Training of Trainers - Library - Network of Aquaculture Centres in ...

“...learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lipservice about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings tospeak on their behalf.” – The Cluetrain Manifesto.Conducting an information access survey (IAS) is a good way to get accurate information about your stakeholdersrequirements, and to determine the best way(s) to communicate with them. The purpose of an IAS is to:• Identify key issues about people and what information needs they have.An IAS should:• Identify what media sources are available, what strategies people use to get their information and howcost-effective these are.• Suggest methods of communication that are useful for different groups of people.• Take into consideration the needs of the target group; involve as many people as possible.• Be socially and culturally acceptable; be flexible, so that it can be modified to suit differentcircumstances.• Provide recommendations that are easy to put into practice.For each stakeholder group, issues to consider/include in preparation of an IAS include:• The geographical area of the survey.• The existing communications networks available to target stakeholders.• The needs and interests of the stakeholders.• The kinds of information that would be useful to them, and why.• How people prefer to get this kind of information.• Mitigating social, political or cultural factors.• What communication techniques work well (or not), and why?An IAS will give you an indication of how effective different media are to reach your stakeholders and form thebasis for developing a communication strategy. You may find a clear preference towards radio, TV, newspapers oremail. For example, radio is very popular in Nepal as the mountainous terrain limits TV signals and distribution ofprinted media, literacy rates are low in many areas, and it has the advantage of being very cheap. You may findthat digital media are not an effective way to reach your target group, or that they are only accessible to part of it.It is quite likely that you will discover that a broader communication strategy using several different approaches willbe more effective than any single method. NACA has conducted IAS for Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines,which may be of interest to participants.Develop an appropriate communication planOnce you have identified your stakeholders, determined their interests (and how these intersect with your owngoals) and found out how they communicate, you should be in a good position to develop an appropriatecommunication plan consistent with the resources available to you.If your budget is limited, a little creativity can go a long way, particularly with mass media: Newspapers andmagazines will often print submitted articles for free if they are sufficiently interesting. Making content isexpensive, so mass media providers are often happy to use ‘free’ content when they can get it – so long as it isrelevant to their own target audience. You will need to consider their interests too.Smarter approaches to networking and service delivery83