1.4 Communicate clearly
Communication between organizations and with affected communities is vital at every stage of humanitarian emergencies – but it is difficult to do well. Effective communication strategies require an understanding of the situation, the people affected, current response efforts and the communication channels available, especially social media and mobile messaging platforms.
Children and young people of different ages have different capacities to communicate and will require different types of information. While it is important to communicate to their parents, it is also important to consider children’s needs and capacities when developing communication strategies.
UNICEF’s Communication for Humanitarian Action Toolkit (CHAT) provides some useful tools (23, Box 6) and other agencies have provided guidance on risk communication, behaviour change and social media in emergencies (see resources and tools at the end of this section).
Key actions - communication
Adapted from the CHAT handbook (23)
- Communicate urgent messages to the affected population now. Do not delay.
- Develop a communication strategy for your organization/team and for the RMNCAH/CAH working group (See CHAT strategy tool)
- Assess the current situation to identify communication priorities, target populations and existing communication channels. (See CHAT survey tool) Involve children and young people. Consider how they will perceive your messages. Consider what media and communication channels they use. Explore how you can get their input.
- The RMNCAH/CAH working group(s) should coordinate CAH-related health messages between agencies and sectors.
Key indicators - communication
- The RMNCAH/CAH working group, and individual organizations, have developed a communication strategy and are working together to implement it.
Box 6 Communication for humanitarian action toolkit (CHAT) principles (23)
CHAT principles
- Be prepared and communicate now. Ideally, plan communication strategies as part of preparedness. Communicate urgent messages immediately, do not delay (See CHAT strategy tool)
- Work with partners and coordinate communication activities. This includes: sharing what you know (about, for example, the crisis, the affected population and response efforts), deciding on communication priorities and formulating shared messages and communication strategies (who, what, when, where and how).
- Engage with communities. Build trust. In emergencies, communities want and need information and this information can be life-saving. Communities are also the best source of information and they are the experts in communicating messages in their context.
- Build an evidence base through formative research. Formative research can help identify which people are most in need, what information they require, and how to most effectively reach and engage them through the available communication options (See CHAT survey tool).
- Promote awareness and action. Messages should be simple, clear and action-oriented. Action messages may include instructions to follow, a behaviour to adopt and precautions to take, or may identify where a service can be obtained.
- Wherever possible, test your approach. The appropriateness of particular communication messages and materials depends greatly on language, culture and context. If possible, pre-test all messages before public release.
- Assess your impact. Evaluate whether your messages reached the right people and had the result you hoped for. Use this to improve future messaging.
Communication channels
- Interpersonal: face-to-face, meetings, counselling, peer communication
- Participatory: street theatre, participatory videos, dance and so on
- Print material: newspapers, posters, leaflets, flyers, newsletters
- Radio and television: community, national and international, across all genres from drama to news
- Digital/Internet-based: crisis mapping, citizen media, blogs, social media and networking, data collecting