Engagement objective

ActionAid and Population Foundation of India are implementing a project in Muzzafarnagar, Uttar Pradesh and Karauli, Rajasthan. The project aims to develop the capacity of the community, especially men and boys, to identify gender inequality and gender discrimination. The project wanted to create a behaviour change within the community such that boys and men start questioning the status quo.

A communications package was a critical component of the project and was critical in driving the desired behaviour change. StratComm was mandated to develop the communication package.

Our process

We worked with the programme team to understand the local knowledge, attitudes and practices that helped us in identifying the challenges and barriers that the communication package had to address.

StratComm and the Foundation both strongly believe in using materials and approaches that have worked in the past or in another project and can be used/adapted to the needs of a new project.

Keeping this in mind, we developed a communication kit that had a mix of old and new. We identified films from the Foundation’s existing initiatives like ‘Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon’ and ‘Bas Ab Bahut Ho Gaya’ and looked at how these can be used at the field level. We developed interactive games and print materials to provide the facilitators a range of materials to choose from during their interactions.

The materials were pre-tested with the Muzaffarnagar and Karauli teams that lend to changes that enhanced the communication kit.

Prior to the roll-out of the package, we conducted a training workshop for the facilitators on how to effectively use the package on the field.

Key outcomes

The communication package in Hindi, facilitates discussions around Gender Based Violence and includes:

• A game kit that has a set of 3 interactive games that help participants understand the impact of gender norms on access to resources, rights, freedom and mobility; trigger discussions around the same; and think about action that can be taken at the community level

• A film kit that includes a set of 10 existing films complemented by a film guide that would help the facilitators use these films, and posters that would reinforce the messages in the films.