How can we leverage communications for better capacity development practices?

Policy Awareness

How can we leverage communications for better capacity development practices?

By Pankhuri Jha

September 14, 2024

The intersection of evaluation and communication needs to be explored thoroughly to understand what it means for the future of this ecosystem. But what exactly does this intersection entail? According to Better Evaluation, a strong communications strategy should encompass diverse aspects and techniques to discuss the evaluation results, structure the process to successfully share the results of the evaluation findings, and a few concrete questions that revolve around defining the objectives and goals of the strategy, ensuring that targeted audiences are clearly demarcated, what will be the frequency of dissemination, and what resources are available. These points can be applied universally to other sectors and engagement as well, but what makes evaluation and communication distinct?

To expand on these ideas, UNICEF has also designed their Evaluation Communication Advocacy Strategy to enhance the visibility of the evidence gathered through evaluation practices, as it can have an impact on instrumental stakeholders and decision-makers. This strategy is specifically designed to spotlight the insights of UNICEF evaluations. On the other hand, Better Evaluation’s and UNICEF’s in-depth resource hub called Communications for Evaluation (C4D) employs communication tools and techniques to encourage community participation and augment engagement. In fact, C4D often includes dialogue and community participation, working closely with other sectors, as well as ensuring the sustainability and effectiveness of development sectors.

Building on this, Patricia Cocca, who leads the communications and knowledge management team at Global Evaluation Initiative, writes on how to make evaluation findings more engaging and elaborates upon the importance of strategically building relationships with partners and stakeholders. She emphasizes maintaining the momentum of continuous dialogues, using visual aids and creative storytelling through tools like infographics, charts, and media, and humanizing the data by amplifying impact stories along with the data and statistics to create a human connection with the audience.

In a way, a knowledge hub like Eval Capacity Hub serves as an effective communications tool by centralizing information and making it easily accessible to a wide audience. It simplifies the process of sharing updates, best practices, and critical insights across sectors. The hub also encourages real-time interaction, allowing users to discuss, question, and respond to developments as they happen, which makes communication more dynamic and responsive. Additionally, it ensures that messaging stays consistent, with all users working from the same set of resources and information. This consistency strengthens outreach efforts and improves the clarity of communication, making it easier to influence decision-makers and engage stakeholders effectively.