Communications & Public Education Strategy

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Purpose

 

• Increase awareness of the Resilience Program and facilitate its ownership and buy-in from all stakeholders and publics;

• Provide a platform for the exchange of information, including, very importantly, the sharing of traditional knowledge on disaster recovery and resilience;

• Serve as critical support for the consultation process for policy and program development and implementation;

• Serve as a medium for monitoring the effectiveness of the various interventions;

• Provide information and backstopping for action at the household, community and district levels.

 

Keys for Success

 

• The appointment of effective champions and message leaders who represent the society in all its diversity;

• Widespread use of social media, including efficient management strategies to manage “negative/fake” messages and counter campaigns; and

• Engagement with the creative artists’ community as a critical vehicle for changes in behaviour and attitudes.

 

The Goal

 

The goal of the Communications Strategy is to generate support and active participation from all publics for the actions and interventions that will be pursued to promote the climate resilient agenda.

 

The Objectives

 

The five main objectives of the communications strategy are:

 

1. To increase awareness, practice and pride among citizens on the importance of building climate resilience.

2. To improve the levels of communication and timely, quality information sharing among the agencies involved in building climate resilience.

3. To facilitate the sharing of information among all stakeholders on all aspects of climate resilience and disaster risk reduction.

4. To equip and empower citizens at the community and district levels with information and skills to promote climate resilience and reduce their exposure to natural disasters.

5. To promote the sharing (of knowledge on) indigenous and traditional knowledge, values and practices that have (historically) been (used successfully) practiced to recover from disasters and to build resilience.

 

The Publics

 

The main publics should be:

 

• Young people between the ages of ten (10) and twenty-five (25) years

• Community-based organizations, including sports clubs

• The adult population, represented as heads of households

• Vulnerable groups and communities

• Creative and editorial workers in the media

• Artists, including actors, painters, story tellers, musicians and writers

• Leaders of government, quasi-government, private sector, non-governmental agencies, faith-based organizations, and other civil society organizations

• Development partners and external support agencies