People’s engagement is essential in achieving safe sanitation goal along with technological innovation and infrastructure provision. To redress gender disparities in society and achieve better health outcomes, it is critical to integrate gender issues into all aspects of projects starting from conceptualization, development, implementation, and evaluation. Evidence-based and insight-driven are the key attributes of the communication strategy. It is important to rely on available evidence and formative research findings at global level to influence a current behavior.

Communication strategy is essentially

• Integration of data and information from, immersion stage, desk and formative research, landscaping studies, anthropological studies, and partner consultations
• Organizing and selecting the most critical drivers and barriers

A communication strategy has multiple components such as,

• A theory of change on current versus ideal behavior and the necessary pathway to achieve it
• Strong communications framework that includes objectives, drivers, barriers, and indicators of success
• Insight-mining from the audiences’ experience with the issue to identify a critical insight.
  • Insight will be incorporated in content development and ensure it reaches the target communities
• Validate the media platforms used in achieving project goals by reaching identified target groups
• Develop idea and communications outputs based on creative briefs

Communication Framework is a single document that,

• Defines proposed target groups, desired behavioral outcomes, and specific communication objectives and indicators of success
• Collates vital triggers and barriers for those outcomes

(Table-2: Measurable monitoring and evaluation indicators and targets. Source: The Science, Art & Craft of SBCC)

All the stakeholders involved in the sanitation process have specific responsibilities and they have to work in collaboration to ensure smooth implementation of FSM plan. The sanitation plan can be modified or revised based on the inputs received from these stakeholders.

(Table-3: Key stakeholder checklist and their responsibilities. Source: The Science, Art & Craft of SBCC)

Insight mining

Insight mining is a process of multi- disciplinary strategic analysis of research, data, and experience. It relies significantly on interrogation, discussion, and debate. The communication must provide a stimulus to produce the desired outcomes. It must come from a clear, practical, and inspiring strategies. Therefore, a message resonating with the recipient is critical in the behavior change communication. The strategy then becomes a catalyst in the development of the creative idea.

Ideation

After finalizing the strategy, and developing the creative plan, a range of insight-driven ideas needs to be developed by program-creators that can cover other platforms and communication touchpoints.

Recommendations for content design

• To transform thought process of the society, the idea should resonate with audiences
• Content should be designed in such a way that, it could highlight the position of girls, women, and other marginalized groups and encourage critical examination of inequalities
• Content must recognize and strengthen positive norms that support gender equality, and avoid any potential negative consequences
• Opinions from community leaders and groups are critical to promote awareness and essential in changing the power equations to address issues of inequality among target communities

Ideally, indicators and outcomes should include the impact and reach of communication when measured at the end of the intervention

The all-inclusive approach essentially amplifies a single focused idea for the target community. The concept can be used on multiple platforms such as community groups, radio, television, digital media platforms, or interpersonal communication.

For effective execution of an intervention, following aspects are critical

Permutation and combination of platforms

• To reach the target community, a combination among mass media, online/digital media, and offline media like on-ground activities is used. Following could be few instances of platform combination.
  • Initiate with TV, followed by billboards, print, and video vans; or lead with radio and extend that to mobile phones and offline on-ground activations with community groups
  • For instance, in 2016, Tamil Nadu government conducted activities on World Toilet Day such as communication through vehicle displaying sanitation messages and audio systems for broadcast slogans, and jingles
• Platform selection should consider community’s access to different platforms, and budget availability

A phased approach to execution

• Phasing helps emphasize on communication that the target community observe across platforms and give them opportunity to engage in communication process

Planning for scalability

• Communication strategies and their execution approach need to appeal wider geographies and audiences that have shared priorities with necessary infrastructure and effective service delivery models. It is necessary to customize the message to make it relevant to the target geography.
• The execution planning process must be developed in consultation with media planning partners

Strategic considerations for media planning include,

Procurement approach for a media planning partner includes:

• Providing comprehensive media plan and monitoring the implementation of the intervention
• Identifying partners and sponsors such as local heroes/ influencers, radio jockeys, local media platforms, social media influencers, corporate sponsors to implement and amplify the intervention
• Creating local participation with municipalities for activities in schools and community

Preconditions to media planning

It is important to target the proper audience at the right time with right message while balancing reach and frequency. Utilizing different media gives a better chance to communicate with people more effectively by reaching them more frequently and in different ways.

Four key aspects need to be ready and established before developing a media plan:

Factors to consider for choosing the ‘right’ media mix

• Finalize the target community from initial research, engaging with the group. Based on the media habits, access, preferences, and consumption patterns, media planning partners will guide the media mix
• For national or regional coverage, desired reach programs use mass media as key channel
• Budget availability- Critical in narrowing down and prioritizing the channels with best return on investment (ROI)
• Right channel for messaging- Invest in extending the message to the right channel.
• Collaborate with public and private agencies: For paid publicity requirements of all organizations and societies at central level, Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) provide solutions
• Set realistic goals and measure- Monitor the results and implement the changes for future interventions

(Table-4: Types of communications channels. Source: Swachh Bharat Mission - Urban 2.0, The Science, Art & Craft of SBCC)

Budget for execution

Prior to creating a media channel mix, it is critical to determine the research costs and accordingly allocate budget for a media planning partner. In case of conservative budgets, either consider alternative lower-cost channels or communicate with departments having overlapping objectives for sharing budget. From cost perspective, collaborating with the government's Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) is beneficial as the funding approvals and payment procedures are made simpler by DAVP's standardized rates. The media plan from DAVP ensures competitive rates and autonomous distribution of media plans across platforms and locations. Funding and state-level approvals may take up time and hence a significant time gap is needed between getting the media plans from DAVP and the final rollout of the intervention. When planning the media mix and implementation, external media planning partners should have access to DAVP rates.

Need for mainstreaming SBCC/IEC campaigns

A campaign or series of campaigns needs to be planned to eliminate the taboo and stigma attached to sanitation. Increased ownership and accountability among individual customers and households are required to achieve better sanitation results in their residences, neighborhoods, cities, districts, and the state. To achieve these sanitation goals, SBCC/IEC campaigns are designed to deliver sanitation messages to various communities and therefore sustain the sanitation process.

Sanitation related campaigns organized in different states

Monitoring and evaluation involve a systematic tracking and analysing program data to determine the program status and desired impact on proposed social and behavior change.

Monitoring is essential to track and measure program activities, process indicators, or outputs during the life cycle of a program, project, or strategy. A systematic process of observations and primary data collection are involved to know the completed activities and their quality of implementation. This process helps in decision making on resources during the program implementation.

On the contrary, evaluation focuses on measuring outcomes and impact indicators. It tracks the project’s results at different time points to measure the level of change in key outcomes. To measure the key outcomes, data collection is required at the start (baseline) and end (endline) of the project.

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the project are fundamental in,

• Determining the impact of intervention, and related factors on social and behaviour change
• Diagnosing the intervention on its reach, appeal, and relevance
• Comprehending the strengths and improvement areas
• Determining the implementation of communication activities and the need for course correction

Planning for monitoring and evaluation involves developing a framework with,

• Program activities- specific tasks that needs to be completed to achieve desired outputs
• Outputs- measurable, observable services being produced as part of the intervention
• Key indicators- intervention's likely short-term or medium-term effects
• Impact- Overall long-term goal of the project

M&E of an SBCC intervention is carried out through:

• Determining the reach across various platforms such as billboards, wall paintings, transit branding (vans and autorickshaws)
• Frequency and locations where people were exposed to the intervention outputs
• Recall of the communication- elements remembered related to the communication
• Appeal (elements liked or disliked, and performance of the communication (ease of understanding, relevance, uniqueness)
• Actions taken by population after viewing the communication
• Long-term impact of the program can be measured through Change in levels of knowledge, attitude, motivation, and behaviour with increased communication frequency

(Table-5: Types of Monitoring methods used for an SBCC intervention. Source: The Science, Art & Craft of SBCC)

The state government usually oversee monitoring and evaluates the performance of its cities, therefore methods for gathering data and reporting must be developed utilizing outcome indicators. Some methods followed for M&E include administrative information from implementing consultants' and contractors' reports, task force field trips to several locations throughout the city, & NGOs and community groups feedback to task force and implementation agency. The progress of sanitation activities can also be measured through independent third-party assessments, and multiple evaluations by survey agencies.

ULBs must monitor how well-adopted outcomes and process standards are being followed by households and other establishments, etc. Consideration is also given to the introduction of citizen report cards, citizen monitoring committees, self-evaluation systems, inter-city competitions, etc.

(Figure-5: Types of Evaluation methods used for an SBCC intervention. Source: The Science, Art & Craft of SBCC)