Communication, and Dissemination Strategies

Communication and influencing strategy will permeate the activities of CREATE. They will evolve from infrastructure building, through engagement with stakeholders and policy makers and the projection of interim outputs, to focused advocacy and dissemination strategies.

Relationship building with the policy community is at the heart of influence. This will take time to consolidate and will be built from the base of the extensive networks the Partners bring to CREATE. National Reference Groups (NRGs) will assist with relationship building and the strategising that will surround country level policy dialogue. As these networks develop, existing links with the international policy community will be strengthened using CREATE infrastructure. Communication and dissemination will be an interactive process, not simply 'one way traffic' and will be gender sensitive. It will be important to pace this process so that advocacy does not come in advance of evidence, or of systematic and considered analysis clearly conceptualised. Influence will be undermined if the content of messages CREATE wishes to project is unstable, inconsistent or untimely. Most impact will come from cumulative development and reinforcement of key insights and strategies derived robustly. Context will be critical as no “one size fit all” is remotely likely to be applicable across all the partner countries, or reflect the diversity of needs within different communities of interest within countries. 

CREATE will strategically interface with national and international MDG/EFA related events throughout its life. It will make full use of established information systems on development including ID21 (research reporting service) for education related outputs, BRIDGE (for gender related outputs), the generic ELDIS (gateway to development information), and GDN (global development network). All CREATE outputs will also be available through BLDS (on line development studies library catalogue). Web based dissemination will interface with international sites related to multi-lateral and bi-lateral agencies, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, the International Institute of Educational Planning, the Global Campaign for Education and other relevant sites.The CREATE website will include pockets related to events, national programmes, people, training and workshops, conferences, publications, useful links etc. It will be used to post emerging studies to closed user groups for comment and review, and to support any virtual conferences that are organised.

The primary audiences for CREATE will be policy makers at national and international level, including agency staff. There are many secondary audiences which include managers and administrators at the national and sub-national level, teachers, community leaders and parents, school children, civil society organisations including active NGOs of scale, and mass media. Each is likely to require a different approach contingent on circumstance, the nature of the content of communication, and the capability to act to improve access. Partner institutions will be encouraged to publish locally local series of CREATE publications will be part of the mosaic of projection of research outputs. Full use will be made of existing capacity within the Partnership. A tapestry of communication is therefore envisaged spanning the various audiences. Learning across the research sites will be promoted through cross-national events and through the networks of communication between researchers and other stakeholders.