Idasa – Governance and AIDS Programme Building a habit of citizen action through HIV and AIDS Communication

Presentation outline  The role of the Communication Unit in GAP  GAP’s advocacy vision The advocacy cycle Conceptual vision for advocacy strategy Elements of advocacy strategy Advocacy for citizen-centred action  Community of HIV media and communication Practice What is a Community of Practice and why did GAP go this route? Who belongs to the Community of HIV media and Communication Practice and why? What does the Community of HIV media and Communication Practice do?  Expected outcomes of Communication Unit’s work  Lessons learnt

The role of the Communication Unit  Advocacy Target groups Packaging results Disseminate results Capacity support  Capacity support: Community of HIV Media and Communication Practice

Conceptual vision for advocacy strategy  Traditional knowledge-management chain

Conceptual vision for advocacy strategy (cont.)  The RAPID framework:

A4C²A – Advocacy for citizen-centred action  Evidence based  citizen-centred  Actionable findings = actionable messages Actionable message Who is the audience? What is the most effective channel for communicating evidence? What changes do we want to see in each area of our work?  Target groups  Information packages  Capacity support for citizens, officials, policy makers and journalists to communicate results further

Consultative approach to identify research agenda Research partners and relevant change makers Reference group Journalists and advocacy professionals Opportunities for policy dialogue Evidence-based tools with actionable messages and capacity support to disseminate results further Report reveals further areas for evidence collection A4c²A

Community of HIV media and communication practice  Journalists  Civil society communication and advocacy practitioners  Regional networks  Academic and training community

Community of Practice: Activities  Participants attend stakeholder meetings  Workshops / seminars  Share research results what are the stories of the research results? who need to hear these stories? how can these stories be told in an actionable way?  Evidence-based learning material  Web-support and blogging community

Expected outcomes  Catalyse action-based discussion on locally appropriate problem-solving strategies  Evidence-based dialogue between citizens and government  Learning material integrated in formal and informal media and communication education

Lessons  Follow up  Once-off training encounters  Sensitivity and complexity  Gap between ideal and reality