UNICEF Essential For Excellence: A strategic model for communication to reach the right people, at the right time and in the right way

Strategic communication is an evidence-based, results-oriented blend of advocacy to influence decision makers; social mobilization for creating demand; and communication at community and household level, to promote positive behaviors and influence social norms.

Since strategic communication requires an investment of resources over relatively long periods of time, policy makers and donors want to ensure that strategic communication is contributing to achieving program goals and that program resources are being used effectively. Managers are often asked the question: how do we know whether communication is addressing the right behavioral and social issues among the right people, at the right time, and in the right way?

UNICEF's Essentials for Excellence (E4E) is a practical tool that has been produced to help field-based staff to address some of the above questions in their work on Avian and Pandemic Influenza. The tool distills lessons from existing in-depth guidance on monitoring and evaluation for strategic communication, and equips managers with easy-to-use guidelines on formative research and pre-testing of creative materials, tools to monitor on-going change processes, guidance on how to adjust on-going communication based on monitoring data and how to report impact. The tool is unique as it equips managers with guidance on using research, monitoring and evaluation even for on-going programs. This presentation focuses on key elements of the E4E model and highlights lessons learned from its application in the field of avian flu prevention and control.