ET_Comms_Plan_2014

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 * Africa RISING Communication plan 2014 for Ethiopian Highlands **

=Strategic directions= The Africa RISING program framework (2012-2016) sets direction (pp. 25s) for 'Communication and Facilitation'. It mentions five activity clusters:
 * 1) Communicating for wider influence and impact – Engaging with and influencing wide audiences;
 * 2)  Translating the program’s outputs into research, development and policy outcomes, getting knowledge into use;
 * 3) Knowledge sharing and learning – Enriching learning, interaction and exchange across the program;
 * 4) Publishing – Capturing and disseminating research products and outputs of the program;
 * 5) Internal communication – Linking and connecting project and program teams.

These clusters are helping to structure communication plan activities and priorities every year. In addition, communication ('Comms') work looks at specific engagement and dissemination channels (e.g. traditional media, social media, events, wiki, website etc.) and these are featured under the planned activities.

Ethiopian Highlands project set-up
The Ethiopian Highlands project of Africa RISING is structured around... ADD HERE.

1. Communicating for wider influence and impact – Engaging with and influencing wide audiences
Influence and impact, at this middle-stage of the program, is not yet focused on using research outputs to influence decision-makers at various levels (because the research outputs are not yet ready themselves) but consists mainly in developing or strengthening relations with partner organisations that are influential and/or other crucial decision-making agencies. For 2014, this is the main focus and the following activities hopefully will help achieve this objective:

// Peer to peer visit with government agencies // Ethiopian federal and regional governmental agencies have a key role to play in decisions affecting sustainable intensification in Ethiopia. The program has planned peer-to-peer visits as a mechanism to cross-pollinate across Africa RISING program regions but also within the countries. In 2014 one peer visit will bring governmental agents from regional bureaus of agriculture in region x to engage with their local counterparts and with Africa RISING scientists.

// Have an advisory meeting with influential decision-makers // Africa RISING Ethiopia may organize a meeting with important policy and implementation advisors that are potentially influential and interested in Africa RISING's research agenda, to strengthen relations and sound them out on initial thinking and research directions emerging from the characterization work of 2013.

// Every quarter, have an AR ‘learning meeting’ with partners e.g. FtF and e //// ngage with USAID mission, ATA, SLM / RED&FS to integrate // Cultivating the rapport with decision-making agencies is of the essence if Africa RISING is hoping to get any degree of research uptake. In addition to other opportunities, quarterly 'learning meetings' or perhaps seminars, inviting selected decision-makers, might be a useful way to nurture relationships and to tease out important questions, priorities, directions for Africa RISING's research.

2. Translating the program’s outputs into research, development and policy outcomes, getting knowledge into use
As is the case with communication for wider engagement, this part of Comms work requires research outputs but those are not yet available and can therefore hardly influence development outcomes. For 2014, the priorities in this area will be to distil information from the baseline studies and characterization work into 'digestible' formats that can more easily influence implementing partner organisations and their respective networks.

// Turn baseline stories into digital stories (4 or 8) // The baseline established in 2013 will be looked into in the form of digital stories that can be easily shared with national level partner organizations and other agencies that might need this information.

// Ensure proper uptake of baseline information in work plans and partner activities // As part of ongoing activities, and with regular reminders during team meetings, the Africa RISING team will invite its parties to make sure that partner activities are building upon the results from the baseline work.

3. Knowledge sharing and learning – Enriching learning, interaction and exchange across the program
Africa RISING is a learning program, putting much emphasis on sharing, learning, interaction and exchange. This will remain a very important area throughout the duration of Africa RISING. In 2014, the most prominent priorities in this respect relate to the work done around innovation platforms, sharing among scientists involved, interaction with other major programs that are naturally related to Africa RISING and engagement with local audiences, using national languages.

// Engagement with innovation platforms early on / working with research teams on this // Innovation platforms will effectively be set up in 2014. The Comms team can and should provide guidance around the communication, collection, curation, dissemination and facilitation activities within those innovation platforms (IPs). This will be done both in the form of formal training for IP coordinators as well as ongoing guidance and coaching. The Comms team can also support monitoring work (process documentation) around these areas to ensure that the lessons learnt in the process of establishing, running and strengthening these platforms for which engagement is so essential.

// Peer to peer exchange with scientists // Integrated farming system analysis is not an easy domain, as has been proven in the last couple of years across Africa RISING teams. The predominance of certain farming systems in the research areas also determines how integrated farming systems looks and the options that farmers have at their disposal. In 2014, scientists from the Ethiopian Highlands project need to work together and share ideas about their work - they will be encouraged to do so on Yammer and during the monthly team meetings. In addition, Ethiopia-based Africa RISING scientists will take part to a peer to peer exchange with other program regions to compare and discuss their approach, results and challenges.

// Enrich learning with other projects / LIVES + Humidtropics + linking with knowledge centres based on the campus and in Ethiopia // There is a rich set of research and development organizations based on the ILRI Addis campus. Interactions among these centres will be encouraged by organizing a seminar on sustainable intensification. In addition, the CGIAR research program on Humidtropics (under which Africa RISING is 'hosted' in Ethiopia) has a somewhat similar approach and the two programs should seek synergies in their learning curve. Inviting representatives from Humidtropics to monthly team meetings and occasionally other meetings will be a first attempt at integrating these programs together better. Similarly, Africa RISING will aim at getting closer to the project LIVES, by organizing a meeting with them to share ideas and questions.

// Identify and translate specific key documents into Amharic / Oromiffa / Tigrigna // Although not a great deal of documents have been produced in 2013, a number of them (e.g. the project profile and some key baseline study reports) could and should be translated in the three major national languages of the Africa RISING regions, and disseminated via local teams to local partners. This will help raise the profile of the project and ensure, further down the line, better chances of research uptake.

4. Publishing – Capturing and disseminating research products and outputs of the program
For a learning program like Africa RISING, it is essential to capture information so that it can be mobilized later for spontaneous learning and structured analysis activities. In 2014, Comms efforts will continue to ensure that all relevant information is collected and stored on CG Space, that important information is shared via the (updated) website and Rising Matters newsletter. In addition, we want to introduce team members on the wiki's who is who page and as portraits on the website, to give a more human face to the project. Finally, each year a photo-journalistic trip is organized in one of the program region. This year it will be in Ethiopia.

// Capture everything systematically – at team meetings, with partners // All documents, presentations, pictures, posters, audio files, video files etc. have to be captured by the project for re-use. We will continue this effort by checking during team meetings if there is anything relevant to share with the Comms team. In addition, team members who wish to contribute to this effort will be assisted (trained/coached) to make the most of their work.

// Systematically update website with key publications // As soon as an output for the region is developed, it will be featured as a website item, to drive traffic to the website and to CGSpace, as well as to enhance the chances that the piece of research is known and influences related work. If the output is really important, it will be featured in Rising Matters (see next point).

// Continue with Rising Matters // The newsletter 'Rising Matters' was set up in 2013 and has been a useful way to feature work that is happening across Africa RISING. This effort will continue this year, with hopefully more activities, and more outputs - perhaps leading to adjust the length or structure of this program newsletter.

// Revamp the website // The website has not been revisited since it was set up in 2012 and some parties have pointed out to the difficulty of navigating it. This website will thus be reviewed and revised, with a new design and layout, updated content sections and individual content items. A small promotional campaign may help boost the visibility and use of this website.

//Feature staff / partner profile//s The monitoring and evaluation meeting held in November 2013 showed that a lot of the program staff did not know well enough who is involved in it, doing what etc. External parties may also not be aware of //the people// involved in this program. The Comms team will thus make sure, in 2014, that all teams report 'who is who' on the wiki and that individual interviews of program staff are featured. This will also be the case in Ethiopia with a portrait every two months at least.

// Photo journalism trip in Ethiopia // In 2013, a photo journalistic trip took place in Ghana and led to collecting three blog posts, one digital story and tens of pictures. In 2014, a similar trip will be entertained in Ethiopia to collect more information about sustainable intensification pathways in Ethiopia, particularly with more emphasis on livestock (with respect to the importance of livestock herding in the country, and the leadership of ILRI in this field).

5. Internal communication – Linking and connecting project and program teams
Internal communication remains a critical area of communication as it helps connect people to people and to information, to pave the way for internal engagement and learning, and to ensure that all dots in the program are connected. This effort will remain essential through the duration of the entire program. In 2014, more efforts will be put on using the social network platform 'Yammer' (online and/or by email) to connect Ethiopia team members, train them on using it as well as the wiki to collaborate on specific themes and activities. Finally, the Comms team will also more proactively support the running of monthly team meetings to ensure the exchange of information (and to help feed the website, //Rising Matters// etc.).

// Encourage more cooperation around the wiki and Yammer // With nearly 150 daily page views, around 2 daily edits and up to four simultaneous editors on a day, the Africa RISING wiki has proven a useful work space. Not all team members know how to find the wiki or what to expect from it, what information to find on the wiki, how to edit or how to use the wiki to their own benefit. As for the Yammer social network, it was launched 'undercover' in the early months of 2013 and its use of trailing behind, with only 24 members and very few active ones among them. The comms team will encourage use of Yammer by management and key scientists, on the way back from trips and around specific meetings.

// Provide Yammer and wiki refresher training course to the team // To support the above-mentioned activities, the Comms team will organise a refresher course on the wiki and on Yammer, exploring the value proposition of these channels (and expectations of team members about them) as well as the technical guidance and tips & tricks from experience that allow colleagues to make the most of their experience with their channels and to stimulate an open culture of knowledge sharing.

// Run internal team meetings with management // So far, in the Ethiopian Highlands project, team meetings have happened on a slightly ad hoc basis, responding to needs felt or expressed rather than routinely, with the result that some partners were not adequately informed, or that the comms team was not aware of some critical activity. As the volume of activities is increasing and the necessity to integrate ever stronger, these meetings need to happen on a more regular basis. The Comms team will therefore prepare and call for these monthly meetings, possibly rolling agendas with either updates from everyone or thematic discussions - and hopefully systematically checking what is happening with trips, events, stories for the blog and other documents to collect.

6. Other activities
In addition to the above mentioned activities, the Comms team aims to:
 * Develop stronger relations with the media
 * Contribute to program-level activities, in particular holding the next learning event but also regular (program) Comms team meetings.

Roles and responsibilities
This 2014 communication plan was prepared by the Ethiopian Highlands Comms team (Simret Yasabu, Ewen Le Borgne and Peter Ballantyne) and is supposed to be sanctioned by Peter Thorne, manager of the Ethiopian Highlands project within Africa RISING.

The Comms team is in charge of implementing this plan and to review/adjust it on a quarterly basis. Different people will be contributing efforts into this comms plan, however:
 * Peter Thorne is expected to:
 * sanction, approve and endorse this plan, and to refer to it as and when in ongoing project activities
 * inform all parties about important developments, preferably by means of Yammer updates or blog posts (and possibly with assistance from the Comms team).
 * Research teams and all project members are expected to:
 * share information about their activities on Yammer and at team meetings,
 * contribute to the collection of website items (and related generation of //Rising Matters//) by sharing stories and developments of interest for the rest of the project/program,
 * share pictures, presentations, posters and other outputs so that they can be captured and stored with required meta-tagging etc. that makes that information relevant and contextually understandable,
 * The Comms team is expected to:
 * see to the effective implementation of this plan and update this plan on the wiki for ongoing tracking,
 * provide guidance, coaching and training where/when applicable,
 * draw lessons from the implementation of this plan,
 * review this plan properly annually to prepare for the next cycle.

**Capacity development** For 2014, the following capacity development activities are anticipated:
 * Refresher training course on Yammer and Wiki;
 * Regular guidance/coaching on the use of these social media channels for Ethiopia team members;
 * Regular guidance/coaching on the curation of social media and other communication channels for the program Comms team generally.

In relation with this, the following guidelines will be developed:
 * Yammer guidelines (updated from standard ILRI guidelines);
 * Wiki guidelines (updated from standard ILRI guidelines)

Activity schedule

 * || **January** || **February** || **March** || **April** || **May** || **June** || **July** || **August** || **September** || **October** || **November** || **December** ||