Consultancy

We provide consultancy services to development partners to enhance their impact and equip people and audiences with creative and communication skills to achieve effective and transformative experiences.

Consultant support is always specific to development needs but can be summarised as:

1. Communication for development – strategy, programme design and implementation
2. National networks of change makers: positive behaviour change at community level
3. Interactive Social Research
4. Monitoring, Learning, Evaluation
5. Organisational capacity building & fundraising

1. Communication for development – strategy, design and Implementation

We design and implement national communication and outreach strategies that achieve quantifiable change. Using innovative combination of mass media and local interactive and dialogic communication techniques, and always working in a bottom up, participatory way with audiences and partners.

2. National networks of change makers: positive behaviour change at community level

We provide support to organisations wishing to use the Activator programme model developed in Malawi in which grassroots change-makers provide communities with interactive learning, forum theatre, empowerment and development activities. This model can be tailored to empower citizens to apply new knowledge to improve their situation.

3. Interactive Social Research

Interactive research methods are woven through most of the work we do. Our communication for development practice is based on a thorough understanding of audience attitude behaviour, beliefs and knowledge – but that’s only half the story.

It’s crucial for traditionally labelled ‘beneficiaries’ to participate in identifying, understanding and labelling the attitudes, behaviours, beliefs and knowledge that would be improved by communication action. In this way, communication is not something that is ‘done to’ people,` rather people themselves define problems and articulate communication needs.

Interactive social research techniques enable bottom up participation, and also gives facilitators and implementers a reflective mechanism through which to understand impact, be responsive and adapt programming.

Interactive techniques combine physical exercises, games, body, image, and movement based methods, with the more traditional research methods of questionnaire, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. In this way, we are able to identify the differences between what people say they do, and what they actually do, or feel.

People usually respond more naturally and spontaneously when engaged in a game or in enactment – which leads to more open, honest responses as they are instinctive and often closer to the reality being described verbally or intellectually.

4. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

We provide advice and models for integrating activity based Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning of a project’s impact.

5. Organisational capacity building & fundraising

We support the capacity and growth of NGOs and performing arts companies in delivering programmes.

Examples of consultancies and capacity building can be seen here:

– Communication Action Strategy for GIZ Bangladesh
– Legal Awareness for British Council managed EU/DFID Programme in South Sudan.
– National Network of Activators delivering change – Malawi
– National Forum Theatre Programme – Myanmar
– Tumbuka Dance Company