Communication for Development and
Emergencies: A Literature Review of
Existing Approaches and Tools
A summary report reviewing existing evidence, approaches and practical tools
focused on the role and use of communication during emergencies
Andrew Skuse, PhD
Independent Consultant
DRAFT
January 18, 2014
A Report Commissioned by UNICEF/NYHQ
Programme Division/Communication for Development Section
Acronyms
AAP
BCC
C4D
C4HA
CDAC
CDC
CFSC
DFID
DRR
HA
ICRC
ICT4D
IEC
IFRC
IPC
KAP
QA
SFCG
UNICEF
UNDP
UNESCO
UNFPA
UNHCR
UNOCHA
USAID
Accountability for Affected Communities
Behaviour Change Communication
Communication for Development
Communication for Humanitarian Assistance
Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities Network
Centres for Disease Control
Communication for Social Change Consortium
UK Department for International Development
Disaster Risk Reduction
Humanitarian Assistance
International Committee of the Red Cross
Information and Communication Technologies for Development
Information, Education and
International Federation of the Red Cross
Interpersonal Communication
Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice
Quality Assurance
Search for Common Ground
United Nations Children’s Education Fund
United Nations Development Programme
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
United Nations Population Fund
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance
United States Aid
2
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
4
1.
Introduction
8
2.
Methodology
8
3.
Summary of Evidence
10
4.
Conclusion
20
Annex 1
Summary of Included Literature
22
3
Executive Summary
Background
This literature review has focused on the range of practical resources and tools available for
use in emergency/disaster settings. The rationale for undertaking the review is to assess how
previous resources have addressed the topic and what we might learn from them in attempting
to develop a user-friendly toolkit that is simple, but still adheres to known communication
principles, latest evidence and approaches that help to assure quality and effectiveness. Such
approaches and tools are most commonly associated with C4D/BCC-type communication
approaches, as well as with social change and participatory communication frameworks. These
approaches seek to engage with communities, identify information needs, communication uses
and preference, understand behaviour and constraints to behaviour change, while also defining
clear objectives, engaging in pretesting to ensure relevant and undertaking evaluation for the
purpose of learning.
The methodological approach taken was pragmatic and focused mainly on resources
developed by organisations that fall into the ‘practitioner’ category. Academic literature was
generally not assessed, though a relevant systematic review summarising a significant amount
of relevant literature has been included to add a counterbalance to the practitioner literature. A
process of manual searching against the selected search terms was used to find a
representative sample of material from a wide number of organisations involved in the delivery
of humanitarian assistance and development. Both resources that focused on emergencies
and non-emergency contexts were included for review to enable learning from both forms of
literature. These resources were added to through snowballing, and through knowledge of
previous source derived from the author’s similar work for a number of organisations.
Findings
The review found the following findings:
-
The literature reviewed falls that examines formal emergency communication treats
communication as a core asset with emergency responses and is generally not designed
and evaluated with the same rigour as C4D-focused communication interventions;
The literature that addresses the C4D-focused approaches in emergencies engages a fairly
conventional approach to communication design and implementation, drawing heavily on
formative research, the use of quality assurance practices and upon ongoing and
summative evaluation;
-
Much of the formal emergency communication literature derives from developed world
contexts and is generally not supported by a clear theoretical or methodological focus. The
absence of field methods in many resources suggests that their primary concern is with
information giving, warning messages and evacuative action, rather than any sense of
behaviour and social change. There is a clear opportunity to enhance emergency
communication through the application of some basic methodological tools;
-
Most of the emergency and non-emergency literature promotes some form of process/cycle
to follow during a crisis and most promote a range of principles and/or steps that can be
adhered to in a crisis situation. The non-emergency or BCC-focused material is stronger
on steps, principles and quality assurance tools that can help ensure effectiveness;
-
Many resources promote generic message sets and there is value in ensuring that
communication practitioners have generic sets of messages that can be communicated in
an initial crisis period. A balance needs to be struck between promoting a prescriptive
response through generic messaging and the development of context specific research
informed messaging. Further, there is a critical need to build dialogue before, during and
4
after emergencies and while message giving can positively affect the public information
environment it is not effective in creating dialogue;
-
Much of the literature, both emergency and C4D-focused recognises the need to create
dialogue. This places a critical emphasis on both the communication channels engaged,
i.e. face-to-face communication and community mobilisation is effective at creating
dialogue, while certain genres of communication, such as drama have been shown to stir
public debate very effectively. Building positive dialogue is one of the key goal of
emergency communication;
-
New Technology is playing an increasingly significant role in humanitarian emergencies,
though much has been made from a small number of mainly crowdsourcing and crisis
mapping examples. Further, there is still much to learn about how the humanitarian
community and largely volunteer crisis mapping communities can work together. Numerous
developing world emergencies feature communication contexts characterised by unequal
access to new ICTs and dominance of traditional media access and interpersonal
communication. The UNICEF toolkit needs to balance promoting and integrating using new
ICTs into emergency responses without them taking precedence;
-
Defining the focus of the emergency timeframe that the toolkit will focus on is critical to
containing its scope. Numerous existing resources address the preparatory and recovery
phases of disasters in detail. There is a lack of C4D-type resources that focus on the acute
period of a disaster and it is here that the most value can be added through the
development of a toolkit;
-
Many of the better, more practical resources, contain a specific focus on quality assurance,
and especially pretesting to ensure relevance and suitability of communication outputs.
They promote simple tools and checklists that can help practitioners to test their
assumptions;
-
The accountability to affected populations (AAP) and resilience agendas are weakly
reflected in the bulk of the literature reviewed. The AAP agenda challenges the
humanitarian sector to communicate more effectively with communities, especially around
the broad role of humanitarian assistance, and service provision in order to create demand
and foster accountability, rather than around specific thematic issues, such as conflict
reduction or Cholera. This represents a challenge that must be addressed in the toolkit
development process;
-
With one or two exceptions the resources reviewed are too long, too technical and most
likely difficult to implement in emergency situations. Their length and complexity is driven
by the need for methodological rigour and a key challenge associated with the development
of the toolkit is how the essence of this rigour can be maintained, while much of the detail
and method associated with these approaches is removed.
Recommendations
The following recommendations are drawn from the literature review and have implications for
the development of the UNICEF toolkit. Several recommendations are of broader relevance to
UNICEF’s C4D practice.
Toolkit recommendations:
-
There is clear value in UNICEF maintaining a focus on C4D/BCC principles, albeit in
extremely light form. It can add value, but should not place implementation staff at risk. For
example, the collection of formative data during conflict may be highly dangerous, but such
data is deemed critical to designing effective C4D initiatives. A short section on recognising
and negotiating risk will help practitioners make sensible choices, while pointing them to
5
alternative data sources or methods of field data collection/testing (some driven by
emerging ICTs). Existing resources cover aspects of risk quite poorly;
-
There is no value in UNICEF adopting a strictly emergency communication approach
because comprehensive emergency resources already exist and UNICEF’s comparative
advantage lies in approaches that target behaviour change and social action (as promoted
through C4D). Use of the ‘emergency’ tag in previous UNICEF publications has cause
confusion for users from other organisations. Given this, there is logic in losing the
emergency tag altogether in favour of the broader term humanitarian assistance. Focusing
on what can be termed Communication for Humanitarian Assistance or C4HA would enable
the resource to speak directly to emergencies while also addressing the accountability
agenda by helping communicate the role/function of HA. Finally, the UNICEF approach has
been to promote substantial and rigorous C4D/BCC guidance in for use in emergencies,
rather than promoting a radically slimmed version of the C4D/BCC approach that is simple
and accessible. Simplicity (with rigour) and conciseness will result in the biggest uptake for
the resource.
-
The toolkit should cover in modest detail the transition to longer-term support and recovery
initiatives and the shift from preparation phases to emergency communication. This will
help to limit the scope of the resource, but also help users to identify when things have
changed and point them to resources that can help. There is clear merit in focusing on a
discrete timeframe (see section below) and promoting a more rigorous C4D/C4HA
approach. There are enough high quality resources that address recovery, but few that
offer a rapid C4D/C4HA-focused approach for acute emergencies;
-
Prioritise rapid formative data collection for strategy design and development over impact
data. Ensuring the relevance of communication design, appropriateness of messages,
various channels/mechanisms employed and quality of outputs is critical to effectiveness.
Investment in formative processes is critical, understanding impacts can be more
problematic. Formal emergency communication places value in getting information out and
dialogue going, but places little emphasis on understanding impacts (often because many
emergencies are short-lived, especially in the developed world from where the bulk of the
literature emanates). In complex media environments it is also increasingly difficult to
identify causality (i.e. directly link behaviour change to a specific communication initiative).
In the developing world the same is largely true. While it is important to understand impacts,
if context allows, more emphasis should be placed on formative evaluation. If that is
rigorous, effectiveness and impact is likely to follow. Consequently, objective setting,
indicator identification and summative evaluation processes should be modest and
‘doable’;
-
At minimum the toolkit should include focus groups or key informant interviews to
compliment quantitative KAP surveying to ensure QA feedback and subtle behavioural data
is secured. Such data can be secured with minimum numbers of focus groups; as such
data is inherently subjective, but nonetheless valuable in testing assumptions;
-
Engagement with more extensive qualitative methods should be avoided for practical
reasons of risk, lack of synthesis and analysis capacity in many organisations and its timeconsuming nature;
-
Resources that have clearly definable steps that are geared towards generating a simple
C4HA communication strategy will have more applicability in context;
-
Initial work on toolkit development should prioritize collating existing approaches, initiatives,
mechanisms, tools and steps (identified in this review) to form a long list that can be
simplified and reduced;
-
Building a limited bank of generic messages is essential to the rapid deployment and use
ability of the toolkit;
-
Messages should cut across HA delivery, BCC/C4D and advocacy;
6
-
Building in a process for considering message localization will help stop the toolkit
becoming a prescriptive resource that is used uncritically;
-
Integrate role of new ICTs throughout the toolkit, especially in the areas of data collection,
KAP and emergency SMS messaging (and other ICT channels). Do not build a separate
section relating to new ICTs;
-
Chose a realistic emergency timeframe to ensure that fewer rather than more steps are
included in the toolkit. The CDC 4-step cycle of 1-3 days after a disaster, 3-7 days after, 14 weeks after and the one-month plus period is more practical and is therefore preferable.
It is clear that such a timeframe does not cover all types of emergencies and some are
much longer, so succinct material on the transition from the one-month plus point to longer
term initiatives is important;
-
The toolkit should only cover acute/rapid onset emergencies and not try to cover more
mainstream development processes. This will help focus the resource, help to partners,
such as Red Cross and wide UN bodies and help keep the resource light;
-
Include simple QA tools throughout to aid message development and pretesting in
particular. These can link to and support communication effectiveness principles to ensure
that as users work through the toolkit they absorb some of the essence of what a C4D/BCC
approach is concerned with;
-
Include resilience as a brief framing theory that helps tie the wider humanitarian
communication objectives together. Here resilience could be linked to the notion of
communication as a protective asset and to the participation of AAP for dialogue;
-
Develop a paper and web/app version of the toolkit, both of which are geared towards the
production of a defined emergency communication strategy/plan that can be adapted as
needs change. This will ensure widest coverage of potential audiences;
-
Each section or step should have a consistent format, with: (i) communication approaches
and principles; (ii) question sets that with help users generate answers that can be used to
flesh out their strategies; (iii) simple methodological tools that enable these questions to be
asked; (iv) simple quality assurance tools that help user ensure relevance. In addition,
simple objective setting and M&E can be promoted, but with a preference for formative and
pretesting work, rather than impact evaluation;
-
Limit the scale (i.e. no more than 30 pages for the ‘super-light’ tool and no more than 50
pages for the longer version) of the resource to ensure that it is light and focuses only on
the essential methods, tools, principles and quality assurance mechanisms;
-
The toolkit development process must ensure that the various factors identified in the
review of academic literature are supported in the outputs and that identifying supporting
frameworks and clear outcomes resulting from communication is important.
UNICEF recommendations:
-
UNICEF may want to further explore the concept of resilience in the context of C4D/BCC
approaches to ensure that a rigorous data-driven link is established between
communication and increased resilience, as it is a multifaceted asset that is potentially
riddled with socio-cultural constraints;
-
UNICEF might want to consider undertaking a separate assessment of how its wider body
of C4D resources is used and adapted at the local level as a way of understanding how to
communicate technical advice going forward.
7
1. Introduction
1.1 This literature examines the role of emergency communication in the context of
humanitarian and complex emergencies. In particular, it focuses on the range of practical
guidance and, tools that have been developed to help humanitarian and development
organisations build effective communication initiatives in contexts characterised by risk. Unlike
conventional C4D, emergency C4D requires a rapid response and approaches that are highly
efficient, yet robust enough to offer relevant and rigorously designed outputs. This review
focuses on literature for both emergency and non-emergency settings that offer insights into
emergency communication practice, as well as those that identify practical tools, strategies and
design frameworks for use by field practitioners.
1.2 The literature selected for review is that deemed to be most relevant, while adhering to wellestablished principles of C4D best practice. These include engaging in formative media uses
and behavioural and social research, disaggregating audiences, developed group-specific
messages, engaging in quality assurance through pretesting, promoting consistent messages
and issues over multiple communication channels and engaging in rigorous monitoring and
evaluation for lesson learning and program adaption. In addition, a preliminary workshop
meeting held on 16-17th December at UNICEF Headquarters has provided additional focus for
this review. It was concluded that the toolkit could:
-
Give guidance for risk informed sectoral interventions, including the transition from
communication for humanitarian assistance to communication for development;
Be light;
Provide minimum standards;
Provide information for each phase of the humanitarian assistance and/or development
programme cycle;
It must be clear who is the end user;
Provide options for different case scenarios;
Include quick assessment for communication needs;
Strengthen the monitoring and evaluation component.
1.3 This initial list of issues will be considered in this review, along with additional issues
emerging from the literature examined. In addition, the humanitarian community is committed
to improving accountability for affected communities (AAP), which entails an increased focus
on communicating the program activities associated with humanitarian assistance. This
communication function is in addition to the sectoral and thematic focus of the resources
reviewed here, but is critically important to building dialogue with communities and trust. Finally,
a key forward-looking objective of UNICEF is to adopt a resilience approach to their work in
which, in conjunction with bilateral, multilateral, government and NGO partners, they seek to
enhance the capacity of communities to prepare for and respond to emergencies. From a C4D
perspective this involves using targeted communications activities to help reduce risk and
vulnerability and through building capacity to enhance disaster preparedness.
2. Methodology
2.1 The methodology employed to identify relevant sources that explicitly focus on emergency
communication approaches, design and practical tools resulted in standard academic
databases such as Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Ingenta Connect, Google Scholar, not
being favoured within the search strategy. Given the specialist nature of C4D and emergency
communication the search strategy was tailored to databases relevant to the particular thematic
area. The methodology employed in this literature review follows a three-step process that
includes: (i) the identification of relevant search terms/keywords; (ii) the identification of relevant
sources from practice-focused databases; and (iii) the snowballing of sources through
examination of reference lists of found literature.
2.2 An initial list of search terms was developed and expanded, and then used to source
literature, though the poor search functionality of non-academic databases significantly limited
8
search efficiency. Search terms included:
-
Accountability
BCC
Behaviour
Building
C4D
Campaign
Change
Children
Civic
Civil
Communication
Conflict
Democratisation
Development
Disaster
DRR
Education
Emergency
Ethnic
-
Fragile
Gender
Governance
Health
Human
Humanitarian
ICT4D
IEC
Information
Interpersonal
KAP
Legislation
Media
Mitigation
Network
New
Participation
Peace
Policy
-
Print
Radio
Reduction
Refugee
Recovery
Reporting
Resilience
Rights
Risk
Social
Stabilisation
State
Strengthening
Telecom*
Television
Video
Violence
Vulnerability
War
2.3 These terms were used to manually search (via trialling combinations of search terms) the
websites of the organisations listed below. These organisations are known to have a role in
either C4D or in providing support to communities experiencing humanitarian or complex
emergencies. A wide number of organisations were chosen to search to ensure a broad crosssection of evidence was returned. Where multiple sources were found only the most relevant
material was included for assessment in this review, i.e. that which focuses on emergency
communication approaches, design and practical tools. Some material returned does not focus
on emergency communication but on broader C4D issues, though these have been included
due to their relevance to the development of concise tools.
-
BBC Media Action
CDAC (Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities) Network
Centres for Disease Control (CDC)
Communication for Social Change Consortium (CFSC)
FHI 360°
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC)
Search for Common Ground (SFCG)
The Communication Initiative
UK Department for International Development (DFID)
United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA)
USAID
World Bank
WHO
2.4 Some background documents where provided by UNICEF. In addition, this literature review
draws on some previous work undertaken by the author, which also included the systematic
collection of literature relating to communication for development in fragile states, during
complex emergencies and in support of humanitarian processes. These include:
-
Skuse, A. et al. 2013. Communication for Development Interventions in Fragile States:
9
A Systematic Review. JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation
Reports JBL000566, 11(3): 1-190.
-
Skuse, A. et al. 2013. Social Networking, Social Media and Complex Emergencies: an
annotated bibliography. Australian Civil-Military Centre, Canberra, pp.1-70.
2.5 Where appropriate, sources identified in these documents have also been included to
support this paper. Finally, the initial material identified was subject to the process of
snowballing, whereby the reference lists of sourced literature is examined for additional work
of relevance to the review. Material not selected for inclusion in this literature is not reported in
this review (for the sake of efficiency). Some material was of conceptual relevance, but offered
little by way of practical tools and these are included, but not subject to full review. The search
strategy and subsequent snowballing process sought material only from the period January
2004 - December 2013. This helped to ensure that literature was current and reflected the most
recent developments in the delivery of humanitarian and emergency communication. Some
resources had no publication date and were included for the relevance of their content. Only
studies published in English were considered for inclusion in this literature review, though it is
critical to note the important contributions of authors writing in languages other than English.
3. Summary of Evidence
Emergency Communication and BCC: a clash of perspectives?
3.1 The evidence reviewed points to a divergence in approaches and understanding of what
constitutes emergency communication. The bulk of emergency communication literature
derives from developed world contexts and it constitutes a well-developed approach with clear
processes, practices and parameters. The term emergency communication refers to the rapid
conveying of emergency information through organisations and channels that have the capacity
to immediately shift their focus. Publications from CDC, Australian Government and a wide
range of USA Department of Homeland Security (not reviewed) are principally focused on rapid
mobilisation of an information response to an emerging crisis, i.e. a terrorist event, flood or
bush fire. The provision of accurate and verified information is critical, but within the bulk of
evidence that falls formally within the ‘emergency communication’ field there is less concern
with formative research, behaviour and social change and impact evaluation over the function
of the timely provision of information.
3.2 In developed world settings, where robust services exist to address health and humanitarian
needs, the principle focus of emergency communication is on risk avoidance, responding to
danger and evacuation. The primary goal of most emergency communication frameworks is to
invest in extensive preparation, i.e. ‘know your emergency plan’, and during the crisis event,
the goal is to get at risk populations to ‘act now’. This is captured by the CDC (5) in their
comprehensive emergency communication manual, where the state:
-
Be first;
Be right;
Be credible;
Express empathy;
Promote action;
Show respect.
Finally, with their ability to mobilise social media channels quickly developed world emergency
communicators are quick to establish a dialogue to at risk populations, which aids both
accountability and the provision of information in real time. This can be the case in the
developing world, as the example of the Haiti earthquake response has shown, however in
contexts with limited Internet and mobile telecommunications access such responses remain
some way off.
10
3.4 Within the developing world, where less robust services exist and emergency responses
may be less robust communication tends to play a far broader role, from early warning of
impending disasters to promoting community responses to the resulting health, social and
infrastructural problems that they bring. The bulk of literature that focuses on emergencies in
the developing world tend to prioritise well-known C4D/BCC principles and processes such as
formative research, audience segmentation, multiple context-specific messages, multi-channel
dissemination, ongoing evaluation, pretesting, content revision and so on. The literature is
geared towards a few core functions:
-
-
Rapid communication context mapping;
Emergency communication in immediate response to a disaster, focus on mobilising media,
emergency management plans and communicating warnings and generic messages;
Understanding diversity of risks and promoting behaviour change through targeted
thematic and sectoral communication interventions, especially in the preparatory and postemergency phases;
Promoting the role and function of humanitarian assistance (in accordance with the
accountability for affected populations framework).
3.5 The C4D/BCC-type literature examined fell into both the emergency and non-emergency
bracket, but differed little in the detail and complexity of approach beyond the need for more
urgency in emergency situations. Again the tension between the formal emergency
communication literature and C4D/BCC approach resides in a difference of perspectives about
the role of information and communication, with the former seeing it as a routine asset that is
provided like any other asset, whereas the C4D/BCC approach is one that is driven by evidence
and the impetus to prove impacts (i.e. behaviour change). Many of the tools and frameworks
examined fail to recognise the difficulties of conducting a C4D/BCC approach within an
emergency situation and few makes detailed statements of how and when the approach should
be modified to ensure staff remain safe in the face of an emergency.
3.6 The issue of a clash of perspectives was noted in the preliminary group meeting of the 1617th December, which discussed the need to come up with a name that could replace C4D/BCC
since it did not resonate well with different agencies. Suggestions included Communication 4
Emergencies (C4E) and Communication for Humanitarian Action (C4HA). It was noted that the
name should speak to a wide set of issues, including:
-
Participation;
Two-way communication;
Humanitarian Action;
Behaviour and social change;
Advocacy;
Accountability for Affected Populations (AAP);
Communication with Communities.
The preliminary meeting also noted that a holistic BCC/C4D approach would probably be
untenable. Holding on to the basics of the C4D approach is important and a focus on a toolkit
that equates to a C4D-light would help to ensure that minimum communication standards are
met.
Recommendations:
-
There is clear value in UNICEF maintaining a focus on C4D/BCC principles, albeit in
extremely light form. It can add value, but should not place implementation staff at risk. For
example, the collection of formative data during conflict may be highly dangerous, but such
data is deemed critical to designing effective C4D initiatives. A short section on recognising
and negotiating risk will help practitioners make sensible choices, while pointing them to
alternative data sources or methods of field data collection/testing (some driven by
emerging ICTs). Existing resources cover aspects of risk quite poorly;
-
There is no value in UNICEF adopting a strictly emergency communication approach
because comprehensive emergency resources already exist and UNICEF’s comparative
11
advantage lies in approaches that target behaviour change and social action (as promoted
through C4D). Use of the ‘emergency’ tag in previous UNICEF publications has cause
confusion for users from other organisations. Given this, there is logic in losing the
emergency tag altogether in favour of the broader term humanitarian assistance. Focusing
on what can be termed Communication for Humanitarian Assistance or C4HA would enable
the resource to speak directly to emergencies while also addressing the accountability
agenda by helping communicate the role/function of HA. Finally, the UNICEF approach has
been to promote substantial and rigorous C4D/BCC guidance in for use in emergencies,
rather than promoting a radically slimmed version of the C4D/BCC approach that is simple
and accessible. Simplicity (with rigour) and conciseness will result in the biggest uptake for
the resource.
-
The toolkit should cover in modest detail the transition to longer-term support and recovery
initiatives and the shift from preparation phases to emergency communication. This will
help to limit the scope of the resource, but also help users to identify when things have
changed and point them to resources that can help. There is clear merit in focusing on a
discrete timeframe (see section below) and promoting a more rigorous C4D/C4HA
approach. There are enough high quality resources that address recovery, but few that
offer a rapid C4D/C4HA-focused approach for acute emergencies;
-
Prioritise rapid formative data collection for strategy design and development over impact
data. Ensuring the relevance of communication design, appropriateness of messages,
various channels/mechanisms employed and quality of outputs is critical to effectiveness.
Investment in formative processes is critical, understanding impacts can be more
problematic. Formal emergency communication places value in getting information out and
dialogue going, but places little emphasis on understanding impacts (often because many
emergencies are short-lived, especially in the developed world from where the bulk of the
literature emanates). In complex media environments it is also increasingly difficult to
identify causality (i.e. directly link behaviour change to a specific communication initiative).
In the developing world the same is largely true. While it is important to understand impacts,
if context allows, more emphasis should be placed on formative evaluation. If that is
rigorous, effectiveness and impact is likely to follow. Consequently, objective setting,
indicator identification and summative evaluation processes should be modest and
‘doable’.
Methodological Focus
3.7 Much of the literature on formal emergency communication has no clear theoretical
framework or methodologies associated with them; an exception would be the CDC manual
(see Ref. 5). Despite caveats concerning dialogue this literature is largely written from the
standpoint of governments informing citizens without a significant underpinning formative
research or evaluative process. The C4D/BCC is closely linked to behavioural, psychosocial
and social frameworks and promote methodological tools that are capable of generating data
on knowledge, attitudes, practices and behaviours, as well on media uses, preferences, media
sectoral data, capacity needs and policy and legislation.
3.8 Theoretical frameworks tend to dictate the types of methodological tools promoted in the
resources reviewed, with social change approaches promoting purely qualitative methods and
those promoting BCC suggesting more multi-method approaches based quantitative KAP
surveying and qualitative behavioural assessment, often through focus groups and/or in-depth
interviewing. In addition focus groups are used extensively to monitor message relevance and
the quality/clarity of outputs. Generally, quantitative KAP surveying, while capable of telling you
if KAP variables are positively increasing tends not to be capable of supplying the subtle data
on behaviours necessary to developing a context-relevant communication strategy or localising
generic message sets. Further KAP surveying may not be able to provide a causal link between
a communication initiative and shifts in KAP variables, especially in complex
media/communication environments. However, in an emergency situation such considerations
should not be perceived as important as getting the message out and across. Also, effective
12
coordination
can
help
get
a
consistent
message
across
platforms/channels/organisations making its impact greater in the process.
multiple
3.9 While KAP has its problems, it is easy to conduct and can yield robust data based on small
randomised datasets. Qualitative methods on the other hand, while yielding subtle data of great
use to developing communication strategies can be difficult to conduct in emergency settings,
especially where conflict is present. In non-emergency settings methodological approaches
such as ethnography or participatory methods can lead to large quantities of data and a reliance
on international technical assistance for analysis/reporting (see Ref. 20). The development of
an optimal mix of methods for inclusion in the UNICEF toolkit will require field-testing, but at
minimum should include a mix of KAP surveying (quantitative data), focus groups (behavioural
data & QA processes) and individual interviewing (behavioural data & advocacy development).
Recommendations:
-
At minimum the toolkit should include focus groups or key informant interviews to
compliment quantitative KAP surveying to ensure QA feedback and subtle behavioural data
is secured. Such data can be secured with minimum numbers of focus groups; as such
data is inherently subjective, but nonetheless valuable in testing assumptions;
-
Engagement with more extensive qualitative methods should be avoided for practical
reasons of risk, lack of synthesis and analysis capacity in many organisations and its timeconsuming nature.
Focus on principles/steps
3.10 Many of the toolkits and resources examined in this review contain either: (i) overarching
sets of humanitarian communication principles that help define the whole resource: (ii)
principles that guide each substantive section, tool or approach; or (iii) both. The preliminary
group meeting of the 16-17th December discussed a number of broad principles, including:
-
Crisis affected people; households and communities are best placed to articulate their
humanitarian needs;
Strengthening effective communication systems and enabling genuine participation will
result in more positive humanitarian outcomes;
Messages from humanitarian community should be coordinated, based on available
information and build on existing best practice;
All needs assessments should have questions related to communicating with communities;
Government ownership/involvement is ideal but not a precondition;
Strategy for Communication with Communities should evolve over time and remain
responsive and relevant;
We will make sure that all groups especially the most marginalized/at risk are represented
in ‘the community’.
These, and other principles identified in the literature review, such as the AAP and CDC
principles can combine to make a powerful statement concerning the values that the toolkit
seeks to promote. The principles identified should focus explicitly on what is achievable within
the timeframes that the toolkit speaks to, i.e. emergencies (see section on timeframes).
3.11 Within many of the toolkits/resources examined sets of C4D/BCC principles accompany
each section. Principles identified in the literature include, but are not limited to the following:
13
1. Be Process
Orientated
12. Evaluate and
Learn
2. Conduct
Formative
Research and
Pretesting
11. Advocate to
Change Policy
and Legislation
3. Diverse
Audiences Exist
12 Principles
for Effective
Communication in
Emergencies
10. Build
Dialogue for
Accountability
9. Work with and
through
Communities
5. Target Specific
Messages at
Specific Groups
(CwC)
8. Link to and
Communicate
Service
Delivery (AAC)
4. Use Multiple
Communication
Channels
7. Promote
Consistency
and Accuracy
6. Target
Action
Not all of the above principles necessarily equate to strategy development steps, but most of
the literature reviewed contains these or very similar principles/steps. UNICEF’s Cholera Toolkit
(see Ref. 11) contains a number of useful appendices (7A – 7H) that cover a similar range of
principles/steps, including the ‘basics of communication approaches’, which provides a succinct
communication plan template, a preparatory work plan template, communication
methods/channels, key messages/actions/behaviours, community beliefs and perceptions,
working with communities, and an IEC work plan template. This material is detailed and could
be slimmed down and
Recommendations:
-
Resources that have clearly definable steps that are geared towards generating a specific
component of a communication strategy will have more applicability in context;
-
Initial work on toolkit development should prioritize collating existing material/tools/steps
(identified in this review) to form a long list that can be simplified and reduced.
Messaging: striking a balance between emergency messaging and
behavior change messages
3.12 The literature on emergency communication is dominated by information giving and
communicating official verified updates and public warnings. The Australian Government (see
Ref. 9) focus on messaging promotes consistency and accuracy, but also notes that emergency
communication is a dialogue (which is increasingly pushed through social media, but also
interpersonal, peer and social mobilization mechanisms). It suggests:
-
Don’t make assumptions;
It is a dialogue with the community, not a command situation;
Responding to warnings is a process, not a single step;
Recipients of the message will have a need to confirm the message before they are likely
to take action;
14
-
Consistency is critical;
Accuracy is important;
Be as specific as possible;
Don’t leave gaps;
If people are likely to be familiar with previous similar emergencies, use these to
‘benchmark’ the impending situation;
Recipients may be getting the messages under conditions of stress;
Where the target audience includes people who do not speak English as a first language
there may be a need to simplify word choices.
3.13 While this type of messaging is important, UNICEF and its partners are dealing with a
wider set of issues that is highlighted by Pacific Humanitarian Protection Cluster (see Ref. 8)
who provide a list of generic messages covering:
-
General Protection in Disasters; �
Psychosocial Impacts;
Protection of Older People/People who are Sick or Injured/People with Disabilities; �
Protection against violence and abuse; �
Child Protection; �
Environmental Hazards; �
Staying in Evacuation Centres;�
Children & Youth in contact or conflict with the law.
3.14 Existing UNICEF publications and internal resources provide generic sets of messages
that are important for communication practitioners to access during acute emergencies. These
explore issues central to UNICEF’s mandate such as health, nutrition, water and sanitation.
Many messages concerning issues such as health may not change from context to context, but
it is also important that messages are contextualized wherever the context allows and link to
real service delivery/HA. Increasingly, the focus of accountability frameworks has been on
ensuring that the scope of HA is communicated in its own right. This means that the promotion
of HA increasingly must sit alongside, BCC or action focused communications, as well as
advocacy messages, if communities are to be fully included in humanitarian processes.
3.15 While there are risks in promoting generic message sets (i.e. may prevent localization),
they may be essential in the initial weeks of an emergency. Notably, the Infoasaid library of
generic messages is no longer available. Finally, a web/app version toolkit could allow a user
to select specific message sets based on the challenges faced, with the strategy development
process required a minimum degree of local adaptation. Therefore it is critical that the toolkit
provides core message sets, but also promotes simple C4D/BCC tools that enable users to
define, develop and test their own messages.
Recommendations:
-
Building a limited bank of generic messages is essential to the rapid deployment and use
ability of the toolkit;
-
Messages should cut across HA delivery, BCC and advocacy;
-
Building in a process for considering message localization will help stop the toolkit
becoming a prescriptive resource that is used uncritically.
Emergency Communication: the role of new technology?
3.16 There is a growing body of work on the role of social and mobile media in the context of
emergencies. The Haiti earthquake, Japanese Tsunami and Arab Spring crises have
highlighted the emerging role of such technologies in linking citizens and in promoting and
sharing citizen media, commentary and community action in response to conflict and disasters.
Much social media communication is beyond the influence of humanitarian assistance
organizations and users tend to trust peers, rather than organizations. Further, many
15
organizations lack the capacity to meaningfully engage in social media strategies in either an
emergency or development context. Some simple tips and tools for integrating social and
mobile media into the humanitarian response can be included in the toolkit and social media
offers an excellent channel for dialogue with the community (where access is available) to
increase accountability of humanitarian assistance processes.
3.17 The toolkits (both emergency and non-emergency focused) examined in this review
identify the role of social and mobile media as channels of communication, but offer little
concrete guidance on how channels such as social media can be mobilized. This is an
emerging field and to date the debate concerning new ICTs and humanitarian assistance has
centered on the aforementioned high-profile examples, but many smaller scale emergencies
occur in countries that do not have the same levels of infrastructure or ICT access. Further,
crowdsourcing data can lead to information overload and there is a concern within the literature
over how the crisis mapping community and humanitarian assistance sector can more
efficiently interact. Telecommunication systems are a critical backbone of many disaster
responses, but often fail in the immediate aftermath of an emergency. While not over-hyping
the role of new ICTs, the UNICEF toolkit will need to be alert to digital inequality issues, while
promoting increased use of new ICT-driven tools and channels. New ICTs offer new ways of
working, collecting data, sharing information and communicating alerts that current resources
cover poorly.
Recommendations:
-
Integrate role of new ICTs throughout the toolkit, especially in the areas of data collection,
KAP and emergency SMS messaging (and other ICT channels). Do not build a separate
section relating to new ICTs.
Disaster Timeframes
3.18 Several of the emergency communication sources, including those from CDC and WHO,
suggest a timeframe to emergency communication that are linked to service provision/response
standards (a key aspect of accountability). WHO suggests a timeframe that reflects action in
the immediate 12, 48, 72-hour period following an emergency, then again in the 5, 7, 15 and
60 day periods. During these periods different aspects of the disaster are addressed. CDC
suggests a focus on the immediate 24 hours prior to the onset of a disaster (if possible), 1-3
days after a disaster, 3-7 days after, 1-4 weeks after and the one-month plus period. From a
communications perspective these time frames help to divide responses between the rapid
provision of generic warning messages to more specific messages that addresses issues (such
as health, WASH, etc) in the period following the disaster. These messages (depending) on
context, have the potential to link to rapidly collected behavioural/information needs data and
have can have basic quality assurance measures such as pretesting and revision of
messages/materials applied to them prior to dissemination.
3.19 The current BCC/C4D-focused resources do not focused heavily on differentiating their
actions according to such timeframes and there is a limit to how prescriptive a toolkit can be in
terms of trying to second-guess how an emergency will unfold (though there is merit in linking
to examples identified in the literature review - see Ref. 5, page 80). To aid clarity of purpose,
fewer rather than more phases would help make the UNICEF toolkit more accessible to users.
The question of where the C4D/BCC adds value is important to a consideration of timeframes.
Most C4D/BCC focused resources address the pre/post aspect of emergencies better than the
acute emergency phase itself, which is more concerned with rapid information provision of often
stock/generic messages. Where good preparatory work has been conducted context specific
messages may already exist, however, humanitarian assistance tends to be reactive and good
preparatory work tends not to occur.
3.20 BCC/C4D focused initiatives are perhaps more suited to chronic onset emergencies, such
as civil unrest, long-term health crises or post-disaster/conflict recovery rather than acute
emergencies/open conflicts. It could be argued that enough resources already exist to address
the slow-onset communication dimension. What is currently lacking is a light version of
16
C4D/BCC that can be used during rapid onset emergencies and which adheres to minimum
C4D/BCC standards. Within such a resource it may make sense to differentiate between
different types of emergency, i.e. natural versus manmade. This could enable different types of
communication to be prioritised within that are relevant to the issue at hand, i.e. warnings/take
action for natural disasters versus dialogue for conflict reduction/peace-building. However,
trying to make the UNICEF toolkit cover too many bases could be a significant error given the
wide availability of high quality existing UNICEF and Red Cross BCC resources (see Ref. 10
and Ref. 7).
Recommendations:
-
Chose a realistic emergency timeframe to ensure that fewer rather than more steps are
included in the toolkit. The CDC 4-step cycle of 1-3 days after a disaster, 3-7 days after, 14 weeks after and the one-month plus period is more practical and is therefore preferable;
-
The toolkit should only cover acute/rapid onset emergencies (potentially divided between
natural and manmade emergencies) and not try to cover more mainstream development
processes. This will help focus the resource, help to partners, such as Red Cross and wide
UN bodies and help keep the resource light.
Ensuring Quality
3.21 Few of the formal emergency communication publications (the exception being the large
CDC manual) advocate significant quality assurance measures. The generic nature of message
giving and lack of focus on understanding behaviors or impacts works against a rigorous QA
approach. The material that falls into the C4D/BCC category has significant sections on linking
formative research to message development and the development and pretesting of
communications materials. Ensuring that minimum standards for quality assurance are applied
to emergency communication is important and this is where the toolkit will ‘add value’ to
humanitarian assistance processes, i.e. be being light and lean enough to be used in practice.
3.22 Promoting clear communication effectiveness principles will also help to ensure that any
message communicated are clear, relevant, do not offend or cause confusion. Sending
confusing or inappropriate messages can harm humanitarian assistance processes and lead
to a loss of trust in humanitarian organizations and weaken accountability. The review has
identified a wealth of tools that can be developed and refined, into short simple guidance (see
Refs. 2, 8 & 11).
Recommendations:
-
Include simple QA tools throughout to aid message development and pretesting in
particular. These can link to and support communication effectiveness principles to ensure
that as users work through the toolkit they absorb some of the essence of what a C4D/BCC
approach is concerned with.
The resilience and accountably to affected populations agendas
3.23 The agendas of community resilience and accountability to affected populations are front
and centre of UNICEF and the humanitarian community’s policy agenda. The CRS useful 9step toolkit is an excellent resource that directly speaks to the accountability issue and from
which the UNICEF toolkit development can draw guidance. The AAP agenda brings and extra
communication challenge as it is geared towards communicating the broad agenda of
humanitarian assistance, rather than sectoral or thematic issues (where most of UNICEF’s
focus resides). A simple toolkit is likely to be of practical use to a number of humanitarian
agencies seeking to communicate aspects of their work in order to increase accountability.
3.24 The issue of resilience can be addressed at a broad principle level and commonsense
17
suggests that if communication promotes increases in KAP variables then an outcome could
be increased community and/or individual resilience. However, few resources examined come
close to making any such claim, though several reference the role of communication and
information and a core protective asset were found (see Refs. 8 and 29). There is conceptual
mileage in conceiving information and communication as a core protective asset for vulnerable
people because it can function to lessen risk and promote protection (especially for groups
such as children), which can then be linked to existing social protection message sets (see Ref.
8). A key question for the resilience approach to ultimately answer (though not in the context of
the toolkit) is that if, as we know, behaviour change is subject to socio-cultural constraints, who
is made more resilient and how? Is there inequality in the resilience built at community level
and to whom does resilience accrue?
Recommendation:
-
Include resilience as a brief framing theory that helps tie the wider humanitarian
communication objectives together. Here resilience could be linked to the notion of
communication as a protective asset.
-
UNICEF may want to further explore the concept of resilience in the context of C4D/BCC
approaches to ensure that a rigorous data-driven link is established between
communication and increased resilience, as it is a multifaceted asset that is potentially
riddled with socio-cultural constraints.
Accessibility of Existing Resources/Tools and Structure
3.25 The literature reviewed spans short and concise tools advocating varying numbers of
practical steps (i.e. the CRS 9-step toolkit at 50 pages) to extremely long and detailed ‘how to’
manuals some of which extend to over 440 hundred pages (CDC see Ref. 5). UNICEF’s own
BCC in Emergencies manual runs to 237 pages. In contexts characterized by conflict and rapid
onset disasters the lengthier material is unlikely to be used as reference guides. Here speed
and clarity are critical. The succinct CRS toolkit and the Annexes of the UNICEF Cholera Toolkit
are an excellent place to start. UNICEF have an excellent body of C4D material and tools, the
key is arrange them in an accessible format that is light, adheres to some core principles and
is pragmatic, i.e. accepts that there is more value in formative research for message and
content development, than seeking to prove behavioral impacts, which are time-consuming,
risky in conflict zones and becoming increasingly difficult in contexts saturated with media and
messages (making identification of a causal link problematic).
3.26 The best resources provide lists of questions and simple methodological tools and are
geared towards a product (a strategy) being developed as a result of engagement with the
resource, i.e. they ask question that demand answer and require users to complete sections.
All toolkit-type resources examined are available in print or online as PDF documents. None
examined offer a web or app-like experience. With the use of drop down menus that allow users
to select the type of emergencies they are facing, unnecessary text on other types of
emergency or generic messages can be excluded. Such an approach would help to make the
user experience light, but may exclude users who only have access to a paper version. Many
of the guides include a facilitator’s guide of some description, for workshopping the
development of the strategy/plan. Others, such as the CRS guide, which is focused on the
broad role of communicating humanitarian assistance, can be broken down into two documents
one that contains a ‘super-light’ 9-step strategy development process that can stand alone, and
one where it is included with supporting text. A web/app type document would allow users to
engage in support material or ignore it depending on need/experience.
3.27 Consideration of the accessibility of existing resources inevitably results in a focus on who
the audience/user of the toolkit will be. The current complexity and length of many existing
emergency and non-emergency resources is likely to hamper their usability, though such data
is difficult to find. Commonsense suggests the lightest and leanest resource will have most
practical value, but a balance needs to be struck between ensuring relevance to the broader
family of UN organizations, INGOs and NGOs. A light resource may also be of relevance to
18
community-based organizations. It is clear though that understanding the impact of technical
resources is a low priority, as the dearth of evidence suggests. Because of this and the inability
to second-guess who might use such a resource it is difficult to definitively state who the
audience will be for the resource and this answer is likely to emerge through field-testing with
a number of organizations.
3.28 Finally, the structure of existing resources is very much geared around highlighting
communication effectiveness principles, providing question sets to guide strategy development,
provision of message sets to aid initial communication, but also the provision of methodological
tools and QA mechanisms to ensure that communication strategies are localized and made
relevant to at risk populations. The existing UNICEF Cholera Toolkit annexes offer a good
starting point (see Ref. 11). The literature review pinpoints a wide range of useful tools,
graphics, methods and question sets that can be adapted for the UNICEF C4HA toolkit (see
review table below).
Recommendations:
-
Develop a paper and web/app version of the toolkit, both of which are geared towards the
production of a defined emergency communication strategy/plan that can be adapted as
needs change. This will ensure widest coverage of potential audiences;
-
Each section or step should have a consistent format, with: (i) communication approaches
and principles; (ii) question sets that with help users generate answers that can be used to
flesh out their strategies; (iii) simple methodological tools that enable these questions to be
asked; (iv) simple quality assurance tools that help user ensure relevance. In addition,
simple objective setting and M&E can be promoted, but with a preference for formative and
pretesting work, rather than impact evaluation;
-
Limit the scale (i.e. no more than 30 pages for the ‘super-light’ tool and no more than 50
pages for the longer version) of the resource to ensure that it is light and focuses only on
the essential methods, tools, principles and quality assurance mechanisms;
-
UNICEF might want to consider undertaking a separate assessment of how its wider body
of C4D resources is used and adapted at the local level as a way of understanding how to
communicate technical advice going forward.
Lessons emerging from academic literature
3.29 Rather than examine a wide body of academic literature this review - for the sake of
efficiency and timeliness - examines the findings emerging from the comprehensive review of
C4D Interventions in Fragile States (Ref. 22) undertaken by the author (Skuse) and
summarised here. The goal of the review was to identify the range of contextual and
programmatic factors that frame, affect and constrain communication for development (C4D)
interventions undertaken in fragile or conflict affected states. Understanding the various factors
that influence C4D interventions in fragile states is important to improving practice,
implementation and evaluation, as well as to the future development of methodologies and
frameworks that can be utilised in conflict or crisis situations.
3.30 The review examined a total of 239 sources, of which, 156 of these were excluded leaving
83 sources that were assessed for methodological quality. A total of 26 papers (19 qualitative
papers and 7 opinion pieces) were included for full review and data extraction. Following
extraction, a discussion was developed that examined the relevance of the findings from a
realist perspective.
3.31 The review identified that while different initiatives can be pursued in different conflict or
humanitarian situations, a close understanding of context and the factors that can both
positively and negatively influence communication should drive their direction and content.
While identifying influencing factors that affect C4D implementation is critical to effective
practice, the systematic review also highlights a need for early, more thorough and longer-term
19
C4D interventions within fragile states (especially those that can be characterised by latent
conflict and chronic instability). Early communication intervention can help reduce tension and
promote reconciliation, but also enable development and humanitarian agencies to be better
placed to address situations that may escalate into open conflict. The full list of programmatic
and contextual factors is broken down within the review into: (i) identified frameworks, theories
or approaches; (ii) facilitators; (iii) obstacles; and (iv) outcomes. These are summarised below.
Framework
Facilitators
Obstacles
Outcomes
- Behaviour change
communication (BCC)
- C4D
- Capacity strengthening
- Civic education
- Media strengthening
- Edutainment
- Participatory approaches
- Culturally appropriate
media content
- Understanding the
cultural context
- Understanding the
institutional context
- State media
- Telecommunications
- Multi-channel
communication
- Participatory media
- Sustainability planning
- Long-term
commitment
- Building digital or
media literacy
- Gender equality
- Local ownership
- Local participation
- Contextual constraints
- Digital divide
- Information divide
- State media
- Media bias
- Hate media
- Weak evidence
- Conflict reduction
- Peacekeeping
- Reconciliation
- Dialogue
- Social action
- Behaviour change
3.32 The findings of this review of mainly academic literature supports the need for C4D in
humanitarian or conflict situations to seeks to adhere to basic C4D effectiveness principles and
practices wherever possible, even if this in a slimmed down form. The literature highlights that
effectiveness and therefore impact is generated when a significant commitment, especially to
generating formative assessments of context is pursued. Many similar principles are reflected
in the organisational literature on emergencies examined below (see Annex 1) in this respect
the humanitarian/development literature and academic literature support each other.
Recommendations:
-
The toolkit development process must ensure that the various factors identified in the
review of academic literature are supported in the outputs and that identifying supporting
frameworks and clear outcomes resulting from communication is important.
4. Conclusion
4.1 This review has covered a body of evidence derived from organisations with a mandate for
humanitarian protection and the delivery of assistance. It has made a number of findings and
recommendation that are set out in full in the Executive Summary and are not repeated here.
The objective of the review was to identify what existing approaches and tools tell us about how
a concise and practice focused Communication for Humanitarian Assistance Toolkit might be
developed. The annex set out below provides a wealth of data and examples that can be drawn
out and included in the toolkit. Finally, a number of limitations were associated with this review.
The brief timeframe allocated to the review meant that it was necessary to focus on practice
literature only and literature that was current.
20
Annex 1: Summary of Included Literature
4
Title, Author and Link
Accountability to Affected Populations,
Inter-Agency Standing Committee.
Year
2013
http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_uploa
d/emergencies/docs/IASC%20AAP%20
Operational%20Framework%20March
%202013.pdf
Focus
Role of
communication in
promoting
accountability to
disaster-affected
populations.
Assessment
This resource is an operational framework that seeks to promote greater
accountability in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. There is a
specific focus within the framework on communication (objective 2) and
especially on the need for better integration of communication into relief
initiatives to promote awareness of aid delivery objectives, as well as on
the scaling of emergency/risk reduction communications. Though not
offering a specific tool, the essence of the framework is best captured in
the CRS nine-step toolkit, which provides a solid design pathway for
developing communications that help build accountability with affected
populations.
Papers/resources not subject to full review
26
Why Dialogue Matters for conflict Prevention
and Peacebuilding, UNDP.
2009
Focused on the
role of dialogue
with conflictaffected
populations.
Not subject to full review. Has no explicit focus on communication but
notes the need for dialogue and links can be drawn to recent work on
communication and the role of accountability for disaster-affected
populations.
2009
Focus on role of
media and
journalism in
conflict.
Not subject to full review. This resource provides a useful analysis of
the media context in Pakistan, its strengths, weaknesses and its
legislative status. It addresses important media strengthening issues
around media bias and quality. Media strengthening features weakly
within emergency communication literature yet plays a critical role in
ensuring an effective and robust environment.
2013
Global and local
public health
emergencies
This document sets out a framework for grading and responding to
the health aspects of emergencies, such as rapid onset disasters.
The document proposes ongoing risk/event assessment and a
grading of emergencies from ungraded, to levels 1, 2 and 3, with 3
being the most severe. Pages 23-26 set out some useful time bound
performance standards that links WHO to certain response standards
in the immediate 12, 48, 72 hour period following an emergency, then
again in the 5, 7, 15 and 60 day periods.
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/
crisis%20prevention/dialogue_conflict.pdf
27
Between radicalisation and democratisation in
an unfolding conflict: Media in Pakistan,
International Media Support.
http://www.i-m-s.dk/wpcontent/uploads/2012/11/ims-media-pakistanradicalisation-2009.pdf
28
Emergency Response Framework, WHO
http://www.who.int/hac/about/erf_.pdf
21
29
Basic Resilience Package: The ‘How-to’ Guide
for Child Survival and Development Programs,
UNICEF
2013
No weblink available.
Emergency and
development
focused.
Multifaceted
assessment of
resilience.
UNICEF’s forward strategy (2014-17) proposes a resilience approach
to its work in humanitarian assistance and development. In the area
of C4D and child survival and development programs this includes a
focus on:
-
Increased awareness and knowledge on risks and available
solutions;
Addressing underlying issues compounding risk;
Participation of communities, children and young people in policy/
programming.
From the resilience perspective information and communication helps
to reduce risk and vulnerability and, along with other assets and
forms of capital, can be perceived as an essential protective asset
that contributes to individual and group resilience.
30
Core Commitment for Children in
Humanitarian Action, UNICEF
http://www.unicef.org/mena/MENACCC_final.pdf
2010
UNICEF’s broad
program
commitments to
populations in
emergencies.
UNICEF’s core commitments for children during emergencies and
humanitarian action covers the broad range of activities and
responsibilities that UNICEF fulfil within such contexts. The resource
identifies some useful references to humanitarian action principles
and the role of rights (pages 6-7). There is a useful section on rapid
assessment, monitoring and evaluation that covers preparedness,
response and recovery. Sections on the thematic areas in which
UNICEF works, i.e. HIV, WASH, etc. provide useful summaries and
are followed by a consideration of resource inputs to humanitarian
action, including HR, logistics, risk and so on.
22