Digital Engagement
Beta (for testing, input and suggestions)
UNICEF West and Central Africa Region, Social and Behavior Change Teams, with inputs/feedback from colleagues from [If you share feedback, your country office could be featured here! Click here to give feedback ]
[BETA: 25-5-23kg]
Pocket Guides are short, adaptable resources that are no longer than 14 slides/pages. Please feel free to adapt, shorten, improve. You can prototype their use, sharing with others, to see if they are perceived as useful and usable.
We imagine that UNICEF SBC team members can use (and also adapt) this version of the pocket guide (and other resources). If you organize a briefing/training, etc, you can print a version for participants (and also share the digital version, if deemed useful).
These guides are not training modules and are not designed to be presented via PowerPoint (we’re using PowerPoint because it is easy to break up information into sections/chunks).
Pocket Guides exist in multiple languages (FR, ENG, SP and PORT), for each of the ten technical approaches covered in the “Intro Guide to Social and Behavior Change.” See West and Central Africa Region SBC Library for links to all Intro Guides and Pocket Guides.
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In this document you will find:
Overview of Digital Engagement and when to use it
Five key actions for Digital Engagement:
Resources and feedback
About Pocket Guides
Source for all images in this document: Thenounproject.com
Overview: What is Digital Engagement when to use it?
Digital Engagement for social change involves using digital platforms to promote civic action.
People working in external communication often talk about digital engagement being used to generate views, clicks or “likes” on social media. In contrast, Digital Engagement for social change is about inspiring community members (including leaders and decision makers), and creating opportunities for civic action. The ideal outcome of digital engagement is people contributing to social change in their communities.
When to use: Digital Engagement can be used anywhere people have access to radio, TV, WhatsApp, or any other digital means of communication, with or without internet.
In the next section, we will share ideas for “designing for digital.”
When to use?
Action 1: Inspire the connected
Digital Engagement initiatives work best when outreach efforts are designed to not only seek action from a set of people, but to also inspire those people to contribute to social change in their communities by promoting the same action with others.
Imagine you send out a series of SMS messages, or you sponsor a youth-led community radio program. The below scenario shows how Digital Engagement can be used for action, but can also go beyond action to invite the promotion of MORE action:
Action 2: Design for digital
Designing for digital can be:
GROUND - AIR - CLOUD
Action 3: Help the connected inspire others
Digital Engagement can be a spark, to inspire civic action. If people become inspired to take action, they can connect with others, using any means possible, using digital and non-digital means. Those who are connected can help inspire action from people without phone and/or internet connection.
A few necessary ingredients for designing strong Digital Engagement initiatives include:
We can ask others to help us go “offroad” (beyond the pavement), to connect with the underserved
Action 4: Show progress to motivate
A good way to motivate people to continue contributing is to show them the impact they are having, showing gradual progress over time.
A few ideas for “showing progress to motivate”:
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Children vaccinated
Well done!
☺
Action 5: Give public recognition for civic actions
Giving public recognition is another way to motivate people, and while it can be combined with “showing progress,” it is not the same thing.
Giving recognition is focused on individuals, groups of people, schools and neighborhoods rather than progress, statistics or milestones achieved.
Of course, ANY group of people who contributes to civic action in their community can be recognized: Women’s associations, community radio stations, traditional leaders, as so on.
Recognition is a “currency” we could all be using much more, and it is low cost and usually widely appreciated. It would be difficult to ever give “too much” recognition.
Click here for two recognition certificates you can adapt and use (Or scan QR code at right to access)
Resources you might find useful:
Scan QR code above for first link (resources in multiple languages)
Scan QR code above for second link (resources also in French, Spanish and Arabic)
Scan QR code above for third link
Resources and invitation to give feedback and suggestions:
You can also get in contact if you have questions, suggestions or comments. Juan Andres Gil, UNICEF West and Central Africa Regional Office, Social and Behavior Change team - Email: jagil@unicef.org
For the suggestion form, scan the QR code above by using your phone camera to capture the image
For more resources, including all links in this document: Scan the QR code above if you have a smartphone camera
Pocket Guides are short, adaptable resources that are no longer than 13 slides/pages. Please feel free to adapt, shorten, improve. You can prototype their use, sharing with others, to see if they are perceived as useful and usable.
Any of these would be ideal outcomes, from our perspective: 1) You read this; 2) You give us feedback; 3) You use this; 4) You share this; 5) You adapt/improve this; 6) You make your own Pocket Guide using the template; 7) You share your draft guide with us… any of the above!
For sharing with others, you can send electronically, or you can:
The Pocket Guide template is here.
Additional resources on Social and Behavior Change: