1. Strategic Communications Training of Trainers X State MDA

2. Welcome Note
Opening Remarks
Programme Information

3. Roadmap Training Objectives Training Agenda
Strategic Communication for MDAs: Core Principles & Elements
Preparing a Strategy Step by Step
Comms Assessment/Diagnostic & Benchmarking
Breakout Exercise: Preparing a Strategy Diagnostic
Q & A
Wrap Up

4. Participant Introductions
Name
MDA you represent
Job Title
What you hope to gain from the training? –Participant priorities

5. At the centre of it all

6. Training Objectives Improve: Capacitate:
MDA appreciation and understanding of the need for communications plans, dept’s, personnel.
Ministry capacity to develop and design effective communications strategies for policy-making or reforms.
Capacitate:
Ministry officials to use strategic communications within their MDAs and supporting Ministries of the state
Participants to use the Toolkit, Guidebook and supporting materials to deliver strategic communications training in State MDAs

7. Strategic Communications for MDAs
Core Principles & Elements

8. Survey Results BMO Responses Government Responses
How often Govt. communicates with BMOs? Semi-Annually
How involved are BMOs during policy design stage? Majority :not involved
How informed are civil servants on policies? Minimally informed
Where would you like to see improvements in Govt. communication?
1) relevant policy-makers more accessible
2) forums, channels for ongoing dialogue on business environment policies
3) more effort by Govt. to engage the private sector in policy-making
4) engaging the media on business environment issues
Government Responses
How often Govt. communicates with BMOs? Monthly
How involved are BMOs during policy design stage? Majority: involved
How informed are civil servants on policies? Majority: effectively informed
Where would you like to see improvements in Govt. communication?
relevant policy-makers more accessible
engaging the media on business environment issues

9. An age-old problem
” It should be realised that taking the initiative in introducing a new form of government is very difficult and dangerous, and unlikely to succeed.
The reason is that the old order will be opposed to the innovator, whereas all those who might benefit from the new order are at best tepid supporters of him. ”
Macciavelli, The Prince
Dialogue and advocacy are key tools in improving the business environment anywhere. We’ll talk more about that today, but before we do I wanted us to think about the fact that improving the regulatory environment is not a new problem, it’s been around for ages. And it is HARD work....

10. Basic Principles of Government Communication
Government work is public activity, information about it must be public too
Openness and transparency must drive all communications
Objectivity
Professionalism
Public communication is more than just disseminating information + media coverage

11. Basic Principles of Government Communication
Make it easy to understand the information’s relevance to the lives of the general public + private sector
Direct exchanges with the public are more effective
Public communication = more than working with media
Communication is a core public service: requires not just informing, but listening and providing feedback
Consistent messages vital to public trust
Government communicators must have close relationships to top government administrators
Backing up positions with facts is crucial
How do we do that?

12. What is strategic communication?
Getting the right messages & information…
to the right people … (and by the right people)
at the right time …
using the right media …
with the right effect! 
A structured approach that combines information (one-way) and dialogue (two-way) methods to achieve success

13. The Virtuous Circle of effective policy communication
Pro-active, open, targeted communication
Greater public & media trust; More interest in policy, coverage participation
More & better media coverage; Higher public enagement, support
Better public dialogue, feedback = better public policies & services = more support for Government
Higher demand for info; Better chance for Govt re-election; support for future programs
Strategic Communication moves the circle clockwise
A good policy environment is good for citizens, business and government alike. Even for politicians!
A situation that works well for EVERYONE.
Strategic communication & stakeholder engagement are key to making good policy.

14. The Virtuous Circle Business environment reforms
Choose this slide or the previous one to make the point, both is overkill.- For example, you might use this slide instead of the previous one if you are training MDAs dealing with business environment policy-making
Communication Strategy moves the circle.
Before starting with advocacy, it’s important to understand that a good policy & business environment are good for both business and government
Advocacy is not lobbying or trying to secure preferential treatment– but a situation that works well for EVERYONE.
If that is the basis for advocacy, you’ll succeed

15. Unique Elements of Strategic Communications for Govt
Not reactive, but pro-active
Goal-driven + consultative
Segments key target groups, audiences
Specific messages for specific groups
Uses non-media and media channels
Messengers chosen based on audience trust
Coordination of communication activities with other MDAs
Internal MDA communication to build support for policies
Accounts for MDA comms capacity, funding
Consultation with stakeholders
Demonstrates the impact of policy-making

16. Communications Challenges that Government faces?
Tradition of weak consultation, dialogue & feedback
Lack of priority on comms, stakeholder engagement
Weak public relations and media relations skills, experience
Communication as a profession is underdeveloped
Few capacity-buidling opportunities
Unprofessional media & “brown envelope” syndrome
Uncoordinated policies, lack of structured comms b/w MDAs & agencies
Lack of statistics & research to justify policy positions
Transparency in government is on the rise globally– sometimes it is evolutionary, others ‘revolutionary’.
That means public requests/demands for information– and involvement in policy-making will increase exponentially over the next few years–
How will MDAs and employees deal with this new demand?

17. 3 Communications Stages for Effective Policy-making
1) Consultation-- to develop/formulate the policy
2) Informing & building support-- after policy decided
3) Implementation monitoring, evaluating & demonstrating impact
For each stage, the approach and priorities must be different
Identify the objective-- inform, engage, advocate, etc.
Prioritise the stakeholders
Craft the messages
Decide the tools to use
Informing & building support– consultation is useful at this stage whether or NOT consultation happened in forming the policy from the outset

18. Q & A

19. Coffee Break

20. Preparing a Strategy: Step-by-Step

21. Strategy-making Tools
Strategy Template
Making a Strategy Step–by–Step
Communication Plan
Communication Strategy
Action Plan & Budget

22. The Steps Assess context for policy & communication, media
Define the objectives– not only awareness-raising
Specify the stakeholders, target groups
Decide the message(s) they need to receive
... and who are the best “messengers”
List the best actions, activities to meet your goals
Specify how performance will be measured, monitoring methods
Assign responsibility for implementation
Calculate the costs, prepare budget
Follow up to ensure success and make adjustments
It is important to do steps 1-5 in order. Steps 6-8 do not have to be done one after the other.
Step 9 clearly comes last.

23. Strategy Template
Time Frame: duration of project, campaign-specific, etc.
Introduction: overall strategy objectives; comms role
Analysis: stakeholder identification, internal & external communication, problems/opportunities
Constraints;
Target Groups: stakeholder map
Communications Goals:
aims and objectives of overall strategy
Messages: overall messages for each target group
Methods: channels, one-way, two-way
Critical Success Factors
Capacity building
Monitoring

24. Communication Plan Communication Strategy Action Plan & Budget
Just like we plan other job functions, we are most effective when we plan our communications.
Communication Strategy
Specifies the goals, target audiences and messages to be communicated
Can be designed to cover any period that is relevant
Action Plan & Budget
Specifies activities, timeframes, measuring tools, responsibilities and costs
Updated/modified regularly
Together they form a Communication Plan

25. State of Play Assess But, first must understand the context
Objectives are the core of the strategy
But, first must understand the context
Each stakeholder group’s support for change and opposition to it–
their perceptions and positions, interests.
External and Internal stakeholders
“RP” before PR
Learn the awareness, opinions, needs, concerns of MDA
“publics” before you “go public” or start communicating
Often most overlooked, neglected step … risky!
The Bulgaria Case Study in the Guidebook is an examples of where stakeholder perception research to benchmark different taxpayers’ attitudes and awareness to taxes and the Agency itself were critical to ”RP”

26. Q & A

27. Communications Assessment
1st step in stakeholder engagement
Identify and Map stakeholders
Conduct SWOT evaluation
Assess communication capacity, needs– Govt, CSOs companies
Evaluate media environment & stakeholders’ access
Stakeholder research
Benchmark internal & external stakeholders’
Attitudes, awareness & understanding of your policy, MDA
Identify primary concerns, interests & expectations of each
Identify preferred comms channels; Where they go for info
People & sources most trusted to inform & engage in the policy
Assess ’fear factor’ – who is opposed and why?
SWOT is another term for assessment = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
Stakeholder perception research– qualitative and/or quantitative-- is ideally done before writing the comms strategy, but can/should be done as early as possible in the process AND later as part of M&E
The Bulgaria Case Study in the Guidebook is an examples of where stakeholder perception research to benchmark different taxpayers’ attitudes and awareness to taxes and the Agency itself were critical to ”RP”

28. Analyse context for communication
Identify Constraints + Positive conditions
Time
Stakeholders’ access to information channels
Human resources
Sources of support & opposition
Outside and inside Government
Financial limitations
Aspects communication cannot address
This is a crucial step to do at the outset– to understand the operating environment and resources available for comms.
The Guidebook provides several key quetions to answer– see also slide 29 here

29. Tools for analysis Reports, studies Analysis of media coverage
Interviews
Roundtables, workshops
Opinion polls, focus group studies, questionnaires

30. Comms. Assessment/Diagnostic Key questions to ask
What is the political climate inside and outside your Ministry?
Supportive? Opposing? Neutral?
What communications structures, functions are in place?
Do they work?
What resources are available for strategy implementation?
What levels of awareness are there for the programme/policy and internally and externally?
What does the target audience need to hear?
How can the messages be formulated to simply and clearly convey that information to the people who must be reached?
What is the media situation?
What are the positive pre-conditions? Is there an enabling environment?
What data is readily available?

31. Identifying Constraints
Why is this so important?
Defining our objectives is crucial, but we can’t achieve them without knowing what stands in the way...
... and figuring out ways to address them!
What might be some things that keep us from:
reaching key stakeholders?
catalysing public dialogue?
Just a feew of the many typical constraints are:
* Few staff resources, comms professionals to create, implement strategy
* Weak appreciatation for need/power of stratcomms for policy success
* Lack of institutionalised MDA comms; Weak intra-MDA coordination
* Pay-to-play media culture
* Low available funding

32. Preparing a Strategy Diagnostic
Break-Out Group Exercise

33. Q & A, Wrap-up & Next Steps

34. Participant Evaluations

35. Thank you