Joint Communications Strategy
Guidance Note
A guide to developing a UN Country Team communications
strategy that integrates communications with the UN
Development Assistance Framework and includes internal and
external communications and advocacy.
Table of Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................................4
How to Use This Guidance Note............................................................................................. 4
Steps in a UNCT Joint Communications Strategy ................................................................... 5
Fundamentals of Joint Strategic Communications ...........................................................6
Defining Joint Communications .............................................................................................. 6
Purpose of a Joint Communications Strategy ......................................................................... 7
Communications Principles .................................................................................................... 7
1
Vision, Mission and Strategic Objectives ................................................................9
1.1
Strategic Objectives .................................................................................................... 9
2
3
4
5
2.1
Environmental Scan and Stakeholder Analysis ....................................................10
Internal Stakeholders .................................................................................................11
2.2
External Stakeholders................................................................................................12
Align the Joint Communications Strategy with the UNDAF ...................................15
Joint Communications Strategy Outline ...............................................................16
Determine Needs and Requirements ...................................................................18
5.1
Needs Analysis ..........................................................................................................18
5.2
Funding Requirements ..............................................................................................18
5.3
Option Report ............................................................................................................19
5.4
Obtain Senior Management Support..........................................................................19
5.5
Develop plan to fulfil needs and requirements ...........................................................20
6
7
Communications Work Plan/Implementation Plan ................................................21
Develop Messages ..............................................................................................23
7.1
Communicating UNDAF Outcomes and Results ........................................................24
8
9
Coordinate and Manage.......................................................................................26
Finalize Budget and Mobilize Resources .............................................................27
9.1
Finalize Budget ..........................................................................................................27
9.2
Support Joint Resource Mobilization ..........................................................................27
10 Implement ............................................................................................................29
11 Monitor and Evaluate ...........................................................................................30
11.1 Monitoring..................................................................................................................30
11.2
Evaluation..................................................................................................................30
11.3
Impact on Programming, Policy and Behaviour .........................................................33
12 Annexes ...............................................................................................................34
12.1 Delivering as One Work plan for 2008: United Republic of Tanzania .........................34
12.2
Worksheet for Communication Implications of the Stakeholder Analysis ...................36
2
12.3
UNDAF Results Matrix, Malawi 2008-2011 ................................................................38
12.4
M&E Matrix, Malawi 2008-2011 .................................................................................41
12.5
Gantt Chart ................................................................................................................42
12.6
Recommended Reading ............................................................................................43
12.7
Support ......................................................................................................................44
3
Introduction
This guidance note provides recommendations on how UN Communications Groups can
develop a joint communications strategy that encompasses all communications activities
conducted on behalf of the UN Country Team. It draws upon strategic communications
guidance and best practices from across the UN system and combines it with lessons learned
from recent efforts to deliver more coherent, effective and relevant support to countries.
This note is intended to supplement and complement UN organizations’ existing guidance on
strategic communications. It assumes that the reader is familiar with the basics of crafting a
communications strategy. A selection of strategic communications resources is available in the
online UN Development Group Communications Toolkit.
How to Use This Guidance Note
There are three core guidance notes for joint communications:
1. Guidance Note on Forming and Strengthening a UN Communications Group
2. Joint Communications Strategy Guidance Note
3. Communicating UN Coherence, Effectiveness and Relevance
First, review the directions in the guidance note on forming or strengthening your UNCG, and
implement them as appropriate.
Second, review this joint communications strategy guidance note. As you follow its
recommendations and develop your communications strategy, you may need to revisit your
efforts to strengthen your UNCG. The key is to ensure that the capacity of your UNCG matches
the objectives you are setting in your strategy. For example, if your strategy seems too
ambitious relative to the capacity or organizational effectiveness of your UNCG, you have a
decision: either be more modest in your ambitions, or make a case for your strategy and explore
the means of strengthening the UNCG.
Third, review the note on Communicating UN Coherence, Effectiveness and Relevance. This
note offers specific recommendations for using communications to support reform and change
management in UN Country Teams. If your team is engaging in this effort, then make
communications for change a sub-strategy that is part of your overall joint communications
strategy. This will involve following the same type of steps for the UNCT joint strategy while
focusing your stakeholder analysis, messages, work plan, etc. on communications to support
changes to the ways the UNCT works.
4
Steps in a UNCT Joint Communications Strategy
This diagram illustrates the possible steps to take in developing and executing your strategy.
Some components may not be necessary or feasible, depending on your existing capacity, the
structure and role of your UNCG, and whether your UNCT is involved in a reform process to
improve its coherence, effectiveness and relevance.
Fundamentals of Joint Strategic Communications
Strategic communications is the art of expressing values and solutions in ways that persuade
your target audiences to understand and support your mission and messages. It is also a
science that collects the techniques used to convey information in ways that move people to
action. For UN Country Teams, strategic communications is about pursuing concrete outcomes
that promote development, support programme objectives, and strengthen the UN Country
Team. Strategic communications can:
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Increase policy influence
Increase training impact
Promote transparency
Build networks and partnerships
Facilitate change via social marketing
Increase core and non-core resources
Promote and protect reputation
Enhance commitment and ownership
Manage crises
Increase delivery
Increase overall UNCT efficiency
Defining Joint Communications
In the same way that a UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) defines a collective
strategic framework for the UNCT’s objectives and programmes, so a joint communications
strategy provides a framework, process and plan for the communications activities the team
undertakes to support the UNDAF and other activities. By developing a common strategy,
UNCT members can enhance inter-agency understanding and knowledge, work together more
effectively, harmonize their messages, magnify their overall voice and impact, and produce
lasting, meaningful results. The strategy must be creative and foster team spirit, but it must also
have clear objectives, outputs, outcomes, and shared responsibilities.
Joint communication strategies must be planned with an in-depth understanding of the priorities
and immediate objectives of the UNCT and its members. Increased coordination among UN
system communications officers in preparing joint communication strategies, work plans,
advocacy campaigns, and websites will foster a stronger sense of unity in diversity and common
purpose at the country level.
“The United Nations has a compelling story to tell,” former Under-Secretary-General for Public
Information, Shashi Tharoor, has said. “But it must be told well, so as to build public support.”1
His successor, Under-Secretary-General Kiyotaka Akasaka, has called for UN Country Teams
to communicate together more effectively to strengthen the UN system’s collective impact.
1
61st General Assembly, Fourth Committee, 10th Meeting (16 October 2006).
www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/gaspd349.doc.htm
6
Joint communications play a powerful role in improving the flow of information between UN
entities and UN staff members to tell the UN system’s collective story. As a valuable and
practical tool, joint communications enables UN entities to combine efforts, pool talent,
resources and expertise, and strategically deliver concrete actions in unison to garner support
and achieve common communications goals. Dedicating the proper resources to prepare and
follow-through with a joint communication strategy will help your UNCT to tell its compelling
story.
In practical terms, the joint communications strategy will cover overall internal and external
communications for the UNCT, plans for communications in specific thematic or geographical
areas, media relations, support for advocacy on behalf of UN system-wide topics such as the
Millennium Development Goals, common UNCT messages, and planning to ensure that
individual agencies communications activities are coordinated with each other to maximize the
overall impact of the country team. Depending on the UNCT, it may also include
communications to support joint programming, individual agencies’ objectives, and specific
programmes.
Purpose of a Joint Communications Strategy
Your communications strategy should build public awareness of the UN system and its
contributions to national development goals; but it should also do much more than that. It should
promote partnerships, show how the UNCT is delivering results, inspire action, and rouse
advocacy for specific programmes, policies and norms that will help your host country achieve
its development priorities. To do this, your team must:
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Mobilize, carry out, and manage a communication strategy that focuses on development
issues where the UNCT has a comparative advantage and can add the most value.
Distribute the right message to the right audiences at the right time with an emphasis on
speed.
Build awareness, acceptance, information-sharing, ownership, and commitment in your
Country Team and among involved parties to inspire action.
Communications Principles
When planning your strategy, consider these six fundamental laws of communications:2
Everything speaks. Every action taken, letter written, idea floated, word uttered, event
attended or meeting held is an opportunity to communicate and an opportunity for others to
judge the value and worth of your information, knowledge, values and goals.
2
The Blue Book: A Hands-On Approach to Advocating for the Millennium Development Goals (2004), UNDP.
7
Everything must speak the same message. The only way to raise your UNCT’s voice above
the cacophony of others is to sing in unison.
Everything must be repeated. Communications is about persistence and repetition. Your
UNCT message must be omnipresent and unavoidable. It needs to come from all directions and
from a variety of sources to build urgency and attention.
Everything that speaks must speak in turn. Effective communications depends on effective
orchestration. Coordinating and prioritizing messages and messengers brings the power of a
symphony to what would otherwise be a collection of people playing different instruments.
The message is everything, everything is the message. Effective communications depends
on an effective message. Your UNCT message dictates how you communicate and how you
orchestrate. Your message is the mantra.
Stay on message until the message gains power and influence. This is especially important
for your Country Team as the UN system has the ability to communicate messages on a
number of different levels and fronts. Your UNCT can give power to its message by speaking
consistently and in harmony.
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1 Vision, Mission and Strategic Objectives
The different pieces of your communications strategy all derive from your UNCT’s vision and
mission. Before taking any strategic action, your UNCT must first be able to identify what it
wants to accomplish and how joint communications can help support your country programmes
and operations. The UNCT’s vision for communications should go beyond information
dissemination and raising awareness, and focus your limited resources on concrete actions and
behaviour or policy changes.
This step in your joint communications strategy should begin with your UNCT’s strategic
planning retreat to determine its vision and objectives, introduce UNCT members to the core
priority areas for UNDAF, and establish its initiatives to increase the team’s coherence,
effectiveness and relevance. At this stage, you should start to assess the resources available to
support your joint communication efforts. The UN System Staff College and DOCO
Headquarters staff are available to provide your UNCT with on-site workshops, seminars and
training to help lay the groundwork for your communications strategy. It is imperative, however,
that your UNCT has complete buy-in to your strategy. Outside training and guidance can be
beneficial in steering your UNCT in the right direction, but ultimately it is your Country Team and
Communications Group that must own your communications strategy.
1.1
Strategic Objectives
Goals are the backbone that will steer your UNCT’s joint activities, project decisions, and
management functions. Once your UNCT is clear about its mission, the next step is to sharpen
your long-term goals and define how your UNCT is going to actualize its mission. What impact
does your UNCT want to make?
When strategizing your vision, mission and objectives, consider the following suggestions:

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State clearly and succinctly what your UNCT wants to achieve.
Indicate how communications will support your country’s UNDAF and common
programming tool.
Focus on how your UNCT will work together as one unified team.
Advocate specific norms and standards to change national policies and behaviour.
Concentrate on specific areas of development issues where your UNCT can add the
most value.
Set a target date to accomplish your objectives.
Specify the degree of desired change that can be measured during its progress. Identify
your stakeholders and how they will be affected.
Maintain a long-term focus on the “bigger picture.”
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2 Environmental Scan and Stakeholder Analysis
Conduct a scan of your current communications environment and determine the best channels
available for communicating with various audiences in your country. Assess the UNCG’s current
access to these channels.
Perform a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis and/or a force
field analysis. Then perform a stakeholder analysis, also known as a situational market analysis,
to determine how best to reach and influence the various groups the UNCT wants to have an
impact on.
Focus on your audiences and stakeholders when formulating your objectives, and decide how
your UNCT will engage them to achieve your goals. Like many strategies, your objectives will
have more than one audience; it will be easier to establish a single communications objective
for each of your audience groups. Your strategy will likely target the two key audiences further
below, each with subcategories.
Your UNCG must identify and assess your key stakeholders before moving on to the next stage
of the strategy planning process. A stakeholder analysis can be used to identify the key parties
engaged in your strategy, evaluate their interests, and the ways in which they are likely to affect
your strategy.
Conducting a stakeholder analysis as part of your joint strategy will be of critical importance to
your UNCT. Not only will it identify conflicts of interest between stakeholders and distinguish
relations between stakeholders that can be developed, but your analysis will also assess your
different stakeholders’ types of participation and define a way for your UNCT to engage them to
ensure the maximum impact of your strategy. It is vital for your UNCT to understand the range
of stakeholder views.
Before plotting out the steps of your analysis, consider these points:3
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Current Situation. What are the current knowledge levels, attitudes, behaviours and
trends among stakeholders in your country?
Market Segmentation. Which stakeholders are of priority?
Context and Behavioural Influences. What are the existing constraints and/or supporting
factors that could influence your stakeholders’ responses?
Stakeholders’ Needs, Cost and Convenience. What stakeholder needs are being
addressed? What is the cost (money, time, effort) of carrying out activities to address
these needs? What is the added value?
Positioning – Existing and Desired. How do your stakeholders perceive current
behaviours? How would they like to see these behaviours change in the future?
3
Manual for Planning Communication-for-Behavioural Impact (COMBI) Programmes for Health, World Health
Organization, January 2006
10
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Competitors. What alternate behaviours are seen as competitors to the recommended
behaviour and to what extent? Why would inaction or taking a chance compete with the
recommended behaviour?
Communications Situation. What are the most popular, most influential channels of
communication or media? What media will prompt action? Which methods for
stakeholder communication are more prevalent?
Further Research. Is additional research needed to understand other aspects of
stakeholder behaviour or of social communication?
Keep in mind that the stakeholder analysis and environmental scan is done at this stage to
determine the overall situation. Later you may need to conduct more focused stakeholder
analyses tied to specific UNDAF outcomes, outputs or programmes, or for internal
communications purposes.
2.1
Internal Stakeholders

UN Country Management Team or Senior Management Team
The management team consists of the heads of UN entities and is responsible for the
UNCT’s overall strategic planning. As such it plays a critical role in ensuring that the
communications strategy supports the overall UNCT strategy. Its members are typically
the most senior advocates and spokespeople for the UN system in the country, and, as
a result, they need to understand the UNCT’s communications objectives and be
intimately familiar with the team’s vision, programmes and key messages—not only for
their own agencies, but for the UNCT as a whole.4

UN Communications Group
Your UNCG is tasked to strengthen communication delivery and help realize your UNCT
objectives. Effective joint communications calls for a multi-faceted communication
strategy that can satisfy the communication interests and needs of UN entities and staff,
UN Headquarters, Government, development partners, the public, and civil society. The
Group has varied competencies, from journalism and public relations to programme
communications and information management.

UNCT Staff
Knowledge sharing among UN staff is essential. Your UNCT should make a concerted
effort to target and engage UN staff at all levels with relevant information, crossorganizational collaboration, and peer interaction. Your UNCT will see concrete benefits
including faster project implementation, insightful decision-making and increased
efficiency.

UN Headquarters
The UN Secretariat and the headquarters of participating UN entities have an indirect
One UN Communication Strategy 2007-2008: United Republic of Tanzania, UN Communication Group – Tanzania,
pg. 7-8.
4
11
but strong interest in the successful implementation of your UNCT communication
strategy. It is imperative to provide HQ with steady flows of accurate and timely
information—including progress reports from the management team. Your UNCT will
need to have solid reporting lines in place with updates stemming from your UNCG to
your RC and Heads of Agencies at the country level. Your UNCG is also expected to
report to the global UNCG Secretariat in the Department of Public Information on your
communication activities. Consider also that communications with headquarters are a
vehicle for advocating on behalf of your country team to enhance its reputation and
attract greater resources.
2.2
External Stakeholders

Host Government
Your host government is likely to have an interest in the purpose, design and
implementation of UN programmes in the country. The key audiences are:
- Top policy-makers (ministers, principal secretaries, directors).
- Implementers working at regional and district levels, including regional
commissioners, governors, provincial or city politicians, district commissioners,
regional administrative secretaries, and other local government officials.
- Policymakers at the working level, who will be instrumental in articulating the
Government’s development priority needs and the UN system’s role to support them.

Development Partners
All UN entities have bilateral/multilateral relationships with different development
partners. These partners must receive accurate, timely, relevant and comprehensive
information from your UNCT, especially as they are concerned with any failure on the
part of the UNCT to take advantage of opportunities to support joint output/programming,
with the duplication of interventions and funding by donors and other partners,
inconsistencies in information sharing efforts, and too many uncoordinated structures
and processes. They are particularly interested in results that are aligned with their
priorities. Development partners include:
- Multilateral organizations and international financial institutions
- Bilateral partners, including diplomatic missions
- Non-donor diplomatic missions
- Private sector
- Regional organizations/initiatives

Civil Society/Non-Governmental Organizations
Civil society includes a diverse variety of interest groups with whom your UNCT should
communicate. Not only do CSOs and NGOs play an important leadership role in society,
but they are also the principal implementers of development activities at the grassroots
level, making them potentially powerful partners for the UN system. Your UNCT must
make every effort to fully engage civil society.
12

Media
Your UNCT should regard media representatives as strategic partners in order to garner
accurate, regular reporting and commentary, and to draw attention to your objectives
and achievements. Key actors in the media sector include:
- Editors: Editors make editorial decisions on media content and must be kept well
informed about your UNCT agenda. Cultivate their support for your objectives.
- Media Owners: Media owners influence editorial policy and can exert enormous
influence on their editors and journalists.
- Journalists: Reporters require accurate, timely and complete information at their
finger tips. Your UNCT should make it a priority to build relationships with journalists
and increase their understanding of UN system efforts in country to ensure high
visibility and favourable publicity. Journalists are likely have areas of interest on such
subjects as HIV/AIDS, gender, human rights, children, the environment, and health,
among others.

The General Public
Members of the public are important stakeholders in your UNCT strategy. Appropriate,
well-targeted joint communications should inform citizens about different UN services,
and how they can access your programmes and government or NGO programmes that
the UNCT supports. Elites (professionals, academics, business and political leaders)
play important opinion leadership roles in society and may be interested in the overall
impact of UN programmes. Key target audiences include: students, business
entrepreneurs, academic and research institutions, professional organizations, and
refugees.
After assessing these points, consider the following steps to begin building your Stakeholder
Analysis:5
1. Convene your UNCT communications officers, all with different agency-specific
perspectives of the strategy objectives, for a brainstorming session.
2. Revisit your UNCT vision and mission, and remind your team of your primary objectives.
3. Identify your stakeholders that are affected by your UNCT objectives. Who are your
primary stakeholders—those ultimately affected by your strategy—and secondary
stakeholders? Who are your key stakeholders who can significantly influence the
outcome of your strategy?
4. Draw up stakeholder matrices according to their interest and power. ‘Interest’ entails to
what degree they will be affected by your strategy, while ‘power’ measures their
influence over the strategy, and to what degree they can support or block your desired
change.
5. Decide how to engage your high-power stakeholders and involve them in your strategy.
They are the targets and the decision-makers and are, therefore, critical to your UNCT’s
success.
5
Successful Communications Tools—Stakeholder Analysis, Overseas Development Institute,
http://www.odi.org.uk/RAPID/Tools/Toolkits/Communication/Stakeholder_analysis.html
13
6. Decide how to engage your high-interest, low-power stakeholders. They are likely to
form coalitions and lobby for change.
7. Decide how to engage your other stakeholders and maintain a relationship with them.
Assign your communications officers to contact these stakeholders and agree on the key
messages to communicate.
Consider using a Stakeholder Analysis Matrix similar to the one below:6
Stakeholder (Primary
Stakeholder Interest
and Secondary)
in UNCT Efforts
Assessment of Impact
Potential Strategies
for Gaining
Support/Reducing
Obstacles
Refer to Annex II: Worksheet for Communication Implications of the Stakeholder Analysis 7 for
guidance when preparing your analysis, or by way of example, read the World Bank
Stakeholder Analysis and Institutional Assessment for reversing HIV/AIDS in Central Asia.
6
Managing for Quality Guide: Stakeholder Analysis, Joint Effort of Management Sciences for Health and UNICEF.
http://erc.msh.org/quality/ittools/itstkan.cfm
7 COMBI, pg. 29.
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3 Align the Joint Communications Strategy with the UNDAF
This step in your communications strategy should ideally be timed to coincide with your UNCT’s
second UNDAF strategic planning retreat. At this stage the UNCT revisits its vision and
objectives, baseline assessments and stakeholder analysis. The same group that participated in
the initial design workshop should attend this second retreat to review your UNCT assessment
results and use them to answer how you will achieve your objectives. Once again,
communications specialists should be part of this workshop.
This retreat will require your UNCT to look at your UNDAF matrices, identify and prioritize how
the UN system will support your country’s national development goals, and produce a set of
potential UNDAF outcomes with the outline of a monitoring and evaluation plan for each. As part
of this process, your UN Communications Group should identify whether and how joint
communications activities can add value to the UNCT’s work toward each outcome.
After the results matrices have been
designed, your UNCG should review
the UNDAF results matrix and identify
how communications can support
UNDAF and country programme
outcomes and outputs. Next, the
UNCG should discuss with the
managers and specialists responsible
for each outcome the specific ways
that communications, outreach and
advocacy can contribute to the
outcomes, outputs and ultimately to
the specific programmes. This
process should yield communications
plans for each outcome, and where appropriate, specific plans for outputs and programmes that
can particularly benefit from communications. It should also serve to help the UNCG develop
ideas and a strategy for general communications and advocacy that raises awareness and
inspires support for the UNDAF and the work of the UNCT.
The UN System Staff College and the Development Operations Coordination Office can help to
arrange on-site workshops, seminars and additional training to help your UNCT and UNCG
refine the groundwork for your joint strategy. Outside training and guidance will be beneficial to
your UNCT, but ultimately it is your Country Team that must own your joint strategy.
15
4 Joint Communications Strategy Outline
Now it’s time to draft the outline of your joint communications strategy based on your UNCT’s
overall objectives and the UNDAF. Depending on your UNCT’s activities, this outline may
include or link to communications sub-strategies for the UN system, the UNDAF, specific
UNDAF outcomes and outputs, and internal communications, as well as UN Coherence,
Effectiveness and Relevance.
Think of the joint communications strategy as your “communications UNDAF.” It doesn’t go into
great detail about programming—that will be covered in the work plans for the sub strategies.
Instead, it is a framework for the top priority communications work that your UNCG will conduct,
either collectively, in task teams, or individually. This is not the time to get lost in details—they
will be set out later in the detailed work plans for each sub-strategy.
Assemble your UNCG and decide who will take the lead and produce the initial draft of this
outline. It may be best to assign a task force to this role, with one person designated to write the
initial “martyr” draft that the rest of the UNCG will then review and comment on. Keep the outline
concise and focused on the overall aims.
Some UNCTs have hired an outside consultant to draft their strategy, but this is not an optimal
solution. The UNCG needs to “own” the strategy, and consultants should only be involved with
this centrally if the UNCG truly lacks the strategic communications expertise. A more
appropriate role for consultants or experts from DOCO, the global UNCG, and agency HQs is to
facilitate the process, assist with drafting and provide commentary from an external viewpoint.
At the strategic level, this outline should establish:
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Communications objectives—what you want to achieve at the strategic level
Primary target audiences for communications
UN system communications strategy (e.g. international days, conveying the SecretaryGeneral’s messages, general information about the UN system)
UNDAF communications plan to raise awareness and build support
Communications strategy for each UNDAF outcome
Basic outlines and selection of programme communications plans, either for joint
programmes or at the agency level for agency-specific programmes
Timelines of the strategy—UNDAF communications should match the UNDAF duration,
but for other sub-strategies different spans of time may be more appropriate
Roles—who will do what
All of these strategies should be components of the overall Joint Communications Strategy.
Depending on how your UNCG is configured, it may be best to create a small task force
charged with writing each sub-strategy. For example, the full UNCG would develop the Joint
Communications Strategy and the part of that strategy that covers UN system and UNDAF
communications, while specific task teams would create sub-strategies for internal
16
communications, UNDAF outcomes or outputs, and communications to support reform and
change. Who does what can be agreed by having communications specialists volunteer or by
having the UNCG chair, RC and UNCT management team assign staff to certain
responsibilities.
The UNCG should conduct a series of workshops, meetings and retreats to review successive
versions of the draft strategy outline until there is consensus.
Don’t get lost in the details at this stage, and don’t be too ambitious. It is better to have a
realistic, practical strategic framework that you know you can implement, and then build on it
later once you have achieved success on the essentials.
Prioritization is crucial. What are the most important interventions that your team can make?
How will you implement these strategies? Even if actual implementation for some of the substrategies will be done separately by agencies, the strategic elements should be noted and
included in your joint communications strategy. That is the purpose of this step.
17
5 Determine Needs and Requirements
Your UNCT vision, mission and objectives are clear. You have set your communications
objectives. You have laid out the broad strategic outlines for what you want to do. Now, how will
you realize these objectives?
NOTE: This section intentionally overlaps with the Joint Communications Guidance Note on
Forming and Strengthening a UN Communications Group. More detailed information is provided
in that note. Here, we repeat some of the steps to illustrate how they should respond to the
requirements of executing your communications strategy.
5.1
Needs Analysis
Convene your communications team and ask yourselves: what do you need to implement your
UNCT joint strategy? What will it take for your team to realize its objectives? Assess
approximately what resources the UNCG will require to implement the joint strategy.
The needs analysis includes assessing the funding, structure and human resources for your
UNCG, and conducting a cost-benefit analysis to help prioritize your activities. If you have
already conducted these assessments for your UNCG, you may need to revisit your conclusions
based on your strategic plan.
5.2
Funding Requirements
Funding for communications is a chronic challenge for UN Country Teams. As the UNCG
guidance note also advises, if you want communications to be effective, you have to pay for it.
You must secure a commitment from the UNCT management team to fund communications to
deliver results. Although the detailed costing will be performed after all the work plans are
developed, it is advisable to estimate the broad funding requirements at this stage. After all,
there is little point in devising a detailed work plan if financing is simply not available. Consider
these three potential funding sources:
1. Pooled communications budget drawing on agency resources. Based on the
estimated cost of your joint communications strategy, agencies (and the UNIC, if
present) should agree to contribute resources from their budgets for communications to
support the UN system, the UNCT, joint resource mobilization and advocacy, the
UNDAF, internal activities, and initiatives to promote coherence, effectiveness and
relevance.
2. Share of Programme budget dedicated to communications. For specific UNDAF
outputs and programmes (whether joint- or agency-specific), the agencies involved
should agree that if communications are important to the success of the programme—or
to resource mobilization now or in the future—then a percentage of the programme
budget should be dedicated to communications.
18
3. Coordination funding. Some resources may be available through the UN Country
Coordination Fund (CCF) and Support to Resident Coordinator (SRC) funds for
communications that help the country team communicate together and support the
UNDAF, coordination and institutional reforms.
5.3
Option Report
With your needs and requirements study and your cost-benefit analysis now complete, your
UNCG will need to match your requirements with the associated costs. Your communications
team will work together to produce your UNCT option report to illustrate two to four options to
carry out your plan, the mandatory costs, and a basis analysis for each option.
As your UNCT generates your options report and begins to weigh the alternatives, it is vital to
revisit your vision, mission and objectives and your baseline capacity assessment to articulate
once again where your UNCT wants to go and the ambitions you want to realize. The main
question is binary: are joint communications a priority to your UNCT or not? If they are, and they
were not in the past, your team will need to scale up its resources to support your country
programmes and operations and realize its vision. Your UNCT must make a choice: limit
communications objectives to match existing capacity, or scale up resources to match a grander
vision.
For specific guidance on how to organize your option report, please refer to the templates
section of the toolkit.
5.4
Obtain Senior Management Support
Once the UNCG is satisfied with the strategic overview and prepared to make a case for the
resources required to execute it, the UNCG Chair or RC Office communications specialist
should present the options report to the RC and then the UNCT Management Team for review,
comment and endorsement. Management buy-in is essential for success, and it is advisable to
ensure that senior leadership understands and agrees with the overall strategy even before
detailed work planning and costing begins.
You may also find it useful to submit your assessment to the global UNCG or to
communications managers at agencies that are particularly active in your UN Country Team.
Enlisting their support for your objectives may help you to mobilize the resources you need.
Concentrate on demonstrating how communications will support and strengthen UNCT goals
and UNDAF outcomes. Make the case for the human and financial resources you will require.
Get a commitment from the RC and senior leadership to play their parts as the chief
communicators in the organization.
Based on the responses from the UNCT’s leadership, revise your strategic outline so that you
are matching means with ends.
19
5.5
Develop plan to fulfil needs and requirements
Referring to the UNCG Guidance Note, develop a plan to secure the resources and build the
team that you will need to execute the strategy. Get the UNCT management to endorse the plan
and allocate resources for it, but recognize that you will probably have to revise this plan as you
develop the work plans and execute the strategy. Just as the plan evolves, so will the team that
implements it.
20
6 Communications Work Plan/Implementation Plan
The UNCG Communications Work Plan or Implementation Plan outlines the financial, material,
and human resources required to carry out your objectives. The Gantt chart8 is a good tool to
see at-a-glance the pertinent details about implementation. It specifies the activities that need to
be performed for each objective, the persons or organizations responsible for each task, the
time frame, the budget, and wherever possible, the monitoring and evaluation indicators.
The plan is a vital performance and management tool to articulate your communications
strategy. It will most likely be a set of integrated work plans. Just as the strategic outline
combines an over-arching strategy with subsidiary strategies, your overall work plan should
include or at least link to the specific work plans.
Base the plans on your vision and stay on target. Month-by-month, your work plan identifies
your goals and objectives, details the work to be performed and the resources needed, and
pinpoints the roles and responsibilities of those spearheading efforts. In addition to tracking the
implementation process to monitor activities’ progress, the work plan will also highlight any
implementation hurdles that may crop up and draw attention to periods of peak activity.
Depending on how your UNCG decides to work, you may need several distinct work plans, or
multiple streams within one overall work plan. Either way they should cover communications for
the UN system, UNCT, UNDAF, internal purposes, reform, and specific UNDAF outcomes,
outputs and programmes. Critical elements of your work plan may become clearer as your
communications strategy progresses, which should prompt the UNCG to keep it constantly
updated. Refrain from shelving the work plan once it’s completed; make it a living document that
evolves and continues to guide the progress of your strategy.
Spending the extra time to create a sufficiently detailed work plan will help your UNCG realize
its communications strategy on time, within budget, and meet expected outcomes. A detailed
work plan will help your UNCG:




Foresee and prepare for most activities;
Determine sufficient staff resources are available;
Ensure work is completed in the right order and determine which components of the
work plan can be done simultaneously;
Measure your progress against the work plan.9
The outline of your plan should clearly answer important questions, including:
8
The Gantt chart is a project-planning tool that can represent the timing of activities required to complete a project.
These charts are used for projects with clearly defined budgets, activities and timelines. They are often referred to as
activity schedules or project timelines. Refer to Annex V for an example from the United Nations International Mine
Action Standards Best Practice Guidebook 3 (November 2005).
http://www.mineactionstandards.org/guides/MRE_Guidebook_3.pdf
9 Guide for Workplans, Region of Waterloo Public Health: Planning and Evaluation, pg 1.
21
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is this project aiming to achieve?
Why is it important to achieve it?
How will our UNCT know if we achieved it?
How much will it cost for our UNCT to achieve it?
Planning is an iterative process, as well as a project management tool that your UNCT will
revisit regularly to determine your progress to achieve the outcomes set out in your strategy.
The ingredients of your implementation plan should also be:10




Concise. Keep the narrative to a minimum.
Jargon-free to ensure it is understood by all who use your plan.
Based on sound programme logic, presenting a clear path from the original purpose to
the inputs, how they will contribute to achieving the expectations, and the outputs to be
delivered.
Clear on timeframes and programme phases.
The layout of each work plan should consist of eight columns: Activity, Objective, Outcome,
Indicator, Timeframe, Responsible, Assumptions, and Budget. Refer to the One UN 2008
Communication Matrix prepared by UN Tanzania11 (see Annex I) for a more detailed example.
Activity
Objective Outcome Indicator Timeframe Responsible Assumptions Budget
Consider organizing a sequence of workshops led by strategic communications specialists to
train your UNCT members effectively and across the board on the fundamentals of planning,
organizing and monitoring this annual work plan. The UN System Staff College and the
Development Operations Coordination Office are available to help facilitate these workshops.
10
Guide to Preparing Implementation Plans, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Australian Government.
http://www.dpmc.gov.au/implementation/docs/implementation_guidelines.doc
11 One UN Communication Strategy 2007-2008: United Republic of Tanzania, UN Communication Group – Tanzania,
pg. 4-5.
22
7 Develop Messages
The strength of the UNCT’s messages and the method in which they are delivered influences
how your target audience perceives the UN system and UNCT. If you are unable communicate
a clear, concise and compelling message quickly, you will lose your audiences’ interest or
support. Once you catch their ear, however, you will have the opportunity to explain your UNCT
initiatives in detail. Fine-tune and test your messages to ensure that they promote
understanding and shift perceptions when needed.
Your message must be tied to your UNCT vision, mission and objectives. Does your message
convey urgency and magnitude? Is it memorable? Make sure your message includes:

Clarity. The information in your messages must be clearly conveyed to prevent
misunderstanding or prompt inappropriate action by your audience.

Consistency. All messages coming from focal points in your UNCT must convey the
same information.

Main points. The key points of your message should be stressed and repeated as often
as possible.

Tone and Appeal. The tenor of your message could be alarming, challenging,
straightforward, or honest.

Credibility. Your UNCT spokespeople must be convincing and trustworthy when
delivering your message.
Effective message development requires discipline, insight, and the intersection of your
audiences’ needs with UNCT solutions. Condensing UNCT objectives and ideas into convincing
messages and expressing them memorably is a critical skill and requires hard work. Consider
these simple guidelines to develop your strategic messages:

Define your objective. What message and information does your UNCT want to convey
to its audience?

Identify your audiences. Who are your audiences?

Understand your audience. All audiences are different. Understand their culture,
attitudes, needs, and motivations.

Understand how your objective affects the audience. How are your audiences
connected to UNCT objectives?

Develop ideas, statements and arguments. Craft messages that will spur audiences
to take action.

Combine the rational and the emotional. Your messages need to balance rational
arguments with emotional appeals, speaking to audiences on their terms and using their
terms. Combine logical statements with passionate phrasing to capture hearts and
minds.
23
7.1

Do not use UN system jargon in your messages. Speak to people in their language,
not yours. Would your grandmother understand the message?

Determine your primary messages. What are the UNCT’s key messages? Keep them
clear, concise, compelling and appealing to broad audiences.

Write it down to get your UNCT staff on message. The process of putting UNCT
messages on paper and circulating them encourages your staff to speak with consistent
voices. Translate messages into talking points for your staff to refer to. Train your
messengers to stay on message. Coach your UNCT staff and media focal points to
stay in-line with your UNCT messages. This will require continual reinforcement through
various channels and meetings. It’s particularly important to coach new staff in UNCT
messages, as they will likely be among the most receptive.
Communicating UNDAF Outcomes and Results
Your joint communications team plays an important role in addressing the UNDAF results matrix
and its corresponding M&E Framework. As UNDAF outcomes are deliberated and coordinated
by inter-agency UNDAF outcome groups, UNCT communications must also operate in concert.
Once again, your team should ask itself: what are the realistic results we want to achieve? How
will joint communications make a strategic contribution towards helping your country achieve the
MDGs and realize its national priorities? Your joint strategy should be outcome-based to allow
your team to communicate and draw attention to the results of the outcomes in terms of their
progress and actual achievement. While developing your strategy, make sure it concentrates
your team’s communications efforts on three to four of the strongest outcomes that are
connected to the MDGs and are most pertinent to the national development priorities. Consider
some of these points when formulating your joint strategy:
1. Facilitate UNCT-wide discussion on UNDAF outcomes. Communications officers
should organize regular meetings for UNCT members to discuss the UNDAF outcomes
and create a level playing field of understanding.
2. Broadcast results. Donors, governments and development partners must be informed
of the UNDAF outcomes and the achievement of results at the country level; focus on
the big-ticket items that are connected to the MDGs and the national development
priorities. Produce and circulate regular newsletters including monitoring results and
case studies to donors, governments, partners, media, and civil society. Focus on one
particularly successful outcome and publicly celebrate it—for example, primary school
completion rates have improved by 10 percent. This is no small feat; sell what your
UNCT has achieved.
3. Spur advocacy and raise awareness. Your communications team should liaise with
the UNDAF outcome owners to discuss and devise how communications activities and
advocacy can contribute to the outcomes, support the programmes, and raise
awareness. By way of example, your country’s UNDAF outcomes reveal there is a need
to strengthen response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and reduce the spread of the virus by
24
12 percent. Here is where your UNCT communications plays a vital role—to enhance
awareness through communications activities and spur advocacy to reduce HIV/AIDS
incidents in the country.
4. Communications need to stay on-message. Your UNCT communications team will
need to meet regularly to discuss UNDAF progress and outcomes, and to understand
what the main messages of the UNCT.
Refer to the UNDAF Results Matrix, Malawi 2008-201112 (see Annex III), the UN Pakistan work
plan or the UNDAF results matrix section of the toolkit for more information. Refer to the M&E
Matrix, Malawi 2008-201113 (see Annex IV) by way of example.
12Appendix
A: Results Matrices per Theme Group (September 2007), UNDAF Malawi 2008-2011.
www.unmalawi.org/reports/undaf/Consolidated_Results_matrices_UNDAF_05-09-2007.pdf
13 Appendix B: M&E Matrix per Theme Group (September 2007), UNDAF Malawi 2008-2011.
www.unmalawi.org/reports/undaf/Consolidated_ME_matrices_UNDAF_05-09-2007.pdf
25
8 Coordinate and Manage
A joint communications strategy must be coordinated and managed effectively to pave the way
for its successful implementation. Your UNCG must act as a management team with clear
responsibilities for executing specific tasks. Make sure that everyone knows who will do what,
and by when. Consider including advisory groups or government bodies from which the UNCG
receives technical support or to whom your team should report.
The management of your joint strategy is a three-step process:14
1. Designate a person in your UNCG to act as coordinator. This person will be responsible
for the strategy’s execution. Without a single person being held accountable for the
strategy, its implementation can become chaotic.
2. Appoint team members to work under the manager to facilitate management and deal
with potential crises. Ideally, this group will consist of 3-7 people and will meet every
week with the manager to review the strategy’s implementation. The group will support
the manager and aid in resolving any implementation difficulties that may arise.
3. Consider forming an Advisory Group. Ideally, this group will meet once a month to
review the strategy’s progress and should include your UNCT partners or other
collaborating sectors familiar with your joint communications strategy.
The UN Rwanda 2007-2008 Action Plan below serves by way of example on how their UNCT
communications officers work in concert to coordinate and manage their joint strategy.15
14
COMBI
UNity in Diversity, United Nations Rwanda: Communications Strategy 2007-2008.
http://www.undg.org/docs/8053/071026%20Communication%20Strategy%20Final.pdf
15
26
9 Finalize Budget and Mobilize Resources
9.1
Finalize Budget
At this stage you should now ensure that all your work plans are fully costed, noting funds that have
been committed, funds that need to be mobilized, and the total expected cost. This will form the detailed
basis of any joint resource mobilization for your strategy.
9.2
Support Joint Resource Mobilization
“To work on resource mobilization is to work from the outside-in. It is to connect, not to delineate. It is to
create opportunities, not define turf. It is to seek alignment with the external rather than to segment from
within.”16
This point of your strategy is a golden opportunity for your communications team to build a strong
corporate image of your UNCT in the eyes of donors, clearly articulate its priorities to reinforce its
presence, and heighten its credibility in the country. With your initial budget estimates, revised work
plan, communication outcomes and costs in place, your UNCG will need to calculate your resource
requirements. It is vital that your UNCT communications strategy be aligned with and incorporated in the
UNCT’s overall resource mobilization.
You have three tasks here:
1. Spur your country team to work together and mobilize resources in an integrated way.
2. Use communications to support fundraising to address the UNCT’s funding gap.
3. Secure funding for your UNCG and the Joint Communications Strategy.
Joint resources mobilization is about building human connections, with the focus on developing and
maintaining relationships with donors and strengthening their confidence in your UNCT. In the spirit of
UN Coherence, Effectiveness and Relevance, inter-agency competition and duplication of multiple donor
funding requests must be minimized at all costs in order to maximize your joint resource mobilization
efforts. Your UNCT should work together to integrate donor demands to one collective request,
demonstrating that the United Nations is united for development.
Revisit your UNCT vision, mission and objectives once again. Remind yourself of what it is your UNCT
is trying to achieve—what is your collective message? At this point, your communications strategy
should entail adapting your UNCT messages to target donors’ specific needs and interests, and provide
a solution for donors to achieve their national priorities. Your strategy should also help donors identify
new areas of development priority, especially areas that may have been neglected in the past, and
encourage them to regard your UNCT as a mechanism to realize their development agenda.
16
Resource Mobilization Framework (December 2005), The World Health Organization.
http://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/Policies_WHOResMobilFramework.pdf
To launch a successful joint resources mobilization strategy, your UNCT should:17




17
Develop practical references, guidelines and tools, including donor priority indicators, sample
donor proposals, or model agreements with donors.
Link resource mobilization with communications and advocacy activities to ensure clear,
consistent messaging and explore new ways to approach current/potential donors.
Organize training workshops for staff to learn proposal writing and other practical skills pertinent
to resource mobilization.
Send senior UNCT members to attend high-level forums and events which donors and large
corporations often attend, as well, to enhance relationships.
Ibid.
28
10 Implement
The UNCG has primary responsibility for coordinating and executing your Joint Communications
Strategy and any sub-strategies and work plans. The leader of the UNCG will be responsible for
managing programme-wide communications activities, while UNCT communications officers will be the
international and local media contacts, event coordinators, and creators of print publications, radio/TV
productions and website development.
Your UNCT can launch a number of different activities and create communications products to carry out
your implementation plan. Below are a few suggestions.18
Create and Disseminate Different Communication Products






Take pictures of projects and maintain a UNCT photo and video library. Photos should show
joint programme activities and beneficiaries.
Produce a National Human Development Report focused on your country’s national
development priorities and organize discussions and/or national conferences.
Produce documents demonstrating UNCT harmonization, translate them into your local
language(s), and distribute them to community leaders.
Draft op-ed pieces on your UNCT’s priority areas and circulate them to leading newspapers,
international and local media, and donor countries.
Produce radio/TV scripts focused on national development priorities.
Circulate thematic calendars demonstrating joint UN system assistance in your country.
Develop and Enhance Electronic Tools


Develop PowerPoint presentations about your UNCT delivering together to address different
audiences.
Design your UNCT website to show how the UN system is united for development. Refer to the
UN Rwanda website by way of example.
Networking and Outreach





Create a communications culture in your UNCT and encourage your staff to contribute to
public information activities.
Expand your contact list and collaborate with priority organizations active in areas relevant to
your UNCT.
Cultivate relationships with international/local media (newspapers, magazines, television or
radio programmes) and regularly pitch story ideas. Your UNCT should target media in your
donor countries.
Organize site visits for key stakeholders to observe UN joint programmes in action.
Arrange and/or lead communications/media training for your key UNCT staff to discuss how to
communicate effectively with the media, with potential donors, and with the local communities.
18
United Nations System Communications Strategy, Maldives Country Office (2003).
www.un.org.mv/downloads/unrc/CommunicationStrategy.pdf
29
11 Monitor and Evaluate
This may be the most difficult step in your communications strategy. Monitoring progress against your
implementation plan will teach your UNCG whether your strategy worked and why. This will give your
UNCG the opportunity to fine-tune your communications strategy for future implementation. More
importantly, the M&E results will help your communications team to work together and motivate UNCG
members to continue making programme improvements, help tailor their communications functions
more efficiently, and improve UNCT communications with key stakeholders to build a stronger sense of
trust.
11.1 Monitoring
The group responsible for preparing your communications plan should also be responsible for monitor
its progress. To ensure implementation is successful and objectives are achieved, this same group must
maintain your communications plans as “living” documents; your UNCG will use the plan to assess
progress and incorporate lessons learned in future decision-making processes.
11.2 Evaluation
Evaluation will help measure the effectiveness of your communication activities. Some methods to
evaluate communication effectiveness may include:













Pre- and post-testing of your messages
Opinion polls to measure changes in knowledge, attitudes and practices
Content analysis to gauge media attitudes, tone and coverage
Audience studies to gauge media reach, readability, ratings, coverage
Number of messages sent and activities planned. Distribution, effort expended, resources
committed.
Number of messages placed and activities enacted.
Number of people who receive messages/participate in activities – reach, circulation, potential
audience size.
Number of people who attend to messages/activities (assessed through surveys).
Number of people who learn message content (through surveys).
Number of people who change opinions/attitudes (quantitative/qualitative, with an emphasis on
influentials).
Number of people who behave in ways that support your objectives (quantitative/qualitative).
Number of people who repeatedly make the effort desired. (quantitative/qualitative).
Qualitative assessment of social/cultural/organizational change (through interviews and focus
groups, attitudinal surveys).
Focus groups and surveys can be conducted in person by the UNCG or a consultant using existing
tools and resources. For surveying larger groups, online surveys may be an option in situations where
your audience has good internet access. Here are three examples:
Vovici: User-friendly way to help you in designing questionnaires, gathering data and analyzing and
publicizing the results.
30
Zoomerang: Professional-grade online surveys and platform for analyzing real-time results.
SurveyMonkey: “Intelligent survey software for serious primates of all species.” SurveyMonkey helps
you create professional online surveys quickly and easily.
More advanced evaluation options could include:

Most Significant Change: Your team can collect of stories about changes, systematically
selecting the most significant ones. Once changes have been captured, various people sit down
together, read the stories aloud and have regular and often in-depth discussions about the value
of these reported changes. It focuses the team on the impact of coherence efforts. For details,
see www.mande.co.uk/docs/MSCGuide.pdf

Outcome Mapping: A process of analysing behavioural changes logically linked to your
communications programme activities. For details, visit http://www.idrc..ca/en/ev-9330-201-1DO_TOPIC.html
Evaluation of your communications strategy will result in qualitative and quantitative findings, as well as
revealing changes in knowledge, attitude and information, and communication habits and preferences.
As the diagram on the next page shows, your M&E must be a continuous process. The information
derived from it must be fed into your UNCT decision-making process to help improve your joint
communications strategy, its implementation, and ultimately, its end results. 19
As part of your strategy, your UNCT communications team should continuously and actively share M&E
results through formal (briefings, reports) and informal (email, telephone) channels to provide feedback
to key stakeholders and decision makers. In your strategy, your communications team will need to
determine: which stakeholders will receive what information; in what format; when; who will prepare the
information; and who will deliver it. The need to highlight the implications of your performance results—
both good and bad—to stakeholders is also an important step in the M&E process.
Your communications team should consider how to present your UNCT M&E results in a clear and
understandable way. Such avenues may include: written summaries, executive summaries, oral
presentations, or visual presentations.
A number of information sharing strategies can be used by your communications team to broadcast your
UNCT’s M&E results, including:20
Empower the Media. The media can play an important role in disseminating the findings generated in
your UNCT M&E results. It is imperative that your communications team maintain close ties with local
19
Strategic Communication—for Behavior and Social Change in South Asia (February 2005). UNICEF Regional Office for
South Asia, pg. 45.
20 Jody Zall Kusek and Ray C. Rist, Ten Steps to a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System, The World Bank (2004).
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/23/27/35281194.pdf
31
media outlets and journalists to facilitate their reporting on your UNCT delivering on projects,
programmes, policies, and services.
Post M&E Results on Website. Share your UNCT’s M&E results on your website as an effective way
of information sharing and transparency. Consider creating a searchable database of your UNCT M&E
results.
Share Results with Development Partners. The need for information sharing among development
partners is beneficial in the spread of evaluative knowledge, development learning, and practical
methodologies.
32
11.3 Impact on Programming, Policy and Behaviour
Assessing the impact of your joint communications strategy is vital moving forward, especially when
planning future communication tactics. The first step in this assessment is to re-visit your UNCT’s
strategic objectives. If they were created with specificity and precision, the objectives will serve as an
accurate measurement to gauge the impact of your communications strategy.
These are a few ways to capture data on specific behavioural results.
Random sampling surveys are effective in evaluating impact and generating self-reports on specific
actions and outputs as a result of your UNCT strategy.
Focus groups are also effective for your UNCT to understand how members of a particular audience
perceive your organization and its work, to identify emerging problems or opportunities, and to better
understand the audience’s attitudes and values. Focus groups generally have seven to twelve
participants and a moderator to actively lead the group discussion.21
Survey feedback is another valuable tool that requires group members or key decision makers to be
interviewed individually. This basic data-gathering method provides members to feel connected to the
results-gathering process.
As the impact assessment can evolve into an increasingly complex project, consider assigning an
evaluation specialist to design an impact assessment component to your joint communications strategy.
21
Radtke, Janel M., Strategic Communications for Non-Profit Organizations, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Toronto. Pg. 176.
33
12 Annexes
12.1 Delivering as One Work plan for 2008: United Republic of Tanzania
Internal Communication
Strategic objective 2:
To increase internal UN Tanzania staff awareness, understanding and support for One UN and to enhance capacity of UNCT to speak with one voice
Short-term goal 2a: All UN staff has a common understanding and commitment towards One UN, and speak with one voice
Short-term objective 2a: To have a clear understanding of One UN concept and to set up a communication structure within the UN
Activity
Objective
Outcome
Indicator
Timeframe
Responsible
Assumptions
Budget
USD
Develop and
Staff aware of One UN
Number and briefings
May 12-16
UNICEF/RCO/UNH
Staff will take active
2,000
implement a
To brief staff on One UN
(reports also to be shared
held with all staff
Nov 17-21
CR/UNIC/UNFPA/U
part in the reform
(RCO)
programme for all
with NRAs)
NAIDS
process and
UNICEF leads
appreciate working
staff briefings by the
UN Resident
together as one UN
Coordinator
Develop and
To brief staff on One UN –
Staff aware of One UN
Number and briefings
April 17 & 24
UNICEF/RCO/UNH
Staff will take active
2,000
implement a
by breaking them down into
- Feedback to be shared
held with all staff
first round –
CR/UNIC/UNFPA/U
part in the reform
(RCO)
programme for staff
smaller groups by function,
with staff association and
continues
NAIDS
process and
briefings by function
to encourage participation
RCO. Appoint Change
hereafter
UNICEF leads
appreciate working
and discussion
Champions
Develop and
To make staff aware benefits
Staff aware of One UN,
Staff better informed
Starting with
UNICEF/RCO/UNH
Staff will take active
25,000
implement: Be the
of the ONE UN and create
resistance countered
about the reform and
Change
CR/UNIC/UNFPA/U
part in the reform
(RCO)
Change internal
and encourage behavioural
through effective
resistance to change
Champions
NAIDS
process and
campaign
change
communication and
minimized through
Mid- May,
UNICEF leads
appreciate working
general commitment
mini KAPS by the end
continues in
together as one
enhanced
of 2008
2008
UN.
together as one UN
Production of
To update staff on One UN
Staff aware of One UN,
Information material
Jan- Dec
UNICEF/RCO/UNH
Staff will take active
1,000
information materials
developments and new
resistance countered
produced and
2008
CR/UNIC/UNFPA/U
part in the reform
(RCO)
for UN staff
initiatives, including staff of
through effective
NRAs
disseminated
NAIDS/
process and
communication and
UNIC/RCO/
appreciate working
general commitment
NRA Analyst
together as one UN
enhanced
UNICEF/RCO
leads
Collaborate with ICT
Develop new communication
All UN Staff are well
New communication
Feb- Dec.
UNICEF/RCO/UNH
ICT Group has
inter-agency group to
tools to ensure effective
informed of reform
channels developed
2008
CR/UNIC/UNFPA/U
capacity to develop
develop effective
information sharing
process and resistance to
NAIDS
new tools
means of internal
change is countered, e.g.
RCO leads
communication
towards capacity
0,-
assessment
Re-design of UN
A functional, up-to-date One
All staff more engaged in
Intranet launched and
Ongoing in
RCO/UNESCO
All UN staff in
25,000
Intranet with set-up of
UN Intranet as an effective
the reform process and
running
2008
Consultant/
Tanzania have
(RCO to
new shared IT-
information sharing tool
resistance towards
(continued
Webmaster
reliable access to
get 8,000
change is effectively
from 2007)
RCO leads
Intranet
in 2008 for
countered
(Set-up of
re-design,
new shared
IT-platform
IT-platform
funds
POSTPONE
later)
platform
D to 2009
Medium-term goal 2a: Institutionalized communication function and all UN staff speak with one voice by 2008
Medium-term objective 2a: To strengthen One UN communications to enable all UN staff speak with one voice by 2008
UNCG-TZ retreat
To evaluate progress and
Better understanding of
Retreat report
February
UNIC/RCO
All UNCG-TZ
5,000
performance of the
lessons learned in 2007
Number of
2008
UNIC leads
members
(RCO)
communication function and
and prospects for 2008
participants
share expectations
2008
for 2008
UNCG-TZ training on
To sensitize the UNCG on
Better shared
Training report
change
change communications
understanding of how to
Course outline
communicate change
Presentations
communication
participate and
make recommendations for
Feb 2008
35
UNCG-TZ/RCO
Good trainer
10,000
RCO leads
available
(RCO)
Develop an internal
To set rules and guidelines
Well-defined policy and
One UN
guidelines on
for the UN Country Team to
guidelines agreed with
communicating as
effectively communicate as
management
One UN
One UN
March 2008
RCO/ UNIC
Consensus among
5,000
Communication
Consultant
agencies to
(RCO)
Policy and Guidelines
RCO leads
promote joint
for Tanzania
identity
Total to remain with RCO
75,000
Total for internal communication
75,000
12.2 Worksheet for Communication Implications of the Stakeholder Analysis
ENVIRONMENAL SCAN AND
STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
Emerging issues NOT
amenable to
communication solutions
Emerging issues amenable
to communication solutions
(1) Current situation:
Current knowledge, behaviours,
and behaviour trends.
(2) Market segmentation:
Priority market segments
(3) Force field analysis:
Forces/factors in field which
constrain/support behaviour
adoption
(4) Consumer need/desire/want
being responded to with a
solution – the recommended
behaviour
36
Communication implications
(5) Cost in terms of pricing,
effort, time, other ‘cost’ factors,
and cost/value calculations
(6). Convenience in terms of
accessibility, availability
(7) Perceptions and Positioning:
How current perceptions
position the offered behaviour in
the consumer’s mind; how can
it be re-positioned in relation to
best desired perceptions.
(8) Competitors: alternative
behaviours, Do-Nothing and
Take-A-Chance
(9) Communication Situation
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12.3 UNDAF Results Matrix, Malawi 2008-2011
NATIONAL GOALS: MGDS THEME 1 - SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE ACHIEVEMENT OF
NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY
UNDAF OUTCOME 1: By 2011 government policies and local and national institutions effectively support equitable
economic growth and the achievement of food and nutrition security
Country Programme
Outcomes
1.1 Strengthened
Government capacity to
coordinate and
implement food and
nutrition security policies
and plans by 2011
Country Programme Outputs
Partners
Resources
(USD)
1.1.1 Provision of additional capacity to government to
ensure that food and nutrition policies are integrated
as part of SWAP development by 2011.
FAO, (UNDP)
1.1.2 Strengthened Government capacity to coordinate
and align development partners’ policies and plans
by 2011.
FAO, (UNDP)
OPC: PSR MEP&D:
MGDS M&E formats
and evidence-based
policy formulation
WB, Norway; DFID,
EU, GTZ, JICA; NSO;
MoF, Ministry of
Youth, Ministry of
Women, Civil Society
10,500,000
1.2 Nutrient friendly
agricultural productivity
increased, especially at
household level, and
oriented towards
commercialization by
2011
1.2.1 Land area under small scale irrigation and water
harvesting increased by 22% by 2011.
FAO, (UNDP)
1.2.2 By 2011, the proportion of farmers practicing
diversification is increased to 55% in programme
areas (diversification in production - high value &
nutritive crops, dairy, livestock, and aquaculture).
FAO, (UNDP)
1.2.3
Ministry of Irrigation;
Ministry of Agriculture
and Food Security: ;
GTZ; USAID; EU;
JICA; Department of
Fisheries; Ministry of
Labour and Social
Development, NGOs,
Trade Unions,
Employers
Association
Three adaptive research initiatives supported in
different zones by 2011.
FAO, (UNDP)
1.2.4
Uptake of improved agronomic, crop protection and
post harvest best practices doubled in areas where
UN is working with government by 2011.
FAO, (UNDP, UNIDO)
1.2.5
Linkage and access to markets and financial
institutions for the agro-sector increased by 33% by
2011.
1.2.6 FAO, (UNDP)
By 2011 the number of women, young people and
people with disabilities engaged in gainful and
sustainable economic activities increased by 15%.
1.2.7 FAO, (UNFPA, ILO, UNIDO)
Child labour and hazardous work for young people
reduced in agricultural sector
ILO (FAO, UNICEF)
39
24,400,000
1.3 Enhanced conservation
of natural resource base
by 2011
1.3.1 Land under community-based natural resources
management, improved integrated water resources
management and improved land use practices
increased by 25% by 2011.
UNDP, (FAO)
1.3.2
Strengthened application of results of disaster risk
assessment to natural resources management by
2011.
1.3.3 FAO
MoAFS, Ministry of
Energy, GTZMines
and Natural
Resources, USAID
11,000,000
Increased access to alternative energy sources by
2011
(target depends of alternative energy source. Ref
M&E matrix for details).
UNDP, (FAO)
Coordination Mechanisms and Programme Modalities:
The Economic and development policy work will be coordinated under existing coordination mechanisms; such as: Public Sector
Reform Programme; Malawi Financial and Accountability Programme, Joint M&E Programme, Group on Financial and Economic
Management and the Government/Donor Aid Coordination mechanisms being developed under the Development Assistance
Strategy. Most of the UNDAF outcomes will also be produced under sector wide programme approaches such as the proposed
agriculture SWAP, and national programme frameworks, such as PSR, MFAP, etc.
The UN participates in most coordination mechanisms as well as programme wide approaches used in Malawi. In a number of
cases, PSR and Agriculture and Nutrition Policy, the UN takes the lead.
40
12.4 M&E Matrix, Malawi 2008-2011
41
12.5 Gantt Chart
42
12.6 Recommended Reading
Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, by Terence A. Shimp
The Blue Book: a hands-on approach to advocating for the millennium development goals, UNDP MDGs Unit
Branding for Nonprofits, by DK Holland
Discovering the Activation Point: Smart Strategies to Make People Act, Communications Leadership Institute and Spitfire Strategies
Government Public Relations: A Reader (Public Administration and Public Policy), by Mordecai Lee
Influencing Public Attitudes: Strategies That Reduce the Media's Power, by James E. Lukaszewski
It's Not Just PR: Public Relations in Society, by W. Timothy Coombs, Sherry J. Holladay
Lobbying and Advocacy Handbook for Nonprofit Organizations: Shaping Public Policy at the State and Local Level, by Marcia Avner
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, By Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits, by Jason Salzman
A New Weave of Power, People, and Politics: The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation, by Lisa VeneKlasen and Valerie Miller
Nonprofit Internet Strategies: Best Practices for Marketing, Communications, and Fundraising Success, by Ted Hart, James M. Greenfield, Michael Johnston
Now Hear This: The Nine Laws of Successful Advocacy Communications, Fenton Communications
The Politics of Attention: How Government Prioritizes Problems, by Bryan D. Jones, Frank R. Baumgartner
Publicity for Nonprofits: Generating Media Exposure That Leads to Awareness, Growth, and Contributions, by Sandra Beckwith
Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes, by Katya Andresen
Setting the Agenda: The Mass Media and Public Opinion, by Maxwell McCombs
Strategic Communications for Non-Profit Organizations, By Janel M. Radtke
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12.7 Support
For support in implementing this guidance note, please contact the
UN Development Operations Coordination Office (DOCO):
Michael Kovrig
Strategic Communications Specialist
UN Development Operations Coordination Office
One UN Plaza, DC1-1660, New York, NY 10017
Tel: 212-906-5053 Cell: 646-633-3620
michael.kovrig@undg.org | michael@kovrig.com
Daisy Leoncio
Web Communications Specialist
UN Development Operations Coordination Office
One UN Plaza, DC1-1660, New York, NY 10017
Tel: 212-906-6125
daisy.leoncio@undg.org
Julie Payne
Communications Specialist
UN Development Operations Coordination Office
Tel: 212-906-6509
julie.payne@undg.org
44