FANRPAN Partners’ Meeting Communication Tools for Effective Policy Advocacy in the FANR Sector Francis Hale 20 June 2008

Road Map Rationale for Comprehensive Communications Communications Objectives FANRPAN Communication Tools and Way Forward

Objectives To improve the communications and social marketing of FANRPAN beyond studies and reports for national, regional and global impact To create an interface enabling FANRPAN, its stakeholders and members to engage in post research and policy analysis advocacy for effective influence of the FANR policy environment. To establish an information and communication system to link the multi-stakeholder forum and network outputs with the policy making processes and decision makers for positive influence

Why a Comprehensive ‘Voice’ Strategy From the stakeholders’ mouths…. Visibility “From inception, FANRPAN has been dead…dormant, its only now that it is starting to wake up…” -Klaus Shade, Nepru, Namibia Relevance “Over time, I have grown to realise that there are so many studies that have been conducted by FANRPAN…there is need to duplicate efforts… wasting resources, we need to find and tap into the findings of similar FANRPAN studies.” - Participant at the Mauritius National Workshop Association “Its only now that I am beginning to hear about FANRPAN, and I can see that there is scope for RAEIN – Africa to become a member of this network” - Irene Mangula Nunes, IECN, contracted by RAEIN – Africa

Why a Comprehensive ‘Voice’ Strategy Internal focus on organisational set up, systems development from inception Absence of comprehensive and deliberate outward communications Various world class outputs not celebrated, shared with partners Inception up to Inception of structured brand building efforts, focus on communication tools and performance Efforts to understand and match the multi – stakeholder environment with outputs Establishment of deliberate strategies behind corporate brand, organisational outputs, and figureheads Provision of limited budget and part time personnel behind deliberate communications Transitional phase Need support for Integrated Communications effort Voice take-off The transition of communications in FANRPAN

Targeting with FANRPAN products An information and communication system to position FANRPAN and its nodes for regional policy influence and relevance to different target groups Government/Policy Makers Farmers’ Organisations Private Sector Policy Advisory Notes Evidence to support policy reform Enabling policies – Production, Trade and Markets Enabling policies – Production, Trade and Markets Researchers/Policy Analysts Technical/Development Partners Platform for research, analysis and dissemination Grant worthiness – track record Media Rallying point for regional FANR bulletin FANRPAN Communications Strategy

FANRPAN Communication Tools Electronic/Digital Media –Website –Compact Discs Print Media –Policy Brief Series –Newsletters –Policy Advisory Notes –Project Brochures Experiential Activities –Multi – stakeholder dialogues (National and Regional) –Networking - Conferences and Seminars

FANRPAN Communication Tools Website – –Currently responsible for most of network visibility –Website features full performance tracking mechanism –Has become rallying point for development practitioners globally (distribution of hits) –A repository of FANRPAN resources on-line –No dedicated communications personnel to manage the virtual FANRPAN environment

FANRPAN Communication Tools Website – Performance Dimensions Monthly Statistics Total Hits Total Files Total Pages Total Visits Total Kbytes Total Unique Sites Total Unique URLs Total Unique Usernames Hits per Hour Hits per Day Files per Day Pages per Day Visits per Day KBytes per Day Hits by Response Code

FANRPAN Communication Tools Website –

FANRPAN Communication Tools Website – Total Monthly Hits 15 Days of June

FANRPAN Communication Tools Website – Rating of referenced materials - April

FANRPAN Communication Tools Way Forward for Website Dedicated Communications person to manage/maximise virtual environment benefits Extension of multi-stakeholder dialogues to virtual forums - From periodic to continuous/ongoing dialogues (Time) - From limited delegates to all browsers (Budget) - From limited scope to broad coverage (Themes/topics) - From few policy advisory notes to many (Outputs)

FANRPAN Communication Tools Print Media products - Current Policy Brief Series - 6 series per year, - bi-monthly publication covering on-going studies copies per issue, plus PDF loaded on website Newsletters - 5 series per year - bi-monthly publication to maintain network momentum copies per issue, plus PDF loaded on website Policy Advisory Notes - based on national and regional policy dialogues Project Brochures - one per project

FANRPAN Communication Tools Experiential Activities –Multi – stakeholder dialogues Annual Regional Stakeholder Dialogue Periodic (monthly) policy dialogue –Networking Conferences and Seminars Way forward - Deliberate engagement for policy reform Advocacy and Lobbying Public Relations