There is a growing interest in the impact of development interventions and ways in which development aid can be used more effectively.

http://www.dcern.org 

This portal, commissioned by DFID through our framework agreement considers five key sectors and suggests ways in which incorporating good communication practice can enhance the delivery of development outcomes.  Although the importance of communications has been recognised for several years now the development community have recently recognised the need to demonstrate the impact of this.  The portal brings together materials that demonstrate what does (and does not) work.   The portal informs policy debate and provides a forum for users to share additional evidence.

Recent studies and documents from DFID state how important dialogue is - how it must be iterative, multidirectional, and fit context. As a result, the supply orientated original purpose of the project was challenged. Activities were undertaken to get a view on policy making. These included a literature overview, development of a Theory of Change, and engaging with stakeholders. Stakeholders were engaged through a Delphic email survey, DGroups online discussion and Knowledge exchange events with particular face to face consultative group meetings in Bangladesh, Kenya, India, Uganda and China.

As a result of the inception phase the purpose was modified to:-

"To inform policy debates on the role of communications in development by engaging with policy influencing networks such that overviews of the evidence base related to the role of communication in development are discussed and pre-positioned for when windows of opportunity in policy making arise."

The three key outputs from this contract were said to be :-

• a portal that actively encourages the sharing of views between policy makers and influencers on the evidence base related to the role of communication in development;

• synthesis papers outlining the key messages from the evaluation reports;

• searchable portal resource linking to available evidence/references.

Evidence gathering

Before generating the portal or synthesis paper, an evidence gathering exercise was undertaken. UK guidelines of best practice for evidence based policy making reviews encourage a systematic review as a counterpoint to experts writing synthesis papers based only on their "bookshelf". Using the proposed methodology for a meta review of evidence, research assistants created a database of evidence. The project has also requested experts in the consortium, and ICD specialists contacted through the survey to document their "top 5" pieces of evidence. These two actions came together to form the database that was used to write the synthesis papers and as a basis for any proposed enhanced web presence. The database was used to generate background papers, which fed into the expert written synthesis papers. Background papers were shared with Panos, who used them to develop the publication “At the Heart of Change”.

In addition, a list of networks that decision makers find valuable as sources of information relevant to their area of work was compiled from responses to the email survey and from sector experts in the team.

Delivery of the evidence – www.dcern.org

Web Presence - Having established that a website is only one of a number of tools that might assist policy makers to identify key information, nevertheless the research project TOR states a web portal as a deliverable of the project. The main points are:-

• Several sites – each site working together drawing on a single database, but each site having its own identity indicating it is part of a sector network.

• Presentation of the materials of the project including the synthesis papers.

• Site offering login options with an engine behind designed to tailor what is seen according to past behaviour.

• Site offering at every stage views and reviews from the network on the materials presented, accompanied where possible by comments from named individuals.

• Top ten recommendations – easing the workload of the viewer.

• Search engine that can go to a document.

The database contains 320 documents which the team consider have some degree of evidential basis.

Summary Papers

Five Sector papers were written by sector experts. The experts were given background papers produced by the team from the galaxy of evidence. Experts were asked to frame and write the papers according to their own sector language, style and framework. They were asked to aim at 20 pages. Each draft paper was then reviewed by other experts, allowing a peer review and iteration of the paper. The consortium engaged members of other ICD Frameworks to ensure a robust review. Media Support Services were the main peer review agents. The second draft was circulated among the network for comment, and placed on the Dgroup (200 active subscribers) for comment.

Multiple synthesis documents, designed in appropriate formats for different segments of target group:

• Detailed analysis. Target – the internal workgroup or academic institution commissioned to carry out detailed research into a policy topic. Academic paper format, guide 20 pages.

• Policy Note. Target – advisers and peers of decision makers who, although not necessarily directly involved in a given policy making process, are well informed and influential in the target sectors. Executive summary format, guide 4 pages.

• Policy Briefing. Target – decision makers themselves; papers can be used by ICD advocates, including commissioned researchers, guide 2 pages.

It also offers the 2 page versions in French and Spanish.

Communication Strategy

A number of approaches were employed in the communication strategy. ECDPM announced the site to the 8,000 users of its newsletters. Members of the team attended “events” (workshops and conferences) and announced the site and distributed the summary papers. Postcards and Business Cards were used to further publicise the site both by mailing and distribution through networks. Links on the top 100 sites were requested with a 60% positive response rate. Google adwords were used to generate traffic.

The programme was not requested to make the outputs sustainable but was asked to engage with other donors to stimulate interest and attempt to identify a “home” for the outputs. The report provides a list of donors contacted and their responses.

The project has confirmed the importance of good communication strategies in sector policy formation. ICD and C4D remain a cross cutting theme that needs donor emphasis and support. Many donors during the project expressed disappointment that DFID had disengaged from ICD as a priority and requested DFID to re-engage. The work of David Woolnough and Dylan Winder (among others) as ICD advisers was highlighted by many as an example of DFID adding significant value to the donor community.

Each of the synthesis papers concludes that there is a lack of robust evidence on the role of communications in each sector. There is, therefore, a need for further research into developing and applying methodologies that will be effective in identifying the impact of communications related interventions – an especially challenging area given the fact that communications tends to be integrated into other programmes. Increasing pressure on donors to demonstrate the impact of their work means there will support for this type of research.

Sustainability was not a part of this project. Sustainability has been addressed in basic terms – i.e. availability of site for 5 years, and some uptake of sector portals by other donors.