Considerations for the Strategic Design Process
Considerations for the Strategic Design Process
Take the following factors into consideration before starting the strategy development process.
Align with National Strategies and Policies
Your environmental analysis should have identified any national-level strategies, policy documents or action plans for SBCC integration. Review these documents and their priorities, and factor them into your strategic design. Your integrated SBCC strategy needs to align with the country’s strategic direction and clearly demonstrate how it is contributing to national goals and targets.
- Are there vertical communication strategies for the different topic areas (e.g., a National Communication Strategy for Malaria Control or a National Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan)?
- Where are the areas of synergy in these strategies?
- Do some target the same audiences, or use the same communication channels?
- How might you blend these in your strategy?
Stakeholder Engagement and Coordination
During the strategic design process you will make key decisions about content, order and priorities. For integrated SBCC to retain buy-in from stakeholders, they must be actively engaged in this decision-making process. It is likely there will be trade-offs between topics, audiences, level of detail and other aspects of programming. Stakeholder involvement will help ensure they have a chance to deepen their understanding of their audiences’ needs, and the opportunity to provide input into how and when their issue will be covered.
In addition to the coordination body, this phase of integrated SBCC programming is likely to involve the formation of smaller working groups or task forces. There may be sub-groups tasked to develop the initial draft of the strategy for the coordination body’s review, to work on developing creative concepts or to develop communication materials. You may hold strategy design, campaign design or materials development workshops for these purposes (see How to Conduct a Stakeholder Workshop for more information). This is also an ideal time to involve the target audience in the process in order to co-create the strategy, concepts and materials with the people or groups they are meant to benefit, and help to ensure their relevance and success. Be sure to factor in the additional time and resources required for stakeholder coordination during this strategic design phase.
Donors also influence strategy design. The amount of influence often (but not always) depends on the proportion of funding a particular donor provides.
Materials Inventory
When designing an integrated SBCC project, chances are that you will not be the first to develop communication materials on each of the various topics. Rather than re-invent the wheel, see what others have already produced in the areas of interest. Collect and catalogue existing materials and resources from partners to use later during the message design and materials development processes. Obtain both electronic and hard copies wherever possible to facilitate adaptation.
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See the list of Resources at the end of this section for examples of how integrated SBCC projects have inventoried materials. The Materials Adaptation How-to Guide can provide further guidance on how to update or modify these materials, once catalogued.
Program Experiences
- Several national strategies and guidelines were instrumental in guiding the strategic design of Tanzania’s Wazazi Nipendeni campaign, which integrated MCH, PMTCT, malaria prevention, family planning and nutrition into an overarching safe motherhood campaign. Most notably, the campaign aimed to operationalize the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa in Tanzania (CARMMA/Tz) and the National Road Map Strategic Plan to Accelerate Reduction of Maternal, Newborn and Child Deaths in Tanzania 2010-2015 (One Plan).
“The development process and final strategic document is noteworthy. At the outset of the SSD-I activity, there were a myriad of health communication strategies without an overarching document covering all of the [EHP] areas. The Health Education Unit (HEU) did not have the human or other resources required to pull these together into one unifying package. In addition, it was beyond the mandate of SSDI-Communications to undertake this task. To address this challenge, the activity worked closely with the HEU to develop a strategic document for the activity’s six focal areas, and ensured that HEU skill sets and capacity were strengthened. As a result, HEU personnel were able to utilize this experience and the initial strategic document to guide them in developing a national strategic plan covering all of the EHP areas.”
– Senlet, Kachiza, Katekaine & Peters, 2014- Where partners have communication staff, an SBCC working group to develop and collaborate on implementing the integrated SBCC strategy can further increase buy-in and build SBCC capacity. In Guatemala, for example, HC3 organized meetings, workshops and consultations with communication staff of the Western Highlands Integrated Program (WHIP) implementing partners. Workshops were used to share a message consistency analysis and situation analysis, build capacity for formative research and use of data for decision-making, develop the integrated SBCC strategy and develop a radio campaign, among other things.
“Local input during the design process ensures better long-term solutions. The co-creation process is critical to restore agency and transfer responsibility, ownership and decision-making to enable exit. Developing and equipping local and national servant leaders to be able to design, manage and scale solutions is the key to long-term success in the fight to end extreme poverty. Using a co-creation design process for programs puts potential solutions through a rigorous vetting process to determine their suitability in any given project’s context for maximum impact.”
– Changala, 2014
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Formative Research