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Development communication - a mystery of its own



Have you ever wondered what happens to all the communication and marketing materials the INGOs and other development agencies produce? I have been working in the communication field for the past 9 years and sadly the materials produced do not have a long shelf life.

Often times when an organization is awarded a brand new project there is a whole lot of excitement. As the focal communication person I often collaborate with the program team to develop a communication plan for the new project. The budget has been allocated. The target audiences have been defined in the project document and we are all set to go. So we sit with the team and develop a communication plan. All the team members come up with excellent ideas – brochure, short videos, posters, animated videos, programs on FM and TV. These are all great materials to communicate about the project and its progress during and after the implementation. We make plans to spend thousands of dollars and ensure each and every project have dedicated communication materials. The communication team puts in a lot of time and effort to develop the materials and deliver on time. Lo and behold we have a list of outcomes. The KPIs have been set. The report looks fantastic. The projects end, new ones start and the cycle continues. On the other end, the archivists have tons of communication materials to archive – documentation complete.

That’s it. There is no more room for all the glossy and expensive communication materials. Can it be reused? Hell no. All projects have communication budget and it has to be spent. It is truly sad when I see a whole bunch of materials collecting dust in the store rooms. The videos that took us almost 6 months to produce is now in the YouTube channel. It was uploaded in the organizations’ website, Facebook, Instagram, shared via twitter, the cloud. How many hits have these videos generated after the project ended? None.

So why do we keep producing all these communication materials when we know time and again that these won’t be used after the project phases out. Why do we never assess the impact of communication/behavior change communication? Why do we never conduct an end line survey to assess the impacts of communication materials? It’s a great question but the process is expensive and time consuming and we never have budget allocated for these kind of activities? The truth is the project cycles are limited and the pressure to start new ones takes away the interest from the ending ones. I know this doesn’t make sense but that is how it works.

So what do we do? It’s simple:
1.       Do not print any materials unless you are absolutely sure it doesn’t exist in the development sector. It is simple just Google to find out its existence.
2.       Collaborate with likeminded organizations to hinder duplication. I understand there is a competition to produce new and attractive materials but what’s the use of these materials when it isn’t reaching the targeted audience or if it has a limited shelf life.
3.       Reprint Reprint Reprint! I understand the pressure for donor visibility but that can be achieved by acknowledging the donors by printing their disclaimer anywhere in the Reprints.
4.       When an organization bids for a project ensure communication personnel/team are consulted to develop a full fledge communication budget dedicatedly allocated to assess the impact of communication materials.
5.       Projects must include and prioritize ‘assess impact of communication activities’ headings

Not all projects need communication activities assessment. However every INGO should assess the impact at least once every 3 years. This process will help the communication teams and the program teams to understand and reflect what went wrong and what went right. When you realize what is working it will surely help other projects to communicate effectively in the future which saves a lot of time and money. 


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