Development of a Communication Strategy

The communication strategy responds to tasks in the scope of work to develop a comprehensive strategy that improves and facilitates communication within the NETWAS team and with other stakeholders on one hand and secondly to enhance communication between water users and providers in Wobulenzi, the area of operation on the other hand.

The Communication Strategy Report (CSR) that explains the communication strategy is intended to offer a coherent and comprehensive plan that will allow to better relationship among all the stakeholders of the program, as well as will help to disseminate the benefits of the applying social accountability tools.

The strategy will also facilitate change in the water sector, in the sense that the program is expected to promote the concept of users’ feedback and social accountability as an institutionalized mechanism for improving service quality. Thus, the communication strategy is key in bringing about change in actors’ behaviors and perceptions about social accountability. The communication strategy will also aid to achieve the goals of the program including:

a) Information sharing: communication may be used to announce objectives and goals of the program or provide stakeholders with information about the nature, timing, and significance of the program.
b) Participation: Change agents may create communication processes that actively involve even common citizens from Wobulenzi into the program to: provide them with new and creative ideas, and change their perceptions about the service delivery in the water sector. In addition, change agents may construct communication processes that allow the upper-level management from the water sector to get feedback and fresh ideas from implementers and citizens.
c) Vision and Motivation: Communication can be utilized to convey the vision, set of goals, and highlighting the important drivers for changing existing organizational or individual attitudes, beliefs or practices within the water sector in Wobulenzi, or even at national level. For example, communication in this project could provide information about perception on OBA (Output-Based Aid) provision. This new financial system is supposed to pay the provider after confirming delivery of the product or service.
d) Social Support: when efforts are put to produce a change, high-levels of anxiety can arise within the government and providers, and communication may be needed to determine people’s responses to change, alleviate potential fears to social participation, and encourage partnerships for improved service delivery and the establishment of networks support systems for the program. Evaluation/Feedback: Impacting a public service requires the structuring of communication processes that provide providers feedback about their performance during the program and provide feedback to implementers regarding strengths and weaknesses during the implementation.