relying on one specific
one.
The target population
including the community elders, should participate in all phases of behavior
change communication development and in much of implementation.
Stakeholders, partners,
and community members need to be involved from the design stage.
Planning for monitoring
and evaluation should be part of the design of any BCC program, and the
community members should be a part of the monitoring team. Key stakeholders
should be involved early on in every step of the process of developing messages
or any behavior change programs. Stakeholders include policymakers, community
elders, faith leaders, and members of target populations. Their active participation
at appropriate stages of DC strategy development is crucial. It is required
that a stakeholders meeting is held at the planning stage to obtain guidance
and commitments to the process and to develop coordination mechanisms.
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Table of contents: The Kazakh-American Free University Academic Journal №12 - 2020
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