Engaging your policy audiences

Short course

Facilitators:

James Georgalakis, Head of Communications

Hannah Corbett, Public Affairs and Policy Officer

Yaso Kunaratnam, Network and Partnerships Convenor

We want you to learn

Not too much lecturing from facilitators

Lots of thinking discussing and working in

groups

Success depends on participation

How this course will be run

As a courtesy to your colleagues, please:

Be quiet and listen

when others are

speaking, respecting

each other and their

views

Contribute fully,

speak loud and

clear

Ground Rules

Course Objectives

• Gain a broad overview of research and policy

communications, and how your own organisation's work fits

within this spectrum of activities.

• Improve your knowledge of the stakeholder mapping tools

required to identify and prioritise key policy audiences.

• Develop your understanding of how different communications

tools can be used to engage with different audiences.

• Outline a number of ways in which you can apply learning

from the course to the work of your own organisations.

Why does engaging you policy audiences matter?

Research communication is defined as the ability to interpret

or translate complex research findings into language, format

and context that non experts can understand.

It is not just about dissemination of research results and is

unlike marketing that simply promotes a product. Research

communications must address the needs of those who will use

the research or benefit from it.

What is research communications?

Communication not as Dissemination…

but as engagement

Effective research communications

Distillation of research findings

Use of plain language

Making information accessible

Tailored communications for different audiences

Identification of the needs of the target groups

Consider technical barriers, language and cultural

factors etc

Three ingredients of effective communication

Effective communication

Channel

Message

Audience

Main delivery channels

Publications Digital

Media Events

Communications throughout research project that

may inform:

Research agenda

Methodological choices

Communications strategy

Research Programmes

Developing a strategic approach

1. Objectives: What are the desirable outcomes from our

communications activity?

2. Audiences: Who do we want to influence and inform and

what do we know about them?

3. Communications pathways: Who is best placed to

communicate with each of our audiences and what are the

best ways to reach them?

4. Timescales: When will be the best times to communicate?

5. Resources: What do we need - what might we have?

Five key questions that your policy engagement

strategy should answer:

Setting objectives

• What will success look like for the project?

• What do you want individuals/institutions to do as a result of your communications with them: Act differently; Think differently; Design or implement policies differently?

• How realistic are your objectives – what are the main barriers to your success?

Audiences

• Who are you trying to reach?

• Why should they listen to you or care?

• Will they agree with you? Are they potential partners or opponents?

• What role might they play in the research design, delivery or uptake?

Communications Pathways

• Who is best placed to communicate with each of your target audiences? Who has the skills, knowledge, contacts, legitimacy, networks?

• How do your audiences access information and what/who influences them?

• What kind of communication outputs/activities will be most effective in reaching your audiences? Tweets, blog, policy brief, workshop, high level meeting, report, media, journal?

Timescale

When will be the best time to influence policy or practice?

What are the planned events and processes where you could present your research?

Particular opportunities to collaborate with others?

Are you tracking policy environment to support planning?

Resources

Have you already mapped out the activities you plan to

undertake?

What are the major resource implications – time, materials,

skills?

Will resource limitations or capability issues mean making

any hard choices – how will you prioritise between

desirable communications activities?

Useful Resources

Presentation on strategic approach to policy engagement by IDS:

http://www.slideshare.net/Bloggs74/policy-engagement-and-

communications

A global guide to research to action:

http://www.researchtoaction.org/

Blog on institutional engagement strategies:

http://www.researchtoaction.org/2014/03/influencing-and-engagement-

why-let-research-programmes-have-all-the-fun/

ROMA – a guide to policy engagement and policy influence:

http://www.roma.odi.org/introduction.html

Yaso Kunaratnam

Network & Partnerships Convenor, Knowledge Services

Engaging your Policy Audiences, July 2014

Introduction to Stakeholder

Mapping

Understanding who your key stakeholders and audiences are is

a vital step in determining your approaches to policy engagement

and influencing.

Mapping is a technique that can help you identify and prioritise

stakeholders and give you an insight into the power dynamics,

links and relationships between stakeholders as well as their

levels of influence, alignment and interest.

Stakeholder mapping – what & why?

Stakeholder Mapping Tools

Matrix Mapping

1. Power/interest matrix 3. Participatory Impact

Pathways Analysis (PIPA)

2. Alignment, Interest and

Influence Matrix (AIIM)

4. Network Mapping

(Net-Map)

Power / Interest Matrix

Credit: Mind Tools

Alignment, Interest & Influence Matrix (AIIM)

Credit: ODI RAPID

Learn in partnership

Challenge existing

beliefs

Develop enthusiasm to

address topic

Develop awareness

and enthusiasm

Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis (PIPA)

Helps to clarify your 'impact

pathways‘ and make explicit

your theory of change.

Two maps are constructed: a

‘now’ network map, showing

current key relationships

between stakeholders and a

‘future’ network map showing

how stakeholders should link

together to achieve your vision.

Strategies are derived from the

differences between the now map and

the future map.

Credit: International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

Network Mapping (Net-map)

Credit: POSHAN nutrition project

Define scope - is it for an institute, programme or

project, topic or an output? What level does it look at (global, regional, national,

local)?

Define objective – define your policy/communications

objective. This can be expressed as an issue, goal, outcome, vision statement

or key question.

Identify – brainstorm and list stakeholders (individuals,

types of people, departments, teams,

organisations, groups and networks) related to your

objective.

Categorise - group stakeholders by type (e.g.

government, media, donors)

Map – visualise relationships and links between stakeholders

Rank – rank stakeholders (e.g. by influence, power,

alignment, interest, attitude)

Analyse – reflect on stakeholders positions, perspectives, links and

relationships, how you might want them to change, and what this might mean for your strategies to engage

audiences.

Prioritise – identify who your key audiences are.

Stages of stakeholder mapping

Case Study 1: UK development policy in fragile

states

Case Study 2: The urban dimension in European

development policy

Case Study 3: Holding African governments to

account on low political commitment to tackling child

malnutrition

Case study 4: Comparative global health data

Case Study 5: Assessing the impact of immigration

on the UK

Exercise: Case Studies

Choose one case study

In groups go through following process for each case

study

1) Read case study

2) Add to list of policy actors and influencers

3) Map stakeholders by proximity to lead organisation

4) Map links and relationships

5) Rank/Analyse stakeholders

• By influence

• By attitude

6) Prioritise 3 key stakeholders

Group exercise

Introduction to Stakeholder Engagement

Power/interest matrix

Alignment, Interest and Influence Matrix (AIIM)

Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis (PIPA)

Network Mapping (Net-Map)

- POSHAN example

Resources – further reading

Tools and tactics for reaching

your audiences

• What are they?

• How are they changing?

• How I can use them to best effect?

Hannah Corbett, Public Affairs and Policy Officer

Digital

Digital Disruption

What is it and what does it mean for

communications and engagement work?

Disruptive Innovation

Term coined by Clayton Christensen - a

process by which a product or service takes root

initially in simple applications at the bottom of a

market and then relentlessly moves up market,

eventually displacing established competitors

Disruptive Innovation

Three key principles:

1. Simpler

2. Cheaper

3. Lower quality (initially)

Examples of Disruptive Innovations

• Email instead of letters

• Digital photography instead of chemical

photography

• Smartphones/tablets instead of PCs

• What else??

Moving from analogue to digital

communications

1. Lower cost

2. More democratic

3. Quicker

4. Less barriers to entry

Disrupting wonkcomms

Modern Day Disruptors

From NY

Times

leaked

memo on

digital

strategy

Changes in how people access information

Changes in how people find information

Analogue Early digital Current digital trends

• Libraries and dewy

decimal system

• Search engines

(trusted sites)

• Social media and

Google (trusted

friends)

• Encyclopaedias • Wikipedia • Wikipedia AND

explainer sites and

listicles

• Newspapers and

news programmes

• Digital newspapers • Digital newspapers

that are still surviving

plus native digital

news sites like

Vox.com

End of people landing on your homepage?

Traffic driven to IDS

blogs is increasingly

driven by social media,

search engines – rather

than as a result of it

being promoted on our

homepage.

NY Times – visits to

homepage down nearly

by half between 2011

and 2013

The end of the pdf……

And in defence of it..

So what does this mean in practice?

Chart or infographic

Sharing on social media

Blogs, media placements

Briefs and executive

summaries

Reports (online, eBook and/or PDF)

Events and videos

Relationship building

Defining your approach – questions to ask

1. HOW do your audiences access information and

what who/influences them?

2. WHO is best placed to communicate with each of

your target audiences

3. WHEN is the best time engage with your key

audiences?

Select appropriate tools and tactics

AUDIENCE HOW WHO WHEN WHAT EXPECTED

OUTCOME

Government

Minister

Limited time

Importance of

interme-

diaries

Political

context

Govt priorities

Senior rep

i.e. Director

Partners

Internal

capacity and

resources in

terms of

activity

coordination

External

environment

– event,

consultation

Practical

constraints –

launch of

project,

funder

requirements

Publications

Media

Digital

Events

+ individual

meetings

Change in

policy

discourse

Organisation

positioning

?

AUDIENCE HOW WHO WHEN WHAT EXPECTED

OUTCOME

Identify

specific

audience

What do you

know about

how they

access

information

and what/who

influences

them?

Who in the

organisation

is best placed

to

communicate

with them?

Who in the

organisation

is best placed

to lead this

work?

(capacity and

resources

including

money )

When do you

need to

engage with

them? (i.e.

start of

project)

When is the

best time to

engage with

them? (i.e. is

their an

external

hook, policy

window?)

What do you

think the best

tool or tactics

will be to

reach them?

What are you

hoping will

change as a

result of this

engagement?