*Calls For More Collaborations Among Change Agents, Strategic Communication Firms, Funders
To improve impacts of development programs on people, experts have called on donor organizations to scale up funds for strategic communications
The call was against the backdrop of findings from a report carried out by Luminate, a global philanthropic organization, together with The Comms Avenue, a capacity building platform for communications professionals across Africa.
The report stated that findings have shown that change agents usually allocate most of their budgets to programme implementation because that is what is expected from funders, without dedicating an adequate budget to strategic communication efforts, thereby making change agents, that is, non-governmental organization in Nigeria not to benefit from the results that strategic communication brings.
Vice President, Africa, Luminate, Toyin Akinniyi, while speaking in Abuja at a stakeholders’ event on ‘Wining hearts and minds, need for funders to invest more in strategic communications to shape narratives, garner support for social movements and ultimately increase impact across the continent.’
While calling for more collaborations, she mentioned that evidence showed that more collaborations between funders, strategic communicators and change agents lead to lasting impact.
To tackle budget constraint to effectively implement communication strategies, the report however recommended that change agents with shared goals can collaborate and pool resources to access the necessary communication tools and engage strategic communication firms.
It also recommended that strategic communication firms must consider adjusting their business models to cater to the unique needs of change agents, which could be achieved by creating different rate cards for nonprofit and for profit organizations.
For funders, the report stated that funders should encourage potential grantees that is change agents to prioritize strategic communication by incorporating this as a designated line item in the budget templates accompanying grant applications, adding that they should also incentivize strategic communication firms by giving them access to exclusive funder networks that might otherwise remain inaccessible.
An associate of Luminate, Valary Mumbo in her remarks, mentioned that there were benefits when strategic communicators, funders and change agents work together, which include enabling them to better convey impacts, mobilizing public support and eliciting behavioral change through effective communication.
She mentioned that there was need to correct misconception between change agents and strategic communicators in the work that they do, saying that change agents usually doubt if strategic communication firm have the expertise to help their work.
The Co-founder of The Comms Avenue, Adedoyin Jayesinmi, stated that the report was geared towards improving synergy between NGOs, strategic communicators and funders, saying that if funders can prioritize strategic communications, it would enable change agents to improve the work that they do.
