GSC advocacy and communications �strategic action plan �2021-2022

13.09.2021

Online

Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Overall objective and framework

GSC strategy 2018-2022

+ USAID-BHA grant 2020-2022, ECHO grant 2021-2022, 2013 communications strategy, State of Humanitarian Shelter 2018, mid- and yearly reports…

+ 43 meetings with cluster coordinators, partners, lead staff members

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Advocacy and communications specific objectives

Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Situation analysis mid-2021

• Excellent reputation within S&S and humanitarian sector: quality and solid programming.
• Foundation for communication work in 2013, fragmentation of communication and advocacy work over different roles (and gaps in initial thought positions).
• Through solid IM work many content exists, but timing factor needs to be boosted to ensure more impactful communication and advocacy work.

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Based on some factors (capacity of team, time left, alignment with grants and changed global context): three workflows to guide “boost” to reach advocacy objectives.

Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Workflow 1

Increase the visibility of the GSC and its partners and strengthen the engagement of stakeholders.

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• Aligned to the global results 2.1 to 2.4 of the GSC 2018-2022 strategy.
• Increase structured and frequency of external communications through existing channels and platforms.
• Focus on human interest (impact of work) and engagement (who follows and engages more than quantity) =» current content/data needs to be “adapted”.
• Need to leverage on leads and partner organizations visibility =» networking activities, outreach.

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Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Workflow 1 planning Sep-December 2021

• Finalization strategies and tools/templates.
• Content management planning:
• World Habitat Day 2021: social media messaging (support of CRS), environmental statement/editorial, blog =» week 27^th of September
• Possibly support for larger event on Mindful shelter report – around 10^th of October 2021
• IEC weekly tweets
• 16 Days of Activism/GBV – November-December

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Expected results:

• Increased visibility: more followers, more engagement;
• Timing from collection to production and sharing of content shortened;
• Coherent external messaging;
• Increased requests of partners for support with communication work (for example IEC, mindful sheltering)

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Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Workflow 2

Support to country-level clusters with advocacy and communications activities.

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• Supporting the country level results 2.1 to 2.4.

• Tools and templates creation and/or update to capture and structure information and data being received (focus on factual information and data):
• Advocacy plan template
• Donor mapping tool
• Social media strategy template

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Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Workflow 2 planning Sep-December 2021

• Session to present overall strategy and tools/templates – October
• Regional presentations and support to country work
• Content management planning:
• World Habitat Day 2021: social media messaging (support of CRS), environmental statement/editorial, blog =» week 27^th of September
• Possibly support for larger event on Mindful shelter report – around 10^th of October 2021
• IEC weekly tweets
• 16 Days of Activism/GBV – November-December

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Expected results:

• Country clusters coordinators and response leads in disaster are familiar with procedures and have templates and tools =» will contribute to decreasing timing to use content.
• Early 2022: initial key messaging and donor mapping tool for all active clusters exist and ready to update quickly;

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Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Workflow 3

Advocacy on identified priority research topics and in collaboration with existing CoPs and WGs.

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• Close collaboration with the GFP for research and the leads and co-leads of CoPs and WGs.
• Creation of advocacy plans (and possible communication activities) per identified and agreed priority topic.

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Planning Sep-Dec 2021:

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• Environmental advocacy
• Mental health
• Gender Based Violence

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Expected outcomes:

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• GSC’s network is broaden with key stakeholders for each priority topic;
• Ownership by partners;
• Greater capacity to influence.

Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Target audiences

• Internal: support team, partners/SAG/WGs and CoPs, country cluster coordinators…
• External:
• Donor representatives (traditional and non-traditional);
• Authorities;
• Humanitarian practitioners;
• Private sector;
• Shelter practitioners not in GSC network yet;
• Researchers and academics;
• Affected populations.

Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Actions and tools

• Monitoring of trends and discussions;
• Structured and frequent social media messaging: content management planning, reporting;
• Organization of events;
• Development of communication and advocacy outputs…

Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

“Sign-off” procedures

• Important to mitigate risks (security, relations, reputation), to ensure harmonized and coherent external communication and advocacy work and more efficient use of time.

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• Depending of focus : for individual countries/responses OK from respective leads and for global GSC ones OK from both leads.

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• 3 possible scenarios:
• Request by GSC support team member or SAG;
• Request by country cluster coordinator, CoP or WG;
• Opportunity identified by GSC support team.

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Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

M&E

• Per GSC strategy 2018-2022 and grant requirements indicators.

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• Regular reporting on statistics of social media and website to guide strategic decisions.

Example: most viewed videos on YouTube related to disclosing GBV cases in shelter responses so increase profile and participation in debates around 16 Days of Activism good strategic option.

Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Parallel but progressive implementation

• Setting up the “systems” and testing (by December 2021), for faster content production in 2022.
• Important to keep in mind differences between communication and advocacy: very complementary, but often different languages/channels/audiences.
• “Mainstreaming” approach: focus on strategic work (interconnexions) more than operational for maximum results.
• Endorsement and engagement of all partners necessary.

Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

What can the GSC support team members do?

1) Review, feedback, validation of documents : deadline 30 September 2021.

• Communications and advocacy strategic action plan;
• Branding guidelines version 2.0;
• Social media strategy and content management plan/calendar;
• Advocacy plan template;
• Donor relations mapping tool;
• Factsheet template and key messaging template (in 2022);
• Website review: insert issues on shared doc.

Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

2) Continue actively contributing to identifying opportunities and informing GFPA;

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3) Liaising with own agency to raise profile, create connections;

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4) Participation in communication and advocacy working groups;

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5) Sharing, retweeting,… on social media;

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6) “One voice” approach.

What can the GSC support team members do?

Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Some initial results

• Environmental advocacy plan created – WHD communication being prepared under this framework;

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• Syria X-border operations: creation of a WG on communication and advocacy;

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• Afghanistan cluster: Twitter account created and social media strategy adopted;

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• Increased requests for support organization of events and sharing of info.

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Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Some initial results

• Twitter: +103 followers

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Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Some initial results

• LinkedIn: +197 followers

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Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Recommendations

From reactive to proactive communications and advocacy:

• Collective approach and collaboration: “3W” for communication and advocacy work.
• More joint team meetings to ensure everyone is aware of what is being planned (and result in less e-mails).
• Four social media accounts but recommendation to delete Facebook page (seen time and staff capacity limitations).

Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter

Thank you!

Questions, ideas, suggestions, virtual coffee:

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Kimja Vanderheyden

gfpadvocacy@sheltercluster.org

Country Shelter Cluster

ShelterCluster.org

Coordinating Humanitarian Shelter